Natto Essentials

Natto is not just for rice!

Ever heard of natto? They say that real Japanese eat natto. In anime and manga, you would see that there are characters who constantly eat natto or subsist on it. As they say, even just a spoon of natto will go a long way with rice. It is something that is actually served for breakfast. It could also be a condiment, it depends on you.

What is natto?

For the unitiated, natto is fermented soybean. It is likened to blue cheese because of its flavor. It is sticky and you might see that when you get it with your spoon or chopsticks, it has a spider web-like paste. (If you have eaten mozarella cheese sticks, that might be something similar to the web-like paste.) It usually comes in small packages which includes the mustard and tare sauce. If you do not have the sauce, try using soy sauce.

Health benefits of eating natto

• Nattokinase is good for enhancing the circulation of blood.
• Smooth skin thanks to the sticky substance of natto which has polyglutamic acid.
• Stronger bones. Natto has calcium and Vitamin K2, something not usually seen in common food.
• Natto is also good for preventing constipation.
• Neutral fat and cholesterol will be inhibited.
• Natto is also said to prevent the following: dementia, impaired liver action, menopausal disorder,diabetes, allergies, cold and flu.

With these health benefits and more, no wonder the Japanese are quite known for their long lifespans. There really is something about their diet, now that you have seen these bits of information on natto. You could even prepare natto. Do it yourself so that you could understand it further, if you want to truly study natto and its health benefits.

Utada Hikaru - Japanese Pop Sensation

Some people say that music is a universal language. No matter where you go, music will always be one of the things you could find in common with other people. There is something about the way stories are told through music.

It so happens that even when it comes to pop music, Japan boasts of different artists who have shown that they are of international fame and accord. One of them is 23 year-old Utada Hikaru. She released her debut single as Cubic U in America. Later on she debuted in Japan as Utada Hikaru and her album was “First Love.”

Utada’s music could be said to be R&B and it is definitely not like the enka music that her mother used to sing. It is actually quite hip and would appeal to teens, no matter what nationality they are.

Utada’s latest album is Ultra Blue. It has the songs Keep Tryin’, Colors, This is Love and Passion, a song featured in Kingdom Hearts II of Square-Enix. A song from her album Sakura Drops, the one entitled Simple and Clean was a song featured in Kingdom Hearts.

Undeniably, Utada’s voice, songs and videos have improved over the years. She keeps on trying out different kinds of songs and if you look at her videos as well, there are huge differences. From the time she debuted as Cubic U and her current ones like Keep Tryin’. She also proven that she is marketable even outside Japan as she has collaborated with other artists like Foxy Brown for the song Blow My Whistle in the soundtrack of Rush Hour 2. Indeed she is one of the people to look up to in Japan.

Grading Sake

Sake is graded by the polishing rate off the original rice kernel ingredient, called the “SEIMAIBUAI” (rice polish ratio). Since polishing is an excruciatingly slow and an intricate art, the super premium Dai Ginjyo Sake is scarce and highly valued.

Here are the grades and their characteristics:

Dai Ginjyo - Super premium, Seimaibuai 50%+, pure and refined, clean fragrance

Ginjyo - Premium, Seimaibuai 60%, smooth, floral and fragrant aroma

Tokubetsu Junmai- Special, Seimaibuai 60% , flavour varies naturally pure brewed

Junmai - 70% Seimaibuai pronounced character naturally pure brewed

* a higher polish rids the ‘impurities’, which reduces the chance for hangovers

There are four basic flavor characteristics of Sake:

* Fragrant - Abundant floral fragrance, low acidity, fruity, young, refreshing flavor. Compliments unadorned, lightly seasoned foods: fresh seafood, smoked salmon, sushi, steamed vegetables, tofu.

* Light - Light and clean aroma, moderate acidity, brisk flavor with generally dry aftertaste or none at all. Pairs with lightly prepared dishes: fresh seafood, sushi, broiled fish, chicken, tempura, light pasta, sandwiches.

* Rich - Rounded bouquet, with a more rich and robust flavor. Best suits richer and creamier dishes: teriyaki seasoned foods, steaks, pate, caviar.

* Aged - Mellow aroma with a unique spice-nutty taste reminiscent to sherry. Golden hue from long aging period of 3-7 years. Suits hearty, stronger dishes, BBQ, deep fried dishes, meat sauces, spicy seasonings.

[tags]sake, wine, beverages[/tags]

How Sake Is Made

Five crucial elements are involved in brewing sake — water, rice, technical skill, yeast, and land/weather. More than anything else, sake is a result of a brewing process that uses rice and lots of water. In fact, water comprises as much as 80% of the final product, so fine water and fine rice are natural prerequisites if one hopes to brew great sake. But beyond that, the technical skill needed to pull this all off lies with the toji (head brewers), the type of yeast they use, and the limitations entailed by local land and weather conditions.

