Destination: Japan

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Matsuri Magic

Witnessing a matsuri, a traditional festival, can be the highlight of your trip to Japan, and offers a glimpse of the Japanese at their most uninhibited. A lively matsuri is a world unto itself - a vision of bright colours, hypnotic chanting, beating drums and swaying crowds.

• Yamayaki (Grass Burning Festival), 15 January, Nara, Kansai
• Yuki Matsuri (Sapporo Snow Festival), early February, Sapporo, Hokkaido
• Omizutori (Water-Drawing Ceremony), 1-14 March, Todai-ji, Nara, Kansai
• Takayama festival, 14-15 April/9-10 October, Takayama, Gifu-ken, central Honshu
• Sanja Matsuri, 3rd Friday, Saturday and Sunday of May, Senso-ji, Tokyo
• Nachi-no-Hi Matsuri (Nachi Fire Festival), 14 July, Kumano Nachi Taisha, Wakayama-ken, Kansai

Japan in the Movies

Japan usually fares very poorly in Western movies, which do little but trade in the worst sort of stereotypes about the country and its inhabitants. Thus, if you want to get a clear-eyed view of Japan, it makes sense to check out films mostly by Japanese directors.

• Marusa-no-Onna (A Taxing Woman; 1987) Director: Itami Juzo
• Tampopo (1987) Director: Itami Juzo
• Ososhiki (The Funeral; 1987) Director: Itami Juzo
• Minbo-no-Onna (The Anti-Extortion Woman; 1994) Director: Itami Juzo
• Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story; 1953) Director: Ozu Yasujiro
• Maboroshi no Hikari (Maborosi; 1995) Director: Koreeda Hirokazu
• Nijushi-no-Hitomi (Twenty Four Eyes; 1954) Director: Kinoshita Keisuke
• Lost in Translation (2003) Director: Sophia Coppola
• Rashomon (1950) Director: Kurosawa Akira
• Hotaru-no-Haka (Grave of the Fireflies; 1988) Director: Takahata Isao

Japan Between the Covers

The following is a very subjective list of fiction and nonfiction books about Japan, by Western and Japanese authors.

• Lost Japan (nonfiction; 1996) Alex Kerr
• Dogs and Demons (nonfiction; 2001) Alex Kerr
• The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (nonfiction; 1989) Ruth Benedict
• A Japanese Mirror (nonfiction; 1985) Ian Buruma
• Wages of Guilt (nonfiction; 2002) Ian Buruma
• Memoirs of a Geisha (fiction; 1999) Arthur Golden
• Audrey Hepburn's Neck (fiction; 1996) Alan Brown
• A Wild Sheep Chase (fiction; 1989) Murakami Haruki
• Snow Country (fiction; 1973) Kawabata Yasunari
• Nip the Buds Shoot the Kids (fiction; 1995) Oe Kenzaburo

Travelling to Japan?
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