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The Japanese condiments Yakumi: 薬味First of all, what is Yakumi 【薬味：やくみ】?
The two words used here are 'medicine' and 'flavour'.
So what do they mean by that? It just doesn't sound right, does it?
The reason why the Japanese condiments are written this way is that they are based on the belief that food carries medicinal properties, and each condiment have different properties. Some help you with digestion, some help to get rid of smells from different ingredients. Yakumi is normally used in small portions to add flavour, give the dish more depth and to make it more complex.
So, what kind of Yakumi are there?,Wasabi is a plant, almost like horseradish (interestingly this is called western wasabi in Japan) or mustard.
As many of you may know, the colour is green and has a distinctive strong smell to it. It is used as a condiment in many dishes in Japan but mostly related to seafood. If you use the right amount, it helps you with your digestion and gets rid of the greasiness of the food as well.,This as you all may already know, would have to be Sushi and Sashimi.,Have a look at what other people use their wasabi for. (← Link to Instagram Posts),【七味：しちみ】Shichimi, one of the most famous condiments in Japan after wasabi.
This is a spice mix of seven different ingredients, just as the name goes. 【七】 meaning the number 7 and 【味】 meaning flavours, and in this case ingredients.
The base of this spice mix is chilli. Other spices are mixed in to give the blend a complex flavour.,What's Shichimi used for?
Shichimi can be used for pretty much everything if you like hot chili.,See what other people use their shichimi for.,Spring onions are commonly used in Japanese cooking. In many cases, you will also see a lot of it being used as a condiment as well. Spring onion, when used as a condiment, the health benefits differ depending on which part of the spring onion you use.
The green part contains Calcium, vitamin A and vitamin C, whereas the white part helps to increase apatite and support the digestive system.
What are spring onions used for as a condiment?,Spring onions are used in many dishes to add a slight flavour to it or to add colour to the dish.
Spring onion is very versatile in Japanese food! It can be used cooked or raw.
Dishes like udon and soba noodles would be a common dish to see spring onion with it., この投稿をInstagramで見る なか卯の七味の蓋わかりにくいわ。大惨事になっちゃったじゃん。 #うどん #なか卯 #はいからうどん #ちゃんと食べました #激辛 #蓋 #大惨事 #唐辛子 #麺 #麵 #辛い #七味 #hiroshima #japanesefood #japon #japan #spicy #udon #noodles #japanesenoodles #nouilles #lunch #dejeuner #soup #soupe #spicyfood #pepper #mistake 1.蓋にクレームを出す2.二度と行かない bdiskさん(@biki_kei_1971)がシェアした投稿 - 2019年 7月月30日午後8時48分PDT , この投稿をInstagramで見る コレが食べたかった！ 炙りしめ鯖with山盛りワサビ‼︎ やっぱり魚は美味しい‼︎ 旨い酒とご一緒に。 #japan #日本 #松陰神社前 #魚 #魚串 #吉良 #うまい #山盛りわさび #まうんとふじ #緑の三連星 Takaさん(@taka19750303)がシェアした投稿 - 2017年12月月29日午後7時51分PST , この投稿をInstagramで見る #うどん#ぶっかけうどん #てんぷら #美味しい#仙台#ねぎ #たくさん #山盛り #丸亀製麺 akira sendai loveさん(@songtianzhang2)がシェアした投稿 - 2019年 8月月1日午後10時21分PDT ,That's it for the first series of this article on condiments. We hope you enjoyed it.
Let us know how you think about this article, or if you have any other topics you would want us to cover or further explore, comment below, or send us a message via Facebook or Instagram.
Also, follow our accounts for more interesting articles on Japan.
See you again in the next Japankuru article!#tokyo#food#shichimi - N
Chilling with Totoro at the Mitaka Ghibli MuseumThe Ghibli Museum is a place of magic and wonder, with great exhibits inside a really beautiful building. Everywhere you look, in every corner, there are little decorative additions created and tucked away just to bring joy to visitors. Getting tickets to the Ghibli Museum, however, can be a pain in Japan.
As you might already know, museum tickets for the coming month go on sale at 10 am (JST) on the 10th, and every time this inevitably results in a mad rush. (If you're buying them from overseas, you have to go through JTB, which is a different process!) These days you can purchase tickets online (1,000 yen for adults), and they've done away with the big scalping problem they had when tickets could only be purchased on machines at Lawson convenience stores. (Then again, the scalping also meant that you could just buy tickets from the resellers for double the price, and go to the museum whenever you wanted!) Now it just takes a lot of dedication at 10 in the morning, as the website's servers go crazy with the overload, and weekend tickets sell out within 30 minutes!, この投稿をInstagramで見る Ladymamaladeさん(@lil_a.l.i.s.s.a)がシェアした投稿 - 2019年 7月月4日午後10時23分PDT ,All the struggle to get tickets is definitely worth it, though!
