Goods From Japan | Japan Shop

Happi Coats

Japanese Chocolates

Kombu Japanese Kelp

Family Mart Line Socks in White & Black

by Johannes Schonherr

Family Mart Line Socks

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Sun, 1 Feb 2026 13:38:00 +0900

Family Mart Line Socks ファミリーマートソックス

Convenience stores are ubiquitous in Japan. In large cities you won't have to walk for more than a minute or two to reach the nearest konbini as they are called in Japan, the countryside is also dotted with them.

Convenience stores are generally open 24/7, in smaller towns they may be the only option to buy food, beer or cigarettes late at night. There, they are islands of light and warmth in a cold winter night.

The food on sale ranges from heated nikuman pork buns to bento boxes to onigiri rice balls to sandwiches to a large variety of snacks. Cheese tara are always on offer. The coffee is freshly brewed on site.

You can pay your bills at the counter. Yes, those electricity bills, etc. arriving at your home mailbox. You can ship packages from convenience stores, you can buy concert tickets there.

The ATMs at the convenience stores are usually the only ones processing foreign credit cards late at night, thus providing cash to foreign visitors at all times. Cash often needed at those cozy izakaya bars where cards are rarely accepted.

In short, Japanese convenience stores offer crucial lifelines at all times, even if all you need is a free, clean toilet or a free WiFi connection.

There are three major convenience store chains in Japan: Seven Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson. They all offer the same services, some details differ.

Family Mart

The Family Mart chain for example is famous for their roasted chicken, known as Famichiki.

Family Mart is the second largest of the three chains (Seven Eleven is the largest) and it has been an innovator in the industry since its inception.

The first Family Mart opened in 1973 near Iriso Station in Sayama City, just north of Tokyo. In the heart of the Sayama Tea area.

Today, Family Mart operates about 16,4000 stores in Japan and another 8,000 or so in foreign markets like Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, there are close to 3000 stores in mainland China alone.

Family Mart Apparel

What of the above makes Family Mart a fashion hub, though, you may rightly ask. Maybe a place to buy some fresh socks after a long hike in summer but not much more?

For decades, it was exactly like that. But then, Family Mart shifted gears. Fashion was to become one of their trademarks.

Basic fashion, of course, things residents and visitors alike needed quickly and on a daily basis. Like, yes, socks.

In 2021, Family Mart teamed up with Tokyo designer Hiromichi Ochiai and tasked him with a fashion line fitting the Family Mart image.

Family Mart Line Socks

Ochiai started out with the by now iconic Family Mart Line Socks. Thick unisex white socks made of wool and polyester, antibacterial and deodorizing, featuring towards their calf ends the green and blue lines that mark every Family Mart store.

People familiar with Family Mart (virtually everybody in Japan) would immediately recognize the source of the the socks. No logo was needed to achieve this effect.

Covid

The socks hit the shelves at the height of the Covid pandemic. It was a time when shopping trips went down to the barest minimum. People tried to avoid crowded trains, crowded department stores and so on and reduced their shopping to small stores in their immediate environs as much as possible.

Getting on a train to buy socks was out of the question. Many went to the convenience stores looking for reliable daily-use products beyond food and stationery.

That Family Mart was suddenly offering cheap, warm quality socks with a simple but easily recognizable design was greatly helpful at the time. People snapped them up and started to write about them on their blogs and in their discussion forums, creating quite a hype.

Convenience Wear

Meanwhile, Hiromichi Ochiai had bigger plans. In collaboration with Family Mart, he started a new fashion brand named Convenience Wear.

He designed towels, underwear, boxer shorts, T-shirts, sweat shirts, tank tops, hoodies, cardigans and even light jackets. All in basic black or white with a few sparse color lines thrown in. All quality products. Simple, durable, convenient.

If anyone wanted to, it would be possible to almost completely dress in Family Mart / Ochiai's Convenience Wear items.

Seasonal & Regional Products

Family Mart and Ochiai quickly understood that with the big fan base that had built up on the original Line Socks, seasonal and regional variations were to become much sought-after products.

That's exactly the way they went. Offering Line Socks with the colors of the lines geared towards the season, offering special editions for, say, the Fuji Rock Festival, as well as special editions for different regions. They also went into partnerships with the Simpsons and other major pop cultural players.

All of that of course being a tried and tested concept in Japan, best known in the food and snack sector.

It worked out with the Line Socks just as well, with fans searching out all the different varieties.

Foreign Visitors

Once the Covid pandemic was over, millions of foreign visitors entered Japan again. Soon more than ever before, lured by a cheap Yen and government policies focusing on aggressive tourist promotion.

The number of foreign visitors went through the roof. They are still getting higher year by year, all records are constantly broken.

Wherever those visitors are coming from, whatever their way of traveling is (tour group or individual?), they will all end up visiting a number of convenience stores during their stay in Japan.

Stores, they will tell stories about to their friends back home. Those always open, always reliable stores found to be everywhere.

Many of those visitors decided to buy their travel souvenirs right there at the convenience store rather than searching for something meaningful at a Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine.

The Family Mart Line Socks quickly caught their eyes. They were useful, they were easy to pack into the suitcase even in big amounts, they were profoundly Japanese. Insignias of the modern Japan. Easy and convenient gifts or memories.

That foreign visitors picked up the Family Mart Line Socks in such a great number led eventually major news outlets like the BBC in Britain and CNN in America to investigate the matter … publishing major online texts that further enhanced sales among visitors.

Whatever their wording, those news outlets all agreed on one basic thing: that, yes, the Family Mart Line Socks made great souvenirs / gift. Easy to purchase, convenient, useful, stylish… and absolutely Japanese.

Buy Iconic Convenience Socks from Japan

Goods from Japan offers a variety of Japanese clothing including tabi socks and tabi shoes.

Japanese gunsoku socks

Charcoal tabi socks

Purchase a range of Japanese footwear from GoodsFromJapan.

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

by Johannes Schonherr

Japan's Longest Day Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 17:28:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: Japan's Longest Day: Intrigue, Treason and Emperor Hirohito's Fateful Decision to Surrender

Japan's Longest Day

by Kazutoshi Hando and Yukinobu Hoshino

ISBN: 978-4-8053-1779-2
Tuttle Publishing, 2023 (English version)
480 pp; paperback

In the closing days of World War II, a few days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had completely eviscerated any faint hopes that Japan could win or even continue the war, the Japanese cabinet met to discuss and vote on the surrender of Japan and acceptance of the conditions set out in the Potsdam Conference. The vote was a tie, and nobody knew what to do or what was next.

Finally, Emperor Hirohito took decisive action, telling the cabinet members that the war had been lost and Japan would agree to the surrender terms. The fighting would end.

However, not everyone agree. In fact, some high-ranking military leaders decided to try to overthrow Hirohito and his planned surrender, continuing the war until every single Japanese was dead, if necessary. That was the only "honorable" possibility. Known historically as the Kyujo Incident, Japan's Longest Day is about this incident.

The day in question was August 14-15, 1945. Hirohito's recorded announcement of surrender was to be played on the 15th. On the night of the 14th Major Kenji Hatanaka and his men spent several hours searching for Hirohito's recording, a recording which was to be played for the nation at noon the next day. Unable to find the recording, the men occupied the NHK Building in an attempt to prevent the broadcast. Hatanaka had support from some factions of the military, but not quite enough to complete his coup. He abandoned the idea, went outside and killed himself.
It is important to know that while the general story is fairly well documented, parts of this graphic novel are speculation. The author opines that Hirohito had been blackmailed from the start to not oppose the war, even though he was generally against it. Potential historical reasons are given.

Two movies have been made about the Kyujo story: The 1967 film entitled, "Japan's Longest Day" and the 2015 film entitled, "The Emperor in August." Both movies are done in Japanese.

The overly picky could point out a few minor annoyances with the manga. First, there are half a dozen or so typos. Secondly, and perhaps it is a necessity and not an annoyance, is that the reader is swamped with many names and titles to keep straight.

One interesting touch is that the manga opens backwards from Western tomes, meaning the spine is on the right, not the left; so, the manga opens like old-style Japanese books did. This add to the authentic Japanese feeling of the manga, which was originally published in Japanese.

Japan's Longest Day is a gripping look at the anatomy of political decision-making under extreme duress. It shows that wars' conclusions can be as perilous and uncertain as wars' geneses. History buffs will be intrigued.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections: What 11 Years in Provincial Japan Taught Me.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

Purchase Ishigaki salt from GoodsFromJapan.com

Ishigaki Sea Salt Okinawa Japan

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Sat, 3 Jan 2026 23:10:00 +0900

The Taste of the Southern Seas - Ishigaki Sea Salt 石垣島

History | Okinawa | Buy Ishigaki Sea Salt

by Johannes Schonherr

Ishigaki Sea Salt, harvested from the crystal clear waters of Nagura Bay on the subtropical island of Ishigaki in the far southwest of Japan is a strong-tasting, mineral-rich salt bringing the fragrance of Japan's southern seas right to your palate.

The fragrance of a southern island famous for its coral waters, fresh seafood but also for the beef raised further inland. It's a very fine, powder-like salt produced in a small local facility - but wait, maybe we should give the salt a bit of historical context first.

Ishigaki coastline, Okinawa

History

Driving around the Japanese countryside, you sometimes spot a vintage grocery store proudly displaying the words 酒タバコ塩 in a prominent spot next to the name of the business. Those words mean "liquor, tobacco, salt". They also signify that the business had its full accreditation afforded by the government since liquor, tobacco, and salt were under strict state control.

While this is still the case with liquor and tobacco, the Japanese government eventually relaxed the regulations in the case of salt. In 1997, the government lifted all restrictions.

Ishigaki sea salt factory

Soon, small privately-owned sea salt processing facilities sprang up all along Japan's coasts. Stop at any rural seaside michi-no-eki (roadside rest house featuring a permanent and often quite large local farmer's market) and you will find packages of the locally produced sea salt.

From Okhotsk Sea Salt on the northern shore of Hokkaido taken from the waters bordering Siberia all the way down the non-industrial areas of the Sea of Japan coast to Kyushu. There, Amakusa Sea Salt from the Amakusa Islands in Nagasaki is especially sort after. The scenic Japanese Inland Sea has its very own culture of producing sea salt and so does Okinawa.

With that great diversification of locally produced salts, soon a Japanese salt gourmet culture sprang up. People began to compare which salt fitted which dishes best. Salt aficionados took long tours to visit famous salt spots to build up salt collections for their kitchens - so they could choose which salt to use for which dish.

Salt cooker and salt processing by hand

Okinawa

Okinawa became the center of this salt-sampling culture. Paradise Plan, a small company producing especially mild sea salt in a flaky form named Yukishio (Snow Salt) on the island of Miyakojima, was the first to act on the trend. They opened a store named Masuya (salt store) in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, offering 120 kinds of salt sourced worldwide.

From Himalayan rock salt to North American and Mediterranean to obscure stone salts hammered out of the Argentinian Andes, the Naha Masuya had it all. Still, their focus was on local Okinawa salts. By now, you can find Masuya salt stores in Tokyo and other major Japanese cities, employing salt sommeliers who take care of all your salty needs.

