Japan Blog

Special Days

Today, some of the biggest Japan's special days are imported from the West. These holidays have developed a Japanese spin to them sometimes loosing sight of the original intentions. Not to say Japan doesn't have traditional holidays - most holidays are Japanese - but these western ones have become very prominent these days.

Christmas
Although Japan has only a small Christian population. Christmas is very popular in Japan. However it is not a religious holiday nor are giving gifts an important part of the celebration. Christmas is the second biggest and most important day for couples to spend together. Oddly enough, Eating American style fried Chicken is the tradition food to eat. Why I don't know.

Valentine's Day
The biggest couples day and the biggest day to confess ones love. In Japan, the girl, not the boy, gives chocolate to confess her feelings for a guy. The chocolate is not a chocolate bar but instead more often than not it is a chocolate cookie or cake - usually hand made but can be store bought. In addition to giving chocolate to her crush, a girl will also give a number of 'polite chocolate to the male people around her. This give is not to show love but instead to show thoughtfulness and thanks. A month later is white day where the guys give the girls a gift in return, something about the same value.

Halloween
Halloween is now the biggest Cosplay day of the year. Certain places get so packed it looks like Times Square NY on New Years Eve. It is also an adult/teen celebration more than a kids day. People don't usually go trick or treating - they go hang out at key parts of the city. Some go to parties but its the huge crowed streets that attracts most people.

Summer Fireworks Omatsuri
Omatsuri festival vary in time with each place but generally there is a summer festival everywhere complete with Firework show. Probably what makes these festivals special is that many girls wear tradition Yukata kimonos. These mare the light colorful cotton kimonos that look so cute on young Japanese ladies.

Oshogatsu(New Years)
This is the most Japanese-ish holiday and the biggest one too. People spend spend the day paying their respect to bosses and mentors as well as going to the shrine/temple and pray for a safe good year ahead. In the days before new years, everything is cleaned up even the work place. On new years eve, everyone eacts special noodles called toshikoshi Soba while on New Years day, everyone eats ozoni(a mochi soup) and special bento like food called Osechiryori.

Boys day and Girls Day
Not much is done on these days yet everyone participates on them. On boys day a special Carp flag is flown at the house called a Koinobori. Also a special mochi called Kashiwa mochi is eaten. On girls day an elaborate dolls display is setup and a special Sakura Mochi is served. Beyond this, nothing special is done on these days.

Golden Week
I don't know exactly what this is but for some reason people get the week between April and May off work. A lot of people take the opportunity to go on vacation while it is a huge selling time for companies and TV. Special TV programs run during this time such as 24 hour variety programming.

Japanese Hate Smell and dirt

It could be because it's very humid which tends to heighten bad odors or a cultural development but, Japanese can't stand bad smell and dirty things. For example, when girls were asked which they prefer - a handsome guy with bad hygiene or an ugly guy with good hygiene, they all picked good hygiene. When Japanese mop the floors, they finish with wiping the floor with a rag to clean up any residue mop water - in the west they let the dirty film of water dry out; gross, I will never lie down on a western floor.

People bath everyday and before and after sex - before to make themselves presentable to their partners and after to clean themselves of varies bodily fluids( tissue paper is on stand by during sex to wipe off "stuff" after the act lol). Other clean aspects of the bathroom is people wear a special slipper when entering the bathroom, every home has a washlet and Japanese shower before they take a hot bath. Sensitivity to smell is also the reason Garlic and coriander never got popular in Japan.

Also a difference to the western world, Japanese Idea of clean means "organized and not soiled" but does not mean "matching or worn". Often a Japanese home is a hodgepodge of mismatching furniture with neat stacks of magazines conveniently placed around the living room, it's never a show room, its always looks lived in. Also, on public buildings the railings and metal poles will show a lot of rusting yet no one seems to care, no one thinks of this as dirty. At homes, the stove and burners in Japanese kitchens often show blackness in the hard to reach areas. Japanese never clean their stoves speck and span like they do in the west. surface cleanness in Japan is about hygienic so scrubbing for hours or using toxic chemicals to remove the dark polymerized oil stain is pointless. As long as it's clean and free of germs then its good, no need to be stain free in the kitchen.

