Japanese traditional culture ~shouji~

 Today (31st December )is called "Oomisoka" in Japanese.
  Not so many cars are seen on the load, today.
  Most of people are taking a rest. Shops are opened
even today though.
  I would like to introduce "shouji", a paper sliding door.
Shouji is seen in the interior of Japanese stylish house.

 Look! A part of shouji is torn. Shouji is often torn like that.
Especially, if you have children, they like to tear shouji.
They never feel bad to tear it.
  This year, my father decided to repaper the shouji.

 This work is bothering. It takes a lot of time.

He washed the frame in the bath.

  Then, he stretched a Japanese paper on a frame.
This work took almost one day.
  If you have children in your house, you should not do this work every
year. Because children often tear shouji every time you make new one.

  Yoi Otoshiwo!  よいお年を！　(= Japanese greeting at the end of the year)

Thank you for reading my articles on this blog in this year.
I would like to keep writing as much as possible. Maybe I may
post once or twice a month... It's hard to find a good topic these days.^ ^ ;

Japanese lifestyle "It's winter in Japan!"

  Hello, it's been while.
I haven't forgotten to post my essay on this blog...
This blog is still alive...he, he.
  The page viewers of this blog have been counted
over 20000. Thanks for reading!
  Well, the price of vegetables is getting higher and higher
in this season. I  talked about that with my family.
  Japanese people exchange gifts, called "Oseibo" in December.
I  gave one box of Mikan(Japanese orange) to my work place.
I guess this is Japanese custom.


 I introduce what kind of Japanese foods are eaten in this season.
- Sake (Japanese alchohol)  I like the hot sake better.
- Mikan  = Japanese orange
- Nabe   = Many kinds of vegetables are put on a big pot
                 You alco put some kinds of meat on it.
- Yu dofu = Hot tofu  You can make it by putting tofu in boiled water.
- Apples
- Oysters


Now, it is very cold in my hometown.
The temperature is more than 0 degree.

Japanese food Hoshigaki (dried persimmons)

In this season, persimmons are delicious.

  There are two types of persimmons, a sweet persimmon and a sour persimmon.
 We usually eat the sweet persimmon for dessert.
  I have eaten the sour persimmon. It was not good taste.
  I had something uncomfortable in the mouth.

  We also eat the dried persimmon.
  They are so sweet. And they are expensive if you buy at the supermarket.
However, you can make the dried persimmons in your house like below.
 

  Interestingly, the sweet, dried persimmons are not made of the sweet persimmons.

The dried persimmons are made of the sour persimmons.

  The dried persimmons on the photo will be ready in about one week.

Short trip in Gunma Tomioka silk mill

 Do you know a Japanese old mill, called "Tomioka silk mill" was
registered as a world heritage in June in 2014.
  Fortunatelly, Tomioka silk mill is close to my hometown.
It takes about 90 minutes by car. Today, I introduce about it.


  About 300 years ago(in the Edo period), Japan built up nation
by exporting raw silk. Japan had to develop the quality to
catch up the world economy.
  Tomioka silk mill was established to develop the quality of
Japanese raw silk. Japanese government focused on the
industrial development to catch up European civilization.
  A French directer was invited to instruct the French high technology
of those days. A lot of women workers were engaged in the
jobs in Tomioka silk mill. The women worked so hard.
I heard that they had to work over 12 hours a day at busy season.
However, they could have educational classes besides their work.
They stayed at the dormitory near the mill. They could also
have pastime, such as singing songs, dance and so on.

  Tomioka silk mill was state-run institution. Some decades later,
it was privatized for many years. It was run around 150 years.

  Here is the dormitories for women workers.

  The news about the register as World heritage was surprising and nice for
Japanese people. Now there are thousands visitors at Tomioka.
   Before the news, there were no visitors here.



  Japanese people may be fickle. I am not sure until when this situation continues.


 

Japanese expression Osewa ni narimashita

  I would like to introduce an phrase.

That's "Osewa ni natteorimasu""Osewa ni narimashita.""Osewa sama desu".

We often use these expression on business.

  Whenever I get a phone at office, I would say this phrase.

Osewa means "take care of".(Probably)

The phrases above means like "Thank you for taking care of me (us) everyday.".

We say these phrase even we do not know the customer or the client well.

We also say these phrases not only when we speak on the phone

but when we face people.

  I think this custom tells Japanese people's way of thinking.

We are taught in the society that we can not live without other people's help.

When I use these phrases in our daily life, I do not think of the meaning deeply.

However, these phrases may have deep meanings in a background.

Thanks for reading!!

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.