Japanese food

    The typical Japanese meal consists of a bowl of rice, a bowl of miso soup, pickled vegetables and fish or meat. While rice is the staple food, several kinds of noodles are cheap and very popular for light meals. As an island nation, the Japanese take great pride in their seafood. A wide variety of fish, squid, octopus, eel, and shellfish appear in all kinds of dishes from sushi to tempura. Green tea is the national beverage of Japan, although black tea is also available. Sake and beer are also very popular.

    Two uniquely Japanese foods are sushi (fresh raw seafood with rice) and sashimi (fresh raw seafood with soy sauce); both rely on fleshly caught fish or seafood. Each region has its own selection of favourite foods. People living on the cold northern island of Hokkaido enjoy potatoes, corn and barbecued meats. Foods in western Japan tend to be more delicately flavored than those in the east.
    The Japanese are known for using very fresh ingredients in their cooking. They prefer using fresh, seasonal foods for their meals, buying it the same day it will be cooked. The Japanese are also famous for their skill in arranging food so that it looks beautiful. The people of Japan live long lives and have a low rate of heart disease because of healthy eating habits.

Japanese Cuisine

SUSHI

In this video you can see a tipical japanese restaurant and how they make the sushi.

TEMPURA

Tempura is a tipical japanese food and here you can see how easy is its elaboration.

ONIGRI(Japanese rice balls)

This video shows how to make onigri.

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JAPAN

The Geisha of Japan

    The Geisha is a symbol of Japan's culture and tradition. Many people mistakenly think that Geisha are prostitures. High-class courtesans known as the oiran in the Edo period could be confused with Geisha as they had similar makeup and hairstyles. While it's true that Geisha partly grew out of the oiran,genuine Geisha are not courtesans. They are employed for their skills in traditional Japanese musical instruments, dancing,singing,. tea ceremonies, and literature.
    Makeup and clothing is very important to a Geisha. They use a thick white compound for their face paint. Geisha always paint their lips vivid red. Eyebrowns are lined in red and black. They wear traditional kimonos depending on the season. When they go out, Geisha wear flat soled-sandals or clogs called getas.

    To become a Geisha, a girl undergoes training which usually begins around the time she turns 16. She moves into a Geisha house and goes through various "stages" of training. First, she is a shikomi, then a minarai. As she progresses, she becomes a maiiko and finally, a full Geisha. This typically takes about six years.
    Geisha training is very complex. The girls must learn how to dance and speak, entertain a room of customers, dress perfectly, and how to perform elaborate ceremonies perfectly.

Kimono

    The kimono is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men,women and children. Kimono are T-shaped, straight-lined robes worn so that the hem  falls to the ankle, with attached collars and long, wide sleeves. Kimono are wrapped around the body, always with the left side over the right and secured by a sash called an an obi,wich is tied at the back. Kimono are generally worn with traditional footwear and split-toe socks.

    There are differents types of kimono for different occasions and seasons, including those worn by men. Other than those worn daily by some older people or performers of traditional arts, kimono are a much less common sight these days but are still widely worn on special occasions such as weddings and graduation ceremonies. Part of the reason is the cost, as a decent silk kimono will set you back the best part of a million yen.
    Traditionally, the art of putting on a kimono was passed from mother to daugther but these days special schools can do brisk business imparting the necessary techniques.

Discover Japan

                     JAPAN

An archipielago in the Pacific, Japan is separated from the east coast of Asia by the Sea of Japan. Japan's four main islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku.

The capital of Japan is Tokyo. Other large cities are Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya.

The monetary unit is the yen and the emperor is Akihito.

Japan is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government. The prime minister is Yoshihiko Noda.

Legend attributes the creation of Japan to the sun goddes, from who the emperors where descended.The first of them was Jimmu, supposed to have ascended the throne in 660 B.C. Japanese history begins in approximately A.D. 400, when the Yamato clan managed to gain control of other family groups in central and western Japan. Contact with Korea introduced Buddhism to Japan at about this time. Through the 700s Japan was much influenced by China, and the Yamato clan set up an imperial court similar to that of China. In the ensuing centuries, the authority of the imperial court was undermined as powerful gentry families vied for control. At the same time, warrior clans were rising to prominence as a distinct class know as samurai. In 1192, the Minamoto clan set up a military government under their leader, Yorimoto. He was designated shogun (military dictator). For the following 700 years, shoguns from a succession of clans ruled in Japan, while the imperial court existed in relative obscurity.

First contact with the West came in about 1542, when a Portuguese ship off course arrived in Japanese waters. Portuguese traders, Jesuit missionaries, and Spanish, Dutch and English traders followerd. Suspicious of Christianity and of Portuguese support of a local Japanese revolt, the shoguns of the Tokugawa period prohibited all trade with foreign countries; only a Dutch trading post at Nagasaki was permitted. Western attempts to renew trading relations failed until 1853, when Commodore Mathew Perry sailed an American fleet into Tokyo Bay. Trade with the West was forced upon Japan under terms less than favorable to the Japanese. Strife caused by these actions brought down the feudal world of the shoguns. In 1868, the emperor Meji came to the throne, and the shogun system was abolished.