Hello Resterantaurs! I hope you have all recovered from the invasion of eggs last week! 
This week for something entirely different, this Thursday when the new items arrive we will be celebrating the Japanese Hanami Festival! To learn more about the Hanami Festival, you can read the wikipedia article:
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 (桜 or 櫻, sakura), or ume blossoms (梅, ume).From mid January to early May, sakura bloom all over Japan. The blossom forecast (桜前線, sakurazensen, lit. cherry blossom front) is announced each year by the weather bureau, and is watched carefully by those planning hanami as the blossoms only last a week or two. In modern-day Japan, hanami mostly consists of having an outdoor party beneath the sakura during daytime or at night. Hanami at night is called yozakura (lit. “night sakura”). In many places such as Ueno Park temporary paper lanterns are hung for the purpose of yozakura.
We are celebrating this festival with a range of themed items, as well as new dishes that uses brand new ingredients that are created just for this occasion! We hope you will join in and celebrate the blossoming season!
First off, let´s check out those new ingredients and dishes! First up the new ingredients that you need to start hunting for are seaweed and salmon! For the dishes this week, there are three new dishes! The Miso Soup for starter, the Sushi Selection for main course and the Green Tea drink. All three dishes this week are permanent additions so you have all the time in the world to learn them!
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| Seaweed | Salmon | |
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| Miso Soup (starter) | Sushi Selection (Main) | Green Tea (Drink) |
Did you know that “Sushi” literally means “it´s sour” ? There are also many different varieties of Sushi which you can read more about on wikipedia:
The traditional form of sushi is fermented fish and rice, preserved with salt in a process that has been traced to Southeast Asia, where it remains popular today. The term sushi comes from an archaic grammatical form no longer used in other contexts; literally, “sushi” means “it’s sour”, a reflection of its historic fermented roots.
The science behind the fermentation of fish packed in rice is that the vinegar produced from fermenting rice breaks the fish down into amino acids. This results in one of the five basic tastes, called umami in Japanese.The oldest form of sushi in Japan, Narezushi still very closely resembles this process. In Japan, Narezushi evolved into Oshizushi and ultimately Edomae nigirizushi, which is what the world today knows as “sushi.”
Contemporary Japanese sushi has little resemblance to the traditional lacto-fermented rice dish. Originally, when the fermented fish was taken out of the rice, only the fish was consumed and the fermented rice was discarded. The strong-tasting and -smelling funazushi, a kind of narezushi made near Lake Biwa in Japan, resembles the traditional fermented dish. Beginning in the Muromachi period (AD 1336–1573) of Japan, vinegar was added to the mixture for better taste and preservation. The vinegar accentuated the rice’s sourness, and was known to increase its life span, allowing the fermentation process to be shortened and eventually abandoned. In the following centuries, sushi in Osaka evolved into oshi-zushi. The seafood and rice were pressed using wooden (usually bamboo) molds. By the mid 18th century, this form of sushi had reached Edo (contemporary Tokyo).
The contemporary version, internationally known as “sushi,” was invented by Hanaya Yohei (華屋与兵衛; 1799–1858) at the end of Edo period in Edo. The sushi invented by Hanaya was an early form of fast food that was not fermented (therefore prepared quickly) and could be eaten with one’s hands roadside or in a theatre. Originally, this sushi was known as Edomae zushi, because it used freshly caught fish in the Edo-mae (Edo Bay or Tokyo Bay). Though the fish used in modern sushi no longer usually comes from Tokyo Bay, it is still formally known as Edomae nigirizushi.
That´s the ingredients and dishes, let´s take a look at the items that you can expect to see in the stores on Thursday at midnight GMT this week! For the outside you cannot miss the Japanese Roof, the Japanese Wall Corner or the Japanese Doorway if you are going for the Hanami theme this week! And of course you cannot miss the Sakura Tree which is a functional item and it will spread cherry blossoms around your restaurant!
