Japanese Fermented FoodsFermented foods are made by taking advantage of the workings of microorganisms and enzymes in food ingredients. The Japanese have a long history of making fermented foods a close part of everyday life. In fact, these foods are an essential part of the daily diet in Japan. Two essential condiments, for example, are miso (fermented soybean paste) and soy sauce, both of which are made from soybeans. Similarly, natto is made of fermented soybeans and eaten with warm rice as a standard breakfast food. As a side dish, tsukemono (Japanese pickles) is made by fermenting vegetables in nuka, or rice bran, and as a snack to go with alcohol, shiokara is a delicacy of fermented seafood with fish entrails.
One of the reasons why Japan has so many fermented foods is that the country’s temperature and humidity levels are conducive to the reproduction of bacteria and other microorganisms that stimulate fermentation. Mold such as aspergillus is used for fermentation, as is yeast fungus, lactic acid bacteria, natto bacillus and other fungi. Through the workings of these kinds of fermentation bacteria, a savory taste is produced and extracted, making it possible to produce healthy, nutrient-rich food that can be preserved for long periods. Japanese people have long been aware of this fact through experience.

Read more from here.>>Trends in Japan
http://web-japan.org/trends/11_lifestyle/lif120223.html

Read the original article at
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/7-foods-burn-fat-214600519.html

According to shitamachi-bred people, one of their happy memories is cheap sweets they had in their childhood. Ame (hard candies), okoshi (sticky rice cakes), arare (rice crackers shaped as cubes), karinto (sweet and deep-fried snack made of flour)…Many of those cheap sweets have been produced for a few hundred years, which may surprise Americans.
In Europe, there are many wonderful sweets with histories in the countries such as France and Austria, but they were the sweets exclusively for royalty and the aristocracy. On the other hand, in Japan, since the Edo period, sweets of the shitamachi area have long been popular among ordinary people, who were able to buy many of those sweets with the change in their pockets.

Why not explore Japanese traditional sweets in Tokyo Soramachi?
‘nikinokashi’ on the second floor is a confectionery wholesaler. You can see many old-fashioned cheap sweets there.

Craftsmen in the shitamachi area are good at doing detailed work.
Before World War II, the area around the Tokyo Skytree Town prospered with many small glass workshops. The glass industry remains as the area’s local industry.

Among its glass products, the one called Edo Kiriko, finely engraved cut glasses, would be a perfect souvenir.
At ‘Hasegawa Saketen’ on the first floor, delicate pieces of Edo Kiriko glassware are on display and for sale along with sake and other kinds of liquor. Why don’t you get Edo Kiriko cut glass items with some tasty Japanese sake?
Edo Kiriko glassware is also offered at ‘watashi no heya’ on the first floor.

Old and new shitamachi items. Both are stylishly displayed in the stores, and we are sure you’ll have a good time even if you just to window-shop.
Please come and visit this newborn shitamachi.

Reported by Yukari Aoike and Akiko Sugahara, Sugahara Institute

Tokyo Skytree Town has become a new tourist site in Tokyo since its opening in May, 2012. For Japanese people, now it is the best place to visit.

Tokyo Skytree Town is comprised of Tokyo Skytree, a 634-meter tall broadcasting tower, commercial facilities, and offices. This tower was built as we needed a new broadcasting tower that would be much higher than the former one, Tokyo Tower. While Tokyo Tower has a shape similar to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the new tower is leaner than the old one. When illuminated, while Tokyo Tower is lit up with modern colors, the new tower emits a light of specially-designed blue or purple, which looks graceful in the eyes of Japanese people.

The concept of Tokyo Skytree Town is “Rising East.” It promotes the rebirth of shitamachi, the traditional old town area in Tokyo, and the creation of a new community. For some reason, these days the lifestyle of the Edo period (1603-1868), during which people lived the most ecological life in the world, has gained great interest among people in Japan. In the middle of the Edo period, the city of Edo was the world’s largest city with a population of one million, as well as the world’s safest place with the smallest number of crimes committed in the world. It is said at the time there were only 30 police officers in the city. It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? And the area surrounding the Tokyo Skytree is the very place where you can feel the warmth, vigorousness, and lifestyles of the people of the day, and where you can buy traditional souvenirs.

