I will not take my PC with me , so I will upload my blog again after this vacation.
Take care and have a good day! Gokigenyo!
I will not take my PC with me , so I will upload my blog again after this vacation.
Take care and have a good day! Gokigenyo!
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How are you? It has been boiling hot recently in Japan, but it is right in the middle of obon festival .
Obon, observed around the fifteenth of August, is the home coming time for the souls of ancestors, according to the teaching of Buddhists.
Families get together to receive their honored guests, prepare special offerings and food, get the priest recite Buddha’s teachings, and visit tombs.
On the eve( around on Aug. 13 th), families build small fire outside the door to help the ancestors find their home, and the same would be done on the day after to light their way back to the other world ( around on Aug. 16th morning). It said, the ancestors come back home riding the hoses, and go back to their world riding cattle. Do you know why? They drive horses because they want to go home as soon as possible, but they drive not horses but cattle because they do not back their world, and they want to stay home as long as possible…
traditional cucumber horse and eggplant cattle which each family make them by hand and modern ones which are sold in stores…
In Kyoto, they build gigantic bonfire on the hillside of five mountains surrounding the city.Each of the five mountains arrange the fire to form its special sign.
The mountains on east and west do it in the shape of Dai in Japanese ( therefore, it is usually called ” Dai-mon-ji-yaki“; means the fire shaped “Dai”), which means “big” while the three others are designed in their traditional form.
In the evenings, many local communities invite people to join dance “Bon-Odori” , for which people dance making a big circle, with Japanese flute, dram, or other instrument and singers chanting local tones.
gokigenyo!
Posted in Japanese culture & customs, Uncategorized | Tagged bon festival, buddhists, daimonnji, japan, kyoto, o-bon | Leave a Comment »
Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the 68rd anniversary of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the cities.
The atomic bombs code-named Little boy dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6th, and code-name Fat man was dropped on Nagasaki city on Aug. 9th.
Today Aug. 9th is the day of the Nagasaki…it was 11:02 AM. More than 74,000 people were killed, and more than 75,000 people were injured.
There was a memorial service today. About 5,600 people attended. Among them there were representatives of 48 countries from the world too. At 11:02 AM they offered a silent prayer for the dead.
The other day at the ceremony in Hiroshima, some 50,000 people attended this year’s ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park. Among them there were representatives of 70 countries from the world too…The centre of the blast was displaced 490 feet (150 m) horizontally and 1,968 feet (600 m) vertically from the dome, having slightly missed the original target. The Hiroshima peace memorial Dome was 160 meters from the hypocenter of the atomic blast. Everyone inside the building was killed instantly….now, it is a symbol of a prayer for a peaceful world in which there are no nuclear weapons….
Posted in Japanese culture & customs, Uncategorized | Tagged atomic bombing, hiroshima, nagasaki, no nuclear weapon, peace memorial ceremony | 3 Comments »
Tomato has antioxidative effect. Hot ingredients( especially Szechwan pepper in this recipe!) helps to beat the summer heat!
Szechwan pepper
Ingredients( about 4 portions)
Momen tofu…about 300g
Beef ground with pork meat( just beef grand is also OK)…200g
Tomatos..2
A:Green onion (chop into small size)….2 Tbsp
A:Garlic (chop into small size)…2 cloves of
A:Ginger (chop into small size)…a clove of
A:Chinese fermented black beans ( chop into small size )…2 tbs
B:Cayenne pepper…1 tbs
B:Chili bean sauce…1 Tbsp
B:Sweetened soybean paste (tianmenjiang)…1 Tbsp
Chicken soup (chicken stock)…180cc( 3/4 cup)
Potato starch( thick stock)…dissolved in water…appropriate
Szechwan pepper…appropriate
Sesame oil…1 Tbsp
How to make:
1, dry tofu, cut into 1.5cm( about 1/2 inch) slices. Mince all A ingredients. Slice tomatoes into wedges.
2, heat sesame oil in a frying pan, add all A and B ingredients, stir fry them to avoid scorching them until there is pleasant aroma.
3, add minced meat, stir fry until browned, pour chicken soup to a pan.
4, when it begin to boil, add tofu, then heat them for about 3minutes.
5, add tomatoes, heat them for about 1minutes, them pour dissolved starch over, toss them.
6, turn the heat up to high, sweat for a while. Place them on a dish, then sprinkle Szechwan pepper ( and green onion as you like ) over them.
That’s all! try it! Itadakimasu ! & Gochisousama!
Posted in Japanese food, Tofu, Uncategorized | Tagged air conditioning disease, antioxidative effect, beat to the summer heat, herbal medicine dish, tofu with vegetable in brown hot sauce | Leave a Comment »
Hi, it is also muggy here japan…how are you all?
