Neven Mrgan on the birthday of film great Akira Kurosawa.
<
blockquote>Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Akira Kurosawa, one of the greatest directors ever. I humbly suggest that you mark this by watching Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, or Throne of Blood, which are excellent and fun and not at all boring just because they
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)
Ume is a popular Japanese food, traditionally eaten at least once a day. It is very sour and is said to have a handful of health properties. Many foreigners don’t like it, but I do. Let’s take a few minutes today to learn all about this great Japanese food.
Ume is normally translated as Japanese Plum, or sometimes as Japanese Aprecot. The normal way of eating it is to dry it first. So the nice looking fruit pictured above soon turns into this:
It tastes a lot better than it looks. Once it’s dryed, it is called umeboshi.
Once dryed, it can be eaten by itself as a snack, or added to just about anything. A very common use is to stick it in the middle of some white rice.
Looks like the Japanese flag, huh?
Sticking ume in the rice helps give a little flavor to the rice. It also supposely helps kill bactoria in the rice, a benefit of the extremely high acid content.
So acidy, infact, that wikipedia reports in the past they were known to eat through lunchboxes if kept in the same spot every day. I asked a few Japanese folks about this and no one believes it, so I’d take that with a grain of salt, but y’know… wikipedia said so.
Ume is high in vitiman A, and also has some B1 and B2, a bit of fiber, calcium, iron, and more protein than any other fruit1 They are considered good for digestion and help with detox. Included in that detox effect is helping cure hangovers2, so next time you drink too much give some ume a try. They also protect the liver, strengthen the immune system, and help give you energy.
As with most of traditional Japanese and Chinese medicine, Western medicine doesn’t fully agree. But worth a try, right? Expecially when ume tastes so good.
There’s more to ume than the food. Around the end of Janurary, Ume trees will start showing blossoms that are remarkably similar to the cherry blossoms. Similar enough to confuse people sometimes. Besides the time difference (ume blossoms usually hit Jan/Feb; cherry blossoms late Feb to April, depending on the kind), the biggest difference is ume blossoms have a pleasent smell.
Before Cherry blossoms became popular in the Heian period (794−1185), ume blossoms were considered more beautiful.
It seems like many traditional foods are losing popularity as more and more Western foods are introduced. So far ume is immune to this. I’ve yet to meet a Japanese person who didn’t love it. I asked at the local konbini and they told me ume rice balls are one of the most popular items they sell.
If you come to Japan, you’ll be presented with ume at least a few times. Go ahead, try it. You may be like me and love it.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)
Kids in the States know how to send away unwanted rain and attract the sun.
Rain, Rain, go away, come again some other day
Ah, the power of verse.
In Japan it is a bit different, but the idea is similar. When it is nasty weather and children want tomorrow to be sunny, they make a Teru teru bozu1 (てるてる坊主) doll.
The teru-teru bozu doll isn’t hard to make. Take some tissue paper, for the head and tie it, and let the rest hang loose. Looks more like a ghost than a doll. Oh, but it’s no ordinary doll….
This doll has magical powers! When placed in the window, he will make the bad weather go away. And… if he doesn’t — you get to rip his head off as punishment. So it’s a win either way.
A nice, wholesome kids game, eh?
There is a song that goes along with the doll. It goes like so:
Teru teru bozu, terubozu Bring good weather tomorrow Like the sky in a dream If it is clear, I’ll give you a golden bell Teru teru bozu, terubozu Bring good weather tomorrow If you listen to my request We’ll also drink lots of sweet sake Teru teru bozu, terubozu Bring good weather tomorrow However, if it is cloudy and you’re crying I will cut your head off!
Nice song, eh? Trying to tempt the weather gods with golden bell2 and then threatening decapitation for failure. Ah, the samurai spirit is alive and well in Japan3.
Wikipedia tells us that like many Western nursery rhymes, the song is rumored to have a dark history. Legends speak of a monk who promised some farmers to stop the rain, but was executed upon failure to do so. Ouch.
Let that be a lesson to meddling monks everywhere.
More seriously — knowing Japanese history, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true.
Wikipedia also translates the song a little differently than I have, so head over there if you want to compare.
And let’s close with a video of some young girls dancing to the song.
Kids in Japan love beetles. I mean, they love beetles. All thruout the summer they embark on quests to catch beetles, vying with their friends to see who can catch the most and the best. Often, this involves spreading honey on trees and then waking up at the crack of dawn to see if any beetles are foolish enough to still be snacking.
Did I mention that beetles in Japan are freakin HUGE? Because they are. Really, really huge. In fact, another photo is in order.
But this size point doesn
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)
I wrote about Hachiko a while back, the loyal Akita dog who waited around for his master day after day at the train station for ten years after his master’s death.
If you missed that, go read it now!
Today I can across a nice tribute to Hachiko on Futurama. As you may know, Futurama is normally a pretty goofy show. This tribute, however, is very touching. Better go get some tissues before you watch.
via videosift.com
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)
The standard practice for valentine’s day in japan is a bit different from the West where usually men buy chocolate or flowers for women. It’s the exact opposite in fact. In Japan, Valentine’s day means women buy chocolate for men. Honmei choko (hon-may-cho-ko) — love chocolate — for their boyfriends and husbands and giri choko (gee-ree-cho-ko) — obligation chocolate — for their boss and coworkers. The first is somewhat optional, but the second is more or less required. Such is life for women at a Japanese company.
But this year things may be changing. I read an interesting blurb in the japantimes today about how the practice of giving tomo choko (toh-moh-cho-ko) — friendship chocolate — is increasing at the expense of love chocolate. In a survey shown in the paper, 74% of women plan to give tomo choko to a girlfriend but only 32% intend to buy anything for their boyfriend (buying for their husband isn’t mentioned).
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)
Today is the first day of Spring! …or at least it was on the old calendar. It’s still pretty cold out, –4 this morning.
Anyways, yeah, demons. Those are demon masks for dad to wear while the kids throw soybeans at him. You see, yesterday was Setsubun, more properly called Risshun. There was plenty of bean-throwing, bean-eating, demon chasing, and sushi eating to be had. Fun times for all, and hopefully good luck all around.
What is Setsubun, you ask? I wrote all about it here, so go give it a read.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)
Near my apartment there is a large area filled with rice fields. It’s a relatively peaceful and quiet area, so is fairly popular with residents as an area to “get away from the city”, or at least pretend we are getting away. When the rice plants grow up but before the rice starts coming out at the top, they look very similar to giant blades of grass and will gently sway to and fro with the wind. The overall effect of this is very pleasant and adds to the feeling of peace.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)
Once again, sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been studying Japanese pretty hard-core lately. When I get in these study modes, I try to avoid all English and unfortunately that means this blog too.
Anyways, quick update. I’ve recently been taking a lot more photos with my iphone. I’m attracted to the iphone camera because, well one, it’s always with me so it’s easy to use, and two, it’s such a crappy camera that it’s a challenge to take a decent photo, so as a result it challenges me to actually work on my composition and photography technique.
I’ve been uploading my iphone photos to a service called posterous. It’s a cool service that let’s me update the blog by email. It automatically posts anything I send it to flickr so you can see them on the photo page on this site, but you can also go directly there to see the stream. Check it out:
http://japandave.posterous.com/
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your buddies on the web. A few options below. Thank you so much :)