Photography is generally not allowed inside the museum building, you see a lot of pictures of the museum's facade. Not that we're complaining, even the outside is pretty cute. To get to the museum, you take a JR train to Mitaka Station, in a suburban area of Tokyo. , この投稿をInstagramで見る ＨＯＧＧＳｏｆＷＡＲさん(@hoggsofwar)がシェアした投稿 - 2018年 6月月4日午前9時11分PDT ,From Mitaka Station to the museum it's a 15 to 20 minute walk along quaint, tree-lined streets, but if you'd rather not make the trek, there's a public bus that can take you from the station to the museum. Either way, you'll want to exit the station following signs for the Ghibli Museum, and then take the escalators to ground-level. From there, you'll see signs every few hundred meters guiding you in the right direction, or if you want to take the bus you definitely won't miss it. It's pretty adorable, too!, この投稿をInstagramで見る Juliana Kaoriさん(@juhnaasia)がシェアした投稿 - 2019年 5月月14日午前11時38分PDT ,Since entry is timed you don't need to get there particularly early. Just wander into Inokashira Park and get in line when you arrive - they'll check your ID to make sure you bought your own tickets (the purchaser has to be there!), and you'll be inside in no time. Upon entry you trade in your Lawson tickets for movie theater tickets, these adorable stubs featuring a few frames of Ghibli animation. You can use these to enter the Saturn Theater and watch a Ghibli short, which are only found at the museum! There are currently ten short movies, and they're each screened for a month at a time before moving on to the next one. All of the shorts, aside from "Mei and the Baby Cat Bus," are standalone animations, making them fun for new and old fans alike. They also avoid dialogue, with characters communicating mostly in expressive wordless phrases and sounds. This August we got to see Boro the Caterpillar, a story about a little caterpillar's life, with animation that took fantastical liberties with the reality of life on such a small scale., この投稿をInstagramで見る Gloria / 지영さん(@gloria.woodward)がシェアした投稿 - 2019年 5月月9日午前6時17分PDT ,There are three main exhibitions inside the museum, two permanent and one rotating. The building's bottom floor holds the Saturn Theater, and a room dedicated to teaching visitors about the history of animation in the most fun way possible. Learn how early zoetropes and stop motion animation work while watching charming examples, including a huge display featuring our favorite Totoro characters. The same room also has displays of a few unique animations showing more modern techniques, like a short loop of an octopus climbing stairs, and a longer animation on the theme of evolution.
Climb the stairs, or take the retro elevator up, for the other exhibitions. The second permanent one consists of a series of small rooms, styled after the animators' studios. Of course photography isn't allowed inside the building, but some sneaky visitor snapped some shots of this display. The desk setups are pretty interesting for anyone who might walk through, but if you are already a Ghibli fan you'll revel in all the early sketches and storyboards from your favorite movies. Ever wanted to see an early concept sketch of Yubaba with her hair down? It's terrifying! Or check out a time when Kiki's distinctive head ribbon was yellow instead of red!
Continue along the corridor and you'll find yourself in the museum's changing exhibition space. This time around, they were showing Painting the Colors of Our Films, which is all about the colors carefully chosen and added to Ghibli films. With all the different factors considered when they choose pigments, it's a pretty fascinating exhibition! The current displays will come down at the beginning of November, after staying up for about a year, to make room for the next exhibition. Past exhibits have been on other aspects of the movies, like last year's rooms all about animating food (which Ghibli is known for doing spectacularly), and exhibits on other work from the studio's animators., この投稿をInstagramで見る Pascal KAMMERERさん(@lerevorama)がシェアした投稿 - 2019年 7月月17日午後10時20分PDT ,You can also step outside for the Straw Hat Cafe, which sells drinks, snacks, and proper meals. Unsurprisingly, it's a bit pricey, but where else are you going to find Kaze no Tani beer (named after the setting for Nausicaä)?#tokyo#entertainment#ghibli - N
Top 5 Things to Do in Tokyo this SeptemberLooking for the best ways to spend your time in Tokyo this September? Japan loves its four seasons, and the ninth month of the year brings the end of summer and the first inklings of fall to the country, making it an interesting time to hang out in the big city! Interested in Tokyo food and beer, music festivals, art exhibitions, summer traditions, and more? Read on to find the perfect activities for your next trip to Tokyo. (Click on an event name to find its page on our event calendar, it'll give you all the details you need to get there!),Of course the Tokyo area encompasses a huge portion of Japan, and Tokyoites often hop on a train out of the metropolis to spend a little time relaxing outside of the downtown neighborhoods. Join the locals for a slightly different Tokyo experience.
The Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine Wind Chime Festival is a summer celebration that stretches into early September, off in Saitama Prefecture. The shrine itself is a popular spot for couples, since it's supposed to bring luck to relationships, but in recent years visitors have started going just for the windchimes. Rows and rows of windchimes ring out in the breeze and make up a pretty photogenic background, perfect for an evening stroll. See more pictures of the shrine in our article on the place.
