Rush for Eels!

What is your favorite Japanese food? Sushi? Tempura? Well, those are very delicious, but ask the same question to Japanese. Maybe you can hear surprising answer. Japanese like to eat eels. I do love to eat eels too

In Japan, there is a culture to eat eels in “Doyou no ushi” day. “Doyou no ushi” day is a day defined in Japanese traditional calender. This year, July 19th is the day. In this day Japanese people rush to eel restaurant to have eels. Exciting, isn’t it?

This culture is made by Gennai Hiraga, a famous inventor in Edo period. People in Edo period did not eat eels in summer, and so the owner of eel restaurant asked Gennai how to sell eels in summer. Gennai’s idea was to make advertisement saying “Today is ‘Doyo no ushi’ day”. By this advertisement, people rushed to that eel restaurant believing that eating eels in “Doyo no ushi” day will help to gain power to overcome hot days in summer.

Today, it is proven that eating eels really help to gain power. Eels contain vitamin A and vitamin B a lot. So let’s eat eels and be healthy.

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Beautiful Festival in Japan

I went home to Kyoto to see the Gion festival (Gion Matsuri) from July 16th to the 19th .  If you say Kyoto’s summer, we say, “Gion Matsuri”.  Soon after the Gion festival,  the rainy season ends and humid summer begins in Kyoto.

The Gion festival is one of the three main festivals of Japan. And it is most beautiful festival of Japan! The festival peaks on the 17th July, when 32 beautifully decorated floats (Yamaboko floats) parade through the city. These Yamaboko floats are described as a “moving museum”.

Though I repeated visits to this festival, every time I am impressed by this festival’s beauty . If you visit Japan in summer,please visit the Gion festival in Kyoto!

The scenes of Gion festival at the corner of Oike and Shinmachi streets.

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Black Boiled Egg in Hakone

I went to Hakone, which is famous for hot spring. I will take about 90 minutes by car from Tokyo. There are a lots of spots you can visit when you go to Hakone, and Owakudani is one of them.

Owakudani is a volcanic valley, and is a source of hot springs in Hakone. Hot water flowing and steam rising is the best view you can see there.

Popular taste of Owakudani is Kuro-tamago (meaning “black egg”), which is a boiled egg made by hot spring. Iron contain in the hot spring make the color of the egg shell black.

Taste of this egg is just like a normal boiled eggs… Nothing, special. One thing special is that this egg costs 100 Yen (about 1 US Dollar). So expensive for an boiled egg. Well, this is just a memorial thing to get and not to really enjoying the taste of the egg itself.

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