Salt cleaning by hand

Ishigaki Sea Salt

One of the most featured salts in any Masuya store is Ishigaki no Shio, Ishigaki Sea Salt from the island of Ishigaki in the Yaeyama archipelago in southern Okinawa.

Located close to Taiwan, Ishigaki has its very own traditional culture. The Yaeyama Islands were once home to 13 different languages, most of them today being considered extinct or close to it.

Walking through the market in Ishigaki City, however, you will overhear plenty of frantic haggling using speech that is decidedly neither Japanese nor Chinese. Those market ladies still make good use of those old languages academic linguists keep worrying about.

Sun drying Ishigaki salt

Enter Tokuhide Togo, a native of the island. A former diver, he was always interested in what the sea had to offer. After the liberation of the salt law in 1997, he turned his occasional experiments with extracting salt from the sea into a business.

Togo's Ishigaki Salt has a much stronger taste than the Miyakojima salt and is a fine powder, applicable to everyday use and simply called Ishigaki no Shio (Ishigaki Salt).

Visitors to the small factory are welcome. There is a small on-site store selling not only the salt in its various forms but also sweets produced using the salt. Delicious stuff. Ishigaki salt cookies are highly recommended.

Ishigaki Sea Salt production steps

A diagram explains, in brief, the patented manufacturing method of the salt: seawater is taken from the bay, sand and stones are filtered out, the water is collected in a tank. The water gets evaporated, thus concentrating the salt. The salt is dried in a sunlit room. Then, it's on to packing and the product is ready for sale.

Pipes take fresh water from the sea

A large glass front gives you a peek inside the main processing room where you can see workers in protective gear handle the salt. Stroll down to the shore. There you see two pipes leading into the clean natural bay. Those are the pipes that take the seawater in for salt production. In the far distance, you see another, smaller but hilly island. To the right, you can see the Omoto-dake, at 526 meters the highest mountain in all of Okinawa. From there, the Nagura River flows down into the sea, assuring a constant cleaning of the water in the bay. Quite a peaceful scenery.

Buy Ishigaki Sea Salt

While a visit to the Ishigaki Sea Salt factory is highly recommended, you can easily buy the salt online from Goods from Japan.

If you are interested in other Japanese sea salts as well, building up a small collection for your kitchen, Goods from Japan will cater to all your needs. Just contact us, we are more than happy to help.

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

Happi Coats

Hoshigaki

Sayama Japanese Green Tea

Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer

Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 13:34:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer

by Robert K. Fitts

ISBN: 978-1-4962-1951-0
University of Nebraska Press, 2014
232 pp; paperback

Part-pioneer, part-legend, part wide-eyed innocent kid and (unintentionally) part-baseball troublemaker, Japan's Masanori "Mashi" Murakami had one of the most interesting and consequential careers in baseball history.

In 1964, the Nankai Hawks of Japan's Pacific League sent their promising 19-year-old left-handed pitcher with two other young players to America to improve their skills. While the two other players struggled, Murakami thrived for the Class A (low minor leagues) Fresno Giants, the San Francisco Giants' affiliate.

On August 29, Murakami struck out 10 of the 12 batters he faced for a four-inning save. By September 1st, he was pitching in the majors.

The S.F. Giants, deep in a pennant race, desperately needed a left-handed reliever, so bypassing their AA and AAA players, they shockingly called up Murakami. Murakami was thrust into high-pressure situations armed with little more than a savage curveball and pinpoint control. He spoke very little English and knew next to nothing about America.

At that season's end, the Giants offered Murakami a contract for the 1965 season. He quickly signed, even though he was then unable to read English. Problematically, he was already under contract to return to the Nankai Hawks for the 1965 season. The conflict quickly drew the attention of both Japan and America's baseball commissioners, and a legal battle ensued.

It was finally decided that Mashi would pitch for San Francisco for one more year, then return to Japan. Still, the bad blood between the two commissioners and the two leagues resulted in no more Japanese players being allowed to play in America for 30 years. The next Japanese to play in America was the famous Hideo Nomo.

Author Fitts' research for the book is remarkable. He interviewed Murakami three times over a period of 10 years, and gained access to Murakami's diaries. Other players and team personnel made themselves available for interviews, too, and Fitts must have spent many hours poring through old newspaper clippings.

The details on a number of famous incidents – for example the Giants-Dodgers game in 1965 where Giants' star pitcher Juan Marichal cracked Dodgers' catcher John Roseboro over the head with his bat - are fantastic. As a former sportswriter myself who grew up near San Francisco, I knew a lot about this incident, but still got some new information from Fitts.

The book is not just about baseball. There are numerous insights into 1960s social turmoil, but not enough to slow down the pace of the book. Of course, Murakami's personal life is covered, too, starting from when he was just four years old.

The appendix (filled with Murakami's stats) and attributions to his research are impressive.

Note: Mashi is one of three books written by Fitts about Japan and baseball. The others are Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan, and Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Baseball. These books can be purchased by clicking on the links above.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections: What 11 Years in Provincial Japan Taught Me.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

A Geek in Japan: Discovering the Land of Manga, Anime, Zen, and the Tea Ceremony

A Geek in Japan Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Sat, 8 Nov 2025 11:35:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: A Geek in Japan: Discovering the Land of Manga, Anime, Zen, and the Tea Ceremony

by Hector Garcia

ISBN: 978-4-8053-1129-5
Tuttle Publishing, 2010
160 pp; paperback

A Geek in Japan is a vibrant, visually stunning guide exploring Japanese culture through the eyes of, it would appear, a knowledgeable, hardcore Japanophile, who melds tradition and modernity with enthusiasm and insight.

Helping the book's appeal is its large size of 19x25 cm, or 7.5x10 inches. This allow for hundreds of large, colorful and easy-to-see photos. The sidebars and infographics are equally impressive.

A Geek in Japan

The book covers a lot of ground, starting with the origins of Japanese culture, the traditional arts and the unique Japanese character, including the famous work culture. Then, the geekier parts kick in with sections on society today, the world of manga and anime (what would a book about geeks and Japan be without discussing manga and anime?), modern music and media, and finally travel in Japan in general and in Tokyo in specific.

One of the book's strong suits is its handling of Japanese aesthetics and values; for example ideas such as wabi-sabi (the art and beauty of imperfection) and omotenashi (hospitality), which are found in everything from architecture to interpersonal relationships. Of course, Japan's two major religions of Shinto and Buddhism are discussed, including how they coexist and still influence festivals and daily rituals.

While most of the book is fun and entertaining, there are a few places that dip into the darker side of Japan; for example, suicides and their aftermath, especially for those who cease their existence by jumping in front of trains in Tokyo. Sometimes, their families are fined up to ¥100 million "to cover the cost of cleaning services and delays across the lines."

There are only two possible "issues" about the book, and both are pretty insignificant.

First, since the book was published in 2010, there are a few things that are a bit dated. Tsukiji, long known as the place for 5 a.m. trips to see the active fish market, has closed down. Also, while listing "current" singers and groups, the names Orenji Renge and Kumi Koda among others are mentioned. Today's young and hip probably don't know these names. Also, Yamamba and other short-lived fashions are a bit out of date.

Second, while an impressive number of subjects are covered, none are covered in depth, as no section extends beyond one page. Still, that is a little like criticizing McDonalds for not serving gourmet food: that's not the purpose of the whole thing.

Even self-declared Japanophiles can learn something from the book. After all, who among us can quickly explain the difference between gothic, amaloli, classic, wa, qi and erotic lolitas?

Overall, this book never disappoints.

A Geek in Japan is one of a series of books by Tuttle Publishing. There are also similar looking and similarly laid out "Geek" books about Korea, Thailand, China and Indonesia.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections: What 11 Years in Provincial Japan Taught Me.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

Mashi: The Unfulfilled Dreams of Masanori Murakami

Purchase a range of Japanese foodstuffs and drinks from GoodsFromJapan.

Katsuobushi & Katsuobushi Kezuriki

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Sat, 8 Nov 2025 10:48:00 +0900

Bonito Flakes in the Kitchen: Katsuobushi and the Katsuobushi Kezuriki 鰹節と鰹節削り器

What is Katsuobushi? | History | Famous Production Areas | Shaving the Katsuobushi | Buy Katsuobushi

Katsuobushi fillet and katsuobushi kezuriki

Remember the first time you were served okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes) in one of those dark, dingy, tiny but homely restaurants in Osaka? The first time you received a boat of takoyaki (wheat batter balls containing a piece of octopus)? Did you wonder what those wildly fluttering flakes on top of the dish? Those flakes almost seem to have a life of their own! It's the heat of the dishes underneath that makes them vibrate.

Those flakes are called katsuobushi and you encounter them in Japan quite frequently and in many different ways. They are used as soup stock, mixed with rice in onigiri rice balls and as topping on an endless variety of dishes ranging from tofu to soba noodles to meat (especially chicken), more recent recipes even include them as toppings on avocado and other imported foods.

Katsuobushi fillets

What is Katsuobushi?

Now, what are those katsuobushi? Roughly translated, katsuobushi means dried bonito flakes. Katsuo is the Japanese name for the skipjack bonito, a fish belonging to the tuna family.

The best meat of those fish, usually caught in the waters surrounding southern Japan, is filleted by hand and knife. Work that needs quite some skill. An experienced worker cuts the fillets from the fish in less than a minute.

Those fillets are then simmered close to the boiling point for an hour or more, then wood smoked up to a month. A smoking session lasts about six hours, then the fillet rests for a day. This process is repeated for about 12 to 15 times. Finally, the fillet is sun-dried for about two weeks with the help of a special mold, the Aspergillus glaucus. The mold ferments the fillet and removes any residual moisture.

When ready for sale, those fillets are hard as wood and brown on the outside, resembling short sticks of firewood. On the inside, they are a blackish purple. After scraping a section of the fillet, the exposed parts glisten in the light like dark, colored glass.

A katsuobushi-centered meal: katsuobushi-topped tofu, katsuobushi-topped bamboo sprouts, rice mixed with katsuobushi, miso soup using katsuobushi stock

History

Dried bonito is as old as Japan. The most ancient books refer to it as do the legends of the Ainu, the original inhabitants of the islands. Dried bonito could be stored for a long period, it was easy to transport, it was very nutritious and it was very tasty when mixed with rice. That ancient dried bonito was however not the same as the katsuobushi flakes in use today.

Those were invented by a man named Jintaro Kadoya in the Kumano domain (today's Wakayama Prefecture) in the mid-1600s. Kadoya came up with the concept of fumigating the katsuo fillets to preserve them in the best possible way.

Not finding the success with his invention he had hoped for in his native Kumano, Kadoya moved to the Tosa domain on the southern shore of Shikoku (today's Kochi Prefecture). There, the bonito catches were better and the locals embraced Kadoya's production method.

Producing katsuobushi in Tosa proved to be very challenging, however. The climate was wet and mold easily settled on the fillets when set out for sun-drying.

But soon, the Tosa locals producing katsuobushi in Kadoya's way learned how to deal with that ever pervasive mold. They incorporated the mold into the production process, turning the mold from a nuisance into the final step of refinement.

