Jeff Gilpin sent this lullaby with the following note, "Here is a song I wrote after visiting my wife’s sister in Ayase which is outside of Tokyo, Japan. I think it is very kid friendly and I hope you like it add it to your list of children songs. It is called Ayase Lullaby. Here...

Debbie wrote from Japan about cherry blossoms, which are called sakura in Japanese.  Spring is a favorite time to view the sakura and have picnics.  Here’s what Debbie wrote: Everything comes in sakura colors right now. Doughnuts. Noodles. Even the exercise ladies in my morning exercise show were wearing sakura-colored t-shirts. Never mind that the cherry...

Every year, in December in Japan, a word is chosen that represents that year.  There’s a Kanji Character that represents that word.  Kanji are the characters used to represent the Japanese language.  They originally come from China. The kanji character of the year is unveiled for the 1st time at Kiyomizu Temple each year. Ayako wrote...

Today’s Akira Yoshizawa’s birthday.  He lived from March 14, 1911 – March 14, 2005.  He was a master at origami.  Check out the photo of him holding an origami peacock he made in the photo above.  Here’s how Google is celebrating his life… Photo: Wikipedia

Open Culture has a page of free language learning links covering 40 languages. Here are some of the languages you can find links for… Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Maori, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Swahili,...

We take a lot of hikes and recently we’ve been coming upon arrangements of stones stacked on top of each other like those in the photo.  I couldn’t help but wonder if there’s a significance to these sculptures? My cousin, James Yannucci, who has travelled all over Asia and lives in China saw my photo and...

Yuzu is a citrus fruit they enjoy in Japan especially near the Winter Solstice and the New Year.  I’ve never seen the actual fruit here to try it.  But today I found a Yuzu drink you can buy at the American chain store Trader Joe’s.  You simply empty a packet into a cup, add hot...

Ayako wrote from Japan about special New Year’s traditions and the food they eat… "I visited my mothers home yesterday and ate osechi ryouri which is a new years special meal and went to a shrine too." "This is my yuzu dish I made this new year… Yuzu is a spcial citrus fruit...

Ayako Egawa wrote from Japan about Kamaboko, a sort of gelled fish cake that’s eaten there.  The one pictured below was made for the New Year.  The character on these Kamaboko is called Kizuna (meaning bond) which is the symbol for 2011.  (A character is chosen annually in Japan that best symbolizes the year that...

Ayako wrote to me about how each year a Chinese character (called a kanji) is chosen in Japan that best represents the year.  Here’s what she wrote: Hi Lisa, I wanted to tell you about this year’s Kanji.  We choose the best kanji at end of each year in December – it’s an annual event.  This year...

Edit’ Dupont is a talented artist as well as a lovely singer!  She has sung over 100 French songs for us.  You can hear them on our French Song Pages. When Edit’ is creating art she likes to work with paint on paper.  She wrote: "Paper expresses strength, fragility, softness, transparency…  It readily transforms itself, welcomes color...

Tofu Ling and the Carp Banner by Rosanna I. Porter is a story about the meaning of the Japanese Festival of Tango No Sekku (Boys’ Day)… The day celebrates not only strength but also character. In the story, Tofu Ling practices for a Tae Kwon Do tournament that is to be held the day before Tango...

Etegami is a Japanese art form that everyone can partake in.  It translates to "picture letter" and basically consists of drawing a picture and writing something on it, like a proverb, a line of a poem, haiku or simply a description of the picture. Etegami are usually created on postcards and are meant to be...

You know how different places have different sounds associated with them?  One sound you used to hear all around Japan was glass wind-chimes. They’re called furin 風鈴. Here’s what wikipedia wrote about furin, "Japanese glass wind bells known as Fūrin (風鈴) have been produced since the Edo period… Wind chimes are thought to be good...