Japanese grapes & summer

10 July 2011 -- You know summer is here when the supermarket starts selling limited edition cold desserts and cold drinks are 30-40yen more expensive. The weather has been killing me the past 1 week. Coming from Singapore, I've been told repeatedly that the summer in Japan is mild compared to the weather conditions back home. However, what the Japanese fail to realise is that in Singapore, there are air-conditioned places everywhere. When the heat gets unbearable, one just simply need to step into the nearest shopping centre or bus terminal and you"ll be cooled down immediately. In Japan, the air-conditioned places are still warm and stuffy because the AC temperature tends to be fixed at around 26-25 degrees. Also, in the wake of the March disaster, most places are on an energy saving campaign and this means the number of AC places have diminished. It's so warm that I am perspiring from just sitting in my apartment and surfing the Internet. Having a fan aimed at me and blasting at top-speed doesn't seem to help. 

One of my favourite "cool style" desserts

A mix of red bean and green tea cream that taste like ice-cream when chilled

Cheap juicy grapes!

In an attempt to cool myself down, I have gobbled down 2 ice-creams and a whole box of yummy grapes since this morning. Japanese grapes here cost 395~495yen for a box and back in Singapore, I have to fork out about 1000~1200 yen for the same amount. The price difference is crazy and this also explains my recent grape gobbling craze. The box I just finished is my third this week :D.

Hot............ Going to try and hold out a little more before I turn on my AC. Hoping to hold out till August. Wish me luck!

ラベンダー (Lavender) Matsuri in Misato - July 2011

My tall friend & I

My first weekend in July was really busy but filled with tons of fun. On Saturday (2nd July), a bunch us gaijins went to the lavender matsuri (festival) in Misato. Once a year, the lavender fields are opened for three weeks and on this day, there was a meat event, as well as a "heaviest" rabbit competition. First, we had grilled meat for lunch and the meat was amazingly delicious and not at all expensive. Part of the fun was also due to the fact that we get to grill it on the spot and consume it there and then. After that, we got lavender ice-cream. I bought some lavender flavoured mochi too and those were yummy!

Oishii niku

 Aside from the lavender fields which were the main attraction, there was also a mini animal petting zoo for kids. You can choose to pet rabbits, goats and even calves. I got to hug a rabbit which was really sweet. Poor Jeff got scratched when he tried to hug one of them. Guess that little bunny wasn't in the best of moods.

We also got balloons!!! Just the gaijins! My Japanese friends weren't as excited as I was about the helium-filled balloons. I love balloons!!! We were lucky too :). The balloons were meant for the kids but I think we got away with it because of our gaijin status. *One of the perks of being a foreigner*  Look how gay we look with our ice-cream.

We love balloons!

The lavender fields weren't in full bloom yet. My kyoto-sensei explained that our winter was much longer than usual and as such the bloom has been delayed. It was still fun though and pretty. The weather was really nice but it would have been better if we had more breeze. After seeing the pretty purple flowers, we enjoyed cakes and coffee in the quint air-conditioned Gomashio-Kitchen. It felt wonderful to be able to escape from the harsh sun and just sit and chill. The whole outing ended before 1:30pm and I had the rest of the day to myself which was great. Think I should try and start my weekends earlier so that I can get the most out of them.

Sunday (3rd July) was interesting but not as fun. The day started off with a 2-hour drive to Morioka for my JLPT N5 test. This is the 3rd time I have signed up for it and the first time I'm attempting it. The last 2 times, I got lazy and didn't prepare for it. The test went well. It was't as difficult as I expected it to be and while I was uncertain about some questions, I should be able to clear it. Going to give myself a break and start preparing for the N4 test in December.

Wanko Soba Challenge- May 14th

Been really lax about updating my blog for the past few months. I'm attributing it to a mix of factors - the aftermath of the earthquake, my trip to Oz, Golden Week trip home, as well as plain old laziness. I have a few stuff that I've been wanting to blog about and I decided that I'll just start with this one first --- My Wanko Soba experience.

