When I was young I lived with my parents and my father’s parents, that is my grandparents. My grandfather was a fishmonger and owned a shop at Tsukiji central market. He bought a tuna from fishermen as a whole, cut it into chunks and sold …

A quarter-century ago, I went to Oxford, Britain to learn English while staying at a British home. The school assigned me to a home of an elderly woman. For two weeks she offered me a bed room with a bathroom as well as served me with brea…

Furo-shiki is a piece of square cloth made of cotton, silk, or polyester fiber. Furo means bath in Japanese and it is originally for wrap up clothes you have removed at a public bath house. Now, we use furoshiki in many ways, such as a bag…

The Japanese celebrate Christmas as Western people do, but put more importance on New Year’s days. Usually (but not this year), families and relatives get together and eat “osechi” and “zouni”, the New Year’s dishes. Each ingredients have …