Tosa katsuobushi soon became all the rage on the markets of Edo and Osaka.

The production process was a closely guarded secret but that secret soon leaked out to the Satsuma domain (today's Kagoshima Prefecture). Production conditions in Kagoshima were very similar to those of Tosa (Kochi).

Traditional katsuobushi kezuriki

Famous Production Areas

Kochi and Kagoshima Prefectures are still the main producers of katsuobushi today. They got the brand name recognition, they got the history and the experience of family-run firms dealing with the product for centuries.

Shaving the Katsuobushi

Most common today are factory-shaved katsuobushi flakes. Those are sold in plastic bags in all Japanese supermarkets and they are the most easy to use.

It’s more fun, though, to produce the katsuobushi flakes in your kitchen by yourself. To do so, you need a special tool to shave the flakes from the wood-like katsuobushi fillet.

Traditionally, for this purpose a katsuobushi kezuriki is used. Essentially, that’s a wooden box with a blade inserted. You move the katsuobushi fillet with a certain amount of strength over the blade functioning as a sort of wood plane. The shaved-off flakes are collected in the drawer below the blade.

Working the blade needs a certain amount of practice, though. You need to figure out how exactly to hold the fillet stick and what amount of pressure to apply. If done incorrectly, the result of the shaving will be rather a reddish rough powder than the desired flakes.

That powder is delicious and can be used in salads, for example. But you wanted the flakes, right? The real thing.

Those can be more easily produced using a mechanic katsuobushi shaving machine. Of course, the mechanic shaver leaves you a little short on the experience of cooking in real traditional Japanese style but it provides you with the desired result easily and efficiently.

A katsuobushi fillet and katsuobushi kezuriki

Buy Katsuobushi

Goods from Japan offers all the options, the wood-like fillet sticks and the old-style kezuriki as well as two kinds of mechanic shavers, one named the Okaka and the other the Kakuta-Kun, and of course, the most easy-to-use bagged factory-made katsuobushi flakes.

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

Cedar Leaf Incense

Happi Coats

Japanese Chocolates

Kombu Japanese Kelp

The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and Other Short Stories

by Johannes Schonherr

Purchase a Katsuobushi Shaving Machine Kakuta-kun

The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 17:14:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper and Other Short Stories

by Rebecca Otowa

ISBN: 978-4-8053-1551-4
Tuttle Publishing, 2020
160 pp; hardback

Short stories that are written about Japan by non-Japanese with decades of experience living in the Land of the Rising Sun are sometimes a mixed bag, but more often than not interesting to read and ponder. Rebecca Otowa's latest work fits in the “interesting to read and ponder” category.

Otowa, the author and illustrator of this book, melds a variety of locales and eras with her own life experiences in telling 13 well-crafted stories. The stories, all of which are set in Japan, range in length from eight to 18 pages.

Most of the stories are set in modern times, although there are stories set in the 1950s, the 1940s and one which is set in the early 17th century. A few of the stories are based on Japanese history and/or Otowa's family history.

Perhaps the reason she can write in such broad strokes covering such ground is her own life story. Otowa was born in America, studied Japanese language and culture in Australia, moved permanently to Japan in the late 1970s, obtained an M.A. in Japanese Buddhism and has been married for 40 years to a 19th generation heir to a Japanese country estate.

Included in the writing are stories touching on hoarding, suspected murders, regret at helping continue generational family abuse, suicide and a 15-year-old's desperate arranged marriage to a 32-year-old war-ravaged solder suffering from PTS. There are also a ghost or two mixed in some stories. Although it is difficult to narrow her themes to just a few, fears of ageing and hardships for Japanese women are themes readers will see more than once.

Otowa's deep knowledge of and experiences with Japan and its culture and people give her a special insight and allows her to write with such depth. People who know Japan well will appreciate this book most, although knowledge of Japan is not necessary to learn and enjoy. Her readers, with their varying levels of knowledge about Japan, will understand the books at different levels.

The usually-clever endings to the stories will alternately lead the reader to feel surprise, disappointment, sadness and at times, wistfulness. The writing is tight, with no red herrings or superfluous characters.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

Rural Relections: What 11 Years in Provincial Japan Taught Me

We'll Prescribe You a Cat

We'll Prescribe You a Cat

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 09:24:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: We'll Prescribe You a Cat

by Syou Ishida

ISBN: 978-0-593-81874-9
Penguin Random House LLC, 2024
297 pp; hardback

Five patients who are struggling with life's difficulties find their way one by one to the mysterious Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul in the back streets of Kyoto. Each meets the same seemingly uncaring receptionist and not-mentally-all-there doctor, and each of the five is given a two-week "prescription" of a cat to solve their problems. Insightful readers can perhaps glean some of this just from the title of the book.

The patients consist of a troubled elementary school girl, two floundering businessmen, a hard-charging working woman and a young geisha; each with their own sets of challenges. All five are puzzled and a little apprehensive about their unique "medicine," and things go haywire for a few of them before the cats' magic starts to work.

Western readers familiar with the Japanese concept of yokai (often defined as a class of supernatural entities and spirits in Japanese folklore) will see a bit of that in the book, especially in the last two of the five chapters. That out-of-norm storytelling is part of the charm of the book.

The cats (Bee, Margot, Koyuki, Tank and Mimita, among a few others) do the magic, but most of the stories are focused on their short-term owners. The cats don't speak or use telepathy or magic.

Being a cat lover will likely raise the chances of readers enjoying the book, although being a feline fanatic is certainly not necessary to be amused by Ishida's writing. The book was originally written in Japanese and some might complain that a few things get fuzzed up in the translation. Perhaps some of that can be explained by people who don't get the yokai concept. Offbeat and quirky are words frequent used by Westerners when discussing Japanese fiction, and both are appropriate for this book.

Originally written for adults, children can also enjoy the book as it is an easy read because even though it checks in at almost 300 pages, the book size is only 5.2 by 7.25 inches (13.2 cm by 18.4 cm).

The book is gaining international acclaim, and the back cover claims that plans are in place for the book to be published in 17 languages. To date, it has been published in English, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Polish.

I wonder how cats say "meow" in Polish.

There is a follow up to this book called, We'll Prescribe You Another Cat.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections: What 11 Years in Provincial Japan Taught Me.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper

Buy a 500g Pack of Hidaka Kombu

Japanese Kelp Kombu (Seaweed)

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 00:26:00 +0900

Japanese Kelp Kombu 昆布

Umami | Kombu in Japanese Cooking | Hokkaido Kombu | Buy Kombu

Dried kombu

Japan being an island country, it may come as no surprise that Japanese cuisine relies heavily on products taken from the sea. Not only fish, shrimps, crabs and other oceanic creatures but also a large variety of seaweed.

Wakame and nori may be the most widely known of these seaweeds outside of Japan. Nori as an essential part of maki sushi (sushi rolls), wakame for the delicious wakame soup accompanying many traditional Japanese dishes.

Then, there is kombu, Japanese edible kelp. Kombu, growing in the cold waters around Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku, made a comparatively late entry into Japanese cuisine.

Sure, kombu was delivered to the court of the Shogun as a tribute by the rulers of the northern domains already in Edo times (1603-1868) but kombu really took off in the general Japanese kitchen during the Meiji period (1868-1912) when Japan fully colonized Hokkaido.

Steam ship ferries and the newly constructed railway system made kombu, previously mainly a staple in Ainu cooking, available all over the country at a low price.

Amazingly, the southern-most island group of Okinawa, only recently acquired after a war with China (1894-95) picked up on the kombu the strongest. Okinawans know what's tasty and are generally more than ready to incorporate new ingredients into their cooking.

Fishing for kombu in Rausu, Hokkaido

Umami

Meanwhile, in mainland Japan, Tokyo Imperial University chemistry professor Kikunae Ikeda (1864-1936) sensed during a meal that featured a soup made of kombu dashi (kombu soup stock) a taste he had never encountered before. It was not in the usual range of sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Ikeda immediately focused his studies on that so far unclassified taste. In 1908, he was able to identify Glutamic acid as the source of this particular taste. Kombu is particularly rich in Glutamic acid.

Ikeda named his newly discovered taste variety umami, drawing from the word umai (delicious) in Japanese. Today, umami is a taste variety recognized world-wide.

Rishiri Kombu at Wakkanai Fish Market, Hokkaido

Kombu in Japanese Cooking

Japanese cooks and housewives most likely missed the newspaper stories reporting Ikeda's discovery. They were the ones to actually put that northern sea weed to real use.

Kombu leaves were large and they usually came air dried, the only way to keep them edible after their long journey from Hokkaido.

Cut up into small pieces and boiled, kombu leaves would make for a perfect dashi soup stock, they soon discovered.

Soups based on kombu by itself, soups using kombu in combination with shaved bonito flakes (katsuobushi), kombu combined with shiitake mushrooms, with dried sardines or tobiuo (flying fish), kombu with any type of vegetable. The combinations are endless.

Soon, kombu dashi became the most popular Japanese soup stock, employed in the making of miso soup (a soup that goes with most traditional Japanese meals) as well as in many other types of soup.

Boiled kombu on the other hand could be a great addition to sashimi fish platters.

Small pieces of kombu were frequently added when preparing sushi rice. The strong umami qualities of kombu bringing out the taste of the rice all the stronger and with it, the taste of the sushi.

Boiled and further processed kombu is also frequently employed as tsukudani (rice toppings), and boiled kombu is often served in Japanese salads.

Thick layers of boiled kombu are also rolled up around minced herring. That particular dish, known as kobumaki has become one of the staples of osechi ryori (New Year's Day dishes) but is also enjoyed in other seasons as part of traditional Japanese meals.

It's usually called kobumaki (and not kombumaki) because kombumaki would be somewhat cumbersome to pronounce. The kobu part of the word is taken from yorokobu, meaning being happy or glad.

Rishiri Island

Hokkaido Kombu

Kombu grows as a dense forest on the ocean floor, often in coastal waters.

In the northern regions of Hokkaido, most famously in the waters near Rishiri Island, a small island off the far northwest of Hokkaido, as well as the sea off the Shiretoko Peninsula in the far northeast of Hokkaido, fishermen harvest naturally grown kombu from their boats.

This type of kombu is marketed as tennen (天然), as a product taken straight from the wilds of nature.

Rishiri Kombu and Rausu Kombu are the most famous varieties of tennen kombu sold in Japan today. Rausu being a very picturesque village on the eastern side of the Shiretoko Peninsula, home to many kombu fishermen braving the cold ocean here.

In the south of Hokkaido, kombu tends to be farmed. That is, the kombu forests grow under direct supervision of the fishermen and are regularly harvested.

The two most famous brands from southern Hokkaido are Hidaka Kombu from the town of Hidaka and Shiroguchihama Kombu produced in an area known as Minami Kayabe.

When cutting Shiroguchihama Kombu, the inside of the leaves turns out to be white. Pure mannitol showing up, the sugar alcohol built up inside the salty plant. It's exactly that mannitol that is responsible for the strong umami taste of kombu.

