10 questions on Japan.
A mix of challenging and relatively easy questions. If you don’t know, have a guess.
If you get 5 or more, you are doing very well.
The answers are at the bottom.
- Which Studio Ghibli film is based on Han’s Christian Andersen’s fantasy The Little Mermaid?
- What colour is the GO sign on Japanese traffic lights?
- What are the 3 sacred items of the Imperial Family?
- What are the 5 colours of traditional Japanese food?
- In Japan, what bird is the voice of authority?
- Put this haiku by Buson in the correct order: Desperately bushes to an cloudburst cling sparrows evening trembling
- According to the proverb, what small Japanese bird never forgets to dance?
- The Cloud Surpassing Pavilion was built in Tokyo in 1890 under the supervision of a British engineer. It contained Japan’s first what?
- Early June in the old Japanese calendar is known as the KAMAKIRI birth season. The KAMAKIRI is a green insect that will eat it’s own mate. What is it called in English?
- Why do sumo wrestlers stamp on the ground inside the ring?

Answers
- Ponyo
- Green (the bluest allowed shade of green)
- Sword, jewel and a mirror
- Red, yellow, green, black and white
- The crane
- An evening cloudburst / sparrows cling desperately / to trembling bushes
- The sparrow 雀百まで踊り忘れず
- Elevator (it broke after 6 months)
- Praying mantis
- To expel evil
The questions were used in the Brighton Japan Club online quiz last Saturday.
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