New Year in Japan

Happy New Year!

I was pretty busy at the end of last year through January this year. I spent couples of days with my parents and friends in Osaka and Kyoto. Ways of spending new year are like:

• Eating Soba (buck wheat noodles)
• Eating Osechi (special menu only eaten when celebrating new year)
• Eating Zouni (soup with rice cake)
• Going to Hatsu-moude (going to temples and shrines to wish good fortune)
• Giving Otoshi-dama (giving children some money)

Pretty neat huh?

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Matcha Parfait

Today in Japan, a matcha parfait which is one of desserts using matcha powder is becoming very popular.  So,I went to the cafe “IYEMON SALON” which is run by Suntory , famous for their product ” Iyemon Cha bottled tea “. 

I ate pretty gorgeous parfait whose price was 930yen.

IYEMON Parfait

 And when you order tea ,Tea and Houhin-teapot come and you make tea yourself.

Houhin and Tea

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Zekkei The Main Gate of Nanzen-ji.

This picture is scenery from San mon, the main gate of Nanzen-ji.

The View from Sanmon

 This is the place that Ishikawa Goemon who was a legendary bandit in Japan exclaimed “What a view (Zekkei kana)! What a view (Zekkei kana)! The spring view is worth a thousand gold pieces, or so they say, but it is too little, too little. These eyes of Goemon rate it worth ten thousand!” in the kabuki ,” Kinmon Gosan no Kiri” (“The Golden Gate and the Paulownia Crest”).
I came up there, then I agreed this is a wonderful view.

The gate of Nanzenji temple

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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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Genuine Uji Tea

Today Uji tea is well known as a luxury brand from famous tea- producing area. That is believed to date from over all those years ago.

In 1911, the Sung dynasties, Eisai who was a master of Zen brought back tea seeds to Japanese from China and taught Japanese people about matcha tea ceremony technique. In1207, saint Myoue in Madarao kozanji temple, Kyoto sowed the seeds inherited from Eisai in the field of Uji, which was that the origin of Uji tea. In Muromachi period, the Ashikaga shogunate encouraged the people to grow Uji tea, which spread the brand name and how wonderful Uji tea is.

Uji tea is the Japanese traditional tea that produced in the south of Kyoto. And also Uji tea is defined as that 100 percent of tea leaves are produced in Kyoto. Additionally, the following tea also can be called Uji tea. It is that over 50 percent of the tea leaves is produced in Kyoto and blended with the tea leaves produced in Shiga, Nara, and Mie of Kansai region.

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This is My Name

This t-shirt has a kanji on it. This kanji symbol is “Susumu”. Yes,it is my name.

Front of Kanji T shirt

Back of Kanji T shirt

Pictures on it were drawn carefully by hand ! This clothing was made by the craftsman in Kyoto. Um… cool!
What is the reason why this t-shirt is pretty cool? I think that the reasons are because the craftsman’s technique is amazing and because my name kanji symbol is cool both.

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Nintendo Sets New Sales Record

It transpired that global sales of the Nintendo DS hand-held which had put on the market on November 21,2004 had exceeded 100 million.
100 million sold in four years and three months.
This is the quickest pace for any video game console.

In fact,it took five years and nine months for PS2 of Sony to reach 100 million sales. (According to Wikipedia)
And ,it took five years and six months for ipod.

DS’s pace is astonishing pace!

Nintendo DS’s video

Do you also have Nintendo DS ?
Incidentally,I don’t have Nintendo DS yet.

Nintendo is an enterprise in my hometown Kyoto.
… When I was a kid, Nintendo was a small company.
It is an amazing Japanese company!

Nintendo DS Lite Cobalt / Black

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Hello!

Hi I am Susumu.

I introduce cool items of Japan with Toku.
Especially, I want to introduce delicious Japanese tea at Akiba Mart!

My family has been actually keeping a Japanese tea shop  (Uji tea specialty) since Edo period (1843) in Uji city of Kyoto.

My Hometown Uji

Therefore, through Akiba Mart
I want people all over the world to taste our family’s tea!!

Of course,
We introduces various other cool items!!!

The preparation of opening a store is hard.
However, it is happy every day!!!

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