Minami Kayabe, located near the city of Hakodate in the very south of Hokkaido was a Japanese domain already in Edo times. The local ruler not only paid his tribute to the Shogun in Edo with the locally grown kombu but also delivered it all the way down to the Imperial Court in Kyoto.

Rishiri Kombu

Buy Kombu & Japanese Foods

Goods from Japan offers a variety of Japanese foods and kitchen utensils.

Kombu as such is generally sold in dried form. When you open a package of dried kombu, some of the dried leaves will have a white residue on them. That is not mold, it is the mannitol making its way to the surface. The very substance responsible for the taste of the kombu.

Dried kombu can be shipped internationally. Kobumaki are best enjoyed on your visit to Japan.

Suribachi & Surikogi Set

Buy ground sansho pepper from S&B

Buy sansho rinds from Mascot

Purchase a range of Japanese foodstuffs and drinks from GoodsFromJapan.

Kobumaki

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

Daruma Dolls - History & Symbolism

Cedar Leaf Incense

Cheese Tara

Natori Luxurious Cheese Tara 5 packs

by Johannes Schonherr

Sunrise near Rausu, Hokkaido

Cheese Tara Japanese Snacks

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 09:54:00 +0900

Cheese Tara チーズ鱈

What is Cheese Tara? | History | Iburigakko Cheese | Buy Cheese Tara

Traveling around the country or walking across a city, you may suddenly crave a snack. Not something stomach-filling like an onigiri rice ball, just a light snack to be consumed with a coffee or a beer on a bench right outside that castle or whatever attraction you are headed to.

Stop by any convenience store, supermarket or drug store and you will find a large selection of potential goodies. The selection slims down considerably if you decide that you are not in the mood for anything sweet.

Beef jerky? Roasted nuts? Feels too much like the bodega back home? Something more Japanese, please?

Japan wouldn't be Japan if it wouldn't immediately offer a perfect solution to your inquiries.

Grab a bag or two of Cheese Tara. Those are very Japanese products, a bit exotic perhaps but not that strange after all. They are not sweet, they go well with coffee or beer, they are light and easy to transport, they don't need any refrigeration.

Ideal for mountain hikes, as small food at the campfire or when sharing beers with friends in a park.

What is Cheese Tara?

"Cheese Tara", also sold under the shortened name "Chee-Tara" translates to "Cheese Cod" - and that's exactly what it is: sticks of cheese sandwiched between layers of cod.

Sounds strange? Well, try it. The combination of cheese and fish is perfectly balanced, the texture is pleasing and the taste very agreeable to Western palates. Slightly salty, the cheese brings out its full flavor and, amazingly, is greatly assisted doing so by the thin layers of cod.

Once you had a pack or two, you might just develop a crave for it. There is a reason why Cheese Tara is available all over the place including the conbinis inside the train stations. People just like to use it as a light travel snack.

History of Cheese Tara

How did Cheese Tara come about? It's certainly not directly rooted in traditional Japanese food or even Japanese bar snacks. Or is it?

In most Western countries, you traditionally have a large evening meal before heading out to the bars for the drinks. Those beers at the bar are then just consumed as such, safe for a little plate of peanuts or so to go with them.

In Japan, however, food and drink are inseparable. You can't just go to a traditional izakaya bar and order drinks only. You have got to eat something while drinking. Typically, small servings of sashimi (sliced raw fish), fried squid or the like but the possibilities are endless, depending on the establishment and the region it is located in.

Post World War II, those izakaya bars also started to offer Westernized snacks to go with the sake, shochu und beers. "Westernized" meaning Japanese creations that had a certain Western edge. Say, something incorporating cheese.

Tokyo-based food company Natori (founded in 1948) was eager to get into the game, creating snacks that would be both popular with drinking izakaya bar customers as well as the general public.

In 1975, they came up with the Uni Matsuba snack. Uni Matsuba translates as "Sea Urchin Pine Needle" and it was a small stick of sea urchin pressed between two sheets of squid.

Those Uni Matsuba became a huge seller popular both with the bar folks and, to a certain extent, people beyond. Ceaseless advertising made sure that every Japanese had at least heard of the product by the late 1970s.

Then, the founder of Natori Foods retired and a second generation took over. A generation that had grown up with Westernized products all around them.

It was this generation at Natori Foods that came up with the idea of creating a Japanese-Western fusion snack incorporating cheese, modeled on the Uni Matsuba. Replacing the sea urchin with cheese but keeping the squid frame outside intact.

They sourced cheese from all over the world and found a way to process the cheese in a way that would keep it fresh even when not refrigerated. Tasting fresh even in the hottest Japanese summers.

That processing would not work well with the attached squid sheets, though. After much testing, cod fish was discovered to be the perfect match for the cheese.

Japan had a large supply of cod, the cheese eventually decided upon came from Hokkaido, Denmark, the U.K., Italy, the U.S., and Australia.

First launched in 1982, Cheese Tara or Chee-Tara became an overwhelming success for the Natori Food Company.

Largely unchanged, their product is still available today all over Japan.

Here you can watch a fun video explaining how the Cheese Tara is manufactured. Filmed at the Natori Cheese Factory in Kuki City, Saitama Prefecture. The video is in Japanese but easy to understand even for people not speaking the language.

Iburigakko Cheese いぶりがっこチーズ

Unsurprisingly, other food makers soon developed similar products as well.

Today, when going to shop in a Japanese store you will find a variety of cheese cod products on the shelves produced by Natori competitors next to the original.

The Iburigakko Cheese ("Smoked Radish Pickle Cheese") produced by Kobe-based Inoue Shokuhin may be the most commonly available. They put smoked daikon radish from Akita Prefecture (a very traditional izakaya bar snack in itself) into the cheese mix, making for a slightly spicier version of the snack.

Just pick a bunch of different packs from the shelves when in Japan and decide for yourself which you like best.

Buy Iconic Snacks from Japan

Goods from Japan offers a variety of Japanese foodstuffs and ingredients.

Purchase a range of Japanese food products from GoodsFromJapan.

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

by Johannes Schonherr

The Final Martyrs Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 09:08:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: The Final Martyrs

The Final Martyrs

by Endo Shusaku

ISBN: 0-8048-1956-4
Tuttle Publishing, 1993
199 pp; paperback

Final Martyrs is a collection of 11 Shusaku Endo short stories (11 to 30 pages) written between 1959 and 1985. In this collection, Endo, best known as the author of Silence (later turned into the Martin Scorsese movie of the same name), touches on his oft-used themes such as loneliness, illness, fear of aging, spiritual doubt, divorce and the martyrdom of Christians, particularly in Japan.

As is the case in many of his books, Endo's heroes are often the weakest and most cowardly of us all. At the very least, they are usually badly flawed and living in sad, hopeless situations. However, upon final review, it turns out that the weakest among us are sometimes the strongest, no matter how wretched their lives have become.

Endo's stories often have an autobiographical nuance. He was lonely as a child of divorce living in China, was hospitalized for three years as an adult (split between France and Japan), had a lung removed as a result of tuberculosis and died at 72, which is 13 years younger than the average Japanese at death.

The titular Final Martyrs story and The Last Supper will possibly be the most emotional stories for the reader; the first is a story of Christian martyrs in Japan and the second is a brutal World War II tale.

As for his take on aging, two of the stories are about older men and their sexual yearnings. One is entitled A 50-Year-old Man (partly about a 50s man who joins a dancing studio knowing that he is completely out of place) and the other in entitled A 60-Year-old-Man (about an elderly man who is tempted by a flirtatious high school girl).

Endo sometimes uses the same character in multiple books, and he does so again in this collection. Readers who have read Sachiko (see review here) will recognize the name and story of Father Kolbe, a real-life Catholic priest who served in Japan before being killed at Auschwitz.

Like in a number of his books, the endings of these short stories can leave the reader angry, filled with hope for the world or just plain confused. Often called the Japanese Graham Greene, Endo is a master storyteller. This book will not let down Endo fans.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections: What 11 Years in Provincial Japan Taught Me.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

We'll Prescribe You A Cat

How To Order Custom Lanterns From Japan

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Mon, 7 Jul 2025 18:15:00 +0900

How to Order a Custom Lantern ちょうちん（提灯)

GoodsFromJapan.com produces custom lanterns (chochin) to order. In many ways the process is similar to ordering a custom happi coat.

Over the years we have produced lanterns for restaurants such as Yo! Sushi in Edinburgh as well as for food trucks in Australia and the USA. Our lanterns have also been used in offices and on film sets and theatrical productions both overseas and in Japan. We have also supplied a Buddhist temple in Hawaii with festive lanterns.

Our Japanese paper and vinyl lanterns are hand-made and of the highest quality.

寿司 (Sushi) lanterns at Yo! Sushi

As with happi coats pricing depends on several factors

1) the number of colors in the design

2) the complexity of the design

3) the number of lanterns

4) sizes - Japanese lanterns come in set sizes known as gou (号). They also come in either a cylindrical shape or are circular

5) material - washi paper (for indoor use); vinyl for outside

6) whether you require printing on one side of the lantern or both

7) note: we cannot accept copyrighted designs from Japanese anime / manga (the design must be original) or the customer has the copyright

Customers receive a design proof before printing

Making the first lantern is always the most expensive step and the per unit cost drops with the number of lanterns made.

Usually it takes between 2-4 weeks to complete the order. Summer is the busiest time. Shipping is by EMS or DHL and trackable. If you have your own DHL account, please let us know.

Designs should be sent in Adobe Illustrator format please with the colors in DIC if possible sakawa.jp/pdf/dic.pdf

We also require your delivery address and telephone number to calculate shipping as well as your deadline.

Our clients have included major companies, markets, restaurants as well as individual customers.

Please contact us for a custom lantern quote and further details.

Festival lantern for a temple in Hawaii

Japanese Chochin Lanterns

Washi Lanterns

Purchase a range of Japanese health drinks from GoodsFromJapan.

Kingyo Chochin lanterns, unique to Yanai in Yamaguchi Prefecture

Ramune - A Taste of Japan's Summer

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 10:56:00 +0900

Ramune ラムネ

Codd-neck Bottles | Banta | History of Ramune | Ramune Manufacturers | Buy Ramune

Chilled ramune on a hot summer day

Ramune is a refreshing, Japanese, carbonated drink sold in Codd-neck glass bottles. The drink is a popular staple at summer festivals across the country, it can also frequently be found in small shops near tourist destinations. The more obscure that tourist destination is, the more old-fashioned the shop is, the more likely you are to encounter Ramune.

In a country that sees highly-touted new releases of soft drinks every season by the large beverage companies, ramune survives as a sort of niche product, seen by many Japanese in quite nostalgic terms.

Most Japanese seem to have memories of drinking ramune during a summer trip to the countryside - and of breaking the bottle to retrieve the glass ball from the bottleneck to use it as a marble to play with.

Today's parents buy their children ramune to have them experience those same childhood moments, just the way their own parents did. Thus, ramune lives on through the generations - and children like to play with glass balls no matter what the newest electronic toy may be.

