Tokyo is Japan's capital and the country's largest city.

Tokyo is also one of Japan's 47 prefectures, but is called a metropolis (to) rather than a prefecture (ken). The metropolis of Tokyo consists of 23 city wards (ku), 26 cities, 5 towns and 8 villages, including the Izu and Ogasawara Islands, several small Pacific Islands in the south of Japan's main island Honshu.

The 23 city wards (ku) are the center of Tokyo and make up about one third of the metropolis' area, while housing roughly eight of Tokyo's approximately twelve million residents.

Prior to 1868, Tokyo was known as Edo. A small castle town in the 16th century, Edo became Japan's political center in 1603 when Tokugawa Ieyasu established his feudal government there. A few decades later, Edo had grown into one of the world's most populous cities.

With the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the emperor and capital where moved from Kyoto to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo ("Eastern Capital"). Large parts of Tokyo were destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and in the air raids of 1945.

Arts and crafts

Arhitecture :

Japanese houses have thin walls because of the mild climate and overlapping, slanted, and slightly curved roofs because of the fact that there is plenty of rain especially during early summer. Timber is the traditional building material for Japanese houses. It makes them airy which is important during the humid summer months. The disadvantages are that the houses can be damaged easily by earthquakes and fires. Nowadays, concrete and steel are, of course, widely used as well.

When Japan opened herself to the rest of the world around the year 1868, Western architecture began to displace traditional Japanese architecture. Nevertheless, some modern Japanese detached houses still have a typically Japanese appearance.

A modern Japanese house

A condominium apartment house

Bonsai :

Bonsai is the art of cultivating miniature trees. The pine, a tree that grows many meters tall in wild nature, is the most typical plant used for bonsai, but many other tree species can be used. To achieve miniaturization, the tree is frequently transferred into new pots, and on that occasion its roots are cut a little bit. Bonsai skills include the knowledge of when and how much to cut the roots, how much fertilizer and water is ideal, and which branches should be pruned to give the plant an aesthetic look.

Bunraku :

Bunraku is traditional Japanese puppet theater that has its origin in the Edo period. Bunraku and Kabuki are closely related with respect to the content of plays. Bunraku plays are also accompanied by the music of traditional Japanese music instruments.

The puppets are about one meter tall and are manipulated by up to three persons. Every person is responsible for a different part of the puppet. Thanks to many years of experience they are able to make the puppets appear alive despite the fact that they are visible on the stage.

Calligraphy :

Calligraphy (shodo: "the way of writing") is the art of writing beautifully. Most children learn calligraphy in elementary school. It is a popular hobby for adults, too.

A calligraphy set consists of:

• Shitajiki: Black, soft mat. It provides a comfortable, soft surface.
• Bunchin: Metal stick to weight down the paper during writing.
• Hanshi: Special, thin calligraphy paper.
• Fude: Brush. There is a larger brush for writing the main characters and a smaller one for writing the artist's name. The small brush, however, can be used for the characters, too.
• Suzuri: Heavy black container for the ink.
• Sumi: Solid black material that must be rubbed in water in the suzuri to produce the black ink which is then used for writing. Of course, "instant ink" in bottles is also available.

Unlike the strokes of Roman letters, the strokes of Japanese characters have to be drawn in the correct order, not arbitrarily. When you learn Chinese characters, you draw one stroke after the other. This is called the square (Kaisho) style of writing kanji.

The Japanese, however, rarely use this style of writing kanji. There are two faster styles of writing in which the kanji become a little bit less legible. It is like writing Roman letters in a fast way: everything is written in only a few strokes. These two styles are called semi cursive (Gyosho) and cursive (Sosho).

Kaisho: Square style

Gyosho: Semi cursive style

Sosho: Cursive style

Dolls :

Dolls have been manufactured since the early days of Japanese culture. Today, there exist various types of Japanese dolls. The following is a description of only a few of the most famous ones:

Daruma Doll	Kokeshi Doll	Hakata Doll

Daruma dolls are spherical dolls with a red painted body and a white face, but without pupils. They represent the Zen monk Bodhidharma. It is the custom to paint one of the doll's pupils in the beginning of a new year, make a wish and paint in the second pupil, if the wish comes true. Takasaki's Shorinzan Daruma Temple is the birthplace of daruma dolls as good luck charms.

Kokeshi dolls are simply shaped, wooden dolls from Northern Honshu, which originated as souvenirs distributed at hot spring resorts during the Edo Period. Kokeshi dolls have neither arms nor legs, but a large head and a cylindrical body.