During the Edo period, in the city of Edo (Tokyo), the upland part where samurai residences were located was called “yamanote” while the commercial and industrial area for town people was called “shitamachi.” The area around which the Tokyo Skytree Town is located belongs to shitamachi, along with Nihombashi, Kanda and Asakusa.
Shitamachi was the town of craftsmen, and still is.
There are some family-run workshops in this area where those craftsmen carry on Edo-period traditions with various kinds of their handicrafts.

If you want to buy shitamachi-style souvenirs, especially the old-fashioned ones from the Edo period, we recommend you go and shop at Tokyo Soramachi, the shopping district of the Town.
In this shopping district there are so many kinds of establishments including souvenirs shops, restaurants, fashion and sundry goods stores, delicatessens and confectioneries, all crowded with so many shoppers.

First, let’s go up to the fourth floor for Japanese souvenirs.
On this floor, you can shop for different kinds of sundries, replica foods, cosmetics, etc.
Here, we highly recommend you visit the store ‘mamegui,’ and pick some tenugui, dyed cloths made from cotton, for your Edo-style souvenirs. The shop offers its handkerchief-size small tenugui designed with many different print patterns, from which you can enjoy the spirit of shitamachi.

People of the Edo period loved festivals very much, and tenugui is an essential item for the event. They used tenugui with many different printed patterns, and when a pattern design was considered iki (which means edgy and cool), the tenugui with the pattern became very popular. Tenugui was a versatile item in the kitchen and the bath. While they were working, they hung it at their side to wipe their sweat.
Usually tenugui is around 70 centimeters by 40 centimeters, since it was also used to cover their heads.

Boys of the Edo period used new tenugui only on the day of a festival. They wore the tenugui as a headband, tightly twisted, and carried mikoshi (a portable shrine) naked to the waist to show off their toned muscles. For boys, this moment was an ideal opportunity to make an appeal to girls how sexy they were. Therefore, it was important for them to use brand-new tenugui.

Those who knew how to look cool adding a new twist to how they wore the tenugui headband were popular among women. So the boys devoted themselves to finding their new look with the headband using tenugui, the rectangle cloths dyed in different shades of blue and brown. Interesting, isn’t it?

At ‘mamegui’, pick up your tenugui and small candies and go to the cash register, and the staff will put the candies into a box and wrap it beautifully with the tenugui you choose. The tenugui you can buy at this store are half-sized compared to the traditional tenugui mentioned above, but those items must be cute souvenirs; you can just hand them to people.
Also, we recommend you get this tenugui and the matching frame for your room decoration. If you were from overseas and brought those tenugui souvenirs home, those who receive the gift would say, “It’s so cool!!”

Reported by Yukari Aoike and Akiko Sugahara, Sugahara Institute

You Never Appreciate Spring Till You’ve Been Through A Tough Winter

With rising temps come rising hemlines, bare shoulders… and eventually, bikini season. Add these metabolism-boosting foods and drinks to your shopping list, and you’ll score a leaner and sexier bod.

By Carolyn Kylstra

Chicken Breast
Meet the ultimate wonder food. Chicken is packed with protein, which is essential for maintaining muscle mass-and the more muscle mass you have, the more efficient you are at burning calories. Even better, protein takes more time to digest than carbohydrates, so you’ll feel full longer than if you ate the same number of calories in a carb-or fat-heavy meal. An ideal serving: the size of a computer mouse or a deck of cards.

Greek Yogurt
Calcium consumed in tandem with an amino acid found in dairy products has been shown to burn fat. Consider it a fab excuse to add more yogurt, milk, and cheese to your meal plans. What makes Greek yogurt a standout dairy option is that it has more protein that the regular kind-so you boost the fat-burning benefits.

