Mountain day

Japan had a new national holiday, named Mountain day.

We have a opportunity to get familiar with mountains and appreciate blessings from mountains.

Recently, hiking and climbing mountain is famous in young girls.

Young girls whose hobby is climbing mountain are said '' mountain girl'' (yamaga-ru)
I used to climbing mountains before!! ( but I'm a not young girl..)

My first mountain was Mt Takao

Mt Takao, located in the city of Hchijoji,peaks at almost 600m. It's not too high so we enjoy hiking.From the summit there is a beautiful view over Tokyo and , weather permitting, Mt Fuji.
they have also hot spring and beer garden.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3029.html

Marbled beef

Japanese beef have a lot of fat, marbled beef.

I had dinner yakiniku with my friends.

Usually, we have rule the way to eat yakiniku.
First, we eat beef tongue because it is easy to burnt.
After eating beef tongue, we eat anything.
I like fatty beef.

Fireworks in summer

Japanese summer festival starts from the middle of July to the middle of August.
The main attraction is fireworks show.
Most girls and female wear yukata.

Last week there are big firework show close to Sumida liver.
I could see it from my apartment.
If I go out for fireworks, there are many people and crowded, so I will be tired.
But I enjoyed fireworks from my place, two fireworks!! lol

Eel day on 25ht July

２５th　July is eating eel day in Japan.

It is a Japanese custom every year. We eat eel to get energy in hot summer.

We have different way to eat eel between Kansai(osaka) and Kantou(tokyo)

In Kansai, people cut belly of eel and grill. In Kanto, people cut back of eel and grill. In Kanto, people　don't　like　cut　belly　because　old　Japanese　people,　samurai　sometimes　cut　themselves　belly and suiside for a long time ago. We said Seppuku.

Seppuku means 

Seppuku (切腹, "cutting [the] abdomen/belly", formal on reading of original Kanji), sometimes metathesized as harakiri (腹切り, "abdomen/belly cutting") which is a native Japanese kun reading,^[1]is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai.^[2] A samurai practice, seppuku was used either voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies (and likely suffer torture) or as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. 

                                                                                                        by wikipedia

Anyway, I like eel. I like cut buck of eel because there are many fatty part in belly. cutting  back keep fatty part and tastes good!!

Bento

BENTO, or O-BENTO, is Japanese word for box lunch as many of you may

know already.

BENTO is used to be made at home and brought to school and work,

but after the convenience store business came into Japan around 1970th to 80th,

buying one at stores is also became popular.

 This is Pikachu bento~~

I have more~~

Japanese foodie on 27th June

 Japanese ice restaurant in Ebisu. So cute .

Indian curry on 24th June

I love Indian curry because they use a lot of spices.

I usually make curry without curry paste.（curry rou)
Most Japanese use curry paste that it is sold in super market.
Japanese curry and Indian curry are different.
It is Japanese curry

We use curry paste and some seasoning.

It is Indian curry

They eat nan and use a lot of spices.

Today I made curry using a lot of spices. I also made tandoori chicken.

I used turmeric,nutmeg, cumin, fennel, pepper, paprika, coriander, cinnamon, clove.

Japanese foodie on 23th June

Today’s main menu is hamburg steak.

Usually other country people say patty.

It was mixed with ground beef, ground pork, salt and pepper, soy sauce,milk, panko, chopped onion. 

This hamburg is so tender. It was grilled in a pan. After that, I made sauce. After cooking, I put soy sauce, ketchup, a little wine. 

Japanese foodie cooking on 22th June

Everyday I ate a lot.....
I gain my weight , so I need to work out and control to eat.
In this case, the best way is cooking myself because I can handle calorie.
Most people may believe that Japanese food is healthy and low calorie.
I do not believe it because most meat have fatty part and we use a lot of oil, for example, tempura, karaage etc...

If you want to get health body, you need to cook your self.

I cook everyday recently
I made Yaki Saba Oshi Zushi ('焼き鯖押し寿司', is classified into sushi), is known as Grilled Mackerel Pressed Sushi in English
And Butajiru ('豚汁', is classified into soup), is known as Miso Soup with Pork

It's real healthy dishes!!

Japanese foodie on 19th June

KAISEN DON=A bowl of rice with sashimi on top.

My favorite restaurant in Tokyo.

Don on left is tuna don. They use only tuna, but we can eat many kind of part of tuna.

Tuna meat is divided into three major categories: the low-fat red flesh, the medium fatty part, and the fatty part.Each part has its own taste and texture.

And my favorite sushi, salmon roe and uni.

Japanese foodie on 18th June

MEAT MEAT MEAT DAY!!

 I eat Japanese meat in Akihabara.
recently, I am getting older, so I like red meat more than fatty meat.

Japanese meat, quality is so awesome.

There are many part of meat.

We ate rump and thick flank. 

Japanese foodie on 14th June

Most people love tempura.
It also have seasonal tempura in each season.
My home country, In Ehime, there is one tempura restaurant.
We can eat tempura as soon as they fried it, soooo yummy.
I ate tempura course and drunk Japanese sake.

Shrimp tempura.　It is big prawn, so sweet taste

Seasonal vegetable, corn and asparagus

Pumpkin

Fava beans and sand borer

One dish is very small size, but I was so happy to eat !!

