Unagi

Today,being the 21st of July,is the most important unagi (eel) day in Japan.
In ancient times people in Japan used the koyomi (almanac) consisting of 12 animal characters (the Chinese lunar calendar) in those times,they used it for time as well as months and days. (ie) (the hour of tiger,ox,rabbit etc) We call those characters "eto",nowadays there are only a few vestiges of this ancient almanac in modern Japanese culture.
People still remaining their own Chinese zodiac character, we learn them at school the age of 10.

Anyway according to the koyomi , today is a "doyo-no-ushi" there are 5 or 6 such days a year and when people hear the word,almost everyone in Japan thinks of eating unagi (eel). It's part of food culture to eat eel on "doyo-no-ushi".

There is an old Japanese book written in 1822,which tells the story of dodgy eel merchants coming up with a scheme to sell a lot of eel on these days,especially in summer,when people tend to lose their appetite.According to the book,eel merchants consulted a scholar about their low sales in summer and possible means to combat this problem in their business.
Unagi is vitamin rich,it's effective for combatting "natsu-bate"(summer fatigue) and beginning with "U" it was suggested to promote it's benefit its on "doyo-no-ushi".

This morning I received a lot of fliers,in my daily newspapers.Every supermarket,convenience store,or restaurant tries to take advantage of this custom to promote sales of unagi on this day.Of course I ate unagi as my dinner.

Katori-senko

I prefer winter to summer although in fact my favourite season is spring.
One of the reasons why I don't like summer is "mosquitoes" especially at night mosquitoes are terrible.Of course everyone knows the sound makes us annoying when we are trying to sleep.

I have "katori-senko" it is a kind of chemical product.I don't know exactly what its made from but it helps me to deal with "summer curse".
The main purpose of katori-senko is to kill and  repel mosquitoes by smoke.I usually put them near the balcony or the entrance,I feel better when I use it and I love the smell.It's totally different to aroma candles etc,but the smell reminds me of my grand mother's house.

Recently there are many products which kill mosquitoes but they need to have plugged into the power point.I tried some of these products but I think it's more natural and saves electricity to use katori-senko,so always went back to using them.

It's only been using them for two months but they have enabled me to deal with one uncomfortable aspect of summer in Japan.

Tanabata

Tanabata, “the star festival”, is celebrated on 7th July every year in Japan even though it's not national holiday. 

Let me tell you a Tanabata story briefly.
A long time ago, the god of the sky, Ten-Ko  had a daughter called Orihime.   She wove clothes by machine.He worried about his daughter because Orihime worked very hard and did nothing but weaving clothes.Therefore, he introduced a man to her.  His name was Ken-Gyu. He was a cowherd. They fell in love very soon, and spent all of their time without working.  Eventually, every clothes became worn out, and all cows became sick because they didn't care.  Ten-ko got very angry and he had stopped to meet them each other until they restart to work.He made Amanogawa (Milky Way) which is a big river, so Orihime and Ken-Gyu was pulled apart by her father Ten-ko and they  felt sad very much.  Finally they go back their work and her father Ten-ko permitted to meet them only once a year 7th July, and they tried to work very hard to see each other.  

It said when the weather on 7th July is sunny,they can see each other but if it's rainy they can't see because of the river will be swell.Unfortunately today is rainy...

This morning I saw a flyer with a newspaper which was a  supermarket near by.The supermarket gets in on the act,which their many kinds of products are selling 77yen.(77yen comes from 7th July).

Cheap price is good for me!!!