Shiseido Cafe

Spending some good times with a friend who also managed to get a job in Tokyo. After dragging him into XXI for some girly-shopping, we were trying to decide where to go for tea when my friend suggested Shiseido’s Cafe. I never knew until my friend told me that the Shiseido beauty and cosmetic line first started off as a cafe. Walking through Ginza we came up to a nice, deep red building, and the entire building was Shiseido, but dedicated to…food?!

Shiseido

Ground level was a snack shop, filled with cookies and slices of treats for omiyage (souvenirs) that Japanese people often love buying. On the third floor is the Cafe Salon, a tea room. While the upper level floors were high class restaurants. Super quiet and classy that it could make anyone “unfitting”, feel “unfit”.

 Shiseido Cookie & Snack shop.

Shiseido Cafe, Ginza

This cafe is popular and had a bit of a wait. We were shown to our table by a manager and a waitress who pulled and pushed our chairs in to seat us. Even at the most classiest restaurant in Vancouver I’ve never had my chair pushed in for me, and here we are, at a posh-cafe getting 5-star treatment!

  

Shiseido Salon De Cafe

The atmosphere was simple, classical and elegant. The walls were a simple deep-red color and was accented by the cream curtains and furniture. Waitresses were dressed like maids, but it was the classical, traditional French-maid uniform allowing females to retain their dignity and respectability. We could see this in their posture, how they presented themselves, and the fact that they could use their normal voice without a baby-pitch. This was a proper maid-cafe, done right.
None of the perverted, cosplay mumbo-jumbo where men attempt to fulfill some grotesque fantasy, and girls sadly play along because it’s a job that puts them through school.

 Cheesecake with Grapefruit sorbet,

with rose designed cream and berry sauce.

 

 

Pricing is expensive, starting at ¥900 for tea (a pure blend of Shiseido tea), and desserts stretched into the double digits. We ordered their “House Cake”, or cake set. For ¥1500, we got a choice between 3 different desserts of the day and their pure blend of tea or coffee. Everything tasted great!

Cream custard wrapped in taro paste, 

with Grapefruit sorbet & glazed fig. 

A day with a good friend, deep-intellectual conversations, shopping (at awesome prices = bonus); followed by a good tea time, then later, dinner. This was a wonderful day! Thank you Sam!

Japanese Festival Food

When it comes to festivals in Japan, save your stomach space! Vendors come from all over and travel like carni’s, making a living from one festival to another, living out of their vans. But the food they make is often times, really good!!! There are the regular foods that are often seen like grilled corn, or grilled sea food or meats. Then there are vendors that come around, serving up foods that are rarely seen in certain neck of the woods.

The past couple of weeks was the annual Hojoya Festival. The first festival I went to while living in Fukuoka. It brought back a lot of memories, and happily I’m better equip to read signs, order and try different types of foods. Excitingly, my new festival food finds that I’ve never had before:

Deep-fried ice cream. Different flavors to choose from, but the ice cream inside often turns out to be more like soup. Eat with caution, because this can get messy.

Deep-fried ice cream.

A YU (あゆ) Fish. Everything is intact, salted, and roasted. This vendor had a little bar/eating area set up around his cooking pit. Nice and crispy, and everything is edible! No waste, though some people aren’t too fond about eating the head, but it is edible.

A YU Fish.

Potato Mochi (ポテトもち). Round and flat (potato-based) moochi on a stick. Deep fried, with a choice of topping. The #1 popular topping is cheese.

Potato Mochi.

Choco-Banana. I have been making it my thing to get this every time I go to a festival, because they’re just so good! And I justify being “healthy” at one point, though it’s completely ousted by the chocolate coating and junk-food accessories.
But the important point here is that usually these vendors offer 2 for 1 if you beat them at “jun-ken” (rock, paper, scissors)!!

Choco-Banana.

Fukuoka Castle

I love studying art and architecture, and I’m a sucker here in Japan for anything Castle or Samurai related. A friend of mine is also into history and architecture, so he took me to Fukuoka Castle! .

