ONSEN (温泉)

It's sorry to tell that there are many weird word in my blog. (hehe)

An onsen (温泉) is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language.

Onsen come in many types and shapes, including 
outdoor (露天風呂 or 野天風呂 roten-buro or noten-buro) and indoor baths. Baths may be either public run by a municipality or private (内湯 uchiyu) often run as part of a hotel, ryokan or bed and breakfast (民宿 minshuku).


Etiquette

Ensuring cleanliness

At an onsen, as at a sentō, all guests are expected to wash their bodies and rinse themselves thoroughly before entering the hot water. Bathing stations are equipped with stools, faucets, wooden buckets, and toiletries such as soap and shampoo; nearly all onsen also provide removable shower heads for bathing convenience. Entering the onsen while still dirty or with traces of soap on the body is socially unacceptable.

Swimsuits

Bathers are not normally allowed to wear swimsuits in the baths. However, some modern onsen with more of a waterpark atmosphere require their guests to wear a swimming suit in their mixed baths.

Towels

Onsen guests generally bring a small towel with them to use as a wash cloth. The towel can also provide a modicum of modesty when walking between the washing area and the baths. Some onsen allow one to wear the towel into the baths, while others have posted signs prohibiting this, saying that it makes it harder to clean the bath. It is sometimes against the rules to immerse or dip towels in the onsen bath water, since this can be considered unclean. In this latter case, people normally set their towels off to the side of the water when enjoying the baths, or place their folded towels on top of their heads.

In Japan, it is said onsen have various medical effects. Japanese people believe that a good soak in proper onsen heals aches, pains and diseases, and visit onsen to treat the illnesses, such as arthralgia, chronic skin diseases, diabetes, constipation, menstrual disorders and so on.

Cosplay (コスプレ)

Cosplay, a new word for you~ short for "costume play" .
In Japan, cosplayers are more commonly called kosupure (コスプレ).

COSPLAY - is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centred on role play. A broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context.


Favorite sources include manga and anime, comic books, video games and films. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa.

Purpose

The cosplayer's purpose may generally be sorted into one of three categories, or a mix. Most cosplayers draw characteristics of all three categories:

• The first is to express adoration for a character, or in feeling similar to a character in personality, seeking to become that character. This type of cosplayer may be associated with being a fan and is often labelled as an otaku. Other characteristics may be an enthusiastic manner and less attention to detail and quality. Such cosplayers are also most likely to adopt the character's personality and are known to criticise other cosplayers for not having a full knowledge of their character, or not also adopting character mannerisms.
• The second is those people who enjoy the attention that cosplaying a certain character brings. Within the cultures of anime and manga specifically, as well as science fiction and fantasy, there is a certain level of notoriety that is attached to cosplayers. Such cosplayers are usually characterised by attention to detail in their garments and their choice of popular characters. They are also noted by participation in cosplay competitions.
• The third is those who enjoy the creative process, and the sense of personal achievement upon completion. Such people are more likely to have a greater budget dedicated to the project, more complicated and better quality outfits with access to more materials. They are also more likely to engage with professional photographers and cosplay photographers to take high quality images of the cosplayer in their garment posing as the character.

Photography

Some cosplayers choose to have a cosplay photographer take high quality images of the them in their costumes posing as the character. This is most likely to take place in a setting relevant to the character's origin, such as churches, parks, forests, water features and abandoned/run-down sites. Such cosplayers are likely to exhibit their work online, on blogs or artist websites, such as deviantART. They may also choose to sell such images or print the images as postcards and give them as gifts.

Competitions

As the popularity of cosplay has grown, many conventions have come to feature a contest surrounding cosplay that may be the main feature of the convention. Contestants present their cosplay, and often to be judged for an award, the cosplay must be self-made.

The contestants may choose to perform a skit, which may consist of a short performed script or dance with optional accompanying audio, video and/or images shown on a screen overhead. Other contestants may simply choose to pose as their characters. Often contestants are briefly interviewed on stage by an MC. 

The audience is given a chance to take photos of the cosplayers. Cosplayers may compete solo or in a group. Awards are presented, and these awards may vary greatly. Generally there will be a best cosplayer award, and best group award, with runner-up prizes as well. Awards may also go to the best skit, and a number of cosplay skill subcategories, such as master sewist, master weapon-maker, master armourer, etc.

The most well known cosplay competition is the World Cosplay Summit which selects a couple of cosplayers from 20 countries to compete in the final round in Nagoya, Japan.

Maid Cafe (メイドカフェ)

What!? Maid in Cafe!?
My answer is : Yes!! The maid in cafe who will become your servant!

Maid cafés (メイドカフェ) are a subcategory of cosplay restaurants found predominantly in Japan.In these cafes, waitresses dressed in maid costumes act as servants, and treat customers as masters (and mistresses) in a private home, rather than as cafe patrons.


