Spring has come already.

Spring has come earlier this year. The first cherry blossom called 'somei yoshino' has been spotted in Fukuoka already. It's the earliest since 1953. The temperature has been rising in the area of Fukuoka since February; the average temperature was recorded for 9.8C.

Departure - 2008 Oscar for BEST Foreign Language film!

Watch out for this film this spring.

Oscar for this year's (2008) BEST foreign language film went to Japan's Departures, a film about a classical musician who prepares bodies for burial.

It took 15 years the actor Masahiro Motoki to persuage a director to make a film about death, which no one thought it would be accecpted as the theme of a film. The time has changed under the economic crisis and the credit crunch. People started thinking about the life more than ever...

This is a MUST see film this year! I'm going to watch it while I'm in Japan in a couple of weeks.

Japan Day - cooking sushi

Another video footage of the Japan Day at Loughborough University. Hiroko Clarke demonstrated how to make sushi (hoso maki: thin seaweed wrapped sushi). She gave a good tip and made sushi making look so much easier!


If you want to learn more about Japanese cooking, here's the contact details:

hiroko@japaneseideas.co.uk
Japanese Ideas - Cookery 80 Portland Road, Toton, Beeston, NOTTINGHAM, NG9




These are useful sites for future Japanese events:

Japan Foundation
http://www.jpf.org.uk/

The Japan Society
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/

Embassy of Japan
http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/event/feature.html

Japan Day - Aikido

Congratulations on Japan Day on 7th March. It was a very fun and exciting day to discover Japan to everyone who came to the event. This is from the Kyushinkan Aikido demonstration. It represented the beauty of the marshal art; there was a spirit of Japanese culture. Reigi (manners), Kata (form) and Nintai (enduarnce) were idnetified in each action of aikido movements.


Kyu Shin Kan AKIDO www.kyushinkan.com

My Japanese friend is running a cookery course for Japanese food. Here are some details.






from http://www.freeindex.co.uk/profile(japanese-ideas)_132484.htm

Japanese Ideas - Cookery

80 Portland Road,
Toton,
Beeston,
NOTTINGHAM,
NG9 6EW


Japanese Ideas is a unique business offering hands on cookery class by native Japanese to anyone who is interested in Japanese cooking. Although Japanese cuisine became popular, many people do not know about it other than raw fish. Japanese Ideas introduces Japanese home cooking, the dishes ordinary Japanese people eat at home, the dishes taught by mothers and grandmothers.

Types of class
Sushi class - three different types sushi and miso soup.
Dinner party class - your choice of four dishes and rice

Both are 3-hour-class starting with welcome Japanese tea followed by talking about the dish, cooking together and eating together.

Japanese ideas is managed by Hiroko Clark who came to England in 1989. The foreign cuisine was not popular at that time and the words “TV chef” were not invented, but now there are so many cooking programmes on TV and exotic ingredients are widely available. Hiroko thinks it is important to learn authentic food from the natives.

Local catering service is also available by request.