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The japanese cuisine

The Japanese cuisine is famous around the world. In most countries, you find a Japanese restaurant, but with some slight difference of taste from the ‘original Japanese cuisine’ according to the country where it is prepared. At least, it was what I noticed when I tried it in Brazil and United States of America, for example. It also happens with other cuisines, when I visited China I drank for the first time the jasmine tea, I just loved it and then, when I came back to Japan I bought one, but its flavor was very different, unfortunately.

Here is the famous yakiniku (the grilled meat) the Japanese barbecue that was introduced by Koreans in Japan. In this restaurant the yakiniku is prepared on a grill and it is accompanied by sauces and it can be eaten with a lot of rice, vegetables and desserts.

Another food that is loved by the Japanese is the seafood. In every supermarket you will find Sashimi, fishes ready to prepare at home.

This the sample of a bentō that is served in many factories accompanied with rice, misoshiro and green tea.

Patisseries in Japan

The japaneses love to prepare the lunch boxes carefully decorated and also to make sweets and bonbons of varieties formats. See the photos below:

Most photos were taken at Midland Square and vicinities. Here, the sweets are not so sugary like the brazilian ones, for example. I prefer savory food to sweet, I admire the decoration and the delicacy of each sweet, cake and formats of bonbons.

A bit more of Japan…

On the photo bellow, it is a place where the believers follow a rite: at first they drop a coin in a box bowing their heads and at the same time also clapping their hands and then, they make a wish.

The shrine is surrounded by dozens of trees that create a unique sound when the strong wind sways their leaves. Maybe at night could a bit scary if you are alone.

「⛩」The Shinto shrine is located at Ichinomiya city, Aichi province, Japan.

Yukata

Yukata is typical Japanese garment made for summer time, that is more casual and cheaper than the kimono traditional garment.

It can be made of cotton or a synthetic fabric and it can be worn on the beaches, festivals, in the bath houses and others occasions by women and men.

Some of the accessories that you can wear.

The garment is cheaper than kimono, but there are all kinds of prices that range between cheap and expensive ones.

The summer flowers

Beautiful flowers — Somewhere in Aichi Province

The summer just arrived and it is getting hotter day by day. Except on rainy days that we can walk around at midday on the streets, though with a great chance of having our shoes and clothes soaked by the rain.

Lilac flower — Taken in a rainy afternoon.

Now it is good time of going to the rivers, beaches and play under the falls, but unfortunately we are caught by a plague that postponed our plans and some habits.

For some of us that live in a city, the best thing to do is walking around during the coolest hour to burn some calories and breath some fresh air enjoying the beauty of the flowers and the sunsets.

Flowers are really beautiful, unfortunately I do not know their names.

Gifu Castle

The Gifu Castle is located at Gifu city, in the south-central of Gifu Prefecture, Chūbu region of Honshu, Japan. The Gifu Castle of Dosan and Nobuna (formally called Inabayama Castle), was built on the top of Mt. Kinka in the year 1201.

Oda Nobunaga, a general in Sengoku period, became the first master of castle in 1567.

Today the castle is a museum that welcome visitors during the whole year. In 1569 a Christian Portuguese missionary , Luis Frois, visited the castle seeking protection of Christianity and became amazed with the place.

Here you can see the beautiful ceiling of the castle.

Our travel to the Gifu Castle was quiet and the weather condition was good, then we could take great photos and enjoy the day. We did the route using the Google map app and without mistakes we got right there.

In the castle , you can take pictures with male wax dolls dressed as a samurai. The ‘men’ looks like an alive ones!

And if you are hungry, you can eat in the restaurant at the top of the mountain. From there you can watch the landscape and maybe some flying birds!

For further information, you can access this site bellow about the history of the castle, tickets price, opening and closing time and how to arrive:

https://www.gifucvb.or.jp/en/

At night , you can see the castle completely illuminated from sunset until 10:00 pm during the summer time.

The religion in Japan

Foxes, messengers of deity Inari , Kami of rice.

The two main religions are the Shinto and Buddhism. The Shinto is a native ancient religion that is practiced by the most Japanese. The word Shinto (神道) means way of gods with features of festivities, rituals and ceremonies like the weddings ceremony that occur under the ceremony Shinto.

