More International Visitors to Japan in New Year’s Season

Maybe 20 or 30 years ago Japan closed down for New Year’s. Banks and even ATMs were closed, and transport was limited. However, times have changed. In fact, we think that New Year’s is actually a good opportunity for visitors from overseas to learn about Japanese culture. There are many typical Japanese events/customs such as omochi-tsuki (pounding rice cakes), joya-no-kane (bells to toll out the old year), osechi-ryori (New Year’s preserved food with different dishes incorporating auspicious meanings), and hatsu-moude. Of course, the skiing is great at this time of year too. Perhaps this year we will see more visitors from overseas than ever before according to current trends. However, that means we Japanese people need to know about our own culture and need to be able to explain about it in English and other languages. Lert’s all do our best to show off our wonderful culture to the world. If you need to brush up your language skills, please contact UC English School!