Sake brewing looks something like this. Rice is washed and steam-cooked. This is then mixed with yeast and koji (rice cultivated with a mold known technically as aspergillus oryzae). The whole mix is then allowed to ferment, with more rice, koji, and water added in three batches over four days. This fermentation, which occurs in a large tank, is called shikomi. The quality of the rice, the degree to which the koji mold has propagated, temperature variations, and other factors are different for each shikomi.

This mash is allowed to sit from 18 to 32 days, after which it is pressed, filtered and blended.

The Japanese Bathouse.

The Japanese live in relatively frugal homes and apartments and, while the tide is turning, there are still many people who rent cheap apartments without any bathing facilities whatsoever. This is not considered a great inconvenience, since one of the finest bathing experiences that life has to offer is provided within a few blocks at the local public bathhouse, called either ‘SENto’ or ‘oFUro-ya-san’. Traditionally the local social meeting place, the sento is still a great place to relax and unwind on a nightly basis; and the Japanese do religiously bathe nightly.

As more and more people can afford their own private bath, and as some more modern people turn to using a shower instead, the public bath house became an endangered species. But they have struggled back to popularity by renovating to provide better and more sumptuous facilities. Many people who have the convenience of a nice bath in their own homes still return to the public bathhouse regularly for the sheer pleasure of it.

By the way, until the oil crisis of the early 1970’s, public baths in Japan were open for two sessions in both the morning — from about 10am to 1 or 2 — and again in the evening — from 4 to 11 or 12. (Those were the good old days! … yeah, I was there) But now there is only the evening session, and people who work during those hours are out of luck if they don’t get a “bath break” from work.

While modernization has improved many old sentos, they can usually still be located by looking for the tallest “smokestack” in the neighborhood. Otherwise, the bathhouse is recognized by its large noren (shop curtain) over the doorway with the single phonetic character “yu”, ( meaning ‘hot water’) writ large; and also by the large number of shoes left in the open entryway — ladies’ shoes to one side, gents’ to the other.

That makes it easy to determine which side you should favor, even if you can’t read the ‘men’ and ‘women’ signs. Right there in the entry way you will find little wooden or metal lockers where you can leave your shoes in return for a little metal key, in case you don’t chance leaving your shoes out in the open. But most people just wear little wooden or plastic slippers to the bath house; you can hear them clogging noisily down the street toward the bath in the evenings. Everyone has a little plastic tub under their arm. While tubs are always provided, it is usual for locals to bring their own tub with their soap, shampoo, razor, towel, wash cloth and whatever is needed for the bath, except the stool.

After removing your shoes in the entryway, you step up, temporarily slip into some plastic slippers and approach the superintendent, who takes your money. His or her little podium is just inside, at the entrance to both the men’s and women’s dressing rooms, which can both be more-or-less viewed from that vantage point. Inside the dressing rooms are lockers where you can stash your clothes as you undress. Again there is a little metal key with an elastic band that you can wear around your wrist or ankle. Some people don’t bother locking up.

Also in the dressing rooms are large mirrors, sinks, hair dryers, and almost always a ‘massage chair’ for the magic fingers. There will also be scales, a cooler case with soft drinks, a number of Japanese comic books and magazines, a case with various toiletries for sale, and a couple of fans going full blast to cool you down. There may also be a TV and a small lounge area with a table and chairs where you can sit and read while waiting for your spouse or friends. The space is not huge, but it is all there. There will be a toilet off of each dressing room.

Beyond the dressing room are frosted glass sliding doors leading to the bath areas. Into this area you take your little plastic tub full of toiletries, your little towel, and nothing else. The baths fill most of the large room, with rows of water taps all around the walls. Once inside, you grab a small stool off the stack (and a tub if you didn’t bring one) and find an unoccupied station with water taps. You plop yourself down, arrange your things on the shelf in front of you and begin to wash.

There will be a mirror staring you in the face, and both men and women use the evening bath to shave. You will find both a hot and cold water tap, and if it is at all nice, a separate shower nozzle over your head. Washing is no different than in a private bath; you’re on your own. Your neighbors will be washing only a foot or so to each side of you, but they don’t exist unless you want them to; however small, you can have your private space. You can also ask about the baseball scores or chat about the weather if you’re feeling friendly.

While you’re there, have a look around. In some parts of town, the men’s bath may sport any number of fantastic body tattoos, belonging mainly to the local mafioso. Their ladies do not often favor such embellishments, or so I am told. Most sentos are ‘local’ and neighborhood people meet there and often talk over the day’s happenings.

Japanese Tea Houses and Tea Rooms

Tea houses can be considered the nightclubs of the Edo Period (1600-1867). Tea and other beverages including sake were offered to guests who frequented these establishments in the pleasure quarters of urban areas such as Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo (then, Edo). Usually male customers were entertained by geishas in tea houses and a geisha house would often have close business relationships with tea houses, cooperating in recruitment and public relations.

