Udon うどん - Japanese Noodle

Autumn season comes. It gets colder. What do you eat when you catch a cold in your country?

I catch a cold now. What do I want to eat? I want to simple Udon, based on dashi(stock) and soy sauce soup. Udon is a one of Japanese hot noodle. There are a lot of kinds and regional varieties. When I don't want to eat much because of illness, Udon is the best food for me. Because it is not oily and easy to eat.

I think Japanese people like noodles. Other noodle, Soba is very special Japanese noodle. We can eat it like hot Udon. However, it is cold noodle (Zaru soba) and we eat putting the noodle in special dashi soup. Zaru is a Japanese bamboo basket and Zaru soba is put on soba noodle on the basket.

When you eat noodles in Japan, it is OK to suck and make a noise. It is not bad manner. The noise sounds delicious for Japanese people. If you visit Japan, I recommend to eat some Japanese noodles. They are so delicious and Japanese particular food culture.

Brown Rice 玄米 (Genmai) - Macrobiotique Diet

We eat every day and food that we eat is very important for our body. I read about macrobiotic diet and cooking book.

Macrobiotic diet is recently known in Japan. A Japanese philosopher recommended macrobiotic diet and it become well-known around the world now. Brown rice （玄米）or millet (雑穀) become recently popular among especially Japanese women. One of reason is loosing weight, however, another reason is health.

Traditional Japanese food is originally very healthy. Brown rice is one of these foods. When we eat brown rice, it is organic and chewing well is very important for assimilation.
Brown rice tea 玄米茶 (Genmai cha) is good for health. It is aromatic and one of my favorite tea.

I cooked genmai dumpling reading macrobiotic cooking book yesterday. It substitutes ground brown rice and tofu for meat. Genmai risotto with porcini that I cooked few weeks ago was so delicious !

One of triggers that I am interested in healthy foods is my disease and of my parents. I feel daily food that I eat form my body afresh. I will cook delicious and healthy food.

Villon's Wife ヴィヨンの妻

Dazai Osamu is very famous and popular novelist. He or his works is often picked up this year because 2009 is 100th anniversary year. "Run, Melos" (走れメロス) or "No longer human" (人間失格) is his masterpiece.

I saw a Japanese film, "Villon's Wife", yesterday. The background is postwar Japan. The story of this film is based on his work of same title. It is a love story of one couple. Leading male character is a talented author, has a girlfriend. He always thinks to want to die. He is the worst husband, however his wife loves him. Also his wife is a woman who he really loves.
His wife is old styled and typical Japanese woman, obedient, however very strong. Just like Japanese adjective, Shinayaka しなやか or Taoyaka たおやか.
Her line in last scene is unforgettable.

Takako Matsu, plays his wife, is a beautiful actress and her performance in this film is excellent. She is so talented and I like her.
I could know Tokyo after World War Ⅱin this film. People was very poor, however, lively. Also you can enjoy a world of Osamu Dazai and old life in Tokyo.

Villon's Wife website

運動会 (School sports)

Sunny day in Autumn is very easy to spend and sky is so blue. Holiday in October is Taiku no hi. 体育の日　(Physical Education Day).

We can see school sports at weekend in Autumn season. School sports (運動会Undoukai) is special event at elementary school and junior high school in Japan. It is held once in a year. Students play a lot of games or sports. It is very enjoyable event for students.
Some games at elementary school are special. Tamaire 玉入れ, it is a game to put balls in a basket, Tug- of-war 綱引き and so on. There are some games that parents can participate.
Relay race for each class is final sports. Relay is very exciting for everyone. I like it. Undoukai is special event for parents. They take the seats that they can see this big event on playground. Fathers bring handy camera and shoot their children who play games. Mother make lunch box (Bento bento) and each family eat it on the seat.

We have a lot good or bad memories for Undoukai. I like hearing children's voice or cheer in front of school. I remember my memories at school days.

Mos Burger

There are a lot of fast-food restaurants in Japan. Especially young people like and eat these foods. Low price is one of reason that they like. I hardly eat fast food in daily life. I don't like hamburger or these junk foods. However, I sometimes want to eat hamburger or fried potato. When I think so, there is my favorite fast-food restaurant to go to eat. It is Mos Burger.

Mos Burger is Japanese fast-food restaurant. Teriyaki burger is my favorite menu. Mos rice burger is special menu of it. Its bun is rice.
And the place of origin is mentioned in the restaurant. It is good point for me.

There are a lot of normal menu as fast-food restaurant. When you visit Japan and you want to eat hamburger, I recommend you try it.

Mos Burger Japanese site

Respect-for-the-Aged Day

I took a bus yesterday. More than half of passengers are old people. I was surprised.
We have national holidays in this week. Yesterday is Respect-for-the-Aged Day. (敬老の日) We recognized yesterday there are a lot of old people in Japan.

There are some reasons that prolong our life. However I think that the biggest reason is medical treatment progress and we can live longer. In Japan 60 years old is very important age. When people get 60 years old, we celebrate the longevity as Kanreki. (還暦). But now 60 year old in Japan is very young and seventy or eighty years old is not unusual. These people are very powerful and have a lot of energy.

We need respect old people who work hard after the war and contribute to our modern society.

There is some cerebration year for longevity in Japan.

60 year old for Kanreki (還暦)

70 years old for Koki (古希)

77 years old for Kiju (喜寿)　

88 years old for Beiju (米寿)

90 years old for Sotsuju (卒寿)

New Prime Minister

New prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama 鳩山由紀夫　, will be most famous person in Japan now. His slogan for the installation is 友愛 (Yuuai). 友愛 means affection for friends.

I wonder he can change our society that has a lot of problems with 友愛. We hope our life become happier.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/16/japan.new.pm/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8258024.stm

*Trivia for his name*

Hato 鳩 in his name means dove. Is he real dove ? I hope...