Gate (Torii) is a Shinto religious symbol.

Sakurayama Hachi Mango Sanctuary, Hida Takayama, province of Gifu pref.

The jizo deities found near the shrine or temples are to honor the dead or unborn babies.

The Buddhism, second one, is also very present in the Japanese lives through the rituals, art and ceremonies like The Japanese Tea Ceremony (茶道) and the art of Ikebana ( 生け花), that is art of arranging live flowers and also funeral ceremonies are held according to the Buddhist ceremony, hence both religions are symbols of traditional Japanese culture co-existing with harmony .

The red colors mean power of gods (神), lucky and protection from evil and also is a type of paint that contains cinnabar mercury that helps to protect the wood.

The entrance of a Buddhist temple Osu Kannon (大須観音) Nagoya city, Aichi Province.

Sometimes is very difficult to distinguish a difference between a temple and a shrine because the cultural and religion elements co-existing very well in the same space here.

The flowery streets

It is springtime in the land of the sun rising, and one of the activities that I love to do is walking around the rivers near my house gazing the beautiful wild flowers that surround the rivers.

There is a peaceful moment in my walkings, when I stop walking to listen to the birds singing and watch them playing on the trees, in the fields or when I meet my lovely friends, the cats.

Another thing that I admire here is to see the flower pots in front of the houses decorating the entrances and the beautiful small gardens in open places without a fence between the street and the house.

For many people this is is something usual, but not to me, because I was born and raised in a country totally different from where I am living now. Well, this not the objective from the blog to write up about the bad things of the life, but is to show the beautiful side of the life.

During this beautiful season in every street you can see the flower pots, not only in front the houses, but also in front of train stations, banks, coffee shops, stores or buildings. In other words, the Japaneses are in love with flowers.

Nagoya city, Japan

Nagoya city is located in the Chubu region of Japan. It is the capital of Aichi Prefecture with nearly 2.3 millions of inhabitants. It is a quiet city full of old preserved architecture and beautiful parks.

Toyota Commemorative Museum of Ind. Tech

In the moment that I write this text, we are living under the declared state of emergency and it means that I am spending most of my days off at home and just walking around the river that surround the place where I live in a small town near Nagoya, at least I can hear the bird songs, to listen to the water running in the river and to gaze to the flowers in the edge of the river. Despite of having many forced days off, I chose don’t face the crowded train stations because here the constitution don’t allow to impose Lockdown as many countries does , so you can choose to stay at home or to go out in your free time. Then, the photos that I sharing about the city with you were taken weeks or months ago.

P.s. : Like most people, I am already missing the urban life, too.

Spring in Japan

Here in Japan, as always, the beautiful spring is blooming in all places, despite the horrendous things that is happening in the whole world.

I was walking between the cherry blossom trees feeling the sweet smell of the flowers, and for a brief moment, I took a time for gazing to the yellow flowers in front of the trees and could think how fast the things has changed, lately.

We’ve made many plans and suddenly we are surprised by a vírus and now we need to think about how to adapt our old plans to the coming days or months . Of course, most of the them was postponed or simply dead.

For while, I will stay here waiting for better days…

Cold days

The beautiful autumn has gone and it is winter time on the north hemisphere.

Now it is time for eating hot soups, home made dishes, drinking hot beverages, staying curled under the blankets with someone that you adore watching movies and sleeping as a bear.

Lomo saltado, a Peruvian food prepared by my 💙

For those who live in between snow it is time for playing winter sports. Where I live there’s no snow, just cold winds. I was also wondering about how the seasons change so fast.

A few weeks ago the trees were so colored now its leaves has fallen completely and the days are so gray and shorts. Here, I am trying to find out some beauty and go out to see some beauty in the ‘naked’ trees.

Toyota Commemorative Museum of industry and Technology

Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Motor Corporation and the automotive centered Toyota group, was a great and persistent inventor that was considered a weird man that used to spend long hours alone in a room developing a mill to improve the production of looms machine to his family factory . The museum is located at Nagoya City, Aichi st, Japan.

Toyota Museum of industry and Technology

A mill