Related: 6 Ways To Get Him in Shape and Improve Your Sex Life

Green Tea
Research suggests that consuming two to four cups of fresh brewed green tea daily can help you burn about an extra 50 calories a day. It’s teeming with catechins, nutrients linked to increased metabolism and a smaller waistline.

Eggs
Scramble up two eggs for breakfast tomorrow-it’s a fat-melting morning meal. Part of the reason is that eggs are loaded with protein (which will keep you feeling full for longer), but also, eating in the a.m. means you end up taking in fewer calories during the day, research shows.

Related: 13 Foods That Can Make Your Fat

Cold Water
You’ve probably heard the tip to drink water when you’re hungry, in case the pangs you’re feeling are actually thirst. Well, here’s another reason to down the H2O: When you drink ice water, your body actually expends energy, warming the water up to your natural temperature.

Chili Pepper
Capsaicin, the ingredient that gives chili peppers their fiery kick, can also fire up your fat-burning furnace. Order more hot curries and other spicy dishes when you eat out, or just add a tablespoon of chopped chilis to your pizza or soup at home.

Related: Kinky Light Sex Moves You Need to Try

Pistachios
These nuts contain the right balance of healthy fat, protein, and fiber, and together they rev your metabolism and keep you feeling satisfied. About 50 pistachios equals one serving, so pop some in a bag and munch when you’re feeling snacky.

Sources: Lisa Drayer, MA, RD, nutritionist and author of Strong, Slim, and Thirty: Eat Right, Stay Young, Feel Great, and Look Fabulous! Stephanie Middleberg, RD, nutritionist and founder of Middleberg Nutrition

Read the original article at
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/7-foods-burn-fat-214600519.html

This is a tough thing. So they work under stress all the time with a rush of adrenaline and noradrenaline. I have a friend who works on TV animation production, participating in various stages, from story line to CG animation to voice input. He works so hard that he gets just a few hours’ sleep every day for stretches of several months. I always warn him saying, “You’re gonna die in your 40s from metabolic syndrome and a heart attack.” However, he continues to work this way, pouring cups of coffee with milk and sugar into his body, and smoking. Adrenaline and hypoglycemia. These are some of the worst factors affecting your health, and you see this in my friend’s case.

Café latte with sugar, which raises his blood glucose level to a maximum, is a sign that his work has started. Four hours later, however, while 95 percent of his followers on the Internet like his works, he is depressed over some articles which criticize his and he voluntarily picks them up to read. According to his wife, he doesn’t have sufficient meals.

The elevated blood sugar level goes down in one or two hours. Then he drinks sweet coffee again to develop his blood sugar. Then later again, when his blood sugar is rapidly dropping, he goes into a state of depression. A critical article about which he doesn’t care usually makes him depressed. This is a vicious circle. Although his wife prepares well-balanced meals for him, when he is in the state of hyperglycemia shortly after a cup of coffee, he doesn’t have much to eat; he is talking most of the time instead.

His blood sugar is going up and down frequently, and sometimes it goes up as the result of a rush of adrenaline, an adrenal medullary hormone. I repeatedly warn him that he is likely to get diabetes. Usually an adrenaline rush makes you aggressive. In his case, however, while he is nice to everyone with a smile, he feels stressed as he controls his mood, which makes him take out his frustration on his family. I give his wife suggestions such as, “Coffee and tobacco are oxidants. Once your blood gets oxidized, it flows badly and the rack of oxygen in the brain pretty much stimulates your sympathetic nervous system and promotes further rush of adrenaline. Sometimes it leads to constipation, causing inflammation in the body including appendicitis. So I think your husband should take a good amount of vegetables, vegie juice, vitamin C and E.”

