My Easter Holidays in Japan

My Easter Holidays 2010 were the 3rd that I've spent outside Poland.
Each of those 3 times I was missing the part of my family that was not with me but on the other hand it was also great experience to try and discover new things.

This year, I've spent Easter Sunday with Daniel at hanami, which is a Japanese kind of spring picnic and it's main aim is to admire the Sakura - Cherry Blossom. At the time of Sakura, Japanese people gather in the parks, bring loads of food and drinks, blankets, music instruments, cameras and enjoy their hanamis.

Probably, the most spectacular and enjoyable parts of Easter Holidays in Poland are egg painting and Easter bunny's presents. And that's a part of things that appeared on that day.
Accidentally, just before going to the Meijo Kohen park in Nagoya, we got toys from gashapon machines - vending machines distributing toys in plastic balls, capsules. As soon as we got them we thought that it's a funny Easter coincidence that they resemble eggs.

We waited with opening them until getting to the park. It turned out that Daniel's capsule was hiding stickers with different kinds of beetles (not the Beatles!), while my toy was a kind of keyring, which after pushing the button sounds more less like "Ai shiteruyo baby" (jap. "I love you baby").
In the park, we did egg painting. Actually Daniel did most of the job but my cherry blossom egg pattern also wasn't bad. I should mention here, that originally the eggs that I bought were called Onsen Eggs and we didn't realize what does it mean. After making a small research I discovered that there is a special recipe for Onsen Tamago - Hot Spring Egg.

During our Easter Hanami we've tried some new food.
The most interesting looking one, was a roll with some green tea dough on the top of it. It was rather sweet and tasted great with chocolate bunny.

Another thing was Strawberry Pocky. To describe it I should use a comparison with something that exists in Poland and usually goes with a beer as a snack - słone paluszki (pol. salt fingers/sticks). Both of them, Polish salty and Japanese sweet version, are sticks made of crunchy dough. Japanese ones, are covered with different flavours such as: chocolate, banana, strawberry and many more. Yummmyyy!!!
By the way, did you notice unbelievable Japanese packaging??? The box contains 12 sticks and each 3 of them are wrapped separately!

Last but not least, Takoyaki - the dish which was worth waiting in a queue for a while. As you may see, or not, it is baked and round shaped, served few pieces in a little wooden boat. Each of those round pieces contains butter, dough, vegetables, mayonnaise and a piece of octopus. The most funny part of it are the flakes called aonori, which cover the dish from the top. You may believe or not but, as long as the dish is warm, the flakes are moving. It gives an impression as if your dish was alive!

If you'd like to find out how do the Easter celebrations in Japan look like, check out Daniel San's last year post about his visit in Japanese and Korean churches.

Flea Market in Osu Kannon

Osu Kannon area in Nagoya is full of contrasts, named after the Osu Kannon temple nowadays, it reminds more of a shopping district than a sacred place. On the 18th and 28th of each month, a flea market is being held in front of the Osu Kanonn temple. Last weekend Daniel and I hanged around it for a while.

From what I`ve noticed, people are divided into those that like, or actually know how to do shopping in flea markets, and into those who would never buy anything there. At least that`s how it is in Europe. It might also seem that all flea markets in the world are very similar. The things that can be found there are the same kind of stuff - clothes, furniture, electronics, toys, paintings, coins, records, military stuff. Maybe it is not just me but I think that except a shopping place, they can be also treated as a great interactive museums.

In European flea markets, seeing pieces of armor from the II World War reminds me of people who were brave, who were fighting and who, in most of the cases, died because of that. However, when I saw a Japanese samurai helmet or a wig that probably belonged to some geisha a long long time ago, it made me stop thinking about samurais and geishas as of fairytale characters.

And so the things that used to present a great value, are unwanted and very often not only nobody wants them, but also nobody finds them usefull anymore. Flea markets do not show the fake history as it usually is in case of films, books or museums. They show it as it really was, remind about how everything passes and prove that one day even somebody`s most favorite tea cup will become nobody`s favorite.

Place from outer space

Manga Kissa can be simply translated from Japanese into English as Comic Cafe, so a place where people go to read manga (japanese comic) and have a coffee. In reality, it is much more than anybody who have not been there could ever imagine!

Before, I`ve heard about manga kissa from Daniel San who is a big fan of manga. I was sure that it must be some kind of library with soft drinks and icecream for free and additionally with a computer access. It turned out to be partly true. There were many bookshelves but not only...

After entering a rather large supermarket size building, Daniel and I stopped at the reception. The first awesome thing was that, while boys need to pay 399 yen to enter, for girls it is just 100 yen (1$) per hour. We have asked for a place with 2 seats - the other possibilities were single seat room or 3-seat room. Each of such rooms is very small but equipped with computer and internet access , TV, headphones for each person and lamps.

