Utage

A fun filled day spent at an international food expo in Osaka.  The theme was 'The spirit and skill of utage' which was explained in the promotional materials as follows:

'When building relationships with others, everyone tries to use every possible method to express themselves. People who build mutual relationships for pleasure, in particular, desire to share tastes and flavors, as well as to become inebriated together, to really experience the feeling of experiencing life together. Eating and drinking are the most basic acts for becoming aware of the existence of ourselves as a living being, and delicious food and drinks bring instinctive pleasure. Sharing them with others is surely the essence of living and enjoying such experiences together. When building mutual relationships for pleasure, we need delicious food and drinks, beautiful colors and shapes, pleasant sounds and conversation, and good staging. People in Japan call this “utage.” Utage requires both a spirit of mutual relationships for pleasure and skill in providing greater pleasure. Therefore, sharing the spirit of utage with people in the world and enhancing the skill of utage will bring deeper happiness to this world.' 

No inebriation involved not on my part anyway but we did enjoy plenty of food, dancing, art and culture... all of which created a fair amount of happiness! 


Happy Sunday Blip Buddies