Thursday, April 27, 2017

Japan (Very Japanese) April 2017


Very Japanese - lah ! For this Central Honshu package tour, our tour members had the opportunities to experience, see or taste the following in a typical Japanese lifestyle environment. 

So as soon as you land in Japan, forget about eating durians but try the Natto widely eaten as a Japanese style breakfast food; while sleeping, snore as loud as possible in a Japanese Tatami room as the room is well partitioned; replace your latest fashion wear with a Yutaka for dinners at the hotels you stay; try your luck in a Pachinko parlor holding a muesli bar to give you the extra energy; bare all your body & soul for a few rounds of Onsen baths in the open air; wake up early and take a morning stroll at a Japanese garden to admire the Sakura trees in full blooms; try to spot a bird nest if you are walking towards a Torii; using super thin toilet papers after performing your natural duty inside the Cosmetic Room ! In Rome do as the Romans do. So have fun when you show up in the Land of the Rising Sun ! If you have not been to Japan, start dreaming now ... you will never get dull when touring Japan !

1) A Torii - literally means Bird Abode, a traditional Japanese Gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine ....


2) Sakura - a cherry blossom is commonly known in Japan as Sakura is the flower of any of several trees of genus Prunus, particularly the Japanese cherry Prunus Serrellata ....



3) Cosmetic Rooms - is also known as a restrooms, washrooms or toilets in Japan, clean & neat - so bring along your IPad and enjoy every moment of your time in a cozy Japanese "Cosmetic Room". You will be in Cloud 9 after each visit ....


4) Onsen - is a Japanese Hotspring and the bathing facilities and inns frequently situated around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of Onsens scattered throughout its many islands. What will happen if you are in a midst of having an Onsen bath with a towel on your head and all of a sudden, an earthquake with a Reiter scale of 6.8 strikes in the city where you are visiting - bet you, I will go for a Tsunami run for my life, never mind with a bare body covering with an Onsen towel .... 


5) Natto - is a traditionally Japanese food made from soya beans fermented with Bacillus Subtils var. natto. Some eat it as a breakfast food. It is served with soy sauce, karashi mustard & Japanese bunching onions. Natto has a powerful smell and like eating our durians, you either like it or you hate it ....



6) Tatami - A Tatami is a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese style rooms. Traditionally made using rice straws to form the core, the cores of contemporary tatami are sometimes composed of compressed wood chip boards or polystyrene. Tourists have the opportunities to stay in a tatami room at a Ryokan, Minshuku or temple lodging. Footwear or even slippers should be removed before stepping onto tatami .....


7) Pachinko - is a type of mechanical game originating in Japan and is used as both a form of recreational arcade game & much more frequently as a gambling device, filling a Japanese gambling niche comparable to that of the slot machines in western gambling ...

 
8) Yutaka - literally means "bathing cloth" and it was originally intended to be just that. Yutaka is a casual version of the Kimono. It is a robe usually made of cotton or synthetic fabric, wrapped around the body & fastened with a sash (Obi). Hotels with Onsen facilities have few sets of Yutaka in the wardrobes provided to hotel guests for use during dining & Onsen ....

A fake Japanese couple !

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