Tour to experience Japanese beauty

初詣

When a hand of a clock reaches midnight, Americans set crackers off and yell “A happy new year!”. Fireworks explore in the midnight sky; people on a crowded street hug and kiss each other.

Quite contrary, a Japanese new year is very sacred. Before midnight, a bell in a Buddhist temple begins ringing to purify human sins. Many Japanese visit temples and shrines to give thanks to the past year and to wish happiness of the coming year. Quietness is Japanese beauty.

鰹節工場見学

Cut off a head and remove insides from a bonito. Remove fat, fins, and skin.

Boil it for 2 hours; 100℃ water makes fish meat breakable. 90℃ is appropriate.

Smoke bonitoes for 1 hour; the temperature should be85-90℃.

Smoke bonitoes for 1 hour; the temperature should be 80℃.

Naturally dry the bonito in a room.

This procedure of smoking is repeated 15 times.

Grind a bonito so that its surface becomes smooth.

Sprinkle molds onto a bonito. (The mold has 5 functions: it dries a bonito. It removes fat and gives good smell. Soup gets clear. It increases 旨みumami.)

Wash away molds.

The whole procedure takes 6 months. The main procedure is to remove whatever is unnecessary so that its soup has pure taste of bonito muscle. This is quite contrary to western soup. They add onions, carrots and celeries to chicken broth. 美味In Japanese, bimi literally means “beautiful taste”. Simplicity is Japanese beauty.

人形供養

Japanese feel guilty about disposing dolls and have a funeral to bury dolls. When children are grown-ups, dolls are just obstacles.

針供養

When needles are worn out and useless, Japanese have a rite to bury needles. We give thanks that needles helped mothers sew children’s clothes.

お遍路

Ohenro pilgrimage is to walk along the seacoasts of Shikoku Island to visit 88 temples. Residents around the pilgrimage route offer free drink or food. Some of them even offer free place to stay or a room to rest at very low price. The concept is that a pilgrim travels with Kukai, Great Priest of 9^th century. The residents show hospitality to both the pilgrim and the Great Priest. Hospitality is Japanese beauty.

華道体験

In the west, arranged flowers are placed in a center of a table or in a hotel lobby. Many flowers are used for there are spectators 360°around. In Japan, flowers are often decorated in a tea ceremony. 床の間Invited guests enter a tearoom and go to a tokonoma where flowers are decorated. In a tokonoma, the host hangs a picture to welcome guests. It is in a corner of a tearoom so that spectators see just the front of decorated flowers. Lines or flows of flowers express the art although westerners try to express art by surface. Simplicity is Japanese beauty.