The tea master showing us the green tea powder used for the Japanese tea ceremony. Powder is made out of young tea leaves picked by hand, dried and grinded. Unlike English tea, there is no heat added.
If you’d like an authentic tea ceremony experience, make reservations at Happoen in Shirokanedai, where one of the most beautiful Japanese garden and traditional tea room can be found.
In a tea ceremony where sweets are served before the green tea is served to the guests. Pink sugary sweet has a hydrangea motif, which reminds you that it is now the high season for the flower.
Japanese traditional papers are made out of bark while Western papers from pulp. This makes Japanese papers strong and to have unique textures.
The photo shows three different paper ingredients. Bottom and middle: Japanese paper ingredients, Kozo and Mitsumata. The one at the very back, the pure white one is the pulp, typical ingredients for Western papers.
Photos taken from Ozuwashi, Nihonbashi.
The answer for the question in Japan for Japanese tea, would definitely be a no.
But here in China, the answer depends. Like here, in a home style, everyday use restaurant in Beijing, Chrysanthemum tea is served with sugar crystals. Although not every tea is served with sugar, it is certainly an optional flavor you can have.
This subtle difference in how tea are consumed make a huge difference in products. While ready-to-drink (RTD) tea will never come with sugar flavor in Japan, here in China, you will find both options for the same brand, sugared, and non-sugared. In fact, it is the one with the sugar which attracted the consumers more.
Both culture enjoys tea, but the final product can be in different taste.
Very powerful. Miner series by 宋朝 Song Chao, 2002. Cards from Beijing Artron Colour Printing Co., Ltd.
There is something stimulating about eating with hands. Here in Beijing, you can grab and eat lamb chops/legs, as the waitress provides you a plastic disposable glove.
This to my eyes quite a radical solution makes complete sense once you use it. You still eat the meat with your hands as the shape encourages you to, yet makes you worry less about your hand sanitary, or the grease on your hands that might prevent you from eating other dishes requiring chopsticks.
From Ginzan Onsen, an traditional hot spring town.
Visiting sento, public baths or onsen, hot springs is the favorite pastime of the Japanese. According to the survey conducted by Japanese tourism association, visiting Onsen has been the most popular activity upon travel for leisure consistently.
I believe there are not many places more suitable than such where you can see how people behave. Here in a typical Ryokan, Japanese traditional accommodations, would remind private bath users to place their sandals in front of the door as an indication that you are inside. There is a key but it is only a metal hook which does not quite serve the purpose. Ryokan knows that items like sandals are more obvious and natural ways to indicate that there is someone inside.
And for a public bath area, where you meet people naked, these baskets are here to indicate if there are people inside before you. Baskets are placed upside down by default in the area where you undress yourself; Once you get in, flip them back, put your clothes and towels. The flipped basket with the clothes inside will give the next customers how crowded or even whether there is anyone inside before you. And what is the impact of this? You will know whether you could go inside, just like in your home completely naked, or whether you should hide a few parts of yourself with a small towel, which you will use inside to wash yourself with.
What is in English called as Emergency Exit in Japan. The sign reads 非常口 which means equivalent of the English term.
But how about this one? The same function called 安全出口, translates as Safety Exit. Beijing, China.
In both languages, Chinese characters are used to describe the functionality. Yet the end result is very different, as one highlights that the door should be used in case of emergency, while the other emphasizes the result of using it.
But the important message is this: The terms applied to describe things, features, or services, sufficiently differs by the region or the country; and when you do not make the extra effort and simply translates but fails to localize, it is noticed at once. This is what makes localization effort so much more challenging when you are developing any global product.
Looking back the times in Nokia, where localization people dealt with at least a hundred languages, I gained a huge respect to them. In particular when you are tapping into a new market, you are at the frontier and not many people within the company know about the culture or the language. In some cases, you might not even have a competitor, or even if you have one, might not be much of a hint. You might have a great feature which could be attractive, but it will be up to your skills and network which would make the feature translates into a language. What a job.
My expertise lies in user experience, not in localization. But as a part of my work, I used to check dozens of Asian language inputs on phone. It was always a fascinating and humble experience, as we received feedback from native speakers. I hope as the market grows, the device improved to speak better languages, too.
I believe gods would not differentiate who comes to pray, but it seems people do choose to which god’s house to pray at. Here at Tokyo Daijingu, which is known to have effect on your love fortunes, seems to be the holy house for young women.
As I pass by a nail salon inside Oriental Plazain Wangfujing, Beijing, I found a man waiting for his girlfriend as she gets her nail done. Although not every woman have a company of a man, it is not uncommon in Beijing to see a couple spending their time while either one gets oneself groomed.
What is considered as a personal activity in one culture can be social and public in another. In this perspective, you will come across with private-go-public behaviors across the city. Here in Beijing I see men getting their hair cut in a park; Quite a few people carry nail clippers in their key chains; And you realize that even public toilets, where some of us might consider to be one of the most private activities, can in fact be much more social and public than you think; Most of my experience going to public toilets with my acquaintances resulted in engaged in a conversation rather than minding one’s own business.
We hear that modernization of cities is quickly changing all these behaviors. Many of the families have abandoned old, Hutong style homes a long time ago, and prefer to live in an apartment where they could have the toilet of their own; I see fewer hair dressers strolling in parks than 10 years ago; What is more, the Beijing government campaigns and promotes Beijingers not to walk around half naked when they are playing chess in the neighborhood during hot summer time. But looking at couples spend their time as one gets groomed, I feel that people have not forgotten to enjoy the company.
When foreign investors consider tapping into such culture, they should remember social aspect in offering the service plays a huge role here. Apparel shops should remember to provide more space for shopper’s company to spend one’s time comfortably; Game industry should constantly remind oneself that people prefer to be connected with others rather than playing the game for oneself. And personally, I believe there is a large potential when it comes to housing industry, where they could promote toilet placed outside the bath areas, enabling such business to take place in more public space of the house but in a sanitary manner.
