I too am fascinated by Japanese art and culture. And the history. I love the time of the Edo period, when the Tokugawa shogunate was ruling over the Islands and there was real sense of adventure around Japan. So many Samurai schools (Dojo's) came to province in that time and the nobility culture was peaking too. So too were the power plays of those times - which fascinate me. I can't begin to tell you how many stories i've seen.
Also, when it comes to cinema, it was film makers like Akira Kurosawa whose amazing ability to tell a story in moving images, inspired Hollywood to rethink the Spaghetti Western genre. Films like 7 Samurai - I won the bfi release on DVD also.
Oh, and the swords... you can guess that with a name like Scimitar, I'd have a special appreciation for iron that's been folded 440 times
I didn't realise that the Japanese purification method is so similar to the way Islam teaches us - that really is fascinating. The Temizuya, I just did a quick search for it and found some pics of a large communal water facility and lots of ladles. It looks very similar to where Muslims do wudhu in the courtyards of Masjids in some middle Eastern countries

The similarity is uncanny when I think about it. Because Japanese religion also has similar way to purification, with the use of water.
I was reading that over 124,000 prophets (peace be upon them) have been sent with the Message of Islam. Maybe in the past, one was in Japan. Allahu Alam.
Insha-Allah, one day, I will go to Japan.
Scimi