This post tells you about early summer & summer(July- early August). We had been in the rainy season called “Tsuyu” in June and July, which is followed by summer in Japan. In this season we tend to get health troubles because of the temperature difference in a day or a couple of days. I catch … [Read more…]
On 3rd April, we hold the doll festival calledHina-matsuri (click ★ to get more information about Hina-matsuri, I wrote about that last year). I had displayed Ohinasama doll for a month from 3 march to 3 April, and today put it back in a closet. Now Sakura(cherry blossom) season is coming in Japan! I think … [Read more…]
In the old Japanese calendar, February 1 is the first day of spring. It is actually very cold in February, the most cold month through a year here. We do Setsubun event on the day, and throw beans wishing happiness and health. At a Japanese food restaurant around the day, you may see the dish … [Read more…]
New year holidays is the most important for Japanese people. And it is not “holidays” for Japanese housewives. They have to clean up everywhere in a house including a bathroom or a washstand and a toilet or a kitchen sink. A good husband or children will help them to wipe lampshades and shelves or wash … [Read more…]
My husband takes a lunch packed in a lunchbox to his office every day. This is called “bento” or “o-bento” and making bento is one of works of many Japanese housewives. We make side dishes can last at least half a day. The simplest bento is “onigiri” or “omusubi.” Onigiri is a rice … [Read more…]
“Sushi” is one of the best known Japanese foods in the world. The word “sushi” might reminds you of nigiri-zushi, a rice ball with sashimi. Actually Japanese culture has a various kinds of sushi, like chirashi-zushi, inari-zushi, maki-zushi, oshi-zushi, nare-zushi and so on. Chirashi-zushi is a very familiar “sushi” to me as a special … [Read more…]
On 15th January I removed shimenawa and chopped kagamiochi. It was the last event of a set of events to celebrate the new year. In some areas of Japan they call 15 (in other areas 7) days of the new year matsu-no-uchi which means days people put kado-matsu at a gate or a door of a … [Read more…]
Yesterday I made zouni for breakfast. We have zouni for a breakfast on New Year’s Day in Japan using mochi(rice cake) which we made near the end of last year.(→mochitsuki) Zouni is soup with mochi(rice cake), its ingridients and seasoning vary from region to region and home to home. I made zouni with Japanese white … [Read more…]
In Japan from January 1st to 3rd are days of New year and many people enjoy holidays having osechi(special food for New Year’s Day) and Japanese sake with their family and relatives in those days. In Japan 15 days from January 1st are called “matsu-no-uchi” and we hold some events for those days. Today, … [Read more…]
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…]