Noodle Bin

As if I didn't have enough ramen while in Japan, I had to buy home a few packs of noodles to keep my obsession going while I'm home. It's definitely not enough to keep me going till the next trip to Japan, but it'll be better than not being able to try these unique noodles at all.

The yellow Yuzu noodles and the pink plum noodles were rather seasonal finds, and there was another pack of plum noodles hidden somewhere by my mom. The Natto ramen (light blue box) reminds me of my time in Ibaraki, the place where they are famous for the sticky fermented beans. Not really a fan of natto, but it can be alright in small quantities.

For the other 2 boxes, I just couldn't resist getting more noodles while shopping at the airport.

To Eat Or Not To Eat

I made a cup noodle to commemorate my first trip to Japan and it is currently hanging on my wall in a big bubble of a bag. Question is, I don't know if I should open to eat it or not. Oh the agony!

Tourist Attraction

So I'm a sucker for instantly distinguishable design in my travel buys and I saw one of them while on a last minute spree at Narita airport. Dad and I considered getting some sake while on holiday but then couldn't find the same one when we went back to the store as it wasn't on the testing rack anymore. 

Lucky for me, I didn't weigh my bag down with bottles of alcohol yet and got to add this cute little find when I was looking for a plum wine. Better still, I got my plum wine just sitting right next to this. 

Japan Food Tasting

Came home this morning and got all the treats out in the evening for a tasting of all the food that would perish quickly. Mainly, it was the fish and rice rolls that dad and I tried the very first night we were in Japan. Mom saw it as part of a post I put up on the first night, and I already decided then that it's one of the items I would bring home for her to try. The rest of the testing consisted of sweets and rice crackers.

I'm not exactly sure what the ingredients are, but I'm quite sure that the fish was pickled as the rolls could last 2 days without refrigeration. However, I doubt it could last a day in the Singapore heat, and therefore the urgency to finish them. 

The rolls seemed quite expensive at the time we bought them, but after slicing them up and feeding 10 people, it was a rather good deal actually. Furthermore, you'd have to consider that you're getting about half a fish with each roll. More importantly, they're full of flavour, convenient and delicious!

Ramen Craze

It's the last day we're in Japan and I couldn't leave without having one last bowl of ramen. Even since we stepped onto Japanese soil, dad and I have had a bowl of ramen every night except for the 2 nights at Disneyland, and even then, we had udon and pasta. 

So after we did our final bit of shopping, we went to get ourselves a bowl of ramen from one of the shops close to the hotel. We ended up skipping 2 shops due to the lunch crowd and decided to look at what one of the smaller alleys might offer. Lucky for us, there was a shop that placed pictured of it's ramen at the door and that ramen looked awesome. Luckier still was that it was slightly larger and less crowded than other shops. In we went, and got ourselves some meal tickets. 

Dad and I ordered the same thing and I found some garlic and garlic press among the condiments they offered. After eating at a few stores, it seems that foreigners aren't big fans of garlic, but I am, and I love my food spicy. When the opportunity to play with my food came about I'd take it, and I definitely had a blast with this one. Don't get me wrong though, the ramen that originally came was really hearty and so good, dad was already halfway through his by the time I finished pressing my garlic. The addition of fresh garlic, chilli powder and chilli oil just made it AWESOME!

Can you tell I've got a noodle obsession?

First Taste Of Sea Urchin

Dad and I got down to covering Tsukiji Market and Kappabashi Kitchen Town today, the 2 spots we had to go on the last full day we had left in Japan. While on our visit to Tsukiji, dad and I got to try a few interesting things like coffee flavoured giant red beans, some seaweed that look like a greenish bunch of prawn eggs, fish milt and sea urchin. The one that dad and I have been wanting to try was the sea urchin as we've watched Andrew Zimmern raving about it all the time on Bizarre Foods America.

Once we got our first taste, it was clear why he had a love for that orangey reproductive organs. They packed a huge punch of flavour. Imagine a concentrate of crab roe and liver, all in one teaspoon size blob, exploding in your mouth and going right to your sinuses and brain. That, put on warm vingared rice, is just a simple yet super delicious pairing. 