Ramune bottles

Codd-neck Bottles

The word ramune is a Japanese adaptation of the English word lemonade. Ramune is however not just any lemonade. There are plenty of lemonades in Japan sold in cans and plastic bottles – they can however never be a ramune. To qualify as ramune the drink has to come in a Codd-neck bottle.

The Codd-neck bottle was patented in 1872 by British inventor Hiram Codd as an alternative to the use of cork as a bottle cap for carbonated drinks.

In a Codd-neck bottle, a glass ball, usually called a marble, is pressed against a rubber gasket in the narrow bottleneck close to the lid by the power of the carbonate in the liquid, tightly sealing the bottle by using the power mechanics working inside the bottle. You open the bottle by pushing the glass ball out of its position and into a neighboring chamber within the bottle. The tiny tool to do this comes with the bottle, sealed under the plastic wrapper covering the top.

This demands certain techniques that customers quickly learn, though often only after having a part of the drink shoot out in a gush or by the glass ball falling back into place once they raise the bottle to their mouths. That's all part of the fun, part of those precious childhood memories that make ramune a drink handed over from generation to generation.

Hiram Cobb also introduced the idea of bottle recycling. He started a bottle exchange in London where his bottles could be returned to the original manufacturer. Agents collecting the bottles were paid a fee.

What he didn't count on was the popularity of the glass marbles inside the bottles to children, the main customers of the carbonated soft drinks sold in his licensed bottles. They rather smashed the bottles and used the glass marbles for their own purposes. For playing, for trading.

Hand-drawn ramune poster at a store in Chichibu, Saitama

Banta

Codd-neck bottles became the rage all over the British Empire but it was the Crown Colony of India where a soft drink was invented that was particularly suited to and, in fact, defined by the mechanics of the Codd-neck bottle: Banta.

The lemon or orange-flavored drink soon went from the posh Colonial clubs into the Indian street markets. Codd-neck bottles were produced by the millions in small glass works. Today. Banta is still one of India's most popular soft drinks.

Opened ramune bottle with bottle opener. The pushed-in glass ball can be seen in the upper part of the bottle

History of Ramune

British pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim (1840-1900) may have known about the success of Banta in India. In any case, shortly after his arrival in the newly-opened port town of Kobe, Japan, he devised his own invention, a lemon-based drink in a Codd-neck bottle that soon became known as ramune.

Introduced in 1884 to the foreign settlement, ramune soon became popular with the Japanese population after an article in the Tokyo Mainichi Shimbun praised the drink's preventative properties against cholera.

Cholera, an infectious disease caused by poor-quality drinking water, was a major concern at the time. Ramune, made from clean mountain water was seen as an easy alternative to drinking the questionable water of the wells within the big cities. As it contained no alcohol, it could also be used as a drink for small children.

Ramune Manufacturers

Today, the production of ramune is regulated by the Law Concerning Adjustment of Business Activities of Large Business Operators to Ensure Opportunities for Business Activities of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME Sector Adjustment Law), a law that also regulates the production of tofu and shochu, for example.

Major beverage companies are not allowed to engage in the production of ramune and have to leave the field to a variety of smaller businesses. Hata Kousen, based in Osaka, might be the most well-known of the ramune manufacturers active today.

Ramune comes in a very wide range of flavors though the most common is still the original lemon / lime flavor. Some people like to add a few drops of lemon juice to the drink - taking out some of its sweetness and adding more freshness.

Retrieving the Marble

In the old days, the rubber gasket at the lid was sealed to the glass bottle, necessitating the destruction of the bottle to retrieve the glass ball inside.

Today, that rubber gasket has been replaced by a plastic cap that can be unscrewed from the bottle. This makes it very easy to take the glass ball out. Just make sure to turn the cap to the right, in the opposite direction of common unscrewing. The marble then easily plops out of the bottle.

Codd-neck Bottles Today

While the Codd-neck bottle was a major invention of the late 19th century, in the course of the 20th century it was almost universally replaced by the much more convenient crown cork.

Very few beverages are still offered in Codd-neck bottles today. The two major drinks among them are India's Banta and Japan's ramune - which makes the bottles collectibles among some aficionados of vintage bottle designs.

A six-pack of Hata Ramune

Purchase Ramune & A Range of Other Drinks From Japan

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

Cheese Tara

Hoshigaki

Jinbei & Samue

Katsuobushi

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

by Johannes Schonherr

Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 12:31:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood

by Murakami Haruki

ISBN: 978-0375704024
Vintage, 2000
298 pp; paperback

While Death is an ever-present companion in Murakami's fiction, lurking just out of sight of the mundane world (and often down a well), the dark, impenetrable wood of suicide is peculiar to Norwegian Wood, perhaps his most famous novel. Its date of publication, 1987, puts it inside the speculative economic 'bubble' period in Japan. 1987 seems to have been a particularly angst-filled time for Japanese postmodern writers, for in the same year Banana Yoshimoto published her first novel Kitchen. While this does not deal with suicide, it mirrors Norwegian Wood's focus on the struggles of those whom Death leaves behind in the mundane world, to carry on living as best they can, and to make sense of life and death in any way that works for them.

Norwegian Wood

Tōru Watanabe, the I-narrator of Norwegian Wood, inhabits two time periods in this story - the framing world of the late '80s, in which he is a financially successful, yet emotionally adrift, author, and his earlier, eventful university years. The bulk of the novel takes place in the late 1960s, when, as a young adult, he has been reunited with childhood friend Naoko, the suicide of whose boyfriend in high school has left her mentally unstable. Watanabe finds his feelings for this girl rekindled, but when she leaves Tokyo to enter a sanatorium near Kyoto he finds himself drawn into the world of the offbeat Midori, who is the vital, worldly foil to Naoko's ethereal, tenuous existence. In the unconscious push and pull between these two poles, the immortal lyrics of the Beatles' Norwegian Wood gain their purchase: "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me." For Watanabe is in thrall to both females, and in a sense they represent two basic human responses to extremity: the death urge and the sex urge, Thanatos and Eros. The emotionally crippled Naoko cannot internalise sexual experience, while Midori thrives on it, even if most of it takes place in her fevered imaginings.

Indeed, the novel aroused comment in Japan for both its frank treatment of suicide and depiction of youthful sexual fumblings, the latter of which has surely enlightened a whole generation of high-school students in Japan. Some might argue that this novel created the inflexible mould for Murakami's subsequent treatment of female characters: their sexuality is rarely left unexplored in his later works, and an uncharitable critic could argue that much else of them is. (None of his novels, for example, has had a female voice: Sputnik Sweetheart, ostensibly focusing on female protagonist Sumire, still has a male narrator as a framing device.)

Norwegian Wood, as I have already suggested, is different from Murakami's other novels to date, and not only in terms of its subject matter. Unlike his previous, fourth novel Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, whose narrative alternates between worlds of fantasy and 'reality', this work purposely does not employ the occult as some balance to the jazz-and-whiskey Tokyo urban jungle that characterises Murakami's take on modern 'internationalised' society. The late-60s setting - a time of soul-searching for Japan's student elite, under the influence of European and American intellectuals - reveals much about Murakami the writer as a young man. He pointedly prefers Fitzgerald and Chandler to Ōe and Mishima, rejecting the aesthetic of his fellow countrymen, and regards personal philosophical enquiry as inherently superior to social revolution, as the latter is, for him, inevitably self-undermining and hypocritical. (The 'other' Murakami, Ryū, explores similar themes in his bitingly funny social critique 69.)

Watanabe may never be able to fathom the depths of Naoko's despair, but he makes a sincere attempt to understand her. In a similar way, perhaps, Murakami never quite explains the enigma of what it means to live in a postmodern, seemingly arbitrary, ideologically vacant society, but in this his fifth novel he refines his still-ongoing examination of the millennial human condition. In this sense, Norwegian Wood is a reasonably significant late-20th-century novel, and in terms of what it reveals about Murakami the writer, an important one for his fans.

Review by Richard Donovan.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper

We'll Prescribe You A Cat

More Japan Book Reviews

The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 17:55:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan

The Snow Woman and Other Yokai Stories from Japan

by Noboru Wada

ISBN: 978-4-8053-1758-7
Tuttle Publishing, 2024
286 pp; paperback

If you are familiar with the words kappa, yamamba, enma and yurei you will likely enjoy Noboru Wada's 2004 The Snow Woman. If not, well, you may enjoy this book anyway, especially if you know just the word yokai. Yokai are Japanese ghosts, goblins or other supernatural beings. They can appear in many forms, including animal-like figures, humanoids or, sometimes, inanimate objects. They can quickly change form and are associated with supernatural phenomena and/or feelings of agitation or trepidation.

This book is a collection of 77 traditional short yokai stories, mostly from the old Japanese province of Shinano, now called Nagano Prefecture. The purpose of most of the stories seem to be to entertain or maybe perplex readers, although some of the stories have clear, moral teachings like Aesop's Fables.

Don't worry if your yokai vocabulary is lacking - there is a handy glossary at the beginning of the book explaining 27 yokai-related words. If you still don't understand the concept of Yokai, the closest Western equivalent might be of well-told, scary campfire stories. Bring your own s'mores.

While the vast majority of stories deal with old, traditional yokai at some level, a few of the stories seem completely unrelated. For example, there is a story about World War II beheadings which is more macabre than yokai.

Another story also references World War II. Some stories have interesting names, i.e., "The Smelly Priest and the Yamamba" and "The Man Who Could Drink Two Quarts of Soy Sauce." Upon finishing a few of the stories, some readers may mumble, "What the heck was that all about?"

Most of the stories are one to three pages, and only a few stretch to as long as five pages, so if you aren't enjoying a particular story you needn't worry as it will conclude soon. There are also about 25 full-page illustrations which are entertaining.

There is a story that alludes to "ghosts who would stroke people's buttocks," but readers end up having to be satisfied with a story of a ghost who stroked people's faces. Oh, well.

People of all ages can enjoy this book, and no real special knowledge of Japan is needed.

Don't be an onibaba, go out a get a copy of this book.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

Purchase a selection of ema from GoodsFromJapan

More Japan Book Reviews

Ema Votive Plaques Japan

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:58:00 +0900

Ema Japanese Votive Plaques 絵馬

Pictures | Shape | Prayers | Origin | Buy Ema

Jake Davies

A variety of differently-shaped ema hanging at a shrine

While visiting Shinto shrines in Japan, and to a lesser extent Buddhist temples, one thing you are likely to see is a rack with numerous small, wooden plaques hanging from it.

These wooden plaques are ema, most commonly translated as "votive plaques" in English. On one side of the wooden board will usually be a picture, and on the other the person writes their prayer or wishes. One writer on Japanese popular religion has coined the phrase "postcards to the gods", to describe ema, and this seems particularly apt.

An ema at Futagoji Temple in Oita with a colorful depiction of the shrine in autumn

Pictures

Most ema will have a picture on one face, often quite colorful. Often this will be a depiction of the deity or deities enshrined in the shrine or temple, or a legend or myth associated with the temple.

Sometimes it can be a specific noteworthy feature of the shrine buildings and grounds, or famous historic figures with a connection to the shrine. Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine near Kyoto sells ema depicting Thomas Edison.

