Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, is as hugely popular today as it was centuries ago. As time passes, more and more designs and folding styles are invented. Origami’s presence has expanded from wedding décor to Christmas ornaments. You can now create all kinds of gorgeous origami designs with Christmas motifs using simple folding Read more …
Japanese Culture
“Kanji” is Japanese for the Chinese hanzi characters that Japan has adopted as part of its modern writing system. Over 100,000 of these logograms, or visual word symbols, exist but only about 5,000-10,000 are in common use today. Memorizing the still enormous number of kanji is a big challenge. In 1981, the Japanese government decided to implement Read more …
Learning Japanese
Our earlier post on Japanese desserts received an interesting facebook comment– Wait, what? Why is okonomiyaki on the desserts page?? Some may call it a “pancake”, but the only thing “pancakey” about it is that it has flour, egg and water in it. It makes for a delicious dinner though! So we took another look. Read more …
Japanese Culture
Photo booths have always been an easy, fun, and convenient way to have our pictures taken for whatever purpose. A photo booth is usually a kiosk or coin-operated vending machine with a built-in camera and film processing unit. In vending-machine-happy Japan, the booths are ubiquitous, especially in malls or shopping complexes, and most are already digital. Many Read more …
Tokyo Things to Do
Christmas is celebrated all over the world in many different ways. It is that time of the year when people can’t help getting into the spirit of the season. We have made it past the shortest day of the year, and things can only get better! Common Christmas symbols are wreaths, Christmas trees, candles, stockings, Read more …
Japanese Culture
Japan, as an island country, has historically been isolated from the world, especially the Western world. Isolation led its people to develop their own ways of artistic expression. The Japanese novel The Tale of Genji was written in 1008 AD by a woman named Murasaki Shikibu, a pseudonym, possibly for Fujiwara Takako, a lady-in-waiting at the Japanese Imperial court Read more …
Japanese Culture
Halloween is generally not celebrated in Japan, but the U.S. students there have brought it to KCP. It’s a great occasion for people to get together and have some fun. This year, Halloween fell on a weekday. So KCP students came to school in all sorts of costumes, from funky hats to head-to-toe cuddly cat attire. Seeing Read more …
For KCP Students
Dining out at a Chinese restaurant or having Chinese take-out would not be complete without cracking open a fortune cookie and reading the fun sayings in store on that itty bitty piece of paper. Fortune cookies are commonly associated with Chinese food. Would you believe? . . . fortune cookies were actually invented in Japan. Read more …
Uncategorized
We ran across a very interesting and informative blog by current KCP student Mathieu Leduc, a French Canadian. He signed up for the summer term and liked KCP so much that he is staying on for the Fall semester. Matieu chooses aspects of life in Japan that we never would have thought of! His blog Read more …
Student Views
This is the time of the year when creepy ghosts and ghastly ghouls frolic in the streets and ask for treats. In the U.S., you’re bound to find people of all ages all dressed up in various costumes, from simple capes to elaborate monster outfits. Although the Japanese don’t celebrate Halloween, you can still feel Read more …
Tokyo Things to Do
| Today | Wednesday | Thursday |
|---|---|---|
 Rain 63°/41° |  Chance of Rain 45°/32° |  Partly Cloudy 43°/32° |
From the Japan TimesWeather forecast by WP Wunderground & Denver Snow Removal