May was a really happening month for me :) Besides making a trip home, one of my close friends here in Japan got married too. *Congrats again to the new KJ!* When her newly-minted hubby was in Omagari, we decided to make a couples day trip to Morioka. It was great fun! We had our Freshness Burger fix at the town centre before spending 3 hours in Round 1. After that we took a short stroll along a weekend street market and went for Wanko Soba.

Look how genki we were before we started

I've heard so much about the Wanko Soba experience since arriving in Akita and this was definitely something I wanted to do before I ended my stay here. What's Wanko Soba? Well... basically it's a game. The aim is to eat as many little bowls of soba as you can possibly stomach and be real quick to cover your bowl when you are stuffed to death so that you can stop the endless flow of soba, which is being dished out by this lovely staff hovering over you. Each little bowl is about one mouthful of soba noodles and 15 small bowls made up a regular bowl of soba. 

I only managed to down 70 bowls because I was so sick of the taste of soba towards the end. My dearest was the champion :) He managed to consume a total of 93 bowls!!!!! KJ came in second with 85 bowls. It was all great fun. It was an interesting but rather pricey experience. To get the full Wanko Soba experience, everyone has to fork out about 3000 over yen. This deluxe package meant you get to have photos of yourself with all the little bowls you have emptied. If you got the basic package, which only cost 2700 yen (i think), matchsticks will be used for keeping track of the number of bowls you ate. The basic package also came with two more side dishes. We decided that since we were going to "torture" ourselves and we were most likely only going to do this once, we would fork out more for awesome photos and I'm glad we did. In addition to awesome photos to record the day, each of us also received a little certificate with the date, as well as the number of bowls we ate.

I'm HUNGRY!

 Here's the link to the restaurant we went to Azumaya Soba Restaurant. If you are ever in Morioka, do spare some time to do the Wanko Soba challenge. I'm definitely going to make all my friends who come visiting do it. In fact, I'm considering attempting it again.

Life's returning to normal *kana*

26 Mar 11 - Been a while since I updated my blog. Just been busy I guess. Well... actually more like I was lazy. Took a bunch of photos which I plan to upload eventually and keep thinking that I should update my blog only after I have sorted out my photos. However, I'm extremely horrible when it comes to sorting stuff so I guess the photos will just have to wait.

Had a pretty fun Saturday. Went to Yokote for lunch. Tried the "Yokote Burger", a fairly new joint which opened near the Yokote station. Tried the premium Japanese beef cheeseburger and it was amazing!!!! So amazing that greedy me ordered a second burger. Second time round I had the pork cheeseburger which was tasty but not as good as the beef one. Felt really greedy about eating two burgers at one seating but I was really hungry and I just wanted to treat myself. (Not that I had done anything out of the ordinary for me to wanna pamper myself.) The rest of my company had cakes instead; and those looked amazing too. 

After a satisfying lunch, we went to the AEON in Omagari. It's finally open again!!!! Also, most of the petrol stations are open as well. (Petrol's really expensive though.) While AEON is operating at shorter hours, like all the other shops in town, I do see this as a sign that life is slowly returning to normal. Managed to get all my shopping done too. Was initially planning to drive up to the AEON mall in Akita City instead to get all the necessary stuff for the Sydney wedding. That would have a costly trip because of the amount of petrol I would have to spend to and fro.  Glad I managed to get the dress, the accessories, shoes etc all in a day. Love shopping, especially when I don't have to foot the bill.

Had a lovely dinner with Shiori too at the hamburg place near G.U.  Was fun catching up and the food at that little cafe was simply oishii. Took a stroll back after dinner to walk off my three hamburgers, and that was really enjoyable too. One positive thing from this mini petrol crisis was that I rediscovered my love for walking. Miss all the after dinner strolls I used to have back in Singapore. The good thing about strolling at night here is that the air is really cool so you don't get all hot and sweaty. Also, there are very few cars at night and the street lights are far and few. This way, you get to enjoy fresh crispy air, as well as a quiet stroll under the stars. Simply lovely. Makes you feel much closer to Mother Nature.

