Picture of the Week Children’s Day in Japan

Children's Day or kodomo-no-hi is a Japanese National Holiday during Golden Week which takes place on the 5th of May. While it is a holiday for children in general, it is primarily for boys (girls have a day of their own on the 3rd of March called (Hina Matsuri).

Children’s Day is a Japanese boy’s festival and is a day to pray for the healthy growth of boys. It is Japanese tradition for families with boys to display carp streamers (koinobori) outside their houses around this holiday. Carp are believed to symbolize successes in children’s lives. Samurai dolls called gogatsu ningyo (May Dolls) are also put on display in homes.

In my home because we have a son we display kabuto (Japanese military helmet worn by samurai). Many people have these as a seasonal decoration displayed during Children’s Day. Kabuto is displayed to express hope that each boy in the family will grow up healthy and strong. We bought quite an expensive one but really like having it displayed during Children’s Day.

You can see a picture of my kabuto below

This is my entry for this weeks edition of Show Me Japan

Read more about Golden Week here

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Easy to Cook Japanese Recipe Okonomiyaki (Savoury Japanese Pancake)

Okonomiyaki is a popular dish from Osaka and is basically a savoury pancake with ingredients of your choice along with egg, flour and cabbage as the basic ingredients.



Makes 1

Okonomi-yaki Sauce
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp caster sugar

Ingredients
• 50g self raising flour
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ cup dashi
• a pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 spring onion, chopped
• 1 cup thinly chopped cabbage
• 2 king prawns and/or thinly sliced pork

Toppings (if desired)
• aonori (green-seaweed) flakes
• dried bonito flakes
• Japanese mayonnaise

Method

1. To make Okonomi-yaki Sauce, mix ingredients together in bowl.
2. Place flour, milk, dashi and salt in a bowl and lightly stir.
3. Break an egg into the mixture and stir to combine.
4. Add spring onion and cabbage and mix.
5. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and swirl some oil over base.
6. Drop the egg mixture into the pan. Top with king prawns and/or pork.
7. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Turn over and cook for about 4-5 minutes until cooked through.
8. Brush the top with okonomi-yaki sauce, and if desired sprinkle with aonori and bonito flakes.
9. Serve with Japanese mayonnaise.

Note:
• You can buy already prepared okonomi-yaki sauce at most Asian Supermarkets.
• Other kinds of seafood and meat can be added to this dish and cheese is also a great addition.

Easy To Follow Steps To Create Over 108 Top Japanese Recipes!

Some other Great Japanese Recipes that you might enjoy:

Yakisoba

Sukiyaki

Tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet)

Stuff About Japan

Here is some more cool stuff about Japan. A Technology company  in Japan last month organized the world`s first marathon for robots.

Five robots entered the event, which organizer Vstone Co said would demonstrate the machines durability and manoeuvrability. The “Robo Mara Full” race is open only to androids with two legs. The robots must complete 422 laps around a 100m indoor racetrack, to cover 42km.

Once again, I can just say Only in Japan

Read more about some of the lighter and more interesting stories about Japan at Only in Japan

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Picture of the Week Yokohama Marine Tower, Japan

Yokohama Marine Tower (横浜マリンタワー ) is located in the Yamashita koen area of Yokohama, which is known as the traditional sightseeing district of Yokohama.

The lattice tower is 106m high with an observation deck at a height of 100m. The tower offers spectacular views over the harbour. In clear conditions you can see Mount Fuji from the 100m high observation deck.

Entry to Yokohama Marine Tower is 700 yen and it’s open from 10am to 9:30pm.

This is my entry for this week's edition of Show Me Japan

The Secrets Of Speaking Japanese Fluently

Golden Week 2011 in Japan

Golden Week in Japan is fast approaching. The end of April through around May 5th is called “Golden Week” in Japan and is based around a period of Japanese national holidays. Golden Week in 2011 is basically from April 29 through May 5.

There are four national holidays during this period: Showa Day (April 29), Constitution Memorial Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4), and Children`s Day (May 5). This is a very busy travel season in Japan and most tourist destinations are extremely crowded. Many Japanese offices close for about a week to 10 days, depending on the calendar with many people taking a vacation, travelling abroad or to a tourist attraction in Japan. Airports and train stations are usually overflowing with people during this time and it can be very hard to get reservations for accommodation and transportation during Golden Week.

The first national holiday during Golden Week is April 29 and is the birthday of the former emperor Showa, and is called showa-no-hi (Showa Day). The second holiday on May 3 is kenpou-kinenbi (Constitution Memorial Day). The new Japanese constitution was put into effect on May 3, 1947. May 4 is called midori-no-hi (Greenery Day) during which we show appreciation for the environment and nature. The last holiday is kodomo-no-hi (Children`s Day) on May 5. It`s a Japanese Boy`s festival and is a day to pray for healthy growth of boys. It`s a Japanese tradition for families with boys to hang up carp streamers (koinobori) outside their houses around this holiday. Carps are believed to symbolize successes in children`s lives. Also, samurai dolls called gogatsu ningyo (May Dolls) are displayed in their houses. May is a great time to travel in Japan and I would advise planning a trip to Japan after the Golden Week travel rush has ended.

The Secrets Of Speaking Japanese Fluently

An Introduction to Modern Japanese

An Introduction to Modern Japanese by Osamu Mizutani & Nobuko Mizutani is a fantastic book for learning Japanese. The book is designed to give the reader a solid foundation in modern Japanese, sufficient to handle everyday conversations and discussions as well as the ability to express their interests and life.

After studying this book you will be able to read all of the hiragana and katakana, recognise a lot of basic words in kanji, and have a good knowledge of grammar.

The book is made up of 30 lessons which contain dialogues, explanations, drills, reading comprehensions, aural comprehensions, pronunciation practices, and writing practices.

The drills are very useful because they are designed so that you will be able to use new expressions in meaningful actual situations, rather than just memorizing.

It is a system them really works and has helped me improve my Japanese.

An Introduction to Modern Japanese will fill all your needs for both classroom and independent study.

Read more on How to Learn Japanese

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Jet Coaster Love by Kara

Jet Coaster Love by Kara was the number 1 song on the Japanese Oricon music charts last week. Who is Kara do you ask? Kara is a girl group from Korea formed in 2007. The current five-member band made their debut in Japan in 2010 and by the end of the year was dubbed as Japan’s #1 New Artist of 2010 by Oricon. The group also released their first Japanese album, Girl’s Talk.

Jet Coaster Love is their 3rd single in Japan and was released on April 6th. It is classic J-Pop and very upbeat and uplifting. A good pick me up after a bad day.

All the proceeds from the single will be donated to Japan’s natural disaster relief aid.

You can watch the video for Jet Coaster Love below