Big In Japan
Tne New Synergy between the Land of Rising Sun and Land of Rains
Temperance, chastity, obiedence... these are some Lithuanian national character features which even Lithuanians themselves dislike. However, they can be also cherished and praised. Especially if your narrator is from Japan. Therefore, some really interesting Japanese-Lithuanian projects have been emerging recently. Both in Japan, and in the misty regions of Lithuania.

One of important of these is the Japanese garden in Mažučiai, near Darbėnai, Kretinga district, in Western Samogitia, for no reason dubbed Madzhuchai. A project by Šarūnas Kasmauskas, a former senior marine doctor, is said to cost over 2 mln EUR and build with full service of experienced Japanese landscape architects. The owner quotes the relatively high local hills, the abundance of natural stones as well as proximity to Šventoji river and Latvian / Livonian lands as a premise for a sucess of the biggest Japanese-styled garden in Europe!
A short trip into the internet left us astonished, because apparently there are Japanese gardens planned for Vilnius Botanical Garden, Alytus (no later than 2010) and also an impressive Japanese garden with a huge Martial School on the banks of river Nemunas in Kaunas.

In the meantime, the Madzhuchai will create a competition, or maybe another synergy with Orvidai Garden (or Museum of Absurd), which is also located in Kretinga district, Western Samogitia.

At the same time, the Lithuanian šakotis (or a sophisticated version of German Baumkuchen) is celebrating a big sucess in Japan as an object of culinary e-commerce. Big thumbs up to Mr. Mindaugas Zabaliunas in Nagasaki!
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Lietuviai pamilo japonų kultūrą, o japonai pamilo lietuvių skonį... Netikite? Šalia Darbėnų žemaičių pasamdyti japonų architektai stato Didžiausią japonišką sodą Europoje - taip apie jį rašyta prieš 2 metus, o taip rašoma jau dabar. Pasirodo, japoniški sodai jau suplanuoti ir Vilniuje, Alytuje, o Kaune - su karate akademija! O šaunus buvęs KTU studentas japonus įtikino vietoj baumkuchen rinktis spygliuotąjį lietuvišką Šakotį.com!