I went the tea ceremony in the last weekend. The time that I spend at the ceremony always give me bracing feeling…I hope you can feel this atmosphere someday…
Anyway, the meaning of the hanging scroll is “The ordinary mind is the way”, Zen terminology (Zen word).
In the summer ceremony, a leaf of paper mulberry is sometimes used in place of the formal lid of a water container, for the cool looking.
Today’s confectioneries: shaped morning glory. Also other dried confectioneries; shaped stream of water, shell, and like Japanese rice cracker made from wheat gluten. Gokigenyo!
Posted in Desserts, Snacks, Japanese food, The Tea Ceremony, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Have you ever eaten japanese confectionery DANGO?
We have many kinds of tastes in sweet DANGO, but the most popular one is “Mitarashi” flavor…using soy sauce and sugar…it is very japanese taste!
I think Japanese sweets store never use tofu in making the mitarashi DANGO, but I made it. This sweet tofu DANGO is as good as normal DANGO, so try it!
Ingredients ( about 24 balls):
gultainous rice flour…120g
rice flour…80g
silken tofu…250-280g
A:soy sauce…30cc( 1oz)
A:sugar…80g
A:water…100cc
A:sweet sake “mirin”( if you can get it )…1Tbsp
A:potato starch…1Tbsp
How to make:
1, In a bawl, mix the flour and 250g of tofu well until the dough becomes as soft as an earlobe. When it is still hard, add tofu more little by little.
2, divide the dough into small pieces of the same size, and form them into shapes of small balls.
3, heat water in a pan and add the balls when it is at a boil. After adding the balls, stir the pan and wait until they float. When all the balls have floated, boil 2 minutes more to make sure, then remove them from the pan and cool them in cold water in a very short time, and drain them immediately.
4, make sauce( we call it “ mitarashi-sauce” in Japanese); mix all A ingredients in a small pan, heat it on a low heat until a little boiled.
5, pour the sauce over DANGO. If you would like, you should brown DANGO a little in a frying pan before poring the sauce over them.
Posted in Desserts, Snacks, Japanese food, Tofu | Tagged japanese confectionery, japanese sweets, silken tofu, sweet tofu | Leave a Comment »
Have you seen or eaten the turban shell in your life?
I think perhaps most of non-japanese people say “ no”.
However, we some of Japanese love it( unfortunately, some japanese don’t like it, ha-ha), especially when it is grilled with soy sauce, the dish name is “sazaee(turban shell) tsubo-yaki” in Japanese.
We can eat it in all seasons, but eating this seafood meal in summer with beer tastes especially good. It looks a bizarre food? Don’t say that, please try it when you come to Japan!
This is a raw turban shell…
When the turban shells are grilled near the sea… wow!
inside of it….? What until you actually see it! ha-ha!
itadakimashu! & gochisousama!
Posted in Japanese culture & customs, Japanese food, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
As I have wrote before, Japanese often eat light and plain food like somen nudle in summer for the muggy weather of japan.
About somen, click here!
However, just only somen, we get protein shortage easily, so we need to pay attention to the nutritional balance.
Then, I made this somen; healthy and high nutririon values!
Ingredients( for 2 portions):
Chicken meat(breast or thigh)…about 150g
Your favorite vegetables( I used eggplant, pumpkin, sweet potato, lotus root, and perilla( Japanese herb like basils))…total amount about 200g
Salt…a dash of
Sesame oil…1Tbsp
Potato starch…1Tbsp
Sauce:
Noodle soup
Citron fruit…1 fruit
How to make:
1, cut into slivers the meat into bite-size pieces, then lightly salted and sprinkle potato starch. Cut all vegetables except perilla into bite-size pieces( about 5mm thin), submerge in cold water to eliminate bitterness and drain them.Cut the citron fruit in round slices.
2, grille the chicken with sesame oil on medium heat, skin side firstly, then turn over until both sides get brown and cooked completely.
After cooked the chicken, pour off the oil, and while still hot, put them into a sauce container.
3, cook vegetables(except perilla) same as chicken.
4, leave them to cool for 10 minutes( add lemon slices to them), then cover it with plastic wrap. Cool it in the refrigerator until right before eating.
5, boil somen and cool it with cold water, drain. Arrange the somen, marinade vegetables in the plate. Arrange perilla on them , Then, pour the marinade sauce over them.
That’s all!
itadakimashu! & gochisousama!
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The meaning of the hanging scroll is the letters of ‘A Song made by Li Po.
The text of it sounds cool, and it is perfect for summer, don’t you think so?
“The Cataract in view ” by Li Po
Posted in Desserts, Snacks, The Tea Ceremony, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »