hokkaido– tag –

I rarely buy flowers. It's only on Mother's Day, though I forget even that sometimes. In addition, there's a mental wall in us, I guess. In fact, I've never seen anyone who is waiting for his/her date with a flower bouquet, and so I believe it only happens in the movies.

In 2021, due to the epidemic, foreign tourists can't come to Japan. Otherwise, this period of the year (I'm writing this in July) is usually the peak period of tourism in Hokkaido in early summer, though flowers bloom brilliantly as usua...

Travel by train in Japan is safe, punctual in time, etc. There are many advantages, but in Hokkaido, the infrastructure may be gone in the not-so-distant future. Please come here to travel around by rail before that happens.

The small town is called as "a town of miracle." It has no rail line, major route, and water infrastructure in it. Japan is facing a declining population, which is most obvious in rural areas. Nevertheless, the population of the town has been on the increase for these 20 years, surprisingly.

Soba, buckwheat noodle, is very popular in Japan. The harvest season of buckwheat is autumn, the same as wheat, but funnily enough, only soba noodles are recognized as an autumn seasonal food in Japan. And also, many Japanese people see Soba noodles more elegant than Ramen and Udon noodles.

If you can only eat just one food, which would it be, ramen (noodle) or curry? I'm sure we all the Japanese people have asked and answered this stupid question at least once in our life. For your information, I'll take curry, definitely! Anyway, the point is ramen and curry are the top two popular foods in Japan. As I looked up the number of restaurants, ramen is about 24000; curry about 4700, respectively.

【Hokkaido is No.1 in salmon roe】 The Japanese people like to eat fish eggs. The roe of salmon and cod (pollack, to be more precise) is the top two. Salmon roe is one of special marine products of Hokkaido. It comes into season in the a...

Genghis Khan is a barbecue of mutton, lamb, and vegetables. It's one of Hokkaido specialties. Mutton and lamb are not so generally eaten in Japan. There are many Japanese people who don't like the smell. It's very difficult to find a Genghis Khan restaurant outside Hokkaido.

Japanese giant hornets sit at the top of the insect food chain and are feared even by humans as giant killer hornets. In fact, about 20 people are stung and killed every year in Japan. Are they just a useless nuisance? I personally don't like giant hornets, but I'm trying to re-evaluate their role from the viewpoint of the environment.

A noble class still exists in Japan. They are not crazy rich, like being depicted as making a mess by power of money in some movies probably. Most of them look modest and behave modestly, and so, it's very difficult to spot them out.