Tuesday 15 May 2018

VISITING MEIJI JINGU AND TASTING JAPANESE DISHES

The Jones at Meiji Jingu, Shibuya
Yesterday, the family visited Meiji Jingu, a a shrine dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, Empress Shoken located in Shibuya, Tokyo. They spent all day in this wonderful place symbol of peace and spirituality.

Today, The Jones have tasted some Japanese food in one of the best restaurants in Tokyo: Restaurant Sant Pau. The owner of this restaurant is Carme Ruscadella, a Grandma's old friend. The Grandma met Carme some years ago in Sant Pol de Mar where Carme has her main restaurant. After her success being a winner of Michelin's stars, friendship between Carme and The Grandma became stronger. It has been an amazing visit and the family has tasted some of the most typical Japanese dishes mixed with Mediterranean ones. A delicious day.

More information: Restaurant Sant Pau

After having lunch, the family has returned to the hotel to revise some aspects of English grammar like Present Perfect and its clues. They have learnt how to create dual adjectives using well/bad and past participles. 

More information: Present Perfect / Already & Yet / Since & For
 
The Grandma has talked about the wonderful world of languages and its importance. Every language is the result of a community, different culture and idiosincrasy. As many languages as you speak, as communities as you know and enjoy. She has also explained the advantage of speaking languages to avoid mental diseases like Alzheimer.

More information: NPR

Tomorrow, The Jones are going to visit Kiyomizu-dera Temple and they are going to talk about Japanese cinema, music and arts in general.

The Jones at Meiji Jingu, Shibuya
Meiji Shrine is located in Shibuya, Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.

The shrine does not contain the emperor's grave, which is located at Fushimi-momoyama, south of Kyoto

After the emperor's death in 1912, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to commemorate his role in the Meiji Restoration. An iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken had been known to visit was chosen as the building's location.

Construction began in 1915 under Itō Chūta, and the shrine was built in the traditional nagare-zukuri style, using primarily Japanese cypress and copper. The building of the shrine was a national project, mobilizing youth groups and other civic associations from throughout Japan, who contributed labor and funding. 

More information: Meiji-jingu Official Website

It was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921, and its grounds officially finished by 1926. Until 1946, the Meiji Shrine was officially designated one of the Kanpei-taisha, meaning that it stood in the first rank of government supported shrines.

The Jones at Meiji Jingu, Shibuya
The original building was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids of World War II. The present iteration of the shrine was funded through a public fund raising effort and completed in October 1958.

Meiji Shrine is located in a forest that covers an area of 70 hectares. This area is covered by an evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which were donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established. 

The forest is visited by many as a recreation and relaxation area in the center of Tokyo.The entrance to the shrine complex leads through the Jingu Bashi bridge.

More information: Japan Guide

The Naien is the inner precinct, which is centered on the shrine buildings and includes a treasure museum that houses articles of the Emperor and Empress. The treasure museum is built in the Azekurazukuri style.

The Gaien is the outer precinct, which includes the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery that houses a collection of 80 large murals illustrative of the events in the lives of the Emperor and his consort. It also includes a variety of sports facilities, including the National Stadium, and the Meiji Memorial Hall, Meiji Kinenkan, which was originally used for governmental meetings, including discussions surrounding the drafting of the Meiji Constitution in the late 19th century. Today it is used for Shinto weddings as well as meeting rooms rent and restaurants services.

More information: Japan Visitor


I've always loved the idea of mythologies linked to or underlying everyday life, like the kami gods of Shintoism, where every rock, 
tree and stream has its own little god associated with it. 

Charles Soule

 

Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of social and economic changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes; there is an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. 

Ana Bean Jones & The Japanese Cuisine
Side dishes often consist of fish, pickled vegetables, and vegetables cooked in broth. Seafood is common, often grilled, but also served raw as sashimi or in sushi. Seafood and vegetables are also deep-fried in a light batter, as tempura. Apart from rice, staples include noodles, such as soba and udon. Japan also has many simmered dishes such as fish products in broth called oden, or beef in sukiyaki and nikujaga.

More information: Japan Guide

Dishes inspired by foreign food, in particular Chinese food like ramen, fried dumplings, and gyōza, as well as foods like spaghetti, curry, and hamburgers have become adopted with variants for Japanese tastes and ingredients. 

Michelle Jones & The Japanese Cuisine
Historically, the Japanese shunned meat, but with the modernization of Japan in the 1880s, meat-based dishes such as tonkatsu and yakiniku have become common. Japanese cuisine, particularly sushi, has become popular throughout the world. In 2011, Japan overtook France in number of Michelin-starred restaurants and has maintained the title since.

Japanese cuisine is based on combining the staple food, which is steamed white rice or gohan, with one or several okazu or main dishes and side dishes. This may be accompanied by a clear or miso soup and tsukemono.The phrase ichijū-sansai refers to the makeup of a typical meal served, but has roots in classic kaiseki, honzen, and yūsoku cuisine. The term is also used to describe the first course served in standard kaiseki cuisine nowadays.

More information: Into Japan

Rice is served in its own small bowl, chawan, and each main course item is placed on its own small plate, sara, or bowl, hachi, for each individual portion. This is done even in Japanese homes. It contrasts with the Western-style dinners at home, where each individual takes helpings from the large serving dishes of food presented at the middle of the dining table.  

The Grandma in a Japanese Restaurant
Japanese style traditionally abhors different flavored dishes touching each other on a single plate. Placing okazu on top of rice and soiling it is also frowned upon by old-fashioned etiquette. Breakfast at a ryokan, featuring grilled mackerel, Kansai style dashimaki egg, tofu in kaminabe, a paper pot. The small rice bowl or chawan doubles as a word for the large tea bowls in tea ceremonies.

More information: Inside Japan Tours

 Thus in common speech, the drinking cup is referred to as yunomi-jawan or yunomi for the purpose of distinction. In the olden days, among the nobility, each course of a full-course Japanese meal would be brought on serving napkins called zen, which were originally platformed trays or small dining tables. 

More information: The Culture Trip


In Japanese, sushi does not mean raw fish. 
It means seasoned rice. 

Guy Fieri

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