Country of the month : Japan

By Junko Murakami, Student at ABC School of English What is the capital of your country? Which language(s) do you speak? The capital city of Japan is Tokyo and we speak Japanese. Population in Japan is about one hundred twenty-seven million. What is the food speciality of your country? Japanese cuisine (“WASHOKU”) is getting popular and we can find quite a few Japanese restaurants here in London. We have variety of dishes such as Ramen, Sushi, Tempura, Okonomiyaki, and so on. “WASHOKU” became the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO in 2013. Our staple food is rice and we eat fish and vegetables a lot. We also produce variety of liquor such as sake, beer, whisky and even wine which go very well with Japanese or any other countries’ cuisine. Can you briefly describe your country? (What make your country famous? National sport? Do you have sea or/and mountains in your country?) Japan is a long island that extends north to south, so the weather is quite different depends on where you live. It snows a lot in the north where you can enjoy skiing whilst you can swim in the sea until October/November in the south. Also we are famous for hot springs. It has a variety of effects, like recovering from exhaustion, improving poor circulation etc. In “roten-buro”, an open-air bath which usually set in nature or in a garden, you can enjoy the beautiful nature, the seasons and the weather all at the same time. If you like mountain climbing, Mt Fuji would be the most challenging mountain to try. It is 3,776 meters high, the highest mountain in Japan. Mt. Fuji is also well-known by Katushika Hokusai’s ukiyo-e prints which you may have seen somewhere. Regarding sports, Sumo is known as Japanese national sport. Karate, Kendo and Judo are the famous sports, too. Currently (in September) Japan is the host country for rugby world cup and the Olympic games in Tokyo will be coming up next year. Why did you come to UK? What do you like the most in London After working for a long time, I have decided to take some time off before I start a new job. I lived in London in 1990’s and have many good memories back then, which made me come back to London again. There are many reasons why I like London. People’s politeness and good sense of humour, wonderful places to visit, such as museums, parks, gardens, theatres, musicals etc. I also like goinig to pubs once in a while to enjoy atmosphere and local beer.