There are few restaurant in which they serve only tempura, but if you love tempura, you should go there. It is different style restaurant.

Japanese foodie on 12th June

In Japan, we have four seasons.
each season has each seasonal fish.
For example, we eat blowfish in winter. Usually we do not eat it in summer because it is not delicious in summer.
In summer, seasonal fish is

アオリイカ　squid
Very fresh squid, color is　transparent

 鯵　horse mackerel

 ひらまさ
I love this tempura

鱧 

It is main summer fish for me. It is boiled and we eat it with salt plum sause

鮎 

It is river fish. Usually we eat grilled it with salt.

Each season has each seasonal food. If you come to Japan in summer, try it!

Japanese foodie on 11th June

It is high quality restaurant. we say ' kappou' 割烹

They serve many kind of food , each dishes are little quantity.

Some people can eat only one bite www.

But, they spend a lot of time for cooking.

We ate rare food, row whale.

It was so soft and yummy .

It matched Japanese sake.

Japanese foodie in 10th June

Most Japanese people like hormone.
Hormone is inner part of beef.

I like tempra of hormone.

It's juicy and they have a lot of collagen.

But, if we eat a lot, we had a lot of calorie.

www.

But , today  I do not care about it!!

After eating hormone, we went to ramen restaurant.

so yummy~~~

Traditional Japanese wedding party

My best friend had a wedding party in Japan.

Usually, we wear a wedding white dress, but some people wear traditional Japanese dress. My friend had bridal in temple.

It's traditional performance. They were making rice cake.

Food was also good~~

Pretty cake

I'm in Japan!! Japanese foodie in Japan trip on 8th June

I came back to Japan during summer vacation!!

As soon As arriving Haneda airport, I ate Japanese food!!

I love uni, salmon roe. 

This restaurant is 「荒」ara.

It's famous for beef tongue.

If you arrived in Haneda airport, try it!!

Cherry Blossom Viewing

In Tokyo, cherry trees are finishing blooming.
Cherry blossoms bloom between late March and April, in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.The peak bloom period depends on the place and climate.
The peak bloom period was fast in this year.
Japanese people love cherry blossoms not only because they are beautiful but also because they only bloom for a very short period.
Cherry trees are attractive because their life is short , so most people go to park while they work, after work and drink alcohol and eat food. We enjoy outside activity from this season because it is getting warm.
But, in my opinion, this season is important turning point for Japanese people.
All Japanese school begin from this season. Also, most new worker who graduated university start to work in a company. 
When I lived in Japan, I set my new mind every this season. For example, I make my goal and plan from April to end of year. 
My goal in this year is to used to speak English. Now, I study CFA exam. I need to get licence of CFA. I make a effort for my goal!!

Grilled rice ball

Yesterday's dinner

Japanese egg omulet

Japanese fried chicken

grilled rice ball

Japanese usually eat 「onigiri」=rice ball. And we sometimes grill rice ball.

I like soy sauce and miso taste grilled rice ball

How to cook

preparation

1 onigiri

2 soy sauce

3 miso

4 milk

1; mix soy sauce, miso, and milk

2; Heat the frying pan and put oil, and put rice ball in the pan

3;Drop the sauce in surface of rice ball, turn over and drop sauce opposite site.

4 turn over again and heat 1 minute. 

That's all. easy and delicious!!

Mackerel simmered in miso

I like mackerel. Usually I eat grilled mackerel with salt, but Mackerel simmered in miso is also good with beer.

Ingredients(2 servings)
mackerel fillet
ginger
2 tbsp sake (30ml)
150ml water
2tbsp miso
2 tbsp suger
1tbsp soy sauce

How to cook
1. put mackerel and water and ginger in a pan and boil.
2 put sake, soy sauce, sugar, miso and boil 8 minutes in the middle fire.
3 put a drop lid on it and simmer for 7 minutes.

easy and good taste.

Yakitori Party

Thare are a lot of snow in Boston.

So cold. In this case, Alcohol help me to keep out the cold.

I made yakitori, oyakodon, potato salad, and karaage in the friend's house.

Japanese sake is awesome!!

Setsubun

February 3rd is a day of Setsubun in Japan.

It refers to the day before beginning the next season.

And we believe that Oni(Japanese devil) comes when season changes in Japan.

That's why we need to prepare exorcising oni.

There are a lot of way, but main methods are

1) We eat roasted beans and throw out side.

2) We eat sushi roll.

February 3rd, I made a sushi roll.

And I made yakitori, and mackerel simmered in miso.

I love it.

Yakirtori

If I go back to Japan, I will eat yakitori everyday.

I could not find yakitori restaurant in the USA.

Yakitori are grilled chicken.

They are made bite sized pieces of meat from different parts of chicken.

There are many kinds of yakitori.

Negima consists of pieces of chicken, usually thigh meat skewered with pieces of leek in between.

Tsukune are meat balls made of minced chicken, egg and vegetables

Kawa or Torikawa are strios of fatty chicken skin , which have been grilled until crispy.

Hatu is a chicken heart.

Sunagimo is chicken gizzard. It has a crunchy texture.

Bonjiri is a chicken tail. It is a little fatty, but taste is so good.

Tebasaki is chicken wings with bone.

They have a lot of parts of chicken.

I love eat yakitori with Japanese beer!!