Even after over twenty years

I have been living in Japan for most of my life.
I came here when I was twenty years old…and that was over twenty years ago now.

I think Japan is the most beautiful country in the world and Tokyo is the best city.

I wanted to show some scenes that I see regularly in Japan and I may have started taking for granted but they are a part of what makes Japan so special.

Rather than go through the photos in my camera’s memory cards, I decided to be a bit lazy and see what I could find online.
I found a website called Getty Images that has many stock photos…some of them of Japan.
The people who take these photos must have cameras that are much nicer than mine because they took some really nice photos.

I use photos that I took myself in most of my blog posts, but the following photos are from Getty Images.

Every January, when the "Tokyo Stock Exchange" reopens after the New Years holidays, the female staff wear kimono.

A"bird's eye view" of Tokyo

A traditional Japanese breakfast.

A Japanese garden.

The symbol of Japan: 富士山 (Mount Fuji).

Tokyo's "Rainbow Bridge".

Japanese "Green Tea".

The Shibuya area of Tokyo

The Shinjuku area of Tokyo.

新幹線 (Bullet trains)

Tokyo Tower

By the way, today is the seventh day of the New Year.
On this day it is Japanese custom to eat 「七草粥」 (“Seven Herbs Porridge“) for breakfast.
I will have it for breakfast today as I usually do on January 7th.

Click here to see my post that explains this tradition in more detail.

春の七草

Today is the seventh day of the new year.
It’s a Japanese tradition from China to eat a special dish made with 「春の七草」 (the seven herbs of Spring) on this day.

In China, the new year starts at the beginning of Spring. Japan used to follow this calendar, too.
That’s the reason that one way to write “New Year” in Japanese is 「新春」. It means “New Year“…but a literal translation would be “New Spring“.

The dish you meant to eat this morning with the 「春の七草」 (the seven herbs of Spring) is called 「七草粥」 (“Seven Herbs Porridge“).

The picture above is the 「春の七草」 (the seven herbs of Spring) that my wife used to make this 「七草粥」 (“Seven Herbs Porridge“):

I put a 梅干し (Japanese salty plum) in mine.
It was quite good.