Archive for May, 2011
Japanese Butterfly Song Posted by Ginny on May 12, 2011
There’s a very famous children’s song about butterflies that probably almost every Japanese child knows. Here’s the video of the song with the lyrics below: 蝶々 蝶々 (chōchō chōchō) [butterfly butterfly] 菜の葉に 止まれ (nanohani tomare) [stay on the oil seed leaf] 菜の葉に 飽いたら (nanohani aitara) [when you lose interest in the oil seed leaf] 桜に 止まれ (sakurani tomare) [stay…
Sushi Posted by Ginny on May 9, 2011
I think there is still the impression that sushi is just a bunch of raw fish with a bit of white rice, but that’s only one variety of such sushi. Nigirizushi (握り寿司) is probably the most well known outside of Japan. It’s a type of sushi where vinegared rice is pressed into a cylinder shape…
Japanese Festivals in May Posted by Ginny on May 4, 2011
There are some awesome Japanese festivals that occur in May, one of which is the Sanja Matsuri (三社祭) or Sanja Festival. This festival in Japanese literally means “three shrine festival”. The festival is dedicated to three men who founded an ancient Buddhist temple called Sensōji (浅草寺). The main event is when three portable shrines called…