The movement of oriental exercises such as yoga and tai chi is different from that of western-style exercises in the way that the former is more effective in balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Those oriental-style exercises work to balance the nervous functions of parasympathetically-innervated depressed persons, bringing them back into normal by stimulating their sympathetic nervous system. On the other hand, for those who are sympathetically- innervated and overstressed aggressive business persons and who drink energy beverages with plenty of caffeine, the exercises stimulate their parasympathetic nervous system, then make them sleep well and stay calm.

The Western-style workouts which are to build your muscles and increase maximal oxygen uptake tend to take you to a sympathetic dominant state; they keep you slim and active. However, don’t you have adrenaline rush feelings too many times in a day? You are nice to outsiders, okay, but do you take the same attitude to your family? Don’t you resort to verbal violence at home where you can reveal yourself? Maybe we should check our own attitudes. Incidentally, I hear that a large majority of gun-related homicides occur at home.

Source：US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics“Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008” http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf  

When Prozac was introduced in the U.S., it had such a high standing that punk songs about the drug became popular. In Japan, these days the numbers of those who have depression are increasing, and we often see TV commercials featuring depression with the message “Depression is the common cold of mind. If you catch it, feel free to see a specialist.”

When I went to see a dentist who has a clinic in a large office building, we talked about the TV commercial featuring depression. The dentist, who is in her 40s said with a frown, “It seems that many depressed patients go to see a doctor as they see the commercial suggesting they can recover from depression quickly because it’s the common cold of mind. But I think that is a problem.”

“Why?” I asked to her. She said, “One of my clients, a salaried worker who was my client for a long time. He had depression and started from a mild antidepressant. So far, he was okay, but he got worse over the years, expressing himself with bizarre words and attitudes. He didn’t recover from it like a cold. Instead, he shut himself off from work. Maybe he took a leave of absence or left his company. There are more people among my clients who make their depression worse and stopped coming to this clinic. It is such a problem for me too.”

Indeed, it’s a big problem. Today, many temporary workers tend to keep their savings for the time when they are unemployed. On the other hand, full-time workers feel stress all the time with a fear of getting downsized depending on their company’s performance. Even those who are on a career ladder in a prestigious company think they must survive internal competition when they see their seniors are sent out to affiliated companies and their salaries are suddenly reduced by nearly one-third.

Pamper your delicate skin with these natural anti-aging recipes. by Janice Cox

The tenets of anti-aging are consistent, if ever-present: eat well, exercise, relax, be social, take antioxidants and get more sleep. But when it comes to skin care, anti-aging advice is even simpler: cleanse, moisturize and protect. As we age, we don’t necessarily want to look younger, but we do want to look our best.

It is important to think “gentle.” Every time you rub, pull or scrub, you loosen tiny fibers under the skin’s surface. If you’re too rough, you could prematurely age your skin. So, use mild products with TLC. Pat your body dry, smooth on lotions and creams, or spray on products.

Moisture is important to our skin health and well-being as we age. Stay healthy by drinking water and moisturize topically by using rich creams, lotions and natural oils. For glowing skin, eat a balanced diet. Vitamins A, B, C and E help with the new growth of skin and preserve the elasticity of skin.

Sun protection is the third key to better-looking skin. It is the single most important age-defying step in skin care. Even if you have been inconsistent in the past, use a sunscreen now. Your skin may even repair some damage if it is well-protected. Sunscreens help prevent more damage while giving your skin a chance to rebuild itself. Used on a daily basis, it is the single fastest way to change the appearance of your skin now and in the future.

Anti-Aging Skin Care

• Use gentle products. No matter our skin type, as we age it is important to treat skin gently. Look for products with few ingredients: When it comes to cleansers, less is more.

• Don’t use harsh exfoliators or scrubs. Harsh scrubs can cause tiny scratches on the skin that can become inflamed and gather bacteria, leading to breakouts. Discard harsh scrubs for finely ground beans or oatmeal.

• Keep water temperature moderate. Hot water dries the skin and hair, so keep the temperature low and avoid overly hot baths and showers.