The Red Bull Air Race World Championship takes place in Chiba Prefecture, Japan's birthplace of civil aviation. It's a fantastic chance to spend the day outside, as you watch high-speed, specially built racing airplanes whizz through a low-altitude aerial course, going at speeds up to 370 km/h (230 mph) while carefully navigating around inflatable pylons floating on Makuhari Bay.
Take a Tokyo Bay Summer Night Cruise in a yukata, for a refreshing evening adventure. Enjoy your time on the water, as the cool nighttime breeze rushes by. Rent a yukata before you go for a discount on tickets and an especially fun Japanese night, and then enjoy the drinks and snacks on board.,Found something good to do during your time in Tokyo this September? There's always something new to do in this huge city. For more fun ideas, be sure to check out our event calendar, which we update with new things to do on the regular!
Be sure to look out for more exciting articles every day at JAPANKURU!
Or add us on Instagram and Facebook to share your pictures of Japan. 🗾#tokyo#entertainment#art - N
Japan's Craziest & Most Delicious Ice Creams - A Regional Round Up!Let's start from the top and work our way down Japan! Northern Japan, Hokkaido and the Tohoku region, is the coldest part of the country, but it still gets warm in the summer. And thanks to famously high-quality dairy coming out of Hokkaido, the area makes some great refreshing treats.,Next we'll be moving a little farther south, to the eastern Kanto region of Japan. Between the big city of Tokyo and the more rural surroundings, the area has plenty to offer!,Last but not least, we find ourselves in Southern Japan, on the island of Kyushu and far south in Okinawa. With the warmer weather down south, it's the perfect region to get frozen treats any time of the year!,
The Ice Cream of Japan
If you're anything like us, after seeing all this amazing ice cream all around Japan, you can't choose just one. So the more relevant question is: which do you want to try first?
Be sure to look out for more exciting articles every day at JAPANKURU!
Or add us on Instagram and Facebook to share your pictures of Japan. 🗾
#tokyo#food#sweets - N
The Polka Dots and Pumpkins of the Yayoi Kusama Museum in TokyoYayoi Kusama's Tokyo museum stands out in a quiet area of Shinjuku, as a tall, gleaming white building surrounded by small apartments and everyday shops. While its central Tokyo location is perfectly easy to get to, arriving at the museum is a little surprising, since it's in such contrast with the rest of the walk from the subway (we came from Waseda Station). The building itself is fairly small, and it contains a frequently-changing selection of Kusama's works in four galleries, compact rooms stacked one on top of another.
When we arrived this August, the current exhibition was called Here, Another Night Comes from Trillions of Light Years Away: Eternal Infinity. (You'll find it on our event calendar right here!)#tokyo#culture#art - N
Shaved Ice: Japan's Most Refreshing Summer TreatDo you dream of spending an evening at a Japanese summer festival, or an evening fireworks display? While you enjoy the evening festivities, what do you imagining nibbling on? Ask anyone in Japan this question, and they're sure to tell you "kakigori!" (かき氷), Japanese shaved ice! It's a staple among festival stalls around Japan every summer, but you can find some pretty interesting shaved ice year-round.,It's said that kakigori has been a popular snack in Japan since the Heian period, which was way back between 794 and 1185. Supposedly it was popularized by royalty in Nara Prefecture, after a prince stumbled upon a local shop selling the dish.,The most common shaved ice is the simplest variety: ice topped with fruity syrup, like strawberry or melon. In recent years, however, extra fancy and especially cute kakigori has been on the rise in Japan!,Whether you enjoy a little cup of kakigori at a summer festival, or you find some at a specialty shaved ice establishment, don't miss the chance to try some shaved ice next time you're in Japan!
Of course, if you want to try a Japanese specialty that's a little more filling, you could always look for Saitama's unagi kabayaki eel, or firefly squid hot pot in Toyama! Or, when you want a Japanese sweet treat that you can bring home to your friends, grab some retro Japanese Fujiya candy.
Be sure to look out for more exciting articles every day at JAPANKURU!
Or add us on Instagram and Facebook to share your pictures of Japan. 🗾#tokyo#food#shaved ice 
Top 5 Pools & Water Parks in the Tokyo Area: This Summer, We're Diving in and Keeping...If you're in Tokyo this summer, or you will be soon, you know it's pretty sweltering out there. The best way to keep cool? Chill out (literally) in the water! Read on for the best spots to do that in Tokyo, and the surrounding regions.,Which one will you visit during your trip to Japan? We're thinking we might make a tour of all five spots this summer! What do you think?
If you make it over to any pools this summer, let us know in the comments, or on facebook / instagram / twitter!#tokyo#entertainment#water park
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