This week there is a festival in Frankfurt am Main that makes me feel especially emotional: The first Japan Festival "Main-Matsuri". (<link https: www.frankfurt-tipp.de ffm-aktuell s ugc mit-main-matsuri-bekommt-frankfurt-sein-erstes-japan-festival.html _blank>Of course you can find all information about the festival here on Frankfurt-Tipp.)
I'm not only excited about the opportunity to enjoy authentic street food or the cultural highlights of the three-day festival. It is also an opportunity to satisfy my longing for this beautiful country, for Frankfurt's unique, fascinating partnership Yokohama and especially for my Japanese friend Satoko.
In Frankfurt live an incredible number of Japanese, who send their children to Japanese school in Hausen and like to buy fish at <link https: www.frankfurt-tipp.de insidefrankfurt s shopping frankfurt-ein-fischerdorf.html _blank>Venos in Rödelheim. I had met my friend many years ago at a German language school. Like many Japanese housewives, she was learning a bit of German while her husband had been posted to Frankfurt and Europe respectively for a few years. That's how we became friends. When I asked her what she appreciated most about her life in Germany, Satoko replied, "The closing times on Sundays."
Japanese people would spend their days off shopping. Here in Germany, on the other hand, they could go out with the kids to play soccer or just enjoy the day in peace. By the way, the family lived in a cute row house in Praunheim, which they passed on to the next Japanese family when they moved back to Yokohama.
Anyway, Yokohama. How lucky Frankfurt is to have this unusually westernized city on the east coast of the main island of Honshu as its twin city. From beautiful parks to the exciting Chinatown to the Ferris wheel at the harbor and its gigantic pier, constructed entirely of wood and mimicking the shape of a boat.
Tamed Natural Beauties
When I visited my friends back home in Yokohama, the most lasting moment was that my friend's husband always changed into his pajamas as soon as he came out of the office. Once we had to make a quick trip to a drugstore to buy a bus ticket for me (!), That's when he just threw on a parka over his terrycloth pajamas. I spent five days alone in the old imperial city of Kyoto. I have never experienced a quieter city. Everything runs its course. I also learned a little about the culture: no eating in public, not even blowing your nose. On the bullet train "Shinkansen", which arrives more punctually than on time, there is holy silence, because everyone is asleep. In the department stores, the elevator operators wear white gloves. Of course there is blue food, the Japanese have less fear of contact than we have here :-) And the Tokyo Tower in the capital is something the Japanese are incredibly proud of.
The country's nature with its delicate flowers and trees seemed so foreign and delicate - I recognize it in the elaborate traditional kimonos, in the gossamer paper art origami or the fine penmanship. The tamed beauty of nature unfolds above all in the splendour of temple gardens and parks. We can catch a glimpse of their beauty in Frankfurt, after all, in the <link https: www.frankfurt-tipp.de insidefrankfurt s shopping ostern-im-gruenen-fuenf-versteckte-ecken-zum-tummeln-luemmeln-und-traeumen.html _blank>Chinese Garden with its waterfall and the traditional zigzag bridge (from summer 2019, the garden will finally be reopened) or the Korean, which <link https: frankfurt.de sixcms _blank>is currently only accessible to a limited extent due to wanton destruction. My very <link https: www.frankfurt-tipp.de insidefrankfurt s shopping udon-om-und-co-drei-asiatische-momente-in-frankfurt.html _blank>personal Asian moments in Frankfurt I had written down for you.
I experienced the Japanese language in a very exciting and calming way: practicing the characters by handwriting was almost like a meditation, because it required concentration and care. And a characteristic of the Japanese culture: Uniformity, harmony and no individual deviations in the swing - my teacher was always almost out of her mind if I did not put the pencil exactly in the prescribed place. Foreign to me as a European. The fact that in Japan everything has its place, I found very pleasant in places. (Of course, I am also aware of the disadvantages.) But as a foreigner, I had fool's freedom anyway.
Slippers for everything
So I have a lot of room in my heart for Japan, only one little thing almost drove me crazy in my Japanese Bed & Breakfast in Kyoto: the stuff with the slippers - street shoes off, slippers on in the house. So far so good. A woman can still get used to that. But then: slippers off in front of the bathroom, toilet slippers on! And because the internet has only limited space, I have to close for today with my view on the country, which invites you to the festival in Frankfurt at the Cronberg-Platz this weekend and yet doesn't even know its own street names.
Did I whet your appetite for the Asian culture and its peculiarities? Then I'll tell you right now what I definitely won't miss in September either: <link https: www.frankfurt-tipp.de veranstaltungen s event _blank>The Asian Food Festival! The great thing about it is the location: The Brentano-Bad is the venue for the food festival, which celebrates the colourful character of the Asian world and aims to promote international understanding. Until then and for today: Jyane!
Food / Food
- Superkato, Kornmarkt 3, 60311 Frankfurt
- Various shops in Fahrgasse, 60311 Frankfurt
There are so many good restaurants in Frankfurt now, I'd like to name my personal favorite because I used to eat there with my Japanese friends:
- Iwase, Vilbeler Straße 31, 60313 Frankfurt