We had it in 4 different ways. The first was with simmered fish milt. The fish milt was rather bland, but the creaminess of it went very well with the uni and made the uni shine. With scallop, there was a bit of an overdose of seafood flavours. Both flavours came out strong, and I needed a tea to  taste anything else after that. The third and fourth were the buns pictured below, both made to look like sea urchins, whole and open. One was a bun stuffed with uni paste, probably mixed with fish paste as it was light and didn't have much flavour. The open bun was filled with pure uni, and that was absolutely delicious.  The strong flavours of the uni is just balanced by the sweetness of the bun. If only they have frozen take home bags of that as well!

Grand Public Thrones

I had to blog about at least once about the toilets in Japan and since I found one nice enough to take a picture of, today's post shall be it. This toilet, like the majority of them in Japan, are installed with bidet and washing functions. I'd say majority because out of the many public toilets I've been using, I've only encountered one squatting pan, and one without a washlet installed. 

Not only are the toilets installed with washing functions, some even have seat warming functions, and there were 2 that even had a button to air dry your privates. The water is even heated so you don't get a shocking blast of ice cold water. What I don't understand is why there isn't a bit of warm water at the taps to wash your hands. 

Big Results From Simple Contraption

I've been looking forward to today ever since Angie mentioned a Ramen Museum and I even thought about the cup noodle I wanted to make for myself. However, after going through the Momofuku Ando Instant Noodle Museum, there was one display that showed how sometimes simple things can be spectacular, just like a pack of instant noodles. (You'll learn more in the video at the museum)

We walked into the room and found shadows of trees just moving, making the viewer feel as though they're traveling through a forest. The simple thing about it was how it works. It's just a light, mounted on a track, with miniature trees "planted" along the track. As the light moved, the miniature set up created a moving shadow movie. It's amazing that something so simple can be so mesmerising. 

Something to keep in mind!

SMAP Izakaya For The Win!

There was so much going on today that I really didn't know what to choose as the photo of the day. We went on a tour where we had some time in a fishcake factory, to Owakudani famous for the black eggs (cooked in volcano water), got some good view of Mt Fuji that hid behind clouds mainly. It continued with an awesome hotdog with seaweed and egg mayo topping at Gotemba Premium Outlets shopping area before we headed back to Shinjuku. That gave me the opportunity to find Oiwake Dango to satisfy my dango obsession.

However, the highlight of the night was actually at the izakaya that Angie wanted to visit. It was set up by a SMAP fan, and the place was decorated with everything SMAP, played their music videos and even tuned into shows being broadcasted if they were guest. Even though I didn't understand a thing about what they were singing, except for the English bits in their new song, the place was rather cool, but the food made it awesome.

The dishes were simple, but they were so well done and well seasoned that we couldn't let a drop of anything go to waste. Angie chose the items as dad and I didn't understand anything in the Japanese menu. Turned out, we had a bacon and soft boiled egg salad, cheese tempura, gyoza soup, and a dish similar to clay pot rice.

The salad was not fussy, and the wafu dressing, mixed with the runny yolk created a very well balanced and creamy dressing that even dad couldn't let go. Next came the gyoza soup. It was really hearty, yet not too rich, intense with flavour yet light. It's strange that a soup can be described with such contrasts but it just went down like that and you could just drink the whole pot by yourself. The gyoza were also kept the firmness of the skins, and the filling weren't over seasoned. Cheese tempura really gave me ideas as it was so light and creamy inside, with an awesome crisp on the outside. I could have 10 sticks of those, but we had more coming and I needed to save space with such awesome food coming out of the kitchen. Finally, the last dish was the pot of rice topped with grilled fish and salmon roe. We had to keep it covered for a minute (there was a timer) and that probably let the rice crisp up at the sides while all the flavours soaked into the rice. Absolutely lovely

BURP!

Popcorn Madness

Dad and I head to DisneyLand again today for a day trip as he wanted to see everything which we couldn't in the dark. For me, it was more of a popcorn mission. I was looking for a certain popcorn container that I've seen some people carrying around. It looked like a plastic picnic basket and I thought I saw it in DisneySea, but still couldn't find it after searching all the popcorn carts. So today, I was in search of the container, check if there is a different special flavour available here, and try out the honey flavour they didn't have at DisneySea. 

Every cart I went seem to sell the oval Mickey container (seen hanging in the picture) which I thought would be problematic to bring home. Then I gave up on the picnic container as we were nearing the end of our round in DisneyLand and happen to notice a collapsible container that was offered at the Pooh's honey popcorn cart. Great, just a flavour I wanted to try. So I got myself a container and now it was onto finish the next bits of my mission. 

