Japan in the UK - and Liverpool Football Club in Tokyo!

In the month of July, I was lucky enough to escape the Tokyo heat and travel to two much cooler destinations - the UK and to Belgium. In the UK, it was interesting to see the growing Japanese influence, especially in food: Itsu noodles (including ramen, katsu, and miso flavours), miniature sushi lunchboxes, and iced matcha are everywhere - and the restaurant chain Wagamama has become almost a national institution (even if no-one knows the word means "selfish" in Japanese!). But influence is not limited to food - the Ghibli classic My Neighbour Tottoro  was being performed in the West End at the Gillian Lynne Theatre by none other than the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)! 

As for Belgium, I really enjoyed watching the Japan National Team play in the 6th IQA (International Quadball Association) World Cup in Tubize, competing against thirty other nations. As I have written before, Quadball is the real life manifestation of the fictional Harry Potter sport Quidditch and Japan has a thriving - and very diverse and inclusive - Quadball scene. The Japanese squad did incredibly well - coming 12th overall - and garnered widespread support, even from the French fans (they played the French twice, narrowly losing both times!). This article gives the final rankings plus lots of data analysis, reporting that, "Japan is now the most beloved team on the international quadball stage"!

British Prof (left) with some of the Japanese Quadball team's many admirers

(c) Japan Football Association

Talking of sport, I got back to Japan in time to see my favourite Premier Football team Liverpool take on Yokohama Marinos in Tokyo. Baseball has long been the most popular spectator - and unofficial national - sport in Japan, but the popularity of football has skyrocketed since the establishment of the J-League in 1993. This site gives football as the third favourite sport in Japan (at 25.0%) narrowly behind sumo at 27.3% but in terms of TV viewing it is second. Interestingly, the men’s national team is known as the Samurai Blue, and the women’s national team is known as the Nadeshiko (撫子) after a Japanese flower, although the term Yamato Nadeshiko refers to the "ideal" Japanese woman, beautiful, virtuous, graceful, modest - and devoted to household duties! Another interesting fact, mentioned in a previous blogpost, is that the giant three-legged Shinto crow-god Yatagarasu (八咫烏) is the Japan Football Association's official emblem. In Japanese mythology, Yatagarasu guided Jimmu, the legendary first emperor of Japan to victory, so it was adopted as a symbol of victory for the emblem.

But on July 30th in Tokyo there weren't many three-legged crows on view - instead it was the Liver bird amid a sea of red shirts in Yokohama for the match between Yokohama F. Marinos and Liverpool (highlights here). It was held at the 72,000 capacity Nissan Stadium as part of the Meiji Yasuda J. League World Challenge 2025 (明治安田Jリーグワールドチャレンジ2025). Tickets were sold out, with the official attendance given as 67,032, setting a new record for the highest attendance ever at a J-League hosted match. As a Liverpool fan, it was spine tingling to see the whole stadium - including the Marinos fans - erupt into a rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" (yuruneba in Japanese!). The song was adopted by a different J-League club, FC Tokyo, during the pandemic as a way to connect with fans when they couldn't attend matches in person: the Marinos fans actually sang a Japanese version of the Les Misérables song, "Do you hear the People Sing?" (民衆の歌) which was almost as moving. 

The Liverpool players certainly seemed interested in Japanese culture: after arriving in Japan they enjoyed a morning of meditation at Eko Temple (回向院) in Ryogoku, Tokyo! But Liverpool's connection with Japan goes beyond the presence of Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan's national team, in its squad. Last year, Japan Airlines (JAL) became the club’s official airline partner. Moreover, at a press conference in Tokyo ahead of the game, the LFC Foundation announced a new partnership with The Nippon Foundation (日本財団) aimed at empowering young people. But the longest running collaboration is with Kodansha, one of Japan's largest publishing companies, which has been going since 2021. April saw a new ‘LFC × KODANSHA’ collection that combines football culture with Japan's manga art, featuring illustrations by Japanese artists depicting dramatic scenes and iconic moments from the club's history: check out some of the various hoodies, T-shirts, art prints, keychains, water bottles, and acrylic stands here. LFC and Kodansha even created unique calligraphy inspired shirts produced in collaboration with renowned calligrapher Riu Akizuki for the Yokohama match. Finally, there is a special exhibition running as I write entitled, "Where Impossible Happens" which is inspired by the match known as the miracle of Istanbul (the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final vs. AC Milan). This exhibition features a special original manga by Yasuda Tsuyoshi plus the opportunity to take the final penalty kick in the legendary final! The exhibition runs until August 3rd - check it out here. Football - or Quadball! - fans, feel free to leave a message in the COMMENTS.