Yet leave things out or disorganized or unhygienic and everyone will say "Kitanai!" - "So Dirty"!

Characteristics of a Few Japanese Regions

Hokaido:
Farthest Island North. Used to be sparsely populated by Ainu but in the last 100 years the Government has developed the area so that people from around japan have migrated there. Hence, Hokaido has a mixed population with very young culture but all the areas have Ainu names. The girls are famous for their light skin and beauty. Although known as a seafood haven, oddly, one of the most popular dishes is grilled Mutton which is called Genghis Khan. Hokaido is one iof the coldest cities on earth, yet people walk around in shorts inside their homes because gas is subsidized by the government so people keep their homes a comfortable 80F even in the coldest winters. During the short warm summers, people like to go camping at the beach for several days and have Japanese style BBQ.

Aomori:
In contrast, the closest area to Hokaido on the northern tip of the main Island of Honshu, Aomori prefecture has very old and distinct culture. The dialect has drifted to the point were other Japanese cannot understand it - to me it sounds like Korean. The people are known for their quit manner and strong resolve. They are also known to be very efficient and frugal; Often a whole sentence can be compressed to a few words, Aomori women spend the least on underwear in all of Japan.

Tokyo:
The Japanese version of New Yorker; metropolitan, a bit snobbish and cold, Tokyo people think they are the center of it all for which in many ways Tokyo is. Tokyo tends to look down on other parts of Japan so people who move to Tokyo try and hide their regional mannerism and dialect. To be found out is like everyone thinking one is a country bumpkin. Tokyo dialect and mannerism is considered proper and standard of Japan.

Kyoto:
The former capital of Japan, Kyoto is Japan's New England. Rich in traditional culture and landmarks, the people are blue blood snobbish. To the foreigner, Kyoto is famous for its Geisha but to the Japanese, Kyoto is known for its indirect communication(Tatemai). For example, "Wow, you have such pretty hair" could be interpreted as "the only thing I can complement you on is your hair". Oddly for the place most known for traditional Japanese culture, Kyoto residence eat the most bread in all of Japan.

Osaka:
This is the odd man out in Japan. Osaka tends to be "me" oriented compared to Tokyo or Kyoto, free to tell what they think and feel as well as criticize others. Osaka people are very open and joke around a lot. Tend to be more relaxed than other areas of Japan yet very hardworking and business oriented. They are known for their lack of fashion sense preferring their own style. Their food culture is wheat based instead of rice based - Osaka is the home of Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki. Osaka people feel that both Tokyo and Kyoto look down on them.

Kyushu:
This is the Texas of Japan. The people are friendly and macho and hard drinkers. Basically a blue collar culture, Kyushu people are not shy and love to argue and fight. The Kyushu dialect is one of the three main root dialects in Japan;western, eastern and Kyushu. Though not as famous around the world as Kobe and Matsusaka beef, Kyushu actually has the most Wagyu brands in all of Japan. Kyushu is home to the famous Kurobuta Berkshire pig and some of the top jidori chickens.

Okinawa:
The Hawaii of Japan. For people who live on small islands, they eat a lot of pork. Okinawans are very laid back and easy going. Where as 15 minutes late is very offensive in Tokyo, two hours late is no problem in Okinawa. Okinawa like Nagasaki is strongly Chinese influenced but the people are not of Chinese decent - they are strongly jomon heritage. Okinawa has a strong American influence do the the many decades of military bases on their islands. They use a lot of spam and have unique fusion dishes like Taco Rice.

The origin of Sushi: As I understand it.