Hakata dolls are clay dolls manufactured in Fukuoka Prefecture on Kyushu. They are worked out in great detail and painted beautifully.

Hina Dolls

Various dolls are used during festivals. Among them are hina dolls, which are displayed during the girl's festival and samurai dolls, which are displayed during the boy's festival

Ikebana :

Ikebana is the art of arranging flowers aesthetically. One tries to represent the three elements sky, earth, and mankind in a well balanced relation.

Ikebana developed in the 16th century. Traditional Ikebana is called Kado. There are many different schools of traditional Ikebana. In addition, modern styles of Ikebana (avant-garde Ikebana) have evolved. Some of these styles use glass, iron, and other materials instead of flowers.

Kabuki :

Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theater with its origins in the Edo period. Kabuki, in contrast to the older surviving Japanese art forms such as Noh, was the popular culture of the townspeople and not of the higher social classes.

Kabuki plays are about historical events, moral conflicts in love relationships and the like. The actors use an old fashioned language which is difficult to understand even for some Japanese people. They speak in a monotonous voice and are accompanied by traditional Japanese instruments.

The kabuki stage (kabuki no butai) is a rotating stage and is further equipped with several gadgets like trapdoors through which the actors can appear and disappear. Another speciality of the kabuki stage is a footbridge (hanamichi) that leads through the audience.

In the early years, both, men and women acted in Kabuki plays. Later during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate forbade the acting to women, a restriction that survives to the present day. Several male kabuki actors are, therefore, specialized in playing female roles (onnagata).

During kabuki plays, fanatic fans in the audience shout the names of their favorite actors in the right moments during short pauses - a phenomena that is not common during theater performances in the West.

The Japanese cuisine offers a great variety of dishes and regional specialties. Some of the most popular Japanese and Japanized dishes are listed below.

We have categorized them into rice dishes, seafood dishes, noodle dishes, nabe dishes, soya bean dishes, yoshoku dishes and other dishes. Please note that some dishes may fit into multiple categories, but are listed only once.

Rice Dishes

For over 2000 years, rice has been the most important food stuff in the Japanese cuisine. Despite changes in eating patterns over the last decades and slowly decreasing rice consumption in recent years, rice remains one of the most important ingredients in Japan today, and can be found in numerous dishes.

	Rice Bowl A bowl of rice is frequently served as a side dish for lunch and dinner, and as a main dish for breakfast when it is eaten plain, mixed with a raw egg and soya sauce (tamago-kake-gohan) or with natto or various other toppings.
	Sushi Sushi can be defined as a dish which contains sushi rice, cooked rice that is prepared with sushi vinegar. There are various kinds of sushi dishes.
	Domburi A bowl of cooked rice with some other food put on top of the rice. Some of the most popular toppings are tempura (tendon), egg and chicken (oyakodon), tonkatsu (katsudon) and beef (gyudon).
	Onigiri Onigiri are rice balls made of cooked rice and usually wrapped with a nori seaweed. They are slightly salted and often contain some additional food in the center, for example an umeboshi (pickled Japanese apricot), katsuobushi (dried bonito shavings), tuna or salmon. Rice balls are a popular and inexpensive snack available at convenience stores.
	Kare Raisu Kare Raisu (Curry Rice) is cooked rice with a curry sauce. It can be served with additional toppings such as tonkatsu. Curry is not a native Japanese spice, but has been used in Japan for over a century. Kare Raisu is a very popular dish, and many inexpensive Kare Raisu restaurants can be found especially in and around train stations.
	Fried Rice Fried rice or chahan has been originally introduced from China. A variety of additional ingredients such as peas, egg, negi (Japanese leek) and small pieces of carrot and pork are mixed to the rice when stir fried. It is a suitable dish for using left over rice.
	Chazuke Chazuke is a bowl of cooked rice with green tea and other ingredients, for example, salmon or tarako (cod roe) added to it. It is a suitable dish for using left over rice.
	Kayu Kayu is rice gruel, watery, soft cooked rice that resembles oatmeal. It is a suitable dish for using left over rice and is often served to sick people because it can be digested easily.

Seafood Dishes

Many dozens of kinds of fish, shellfish and other seafood from the oceans, seas, lakes and rivers are used in the Japanese cuisine. They are prepared and eaten in many different ways, for example, raw, dried, boiled, grilled, deep fried or steamed.