My friend is a Japanese History and Geography teacher, majored in Archeology. Needless to say that we both had some awesome conversation and exploration. As we were walking around he was explaining the castle to me that I literally felt like I was in a field seminar. The castle itself is gone, and the only thing that remains is the wall.

Walls of Fukuoka Castle

Everywhere around the castle are remains of something. My friend began picking up fragments all around, which was so interesting. Here are fragments of roof shingles. The green one is older than the gray one because it was probably made of a different material, and was not fired as long as the gray one.

Pottery shards around Fukuoka Castle

All around the site you can find fragments of porcelain pottery. I found one, and when my friend pulled it out it was a HUGE fragment. He explained to me that this was a fragment of a tea cup…wow…you really did study archeology. In the past, Hakata was a main port of exchange with China, porcelain was used not only for serving, but also used as building materials (ie. to build the walls, etc). I assume that was the start of recycling.

Tea Cup shard

Around the castle some of the stones in the wall have teeth like markings. These rocks were part of larger rocks, broken down to certain sizes. The indents is where they chiseled, and after a few indents the rock would break apart.

Breaking down rocks

The top of the castle supposedly gave a 360 degree view of Hakata. Making it easy to see the arriving ships, and naturally any advancing enemies.

View from the castle wall.

Here is what the castle (according to historians), supposedly looked like:

Japanese Castle Defense

To put enemies at a disadvantage, roads are at first paved widely, then as you get closer the pathway narrows. When you would have 10 samurai’s running together, all of a sudden you could only fit 4-5 men in a row. At the top of the wall would be archer’s firing down.

The flat stone roads would make traveling very difficult when it rains. The roads are built at a slant, making people slip and slide when the stones are wet. I almost slipped even when it wasn’t raining.

Historical slip & slide to the castle exit!

Stair steps were made high, making it difficult to run up (and get down) from the castle; but the distance between each step is at an awkward distance that warriors couldn’t keep a steady stride. The samurai armor weighs 20kg, so the men back them were probably all muscle to endure such cardio. Oooo…muscle^^…

I’d go up only 3 steps before surrendering…

 

From Blogger to WordPress

When I first came to Japan I had started blogging using Google’s “Blogger”.

Now, two years later I’ve decided to move on and try using WordPress – because I heard it was easier. So let’s give this a try 🙂

For past posts, they can be found here: http://nitayung.blogspot.jp/

Dr. Kiss Fish

Over the weekend I did a day trip out to Yufuin to check out this place called “Dr. Kiss Fish”. Fish that exfoliate and eat dead skin cells off your feet, leaving it clean and smooth like a baby’s bottom. There’s another place in Hakone, that also has these Dr. Fish, but it was fun to go to it again.
This was my second time to Yufuin. The first time was last December for my birthday, but I wish I knew about this place then because the company would have been better. In comparison, the weather was rainy for both times, but the warm fall temperatures made it better.

Dr. Fish Shop, Yufuin

Dr. Kiss Fish

Entering the shop I first paid for my amount of time, removed my shoes and rinsed my feet. There were 3 wooden pools of fish of various sizes. Everyone sat together and migrated accordingly to their timer.

Dr. Fish Shop, Yufuin

The first pool was had the baby “Dr. Kiss Fish”. Their nibbles are gentle and have a tingling vibration which makes it a hilarious, tickling sensation. Don’t forget to spread the toes so they can get into those spaces, and try to keep them open! I was asked a couple times if I was okay because I had to hide my face from bursting into laughter.

Baby Dr. Fish

The second pool had “medium” sized Dr. Kiss Fish. Their nibbles were gentle but it had a bit of an electric shock to it. A more stronger tingle than the baby fish, and somewhat ticklish.

Medium Dr. Fish.

The third pool had the adult size version of the Dr. Kiss Fish! The surprising size of them were enough to make kids cry and adults exclaim in horror, ‘SCARY!!!’ When I first looked at them…I wasn’t even so sure if I wanted to stick my feet in. But it wasn’t so bad. They’re still very gentle, but their nibbles feel like someone with long nails gently scratching the surface of my skin. It was still scary to watch though.