Shin-Okubo: Tokyo's Vibrant Korea Town

 

June 10th marked the official start of the rainy season in the Tokyo area, but as this article discusses, we've seen relatively little rain and instead some very hot days including the year’s first “extremely hot day” known in Japanese as a mōshobi (猛暑日), a day when the temperature reaches 35℃ or above. The high temperatures, accompanied by heatstroke alerts, in a month when the weather is usually pleasant bodes ill for the months of July and August. But at least the flowers are blooming when they should - as written previously, the rainy season always coincides with the flowering of beautiful hydrangeas (ajisai), particularly in blue and purple, as pictured above (either side of a brightly coloured lily).

Man made disasters, such as global warming, are one thing, but Japan also has more than its fair share of natural disasters. The March 2011 Tohoku Earthquake (3.11) was the strongest in Japan's recorded history and the 4th biggest worldwide. Tokyo itself is way overdue: the Great Kanto Earthquake was in 1923 and the chances of a big one hitting the capital in the next 30 years is said to be in the region of 80% with an estimated death toll of 300,000. One comic book has recently gone viral because it predicts the actual date of the next big one. In the 1999 manga, The Future I Saw (Watashi ga Mita Mirai), Ryo Tatsuki, gives July 5th as the date of the next mega quake. The fact that Tatsuki also correctly predicted the March 2011 disaster has caused a slew of cancellations, especially from Asian tourists. Completely coincidentally, my trip to the UK is booked for July 4th...

South Korean tourists are the 2nd largest group of foreign tourists in Japan and many do seem to be asking whether it is safe to travel (here). Japan has a complicated history with Korea, particularly following Japan's annexation of the country in 1910 and the ensuing period of colonial control. Even since the normalisation of diplomatic ties in 1965 - this year is the 60th anniversary - relations have been rocky, though in recent years feelings of affiniity between the two countries have definitely grown. In contrast to the population of Korean oldcomers - those who came or were forcibly brought to Japan in the pre-war period and were either unable to or chose not to go back after the end of the war - newcomer Koreans started to increase in the 1980s, with many, especially exchange students, settling in Shin-Okubo, Tokyo's Korean Town, just one train stop from Shinjuku. The South Korean drama boom starting in 2004 spurred interest in Shin-Okubo, and the second, third, and fourth waves (han'ryū=韓流), centering on K-pop and Korean film and Netflix dramas, only heightened interest in Korean pop culture and the popularity of "Little Seoul."

Today, Shin-Okubo is a remarkably vibrant place, a hub for South Korean culture, full of Korean street food, restaurants, (super)markets, convenience stores, cafes, bars/clubs, stores with K-pop merchandise, and Korean make-up and fashion shops - not to mention street performers. Just turn right when you exit the station but be prepared for a mass of humanity as you crawl along the street - it gets really crowded, especially at weekends. But those who associate Shin-Okubo with only Korean culture may be surprised to learn that the area also has large South-East and South Asian populations. In particular, the Nepalese community has been growing rapidly in recent years, so much so that the area is also sometimes referred to as "Little Nepal" (together with the area north of Asagaya). I visited the Nepalese restaurant Rato Mato which blew me away both with the quality of the food and the prices. So, which would you choose - Korean, Nepalese, or something else? Let us know in the COMMENTS!

Japanese Green Tea and the Global Matcha Boom: The Shift from Drinking to Eating

The Golden Week holiday of early May now seems a long way off, but one of my best memories was picking tea leaves in a local tea field (ochabatake), making my own hand-rolled tea at home (temomicha), and enjoying shincha (新茶) brewed from the first or youngest leaves of the season (hatsu-zumi=初摘み). Shincha - literally "new tea" - is of unparalleled quality, bright green in colour with a sweeter taste than regular green tea, and characterised by a vibrant aroma and a hint of umami. As someone who drinks green tea every day - sometimes from vending machines but mostly in tea bag form - the taste of properly brewed shincha was something of a revelation; in Britain it would be the difference between a teabag in a paper cup (link) and a proper cuppa brewed in a pot. The pictures below show how to make the perfect cup of shincha: note the importance of letting the boiling water first cool to at least 80℃ before pouring over the leaves in the pot and also the short brewing time, just thirty seconds or so.

