Owakidani, Hakone, mountain of hot spring

Owakidani in Hakone is one place you may want to visit when you travel to Japan.

It's up in the mountain area and when you get there, you can see steam coming out from various places of the mountain.

You can also smell the sulfur (which doesn't smell good, but you'll get used to it while you're there).

And when you climb up the hill there's a cottage where you can buy boiled egg boiled using the hot spring.

Japanese sweets - Taiyaki

One Japanese sweet which is very popular is this sweets called "Taiyaki".

It's a red snapper shaped pancake with sweetened red bean paste inside.

Nowadays, they sell not only Taiyaki with sweetened red bean paste, but they have lots of variations such as custard cream, cookie and cream, cheese, apple pie etc.

Tea which reduces fat and cholesterol

In Japan, you can find green tea specially blended to help reduce body fat and cholesterol.

It's not medicine, so you can purchase it at convenience stores (like kiosk).

It's pretty bitter (contains no sugar), but for me who is a green tea lover, it's not bad.

Unique festival menu cheese omelette wrapped sausage

Here's an interesting festival food you can find if you travel to Japanese festivals.

They used to sell pan fried sausage, but nowadays, they have come up with various version of the sausage such as the on you can see in the video, sausage wrapped in cheese omelette.

It's on a stick so you can enjoy as you walk through the festival!

Real clam cracker

This is one unique rice cracker you can find in Japan.

It is a rice cracker with a real clam inside.

The way they make this is, they prepare a raw clam and put it on a pan with the rice cracker mix and cook it over high pressure.

They also have different version of such cracker, those using real raw octopus!!

Ibaraki prefecture local hero Ibaraiger

In Japan, there is a trend right now of each prefecture creating their own hero.

This hero here is a hero called "Ibaraiger".

The setting of the story is that this hero is a robot which came from a distant future to protect the people in the Ibaraki prefecture.

It is so well known that there are vending machines with the illustration of this hero.

There are hero in other prefectures, so if you have a chance to travel to different places, it might be good to look for one!

Area unique soda

When you travel to different parts of Japan, you can find soda with original flavor of the region.

In the photo below, you can find green tea flavored soda unique to Shizuoka prefecture because Shizuoka is known as a major manufacturing region for green tea.

Also, you can find 'wasabi' (Japanese horse radish) soda.

Black Thunder

This is a well known Japanese chocolate snack called "Black Thunder".

It is a chocolate coated cocoa crispy puff.

Pretty hand (32 yen) and a good size to enjoy!

Pocky- chocolate coated pretzel

You'll be able to find it Japanese supermarkets abroad, but usually, you'll find this chocolate coated pretzel, Pocky in a red box.

The Pocky you see in this picture is a different version of the Pocky with a thinner pretzel, almost half in diameter of the red box version.

I like this Pocky better because the ratio of chocolate is higher compared to the well known one.

If you visit Japan, this is one snack I recommend you try!!

Japanese traditional candy art

When you visit festivals in Japan, you'll have a chance to see various booths selling food, drinks and such.

You don't see it often, but if you have a chance to visit Asakusa area, you'll be able to see a candy artist booth.

The artist will take any request and create it within minutes by sculpturing the hot candy.

The cat in this video was a request made by a lady showing a picture of her pet cat.

You can see how fast the artist creates it!

Japanese culture of ending an event "San-bon jime"

For those people who have traveled to Japan and have been to a Japanese bar (Izakaya) I'm pretty sure they have heard sound of rhythmical clapping inside the bar.

What it is, it is called "San-bon jime".

It is a Japanese culture of ending an event, usually, the boss asking everyone to stand up and saying "Let's end this party with a san-bon jime."

This "San-bon jime" is one of method of ending the ceremony, and besides this, there are hand clapping called "Ichho-jime" (ending with one clap) and "Ippon-jime" (clapping one phrase).

Delicacy during the winter

In Ibaraki prefecture (about 40 miles or 60 kilometers north of Tokyo), eating angler fish is a delicacy of the winter time.

Because the fish is soft, it is famous for being butchered by hanging it as seen in this picture.

The fish is so delicious that every single part of the fish is edible.

Area unique Kit-kat

When traveling to various area of Japan, you'll be able to meet Kit-kat of different flavors.

The photo shows a Kit-kat in Shizuoka area and is blue berry flavored.

If you are a Kit-kat lover, travel to different parts of Japan and enjoy different flavors!

Osechi - New Year Holiday meal

Osechi (or New Year Holiday meal) is a set of a la carte prepared at the end of the year to be eating during the New Year holidays so that housewives do not need to do any cooking and can rest.

Traditionally, there are various meal each having a specific meaning, but nowadays, some people prefer to have fancy Osechi such as the one we have ordered, a French version.

Also, because this Osechi lasts during the New Year holiday season (3 times a day) people get tired of eating it that people start wanting other meals such as curry and rice!

Kado-matsu

This is a traditional ornament displayed at the entrance of the house and is believed as an item to call in the god of the year.

Before Christmas became a major event in Japan, this Kado-matsu was displayed from December 13th.