Many shrines are too small to produce their own ema, and so depictions of the treasure ship carrying the Seven Luck Gods are quite common. The most common ema pictures nowadays are the 12 animals associated with the Chinese zodiac and calendar, usually holding prayers and wishes for the coming year. This year 2022 is the Year of the Tiger.

Ema come in many different shapes and can be found at Buddhist temples as well as Shinto shrines

Shape

While there are no hard and fast rules for the size and shape of ema, there is a common standard that is a 5-sided figure, imagine a rectangle about 16 cm wide with a "roof", though miniature versions can be seen, as well as larger sized.

In fact, many shrines display a giant ema of this shape during the new year with an image of the new year animal. However, a wide range of shapes can actually be found. Pentagons and circles are quite common, and irregular shapes abound: heart-shaped ema are seen at shrines connected to romantic love, ema shaped like cars are used for traffic safety prayers, and human-shaped ema are used for prayers for health, with the affected area of the body marked on the ema by the petitioner.

Historically ema were paintings of horses

Prayers

The prayers and wishes that are written upon the ema run across the full range of human desires, though most would fall under the category of "this-worldly" benefits, that is to say, the attraction of good fortune and the protection against misfortune.

Desires for health, wealth, and happiness, in all its varied forms, are written on ema, and the practice extends outside of the bounds of purely religious practice into cultural practice as ema are starting to appear at secular sites in Japan such as supermarkets and department stores, and ema are sometimes collected as souvenirs.

These unusual ema featuring breasts are found at shrines connected to safe birth, etc

Though specific shrines and temples are linked to specific wishes, any shrine or temple will have ema with a wide range of wishes and prayers upon them.

Ema featuring the Chinese zodiac animal for the new year, The boar was the animal of 2019

Origin of Ema

The word ema means "horse picture" and refers to paintings of horses that were given to shrines as offerings. The practice grew more popular and other subjects were used in the paintings, with ships being particularly common.

Some of the larger shrines still have an Ema-do, or Ema Hall where such paintings can still be seen, though most smaller shrines have the paintings on display in the worship hall.

In Japan, horses have somewhat of a sacred character historically, as in many other cultures around the world, especially in East Asia. Kifune Shrine just north of Kyoto relates that in the 8th century the Emperor would donate a horse to the shrine, a white horse to pray for rain, and a black horse to pray for the rains to stop.

Heart-shaped ema at a shrine specializing in love matches

Statues of horses can be found at many shrines, and a wooden, white horse can often be found in its own small structure. A few shrines still have real horses. Archaeological and textual evidence suggests that in earlier, pre-Buddhist times, horses were actually sacrificed, The horse paintings, and hence the contemporary ema, developed as a much cheaper and accessible way to get the message to the gods.

At Kokawabusuna Shrine in Wakayama, a special area has been set aside to display ema put up by non-Japanese visitors

Ema shaped like yokai featured in manga on display at a non-religious tourist site in Sakaiminato, Tottori

Paintings given to shrines as offerings are the forerunners of today's ema

Purchase Ema from Japan

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

Daruma Dolls - History & Symbolism

Saihoji Temple Kokedera

Shichimi Togarashi Seven Spices

Yuzukosho Spice of Kyushu

Onomatope: The Fantastic World of Japanese Symbolic Words

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 23:45:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: Onomatope: The Fantastic World of Japanese Symbolic Words

Onomatope

by Ono Masahiro

ISBN: 978-4-8163-6734-2
Natsumesha Co. Ltd., 2019
208 pp; paperback

Meow….Woof woof….Crash!....Whoosh!
What just happened? Perhaps you imagined a cat and a dog getting in a fight, something falling over and the cat running away.
You concluded this just from reading four onomatope (or more correctly onomatopoeia) words, words that imitate the natural sounds of things. The words sound like what they describe.

Onomatope: The Fantastic World of Japanese Symbolic Words

Those who are already somewhat familiar with the Japanese language might know commonly-used words found in this delightful book, words like perapera (fluent), dokidoki (the heart pounding with excitement) and piipoo piipoo (the sounds of ambulance sirens). All of these are considered onomatope and are found in these pages.

With only a few exceptions, most of the Onomatope are given one page and fit the following format: on the top is the number (of the 201 discussed onomatope), followed by the katakata for the onomatope, followed by the romaji for the onomatope, followed by a cute, near-half-page drawing of the word used in a one-frame cartoon, followed by the kanji definition of the word, followed by that definition in romaji. Then at the bottom are example sentences using the onomatope in Japanese (kanji and kana) and the translation in English.

A greedy reader like me might have liked to have had kana for the kanji in the example sentences, but perhaps that is asking a bit too much.

Contents are divided into 10 categories, i.e., expressions and feelings, body movements, degrees and manners etc. The last chapter is dedicated to sounds, for example sounds that animals make. Did you know that horses say "hihiin" or that elephants say "paoon?" Shaka shaka is the sound that tambourines or maracas make.

To tell the complete, unvarnished truth, some of the words listed don’t really fit the onomatope definition, but readers can work around that. For example, assari is said to be "someone or something being straight forward and plain." Huh?
The book has plenty of spacing and is visually pleasing and, well, "fun."

In case you want to quicky find an onomatope that you previously learned, there is a handy alphabetical index in the back of the book. While not really a text book, this book can certainly be used that way. Its small size (5.8 x 4.1 inches) makes it easy to slide in your pocket and pull out any time.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

Purchase a range of Japanese ceramics from GoodsFromJapan.

Japanese Porcelain Arita ＆ Imari Ware

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Fri, 16 May 2025 17:22:00 +0900

Japanese Porcelain: Arita ＆ Imari Ware 有田焼と伊万里焼

Arita and Imari | Okawachiyama | Origins of Arita and Imari Ware | Buy Arita Ware

Monument for the historic porcelain trade in Imari Harbor

Japanese porcelain was all the rage at the European royal courts in the 1700s as well as among rich traders who could afford to compete with the royals in terms of wealth.

Japanese porcelain, that meant highest-grade white pottery, colorfully underglazed with exotic patterns or equally exotic drawings of Asian landscapes and poetic scenes.

Japan had by then become a closed country, a country of mystery. No European royal could even dream of taking a trip there. Only the Dutch had a small trading post in Nagasaki and it was the Dutch who sold the Japanese porcelain to the European courts.

In fact, the fascination of the European courts with East Asian porcelain dated back much earlier, but in the 1600s, the Manchu started their invasion of Ming Dynasty China, leading to much turmoil and interrupting trade with the famed Chinese pottery.

Looking for an alternative to the treasured Chinese porcelain, the European royals discovered Japanese porcelain. It didn't have the tradition of going back in history a 1000 years or more as the Chinese pieces did but it appeared to come from a culture even more refined.

From the legendary Zipangu, a country about which Marco Polo had written some fabled hearsay.

Portuguese missionaries had their days in Japan in the 1500s but their accounts most likely didn't matter much to the European royals.

Who wants to hear about the struggles of Catholic monks if you can just hold a precious piece of fine porcelain in your hand and dream about its exotic origins?

Arita and Imari

Japanese porcelain was to a large part manufactured in the town of Arita, in today's Saga Prefecture, in north-west Kyushu, just a bit south of Fukuoka.

Arita was an inland town, however, and the ware was shipped through the port of Imari to Nagasaki from where the Dutch conducted their international trade.

Imari ware became the trade name of the porcelain even though most of it was manufactured in Arita.

Bridge at the entrance to Okawachiyama

Okawachiyama Kilns in Imari

Imari did and still does however also have its own kilns producing high quality porcelain. Those are the kilns in Okawachiyama, a narrow valley close to a rich kaolin depot in the mountains just outside the town of Imari.

Today, the Okawachiyama Kilns are a major tourist attraction. People stroll the narrow lanes between the kilns, porcelain lovers hunt for bargains.

At the local porcelain shops, both decorative pieces and high-grade household wares are sold. On the latter, great discounts can be had if you choose some pieces with minor faults only a porcelain master would spot.

Street in Okawachiyama

If you arrive on an off-season day with not many other visitors around, you may be able to strike up a conversation with some of the porcelain masters, them going with you through their kilns and explaining the traditional production process.

That production process has undergone very little changes since the days of European royalty as major customers.

Porcelain kiln in Okawachiyama

Origins of Arita and Imari Ware

The origins of Arita and Imari wares are debated among historians. There is no doubt that the porcelain making techniques came to the area from the Korean peninsula. But how exactly?

The most commonly told story is that Lord Naoshige Nabeshima (1537-1619), the local ruler of Hizen Province, encompassing what are now Saga and Nagasaki Prefectures, participated in Hideyoshi Toyotomi's Imjin War (1592 - 1598). Hideyoshi had just about unified Japan and wanted now to expand his rule over the Korean peninsula. That attempt failed but Japan gained valuable cultural expertise as a result of that war.

Lord Nabeshima is said to have actively recruited Korean potters during his time in Korea and resettled them in his home domain.

One of them, a certain Yi Sam Pyong, is said to have stumbled over a kaolin deposit near Arita. Pure white kaolin is the base material for porcelain.

Starting in the late 19th century, Yi Sam Pyong became hailed as the legendary father of Japanese porcelain.

More recent research shows that Yi Sam Pyong did exist but most likely wasn't a trained potter and had no influence on the development of Japanese porcelain.

Ceramic tiles depicting historic Okawachiyama

Another theory has it that small scale local rulers recruited Korean potters well before the Imjin War and that the kaolin deposits were discovered when those rulers prospected for possible gold deposits in their areas.

Be that as it may. What's documented is that Korean potters were in the area prior to the year 1600 and that Lord Nabeshima eventually became their sponsor and protector. That's why the Arita and Imari porcelain is also known as Nabeshima ware.

It took until about the year 1650 for those potters to develop techniques that allowed them to produce high-class translucent white porcelain with underglaze decorations.

Underglaze

Underglaze decoration means that the ink of the drawing or pattern is applied directly to the raw porcelain. After finishing the drawing, the whole piece is covered with transparent ceramic glaze and sent into the kiln for high-temperature firing.

The decoration becomes thus a deeply embedded part of the porcelain. The even application of the ceramic glaze provides a uniform sheen.

Because of the intense heat of the firing, very few colors could be used. Blue was traditionally the most common. Especially in Arita, however, the use of bright red became popular, making for outstandingly colorful pieces.

Arita and Imari Ware Today

In Japan today, the old European classification of all porcelain from the area as Imari ware has long been discarded. Arita ware is labeled as Arita ware and still a highly prized porcelain.

Arita ware tea set

It's not in the domain of the royals anymore, though. Newly manufactured Arita ware can be found in most Japanese households caring about the quality of their kitchen goods.

That's partly due to the decision of luxury furikake tsukudani rice topping maker Kinshobai to offer some of their product in beautifully styled Arita ware containers.

Kinshobai rice topping in Arita ware bowl

The Imari ware of the Okawachiyama kilns is much rarer to find on the general market. Your best bet would be to include a trip to Okawachiyama on your next trip to Japan - especially if you plan to hunt for a bargain available only locally.

