Fly that flag.

Date : Thursday, December 9, 2010
Time : 3:42 PM

Type of Leisure Programs

Some popular sports in Japan includes baseball (most popular in Japan), football, sumo (traditional Japanese sport), golf, boxing, figure skating (proliferated by medal skater, Mao Asada) and motor racing. Schools also encourage and give opportunites for student to play sports such as joining the school club or joining private sport clubs. Because of the popularity of sports, related trends have been coming up, such as sports bar, which is a bar for watching football matches.

Japan has many festivals and events lined up for the year, but some of the major or more attractive ones as follows:

- Kamakura Snow Festival in Yokote (Held during mid-February; 400 years old festival; making rooms out of snow)

- Dai Himonjiyaki at Aso Fire Festival (Held in March; Pray for rich harvest & celebrate marriage)

- Yayoi Festival (Held in mid-April; Ancient Tradition dated back to 8th Century; Parade of floats held at shrines)

- Takoage-Gassen (Kite-Flying Contest; At Nakatajima; Early May)

- Aoi Matsuri (Mid-May; Ancient festival dated back a millennium ago; Held in Kyoto)

- Asakusa Sanja Matsuri (May; Held in Asakusa Shrine; Symbolic festival of Tokyo)

- Sumidagawa Hanabi Taikai (Held during last Saturday of July; Sumida River Fireworks Display)

- Ikegami Honmonji O-Eshiki (Held during October; in Ikegami, Tokyo; Buddhist memorial service)

Hanami (Flower viewing) tradition is still continued today, as people gathered and partied at areas where flowering trees stood. Hanami at night is known as yozakura (Night sakura). The forecast for blossoms are usually announced by Japan Meteorological Agency, but it usually falls around end of March and last only for two weeks.

Flower viewing.

Japan is also famous for its shopping districts as fashion is relatively trendy in areas like Harajuku, Shinjuku and Tokyo. These places attract both adults and teens, as the fashion lines were known for their broad genres. Some Japanese brands are Uniqlo, A BATHING APE and LE CIEL BLEU. Foreigners who are interested in Japan’s fashion subculture will also come to this fashion city in look for Lolita, Punk, Gothic apparels and brands include, Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, h,NAOTO and Sex Pot Revenge.

A shop in Tokyo.

Another shopping activity will be the electronics, as Japan is known to be the leader in electronics. People will flock to Japan to look at the latest technologies available, and businessmen are likely to go to Japan to look for partnership and business opportunities.

Japanese invention: Grocery shopping robot.

Recreations in Japan includes, cycling, diving, fishing, hockey, martial arts, shogi, skiing and snowing, insect hunting, picnics, hiking, concerts and horse-back riding. In a survey on recreation, 76% of the Japanese people said that they like to travel around Japan in their free time, while others prefers driving and movies. In another survey, 29% of Japanese prefer spending time in natural places like parks during their leisure time.