Japanese Food

We have a special traditional food on New Year’s Day in Japan that is called “Osechi.” There are different dishes in the special boxes. Each type of food have a special meaning for celebration. For example, herring roe is called “Kazunoko” in Japanese. This means “Kazu” means number, and “Ko” means child. We wish plentiful children arrive in the New Year. We also have “Konbu” which is kind of seaweed. Konbu is a word similar to “Yorokobu” which means joy. Everybody wishes health, so we eat black soybeans, too.

Many Japanese people eat soba on New Year’s Eve because soba is very long, and we wish to have a long life.

Usually, Japanese food is made from fish, meat, tofu, vegetable, rice and noodles. In addition, there are good flavor, which are soy sauce, dashi and miso. These are very healthy and low in fat. In Japan, we have a dangerous food, which is “Fugu” in Japanese. Fugu is pufferfish and is very poisonous, and they can kill people. Therefore, cooks must have a license to cook fugu that means they must have special skills and knowledge about fugu. People are afraid of the poison, but they eat it because it is very delicious and healthy. We eat fugu when we celebrate something, so fugu is a special dish in Japan.

Japanese Fashion

Japan has a ceremony on coming of age day when you become 20 years old. It is the Japanese coming of age ceremony. Many women wear “Kimono” and men wear suits or traditional dress, which is “Hakama” on the day. Kimono is beautiful but very expensive, so we usually cerebrate this day, wedding, and tea ceremonies by wearing a kimono. Some college students dress up Kimono or Hakama for their graduation.

Next, I want to tell you “Yukata.” You can see girls who are wearing “Yukata” in summer time. Yukata looks like Kimono, but it is different. The most different thing is material. Yukata is just for summer, and we usually wear it when we go to a firework festival. I think that Kimono looks well on Japanese or Asian because foreigners have a clean-cut face.

Japanese children have to wear school uniforms. Each school has a rule that students wear a uniform. There are two types of school uniform for boys, but for girls, they have a lot of styles for school uniforms. In fact, it has two types of school uniform for girls, but they change to wear different skirts, socks, and blazer. I think that all boys like girls’ uniform because they wear miniskirts. Many schoogirls used to wear very long socks. it could be 140 centimeters. The socks can be a symbol of schoolgirls.

Many executives in Japan have to wear suit except hairdresers or people who work by his or her self. It is easy to see many executives who are wearing suit on the train, bus and street. the suit must be black or navy blue. Even summer time, they wear it, so they always look hot.