Impressions of daily life in Japan
Today I wore a yukata for the first time. A yukata is a casual summer kimono, usually made of cotton. In day-to-day life, I usually spot one woman in yukata a day. But at summer festivals and especially at firework displays (hanabi taikai), a lot of people wear yukata. My yukata was a gift from... Continue Reading →
An izakaya - best compared with a tavern or a bar that also serves food - seems to be a great place to meet people. In a previous post you could read about our encounter with Asahi-san on our first evening in Japan (click here to read the post). A few nights ago, we had... Continue Reading →
Today I visited the Toyota Technical Centre in Toyota City. It's an impressive grey building, where 'the engineering magic' is supposed to happen. The lobby is made up of shiny grey and white surfaces, filled with salarymen dressed in white, grey and black. Are you starting to get the picture? However, nobody notices these surroundings... Continue Reading →
I learned later that although the Japanese refer to typhoons with a number, the typhoons also get a name. This name is used by several Asian countries (for a list, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_tropical_cyclone_names). Typhoon number six was called Ma-on.
Today and yesterday typhoon nr. 6 passed through Japan. Typhoons are given a number rather than a name. The news on television is all about the typhoon. Even on the shopping channel, they show a little map indicating the typhoon's progress. Based on all this fuss, I was expecting quite a storm. Tuesday I made... Continue Reading →
Our shibori handkerchiefs arrived in the mail. They went from plain white... to all blue... to a pattern.
The Japans 