Impressions of daily life in Japan
Japanese people are a lot more aware of the seasons than Belgian people are. While the first signs of spring are met with joy everywhere, Japanese culture takes it to another level by singling out a great number of tell-tale sings of spring that people can look for and rejoice about. Famous examples are the... Continue Reading →
Yesterday was Pocky Day. It is a Japanese 'holiday' that celebrates the snack Pocky. The reason that the 11th of November was chosen as Pocky Day, is because the date consists of lots of 1's, which are of course shaped like Pocky. What is Pocky? It's a crunchy biscuit stick covered with chocolate. This is... Continue Reading →
After having lived in Japan for over a year, a bowl of matcha green tea seems like the most normal thing in the world to me. But I can still vividly remember the first time I came into contact with this magical substance. Matcha tea is produced by drying and grinding green tea leaves into... Continue Reading →
If asked what the most typical Japanese food is, I would probably say miso soup. I already imagine some of you raising your eyebrows at this point, thinking to yourselves "what about sushi?" Contrary to popular belief in the West, sushi is not a part of daily meals in Japan. Sushi is more of a... Continue Reading →
If you ever spend the night in a Japanese hotel or traditional ryokan, it is highly likely that you will be confronted with what I like to call 'the Japanese breakfast experience'. While most Westerners will already consider a bowl of cereal a heartening breakfast, the Japanese are a bit more thorough when it comes... Continue Reading →
One of the things that surprised me while living in Japan, was the fact that there are so many seasonal foods in Japan. Coming from a country where it is considered completely normal to eat tomatoes all through winter and where young people think pineapple is a local produce (it's not!), I was charmed by... Continue Reading →
The Japans 