❶ Pour boiling water into cups or a special yuzamashi cooling pot ❷ Put a spoonful of tea leaves into the (unwarmed) pot ❸ Once the water temperature has dropped below 80℃ (70℃ for a sweeter cup) pour into the pot (kyūsu) ❹ Wait 30 seconds and enjoy!

While sencha (煎茶) - non-powdered green leaf tea - has traditionally been the mainstay harvest, recent years have seen a big shift to tencha (甜茶) - powdered green tea that is the raw material for matcha - thanks to the global matcha boom. According to the Japanese Association of Tea Production, tencha production almost tripled between 2008 and 2023. While sencha is grown without covering, tencha requires reduced sunlight so, as can be seen in the top left of the picture, tea fields need to be covered in black sheets as harvest time approaches. 

Picking tea leaves at Sugimotoen. A special thank-you to Kumiko for letting me join on the fly!

The demand for matcha has been driven by a shift from drinking matcha - think of the creamy, slightly bitter umami drink made popular by the tea ceremony - to eating products made from it. The trigger for this was not a Japanese company but an American one: Haagen-Dazs' 1996 introduction of green tea ice cream - made, in a stroke of genius, just like shincha, from the first leaves of the season (初摘み茶葉) - was a massive hit. Today, as the visual here and picture below shows, there are matcha cookies, cakes, chocolate, gelato, jelly, pancakes, parfaits, and even chewing gum, not to mention the various new types of drinks such as lattes, cola, cocktails, and smoothies. Packed with antioxidants, the health benefits - especially in comparison with coffee - are pretty undeniable: I honestly can't remember the last time I caught a cold!

Which brings me back to my own tea-making experience at home. After picking the tea leaves, and enjoying a green tea and yōkan jelly break with the other pickers, the owner gave me a quick introduction to the factory and explained the process of tea production. Put simply the leaves are steamed, kneaded, and dried, removing all moisture and leaving the kind of tea leaves we are familiar with. As this video shows, the principle is the same even when making hand-rolled tea (temomicha) at home, so I headed back with my 130g of fresh leaves and gave it a go. After repeatedly steaming (in the microwave) and kneading, I eventually got something resembling tea leaves, but they were still a little moist - the factory dries them in 80℃ heat for 20-25 minutes - and as a result the aroma of the tea was on the weak side. Any thoughts on green tea and the matcha boom? Let me know in the COMMENTS below!

Play to Win: Japanese Traditional and Modern Games

Even though it's only April, it already feels like summer in Japan, with temperatures pushing 30℃ here in Tokyo in the run up to the start of the traditional Golden Week holidays. There has even been talk of Japan's four distinct seasons disappearing under the threat of global warming; certainly, while summers have grown longer, spring and autumn seem to be over in the blink of an eye. For example, while wisteria usually blooms late April to early May, it's already been out for a while. 

Recently, I've been exploring the gaming scene in Japan, with a visit to a board game cafe in Shinjuku (pictured above), an escape room game in Asakusa, and a game and hobby shop in Akihabara, the centre of Japanese geek (otaku) culture. The big two games historically are Go (igo in Japanese) which came over from China around the 7th century - modern variants include Gomoku, Renju, Reversi, and Othello - and shōgi (Japanese chess), a unique 16th century Japanese invention that allows captured pieces to be reused. The latter is the most played board game in Japan, with an estimated 20 million knowing the rules and ia also very visible in the media: Sota Fujii, who became a professional shōgi player when an junior high-school student, is a national icon, newspapers carry shōgi puzzles daily, and there is even a dedicated shōgi TV channel featuring live games! 

