With my apologies to David Letterman, here are my first five items (#10 to #6) of my top ten reasons why I like Japan. I guess you could also title this the top ten reasons to travel to Japan.Read More
According to a poll taken in the year 2000, the Japanese believe their best invention of the 20th century was instant noodles (the second best was the Walkman). In 2010, it is estimated approximately 95 billion servings of instant noodles were eaten worldwide. It all started in the sleepy town of Ikeda located in northern...Read More
Its picture can be found in many travel brochures, and it has even appeared in movies such as Memoirs of a Geisha. And even though it is only a short 5 minute train ride from the always busy Kyoto Train station, few people make the journey to Fushimi Inari Shrine. Often thought of as the...Read More
We all know the Japanese are “very polite.” In Japan being polite goes beyond just saying excuse me or thank you. In Japanese, the word is “teinei.” Teinei goes beyond the English word “polite” because it applies to far more than just people and their actions. Additional meanings of the Japanese word “teinei” include courteous, careful,...Read More
Sake making began about two thousand years ago when rice planting was introduced to Japan. Fushimi is one of the biggest sake producing areas in Japan. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the lord of Osaka Castle, built Fushimi Casle in the late sixteenth century, the sake industry in the surrounding city of Fushimi flourished. Many sake breweries...Read More
Osechi Ryori, (New Year’s dishes) are specially prepared to be eaten during the first three days of January. They are cooked and preserved for three days so that housewives don’t have to cook during that period. The yellow in the grey dish is herring roe representing fertility. Bean in Japanese is ‘mame’ which has the...Read More
Happy New Year! Akemashite Omedetou in Japanese! Christmas displays at department stores, grocery stores and train and subway stations are changed to New Year displays over night. The changes are made quickly but thorough. To the righ, you can see a display where various colored chrysanthemums and plum branches are put into bamboo stems, and...Read More
“Tora Tora Tora” (Tiger Tiger Tiger) is a Japanese party/drinking game played by Maiko with their clients. The game is another version of “Jyan ken pon” (the Japanese name for Rock, Paper, Scissors). The game is played between two players who start on opposite sides of a wall, or as in this case, a rice...Read More
Paths Paths are generally constructed of beaten earth that can be left plain or covered with sand or fine gravel, on top of which stepping stones can be placed. Irregular, flat stepping stones were used in the tea roji to guide the visitor to the tea house. Later stepping stones were introduced into other gardens....Read More