Adult Dr. Kiss Fish!! 

Just don’t look…

Skin Exfoliating Fish at home!

Some of the Dr. Kiss Fish were held in tanks and advertised for sale starting at ¥3,000. As an omiyage (souvenir), you could take home your own fish and exfoliate at home. I’m not sure of the feeding protocol, but I’m sure that exfoliating while feeding it daily isn’t a bad thing ;).

Dr. Fish for home!

Mid-Autumn / Moon Festival

In Chinese culture, we consider the moon to be at its biggest, roundest and brightest. Being very round, we associate it with family gathering, and family coming together for a reunion. Gifts are usually given (often moon cakes), and traditionally families will out out to admire the moon.

Mid-Autumn mooncake history

I use to be crazy about moon cakes when I was younger, especially because moon cakes were only limited and made for one occasion only. The traditional kind of mooncake is made of lotus seed paste with egg yolks. Now we can find different variations and combinations in stores today.

In the past, mooncakes were used to hide and pass around secret rebellion plans for the Hans to overthrow the Mongolian government. On the night of the Moon Festival they successfully attack and overthrew the Mongolians, thus beginning the Ming Dynasty. Now, mooncakes are eaten in memory of this successful takeover.

Starbucks Mooncake

A teacher of mine went to Bangkok to visit her daughter over summer vacation and brought me back a souvenir from Starbucks! So cool, never seen anything like it – and I never thought Starbucks would make anything like it either 😀

Mooncake from Starbucks in Bangkok.

Kumomoto Castle

Kumomoto Castle is one of the many castles that can be found around Japan. It brought back so many memories from the younger years, when I was really crazy about the Samurai culture and Japanese castles. It felt like I was backpacking all over again.
Located in front of the Kumomoto Museum, we managed to go and take a look a few hours before the castle’s closing time. Admission was ¥500/adult, and feel free to ask for an English map when entering.

Me in Japanese armor.

Kumomoto Main Towers

Long ago this area was destroyed by a fire, and the towers they have now were rebuilt to replicate the castle’s exterior. Inside, there were historical Japanese artifacts all encased or behind glass. Artifacts ranged from the samurai period, and as we moved up artifacts became more modern until the great world wars.

Kumomoto Castle Main Towers.

Even though at times, after seeing so many castles they all start to look the same. Then again, I find that many castles have a different design or technique to call it their own. For example, to prevent ninjas from climbing some castle walls and stone base have a steep, concave design.
Kumomoto Castle I’ve found, while at times steep, has spikes protruding where the tower meets the stone base.

Spikes below the castle.

While inside the castle, it’s prohibited to take pictures of majority of the historical contents. I say this because I found out that they don’t mind people taking picture of the historical toilet room. I’m actually very impressed with how nice it looks, and oldest (probably the first) urinal I’ve ever seen.

Historical Japanese toilet room.

At the top of the Main Tower is a look out. This was when I found out that my friend was terrified of heights. As I poked my head out to take a picture while talking, I soon realized that she wasn’t with me at all… (O.O)… I turned around and found her hugging one of the wooden center frames.

View from Kumomoto Castle Main Tower.

 

Kumomoto Castle Samurai

Around the castle there are actors dressed up in one of the many traditional samurai outfits and speaking in the very old-Japanese language. It was pretty cool, but at the same time the summer heat and humidity of Japan made me wonder how they’re really doing underneath all that armor.

Kumomoto Food

On my day trip to Kumomoto I really wanted to try the iconic signature foods, as I do with every place I go to. It’s the touristy thing to do, I can’t visit and NOT try it.

Ikinari Dango

Kumomoto is really popular for Ikinari Dango. “Ikinari” means suddenly, and “Dango” means dumpling. When you bit into it you suddenly get this burst of sweet potato or red bean filling. Where we stopped by they were grilling the Ikinari Dango, which made it so much more crispy-yummy!

Ikinari Dango. Original style.