	Sashimi Sashimi is raw seafood. A large number of fish can be enjoyed raw if they are fresh and prepared correctly. Most types of sashimi are enjoyed with soya sauce and wasabi.
	Yakizakana Yakizakana means grilled fish. Many varieties of fish are enjoyed in this way.

Noodle Dishes

There are various traditional Japanese and introduced Japanized noodle dishes in Japan. Many of them enjoy a very high popularity.

	Soba Soba noodles are native Japanese noodles made of buckwheat and wheat flour. Soba are about as thick as spaghetti. They can be served cold or hot and with various toppings.
	Udon Udon noodles are native Japanese noodles made of wheat flour. Udon are thicker than soba and can also be served either hot or cold and with various toppings.
	Ramen Ramen are Chinese style noodles prepared in a soup with various toppings. Ramen is one of the many popular dishes that were originally introduced from China but have become completely Japanized over time.
	Somen Like Udon noodles, somen are Japanese noodles made of wheat flour, but they are much thinner than Udon and Soba. Somen are usually eaten cold.
	Yakisoba Yakisoba are fried or deep fried Chinese style noodles served with vegetables, meat and ginger.

Nabe Dishes

Nabe dishes or hot pot dishes are prepared in a hot pot, usually at the table. Typical ingredients are vegetables such as negi (Japanese leek) and hakusai (Chinese cabbage), various mushrooms, seafood and/or meat. There are many regional and personal varieties, and they are especially popular in the cold winter months. Some special nabe dishes are:

	Oden A nabe dish prepared with various fish cakes, daikon, boiled eggs, konyaku and kombu seaweed, boiled over many hours in a soya sauce based soup.
	Sukiyaki A nabe dish prepared with thinly sliced meat, vegetables, mushrooms, tofu and shirataki (konyaku noodles). The pieces of food are dipped into a raw egg before eaten.
	Shabu-Shabu Shabu-shabu is Japanese style meat fondue. Thinly sliced meat, vegetables, mushrooms and tofu is dipped into a hot soup and then into ponzu vinegar or a sesame sauce before being eaten.
	Chanko Nabe Chanko nabe is the staple diet of sumo wrestlers. There are many varieties of chanko nabe. A few chanko nabe restaurants can be found around Ryogoku, the sumo district in Tokyo.

Meat Dishes

Meat has been eaten in Japan in larger amounts only since the second half of the 19th century. Nowadays there are a variety of Japanese meat dishes.

	Yakitori Yakitori are grilled chicken pieces on skewers. Most parts of the chicken can be used for yakitori.
	Tonkatsu Tonkatsu are deep fried pork cutlets. Tonkatsu is usually served with shredded cabbage or on top of cooked rice (katsudon) or with Japanese style curry rice (katsu kare).
	Nikujaga Nikujaga is a popular dish of home style cooking made of meat (niku) and potatoes (jagaimo).

Soya Bean Dishes

Tofu, natto, miso and many more important ingredients of Japanese cooking are made of soya beans. The following are some of the most popular soya bean based dishes:

	Yudofu Yudofu are tofu pieces boiled in a clear, mild soup and dipped into a soya based sauce before being eaten.
	Agedashi Tofu Agedashi Tofu are deep fried tofu pieces that are dipped into a soya based sauce before being eaten.
	Miso Soup Miso soup is often served as a side dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is made by dissolving miso paste in hot water and adding additional ingredients such as wakame seaweed and small pieces of tofu.

Yoshoku Dishes

Yoshoku means Western food. A large number of Western dishes have been introduced to Japan over the centuries. Many of them have become completely Japanized, and these dishes are now called Yoshoku dishes. Some of the most popular ones are:

	Korokke Korokke has its origins in the croquettes which were introduced to Japan in the 19th century. Korokke comes in many varieties depending on the filling that is coated with bread crumbs and deep fried. The most common filling is a mix of minced meat and mashed potatoes.
	Omuraisu Omuraisu (abbreviation for omelet rice) is cooked rice, wrapped in a thin omelet, and usually served with tomato ketchup.
	Hayashi Raisu Hayashi rice is Japanese style hashed beef, thinly sliced beef and onions in a sauce made of ketchup and soya sauce, and served on cooked rice.
	Hamubagu Hamubagu is a Japanese style hamburger without the bread.

