5-5-2011

Carp streamers are typical decorations seen leading up to Boys' Day (more recently called Children's Day). When the wind blows it looks like the carp are swimming upriver, which is a sign of a strong fish. Families should get a carp streamer for each boy (now, child) to hope for children to grow up strong. Many families buy new streamers every year. This is partly because new things are seen as better in Japan and partly because nobody has space to store things with such small living spaces.

Of course, like many Japanese cultural points, the celebration is rooted in Chinese culture, but the commercial aspect is purely Japanese.

3-21-2011

Happy Persian New Year! For Norooz, here is some Persian chicken to look at. Wish I could cook like this. This is at Persian Darvish in Ikebukuro.

2-15-2011

As mentioned before, the kids at the kindy I teach at are making dolls for the Doll Festival in March. These are some of the finished products. Kids' crafts are so cute, but it seems like these guys make a LOT of crafts...!

2-14-2011

Happy Valentine's Day, all! Today I'm lacking my voice and took a day off from work, which is rather annoying following a 3-day weekend.

Anyway, despite being off work I was unable to cancel my cooking class and ended up going anyway. These montblancs were fun to make, although it seems they have a lot more rum in them than I expected. Maybe I'm a little weird for not wanting to use all of the rum given to me for the recipe.

2-13-2011

In Japan on Valentine's Day, women give men chocolate. Typically it's expensive or handmade, depending on what kind of message the giver wants to send. In Japanese offices women usually pool together to give all of the men chocolates. Then on March 14th (White Day), the men are supposed to reciprocate. It's expected that the gifts returned should have a greater value than the initial gifts.

For romantic couples, gifts are given only if he reciprocates, and jewelry and other gifts can be returned. In offices it's similar to Valentine's Day but from the men.

Honestly it's confusing and strange, but the lack of romance involved can provide some insight into how Japanese observations of international holidays develop...

2-8-2011

The kids at the kindergarten I teach for are making their own dolls for the Doll Festival next month. With any luck I'll be able to get photos of the finished products too.

EDIT: Indeed, I got a photo!

1-13-2011

While Christmas is long over, I couldn't help but post this when I found it in my files to be sorted.  One of the department stores (Lumine) had the strangest Christmas decor I've ever seen.  How this says Christmas instead of Victorian child nightmare, I dunno.

1-1-2011

Happy New Year!

For New Year, we went to the Gyokusendo caves and Okinawa World.  Inside was a theme park based on Okinawan culture, tweaked a bit for tourists' tastes.  In a place like that it's to be expected.  Still, since it's open every day of the year we were able to do some New Year crafts, like painting our own shisa.

Can you guess which one is mine?  I'll give you a hint: It's not the one with the moustache.

12-25-2010

While I've shown it before, Christmas cake is something I couldn't skip taking a photo of on Christmas.  Plus, it's a lot more photogenic than the McDonald's chicken we had...

This came together in about 20 minutes, including whipping the cream (though I had help with that while I washed and cut the strawberries.

The powdered sugar is the most snow I will see this year.   (-_-);

12-24-2010

Maid cafés are a very well-known eccentricity in Japan. Young women dress as maids and cater to customers' whims. While my friend was visiting from the US, we decided to go to one in my neighborhood. We ordered the "Maid's Choice" dessert and this came to the table.  Later when I ordered tea to go with it the maid stirred the cream and sugar in for me while having us all make cute stirring sounds.

You're not allowed to take photos of the maids unless you pay for the in-house polaroids or the printed headshots sold at the register, but you can take all the photos of your food as you want once you warn them that you'll be taking photos of the food, and the maids will take your picture with your food if you ask (of course, they may ask you if you want one--they are supposed to be maids, after all).

12-18-2010

In Kita-Senju station, there was a tree of stuffed animals.  I don't remember where the stuffed animals came from or why, but I suspect it had something to do with the fabric stand that was nearby, selling fabric swatches and make-your-own-stuffed-animal kits.

12-16-2010

For a country that doesn't know anything about Christmas, there sure are a lot of Christmas trees here.  Pretty ones too.

12-12-2010

This mochi is a special style kept on a shrine at New Year called kagami mochi (鏡餅). Typically a bitter orange is put on top to finish the presentation.  The bitter orange, called daidai (橙,) is believed to promote long life because it also means "several generations."

These are storebought versions; homemade ones are two rice cakes stacked on top of each other instead of the tiered mold.  The commercial versions add decoration to make up for the processing, perhaps.

12-9-2010

Christmas cake is wildly popular in Japan.  While not something I'd ever heard of at home, I'm a mild fan of it now too.  For most Japanese people, Christmas cake is ordered in advance and picked up on Christmas Eve, along with fried chicken ordered from the local KFC, Mos Burger or other fast food joint or grocery store.

Here are some Christmas cakes in a variety of shapes, flavors and sizes.

11-27-2010

Finally put up my Christmas tree today.  Got a new 90cm tree instead of the 30cm one I had and sprung for pink and silver decorations since I've always wanted a monochromatic tree.  Pink is my color of choice lately, plus purple decorations are harder to find.

11-25-2010

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans out there.

A friend requested I post photos of things I make. Today I went to a model lesson at a cooking school near my work. This was the resulting Christmas cake. The shiny sides are the plastic form that will mold the cream as it sets.

The lesson was fun and I plan to sign up so expect to see more Sprytely creations.

11-3-2010

Christmas starts early in Japan.  Nobody knows or cares about American Thanksgiving so the Halloween decorations are torn down around noon (or before!) on October 31st and the Christmas decorations go up, the Christmas music starts, and the biggest commercial push of the year begins.

Keep in mind the way Christmas is celebrated in Japan is essentially the way Valentine's Day is done in the US, so despite all the music and push, it's a romantic holiday.  It's also technically celebrated on December 24th, with cake and expensive gifts.  You'll find the Christmas decorations torn down and tossed to the curb as early as midnight on Christmas Eve, replaced by New Year.  Why?  You might say it's because New Year is the biggest holiday in Japanese culture.  I suspect is has more to do with milking Christmas and then milking New Year.  Buy! Buy! Buy! Sell! Sell! Sell!

Merry Consumermas, everyone.

10-30-2010

The idea of Halloween in Japan is skewed towards the cute and spooky is usually left behind.  Once in a while there's something that resembles Halloween as Americans know it.  For some reason it usually happens in shopping centers.  Lots of kids were playing with the buttons in the tree's mouth so it took a while to get this photo.

8-21-2010

In a moment of super-awesomeness my Nikon was left at home and the bag I carried was not my usual one so the Tamagawa fireworks photos I have were all taken with my phone.  Well then.  Not too bad for a 3MP camera.

8-4-2010

Festivals are quite popular in Japan.  During the summer season lanterns like these are hung, painted with the sponsors of the local festival.  The summer festival is usually the Bon Odori, or the Bon Dance.  A group dances around a platform while taiko drummers beat out the rhythm.