Back in Melbourne town

Blogging on my brother's computer at the moment.  It's only been two weeks since I've been home but I've forgotten the password to my laptop and thus it has "done the needful" and locked me out. F-f-f-fail.

So after going by bus to Kansai airport, I was one of the first to check-in. [Off topic: Is there a baggage system that determines when your bags will appear on the carousel based on the time you check in? Clearly the cabin crew and flight staff get priority, but after them, then? My bags came out last, and it would seem that the airlines should ask for the bags of the people who checked in first to come out first, to encourage early check-ins...] Had dinner at an average katsu place on level 3, a vanilla/green tea swirl soft-serve, and after purchasing some kit kats, I was ready to go!

The cabin crew were very Christmas cheery and I was so impressed that I gave them some positive feedback online. 

[Edit 7/Jan: I just received a $25 voucher in the mail for providing the feedback.  Sweet!]

Flight landed at Gold Coast at 0630, I finally got my bags and was waved through customs without bag inspection after telling the custom's officer that my "food" items were kit kats and tea, and my "wood" items were chopsticks. I guess I am not buying anything "exciting" enough to warrant inspection (but no complaints from me on that front...).

 I had booked myself on a 1110 direct flight to Melbourne but was able to change to an 0810 flight at the customer service desk, apparently because of the weather. (I was thinking: what weather?! We did walk down stairs on the tarmac from the plane in pouring rain, but what's so bad about that?).  Turns out that Cyclone Tasha was whipping the coast of Queensland, and although the severity rating was downgraded, it still meant that rain was pouring down and visibility was poor.  Several flights (including the incoming 0810 plane) were stuck circling the airport waiting to land, but ended up being diverted to Brisbane airport.  Which meant the 0810 was cancelled and (the 1110 plane being booked out) I was put on a flight to Melbourne via Sydney.  In hindsight I should have called the airline as soon as the flight was cancelled, instead of waiting for the bags and lining up with everyone else at the customer service desk!

Anyway, home now and presents all given.  Looking at the growing stack as I was unpacking, I really couldn't believe I lugged all that home.  I probably had an additional 10-15kgs to what I took to Japan!

Today was Christmas lunch (celebrated on Boxing day this year), and I'm in food coma. Now for some boxing day shopping! 

On leaving Japan

Sitting in the hotel lobby waiting to go to the airport. It's sad, I'm going to miss Japan a lot, but I know I'll be back in a few years, so it's not 'sayonara', but 'ja mata ne' as a 'see you later'.

Today I went on a power shop for last minute presents.  Checked out of the hotel before heading to Tokyu Hands for presents! Had fun in the variety section and bought some novelty gifts (playing cards in the shape of onigiri and a toy you dip in water and it turns into a toy tempura item), then bought a knife for Mum upstairs in kitchen goods. 

Then it was lunch at a sushi train (good sushi for a total of $10AUD...!), and more shopping at Takashimaya for tea.  Japanese shops are great when you buy something for a gift.  All you have to mention is that it is a "present-o" and your goods are wrapped (sometimes elaborately, depending on the shop) for free... how easy is that?!

Even though there are Christmas carols playing everywhere and there are fairy light decorations and other Chrismas-themed food/drinks, I feel like I've missed most of the hype this year.  It's been nice, ignore the carols and look past the tinsel and  you wouldn't think Christmas is tomorrow. I can't believe it's Christmas eve, the shops aren't packed (ok the department food halls are busy, but I don't think that's unusual) so it's been nice.  I love Christmas carols, so the presence of carols with the absence of crowds has been a bonus!  Definitely a nice way to spend the lead-up to Christmas.

So being cheap when I booked my flights, I have a 4 hour layover at the Gold Coast airport tomorrow morning.  Not the perfect way to spend Christmas morning but the family is celebrating on boxing day this year, so not missing out on the shizzazz.

Anyway, it's time to say "Ja mata ne" Japan, and see you again soon!!

Final days in Japan... and getting ready to leave

On the whole, the people of Osaka seem to speak less English than their counterparts in Tokyo and Kyoto. This is just an observation, I'm not complaining.  Heck, if English wasn't my first language and I lived in a non-English speaking country, I probably wouldn't know much English either.

Typically the locals don't know how to read me.  I look Asian but I dress differently to the local Japanese girls (for one, I've been wearing converse shoes) and am less made-up than them.  On the other hand, I speak in non-broken English, so I'm not a chinese tourist.  Conclusion: I'm confused!

I was about to post last night that the people in Osaka seem less friendly than those in Tokyo, less formal in shops and with less attention to detail, especially after learning that I don't understand Japanese.  But that would be biased based on a couple of average experiences over the past couple of days.  Happily today has been a change full circle.  Armed with cash, I set out to buy some last-minute presents - some shirts for Dad, a japanese knife for mum, and some kitchenware for me. 

The lady at the first knife shop was lovely.  I tried to explain to her that I wanted a stainless steel knife and asked whether the shop was open the next day.  She kept apologising for her English (which wasn't that bad - after a few back and forths, I understood what she was trying to get at), and we had a great laugh.  She couldn't remember how to say when the shop was closed for holidays so she went and wrote it down for me.  Customer service in action.