I also got an Ikinari Ten (いきなり天）which is a fried fish cake, wrapped around a sweet potato and deep fried all together. “Ten” is short for “Tenpura”, which is considered the fish cake part. It was SO good!

Ikinari Ten 

 

Kumomoto Ramen

Compared to Hakata ramen, Kumomoto ramen is ranked next in line. The noodles are thicker than Hakata ramen, and there is no such thing as “kadaema” (second helping)…(O.O) Toto, I’m not in Fukuoka anymore…

We happened to pass by 黒龍紅ラメん (Kuro Ryū Beni Ramen). Ranked #1 by Yahoo! for their tonkotsu ramen (pork soup base). Usually I don’t like tonkotsu ramen, because I’ve had bad experiences with it before and it usually involved the smell of it. At first I was very adamant about not eating tonkotsu, and the shop owner was happy to make me a shou (salt) base ramen.

Shou Ramen.

My friend ordered his recommended tonkotsu specialty, and he encouraged me to try one spoonful of her soup. It looked good, so I decided to give it a shot…
It tasted SO GOOD!! I was impressed! I really wanted to exchange my bowl for it. Instead, I hurriedly finished off my bowl and ordered a bowl of his tonkotsu ramen! He was so happy to convert one more person in this world to tonkotsu ramen.

Tonkatsu Ramen

Kumomoto Museum: Ghibli Exhibit

In spite of the typhoon weather the past couple of days, we managed to head out to Kumomoto for the last day of the Ghibli Exhibit. Kumomoto Museum is right next to Kumomoto Castle, which made it perfect and convenient for my one day trip! ^^

Kumomoto Museum

 

Ghibli Exhibit

Sketches from popular Ghibli films, to comics and series that I’ve never seen before. The sketches were really nice, and some of the details in pencil were astounding! It was a winding exhibit and at the end was a picture with Totoro!

Totoro picture area.

Picture with Totoro

There was a huge picture of Totoro stretched across the floor. With a line that wound around corner, after corner. Along the walls of the picture area was covered with little round stickers, all of them had drawings from kids. Some were Totoro (especially the dust sprites), other Ghibli characters and other Japanese characters (Ie. Am-pan Man).

Picture with Totoro area.

Pictures were free, and everyone needed to have their own personal camera. Everyone of all ages were having fun, sprawling themselves on the floor. Sadly, I forgot my digital camera – but thank god for smart phones! Good enough for me! 😀

Picture with Totoro/on Totoro.

Outside of the exhibit, people also had the choice of taking their picture with Ponyo. People got to hold little buckets with a little Ponyo in them for the photo.

Picture with Ponyo.

Ghibli Souvenir Shop

As we finished our tour we decided to check out the Ghibli souvenir stand. It was so busy, and so difficult to not go crazy with my wallet. I really love Ghibli, as did many of the other attendees. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder and the most popular of Ghibli anime merchandise went flying off the shelves. Luckily, I plan to be going to the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo fairly shortly, so I was okay to pass on many of the items this time.

Ghibli Souvenir Shop.

Typhoon Season

It is now officially typhoon season. Strong rain and wind make it sound like a screaming banshee. During typhoon season people are usually recommended to stay indoors, or to quickly head home. Preparations for extra time must be made as trains become delayed, or are stopped entirely due to the strong winds.

 

 

Typhoon Season in Japan

For anyone wanting to travel to Japan, typhoon season is at its peek in August and September. This year, the typhoon has been moving along the east coast heading north but the rain and wind still grazes the west quite strongly. Duration of the storms vary,

What is a typhoon? A tropical cyclone, like a hurricane but the two names (typhoon & hurricane) are given based on regions.

– Hurricanes are in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean (east of the dateline), or areas of the South Pacific Ocean.

– Typhoons, are in the Northwest Pacific Ocean (west of the dateline).

 

Before the typhoon

This is a video shot of the typhoon weather coming in the night before. I tried to capture the clouds moving ridiculously fast, but it doesn’t seem as evident on the camera. But you can hear the wind, which is strong enough to push a person around and not let you walk in a straight line.

Typhoon in Japan