 The first permanent maid café, Cure Maid Café, was established in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan in March 2001, but maid cafés are becoming increasingly popular. As they have done so, the increased competition has made some use unusual tactics in order to attract customers. They have also expanded overseas to countries like China, South Korea, Taiwan, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, France, Mexico, Canada and the United States.



Clientele
Maid cafés were originally designed primarily to cater to the fantasies of male otaku, obsessive fans of anime manga and video games. The image of the maid is one that has been popularized and fetishized in many manga and anime series, as well as in gal games. Important to the otaku attraction to maid cafés is the Japanese concept of moe, which generally describes a fetish or love for anime, manga or video game characters.


Menu
Most maid cafés offer menus similar to those of more typical cafés. Customers can order coffee, other beverages, and a wide variety of entrées and desserts. However, in maid cafés, waitresses will often decorate a customer’s order with cute designs at his or her table. Syrup can be used to decorate desserts, and omelette rice (オムライス Omu-raisu), a popular entrée, is typically decorated using ketchup. This service adds to the image of the waitress as an innocent but pampering maid.

Rituals, etiquette and additional services

There are many rituals and additional services offered at many maid cafés. Maids greet customers with "Welcome home, Master (Mistress)" (お帰りなさいませ、ご主人様！ Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama) and offer them wipe towels and menus. Maids will also kneel by the table to stir cream and sugar into a customer's coffee, and some cafés even offer spoon-feeding services to customers.

Maid : Welcome home,Master!!

Customers are also expected to follow basic rules when patronizing a maid café. One Tokyo maid café recently published a list of ten rules that customers should follow in a maid café.^[9] For example, customers should not touch a maid's body, ask for a maid's personal contact information, or otherwise invade her personal privacy (by stalking). One common rule in a maid café is that photographs of maids or the café interior are forbidden. However, customers usually have the option of paying an extra fee in order to get his or her photograph taken with a maid. The maid will then hand-decorate the photograph for the customer.

A maid distributing flyers in Akihabara

Sushi (寿司)

Seems like i'm just post the entertainment of Japan Culture.
So now i'm going to introduce the foods of Japan.
I sure that everyone know "Sushi" . But i also will introduce to everyone.

Sushi(寿司)  is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice (shari) combined with other ingredients (neta), usually raw fish or other seafood. Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari.

Raw meat sliced and served by itself is sashimi.

There are many types of sushi. So i will introduce some of them.

Chirashizushi

Chirashizushi (ちらし寿司, "scattered sushi") is a bowl of sushi rice topped with a variety of sashimi and garnishes (also refers to barazushi). 

Edomae chirashizushi (Edo-style scattered sushi) is an uncooked ingredient that is arranged artfully on top of the sushi rice in a bowl. 

Gomokuzushi (Kansai-style sushi) consists of cooked or uncooked ingredients mixed in the body of rice in a bowl. There is no set formula for the ingredients; they are either chef's choice or specified by the customer. It is commonly eaten because it is filling, fast and easy to make. Chirashizushi often varies regionally. It is eaten annually on Hinamatsuri in March.

Inarizushi

Inarizushi (稲荷寿司) is a pouch of fried tofu typically filled with sushi rice alone. It is named after the Shinto god Inari, who is believed to have a fondness for fried tofu. The pouch is normally fashioned as deep-fried tofu (油揚げ, abura age). 

Regional variations include pouches made of a thin omelette (帛紗寿司, fukusa-zushi, or 茶巾寿司, chakin-zushi). It should not be confused with inari maki, which is a roll filled with flavored fried tofu.

Makizushi (巻寿司, "rolled sushi"), Norimaki (海苔巻き, "Nori roll") or Makimono (巻物, "variety of rolls") is a cylindrical piece, formed with the help of a bamboo mat, called a makisu (巻簾). Makizushi is generally wrapped in nori (seaweed), but is occasionally wrapped in a thin omelette, soy paper, cucumber, or shiso (perilla) leaves. Makizushi is usually cut into six or eight pieces, which constitutes a single roll order. Below are some common types of makizushi, but many other kinds exist.

Nigirizushi

Nigirizushi (握り寿司, "hand-formed sushi") consists of an oblong mound of sushi rice that the chef presses into a small rectangular box between the palms of the hands, usually with a bit of wasabi, and a topping (the neta) draped over it. Neta are typically fish such as salmon, tuna or other seafood. Certain toppings are typically bound to the rice with a thin strip of nori, most commonly octopus (tako), freshwater eel (unagi), sea eel (anago), squid(ika), and sweet egg (tamago). When ordered separately, nigiri is generally served in pairs. A sushi set (a sampler dish) may contain only one piece of each topping

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Figma (フィグマ)

Another "weird" word?
Yes, i'm sure that you never seen this word.

Figma (フィグマ) is a Japanese action figure line produced by Max Factory and distributed by Good Smile Company. It's like nendoroid but it's come with a bigger size. 
A large number of the figures are based on bishōjo anime characters, and are available with various accessories, such as exchangeable faces.

