Anna Matsushita

Many years ago, during my stay in the UK, I became aware that pubs offered cidre , known as "cider" in English. However, for reasons I didn’t quite understand, my British acquaintances strongly discouraged me from ordering it. They claimed it was not something young people should drink, that it wouldn’t suit Japanese taste buds, and that Japanese people weren’t accustomed to strong alcohol, which they believed cider to be. Their insistence that "it doesn’t suit Japanese palates" left me puzzled. Despite their claimed familiarity with Japan, they seemed determined to dissuade me from trying cider. Looking back, I wonder if they had a negative experience recommending it to a Japanese person in the past and were simply trying to avoid disappointing me. Several decades later, I finally had the opportunity to savour British-made apple cider. A Tokyo-based restaurant featured about eight varieties of cider on its menu. Remembering my earlier encounter in the UK, I was det...

  It was 29th March when I wake up in the morning and felt unusual chill in the air. When I went outside of my house, I discovered it was snowing. It was the first snow in the Southern Kanto area in Japan that year. We had no snow in the winter, and I was partly happy and partly sad to see the snow The Southern Kanto area is one of the warmest areas in Japan, especially the coastal area where I live. The weather is mild, and we rarely have snow in winter. I love seeing snow, as it is not a usual thing to see often in where I live. It is nice to see even some flurry in the morning or late in the evening. It is also nice to see the land covered white, making small white mounds everywhere. Apparently the kids in neighbourhood are excited as well, and it makes me smile to see little snowmen placed on the walls and gates of some houses. However, snow also means that our infrastructure is not up to the weather, and there is always traffic chaos. To begin with, people can’t walk properly ...