There is too many people interested in marketing their version of Japanese history that common Japanese knowledge gets lost in the propaganda. One high profile case is sushi since its well known around the world, people are trying to link Sushi as originating from their country. So here is what I know:

Sushi actually has two origins. One is in rice balls and the other is in fermented fish. First, Japanese rice is sticky and rolling them into balls to make them handy to eat and carry as lunch has been going on for centuries. Likewise, it is common practice to put something inside or around these balls of rice like fish or pickles. One such type was sold as fast food at stalls during the samurai times. The rice ball looked very much like modern sushi but was much bigger, about a half bowl of rice per ball and the topping was cooked fish or shellfish, no raw fish was used at this period. This was a popular street food and two balls would fill a person up. The other origin of sushi is in a fermented fish dish called funazushi. Salted carp are stuffed with rice and fermented for a year in barrels. The preparation was hard work and the product took a long time to prepare so that it would be expensive and di8fficult to sell as affordable street food but one person wanted everyone to enjoy funazushi so set about trying to find a way to make a funazushi like meal that would be inexpensive and simple to prepare. He did many experiments but could not come up with a way to recreate the texture and taste of funazushi. Funazushi is like raw fish in texture like say smoked Salmon but it also has a sourness do to the fermentation. In trying to recreate the sourness, vinegar was added to the fish but this had the effect of acid cooking the fish which changed its texture. Finally a solution was found by adding vinegary to a rice ball and then placing raw fish on top in the fashion of existing rice ball meals. This was a big hit and many street stalls sold this new sushi specially near fish vendors since fresh fish was conveniently available. This ultimately evolved into the expensive high class cuisine it is today.

History of Meat Eating in Japan

This is another topic were people are trying to rewrite the history of Japan. The Wiki states Yakiniku was introduced by Koreans to Japan, Totally not true. I tried to change the Wiki but someone has a spambot like thing that re-uploads his document every hour. The Wiki is a propaganda billboard for keyboard warriors. I can only put the truth here:

Anyway, Japan has had a meat eating culture from the Jomon period. They have found evidence that they ate deer, turtle and birds. In fact Japan ate meat until Buddhism was introduced to Japan and the shogun at that time banned the eating of meat under Buddhist vegetarian principles. However, the shoguns power could reach only so far so many places that here remote from the cities and far from the sea ate meat because fish was not available and the shoguns rules were not vigorously enforced in these far away places. Also some meats were excluded from being banned because of various reasons; eggs for some reason were not considered meat. Whales were considered fish and were not banned and eating horse meat was allowed as part of a ritual. The ban on meat lasted for several hundred years so many generations grew up without every tasting meat, but when the west arrived in Japan, meat eating reemerged though not popular at the time. At the time, the forerunner to Sukiyaki was invented. After WW2, western cuisine became popular and most such dishes had chicken or pork. It is said that the inventive of Tonkatsu(Ton = pork + Katsu = Cutlet) was originally planning a BeefKatsu but gave up feeling the red meat was too 'meaty' for Japanese people and switched to pork instead. Other notable meat dishes that became popular at the time was ShabuShabu, Yakitori and Hambagu. Also, after the war, Japan began to develop their own Wagyu beef industry and in support of this industry, Yakiniku(Grill meat) Restaurant began opening up. The original Yakiniku Restaurants would have a a chef at a teppan table with customers seated around. The Chef would prepare the steaks and serve the customers. This TeppanYaki is now famous around the world even without serving Wagyu Beef.

Korean Calbi restaurants in Japan did play a part in Yakiniku history but not as the origin of meat eating. The first Calbi Restaurant opened after the war in Japan. The unique thing about the restaurant was that people cooked their own food at their table using a griddle. People at home sat around n Irori(fire pit) and cooked food but never cooked there own food at a restaurant. This was the original draw of the Calbi places since meat was virtually never ordered for the first few years - the first Calbi restaurant survived by selling fish and seafood until gradually the nation became more and more accustom to eating beef. In other words,Carbi Resturaunts did not introduce eating meat to Japan, they gained popularity as a fall out of the overall trend of meat consumption influenced by the growing popularity of western cuisine.

Today, Yakiniko places and Calbi places are virtually the same. They both want to make money so they expanded their services to include the dishes and style of the other. You can get Kimchi and bulgogi at a Yakiniku places and you can get a chef to cook you Wagyu at a Calbi place. The main difference now a days is that Yakiniku places tend to be classier joints while Caslbi places are more after work eat and drink places.

So in summary, eating meat has a long history in Japan. The practice was re-popularized do to contact with the west while the cook at table style of restaurants was introduced by Korean Calbi restaurants.