(Kana = I think in Japanese)

Onigiri for school lunch tomorrow

15 Mar 11 - My first full day back in school after the 9.0 earthquake hit Japan last friday. School seems pretty much the same except for the following:

• All the corridor lights were switched off to save power;
• Instead of using the regular heater in the staff room, we switched to a smaller one;
• No milk was delivered today because the highway roads were disrupted; and
• Due to the shortage of food supplies, the school lunch company will be providing us with onigiris instead (starting tomorrow).

Thinking of taking the bus to school instead of driving just so as to save petrol. Don't wanna be stuck in my apartment without any means of transport if something major does happen. This means I have to get up 45 minutes earlier and walk for a good 20 minutes to the bus terminal. Hope it does snow for the next few days.

Long queues for petrol, empty supermarket shelves, no torchlights or candles

14th Mar 11 - Three days after the worst earthquake in Japan's history. The petrol stations began operating yesterday after the power supply came back. Almost immediately long queues started to form in front of all the petrol stations. There are three petrol stations within walking distance from my apartment and in just three hours of operation, all of them had run out of the regular petrol. When my car pulled up at the pump, I was told that I could only purchase the premium one. Super expensive but glad I did it. When I walked past the petrol stations today, only one had any petrol left. The long queues were still there though, because aside from petrol, people were busy filling up their kerosene containers too. 

Long queues for petrol at the last petrol kisok which still had  supply

Only diesel left

This petrol station sold everything within a day

Yup, kerosene is still very much a necessity for Akita residents because the weather is still really cold. It snowed on friday and there were light flurries on saturday. While the days are longer and warmer, the temperature still falls to 3-4 degrees in the night and stays at 6-7 degrees in the day. When the power supply was cut for two days, most of us barely got any sleep because we were all freezing our butts off in our homes. 

I popped by the supermarkets too. Been forewarned that food supplies will take a while to reach us because all the ICs have been disrupted by the earthquake and most resources are being channelled into recuse efforts in our neighbouring prefectures. Went by a few hardware stores too - trying to find a decent-sized torchlight or a battery operated hp charger. Didn't manage to find any. All were sold out. In the end, I settled for a mini LED torch which operates on batteries and bought a pack of batteries too. (Had to be kiasu and grab some first. Batteries were selling out fast too.) Didn't manage to find any big candles or tealight candles too ;'(

These shelves used to be filled with natto.
Guess Japanese really can't live without their natto. I really dislike it.

All the frozen food items have been removed from their shelves.

You can barely find anymore instant noodles left.

More empty shelves

Kitto Katsu aka きっと勝つ Board for my sannen-sei

The high school entrance exams are taking place next week and all the sannen-sei students looked stressed. Most of them stay back after school to mug and their visits to the staffroom to check their answers or to seek clarifications have risen.

Took some pictures of the Kit Kat (きっと勝つ) board I made for them. Hope they all manage to make it into the high schools of their choice. Ganbatte ne! Just one more week to go!

I know I should have cropped the pic but was too lazy.



Added some inspirational quotes from some famous personalities



Isn't it amazing how much Japanese you can
understand because you know Chinese?

Acne attack

I've never had really great skin to boost of and I suffered from acne for a long time, especially during my teens. However, my acne problem had diminished somewhat as I entered the workforce. Now, it's back and I'm finding it harder and harder to ignore. Unlike the past where acne attacks would be on my T-zone and my upper back, these days, the attacks have been along my jaw line.

Been cleaning my face and apply pimple gel religiously but nothing seems to be working. So, I'm going to try and change my diet and see if it works. (Hopefully I can keep up with this... I just love to eat too much. This is going to be tough.)

