The Japanese Tea Ceremony

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Understanding the Japanese Mind: Behaviour towards Culture Introduction Japan has recently dominated the news due to the tragic natural disaster that was the tsunami followed by the nuclear crisis. The Japanese reacted in a typically Japanese manner: very calm, orderly, with a secretive, slow moving government. This differed greatly to the situation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. What sets the Japanese mindset so far apart from other cultures? This essay shall attempt to help understand the Japanese society and its character with the help of a uniquely Japanese institution: the tea ceremony. Japan Japan is an island nation located in the Pacific Ocean and consists of an island chain which applies along the east coast of Asia. The main islands are Hokkaido in the North, the central and biggest island Honshu and in the South Shikoku and Kyushu. In addition come the 6488 smaller islands. Over the whole archipelago runs the mountain chain which puts out more than one third of the land mass of Japan. The highest mountain is the Fujisan on the main island Honshu with 3776 m about the sea level . Agriculture, industry and colonization are limited to about 20% of the land surface. Japan is a sophisticated industrial country and was many years the second largest national economy of the world behind the USA with which it militarily formed an alliance since 1952. In Japan rules a constitutional monarchy what means that Japan has an emperor who has only one representative function. The government forms a parliament which was chosen by the people. This parliament contains more than 47 prefectures into which Japan is divided (like the departments in France). The Japan name Nihon日本 or Nippon (formally) consist of the signs 日(ni) which means “day” or “sun” and 本 (hon) which means “origin”, “root” or “beginning”. Nippon is more used in the formal language, printed on
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