If there’s one thing Kyoto is famous for, it’s geisha (or geiko – which is the Kyoto dialect for geisha). If you’ve seen any pictures promoting Kyoto, you’ll undoubtedly have seen a woman wearing beautiful kimono, traditional hairstyles and her face painted in unique oshiroi make-up.Geisha roughly translates to “woman of the arts”. Their job includes performing traditional tea ceremonies while entertaining their guests by singing, playing traditional instruments (like the samisen), having conversations with them or even playing drinking games together. Becoming a geisha takes a lot of dedication and practice. The training of a maiko (apprentice geisha) usually starts when they’re 15 years old, and can last around five years. While they were much more popular in the past, there are still geishas in Japan today. Most of them live and work in Kyoto. ... read more

From 2009: Omiyage is the art of gift giving. It is a tradition that we follow here in the United States. Japan is a perfect place to finding something that's unique. More than in most places, the Japanese continue to excel at a wide range of traditional arts and crafts, with regional gift specialties, called meibutsu, renowned for their quality workmanship and aesthetic appeal. From Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south, Japan offers distinctive, high-quality arts and crafts. Gift-giving is something of an art in Japan, where a gift, omiyage in Japanese, successfully given honors the recipient, starting with the quality of the presentation. Gifts are traditionally carried in beautiful, printed squares of fabric called furoshiki. Presented as a scarf, for which they double nicely, they make a uniquely Japanese fashion statement back ... read more

I am sure this was not the same village my Grandfather left in the 1800's, to find his way to the United States, and to build the future that my family enjoys now. He came to California as a 16 year old boy, and passed away in 1965 at the age of 84. Nagoya is now a very industrial city, and home to the largest automobile company in the world, Toyota. We are going to venture out on foot today, then perhaps take a tour to some castles and shrines tomorrow. Our first stop today is the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology. It is the site of the company's original weaving plant, part of its original mission as a weaver. Our second stop is the Noritake Garden. Noritake is Japan's best known porcelain maker. ... read more

From its high-end restaurant showstoppers to its on-the-go convenience store offerings (and all sorts of other fantastic creations in between), there’s nowhere better in the world to sample sushi than Tokyo. Don’t miss the Japanese capital’s signature sushi style: Edomae sushi, a delicacy that combines expertly compacted, wasabi-smeared rice balls with meticulously cut fish that holds onto its seasonings, resulting in maximum umami. You can find it among the other super-fresh fish and seafood at the famous url=https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tsukiji.or.jp%2Fenglish%2F&data=05%7C02%7C%7Cdab1853c73fe4ad265b008dc55bf3d9b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638479527080236883%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Zp18BjSCxzSGzl0LQxYk7U%2B7x5qIXeIBoaVmPJK%2BDbY%3D&reserved=0... read more

From Culinary Backstreets, one of my favorite web pages. Sake is considered Japan’s national drink. Its exact origins lie in the murkiness that accumulates over thousands of years, but it’s believed that rice-derived alcohol production arrived from China alongside rice cultivation at least 2,500 years ago. This rice-derived drink was then developed over the centuries, growing into a flourishing industry by the 17th century. In 1698, for example, government records list 27,251 sake brewers across Japan. Fast-forward to the turn of the 20th century, when the industry was making efforts to improve and regulate quality, leading to the establishment of the National Research Institute of Brewing (NRIB) in 1904. Over the centuries – or indeed, millennia – sake became deeply entwined with Japanese traditions, particularly Shintoism, an animistic religion centered on the respect and worship of ... read more