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| Japanese Doorway | Japanese Roof | Japanese Wall Corner |
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| Japanese Wall | Japanese Window | Mountain Tree |
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| Garden Rock | Japanese Stone Lantern | Tiny Tree |
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| Sushi Sign | Tsunami Banner | Tiny Bush |
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| Pink Stone Lantern | Japanese Banner | Japanese Drum |
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| Sakura Tree |
So what is in store for you on Thursday for the inside of your restaurant? More Japanese inspired themes of course! You need to check out the Japanese Garden Picture, the Zen Table and Chair as well as the Samurai Armor! There are also 4 new functional items that will be available from this Thursday. The Ceremonial Drink Set which will cook drinks 8% faster and the Teppanyaki Grill which will cook 3% faster compared to normal drink machines and stoves. The High Tech Smart Toilet which will work 4x longer without breaking and your customers can do their deed 40% faster on this toilet! And not to forget the Cherry Blossom Tree which will spread cherry blossoms inside your restaurant, the more Trees you have, the more cherry blossoms will be spread.
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| Sushi Table | Zen Chair | Zen Table |
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| Teppanyaki Grill | Ceremonial Drink Set | High Tech Smart Toilet |
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| Shoji Screen Wallpaper | Japanese Garden Picture | Tatami Mat |
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| Katana Decor | Samurau Sword Decor | Samurai Armor |
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| Bonzai | Japanese Divider | Sakura Wallpaper |
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| Shuriken Decor | Sushi Sign Decor (free gift only) | Delicious Sign Decor |
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| Cherry Blossom Tree |
To complete your Japanese Theme, we also have a range of other Japanese items that have been available for a while on sale this week! Go get them now!
Make sure you post your feedback – we love to hear from you! Have a fun-filled Restaurant City week!
Tags: cherry blossom, hanami, hanami festival, japan, japanese, playfish, restaurant city, sushi
April 7, 2010 at 9:07 am |
finally
April 7, 2010 at 9:53 am |
awesome
April 7, 2010 at 10:19 am |
i hope cherry blossom tree, zen table, Japanese Garden Picture, Teppanyaki Grill, ceremonial drink set, high-tech toilet or anything is not playfish cash like last week
April 7, 2010 at 10:22 am |
I think most of them are
April 7, 2010 at 10:30 am |
AMAZING!!!! Japanese theme. love new dish. UGHH LOVE SUSHI!!
Thank you thank you
April 7, 2010 at 11:08 am |
agree w/ pet society mystery, hope tht AT LEAST the beautiful drink set isn’t a CC item ^^
April 7, 2010 at 11:58 am |
omg finally!!!
いまはいらっしゃいませを言いて！！！
ありがとうございます！！！！
April 7, 2010 at 12:10 pm |
Yes !!! Finally a Japanese theme coming…. And I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time….
Like what they said… please some item don’t be in Playfish cash coz it’s hard for us the player…
April 7, 2010 at 12:14 pm |
Some beautiful things this week. Hopefully the PFC items aren’t every other item and overpriced like last week.
April 7, 2010 at 12:25 pm |
Eh…. I appreciate your guys hard work 100%. I’m thinking that you can’t give us the best themes every week so you can spread them out a bit but these regular themes to me are boring. I like stuff that’s different and has a little fantasy to it… what I would really like to see is a CARNIVAL theme. Now that would be cool!! Stuff like that. I feel that we already have a surplus of “regular” themed sets… but you guys are the best facebook app company with these wonderful weekly updates and your hard work. I totally appreciate it!
April 7, 2010 at 2:47 pm |
Lovin’ it… but will not be able to afford a japanese-themed resto if most of these decors and items turn out to be PF cash…
April 7, 2010 at 3:04 pm |
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! this has actually made me come back to RC
Love love love everything on this week’s theme. Thanks designers for such beautiful artwork!
April 7, 2010 at 3:24 pm |
I love this!!!!!!!! ♥♥♥ Beautiful!!!! Thanks!!!!
April 7, 2010 at 4:21 pm |
The cherry blossom tree is lovely! It´s so bas that many items will be playfish cash only.
I hope the wallpaper is not, though.
April 7, 2010 at 6:50 pm |
Love this theme!! Very beautiful. Can we get some traditional music for the music players?
April 7, 2010 at 7:04 pm |
Sorry, I would have to disagree with GollySandra. Don’t get me wrong, I like fantasy stuff too, and the more the better, so we can make more varied looking fantastical restaurants. However, there are definitely not enough Japanese themed items before. Unless one would like to make an “ASIA” themed restaurant, I would not want to mix Chinese items into the Japanese restaurant, or the other way round. So this week’s items are a good expansion to the Japanese themed set! Well Done, RC team! And I definitely don’t mind having more regular themed items. They may not be as fun and creative, however, they are good for mix and match in decorating regular decent looking restaurants!
