VARIOUS JAPANESE VERTICAL PICTURES

VARIOUS JAPANESE HORIZONTAL PICTURES

Barrels of sake, street dance festival, edamame (bean snacks to eat with beer), Ena's funny face, view from the train, women baseball fans etc....

ORE NO MATANOZOKI

The Amanohashidate sand bar is called "the bridge in heaven". To view the sand bar as a "bridge in heaven" you have to do the matanozoki: turn your back towards the bay, bend over and look at it from between your legs.
Travelers to Amanohashidate have been doing this for more than a millenium.
The below picture is my matanozoki.

KATOBASE SEKIMOTO-KUN ! (Sekimoto, let the ball fly loudly !)

Katobase Sekimoto-kun ! That is what all the Hanshin Tigers fans were chanting at one point in the Hiroshima stadium. American humorist D. Barry said "Rooting for your base-ball team also is a group activity in Japan." Hence, nobody will ever stand-up to shout that the referee is a dickhead.
Strange atmosphere for a French football fan !
Katobase means that they want Mr Sekimoto to hit a home-run. "Kato" is the deep noise made by the bat when the ball is hit loudly. So each time a new batter comes at bat for the Tigers, you can hear the song: "Yo batter, let the ball fly loudly !"



For another song, check this URL : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fQY8VDEp0A

THE HIROSHIMA CARPS

In Japanese Base-Ball you have some teams with serious and fiery names like the Tokyo Giants, the Hanshin Tigers (Osaka's team), the Chunichi Dragons (Nagoaya's team) but you also find some other teams with not so fiery names like the Hiroshima Carps (because the castle in Hiroshima is named the Carp Castle), some other teams with very strange names like the Yakult Swallows (named after their sponsor - Yakult yogurts - but swallows stands for the bird*) and my favorite one the Nippon Ham Fighters ("les combattants du jambon japonais") unfortunately named after their sponsor "Nippon Ham", the equivalent of Herta.

* pour François Fouco: swallows ça veut dire les hirondelles et swallow ça veut dire aussi avaler donc le nom du club (les hirondelles yakult) peut aussi se comprendre j'avale du yakult.


Hiroshima Base-Ball Ground

ABOUT WASHOKU (Japanese food).

Food is very important for the French but it might be even more important for the Japanese. I started wondering 10 years ago when I was listening an office lady who was relating her holidays in Spain to a collegue. She talked during 5 minutes about what she had done or seen and half an hour about food and restaurants.
So, hereafter are some particularities about Japanese fooding (see photos below).

TEISHOKU: it's a set meal served in restaurants usually including a base (tempura, sushi, sahimi...) rice, pickles and miso soup. They are usually colourful and attractive specifically when it comes to KAISEKI food ("Kaiseki is a poetic meal, high Japanese art in the hands of a skilled practitioner. It has many expressions, its elements perpetually in flux with the seasons, as light sustenance before a formal tea ceremony or as an extravagant show of hospitality. The absolute best of the freshest ingredients of the moment become jewels in appropriate lacquer and ceramic wares that hint through design nature's current mood.")

OKONOMIYAKI: a speciality of Western Honshu, means "whatever you grill" in Japanese) a kind of grilled crepe including minced cabage, noodles, mushroooms, meat or seafood. Of course Americans compare it to a pizza.

ISAKAYA: a kind of Japanese brasserie or bistro where customers drink beer or sake and are served a vast quantities of small dishes to share, often grilled food.

LIQUID KIT-KAT: just imagine.

TOUTOU A SA MEMERE ?

Somebody asked me if the pink dog I photographed in Akasaka was a toy.
No. It's alive and barking.