Yesterday I made mochi(rice cake) for New Year’s Day. The process of making rice cake is called mochitsuki in Japanese. I use a mochitsuki machine to steam glutinous rice(rice for rice cake) and pound it. On the other hand, some people especially in local area make mochi all by hand using a usu and a kine which … [Read more…]
Are you enjoying the holiday season? For Japanese housewives, winter holiday season is NOT holidays!! That is most busy days for us. Because a set of New Year events are the one of most important seasonal events in Japan. We clean a house(we clean everything in a house. For example, clean bathroom, wipe windows, wipe … [Read more…]
Ikebana for winter holiday season. But for many Japanese it’s working day except for around New Year’s Day… Later I arranged those flowers in two vases.
Tomesode is a full dress for a married female. In the photo, the bride wears white kimono, and her mother wears black one(tomesode). According one explanation, coloring means that a parson is influenced by others. So a bride wears a white kimono which has no color, and after being married she wears a black one … [Read more…]
Day2 1 Fried Japanese scallop, bacon, and enoki mushroom with butter. 2 Taimeshi 3 Roast beef 4 miso-soup Rice is the staple food in Japan. So we use a rice cooker almost everyday. By using a Japanese rice cooker, you can make roast beef very easily. I use that to steam beef after roasted it … [Read more…]
Have you ever been Japan in Autumn? I recommend you to come Japan in Autumn for your first visit. Because a fallen maple leave may tell you aesthetic sense of Japanese. Autumn is also the best season for a lot of ingredients. My favorite autumn foods are chestnuts, a pacific saury, and Japanese persimmon! Ingredients … [Read more…]
Loosestrife is called “Toranoo” in Japan. It means a tail of a tiger. Nyagoo also has a tail is interested in Toranoo.(^^)
In Japan autumn is good for dry and air kimono(Japanese traditional cloth) to protect it from mold and insects. High quality kimono is made of silk. Silk is not appropriate to be washed often, and vulnerable to mold and insects. So people put kimono in special drawers(→drawers for kimono) and dry it regurally in … [Read more…]
In a Japanese traditional style room you can see a vacant space like a built-in closet without doors. This space is called Tokonoma, and the floor is higher than other area of a room. Tokonoma has hanging partition wall, so it can be called alcobe in English. We display flowers or art objects matches with … [Read more…]
“Tako” means “octopus” and we cook this seafood in various ways like sashimi, tempra, and boiled octopus. Takoyaki is originally a local food in Osaka and now a very popular light meal in Japan. I often have it as a lunch or a snack. We can get ingredients of takoyaki cheaply. Flour(I use blended … [Read more…]