A Glimpse of Japanese Social Changes Through Bathing Custom

 Review:TsingHua

As an island country, Japan possesses its unique island civilization. With the development of economical and cultural exchanges with the outside world, mixed culture has gradually become the nation's mainstream culture. Among all kinds of Japanese folk customs, bathing custom has got its own distinguishing features. Japanese have been enjoying bathing for a long time. Japanese took rivers and hot spring as their bathing places, which was later on developed into bathing rooms in Buddhism temples; people took baths in sento (a public bathing place for populace, where people clean their bodies with soaps and hot water outside of the bathing pool.then soak in the pool)and nowadays they can bathe in their own family fulo (a bathroom with a bathtub), what's more, psychological changes of Japanese bathing are worth researching. The reasons for these rest with mangaspects:Firstly, it owes to Japan's geographical locations——hot spring and rivers spread all over the country; Secondly, Japan has contained a great deal of outer culture, especially since the prosperity of Buddhism which promoted Japanese bathing customs in shape; Thirdly, the development of the newly emerging classes forces caused great changes in Japanese bathing places; Finally, the success of modern industrilization made bathing as populace's enjoyable amusement and entertainment. On the whole, each political, economical & cultural transformations in Japanese bathing will have a great influence on its bathing motives and forms. Therefore, it is absolutely possible for us to peep at the Japanese social changes by knowing its bathing culture.
A Glimpse of Japanese Social Changes Through Bathing Custom Originally published in Shvoong: http://www.shvoong.com/business-management/1599114-glimpse-japanese-social-changes-bathing/

Japanese Cuisine- unique gastronomy

Summary:ehr

Japanese cuisine may be one of the most popular cuisines worldwide. In about every city in the entire world there is at least one Japanese restaurant, if not more. Usually, for a specific cuisine to cling in people's life like Japanese cuisine did, a certain originality in taste has to exist, and Japanese cuisine has it. The ideal Japanese meals are sushi, rice, and Yakisoba (fried noodles), those three were directly affected by the Japan's geographical features. Japan, located off the East coast of Asia, is an archipelago nation comprised of four main islands, from North to South: Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and over 3500 smaller islands. Mountains occupy over 80% of Japan's landmass, in which 186 of them are volcanoes; about sixty of them are active. Though living next to a volcano includes a maintaining risk of eruption, the volcanoes in Japan can be seen in a positive point of view on general. With all defaults, volcanoes can become a huge plus, considering the rich soil they leave surrounding themselves. The soil around volcanoes has many vitamins and is very nutritious, leaving the crops grow around the volcano as never seen before. This geographical feature, the volcanoes, has effected dearly on the Japanese cuisine. Beside the volcanoes, Japan's location has too played a major role in the creation of Japanese cuisine. Japan, from one hand, is in the Northern Hampshire, which means it has a similar weather to North America and Europe; cold to freezing winters with snow. With that weather on several regions, tropical weather exists too in Japan, due to the south area, which is closely located to the equator. Another factor and may be the main factor, which influenced the formation of Japanese cuisine may be the fact that Japan itself is an island, and is surrounded all around by sea. Rice, eaten daily in Japanese culture, is a plant grown only in warm weather with lots of rain.

Such plant grew successfully in Japan due to the warm and tropical weather in the southern part of Japan. As in for sushi, the best known Japanese meal developed too as a result of culture interacting with Japan's geography. Due to the fact that Japan is completely surrounded by waters, if there was something Japan didn’t lack were fish supplies. The Japanese too had a belief in which a fish is at its best for meal when it's fresh of the water, raw. And when geography allowed the growing of rice and rich quantities of fish, the wonderful combination was created, and so called sushi. A unique fifteenth-century development shortened the fermentation period of sushi to one or two weeks and made both the fish and the rice edible. It is true that each country has its own agriculture, but Japan's culture wouldn't have standout as much if it wasn't for its location. Usually a country as its own special costumes and food, but as time goes by; it loses a bit of its value due to the other cultures that surround it. Since Japan was an island somewhat far from other countries, it maintained certain agriculture values like in cuisine, which would have been probably influenced differently if Japan neighbored another country. A perfect example is the 1600's in Japan, when Japan's shotgun closed Japan's gates to visitors, after he feared European will take over the country. During that period Japan's agriculture grew, by being isolated, Japan's special values were maintained and it grew its own taste in cuisine and such.
Japanese Cuisine- unique gastronomy Originally published in Shvoong: http://www.shvoong.com/humanities/484541-japanese-cuisine-unique-gastronomy/