Since I am fascinated by Japanese culture, I will show you some of the taboos that tourists should absolutely not break there…:
Many Japanese rules are related to death and misfortune.
The Japanese have some rituals that seem a little bizarre to us at first glance.
But perhaps it's the other way around too – although I could hardly name any off the top of my head.
In Japan, you shouldn't sleep with your head facing north.
It's considered taboo.
This stems from the fact that graves are oriented towards the north
(kitamakura = "north pillow") .
This practice is attributed to Buddha, who, according to tradition, entered Nirvana with his head turned north and his gaze directed west. The deceased are meant to follow his example.
Because this sleeping position symbolizes death, people in Japan are careful in their daily lives to avoid sleeping with their heads facing north—if it can be avoided at all costs. And
you shouldn't stick your chopsticks in your rice!
In Europe, it's quite common to place your cutlery in or on your food.
This leads some tourists to simply stick their chopsticks in their rice while they do something else.
However, in Japan, chopsticks stuck in rice are seen as an invitation to the dead to eat.
Crossing your chopsticks over the bowl also symbolizes death and should be avoided.
Furthermore, in Japan, you should never pass food with chopsticks.
This, too, is associated with death, as in funeral rituals, relatives use chopsticks to place the cremated remains of the deceased into the urn.
And remember, the left side of a kimono is always on top!
Should you ever get the idea to put on a kimono (who can actually do that formally correctly?), it's extremely important that the left side is on top of the right.
With both the kimono (着物) and the yukata (浴衣), the left side (from your perspective) is always on top, so you can tuck your right hand in sideways.
Only the dead wear it the other way around.
There are special rules when seeing a hearse .
When you see a hearse, you tuck your thumb, which in Japanese is called oya-yubi親指 (“parent finger”), protectively into your fist so that nothing bad happens to the parents.
In general, there are special rules regarding the dead: you shouldn't photograph graves because you would disturb the peace of the deceased and attract misfortune.
One should not write one's name in red.
On gravestones, the names of the dead are usually written in black, those of the living in red.
Writing one's own name or someone else's name in red is believed to shorten one's life.
In Japan, people have the custom of erecting their own graves to be ready when their time comes.
They then write their own name in red on the gravestone to indicate that they are still alive. On the day of the funeral, the name is then written in black on the gravestone to signify the person's death.
However, writing someone's name in red can also mean that they will soon go bankrupt.
This may be related to the fact that the word for "deficit" or "debt" is composed of the characters .
Writing a name in red can even indicate that the person is a criminal.
The names of prisoners sentenced to death are written in red on their cell doors.
There are countless other rules to follow in Japan.
You can probably only truly understand them if you grew up there…
