The Japanese Tradition series is an hillarious video series dealing with of the Japanese culture produced by the Japan Culture Lab. I found a few of their videos on Youtube and they have to be taken with a pinch of salt to say the least.
This video was shot in May 2008 during the Dublin Aikikai Aikido trip to Japan in order to study Aikido at the Aikikai World Headquarters in Shinjuku. This video shows a bit of Tokyo as we saw it. Beside a very intense Aikido practice, this trip was also a lot of fun and I really appreciated to travel and know more about the other guys in a more relaxed, "out of the mat" atmosphere. I hope that this video carries a bit of the great time we all had.
These videos are from the fantastic PBS documentary series on the history of Japan. Starting before the rise of the Tokugawa and finishing with the arrival of Commodore Perry, this documentary describes Japanese society and structure and explains how it opened to the West. It is to me one of the best documentary to watch if you want to get an introduction to Japanese history. It is followed by a History Channel documentary on the Japanese Sword that is also well worth watching.
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