
Due to the brevity of summer in Hokkaido people celebrate it like nowhere else - especially when it comes to edible things and seasonal items. There are numerous foods that are consumed only during the hot months such as watermelons, cantaloupes and peaches. Fruity sorbets replace rich ice creams prevalent in winter, and shoved ice with exotic fudges like matcha or anko are bestsellers at convenience stores and outdoor food stalls. Then there's eel day (last Saturday), in Japanese "doyo no ushi no hi", and this is often incorrectly translated as "ox Saturday", hence the queston
"Why do Japanese people eat eel on beef day?" On this day the price of charcoal grilled eel (unagi) goes up by as much as 300 %. Unagi is another delicacy among the numerous Japanese food choices, however, I consider it winter food because it is a) fatty b) eaten hot. On the other hand, Japanese people eat more sushi in the winter even though it is cold and raw and in my opinion makes for perfect summer food! Due to the lack of airconditioning in many buildings you will also see quite a few people with "uchiwa" - round manual paper fans - during July and August. I recently heard from a student that even buildings in southern cities like Tokyo or Osaka are usually not equipped with airconditioning, and I vaguely remember the hot and humid summer during my one-time-stint in both cities. My student mentioned that spending the hot season in the south of Japan without airconditioning really makes us aware that summer is here and hence people enjoy that custom. The drink of choice in summer is beer - the Odori beer garden opened earlier this week, right after Ocean Day - and canned cocktails in tropical flavors. I guess time for me to run down to Lawson and get a pineapple cooler and some
nata de coco - another summer favorite. That little Lawson in my building is pretty well stocked with one exception - they don't carry the indispensable watermelon suika summer ice bar!
札幌の英語の先生、札幌のスペイン語の先生、札幌英語先生、札幌スペイン語先生、英語のブログ、BLOG、会話、英語英会話、札幌の先生、札幌先生、英語の語学スクール、スペイン語の語学スクール、札幌英会話、英会話、English teacher in Sapporo, maestra de español。