Among all those goods, my personal no. 1 is unlimited access to soft and hot drinks, as well as icecream. I should mention here, that average price of coffee in Japan is 250 yen so receiving as much coffee as somebody wants after paying 100 yen (in case od girls) is unbelievable! What is more, it is also possible to buy some food in vending machines, such as instant noodles, for a relatively low price.

Last but not least, additional surprises are access to showers and each guests` own safe for valuables.

It is still not enough to say that, Manga Kissa is a mix of internet cafe, a very cool library (if somebody knows how to read in Japanese) and a spot where even a person who missed their last train home or a desperate budget traveller can find a place to rest or even sleep - showers included! To such European girl as me, it gives a feeling of a café from an outer space.

Sakura in the rain

Cherry blossom, in Japanese called Sakura, is a symbol of spring somehow and a perfect reason for celebrating all around Japan.

This year in Nagoya, the first cherry trees` flowers, showed up 1 day before my arrival to Japan, on the 18th of March. For comparison, first flowers in Tokyo appeared 4 days later, on the 22nd.
Special sakura forecasts infom about each regions best time for admiring those flowers. It didn`t start in Nagoya yet... but it already looks beautiful. Even in the rain!

Everything for 100 yen

Have you ever visited the so called "1 pound" shop in England?
If you did, you surely liked it, but most of the stuff there seemed to be pretty useless. At least that is what I thought about it.

Japan has something very similar but also much different in the same time - 100 yen (hyaku-yen) shops, while right now, 100 yen is worth, more or less, 1$.

The best thing about "100 yen" shops, is that you can buy there EVERYTHING!
Obviously, the quality of products is not the finest but it does not really matter if you can buy those things for such a low price.

During my recent visit to 100 yen shop, Daniel San got me a book (for kids) to practice katakana writing - one of the japanese alphabets. I used to hate such excercise books when I was a 7 year old little girl but now it`s so much fun!


"100 yen" shop shown in the above pictures is located in Nagoya,
between Irinaka and Yagoto metro stations.

Sushi - Around the Tables in 80 Seconds

Japanese culture wouldn't be as it is without sushi!

No wonder why not only it looks special, but also is being served in different that typical conditions. Opposite to the most of the restaurants all around the world, those which serve sushi are equipped more unusually. During my stay in Japan I've visited 3 kaiten-zushi restaurants, which are places where sushi goes around the restaurant on a special moving belt (a smaller version of the belt from which you pick up your luggage at the airport). The one that I liked the most was located in the Nagoya's neighbourhood of Makinohara and I went there with Daniel on bikes. Here I start the story about how different it was from all the other restaurants I knew before...

It doesn't matter if you come to kaiten-zushi alone or with a group of people. There is a place for everybody. The room full of tables includes both kinds of places.

Normally the second step would be ordering but actually the food passes next to you even without being ordered. I was a bit shocked when I didn't even sit down yet and Daniel already picked few plates with sushi!

Every table has its own computer, which is used for ordering things that you'd like to eat but you can't wait for them any longer to appear on the belt. Thanks to the picture menu you don't really need to read Japanese.

The difference between ordered and not-ordered sushi is simple. Few seconds before the requested sushi arrives, the computer makes a funny sound and soon after that you see your dish arriving on the red bowl. Red bowl means that if you didn't order the particular plate, you shouldn't take it. The rest of plates that was not ordered is simply going round until somebody picks it or until it's not fresh anymore and automatically thrown away.

Important part of having a good meal is also having something to drink. Each table has its own box filled with green tea and what's even more, a tap with hot water. The cup can be refilled as many times as needed. And by the way! One wise man told me once that the way a person holds chopsticks means a lot. The biggest difference is between samurais, who used to hold chopsticks at the end and poor people who grabbed them close to the food. On the day when I've learned it I was a samurai but in the picture below I'm probably representing the middle class.

As soon as the bellies are full, the next step is to officially count the number of plates by throwing them into the special hole in the table.

The surprise comes when the number of plates is registered in the computer. Each 5 plates counts as a one chance to win a toy. The toys are located above the computer and the whole thing about the competition is simply a very strange computer game. I keep on saying that the game is unfair... because I've lost! Anyway, Daniel has more luck in this kind of things, so I hope he will keep on winning toys for me.

Would you like some saromon nigiri? (There is no letter L in Japanese.)
One plate costs only 100Yen! (~1$)

(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.)

My latest discovery concerning kaiten sushi explains why in some places sushi is served on 2 different colors of plates. The reason for that is content of wasabi in some pieces of sushi.
Not only, wasabi changes the taste of the dish but also, has great antibacterial abilities and so it may prevent food poisoning. Unfortunately, Japanese cuisinse that includes raw fish is a potential source of bacteria.

(update from the 23rd of April, 2010)