I got to the cart with special flavours and found it was selling Soda Popcorn which I tried yesterday. It was just to sweet to have again after the Honey popcorn. After confirming that, I decided to just get the 2 flavours from here that I really like; Curry and Soy Sauce & Butter. I wished they'd sell packs of their popcorn too but I think I would need another bag to get my favourite flavours home - Black Pepper, Corn Potage, Curry, Soy Sauce & Butter, Soda. I missed out on Milk Tea in DisneySea but I had a feeling I would've liked it too!

Stone Cold Fruit

We made it to Disneyland yesterday evening and enjoyed testing some of the many flavored popcorn they offered, and caught the daily fireworks display. Today, we (well, Angie, dad and I), head to DisneySea and once again, we tried quite a few flavored popcorn, and mainly ate snacks from breakfast to lunch. 

Somewhere along the route, I noticed a lot of people having ice cream and was considering to get one for myself for something cold and sweet. Finally I see a cart near the Lost River Delta selling some but couldn't decide between the mickey shaped ice cream, and the frozen mango. On closer inspection, I realised that the frozen mango was indeed a frozen slice of mango and not mango ice cream. I had to get that!

When I got it, the staff even told me to be careful as it was a whole mango slice, and it was very hard. Seems like there might have been a few people who lost their teeth with this. Good thing me and dad practice on crab shells. After biting into it, you get a nice piece of mango to chew on once it defrosts in your mouth. Really simple and delicious dessert to cool down with. 

Refreshing Tarty Treat

It was another walk through a cherry tree lined trail and round a pond today, but the final destination was up to a beautiful garden on top of a hill. Before we could even start our walk, we already had 3 casualties who decided they didn't need to see any more flowers, but I guess they missed out on the best part at Kairaku-en. 

The trek from the hotel and round the lake was alright as we took it quite slowly. However, the uphill slope to the garden was still taxing on the knees, but dad and I still made it. The idea of having hot plum tea and dessert at the top also spurred me on. I was so excited to reach the top, I nearly bought the whole gift shop before we even went into the garden grounds. Good thing Angie told me before I paid for anything. 

Upon entering the garden, you could see a whole bunch of naked trees that just started to sprout leaves. Angie told us that it was more a plum plantation, and the plum flowering season just ended. The garden was still lovely even with the bare start. As we got deeper, the plants got greener and there was even really old Cherry trees that were in bloom, and the typical Japanese pines you see in drawings. 

As this place is known for it's plum, it's easy to see why they have the large amount of plum products on sale. We tried a few offerings and the plum ice cream is still on my mind. It was creamy, sweet and tart, and the best bits were the bits of plum you could chew on. If only they had take home packs!

Chasing Flowers To The North

Angie planned for a trip to Ibaraki, north from Tokyo for a night and I didn't know why until she mentioned Hitachi Seaside Park. It was a top ten spot for some list of beautiful photography spots in the world, or something on that range, and that already got me excited. At first I found an aquarium there I wanted to visit, but when Angie mentioned there was a Sakura festival, I decided to follow her to that instead. 

Sadly, we were too late for the festival at Heiwa-dori, but the trees were still there, and they were still beautiful. The lights were also in place to light them up perfectly when darkness set in. So after some shopping to kill time, we came back to the street for a night shot of the blossoming trees, and even did a few risky shots by running into the middle of the road for a quick snap. 

Mission Accomplished

The main aim of the trip was to see the Sakura blooms that happen during this time every year and our trip to Ueno park definitely fulfilled that straight away. Angie told my dad that the season was actually nearing the end, but it also depended on the location and climate of the area. As per Angie's suggested itinerary, I skipped all the towers and decided to stay longer at Ueno park to check out the zoo and the Natural Museum of History and Science. 

As we walked to the park, the trees that greeted you were all in shades from white to a light pink. We spotted a few that were a dark pink in colour but didn't know if they were the cherry blossoms or some other species. As we were there around 7.45 am and the zoo only opened at 9.30am, dad and I decided to talk a walk down and around the lake.

The lake was beautiful surrounded by the cherry trees in full bloom, and the small temple in the middle of the lake just made for a very nice photo opportunity. Absolutely great choice to come here, and it was good we came here before the crowds started having picnics under the trees.

