Category: Music

Hanami Boating With Iemon

Iemon or Yemon (いえもん, イエモン) is an ancient Japanese given name for men. The name originally came from the word Uemonfu (右衛門府) which is the right guardhouse of the gates of Heian-kyō imperial palace during the Asuka period and Heian period. [It also is] a brand of green tea drink released by Suntory.

Hanami (花見, lit. “flower viewing”) is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, “flower” in this case almost always meaning cherry blossoms or ume blossoms. From the end of March to early May, sakura bloom all over Japan, and around the first of February on the island of Okinawa.

Green tea (緑茶 Ryokucha) is ubiquitous in Japan and therefore is more commonly known simply as “tea” (お茶 ocha).

On July 14, 2009, Kirin announced that it is negotiating with Suntory on a merger. On February 8, 2010, it was announced that negotiations between the two were terminated.

Mamoru Fujisawa (藤澤 守, Fujisawa Mamoru, born December 6, 1950), known professionally as Joe Hisaishi (久石 譲, Hisaishi Jō), is a Japanese composer and musical director known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. Hisaishi is also known for his piano scores.

As his works were becoming well known, Hisaishi formulated an alias inspired by Quincy Jones, an American musician and producer. Retranscribed in Japanese, “Quincy Jones” became “Joe Hisaishi”. (“Quincy”, pronounced “Kuinshī” in Japanese, can be written using the same kanji in “Hisaishi”; “Joe” comes from “Jones”.)

HottoMotto Unaju Only 500円 for a Limited Time

Unagi (うなぎ) is the Japanese word for freshwater eels, especially the Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica. Unagi is often eaten during the hot summers in Japan. There is even a special day for eating unagi, the midsummer day of the Ox (doyo no ushi no hi).

Kabayaki (蒲焼) is a generic Japanese term for a dish of seafood which is filleted, boned and dipped in a sweet soy sauce-base sauce before broiled on a grill. In general, kabayaki refers to the dish made with unagi.

Hokka Hokka Tei (ほっかほっか亭) is a bento take-out chain with over 2,000 franchises and company-owned branches throughout Japan. Hokka Hokka Tei [was] the major brand name of Plenus Co., Ltd., which used to be engaged in office equipment sales before it changed industries to the food industry in 1980 [and then in 2008 split from Hokka Hokka Tei to form the HottoMotto bento chain in 2005.]

Taiko (太鼓) means “drum” in Japanese (etymologically “great” or “wide drum”). Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums (和太鼓, wa-daiko, “Japanese drum”, in Japanese) and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming (sometimes called more specifically, kumi-daiko (組太鼓)).

Sammy Davis, Jr. asks you to wait for Suntory White

Suntory was one of the first Asian companies to specifically employ American celebrities to market their product. One of the most notable is Sammy Davis, Jr., who appeared in a series of memorable Suntory commercials in the early 1970s.

Samuel George “Sammy” Davis, Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American entertainer. Primarily a dancer and singer, Davis was a childhood vaudevillian, and became known for his performances on Broadway and in Las Vegas, as a recording artist, television and film star, and the only black member of Frank Sinatra’s “Rat Pack”. In the 1970s, he appeared in commercials in Japan for Suntory whiskey.

A blended whisky (or whiskey) is the product of blending different types of whiskies.