Any Japanese who can afford it has a special room set aside for use as a “teahouse”. In the most traditional homes, the teahouse will be a separate one room building located in the garden. Where this is not possible, the teahouse may be in a separate room in the house but this room will almost always have its own entrance, one that is separate from the main entrance to the house or apartment. Following the teachings of the famed tea master Rikyu, these tea-ceremony rooms are constructed according to precise specifications, one of the most important being that they will have asymetric proportions that are encouraged to give full range to the imagination of those participating in the tea ceremony.

One comes to a friend’s teahouse not to enjoy warming cups of “o cha” (honorable tea) and conversation as much to engage in acomplex ritual. In the most traditional homes the ritual begins with the invitation of the guests, usually four, after which each will either come by or telephone to express his “zenrei” or polite thanks. On the following day, guests arrive, wearing properly muted kimonos and carrying personal tea cloths and fans. After gathering in either a special waiting room or in the hall of the host’s home, the group walks to the teahouse, preceded by the host or his gardener who caries a bronze sword-like instrument that he waves about as if to lop off any branches that might obstruct his guests or snag their garments, thus symbolizing the host’s desire to give his guests every possible comfort. Before entering the tea house, everyone stops for a ceremonious washing of the face and hands and to remove their sandals.

Then, following the instructions in Okakura-Kakuzo’s classic 18th century “Book of Tea”, “each guest will silently approach the sanctuary, and, if a samurai, will leave his sword on the rack beneath the eaves, the tearoom being preeminently a place of peace. Each guest will then bend low and enter the room through a small door … this being incumbent on all guests, high and low alike, and is intended to inculcate humility. The order of precedence having been mutually agreed upon, the guests one by one will enter noiselessly and take their seats, first making obeisance to the picture or flower arrangement on the tokonoma, a niche especially designed for their display. The host will not enter the room until all of the guests have seated themselves and quiet reigns with nothing to break the silence save the note of the boiling water in the iron kettle…”

The rest of the ceremony goes on in similar ritual fashion, a sequence of precise movements being prescribed for the elevation of the cup to one’s lips, as well as the practice, if a communal bowl is used, of passing it around the table when emptied to be admired by the guests as a work of art. After each guest has made sucking sounds to signify his pleasure at his last sip, and the host his profound obeisance, the company departs through the same door by which they had entered.

How Are Japanese Houses Built?

Traditional Japanese houses are built by erecting wooden columns on top of a flat foundation made of packed earth or stones. Wooden houses exist all over the world. What are the particular characteristics of houses in Japan, where there are four distinct seasons, including a hot and humid summer and a cold winter?

In order to avoid moisture from the ground, the floor is elevated several tens of centimeters and is laid across horizontal wooden floor beams. Areas like the kitchen and hallways have wooden flooring, but rooms in which people sit, such as the living room, are covered with mats called tatami that are made from woven rush grass. Japanese generally don’t use chairs on top of tatami, so people either sit directly on the tatami or on flat cushions called zabuton. This is why people take off their shoes when entering a Japanese house.

The frame of a Japanese house is made of wood, and the weight is supported by vertical columns, horizontal beams, and diagonal braces. Diagonal braces came to be used when the technology of foreign countries was brought to Japan. One characteristic of Japanese houses is that they have a large roof and deep eaves to protect the house from the hot summer sun, and the frame of the house supports the weight of the roof.

In the old days, the walls of houses were made of woven bamboo plastered with earth on both sides. Nowadays, though, many different types of materials have been developed, and plywood is often used. Also, in the past, many houses had columns that were exposed outside the walls. But in the Meiji era (1868-1912), houses came to be made using a method that encases the columns inside the walls in order to reduce the possibility of fire. Many roofs in the past were covered with shingles or straw, but these days most are covered with tiles called kawara. The roof is the part of the house most affected by rain, wind, snow, sunlight, and other natural conditions. Although there are a number of differences among the roofs seen in different areas of Japan, they all have one thing in common: They are sloped instead of flat, allowing rainwater to flow off easily.

Japanese houses have developed over the years by combining traditional forms with modern technology to improve their resistance to fire and their convenience. Recently, though, people are beginning to look anew at the traditional methods of building houses, which are easy on the environment and last a long time.

Japanese Midwives. An Expat’s View

When you start looking at birthing options, you’ll notice that most of the hospitals work with mid-wives. In the USA, mid-wives are virtually synonymous with “natural delivery.” But that’s not necessarily so in Japan. In most hospitals, mid-wives work with mothers prior to the delivery (mainly making them comfortable), but doctors delivered all the babies. Many mid-wives have confirmed that doctors monopolize control of the birth process in most situations. The lack of empowerment can really weaken the role (and, in some cases, the abilities) of mid-wives.