An even older game is Sugoroku (双六), a 6th century creation similar to backgammon that morphed into a Snakes and Ladders type dice-based picture boardgame (e-sugoroku) popularly played at New Year. But probably the most interesting for non-Japanese players are the variants of karuta playing cards - from the Portuguese for letter or card - which involves matching one half of a card, which is read out aloud, with its corresponding pair. This can be highly competitive when played as a duel when players slap the matching card before their opponent - check out this video from the 64th All Japan Championships (第64回全日本選手権大会) held only a few days ago! Manga lovers may be reminded of Chihayafuru which played a big role in popularising competitive karuta. While the video shows Uta Garuta (hyaku-nin isshu=百人一首) featuring waka poems by 100 great poets, there is also a kid's version, with cards representing the 47 syllables of the hiragana alphabet. Great for learning Japanese!

But it is not all about tradition. Modern Japanese board games which have enjoyed critical acclaim overseas include the 2012 Love Letter, the classic 2014 Deep Sea Adventure, and the road building 2016 masterpiece Tokyo Highway. For a great overview of these three and traditional games as well see here. And for those in Japan, why not check out the gaming convention known as Game Market, which started in 2000 as a fan-run event and is now held in May and November at Makuhari Messe just outside of Tokyo? Another recommendation is the 4-day September Tokyo Game Show which, in contrast to the analogue focus of Game Market boasts mainly video game content, though it does include some board games as well as lots of cosplayers! In sum, the gaming market in Japan is booming, perhaps reflecting the fact that in Japan gaming is more than just entertainment - it’s a deeply ingrained social activity. What's your favourite game? Have you ever played a Japanese game? Let me know in the COMMENTS!

Bathing Culture in Japan: Public Baths, Hot Springs, and High-tech Tubs

My 4th year students graduated last week - dressing up in the traditional hakama (here) to receive their graduation certificate from the president - though it was a bit of shock to wake up to a heavy snowfall! Indeed, the weather has been very strange recently, 26℃ on Friday and 13℃ on Saturday. Nevertheless, spring is in the air, with the cherry blossoms now at their peak, after officially starting to bloom on the 24th. While many people are content to sit in the park under the trees and enjoy a picnic (known as hanami), a great way to properly enjoy the sakura experience is to take an evening boat ride under the blossoms on either Chidorigafuchi Moat (here) or Meguro River (here).

The awareness of the Japanese towards the changing seasons and their appreciation of seasonal foods is one of the reasons I love Japan, but for me perhaps the biggest draw of all is the bathing culture - nothing beats a visit to a hot spring (onsen) or even the local public bath (sentō). Of course, it's not realistic to visit these places every day so a fine substitute is the household bath which enjoys a level of technology that puts the British bath to shame. Earlier this month we had our bathroom renovated so I thought this would be a good opportunity to promote the joys of domestic bathing! The picture above shows the process of removing the old bath and installing the new one. One interesting point is how the bath is typically cleaned before it is demolished to show respect for years of use (this is also done before disposing of old cars or even used needles (here)! Respect for objects that have served one well is a nice custom but that doesn't detract from the joy of a new high-tech bath. Note that the new bath is not only lower but lacks taps too. As the control panel below shows, the bath in Japan is filled automatically and the temperature, height of the water, and even the length of time the temperature is to be maintained can be set. The most recent models even allow baths to be controlled via smartphone app from outside the home, so you can come home to a steaming hot bath after a hard day's work!

During the four-day renovation, I made use of a local sentō just down the road, actually a super sentō named Terme Ogawa which unlike the simple local neighbourhood public bath comprises a large complex of multiple baths and saunas as well as restaurants, massage, and relaxation rooms (map below). Regarding the difference between public baths (sentō) and hot springs (onsen), the latter use natural spring water while the former use boiled tap water - subsidised under the Public Bathhouses Law - explaining why sentō are often distinguishable by their chimney. The distinction is not clear cut however, particularly in the Kanto region, where super sentō like the one I visited often also describe themselves as "natural hot springs" (天然温泉). 

