Japanese tradition: Sushi!
One of Japanese comedians made a film describing Japanese tradition about Sushi to international people and it's very funny!
Please DON'T believe it!
Sushi
I found some others, but they don't have any subtitles and only Japanese version. If you can understand Japanese language, please try them.
They're also funny.
We visited in Uramura town in Mie prefecture to enjoy the Uramura Oyster Festival last weekend.
Mie prefecture is one of the scenic prefectures and it has some deeply indented coastlines. So the coastlines make very calm gulf, and the atmosphere is very similar as Matsushima. Maybe the suitable environment for oyster is very similar.
The both pictures were taken at the gulf. Looks very calm, right? In the future, I will write a blog of the Futami-Ura and the atmosphere is so different.
Anyway, I took some pictures at the place stuffing a lot of oysters free! And the event was the biggest in the festival!
We could stuff a lot of oysters on the table into a green bag for 30 seconds and the fee is only 500 yen! The staffs helped us well during stuffing and it was possible to heap oysters on the full bags, so we got three bucketful of oysters by four people. After returning to our house, we ate too many boiled oysters and grilled oysters!
Anyway, we could enjoy grilled, boiled, steamed with wine and deep-fried oysters with oyster rice at the festival. And the prices weren't expensive, usually only from 200 to 300 yen. But, oyster miso soup was free! After tried every dish, we had eaten moderately.
At the festival, I was interested and excited by a bottles of wine that were Rubaiyat!
I knew the wine when I searched the information about nice wines in Japan for my website. So the taste should be good! And I bought white and red! I couldn't guess any reasons to be able to buy the wine in Yamanashi prefecture at the festival. Anyway I was very lucky by the fact that making website gave the knowledge about nice wines in Japan to me!
And I took the next picture when we stopped in a souvenir shop after the festival.
That's all!
At the festival, I didn't take enough pictures. Because I had to curry a big bag of oysters, so I didn't have my free hands and it made me forget to take. And I hope that you guess how we enjoyed the festival.
Nagoya area has some famous local foods and the food's culture is bit different from the other area in Japan.
And the famous foods are Miso-Katsu, Miso-Nikomi, Kishmen, Dote-Ni, Ten-Musu, Hitsumabushi, Tebasaki, Uiro and Ebi-Fry.
But, There is one more unique food in Nagoya area. It's the Ankake-Pasta! 
Ankake Pasta is a kind of spaghettis with tomato sauce. But, the spaghetti is thicker than general ones in Japan and it's covered with the sauce that has boiled with some tomatoes and meets and vegetables for many hours and then the sauce changes to be thick after boiling.
If we visit any major restaurants of Ankake pasta, we can order several kinds of Ankake Pastas. But, every dish is covered with only the sauce. So difference is the ingredients.
The birthplace of Ankake Pasta is Yokoi at Sakae in Nagoya city and major chain is Ciao. I heard that the recipes of Yokoi were spread over Nagoya city and then Ankake Pastas got the position of famous local specialty. It was very interesting for me that the fact made one famous local specialty.
When I was a businessman and my supervisor came to Nagoya by his business trip, he ate it at Ciao every time. Because, he usually said "Ankake Pasta is only local food that isn't too sweet in Nagoya". I used to eat it with him for our lunch if we worked at weekend, and he always looked smiley in the restaurant at that time. The amount of the pasta are always different, especially "jumbo" are so different. If you are unluckily in happy day, the amount should be too big.
Recently, we can find Pasta de Co Co that is the chain of Curry house CoCo Ichiban-Ya in Tokyo. (I think that the ingredients on the Ankake Pasta look same as ones on the curry of the restaurant)
Because of the Ichiban-Ya is the enterprise in Aichi prefecture.
Yesterday, I visited Hida-Takayama in Gifu prefecture, so I want to introduce about the city, Because of the city keeps some traditional Japanese style streets and it's very famous.
In additionally, the area is also famous in heavy snowfall in our area. So before going there with my friend who drove his car to Takayama city, we really worried about the road condition, you would guess that the road to Takayama is very easy to be covered with snow or frozen. But this year is very special year for Japan, this winter is very warm, so it's mild winter and we couldn't see any snow on the road. It's very strange.
