Monday, August 25, 2014

新幹線 (しんかんせん, shinkansen) : Japan's Technology 1

 Shinkansen
Shinkansen & Mt. Fuji
 The Shinkansen is a super express train also known as the "bullet train".  It started the service in 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Asama-Nagano shinkansen
 The Shinkansen network has been gradually expanding since then and now is almost nationwide from Shin-Aomori Station located in the northern part of Honshu the main island to Kagoshima-Chuo Station in the southern part of the Kyushu island.
Hayabusa-Tohoku Shinkansen

 If you take the Shinkansen between these two stations, it takes about ten and a half hours, which is much faster than the three days it takes by taking local trains one after another. The top speed at the time of starting operation was 210km/h but now it is 320km/h.

 It has a worldwide reputation for being extremely punctual and safe with very few delays and an extremely low mortality rate.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

食品サンプル (shokuhin sanpuru) Food Sample

A mouse cover
日本の文化 (nihon no bunka) Japanese Culture 8

食品サンプル (shokuhin sampuru)  Food Sample

 Sample food was originally made as a way of attracting customers who could see it in a glass case outside of restaurants and imagine what they wanted to eat. In the Taisho Period, some one hundred years ago, the sample food was made of wax but these days the ingredients are plastic and silicone.
They look like real!!
Samples of a crepe

 It is helpful and indispensable not only for foreigners but also for Japanese people especially when we cannot decide what kind of food we want to eat in a restaurant area where there are a variety of Japanese food restaurants such as Washoku-ya, Udon-ya, Soba-ya, Tonkatsu-ya, Ramen-ya in addition to multinational food restaurants. It's very nice that you can easily draw a picture in your mind of your food and the amount you want and then decide a meal before you get in and hear "Irasshaimase" from a restaurant worker.
                                                                                                                           
 You can buy mini versions of sample food on key chains and phone straps for souvenirs.