First TIme To Japan

Angie saw a flight deal to Tokyo just after our trip to the UK and I took the opportunity to take a trip there as well. After some indecisive people decided to go, we needed one more person to pair everyone up (as rooms for 2 were significantly cheaper than singles or triples) and dad ended up as the last addition to the party of 6. 

It is also dad's first trip there and we were both excited about the food, culture, flowers and the weather. He didn't have much things planned for himself and was up for all the things I've told him about, especially Disneyland. After passing immigration in Narita, we had to take another long trip (but not as long as the plane trip) down to Ikebukuro, where our main stay in Japan would be. 

We managed to get a train about 15 minutes after getting past immigration, and the wait was actually for the cleaning of the cabins and the direction change of the train seats. It was rather cool seeing a man that looked older than dad just glide through the cabin, releasing the seat and just spinning them around like he was dancing with them. The ride on the N'EX (Narita Express) was so smooth, you can easily fall asleep. However, the very first Sakura sighting left dad and me wide awake staring into the beauty that is Japan. 

Over The Top Japan

Lately I've been looking up websites while contemplating what are the more important things I should do during the first trip to Japan. I think Angie has covered the most important ones like Mount Fuji and Tokyo Disneyland, and I've added the super touristy Tsukiji market to my list, along with a few places to eat.

Looking through all the things about Japan, I would say that "weird" would be a bit of an unfair and slightly mean description of the things they have there. I think "over the top" would be better as they're obviously very dignified and spirited about their culture, and are always striving to make things better and more interesting. It's like one of the suggestions I found while looking through TimeOut's list and couldn't help but giggle at the thought of Angie and the rest going for it - the karaoke session in a jacuzzi.

However, I feel this OTT quality is good when it comes to the food scene when they are always trying to "up their game" and come up with new twists to good old dishes, or simply creating one store which sells every kind of yakitori from all over Japan. Makes it easier for me!

Getting so excited!!

Guest Post - Introducing Japan

あけましておめでとうございます! Happy New Year!

This is a country you must visit. The culture, people, sights, technology, food are things definitely not to be missed. This is definitely a one sided post because I am a huge fan of this country. Pictures are fresh off the oven!

1. The people are very polite
This is like the basics of their culture. Staffs at the shops, restaurants, hotels, farms, anyway you name it, you find the same polite staffs. They greet, offer their services, promote the items, thank you, the bow. I remembered on several occasions that we were leaving on the bus from a hotel and farm, the staff bowed until the bus is out of sight and waved very happily.

2. All are on the left of the escalator
You'll never find anyone standing on the right if they do not need to rush. Be it at the train stations, offices, malls. If you see anyone standing on the right, they are probably tourist.


3. Recycling
The Japanese are huge on recycling. They separate the trash in 2 types, combustible and non-combustible. There are designated days which the recycling company will collect the different types of trash.

4. Clearing on trays in fast food restaurants
They clear their own trays in fast food restaurants. The very first time we ate at Mcdonalds and we didn't clear our tray, people look at us in a weird way.

5. Greetings
There is something to say before you eat, after you eat, when you come home, when you are going out.

6. Food
How can you miss the tempura, ramen, donburi, sushi and takoyaki? Because of the manpower in the smaller shops, they have vending machines outside where you pay and get a ticket and you just need to give the ticket to the staff and they'll serve your food.




7. Transportation
Though there are many lines and many exits, you can easily follow the directions at various train station. There are even lines on the platform to tell you which car number you are getting on. In the train, there are panels like the SMRT but with timing to tell you how long it is going to take you to the station you are alighting (For the JR line). There are also different ringing tones to tell you the train doors are closing at the various JR Yamanote stations. Best thing is you can eat and drink in the trains here and people does not litter. The timing is also very accurate,if the panel states the train will be there at 12.13, it'll be there.


8. Technology
The gaming stations, cameras and all the new technology developed here. Shinkansen that can travel 300 over km makes travel internally so easy and convenient.

9. Sights
Fuji-san, Odaiba, Tokyo Tower, Sakura, the shrines and fashion are not to be missed.





10. Vending Machines
There are vending machines every few steps you walk in Tokyo. Almost everything can be sold from these machines.

11.Packaging
The Japanese wrap everything so nicely be it food, clothes, just about anything.


So what are you waiting for? Visit Japan now!

This is Angie reporting live from Tokyo, Japan.