Anyway, we really enjoyed sightseeing in Takayama, especially Takayama Jinnya that is a historical government house, the festival floats exhibition hall, traditional Japanese style and so on, and we took a lot of pictures when we found any interesting things. So I want to write about it few times, and this time is the first time and the content is about food.
The pictures are Takayama ramen. Japanese really love ramen and we can try a lot of kinds of ramen in Japan, generally the taste is depends on the area, so Takayama city has the taste that is soy sauce and chicken for making stock, and the noodles are fine. The style is very Chuka-Soba. The price is 650 Yen, it's bit cheaper than common price.
This picture is Gohei-Mochi. We ate it during walking around traditional streets. The Gohei-Mochi is a rice cake grilled with miso or soy sauce and it is a local dish in Gifu or Nagano prefectures. Sometimes we can find it in other area and I have some experiences eating it, and I've never felt tasty to be honest. But this time was difference it was so delicious. Maybe, we need to eat local dish in the area.
We can check the information about Hida Takayama!
Hida Takayama in Gifu
There are the three most famous scenic places in Japan, which are Amano-Hashidate, Matsushima and Itukushima.
When I traveled in Tohoku area in November 2006, I also visit Matsushima! Matsushima is so famous in the fact that Basho Matsuo who was the most famous in Haiku couldn't compose good Haiku that is a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables.
Finally he gave up to compose his Haiku by the really beautiful great view.
So, his Haiku in Matsushima is...
Matsushima Ya,
Ah Matsushima Ya,
Matsushima Ya.
He just called Matsushima three times in his Haiku. Can you guess how beautiful it is?
So this time, I want to update some of my friend's pictures of the great view in Matsushima. Because of my battery of my camera had gone at that time.
Matsushima locates in Sendai gulf and there are a lot of small islands in the gulf, so the small islands make the special views.
And the there are a lot of pine trees on the island, the pine trees also help the special atmosphere to be very Japanese view. Because, pine tree is called Matsu among Japanese, and the tree is one of the important trees for Japanese, for example we make Kado-Matsu with pine trees to celebrate Shogatsu.
We took this picture on the island, and we can find a lot of the islands in the gulf.
And there is a red Japanese bridge after walking few ten minute, we are require to pay 200 yen to go across the bridge.
During waking across the bridge, we found the interesting thing. Can you guess what there are under the sea?
The answer is 'oyster'!
Because of Sendai gulf is so famous place in oysters in Japan.
After the bridge we walk around the island and took this picture. It was so fine day and we really enjoy sightseeing!
By the way, there are a lot of small shrines on the islands and the small shrines were tomb long time ago. We forgot picturing them! When we visited Yamadera in Yamagata prefecture, we also found such shrines. So I guess that the facts depended on the culture in Tohoku area. I'm interested in the common fact between Matsushima and Yamadera.
This picture was taken at the park on the island. We can watch the surface of the rook if we visit there at low tide.
It's easy to understand the rock scooped out since few thousand years ago! We also found some geologic stratums on the rock.
This is our lunch at that day!
We ate oyster rice, grilled oysters and oyster soup!
It was so nice!
When we walked around the red bridge, we found the place selling a lot of oyster and visited there. At that time, there are few small boats with a lot of oysters! It was very interesting and we talked with the fisherman about the mountain of oyster. But, we couldn't understand what he was saying by his very strong Tohoku accent.
After Matsushima, we visited very huge Buddhist temple that houses of the load of the domain of Sendai grave. The atmosphere was so nice, so I really want to post on my blog. But I couldn't take any picture with my camera whose battery had gone.
I study that it's very important to bring my battery charger of my camera with me when I travel anywhere.
When I travel at Yama-Dera in Yamagata prefecture, we eat the local dishes, which are Soba and Imo-Ziru.
Do you know what kinds of noodles are famous in Japan? Ramen, Udon, and Soba are so popular in Japan. Udon is popular in Weston Japan, Soba is famous at north are popular and ramen is for all over Japan.
So at last travel in north are in Japan, it gave an opportunity to eat real Soba to me. The flavor was so nice and it was difference flavor and taste in other area.
At first, we ate the Konnyaku and Japanese pickles after our order. Both are special local dishes at the area.
Konnyaku has very unique feel in our mouth. Please try Konnyaku if you have any chances to try it.
And we were waiting for our Soba and Imo-Ziru during eating them. 
