Japan Roundup

We’re back with another Japan Rundown from across the net.

In this edition we’ll look at how the Sakura season is progressing, some beautiful tilt-shift photos from Japan and a strange new trend in Japan of fine dining in prison.

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Seat Sale – L.A. to Tokyo $668

As a new feature to I Heart Japan, I thought it may be nice to toss the occasional seat sale your way (of those those going from North American to Japan).

Expedia.com posted this seat sale going from L.A. to Tokyo roundtrip for $668. Book by March 31; travel by June 5, 2010. For more information or to book go to the Korean Air website.

Takarazuka Revue – The All Female Japanese Theater

It wasn’t too long ago that it was unheard of to find woman actually playing female roles in Japanese theater. Much like Shakespeare, female parts in Noh dramas and Kabuki were always played by men dressed as women, which today would seem kind of strange.

In 1914, however, the trend did a 180 with the establishment of the first ever women only theater group – the Takarazuke Revue.

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Japan Fashion – The Color Purple

In Japan, the color purple often signifies wealth and position and was restricted for the use of those of high rank.

While purple was often worn in the winter months as a kimono color, it seems that it’s catching on a spring color in Japan. Check out this recent post by Japan Streets on how murasaki (purple) is taking spring fashion by storm.

I wonder if this traditional color system unconsciously influences the color choices of young people who are often not aware of these old Japanese customs, but are still exposed to them in their daily life.

Learn Japanese with Evernote

I just came across an interesting post over at Tofugu on how to use Evernote to study Japanese.

Evernote is a free web service and software application that allows users to collect notes and information and share it across multiple platforms. I guess it’s kind of like a big yellow post-it note for information gathering.

Evernote is a tool that helps you capture and remember everything. Because it syncs with your phone, computer, and so on, no matter how or where you gather the information, it will appear on all of your devices.

Recently I started using Anki to make up some Japanese phrase cards to periodically review. Since it uses a system of systematic reviews, I believe it’s a step up from using just Evernote. But Evernote should be an interesting tool to add to your Japanese learning methods.