The nurses in Japan also work under the doctor’s firm authority. Once you check into the hospital, and ask the nurses questions about the birth process, some of the answers could be alarming, because they could completely contradict what you hear from the doctor. Despite their confident show of authority, it does prove how little the nurses are actually empowered.

The Origins Of Sumo Wrestling

Sumo is a form of wrestling which goes back to the earliest historical records in Japanese history.

Sumo appears in the earliest histories of Japan, the Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki, and in early Shinto. By the end of the Heian period (794-1185), it was established as a court ritual for some three hundred years. In the later feudal periods, it was occasionally used as a method of resolving political disputes by sending forth sumo wrestlers to decide the issue; rather similar to the feudalistic European practice of using champions to decide the right of an issue by might.

In the Edo period, sumo became a popular feature of urban culture among the merchant class and it emerged as a professional sport with rules and ceremonies which are closely related to today’s. By the early 20th century the various governing bodies of sumo finally joined to create a single professional organization for the sport.

In modern times, sumo has become a professional sport and is extremely popular, arenas for sumo are plentiful throughout Japan. Since it is native to Japan, it can perhaps better be described as the national sport rather than baseball, the only competitor for the title.

Sumo combines some of the most public forms of Shintoritual with the stupendous sight of wrestlers weighing up to 265 kilograms (around 580 pounds) apiece slamming into each other. At first glance, foreigners are frequently repulsed, but continued exposure converts many into fanatics.

The rules of sumo are majestically simple: one of the two wrestlers loses when he is forced out of the wrestling ring which measures about 15 feet in diameter or if anything other than his feet touch the playing surface.

There are 70 ways of beating an opponent listed by the Sumo Association, including such common ones as uwatenage (overarm throw) and shitatenage (underarm throw), but few methods of attack are banned. Wrestlers may trip or slap with an open hand, but eye-gouging, hair-pulling, and hitting with a closed fist are not permitted and will result in forfeiting the bout.

The wrestling ring is a raised clay platform with bales of straw half buried in the clay to outline the circular ring. Wrestlers wear only a thick belt which can be grasped by the opponent and used to lever the wearer out of the ring.

Pretty Boys in Anime and Manga

If you’ve ever wondered about those femme-looking men or boys in anime and manga, it’s because of a preference for “Bishounen,” which is a Japanese term literally meaning “beautiful youth.” It describes an aesthetic widely shared in Asia—a young man whose beauty (and sexual appeal) transcends the boundary of sex. Recently, it has shown strongest manifestation in Japanese and Korean pop culture, but it has roots in ancient Japanese literature, the homosocial and homoerotic ideals of the medieval Chinese imperial court and intellectuals, and Indian aesthetic concepts carried over from Hinduism, imported with Buddhism from China, and Korea.

Today, bishounen is very popular among girls in Japan. Reasons for this social phenomenon may include the unique male/female social relationships found within the genre. Some have theorized that bishounen provides a non-traditional outlet for gender relations. Moreover, it breaks down stereotypes surrounding effete characters. These are often depicted with very strong martial arts abilities, sports talent, high intelligence, or comedic flare, traits that are usually assigned to the hero/protagonist. Although they were depicted as homosexual in manga, most of them in reality are heterosexual.

The prefix bi specifically refers to feminine beauty, and bijin, literally “beautiful person”, is used to refer to a beautiful woman. The bishōnen is typically slender, with a tapered chin, stylish hair, and a facial structure likened to that of a woman, while retaining a male body. (His androgynous appearance is akin to the depiction of angels in Western renaissance art, with similar social roots for this aesthetic.) Occasionally biseinen (literally beautiful man) is seen as a synonym, but biseinen usually refers to a handsome man older than a bishōnen, with bishota referring to a beautiful, pre-pubescent male child. These terms do not appear in Japanese, but are conjunctions created by Western fans from Japanese loan-words. In the west, bishōnen is the most popular of the three terms, and has become the generic term for all beautiful boys and young men.

The aesthetic of the bishonen is first recorded in Lady Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji, written in about the year 1000 C.E. Genji concerns the exploits and romances of a young prince, the son of an emperor and beloved concubine, who is not in line to inherit the throne, and follows his intrigues through the court as he comes of age. It is a classic novel, typifying the Heian age of Japanese history - a period when culture’s obsession with romance, and a sense of refined aesthetics pervaded society. Prince Genji’s beauty is described as transcendental, so much so that “one could have wished him a woman”, with a bewitching attraction that is acknowledged by men and women alike; however, with one brief, comical exception, Genji’s sexuality is only manifested towards women.

The aesthetic of the bishōnen began as an ideal of a young homosexual lover, likely arising from the effeminate male actors who played female characters in Kabuki theater. It is perpetuated today in anime and manga, especially shōjo manga and anime, shōnen-ai, and yaoi.