• Pat skin dry. It also is a good idea to leave skin a bit damp, helping it absorb as much moisture as possible, especially after bathing.

• Use daily sun protection. Protecting skin from sun damage is critical for people of all ages.

• Hydrate at night. As you sleep, use the downtime to rest and rehydrate your skin. Bedtime is the most important time to cleanse your skin and remove all the dirt and grime from a full day. It also is the perfect time to use rich creams and lotions that are too heavy for day wear.

Did You Know?

According to The Skin Cancer Foundation, practicing sun protection year-round can prevent sun damage and might even reverse some of the damage that has already been done to your skin.

In the original article, the following treatments were also introduced. You may want to try!

6 Fresh Face Treatments:
• Exfoliating Mask
• Restoring Mask
• Antioxidant Mask
• Gentle Cleanser
• Anti-Aging Cream
Web Exclusive Recipe: Rosewater Toner
Try These: Anti-Aging Product Guide

The original article is available here. http://www.motherearthliving.com/natural-beauty/body-and-soul-natural-anti-aging-treatments.aspx

Although the number of Japanese who know about this is also decreasing, in the Meiji era, Japan imitated the territorial expansion principle of Western countries and also had ambition that she wanted to get the territory of Manchuria due to resource shortage, so she was to fight with Russia at that time. Shogun Nogi Maresuke tried to attack Russian troops from the front. Until just before the Battle of Tsushima, how many lives were lost by the human wave tactics called frontal assault! The dead had been increasing until Kodama Gentaro, Shogun Nogi Maresuke’s superior, persuaded this army and changed the operation that they attack the bases of 203 highlands where they can attack Russian troops from the top of the mountain.

Although the history books said a total of 100,000 soldiers died in it, the 27,000 soldiers in the army, about 1/3 among them, died by another reason. That’s the wrong meal.

At that time, there were not only the conflicts of war strategy, but also the conflicts of the meal plan to let the soldiers eat. Whereas the army let the soldiers eat delicious white rice and caused massive deaths by beriberi, Takagi Kanehiro in the navy insisted that they would not suffer from beriberi if they ate the rice boiled with barley, and resolved the deaths from beriberi by that.

Mori Ohgai, famous as a literary scholar in Japan, was the top of the army’s doctor at that time and didn’t listen to this navy’s suggestion. He went to German and studied the medicine whose mainstream was Koch, the authority of pathogen, and believed that the cause of beriberi was due to pathogen. Therefore, he opposed the idea of making the rice boiled with barley a staple food until the last moment.

Well, are there no modern people who suffered from beriberi? However, this is also the hidden and major modern disease, actually. Beriberi is not caused in people; people in the middle class and above, especially in Europe and U. S., those who eat plenty of brown rice, 10 different cereals including rice, whole-grain cereal, and whole-grain bread, and get high level nutritional information and practice it; Japanese who properly eat many side dishes and brown rice.

People who take instant noodles, fast foods, soft drinks, and alcohols become deficient in not only vitamin B1, but also vitamins B complex. As a result of this, they are irritated, can’t stay focused, and feel listless easily. They are bad postures and hate exercise. Of course they can’t study and can’t work at company if they are deficient in not only vitamin B1 but also B group. And people who lack energy, feel listless, and are gloomy are increasing, and people who really lost their temper are also going to increase in the whole society. Your town where you live, your family, and you are not deficient in vitamin B1? Beriberi tends to be considered olden disease but actually it is a big problem for modern people. In a widening economic disparity, it can be said that the new gap of getting beriberi is caused.

In U.S. and Europe, people pay tips and have a meal, take exercise and plenty of vegetables, and there is no one who suffers from beriberi in the group of people in favor of brown rice. In the low-income groups, wouldn’t there be the spread of obesity and beriberi with double?

Source of article :
http://www.miraiclinical.com/index.php?custom_page=anti-aging_lifestyle_japanesebath