Tips I used in passing the Japanese National Tour Guide Tests — After a seemingly endless two-month wait for the results of my Japanese Guide Test Oral Exam, the final step to getting certified as a National Tour Guide, I nearly fell off my chair in disbelief! I had passed! Granted, I had studied hard. But I had begun to feel like…

Consideration For Others is the Key — Things Not to Do in Japan 1. Pour your own drink. If you are eating alone, it’s fine. But if you are with other people, pouring your own drink can make you look like a drunkard. Etiquette requires that we pour each other’s drinks. 2. Pass food from one to another using chopsticks or stick your chopsticks into rice. At Japanese cremations, after the body is burned, the loved one’s bones are passed using chopsticks, one…

Was all that sacrifice really worth it? — I recently read an article from a woman who claims she would regret having children for all the fun she would have to give up. That gave me pause to reflect. I do not regret motherhood I have made many mistakes in my life, but one thing I do not regret is having 8 children. …

Beauty and History are Everywhere in Japan — Growing up in northern Virginia, my life revolved around my Catholic school and the Fort Myers’ Officers’ swimming pool. When I tired of swimming on long summer days, I would walk under big shady trees through the old section of Arlington National Cemetery. Each unique 19th century gravestone held such…

An ancient practice on the verge of extinction — For millennia, strong women along the coasts of Japan have lived off the bounty of the sea — which they gathered from the sea floor by hand. These women are called ama. Ama, 海女 or “sea women,” engage in the ancient practice of freediving. Sans air tanks, these women forage…

A present for Toyotomi Hideyoshi — Asian elephants were once indigenous to the Philippines, but they disappeared from the islands in the 17th century. One of the last of these Philippine elephants played an unexpected role in relations with Japan. But before exploring that story, please allow me to share some vital background. The Tragedy On October 19…

Architect of a thriving ecosystem — In 1888, Mount Bandai erupted with such fury that its middle peak, Ko-Bandai was violently thrown off, displacing one square kilometer of earth. The destruction left by cascading debris avalanches destroyed towns, killed 477 people, and left trees stripped and fallen by the thousands. Although relief efforts were prompt and…

And the birth of one of Japan’s most mysterious natural beauties — Reflected in the still waters of Japan’s fourth-largest lake, Inawashiro, the 1,816-meter-high Mount Bandai stands tall and proud to the north, an iconic symbol of Fukushima Prefecture. Viewed from the lakeshore to the south — the side called Omote-Bandai, “Front Bandai” — the stratovolcano appears smooth, its verdant, irregular peaks…

Treasure ships that disseminated goods, wealth, and culture — When I visited the port of Shukunegi on Sado Island a couple of years ago, I spent time at a disused elementary school that had been repurposed as a folk museum. …