You can also order a variety of Arita and Imari ware kitchen goods for your home from Goods from Japan.

Imari porcelain rice bowls produced at the Okawachiyama kilns

Buy Arita Ware from Japan

Goods from Japan offers a variety of Japanese porcelain and pottery.

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

Purchase a selection of koinobori carp streamers from GoodsFromJapan

Koinobori & Children's Day Japan

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:18:00 +0900

Koinobori & Children's Day 鯉のぼり

Jake Davies

Towards the end of April, large groups of koinobori carp streamers start appearing in readiness for Children's Day on May 5th

May 5th in Japan is Kodomo no Hi, Children's Day when the Japanese celebrate their children, and the most visible sign of the approach of Children's Day is the appearance from mid-April onward of the colorful windsocks known as Carp Streamers or Koinobori.

Suspended across a river is one of the more dramatic locations to see koinobori

Children's Day in Japan

Children's Day is the last of four National Holidays that fall at the end of April and early May that collectively are known as Golden Week, and with many companies giving their employees 7 to 10 days off, Golden Week has become the second biggest holiday and vacation time in Japan after the New Year holidays.

Children's Day, the last of the Golden Week National Holiday days was not established until 1948. Prior to that it was known as Tango no sekku, commonly called Boy's Day, and it was in that form that the association with koinobori began.

Colorful koinobori carp streamers celebrate Children's Day

Chinese Influence

Ancient Japan adopted the calendrical and numerological system from China, In this system specific dates were laden with symbolic meaning, and the 5th day of the 5th month was a seasonal court festival, along with the 1st day of the 1st month, Oshogatsu, New Year, 3rd day of the 3rd month, Hina Matsuri, the Doll Festival, 7th day of the 7th month, Tanabata, and the 9th day of the 9th month, Kiku Matsuri.

These festivals originated in rites of protection against evil, and among the common people these days took on their own meanings, with notably Hina Matsuri being celebrated as Girl's Day, and Tango no sekku as Boy's Day, and it was in this form that May 5th became associated with koinobori.

On May 5th families would celebrate their male children, putting up displays of Kintaro dolls, based on a legendary Heian Period samurai, Sakata no Kintoki, as well as Kabuto, samurai helmets and sometimes whole miniature suits of samurai armor. In the Edo Period banners bearing the image of carp were added to the displays.

Japanese koi kept in the canals of Tsuwano Castle town where they were used as an emergency food source

Carp

The carp is native to the waterways of Japan and was a prized source of food. In the former castle town of Tsuwano in Shimane, the drainage canals of the town were stocked with carp for use as an emergency food in case of siege, and today visitors can still see them.

Most people however, will think of the ornamental, multi-colored, koi that are a relatively recent development but which are now a common feature not just of traditional Japanese gardens but garden ponds throughout the world.

Symbolism

In Japan the koi has come to represent strength, courage, endurance, perseverance, and health, and these attributes gave been derived from a well known, ancient Chinese tale of a golden carp that swam upstream of the Yellow River, eventually swimming up a waterfall and being reincarnated as a dragon.

The qualities attributed to the koi were those most valued by the samurai and wished for for their sons.

One theory how the koi became associated with Boy's Day was that when the Shogun had a son, the news was announced by raising carp flags.

Koinobori flying at a mountain park

Displaying koinobori

The traditional way of displaying the koinobori was at the top of a tall bamboo pole. At the top would be the largest, black-coloured koinobori representing the father of the family fukinagashi (吹き流し).

Followed by a red koinobori for the eldest son of the family, followed by decreasingly sized ones in blue, green, purple, and orange, for any younger sons.

When Boy's Day switched to Children's Day the symbolism changed somewhat with the second, red, Koinobori coming to represent the mother, and often pink being used instead of red.

The other colors came to represent both sons and daughters. In fact, more and more these traditional meanings have been discarded and some families simply fly koi representing just the children of the family who are still at home.

The traditional method of displaying koinobori, now found mostly only in the countryside, is atop a tall bamboo pole

Nowadays the most common way to see koinobori is not in the single displays put up by families, but in large public and civic situations.

A very popular site is strung across a river, where when the wind blows it most looks like carp swimming against the current. Other popular spots include parks, strung between buildings, and increasingly at shopping malls and retail parks.

Dozens of large koinobori across the Gonokawa River in Shimane

Purchase a Range of Koinobori from Japan

Japan SIM Cards From Mobal

Daruma Dolls - History & Symbolism

Sayama Japanese Green Tea

Shichimi Togarashi Seven Spices

Yuzukosho Spice of Kyushu

Iconic Japanese Chocolates

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Fri, 4 Apr 2025 10:37:00 +0900

Japanese Chocolates 日本のチョコレート

Japanese chocolates

Today, Japan is a major producer of chocolate, the varieties on offer are endless and deeply ingrained in popular culture.

On Valentine's Day, girls traditionally present chocolates to their favored boy, on White Day (March 14th) boys reciprocate with their own chocolate gifts to the respective girl.

There are chocolates that students present to each other before exams, often inscribed with personal well-wishing messages. Manufacturers adapted quickly to that custom and leave blank spaces on the packages for exactly that purpose.

Add to that an abundance of imported chocolates, mainly Belgian and Swiss, and Japan becomes a chocolate wonderland.

Foreign visitors took notice. Soon, some of the most original Japanese chocolates became favorites in the West as well. Hard to find favorites, that is. Typically, those craving the treats need to rely on friends visiting Japan to buy them a few packages, carrying them back home in their suitcases.

Before going into the specifics on the most iconic Japanese chocolates, both in Japan and oversees, let's have a brief look at the history of Japanese chocolate.

Taichiro Morinaga

Taichiro Morinaga (1865-1937) is widely credited as the pioneering entrepreneur popularizing chocolate in Japan.

Morinaga, a native of what is now Saga Prefecture in Kyushu, moved to Yokohama in his youth and tried his hands at various businesses. They all failed and with no prospects left, Morinaga moved to San Francisco at age 23, opening a hardware store in the city. At that time, Morinaga discovered American milk candy and he fell in love with the sweet immediately. Not being able to obtain a real apprenticeship at an American candy manufacturing company, Morinaga joined one such company as janitor. Moving slowly into actual candy manufacturing work, Morinaga stayed with the company for 11 years.

By then feeling confident about producing his own candies in Japan, Morinaga moved back and opened his first candy shop in Akasaka, Tokyo in 1899.

The milk candy Morinaga's small enterprise produced became very popular among the families of Western diplomats and expatriates but also caught on with the tastes of local Japanese.

The step up to chocolate production was still risky. At the time in Japan, chocolate had the reputation of being unpleasantly bitter. Something Western sailors would eat to keep up their strength on their long journeys to Yokohama.

To introduce his sweet milk chocolate, Morinaga had to start and operate his own dairy farm as the milk supply in Japan was still insufficient for any larger milk-based industrial production.

In 1918, Morinaga's company was the first to mass-produce sweet milk chocolate in Japan. It immediately became very popular, leading the way to Morinaga & Company becoming one of the largest sweets producers in Japan, branching out into biscuits, jellies, cocoa drinks and many other products.

Visit any Japanese supermarket or convenience store and you will find lots of Morinaga products all over the shelves.

The Morinaga Company laid the groundwork, the products of the company are still reliable essential items.

The job of tuning taste levels a further notch up however was left to Morinaga's immediate competitors. The iconic products discussed below are made by large manufacturers closely following Morinaga's footsteps but getting vastly more innovative in the long run.

Meltykiss on a supermarket shelf

Meiji Meltykiss

Chocolate maker Meiji started out in 1916 as Tokyo Confectionary Co., handling imported Western confectionaries and dairy products. Soon, Meiji developed its own dairy and sweets products, introducing Meiji Milk Chocolate in 1926. The chocolate became a huge success with Japanese customers, it is still sold today in every Japanese supermarket in a wrapper almost identical to the original packaging from 1926.

Fast forward to the year 1992. In that year Meiji introduced Meltykiss, "a seasonal chocolate product … to represent the tranquility of winter by creating chocolate as smooth as snow," as the company website states in corporate advertising poetry.

Milk chocolate Meltykiss

Meltykiss is indeed a delicious treat. Originally introduced as soft cubes of milk chocolate, by now versions with dark chocolate, strawberry, matcha and other flavors are also available.

Meltykiss is only available in winter "because the distinct, smooth textures of the chocolate treat only come out when stored at temperatures lower than 23°C." (Quote from the company website again).

Buy a 5-pack set of Meltykiss from GoodsFromJapan

Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato mix packs on a supermarket shelf

Meiji Kinoko no Yama & Takenoko no Sato

In 1975, Meiji introduced Kinoko no Yama (Mushroom Mountain) chocolate cookies. As the name promises, those cookies are shaped like small mushrooms. Though the fun-looking packages appear to be aimed at children, those cookies soon became also a favorite among many adults. They go very well will a cup of strong coffee.

In 1979, Meiji followed up with the Takenoko no Sato (Bamboo Sprouts Hometown) chocolate cookies. Those are shaped like bamboo sprouts. More importantly, eggs and almonds were added to the cookie dough. Enhancing the taste on one hand but making them off-limits to people with respective allergies.

Buy an 8-bag Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato Mix Pack

Pocky Sticks on a shelf

Glico Pocky Sticks

Closely following up on the success of the Morinaga and Meiji confectionary companies, Riichi Ezaki (1882-1980) formed the Ezaki Glico Company in 1922 in Osaka. Confectionaries, dairy products and processed foods have been the focus of the company ever since. Glico is one of the big players in this field in Japan.

Among internation chocolate lovers, however, Glico is most famous for its Pocky Sticks, chocolate-coated biscuit sticks, introduced in 1966.

Glico soon expanded the range of the flavors. Today, Pocky Sticks are available with strawberry chocolate, matcha flavored chocolate, almond chocolate and many other variations.

Variations of Pocky Sticks

While the classic chocolate sticks in the red package are always available, the other variations are often sold only seasonally. Winter tends to be the best time to find a large variety of Pocky Sticks on Japanese supermarket shelves.

Buy classic Pocky

Kit Kat

Nestle Kit Kat

Kit Kat was first launched by Roundtree's of York, England as a working man's chocolate wafer in 1935. "Have a break… have a Kit Kat", the famous advertising slogan from 1958, sums up those early days of Kit Kat. Roundtree's introduced Kit Kat to Japan in 1973 as a very British treat.

In 1988, Swiss food conglomerate Nestlé acquired Roundtree's and with it the Japanese Kit Kat franchise.

It took until about the year 2000 but then Nestlé Japan handed Kit Kat development and marketing to a creative Japanese team.

The term 'creative' cannot be overstated here. After some initial trials with different Kit Kat flavors, the team went simply wild.

While new flavors like strawberry and matcha have by now become standards available in every supermarket, the Japanese team went much further.

A great variety of seasonal products were introduced, sometimes lasting only one single season. Famous pastry chefs were hired to work on those flavors, developing Kit Kat wafer bars in a multitude of shapes and tastes only sold in the most high-end shops in the most up-scale neighborhoods. Like, say, Tokyo's Ginza.