Okay, according to internet checks, the following food items are what I need to avoid:

dairy products including pasteurized milk, cheese, cheddar cheese, goat's milk, cow's milk, margarine, yogurt (curd), cream etc. Other than dairy products following foods have also been reported causing food allergy to different people:

1. Dairy products
2. Wheat and wheat products
3. White flour and refined flour
4. Red meat (beef, lamb)
5. Spicy food
6. Rice
7. Ready meals
8. Caffeine
9. Alcohol
10. Candy
11. Chocolate
12. Eggs
13. Garlic
14. Mushroom
15. Broccoli
16. Pumpkin
17. Oyster
18. Corn
19. Gluten
20. Blueberry
21. Cranberry
22. Brewer's Yeast
23. Baker's Yeast
24. Pineapple
25. Wheat Bran
26. Sesame 

Why does it not amaze me that I love to consume close to 90% of the items listed above. OK, next comes the list of stuff I should do:

1. Drink more water and green tea
2. Go for colorful fruit and vegetables: Have five daily servings, including red/orange/yellow vegetables and fruits, purple foods, green foods, onions and garlic,and ‘seed’ foods such as peas.
3. Consume more fiber-rich foods i.e plenty of whole grains, root vegetables, lentils and beans.
4. Vegetable sources of protein
5. Less tea and coffee
6.  Low-fat dairy products
7. Blackberries, Blueberries, Strawberries, Beans, and Pecans
8. Salmon, Walnuts, Canola Oil, Flax Seed, and Soy Milk 
9. Whole-wheat Foods, Turkey, Tuna, and Brazil Nuts

I just had omulet rice with mentaiko crema sauce for lunch. Hmm... going to start watching my diet from dinner onwards. Hope I can keep it up for at least 1 week. Going to make a cup of green tea now :)

Wish me luck!

KitKat Mission 2011

Been stumbling upon lots of amazing (some are weird) Kit Kat flavours and I have decided that I will attempt to try all these "interesting" sounding Kit Kats in this year. Better to do it now while I'm still in Japan rather than to buy them from the Japanese supermarkets back home. These special edition Kit Kats cost twice as much in Singapore.

First up, I bought a packet of the mixed Kit Kats meant for Oshogatsu. As part of the Oshogatsu (New Year) celebration, Japanese eat red and white mochi. Hence, for the Oshogatsu Kit Kats, we have white chocolate Kit Kats, as well as the regular ones. What I found really interesting was the message box at the back of the Kit Kat wrappers. You are supposed to write your wishes in the box before you ate them and at the current moment,  Kit Kats are really popular amongst students. "Kit Kat" sounds like "Kitto Katsu"/ きっと勝つ (which translates into "you'll surely win or in broken English "win without fail"). According to my JTE, another popular snack is this Pocky-like biscuit sticks named "Toppo" aka "Top the class/exam". Gave all of my 3rd graders one of these Kit Kats and got them to do a wish board ;). Going to take a pic of it soon!

Second, I came across these "Mixed Juice" Kit Kat while shopping at Supercenter. Was a little apprehensive about this flavour but they tasted surprisingly good. The chocolate had a fruity smell which was really pleasant and it wasn't too sweet. They came in a cheerful orange colour too :). Handed some out to my teachers and they fell in love with this flavour too.

Next, I bought these "Annin Dofu" aka Almond Tofu (one of my favourite chinese desserts) flavoured Kit Kats in Yokohama. Apparently you can only get these from Yokohama because Almond Tofu is a Chinese thingy and Yokohama has the largest Chinatown in the whole of Japan. I was pretty surprised to find out that Almond Tofu and Mango pudding are really popular sweets in Japan. I still prefer the Hong Kong dim sum ones I get back home but the ones sold in the supermarkets are rather decent too.  As for the Kit Kat, I didn't really enjoy them. They taste ok but not great. Eating almond-flavoured chocolate is not my thing >.<