Map of "Super Sentō" Terme Ogawa (©Termeogawa) here

With the spread of private bathrooms from the 1970s, public baths plummeted in popularity and many went out of business. Data for Tokyo, for example, reveals 1968 as the peak, with 2687 sentō in the capital faling to only 444 in 2023. However, since around 2014, public baths have enjoyed something of a revival - in tandem with the sauna boom (sakatsu=サ活) - as a community spot or hub, especially among young people and foreign tourists. For example, last year, a new sentō tour named Sentorance Japan started with the aim of making sentō an "entrance" to Japanese culture: the tour includes a lecture on sentō etiquette in English followed by a bath. There are also a number of non-Japanese involved in preserving and restoring bathhouses such as Sam Holden and Stephanie Crohin. In terms of a specific recommendation, why not check out Denkiyū, a small sentō located in Kyojima, Sumida ward, which featured in the film Perfect Days? One thing you may notice in both public and private baths in Japan is a small stool which Japanese typically sit on while washing before getting into the bath. This is crucial - Japanese enjoy the bath for relaxation never for washing, and since they enter the bath clean usually reuse the same (clean) water for a few days before refilling. Certainly, British bathing seems primitive in contrast! Thoughts? Please write in the COMMENTS section.

Food Culture in Japan: Rising Prices, Buddhist Breakfasts, and Hospital Cuisine

February in Japan has seen record snowfalls in the North though Tokyo has only experienced a few flurries. It's still very cold though so keeping the aircon on high and snuggling under the kotatsu - a low heated table covered with a quilt - is definitely the way to go. But while people everywhere are struggling with soaring energy bills, the Japanese have been particularly hard hit after being spoiled by a long period of deflation - starting in the late 1990s and continuing for some 15 years - followed by very low inflation (0.5%) until relatively recently. Coupled with the weak yen and higher import costs, the result has been more and more people struggling with daily living expenses - what the Japanese call seikatsuhi (生活費) - amid price increases (ne'age=値上げ) in everything from energy to food (recent video here). Rice in particular has skyrocketed, with the price of a 5kg bag almost doubling for some brands. Just how many people are having a hard time was brought home to me the other day when I passed the Tobu Supermarket in Nishikokubunji, Tokyo, and saw a long line of people queueing round the block during a special 98 yen (52p/66¢) "lifestyle support" (生活応援）campaign. Personally, BritishProf now avoids buying carrots, cabbage, broccoli, and lettuce because they've just become too expensive.

For those looking to save money on food, one approach is to have a big healthy breakfast and eat less or even nothing later - many Buddhists, for example, practice fasting from noon to sunrise the following day. The Buddhist belief that one shouldn't take a life means that many Buddhists follow a lacto-vegetarian diet - no eggs, meat, or fish - though some Buddhists do eat meat and other animal products, as long as the animals aren’t slaughtered specifically for them. If you want to sample some Buddhist cuisine of the latter, less strict, variety, I strongly recommend the 18-dish breakfast at Tsukiji Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Tsukiji, Tokyo (reservations essential). While it does include duck, octopus, rolled egg (tamago-yaki), and salted salmon/pollack roe (ikura/mentaiko), for the most part this is vegetarian and includes rice porridge (okayu) and delicious miso soup. Unfortunately, even this breakfast has not been immune to the price rises: the once unlimited rice refills will no longer be free from March 2025 "due to the recent rise in the cost of rice and other ingredients."

As the Buddhist breakfast illustrates, Japanese cuisine typically consists of multiple small dishes creating a very balanced, varied, and nutritious meal. A friend of mine recently spent a week in hospital and given the terrible reputation of hospital food in the UK  I was curious if the Japanese did a better job. As you might have guessed, the answer was a resounding "yes", with typically 4 to 5 healthy dishes cooked from scratch (if a little cold) accompanied with nutritional information. For example, the picture below shows an evening meal of rice, deep-fried cutlet with cheese, seaweed salad, thinly sliced stir-fried radish, and roasted green tea comprising a very low 584 kcal - and only 2.2g of salt. Even better, each meal costs only 490 yen (£2.59/$3.28) - a big plus in these days of sky-high food prices.

While the emphasis seems to be on more "traditional" Japanese food, reflecting the fact that patients tend to be older, meals did include bread, pasta, keema curry, and even a chocolate dessert for Valentine's Day! For more detailed pictures and descriptions of typical hospital fare check out the link here; there is also a fascinating Guardian article comparing hospital food - including Japan and the UK - from around the world. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on healthy eating, Japanese cuisine, and hospital food in the COMMENTS!