A Mini Virtual Tour of A Udon Restaurant Hanging A Beckoning Cat On The Door

Speaking of cats’ stuff yesterday, I’m going to introduce a traditional lucky charm, “Beckoning Cat”.This is a restaurant of  Udon-noodles in Tokyo, and there is a cat decoration hanging on the door.
It is a traditional lucky charm “Beckoning Cat(Maneki-Neko)”.
By the way, Udon-Noodles are another kind of traditional Japanese noodles and it’s different from Soba-noodles which I introduced previously. Soba-noodles are made from buckwheat flour, but Udon-noodles are made from Wheat flour, these two noodles are the major traditional noodles in Japan.
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A Mini Virtual Tour of A Cat-Café in Kichijoji, Tokyo

This is a “Cat Café (Neko Café)” which is located in Tokyo. Today, let's go to a virtual tour of Cat Cafe in Japan!
"Cat Cafe" is one types of café business in Japan so their services include the ordering of food and drinks but it has a very unique feature as a cafe.
At a “Cat Café”, cats are a part of the café, in other words, they are the staff of the café to entertain you (though it happens only when they feel like doing so, otherwise they may be just napping there). So, going to a “Cat Café” is almost the same as going to a small indoor zoo with a café that has only cats to show. Visitors are charged an entrance fee and given a short lecture on the cat café’s rules by the staff when they enter and they have to wash their hand not to bring germs which is bad for cats. People can order food and drinks for themselves or for the cats but they don’t have to.
Cats there have work-sifts, so they can take a rest in turn, and of course they don’t have to work when they are sick or not feeling well. Maybe some would say that they are well protected workers.

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A Photo of A View Of Sunset With Sakura-color in April

It was a misty day yesterday, and somehow the sunset became Sakura(cherry blossoms)-color as if the cloud is reflecting the full blooming Sakura flowers on the ground.

I didn not make up the word "Sakura-color" , Japanese use the word “Sakura-Iro(Sakura color)” when they want to express delicate light pink color. 

On the other hand, the direct translation of pink color in Japanese is “Peach color(Momo-Iro)” because peach flowers have stronger pink.

However, nowadays people use the English-Japanese conbination “Pink-Iro(pink color)” more commonly. People still use “Sakura-Iro” but seldom use “Momo-Iro”, and “Pink-Iro” became a Japanese word.

Photos of A Seasonal Taste For Spring in Japan

Japanese people also love to have seasonal flavors. In spring, Sakura(cherry blossoms) flavor is one of the popular ones.

People don’t eat Sakura flower itself as it is. It would be too light taste to enjoy even if they eat it, but pickled Sakura flowers and pickled Sakura leaves have been used for drinks and sweets since old times.

Traditionally people soak the pickled Sakura flowers into hot water and drink it as Sakura tea. In fact it doesn’t taste like tea since the flowers are pickled with only salt, but it has a strong flavor and people enjoy the flavor. 

Usually Sakura tea is served when a family has something to celebrate, so it’s not a seasonal tea, but Japanese people know how Sakura smells from it. Then people want to have food/drinks with the flavor when Sakura flowers are blooming.

Now, many of the new seasonal products with Sakura flavor can be found in Japan, for example Lindt Cafés in Japan has a Sakura flavored white chocolate drink, Starbucks also has Sakura flavored Latte, KitKat has Sakura flavor, too. Those products have the smell of pickled Sakura flowers/leaves and people consider that as a flavor of spring.