In addition, regional Kit Kat flavors are marketed as omiyage gifts. Japanese traveling somewhere like to bring souvenirs, often foods, back to their friends and family.

So, Kit Kat relating to the typical flavors a certain region is associated with are sold in local souvenir shops alongside the actual products from the respective region. Like sweet potato in Okinawa, wasabi in Shizuoka, yama imo (Japanese mountain yam) in Kyushu or salty plum in Yamanashi.

In the process, all connections to the old British image of Kit Kat were expunged. Kit Kat became 100% Japanese despite the Nestlé logo printed on every package.

Extra Rich Dark Green Tea KitKat 10-Pack

Matcha Kit Kat (left) and classic Kit Kat

Buy Iconic Chocolates from Japan

Good luck with your Kit Kat hunting in Japan! The Don Quijote megastore in Shibuya, Tokyo is said to offer the greatest variety on Kit Kat products anywhere in the country… but for the regional flavors you still have to travel to the various regions.

The most common Kit Kat products, as well as various varieties of the other chocolates described above can easily be ordered here at Goods from Japan.

Goods from Japan offers a variety of Japanese foodstuffs and ingredients.

Purchase a range of Japanese food and chocolates from GoodsFromJapan.

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

by Johannes Schonherr

The Samurai Shusaku Endo

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Thu, 3 Apr 2025 09:55:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: The Samurai

The Samurai

by Endo Shusaku

ISBN: 978-1-80533-03-87
Pushkin Press, 1980
368 pp; paperback

Set in the same 1600s era as his more famous book Silence, author Endo Shusaku again weaves a riveting story based on historical people and events. Silence is the more famous of the two stories Endo wrote about Japan's "Christian Century" as it was later turned into a renowned movie by Martin Scorsese.

The Samurai

This story focuses on two main characters. One is a low-ranking rural warrior, samurai Rokuemon Hasekura, and the other is Franciscan friar Father Velasco, who has spent some years proselytizing in Japan. Hasekura, the eponymous samurai who is docile and duty-bound, is plucked out of obscurity to travel to Nueva Espana (Mexico) to try to open trade with Mexico. He hopes that a successful mission will help his clan get back their ancestral lands which they lost while fighting on the losing side of a recent war. Velasco, who is overly impressed with his own piety, will do anything to help Japan become a Christian nation, and to be named bishop of Japan by the Pope. Yes, his motives are sometimes found to be less than pure.

The reader definitely doesn't have to be a follower of religious history, or really even Japanese history, to be captured by the story. Those that are such followers, might find the real-life complications between the Jesuit and the Franciscan Catholics interesting…and sad.

The samurai and Velasco, who is fluent in Japanese, are the first to set sail from Japan using Japan's untested shipbuilding capability. Both survive the trip, but others do not. Mexico fails to give either Hasekura or Velasco what they want, and their multi-year voyage continues.

As with most of his other books, Endo's writing engrosses the reader with its characters, whether those characters are sympathetic characters or not. The reader must get used to Endo switching between first- and third-person narratives, but will get the hang of it eventually.

There is a helpful and quite interesting seven-page postscript written by Van C. Gessel (the translator of the book from the original Japanese), which discusses how close Endo's characters are to real-life individuals. Don't pass over the postscript.

After a bit of a slow start, readers will be moved by the dilemmas, decisions and disappointments that the main characters (and pretty much all of the auxiliary characters) must deal with. The reader could easily feel sorry for perhaps every character in the book, but life was not easy for many people in 1600s Japan as it was transitioning into the Tokugawa shogunate.

While moving constantly between historical adventure, travel narrative, political drama and varying interpretations of faith, The Samurai is challenging, thought provoking and deep.

Review by Marshall Hughes, author of Rural Reflections.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

Custom Lanterns From Japan

How to Order a Custom Happi Coat from Japan

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Sun, 9 Mar 2025 17:03:00 +0900

Custom Happi For 2025

Here is a selection of custom happi coats produced for clients so far in 2025.

Pricing depends on

1) the number of colors

2) the complexity of design

3) the number of coats

4) sizes (an idea of sizing can be found here for our standard blue happi)

5) note: we cannot accept copyrighted designs from Japanese anime and manga (the design must be original)

Making the first coat is always the most expensive step and the per unit cost drops with the number of coats made.

Usually it takes between 4-6 weeks to complete the order. Shipping is by EMS or DHL and trackable. If you have your own DHL account, please let us know.

Designs should be sent in Adobe Illustrator format please with the colors in DIC if possible sakawa.jp/pdf/dic.pdf

We also require your delivery address and telephone number to calculate shipping as well as your deadline.

Our clients have included major companies, air sea rescue in Japan, schools as well as individual customers.

Please contact us for a custom happi quote and further details.

2020 Custom Happi

2018 Custom Happi

Japan Book Review Rural Reflections

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 18:08:00 +0900

Japan Book Review: Rural Reflections: What Provincial Life in Japan Taught Me in 1990-2001

Rural Reflections: What Provincial Life in Japan Taught Me in 1990-2001

by Marshall Hughes

ISBN: 979-8-9925344-1-2
McNay-Garwood Publishing, Tokyo, 2025
233 pp; paperback

Marshall Hughes taught English at Japanese public schools for more than 25 years as well as at educational institutions in South Korea, China and Cambodia. Hughes has a background in professional sports journalism and he has been publishing a large number of book reviews in various online publications including the legendary Japan Visitor as well as currently on the Goods from Japan site - the site on which you are reading right now.

Hughes grew up in the Bay Area, California and spent a good part of the 1980s in Hawaii, working as sports journalist.

Rural Reflections: What Provincial Life in Japan Taught Me in 1990-2001

Feeling restless after too many years playing golf on a public court at his favorite Hawaiian beach, Hughes applied at the JET Programme (Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme), looking for new experiences across the Pacific.

Hughes was hired for his first stint as JET Assistance Language Teacher (ALT) in 1990.

JET ALTs are often placed in quite rural areas and that's exactly where Hughes was sent. He started out in a small town named Yaita in Tochigi Prefecture, a long ride on local trains north of Tokyo.

In Rural Reflections, the recently retired Hughes details the first 11 years of his living and teaching in the Japanese countryside.

After his initial year in Yaita, Hughes continued his work at middle and high schools in a number of small towns in Ibaraki Prefecture. All those towns, including Yaita are still far off the tourist path today. Back in the 1990s, they were absolute backwaters. Surrounded by large rice paddies and with some unremarkable hills beyond them, those towns offered little attractions.

Tokyo fashion items of the time like T-Shirts featuring ridiculously nonsensical English slogans printed on their front certainly made it to those small towns. But that was about it in terms of modern influences.

Hughes' job as Assistant Language Teacher consisted of supporting Japanese English language teachers with their work. Those Japanese teachers had in most cases a rather poor command of English. Hughes's job was to introduce some real native English to the classroom.

His book details how that worked out in practice in rural Japan. In anecdotical style, Hughes recounts a great number of experiences in that field, some very funny, some rather sad.

Hughes' life as assistant teacher in the countryside was rarely exciting. In the book, he does however provide a great deal of interesting observations of how his life, his school work, his relations to the Japanese teachers, to his students etc. played out.

From the banality of school board meetings often led by clueless officials to the large number of rather awkward / strange / boneheaded Japanese teachers he had to work with to both talented and rebellious students, the book provides a lot of anecdotes that bring those years in the Japanese boondocks vividly back to life.

Hughes is clearly very fond of his memories of those days. Some of those memories may have actually been rather troublesome in the day, like him getting excluded from various school ceremonies simply because as a foreigner he was thought not to fit into the picture by some Japanese officials.

With the distance of the years, Hughes more or less amusingly notes those incidents as peculiarities of Japanese rural life back in the 1990s.

By now, even the tiniest towns in the Japanese countryside try to snatch their slice of pie off the booming foreign tourist industry. There will always be some sort of attraction... the ruins of an old samurai castle or something.

But what actually living in such a town as a foreigner would be like, those e-bike tours arranged by the local tourism promotion office don't reveal.

Marshall Hughes' book fills you in on that. Though he talks about the 1990s, many things may not have changed much since then. Except that everyone is staring at his smartphone now, even in the deepest of the boondocks.

Review by Johannes Schonherr.

Buy this book from Amazon USA | UK | Japan

Looking to buy Japanese things directly from Japan? GoodsFromJapan is here to help.

More Japan Book Reviews

All About Japan - Stories, Songs, Crafts and Games for Kids

Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus

Japanese Kokeshi Dolls: The Woodcraft and Culture of Japan's Iconic Wooden Dolls

The Mad Kyoto Shoe Swapper

Norwegian Wood

Onomatope

Purchase things from Japan direct from GoodsFromJapan

Kochi Fair at Mitsuwa Market

noreply@blogger.com (DJ Stormer) — Wed, 5 Feb 2025 12:51:00 +0900

Kochi Fair at Mitsuwa Market

I live in Southern California and have always been surrounded by a variety of grocery stores and fresh produce. There are three Japanese grocers over in the city of Costa Mesa: Seiya, Marukai, and Mitsuwa Market, which has been there the longest. Last weekend my daughter and I drove to Mitsuwa for their Kochi Fair.

We have always had a particular fondness for Kochi. The employees were surprised when we said we had visited twice and asked us what made us travel there. I mentioned the Taiga Drama "Komyo ga Tsuji" and the travelogue shown at the end of each episode. Then one employee burst out with "Ryomaden!" Yes, that one too! We saw all sites connected to Ryoma and visited the beautiful beach at Katsurahama.

We sampled several products with yuzu as the primary ingredient. We already knew we were going to buy a lot, but we enjoyed tasting the samples. It's funny, in the US presently, yuzu is getting a big blow up. Yuzu is being promoted for all sorts of reasons. Even as a fruit to grow and eat! Many years ago I learned that it's not really that kind of fruit - but adding it to foods was something special. And it is. I hope the people who try to cultivate the tree will figure that out.

When we had finished looking at the Kochi Fair we entered the grocery section of Mitsuwa and shopped a little. It has been remodeled in the last few years and it carries a very generous supply of Japanese foods and goods. It's a nice, interesting, and fun place to shop. I imagine it's an oasis for anyone missing Japan.

We were ready for lunch and stood in line at Sanukiseimen for a freshly prepared dish of udon. I had beef udon and my daughter had beef curry udon. We bought a slice of tempura pumpkin to share. It had been a long time since we'd eaten here and it was totally worth it. Afterward we chose soft ice cream with strawberry sauce from the sweets shop. A rarity in our everyday life for sure.

Next I picked up the current issue of my magazine subscription to Liniere from Maido, and then we visited the gashapon shop to crank out a kitty. It was the gray one.

We had a great time and it made me look forward to our trip in May. And as we headed to the car I beckoned to a waiting truck that we were leaving. They waited patiently as I backed out and left a much sought after space.

What prefecture will Mitsuwa Costa Mesa celebrate next? We will be happy with whatever choice they make.

Address: Mitsuwa Market, 665 Paularino Ave, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Text & Photos by Diane

Hoshigaki