日本の料理 (nihon no ryoori) Japanese Cuisine 6

お節料理（おせちりょうり、osechi-ryoori )

Osechi-ryori are special side dishes for the New Year holidays. A variety of ingredients such as seafood, black beans, rolled kelp, and vegetables are prepared and arranged artfully in a set of layered lacquer boxes.

Traditional style Osechi

Modern Osechi

冬の風物詩（fuyu no fuubutsushi) 6 Special Attractions of Winter

日本のクリスマス (nihon no kurisumasu)  Christmas in Japan

The oldest Christmas tree since 1950(Beppu)

The biggest tree in Japan (USJ in Osaka))

Most people in Japan, not only Christians, enjoy celebrating Christmas regardless of their religion by exchanging presents with family and sweethearts and by eating together. The strategy of department
stores and businesses, which is to stimulate consumer desire, has created this sort of Christmas culture.

By the end of November, large trees decorate shopping districts and the advertising for Christmas sales in department stores and shopping street arcades is in full swing.

In Usuki City

日本の料理 (nihon no ryoori) Japanese Cuisine 5

お好み焼き（おこのみやき, okonomiyaki)

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese-style pancake usually grilled on teppan (an iron plate).  It is made from batter with a variety of ingredients such as bits of pork meat, seafood, egg and chopped cabbage.


Cooked okonomiyaki is topped with ingredients that include otafuku/okonomiyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter), aonori (seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled ginger (beni shoga).

日本の料理 (nihon no ryoori) Japanese Cuisine 4

鍋料理 (なべりょうり, nabe ryoori) Cookpot Dishes

　Japanese culture, which can be called "a culture of harmony," places importance on harmony among friends as well as family members.
　Soup stock and ingredients are put in a pot and heated; our or five persons sit around it, put soup and ingredients from the pot into their own bowls and eat. There are all sorts of ingredients and soup stocks, as many flavors and ways of preparing, for example, Sukiyaki, Shabushabu, Yosenabe, Chankonabe, Kakinabe, Mamonabe, Botannabe, Chirinabe, etc.

すきやき(sukiyaki)

なべ材料( ingredients)

ちゃんこ鍋 (Chankonabe)

ゆるキャラ(yuru-kyara) --- 日本のサブカルチャー(nihon no sabukaruchaa) Japanese Subculture 3

Hiko-nyan (Hikone City)

さのまる(Sanomaru, Tochigi)

ゆるキャラ (yuru-kyara)  Local Mascots     

Yurukyara (literally meaning "loose character") is a term for cute mascots originally created by local governments to promote tourism to take on a form of a famous produce or feature for the region. Yurukyara are heartwarming mascot-like characters that represent different organizations, events or groups for PR purposes too. 

くまもん＆パリーさん(kumamon & parii-san)

 

 Youtube: しまねっこ(shimanekko)

Yurukyara Grand Prize: http://www.yurugp.jp/pref_list.php?next_key=1&goflg=1&acflg=search

盆栽(ぼんさい, bonsai) --- 日本の文化 (nihon no bunka) Japanese Culture 4

Pine tree

盆栽（ぼんさい、bonsai)  Bonsai

Bonsai is a miniaturized potted plants and trees which have been dwarfed and shaped by such methods as pruning and wiring in order to create particularly aesthetic shapes.

Plum tree

Chrysanthemum

折り紙(折り紙, origami) --- 日本の文化 (nihon no bunka) Japanese Culture 3

折り紙（おりがみ, origami) Paper holding

Paper folding, or "Origami" is one of Japan's unique traditional arts. It is an amusement and a skill of holding square paper without using paste or scissors to shape things such as birds, goldfish and helmets, in particular the crane is widely recognized as the masterpiece of origami. One thousand folded cranes linked together by thread is called senbazuru (one Thousand Cranes) and is made and given to a sick person with the wish for a speedy recovery upon visiting him.