Japanese manner Enryo えんりょ

  Today, I introduce "Enryo", the manner which may be unique to
Japanese culture.
  In my opinion, there could be many English translations of the
concept. So, I may not be able to tell the accurate meaning of "Enryo".


I show you an example.

  Last Friday, I  went to old woman's house with a lawyer
on business. I did office work of the contract for sale of real estates. 
After the business, we received the fee of the work.
Furthermore, our client gave us additional fee.
I did not expect the additional fee. Because the amount of
expense charge has been already decided.
 I hesitated to get the additional fee.
 I actually, I said, no, no, no....

   I think my behavior came from the feeling of "Enryo".
 In our daily life, I sometimes see such scenes.
 On Japanese manner, we reject people's kindness once.
That behavior has the meaning of modesty in our culture.


  In this scene, even I say "no", it does not mean
"I don't like it.".
  In my opinion, people behave like that
 because  they think they do not deserve to receive such kindness or praise.

  I do not know well about other cultures.
  Do you sometimes see these scenes in your culture?

Japanese food Jizake 地酒

  You may be interested in Japanese alcohol.
I introduce Japanese sake today.
  Sake is the traditional Japanese alcohol.
  It is transparent, like water. Usually, the alcoholicity is
about 15. I got drunken if I have 300 ml.
  Sake is made from rice. It is said that you get fat
if you drink sake too much. As you know, we 
eat rice as the principal food. Our lifestyle is connected with
rice.
  In Japan, there are many kinds of bland of sake.
  People can harvest in every region in Japan.
There are a lot of  breweries in Japan.
  The taste of sake depends on the quality of water.
The sake breweries use a lot of water when they make sake.
It the water is soft water, the taste becomes more soft and sweet.
On the other hand, if the water is hard water, the taste becomes
more dry.
  We call the bland of sake in each region "Jizake".
Maybe there are thousand of Jizake in Japan.
  One of my favorite things is to try the Jizake.

Shor trip in Nasu and Fukushima part 2 Fukushima

  Ramen is getting popular in the foreign countries.
This ramen, called Kitakata ramen, is one of the ramen brands.
  One of the purpose of the trip was to eat this ramen.

  Here is the wine celler. They are producing sake, Japanese alcohol.

This is a marsh.
This area is called "Urabandai". There is a big National park.

Short trip in Nasu and Fukushima Part 1 Nasu

  I am in the summer vacation.
I made a trip to Nasu and Fukushima.
Nasu is lacated in the north of Tochigi prefecture.
It is known as a resort in Japan.
 

                                                          The organic food.                                                            

Here is Oouchijuku. There are some old stylish houses.

Japanese lifestyle Karaoke

  Karaoke is made in Japan.
  If you come to Japan, you can find many karaoke bar in the city.
  I went to a karaoke bar in my hometown.

   We was in 1.5 hours in the room. It was 2500 yen.

 Karaoke is one of the popular leisure in Japan.

   We go to Karaoke to get rid of the stresses.

   Japanese people like to go to Karaoke bar with friends or family.

Japanese traditional culture

  Today, I introduce a custom when you go to someone's funeral.
You scatter salt on your body before you enter your home.
The meaning of this act is that you purify your body by
doing so.
  The mourner need to prepare salt packed in a package for the
attendants. When people die, we usually do two different kinds of
funeral. Otsuya and Osousiki(funeral).
  I  can not translate otsuya because the custom is unique
in Japanese culture.
  In Japanese culture, salt is used to purify something.
  For example, you can see Sumo wrestlers scatter salt
at the sumo wrestling ring before the battle.
  That has the meaning of purifying the ring before the battle.
  Sumo is a Japanese national sport. And sumo used to connected
with religious thing in early age.

Japanese lifestyle Taue

  In my hometown, it is the season of  rice-planting.
As you see on the photo, water is put into the irrigated rice fields.

  The landscape is nice, isn't it?
  You see a lot of tadpoles in the field. And you can listen to the
songs sung by a lot of frogs at midnight.
  You can not experience these things in Tokyo.
  You have to stay in country side.
  I hear many foreign people like here, Gunma prefecture because
we can see a lot of good scenery of nature.