At this festival you will see seven beautifully decorated floats known as Mikurumayama. Each of the floats belongs to one of the seven local boroughs called “Yamacho,” which safely keeps and decorates the floats in their own fashion. These beautiful floats each boast in detail many of Takaoka’s brilliant and traditional craftwork such as metal smithing, lacquering and dyeing. The parade through town begins...
Some of you may know the 1985 movie about ramen called “Tampopo” by director Juzo Itami. It’s a masterpiece that was re-released for the first time in over 30 years in more than 60 theaters across the United States. There’s a scene in the movie where an elderly gourmand, whom everyone calls “sensei,” expounds on the proper way to eat a bowl of ramen....
Twenty years ago, almost nobody ordered wine in a sushi bar, and many sushi restaurants didn’t even offer it. But times have changed. Today, even in Japan, ordering wine in a sushi bar won’t garner an evil eye from the chef. More and more people are choosing to pair sushi with wine. First, there are many types of wine and many sushi toppings to...
Shoyu Ramen In Japan, the word “ramen” usually refers to this soy sauce ramen. Its soup is based on pork, chicken or vegetable soup stock with the addition of soy sauce. It has a sharp and clean flavor and is usually paired with thin or medium-thick noodles. Tokyo is considered the home of shoyu ramen, but this type of ramen is recreated all over...
The Ramen Labyrinth In Japan, it is said that when two strangers run out of things to say to each other, asking, “What’s your favorite type of ramen?” will spark a conversation for at least 30 more minutes. For instance: “I like shoyu tonkotsu, with thick niboshi soup, flat curly noodles, roast pork and extra menma!” “Well, I like mine salted, heavier on the...
Amakusa is an archipelago in Kumamoto Prefecture that’s made up of 120 or so islands, small and large, which are linked to the Kyushu mainland by The Five Bridges of Amakusa. Dolphin watching can be enjoyed al year round. When it comes to sightseeing in Kyushu, tourists tend to flock to such destinations as Hakata or the Fufuin Onsen. Amakusa is a place for...
LET’S GET LOST IN DEEP JAPAN When in Kyoto’s Gion district, step off the main tourist-filled path and you’ll find yourself in an alley dotted with restaurants behind noren, or shop curtains, that are plainly adorned only with the name of the shop. The restaurants’ interiors are not visible from the outside. These are bars, also known as Ozashiki Bars, which are uniquely Kyoto-esque...
LET’S GET LOST IN DEEP JAPAN There’s a small triangular strip of land in Tokyo’s Sangenjaya neighborhood called the Sankaku Chitai (Triangular Region). About 30 meters in radius, this labyrinthine space has many skinny alleyways packed with izakayas, bars and restaurants. Visitors to this space, which has remained untouched by development, get to travel back in time to Japan’s bar district the way it...
Even the best kitchen knives can become dull over the course of daily use. In the past, every Japanese household would have a sharpening stone at home to keep their knives sharp. These days, fewer and fewer homes have them, and when they do, they often use artificial stones. There are three kinds of sharpening stones: arato (rough sharpening stone), nakato (intermediate sharpening stone),...
In 2004, the Japan’s first cat cafe, Nekonojikan, meaning “cats’ time” in Japanese, was opened. It is located in the Tenjinbashisuji Shotengai in Osaka, the longest shopping arcade in Japan. This unique cafe is definitely for cat-lovers. The interior is just like a regular Japanese house with a cosy tatami-mat room with a kitchen next to it, but as the name suggests, there are...
