Author: Yuki

Japanese Knife
Yuki

Japanese-like Kitchen Knives That Japanese Chefs Never Use

As a Japanese, I was checking the “Amazon Best Sellers” and found some kitchen knives that seemed to be Japanese knives but were not known at all in Japan. I’d like to take up some of them. Hiroshi Knives The “Hiroshi” brand is completely unknown in Japan. According to the product description, it seems to be a series of “Hiroshi Nagamoto”. “Hiroshi Nagamoto” sounds like a Japanese name, but he’s not even listed on the Japanese Wikipedia. According to the explanation, it is not written that it was made in Japan at all, and it is not clear where it was made. The prices are extremely low, so I don’t

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Japanese Knife
Yuki

Japanese Knives: TOP Brands and Famous Production Areas

If you’re looking for a Japanese kitchen knife, it’s risky to buy a non-branded one. This is because there are a lot of unknown and suspicious Japanese-style knives for sale on the Internet. There are 3 famous production areas of kitchen knives in Japan. Along with the history and characteristics of each production area, I introduce famous brands. * Each product image below contains a paid link (at no cost to you). Learn more Seki City (Gifu Prefecture) History Seki City (Wiki) has been producing Japanese swords for more than 750 years. It is known for producing high quality swords that satisfy all of the following requirements: not breaking, not

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Washoku (Japanese Home Cooking)
Yuki

All About “Mentsuyu”: For Quick Cooking Japanese Cuisine

Japanese cuisine uses a variety of seasonings, including dashi (Japanese soup stock). However, it is difficult and time-consuming to make dashi every time, and it is difficult to prepare all of the numerous seasonings. It is common for Japanese households to use granulated dashi or dilute concentrated soup containing dashi. Men-tsuyu is a type of such concentrated soup. That’s why mentsuyu is useful for home cooking. What is mentsuyu? What is the difference between Tsuyu? Mentsuyu (めんつゆ or 麺つゆ) is a compound word of “men” (めん) and “tsuyu” (つゆ). “Men” means noodle and “tsuyu” means soup. So, mentsuyu is basically a concentrated soup for Japanese noodles such as soba and

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Washoku (Japanese Home Cooking)
Yuki

How to Make Nikujaga (Meat and Potato Stew) Easily Using Mentsuyu

If you want to make authentic Japanese food, you need to prepare several kinds of seasonings, so it’s hard. In this recipe, I will introduce how to make delicious Japanese food easily using “mentsuyu” (“めんつゆ” in Japanese) which can be purchased at convenience stores in Japan. Total Time: 35 mins Ingredients Serves 3-4: 100g beef flank (or pork) 2 or 3 potatoes, cut into chunks 1 carrot, cut into chunks 1 onion, cut into chunks 50 ml mentsuyu 250 ml water 1 tbsp vegetable oil (or olive oil) If available: 1 tbsp cooking sake 1 pack of kinusaya (The green color makes it colorful.) 1 pack of shirataki (konnyaku) noodles

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Risk in Japan
Yuki

The Truth About Fukushima: More Deaths Than Radiation

The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station had a great impact on the world, but the actual damage may have been misunderstood. In fact, in this disaster, no one died directly from radiation exposure. On the other hand, at least 1,368 people died due to the effect of evacuation in the disaster. It is also possible to say that the number of victims increased as a result of excessive countermeasures being excessively afraid of radiation damage. It is true that a large amount of radioactive materials were released, but the damage caused by it is not big. It is estimated that the maximum radiation exposure of residents is

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Japanese Language
Yuki

Better Japanese-English Translation Tool Than Google Translate

Don’t you have a problem if you don’t understand the meaning even if you use Google Translate to translate into English? Recently, there is a better translation tool that utilizes AI, based on research results from National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). It’s called Mirai Translate, and you can check it out here. It’s a Japanese page, but it’s easy to use. Paste the text you want to translate into the form at the bottom left. Select the source language in the left-hand drop-down (“原文言語”). Select the target language in the right-hand drop-down (“訳文言語”). And then, click the “翻訳”(Translate) button. TIP: Japanese is “日本語” and English is “英語”

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Japanese Language
Yuki

Reasons Why Learning Japanese is Difficult

If you are interested in Japanese culture, you might want to use Japanese. But in conclusion, learning Japanese is very difficult. Not only Japanese and English have completely different cultures and grammars, but Japanese has a lot of characters to remember. Even Japanese people need 9 years of education from elementary school to junior high school to learn the common kanji (2,136 characters). Before you can learn as many kanji as you do in Chinese, you must also learn hiragana and katakana (about 50 characters, respectively). As introduced on the following article, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers. WHAT’S THE HARDEST LANGUAGE TO LEARN? That

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Japanese
Yuki

How to Communicate with Japanese People in English

Most Japanese don’t speak English fluently. But in fact, most Japanese have studied English at school for more than six years. However, English in school education is mainly learned for entrance exams, so most Japanese are not good at listening and speaking. There is a hint to communicate with such Japanese in English. Speak slowly, separating words one by one. If it is still difficult, it may be understood if you show the text. Japanese people are not good at cursive handwriting also, so the text may need to be written in block letters.

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Food
Yuki

How to Cook Japanese Rice Better

There are many ways to cook Japanese rice. Using a rice cooker is easy and popular way for Japanese people. Don’t you have a rice cooker? It’s OK. You can cook delicious Japanese rice to use a pot with a lid. If you have a cast iron enamel pot, it is better to cook rice. Use a measuring cup to measure rice volume (not weight!). Put the rice in a bowl. Add water so that the rice dip into water. Softly rub the rice, and pour off the water quickly. Please be careful not to lose rice. Repeat the Step 3 to 4 a few times until the water become

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Food
Yuki

Best 6 Japanese Rice Brands 2018

There are a lot of different kinds of Japanese rice brands. Here are the most commonly grown rice varieties in Japan as of 2018. This information is based on the komenet web page (Japanese language only). #1: Koshihikari (35%) Koshihikari (コシヒカリ) is a very popular Japanese rice brand for a long time. It accounts for 35% of the total. Koshihikari produced in Uonuma area, Niigata prefecture is known as the most expensive rice in Japan. #2: Hitomebore (9%) Hitomebore (ひとめぼれ) is mainly produced in Tohoku region. It is very strong and easy to produce in cold climates, so it become a very popular brand. It remains tasty at room temperature.

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