Saber from Fate/Stay Night

Rob Bricken, reviewing a Lelouch Figma figurine for Anime News Network, described it as "the perfect marriage of accuracy and poseability". 
He later described the Figma line in general as "[one] of the most prolific (and reasonably priced) anime toylines around". 
In 2008, three Figmas were among the top ten 'toy and hobby' items sold on Amazon Japan.


Takamachi Nanoha from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha


Ultimate Madoka From Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Nendoroid （ねんどろいど）

Nendoroid? What is this? ...Are you thinking of this?

Ya, nendoroid becomes one of the Japan Culture nowadays.

So, What is Nendoroid?

Nendoroid (ねんどろいど) is a brand of small plastic figures from the Japanese Good Smile Company, first released in 2006. Nendoroid figures are usually replicas of an anime or manga character and are commonly used as collectors items or toys.

"Nendo" is Japanese for clay or plasticine.

They are roughly 10 cm (4 in) in height, depending on the character they were made to look like. Normally they are made in a chibi or super deformed style, with a large head and smaller body to make them look cute.

Their faces and body parts are movable and interchangeable, giving them a range of different expressions, postures and items to hold.

Here are some examples of Nendoroid.

↑ Kirino Kousaka from Ore no imouto ga konnani kawaii wakeganai.

Asuna from Sword Art Online

Ikaros from Sora No Otoshimono

And this is the nendoroid of famous "Artist" in the world nowadays -- Hatsune Miku!!

There are also other type of Nendoroid, that is Nendoroid Puchi A.K.A Nendoroid Petit!
Which the smaller size of nendoroid , but the released nendoroid puchi is lesser.



Lastly , i want to tell the price of nendoroid...normally is about RM150 - RM200.
http://www.goodsmile.info/archive/en/product/all/nendoroid/all/all/2012/all/1.html

ANIME (アニメ)

I'm sure that you are confusing the word "Anime".
The word is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". 

Character design

Basic character designs use techniques implemented in cartoon design. Among these techniques include the use of reference sketches to ensure character proportionality and multiple angle designs.

Proportions

Body proportions emulated in anime come from proportions of the human body. The height of the head is considered by the artist as the base unit of proportion. Head heights can vary as long as the remainder of the body remains proportional. Most anime characters are about seven to eight heads tall, and extreme heights are set around nine heads tall.

Eye styles

Many anime and manga characters feature large eyes. Osamu Tezuka, who is believed to have been the first to use this technique, was inspired by the exaggerated features of American cartoon characters such as Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, and Disney's Bambi. Tezuka found that large eyes style allowed his characters to show emotions distinctly. 

Facial expressions

There are a number of other stylistic elements that are common to conventional anime as well but more often used in comedies. Characters that are shocked or surprised will perform a "face fault", in which they display an extremely exaggerated expression. Angry characters may exhibit a "vein" or "stress mark" effect, where lines representing bulging veins will appear on their forehead. Angry women will sometimes summon a mallet from nowhere and strike another character with it, mainly for the sake of slapstick comedy. Male characters will develop a bloody nosearound their female love interests (typically to indicate arousal, which is a play on an old wives' tale). Embarrassed or stressed characters either produce a massive sweat-drop (which has become one of the most widely recognized motifs of conventional anime) or produce a visibly red blush or set of parallel (sometimes squiggly) lines beneath the eyes, especially as a manifestation of repressed romantic feelings. Characters who want to childishly taunt someone may pull an akanbe face (by pulling an eyelid down with a finger to expose the red underside). Characters may also have large "X" eyes to show a knockout, or in some cases, even illness. This is typically used for comedic purposes. Vacant, non-reflecting eyes can be used to indicate a state of semi-consciousness.

So this is the screenshot of the famous anime "GUILTY CROWN" .

Screenshot from Anime "Fate/Zero"

Screenshot from Anime "Dog Days"

MANGA (漫画)

Manga 
As the wiki said : Manga (漫画) are comics created in Japan, or by Japanese creators in the Japanese language, conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century.^[1] They have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art.
So here is the example page of MANGA.


Well, nowadays the famous TOP 10 manga are :

1	Naruto (manga)	8.10	4505
2	Death Note (manga)	8.88	4464
3	Bleach (manga)	8.13	4184
4	Fruits Basket (manga)	8.76	3414
5	Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)	8.92	3087
6	Chobits (manga)	7.89	2677
7	Love Hina (manga)	8.24	2486
8	One Piece (manga)	8.52	2427
9	Rurouni Kenshin (manga)	8.72	2332
10	Inuyasha (manga)

These result come from website : http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ratings-manga.php
So how many of them you have read?

  

Culture Japan

Hmm, do you know what is the meaning of Culture Japan? Well, as the word said.
Culture means the characteristics of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
So, i want to share the Japan culture with the other through this blog.

First, what do you think when you heard the word of "Japan"? Animation, Manga, or Sushi?
Well, what I list is the one of the Japan culture. There are many interest culture in Japan that i will introduce to you.

I will make introduction of Japan Culture in the following post. See you. ^.^


Photo took from Danny Choo website.