It's cold again today.  For once, I actually regretted wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt to lectures.  For once, I actually WAS cold when people asked me!

Yesterday, I said about how Japan is a country that is more future-orientated than past-orientated.  While I do think this is true to a general extent, Japan is still a land of paradoxes.  A good example is the common sight of a woman in full kimono and zori (traditional sandals) walking down the street while talking on her mobile phone.  So, yes, there is still a lot of tradition left in Japan despite its rapid modernization and, perhaps sadly, Westernisation.

In fact, you only need to walk a little way down from the main streets to see something of a more traditional Japan.  When I cycle to and from the university, I normally take the back alley route because there’s more room to cycle than on the very narrow pavement by the road (and there's few cars).  The back alleys run through a small residential area.  Houses in Japan are very, very different to the ones in England.  They really do look “Japanese” – they have those familiar low oriental roofs like the ones you see on temples, and they often have a large porch with a few potted plants.  They are very pretty to look at, and also very eclectic: unlike in an English town, where all the houses are built by the same builders and therefore look very similar, Japanese houses can be very different to their neighbours.

As well as their traditional design, each house reveals a little bit of old-style Japan.  They'll be an old wooden broomstick left in the small vegetable garden outside one house, a traditional wooden toy in the window of another.  And if you look closely at some of the more fancy buildings, you might a find a yin-yang-like symbol called the tomoe, and you'll see it everywhere in Japan, if you look hard enough:

I found this cool site explaining the meaning of the tomoe here, as well as meanings of many other religious symbols.  I love symbols, so its one of my favourite pages.

Anyway, talking about religion, another thing that stands out are the little shrines here and there.  Japan is supposedly not a religious country, yet dotted about the residential areas are tiny alcoves, often with a statue of a Buddhist deity and an offering of flowers.  Kisako told me that people still buy sweets and flowers to give to their family shrine.  It's such an old tradition, and reminds me that spiritually, Japan is very much a Pagan country, holding many of the same beliefs held thousands and thousands of years ago.  I love that.

I really enjoy cycling through these back streets.  Especially in the evening - sometimes, you can smell someone burning bamboo in their tiny back garden.  It's one of the nicest smells in the world.

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Tomoe "Three Point Circle" Pendant