In Japan, having Japanese tea in the morning has been considered for long as an important part of your daily activities, since it was already recognized by the people in old times that the morning tea was good to refresh your body and mind.
While Japanese people do drink coffee, for most people, tea is the drink of choice in the morning. And not only that – green tea is drunk during afternoon breaks too, and always served to welcome visitors. Green tea varieties with lower caffeine contents (like kukicha and genmaicha) are a popular evening drink.
Japanese Drinking Habits
Excessive drinking, singing and dancing, even at funerals was all the rage. Today, alcohol is an important and accepted part of Japanese daily life, from social and business drinking to religious rites and traditional customs where sake plays a central role.
A Morning Flush of Warm Water
For decades, the Japanese have used a simple but effective daily therapy: four glasses of water right after waking up — before food, coffee, or even teeth brushing. It is known to help cure headaches, body aches and obesity by detoxifying cells and cleansing the colon.
Japanese water therapy gets its name from being commonly used by the Japanese people and in Japanese medicine. It requires drinking hot water on an empty stomach after waking to cleanse the digestive system and control gut health, which can cure several disorders, according to proponents.
Most people in Japan tend to bathe at night. A morning bath is a rare thing and is usually done when vacationing at a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) or an onsen hot springs resort.
To the Japanese, bathing is a process. You wash yourself before you get in the bath to cleanse your body of the day's dirt and grime. That's one of the main reasons why most Japanese people bathe at night, instead of in the morning.
While showers are a necessary part of everyday life, the Japanese don't just take showers, they love soaking in bathtubs. Most people in Japan think of the bathtub as washing away not only their sweat and dirt from the day but their fatigue, too. so it is typically custom to take baths every night.
Japanese people take a bath not only to keep their body clean, but also to relax and spend a refreshing time and connecting this the community. Many Japanese believe it also washes away the fatigue, hence a bath is taken often every night.
The Japanese bath is for bathing purposes only, not for cleaning. Before entering the bath, wash with soap outside the bath and rinse all the soap off. Use the bath itself only for soaking and relaxing, much as you would take a hot tub. Families usually take baths in the evening before or after dinner.
The latest survey by Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) found that an estimated 67 percent of the 126,686,000 population drink, and almost 2.5 million, or about 2 percent, are alcoholics or heavy drinkers.
Sake. Perhaps the most popular alcoholic drink from Japan, sake is a delicious and sweet type of Japanese liquor that almost everyone is familiar with. Sake comes from fermented rice and typically has a light pink or yellow hue.
“There is no question that alcoholism is increasing in Japan,” says Dr. Hiorakai Kono, former director of the National Institute of Alcoholism in Tokyo. “What astonishes us is the size of the problem.”
When Bancha is roasted, it is called Hojicha (There are some Hojicha made by roasting the first or second flush of Sencha though). Both Bancha and Hojicha do not contain much caffeine and therefore it is suitable for bedtime. Furthermore, Hojicha contains the organic element called pyrazine.
Drinking tea on an empty stomach may affect the body's development as the presence of Tannins in tea can interfere with the absorption of iron and other essential nutrients from food.
In view of the fact that many Japanese bathe and wash their hair daily, it's essential that they take well care of it.
When counting people who shower every day, Mexicans and Australians led significantly, followed by Americans and the French. Brits, Russians, Swedes and Germans averaged less, with Chinese coming in the least frequent.
Ninety-nine percent of Brazilians shower each week, compared to only 90 percent of Americans. Great Britain has the lowest rate of showering per week, at 83 percent. According to the infographic, the leading country where more than 95% of the population showers daily is Italy.
This is where the actual bathing happens, as bath water is kept soap-free. It's considered rude to wash while standing (too much splashing), so take a seat and lather up. Once finished, it's polite to douse the stool with a bucket of hot water and push it in before the next person comes along.
When not in their own bathtub at home, people go to large public baths or Japanese bathhouses – and, as opposed to the Western world, these places are frequented without any clothes. People bathe together completely naked.
Wear a towel on your head
On the topic of towels, it's common to see bathers with wet towels on their heads. This is to prevent dizziness caused by hot blood rushing into one's head when bathing in the warm waters.
Yes, in Japan parents and children bath together fully naked. And that's culturally perfectly normal. From a Japanese perspective, together tub-time is good for family bonding. As children grow older, they'll start enjoying bath time separately.
Research suggests that whereas people in many parts of Europe and America now make do with just a shower nearly 90% of the time, in Japan between 70% and 80% of people still bathe in the traditional way at least several times a week. This rises to 90% or more in families with small children.
When bathing Japanese-style, you are supposed to first rinse your body outside the bath tub with the shower or a washbowl. Afterwards, you enter the tub, which is used for soaking only. The bath water tends to be relatively hot, typically between 40 and 43 degrees.