April 7, 2010 at 7:08 pm |
i loveeee this new japanese theme! it’s all so kawaii, especially the cherry blossom tree
but i was wondering, how are we suppose to collect new ingredients? they are not free gifts, not GK gifts, not avaible with simple coins…
April 7, 2010 at 8:23 pm |
A good dessert (seeing you guys didn’t have one) would be Daifuku! Daifuku is a kind of japanese sweet that is made from glutinous rice cake and filled with a sweet filling. It is usually small and round. The filling is usually a sweet red or white bean paste. Sometimes pieces of whole fruit can be in it. A Strawberry Milk flavored Daifuku would be good! I just ate this the other day! It tastes like the traditional daifuku but the rice cake is made with a strawberry milk taste! The inside had a white bean paste. So the ingredients could be strawberry, rice, milk, and beans! or you can do Taiyaki which is a fish-shaped cake (tastes like a waffle) that has red bean paste inside of it. The ingredients could be milk, flour, beans and sugar!….sorry for all of this talking. I love restaurant city! (and Japan obviously!) so this is my favorite theme so far!
April 7, 2010 at 9:53 pm |
i think even if it is playfish cash i MIGHT be willing to pay.. but in general i think its stupid to have everything in real money. i mean i can understand the tea set maybe, but you don’t need to make EVERYTHING playfish cash.. just one or two, and people would be more willing to pay, because they dont have to dish out 50 dollars for each new theme…
April 7, 2010 at 10:38 pm |
this is my favorite theme so far!!!!! I love each and every item and food, thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!
April 8, 2010 at 1:36 am |
the y forgot to mention the food king now shares the LATKAS Recipe!! hahaha ive been wanting to learn it for some time now having missed it before…
April 8, 2010 at 1:40 am |
also thought theyd use wasabi in the sushi recipe.. cuz ive got a ton of them
April 8, 2010 at 2:08 am |
Yea I hope nothing will be pfc cash because nobody would buy it.
April 8, 2010 at 6:12 am |
Can we have the Cherry Blossom tree as non-cash item?
April 8, 2010 at 11:14 am |
I have a problem with the outside decorations. Mine won’t load…? =/
April 8, 2010 at 5:46 pm |
Love this theme! Will definitely be decorating my restaurant with this. It has a nice realistic ethic quality to it!
April 8, 2010 at 8:20 pm |
I love the outdoor decorations for the Japanese theme! A lot of items went well together. The starter, main and drink selections were good choices. I wish they put in the dessert menu some green tea ice cream or some mochi!
April 9, 2010 at 12:46 am |
Hooray! Almost all items are coins!!! *doing the jig* Thank you PLAYFISH! This is just another reason why RC is THE BEST Facebook game!!!
April 9, 2010 at 11:02 am |
I like this game..but..Why is it that it takes so long to load restaurant city..as compare to other facebook applications..starts to annoy me…
April 9, 2010 at 1:00 pm |
The culture of japanese sorely in this release. So japannnnn!
April 10, 2010 at 3:41 pm |
I really wish the 2 seater is not playcash… or the Blossem tree.
April 11, 2010 at 5:17 am |
aishiteru hey when it comes in buying those materials have a high price can you put it lower or have a discount promo
April 11, 2010 at 5:19 am |
just asking how can i put those outdoor design if there is a wall only the mountain tree can see
April 11, 2010 at 5:20 am |
umm what wall can i put after all
April 11, 2010 at 5:21 am |
this is the last those price are annoying
April 12, 2010 at 3:30 am |
I hope there will be some english premier league football club decorations (maybe some scarf banner.. club logo window.. floor.., or some harry potter decoration..(I know there were some magic stuff, but I hope there will be more)
anyway you guys done a great great job, this is the only game I never stop playing in facebook
good work keep going!
April 12, 2010 at 11:28 pm |
Harry Potter would be recognizable, but I don’t know what the rest of us in this big wide world would do with English football stuff:)
April 13, 2010 at 8:34 am |
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May 8, 2010 at 1:25 pm |
when my house mate sends me salmon, i click on the request and it says that the gift has expired even if he only sent it 1 minute before i get it, how am i ment to get the sushi bar if i cant get the ingredients