Japan's geography is a narrow and long shape from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Therefore, the climates and mentality of the residents are different based on each prefecture. If you compare the prefectural characteristics, you could see that the gourmet and culture are totally different. This article is different from the other articles and will help you to understand the prefecture more in order to make your trip smoother. In volume 5, we are going to introduce you to Nara Prefecture which is said to be the first city in Japan.
The longest history in Japan
Nara Residents are proud to stay in Nara, which has the longest history in Japan. Most of the small hills are actually ancient tombs!
Nara prefecture is a prefecture treasured with ancient tombs and mausoleums because the central government was once located in Nara. Besides this, most of the ancient tomb and mausoleums are maintained in good condition. While walking in the prefecture, there are green parks with small hills in the park. If you feel grateful to be surrounded by nature, then you are absolutely wrong. In fact, the small hills are all ancient tombs that have a long history. Please don’t be surprised when you see the kids are playing and running around the ancient tombs. On the other hand, you can find the ancient tomb shaped cakes being sold at the stalls nearby the ancient tomb as well.
Nara Residents are proud to stay in Nara which has the longest history, and obviously, they managed to blend it into their daily life.
Dig the soil land and something will be dug out!
If you dig some soil, you may find something hidden within! However, if this is the case, you won't be able to build a house on said land.
Since Nara is a prefecture with a long history, it doesn’t surprise people even if anything special is dug out from the land. It is very common for Nara people to do an excavation study before building a new building on land. It is said that there was someone who tried to build up a house on the land, however, they had to stop the construction 5 times continuously since they excavated and found an ancient spot or tomb on the land. It is really a headache for them because they couldn’t manage to build the house yet even though they have tried many years working on it.
However, building a house is an important culture for Nara residents. It is said that most of the Nara residents, man or woman, prefer to save their money instead of simply spending the money. They won’t simply buy luxury cars or branded items. Instead, they will save their money little by little, and build a house to prepare for future use.
Wake up early in the morning!
It has become a culture in Nara Prefecture to wake up very early in the morning!
The proverb goes "Hayaokiwa sanmon no toku” (Direct translation: You earn a total of sanmon if you wake up earlier). This proverb actually originated in Nara. A long time ago, there is a law that if a dead deer is found in front of your house, you will be assumed to be the one who killed the deer and have to pay a fine. Therefore, if you wake up early, even if there is a dead deer in front of your doorstep, you still in time to move the dead deer to another house and escape from paying the fine which costs you a total of “sanmon”. This is how the proverb originated.
On the other hand, the night in Nara also ends earlier. Even though Nara is a tourism town crowded with 13 million tourists from both local areas and overseas, the main spot such as the restaurant around the main station closes at around 8 pm. It is a high Possibility they need to sleep earlier in order to wake up early the next morning.
What did you think of this article? There is a lot of "prefectural characteristics" that cannot be accepted and believed by other prefecture residents in Japan and some are not applicable in other prefectures. Next article we are going to introduce prefectural characteristics in the Kanto area!
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