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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The Japanese take their gardening and landscaping very seriously. You may be surprised at first when you discover that what you thought was a bird up in a tree is really a coverall clad Japanese gardener working on shaping and lovingly pruning the tree.
There are so many beautiful gardens to see in Japan that it’s hard to trim it down to the must-see. But we’ve tried our best. So here we go with our top five gardens in Japan.
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I love getting dressed up in period costumes and getting my picture taken. Through the years I’ve been a Cowboy, Civil War General, Canadian Mountie, Samurai, and plenty of other strange occupations. During my visit to Japan I wanted to make sure that there were plenty of opportunities for touristy dress up pictures.
The one thing I really wanted was traditional Geisha or Maiko pictures, but I was pretty sure the chances of me bumping into any real life Geisha walking the streets on Kyoto was pretty slim. So, with my wife’s permission, I booked a photo session with one of the top studios specializing in Geisha and Maiko pictures.
Please welcome my wife Stacey to I Heart Japan! She’s got a keen eye for all things cute and she’ll be running down the latest trends in kawaii and Japanese crafts.
It doesn’t get much cuter than Hello Kitty. Did you know there is a theme park in Japan dedicated to Hello Kitty! How can you not visit it? (I guess pretty easily, if you didn’t find out about it until you were back home, like me.)
If you’re going to be in Tokyo at the end of July, you’ll definitely want to check out the Tokyo fireworks that are held every year on the last Saturday of of the month.
Over a million people usually turn out to watch the approximately 22,000 fireworks lighting up the sky over a period of 1 and a half hours.
For directions and information check out the TokyoTopia web site.
The kimono has long been associated with the quintessential Japanese woman, and although you won’t see as many women wearing the kimono today, the kimono still has a very important place in Japanese society.
When you do happen to run across a Japanese woman clothed in a beautiful kimono you know that there has been plenty of thought that has gone into the design and the picking out of the perfect kimono. So let’s take a look at some of the history and uses of this beautiful garment.
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