This is the Imo-Ziru. This is a soup with Sukiyaki taste and several kinds of ingredients. The mean of the word ‘Imo’ is describing potato and taro, at that time we ate some taros in the soup. The most interesting ingredient was Sendai-Fu for me, and is so unique for me also even if I’m Japanese.
And this is another main dish Soba!
We ate them with cold temperature, the taste was difference from other area’s one. Especially it was a good season for Soba, we enjoyed them very well.
So when you visit Tohoku Area, which is north part of Japan, don’t forget to eat Soba. It’s so nice.
This time, I'd like to you introduce the sushi restaurant in Japan.
When I stayed in Canada, I found the fact that a lot of Canadian sushi restaurants were totally difference from Japanese one.
How is it different?
First, Japanese usually order Nigiri-sushi, which aren't sushi roll and look small sushi ball with any seafood in sushi restaurants.
Second, Japanese enjoy some conversation with the cook over a counter when we order something. Because. We don't know the best seafood at that day. So, it's better to ask about it to the cook.
Third, sometimes the menus describe only the name of sushi except the price. So we can't know the exact price before our payment. Usually, the price would be from 5,000 yen to 10,000 yen each. If I describe in English, it would be from $ 50 to $100 each.
Yesterday, I ate Japanese sushi in a sushi restaurant. So I updated my pictures bellow with my comments, please check them!
At beginning, we ordered a plate of assorted sashimi and beer.
The picture is the plate. There are 7 kinds of seafood, which are Kani that is crab, Tachiuo that is a scabbard fish, Hamachi that is a young yellowtail, Tyu-Toro that is a medium-fatty tuna, Tako that is a octopus, Shako that is a squilla, Wakame is one of the seaweeds.
The plate looks very beautiful, right?
This is the Japanese Sake!
When you order Japanese Sake in Japan, please try some Dai-Ginjo that is the best class of Japanese Sake. It's so nice! How nice is it? Sorry, please try in Japan, it's other sake from other countrys.
The picture is the interior of the restaurant. It's neat and clean.
Do you know how to find good sushi restaurants in Japan? It's very easy, because if the interior is neat, the tastes are delicious. Japanese believe it.
This is Hime-Negi-Nigiri. Hime-Negi is one of Japanese leek and fine and small. Japanese sushi is not only raw fish. There're several kinds.
This is the Kama that is the neck of fish. And the Kama is Hamachi's one. Kama is the best part for baking.
This is a Kuarage, which is a jellyfish, prepared with sweetened vinegar.
Yes, Japanese eat jellyfish also! The time, we also ordered Shirako, which is soft roe prepared with sweetened vinegar.
Both are very tasty, and novel for international visitors.
This is egg sushi. The egg is a sweetened and soy-flavored omelet. Can you guess the size of rice and egg? The egg for sushi is bigger than rice. So the sushi of this restaurant has very good taste, one of the reasons is a ratio.
This is a Anago-sushi, which is a conger. The Anago-sushi prepared with baked conger with the special sauce. When you eat it, every body can understand that is so soft, and it's very easy to melt in your mouth.
This is the king of sushi, Uni! Uni is a sea urchin.
And most Japanese love it! And the seaweed has great flavor, and the combination is just breathe taking.
This Miso-soup has Aka-Miso taste, which is very popular in Nagoya area. It's bit salty and bitter. But, this Miso-Soup didn't have strong taste. So I liked it.
This is the final plate in this time. That is Chawan-Mushi.
It is a steamed egg with a soup stock, therefore it's very soft! On of my friend who is a Taiwanese girl lives it.
Japanese cooking experts don't only cook, they understand the way to provide the seafood with the best condition, and they can suggest us to order some nice plates.
So, you can ask them about the recommendation and how to eat it, it makes you have more fun.
I can say "Japanese Sushi restaurant is the place to enjoy the best seafood by Japanese cooking experts"
Do you like Chicken wings?
Our hometown area, which is Nagoya area, is the famous about chicken wings in Japan. And we call it Tebasaki.
The Tebasakis are grilled or deep fried, and the taste is so nice, so we really love them to be honest.
This is the picture of the Tebasaki looks nice, right? When we start to order, we ordered three serving of the Tebasaki with beer. This is the Nagoya style!
And do you know how to eat chicken wings in our area? I took a picture describing the way. Can you understand by a below picture?
If you do that in front of your friends, it would make them be surprised surely. So please try it.
