Hello everyone, sorry that I have not updated recently, I have had 2 solid weeks of exams. Well, now they are over, now I can write more here!
So, I have been sent some questions by you guys and I thought that I would answer some of them here.
Q. Does too much wasabi actually make you personally cry or are you quite tolerant of it?
A. I'm not personally a fan of wasabi, I prefer not to have it in sushi but I don't particularly dislike it. If it is a large amount of wasabi, there is a slight chance that I will cry but usually it is only just my nose that really burns. Here is how it works; (here's the sciency bit!) when the cells in wasabi (and horseradish) are burst as a result of chewing, a chemical called allyl isothiocynate (thats a mouthful, try saying that quickly 3 times) turns into a vapour and rises up to your nose and triggers a nerve response that causes the familiar burning in your nose. The heat may cause you to cry as I have occasionally.
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| A tube of wasabi |
Q. Is chocolate different in Japan?
A. In Japan, you may find flavours that you will not find anywhere else like sweet purple potato or sweetcorn but other than that, there is not a huge difference between chocolate you find elsewhere. There are Japanese confectionary companies, one of the most famous being Meiji. Some of my favourite chocolates include Kinoko no Yama (きのこの山)、Takenoko no Satou (筍の佐藤) and Pokky.
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| A box of some delicious Matcha flavoured Kit Kats |
Q. How do Japanese characters work and how do you learn them
A. Basically, there are 3 alphabets, the first one is called Hiragana, this is the basic alphabet, the second one is called Katakana, this is used for words from other countries like restaurant, the pronounciation is the same as Hiragana and the third one is called Kanji, this is made out of the characters.
Hiragana and Katakana, they are made out of sounds. The first 5 letters are a, i, u, e, o and then after that, you add a consonant to the first 5 letters so the next 5 will be ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. This continues with other consonants. They can be both learnt fairly easily, at least easier than the Kanji
Kanji originally came from Chinese but the characters were adapted slightly. Characters are picture based, each one or a combination of them will make a word. As they are around 2000 different characters, it is not something that you can learn quickly. To be perfectly honest, I can write using Kanji but I don't have that much confidence with using them.
There are two ways of reading each character, there is On Yomi (the original Chinese pronounciation) and Kun Yomi (the Japanese pronounciation)
If you want to learn Kanji, then I would recommend starting with the ones that Japanese children in their first year of school will learn as they are are basis of all of the other characters.
Q. What is the tallest building in Japan?
A. The tallest building in Japan is the Tokyo Skytree which currently stands at 634m. It used to be the Tokyo Tower which is 333m tall.
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| The Tokyo Skytree! |
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| A Skytree spoon that I got with my ice cream, I thought that it was a nice touch |
Q. What is religion like in Japan?
A. There are two main religions in Japan, Shintoism and Buddhism. However, there are people who believe in Christianity and people from other religions but they are in the minority. I would say that the people are not religious but spiritual, most people do not say that they follow a particular religion but do go to shrines on special days like New Years Day or Obon. Going to a shrine and taking part in special ceremonies is just part of Japanese culture. Everyone from any religion is completely welcome into Japanese shrines and other Japanese temple.
So I hope that you enjoyed this post. Is this a post that you would like more of? Let me know in the comments section below and if you want to read more posts from me, +1 this post, follow this blog or me on Google + and I will see you all very soon!
