Geek in Japan: Discovering the Land of Manga, Anime, Zen, and the Tea Ceremony (Geek In...guides)

As a complement to this text, I recommend the movie Shichinin no Samurai (The Seven Samurai). It contains many elements from bushido, and it’s said that George Lucas was inspired by it in creating Star

In Japan, people ask what your blood group is in the most unexpected situations.

Japanese companies are famous for doing things well but slowly.

Don’t you have the feeling when you face something that is iki or wabi-sabi that it’s trying to communicate wisdom through silence?

What is expressed orally by the individual is tatemae, and what he really thinks is honne.

A totally different language for a totally different culture. If you’d like to take on the difficult but rewarding challenge of learning Japanese, I recommend you start with Marc Bernabé’s books Japanese in Mangaland and Japanese in Mangaland 2, or Japanese for Manga People by Maria Ferrer. To learn kanji, you can start with Kanji De Manga by Glenn

This writing system causes the Japanese to think in a different way from us. They organize concepts on the basis of kanji; they draw diagrams with structures that are difficult for us to understand; the order in which their writing flows is different; and, generally speaking, their minds work on the basis of images.

in Japan having huge ears is a symbol of good luck and money.

The Studio Alta screen has become one of the most famous rendezvous points in Tokyo. You see it as soon as you set foot outside the East Exit of Shinjuku (JR). If you get there by the subway, it’s Exit 13B.