New addition!

Hi everyone,

We have added a new post about Ibaraki! Check it out!

Ibaraki (茨城)

(by Hanako Shinohara)

Ibaraki is located in the northern part of the Kanto area. According to a statistic taken in 2004, there are about 2.99 million people living in Tsukuba. During the Edo era (1603-1867), Ibaraki had an important domain called, Mito水戸, which is the hub of transportation and the Tokugawa federal clan was located there. Ibaraki prefecture was established in 1871 after the return of political power to the Emperor by the Tokugawa shogunate. The land in Ibaraki is suited for vegetable agriculture. Kasama, a city in Ibaraki, is famous for pottery.

Mt. Tsukuba（筑波山） and Tsukuba-san Shrine（筑波山神社）

Tsukuba is one of the cities in the southern area of Ibaraki and Mt. Tsukuba is a symbol of the city. This mountain is one of the 100 most famous mountains in Japan. Mt. Tsukuba is 877 meters and you can hike and use a cable car to climb to the top. From the top you can see the beautiful scenery of the Kanto Plains. Also, there is the Tsukuba-san Shrine in the middle of the mountain and the shrine’s spirit deity is Mt. Tsukuba. The Shrine has a history of about 3,000 years since people started to live in the Kanto area. Two Shinto gods are worshiped at the shrine which described in the Record of Ancient Matters （『古事記』）, the oldest existing book about Japanese history, presented to the emperor in 712. The Chronicles of Japan（『日本書紀』）, a Japanese history book, was presented in 720.

Ushiku Daibutsu/ the Great Statue of Buddha （牛久大仏）

This huge statue of Buddha is located in Ushiku city, a city next to Tsukuba. The statue of Buddha is very tall, 120m from the head to the base, and is three times taller than the statue of Liberty in NYC. It is registered with the Guinness World Records as the tallest statue of Buddha in the world. You can go inside of the statue of Buddha and use an elevator up to 80~85m from the ground which is about the 4th or 5th floor in a typical building. There are exhibitions about Buddhism and the statue. A mass grave is at the third floor and there are still more spaces for new people. If you want to buy one you can.

Website updates

Hi Everyone!
We have made some additions to the site.

1. We added a new recipe (Japanese Thick Roll Sushi) to the Recipes page
2. We added a new phase to the Learn Japanese page

Check them out!