Other Dishes

	Tempura  Tempura is seafood, vegetables, mushrooms and other pieces of food coated with tempura batter and deep fried. Tempura was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the 16th century, but has internationally become one of Japan's most famous dishes.
	Okonomiyaki  Okonomiyaki is a mix between pizza and pancake. Various ingredients such as seafood, vegetables and meat can be mixed with the dough and placed on the okonomiyaki as topping.
	Monjayaki Monjayaki is a Kanto region specialty that is similar to Okonomiyaki, however, the dough used is much more liquid than the okonomiyaki dough.
	Gyoza  Gyoza are dumplings with a filling usually made of minced vegetables and ground meat. Gyoza were introduced to Japan from China. In Japan gyoza are usually prepared by frying them.
	Chawanmushi Chawanmushi is steamed egg custard that contains additional pieces of food such as chicken, shrimp or fish cake.
	Tsukemono Tsukemono are Japanese pickles. There are many variety of pickles, and a small dish with some pickles is served with most Japanese meals.

Writing:
The Japanese writing system consists of three different character sets: Kanji (several thousands of Chinese characters) and Hiragana and Katakana (two syllabaries of 46 characters each; together called Kana). Japanese texts can be written in two ways: In Western style, i.e. in horizontal rows from the top to the bottom of the page, or in traditional Japanese style, i.e. in vertical columns from the right to the left side of the page. Both writing styles exist side by side today.

Grammar:
Basic Japanese grammar is relatively simple. Complicating factors such as gender articles and distinctions between plural and singular are missing almost completely. Conjugation rules for verbs and adjectives are simple and almost free of exceptions. Nouns are not declinated at all, but appear always in the same form.

Pronunciation:
In comparison with other languages, Japanese knows relatively few sounds, and pronunciation poses little problems to most learners. The biggest difficulty are accents, which do exist, but to a much lower extent than in the Chinese language. In addition, there are relatively many homonyms, i.e. words that are pronounced the same way, but have different meanings.

Levels of speech:
Different words and expressions are used when talking to an unknown person or a superior, as opposed to when talking to a child, family member or a close friend. For instance, there are more than five different words for the English word "I", which are used depending on the context. For formal situations, a honorific language level (keigo) is still in common use.

Hiragana :

Around the 9th century, the Japanese developed an own writing system based on syllables: Hiragana and katakana (together: Kana). Of the two kana systems, hiragana is more cursive while katakana characters are more angular.

Hiragana and katakana each consist of 46 signs which originally were kanji but were strongly simplified over the centuries. When looking at a Japanese text, one can clearly distinguish the two kinds of signs: the complicated kanji and the simpler kana signs.

Among the syllables are 5 vowels (a i u e o). The rest are syllables combined by one of these vowels with a consonant (ka ki ku ke ko ra ri ru re ro...). One exception is the n. In addition, many syllables can be softened or hardened by adding two small strokes or a small circle in the top right corner next to the character.

Hiragana table

Even though one can theoretically write the whole language in hiragana, it is usually used only for grammatical endings of verbs, nouns, and adjectives, as well as for particles, and several other original Japanese words (in contrast to loan words that are written in katakana) which are not written in kanji.

Hiragana is the first of all the writing systems taught to Japanese children. Many books for young children are, therefore, written in hiragana only.

Katakana :

Katakana is mainly used for writing loan words and the names of persons and geographical places that can't be written in kanji.

Katakana table

Kanji, one of the three scripts used in the Japanese language, are Chinese characters, which were first introduced to Japan in the 5th century via Korea.

Kanji are ideograms, i.e. each character has its own meaning and corresponds to a word. By combining characters, more words can be created. For example, the combination of "electricity" with "car" means "train". There are several ten thousands of characters, of which 2000 to 3000 are required to understand newspapers. A set of 1945 characters has been officially declared as the "kanji for everyday use".

Some examples:

Before the introduction of Chinese characters, no Japanese writing system existed. When adopting the characters, the Japanese did not only introduce the characters' original Chinese pronunciations, but also associated them with the corresponding, native Japanese words and their pronunciations. Consequently, most kanji can still be pronounced in at least two ways, a Chinese (on yomi) and a Japanese (kun yomi) way, which considerably further complicates the study of the Japanese language.

Kanji are used for writing nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. But unlike the Chinese language, Japanese cannot be written entirely in kanji. For grammatical endings and words without corresponding kanji, two additional, syllable based scripts are being used, hiragana and katakana, each consisting of 46 syllables.