Next, I went for dinner at the same okonomiyaki restaurant as I went to two days ago. Different chef this time, they gave me both English and Japanese menus.  The chef started talking to me in Japanese and I explained (in Japanese) that I don't understand Japanese.  [Off topic: I've realised that saying that you don't speak a certain language (and saying this in that language) really throws people.  I can see what they're thinking:  why can't she speak Japanese?  She said that in Japanese! She doesn't look like a non-Japanese!]. We then had a chatty chat in broken English (him) / badly mangled Japanese (me) and it was fun.  I think the lack of human interaction is driving me insane; I'm craving some proper interaction of some sort... and it's only been 2 days since Lisa left.  It was great, we talked about what nationality I was, my travel so far in Japan, how long he'd been in Osaka (20 years) and worked at the restaurant (1 year).



Okonomiyaki!




Okonomiyaki restaurant

 After dinner I went to Marui to buy some shirts for Dad.  Went to the Visaruno section (which was flooded with sales assistants - about 4 assistants to 1 customer) and was given welcomes and a lengthy blurb in Japanese.  After I gave my standard "I don't speak Japanese" line in Japanese, we had an acceptable Q&A and even some joking in broken English.  I may be naiive (yes I know, they are supposed to be nice so I can exchange some moolah for goods) but it felt genuine.

Another example, I went to Takashimaya to check out the knives.  The sales assistant reminded me of Mum.  I explained I didn't know Japanese and she went to grab the (informal) guy who knows English well. She seemed embarassed that she didn't know that much English, but it was enough to answer my questions.  And as I walked away not exchanging any moolah, she seemed genuinely happy to have been able to help me. 

Did I mention that I'm going to miss Japan?

Things I'm going to miss the most:
- sales assistants
- japanese toilets (the seat warming and embarassing-noise-distractor)
- all the food!
- japanese tv (food shows are on all the time! oishii desu ne?!?!)
- the neon
- department stores, especially the basement food sections
- department store opening hours (10pm in Tokyo, 8pm in Osaka... yes please!!)
- vending machine drinks
- punctual public transport
- clean public toilets

- free hot green tea at restaurants

- cheap karaoke

- cheap sticker photos

Yesterday was fun, I had takoyaki from one of the stalls along Dotonbori, then took a couple of subways to the Osaka aquarium.  The crowd was mainly kids with parents, some Japanese couples and a few token western tourists. I think I may have been the only one that was there solo.  The aquarium was great; instead of the usual separate tanks for different species, they had mixed tanks to try and approximate the environment in the wild I guess.  Which was cool, but I don't know how some of the creatures at the lower end of the food chain felt about that... there were a few fish skulking at the bottom of the tank which had the massive whale sharks in it.  I went all clicky with the camera which is not like me at all, but go figure!  The weirdest thing there were these massive rodents called Capybara, which looked like massive guinea pigs on steroids.  It was feeding time and the keeper fed them bok choy!  Asian rodents!



Osaka aquarium - Kaiuikan



Capybara - massive rodents



Had dinner at a sushi place on Dotonbori (just average) then went on a kit kat search at the local convenience stores.  I found one more - strawberry cream.  On the wrapper's picture, the chocolate looks bright pink, so we will see how it tastes.  Dessert was Haagen Daas ice cream.  Japan has some interesting flavours, and I have been making my way through them (so far, green tea with cookies, pumpkin, salt and caramel biscuit), and all thumbs up so far.  Actually to me, all the flavours are new because there is no Haagen Daas widely available in the Australian market yet.  Sad face.



Osaka's Glico man

Osaka neon

 After having an early dinner, I got the munchies at about midnight so wanted to try the Yoshinoya around the corner from the hotel.  I couldn't figure out how to get in the doors!  Yoshinoya has these automatic doors, but instead of the clear bar that you push to let you in, it has a small red square which you touch and it opens.  Of course I don't figure this out until a day later... the cook stared at me trying to figure out the door and no doubt thought I was either crazy or stupid.  Yoshinoya fail.  So instead, I went for some gyoza at the local ramen place.   I love gyoza!  It was pretty good (heavy bias because I was craving gyoza).  Today I went back to a specialised gyoza place around the corner from the hotel  AZ and I stayed at last time, and the gyoza was fantastic!!! Gyoza win.



Amazing Gyoza.  Love those crispy bits.

 Tomorrow I leave for home.  Really sad to leave but looking forward to some English conversation. Need to pack and buy a knife.  Since it has been declared that doing karaoke by myself would be too sad, I will see if I can fit in a couple of hours in an onsen. 

Goodbye Kyoto (and Lisa), hello Osaka!

Yesterday was so fun.  Our last day in Kyoto (and Lisa's last day in Japan) we spent doing a cooking class and a "highlights package" of our favourite things in Japan.

The cooking class was brilliant. I'd googled "cooking class in Kyoto" and came across a website of a Japanese woman who holds cooking classes in her home for up to 4 students at a time. A few emails later and voila - we took a bus north east of Kyoto and met up with Emi and two Canadians and had a great afternoon.  Emi was so cute and passionate about the ingredients and showing us how to cook in a traditional way, and busied about the kitchen while we helped and laughed with her and at her enthusiasm. 



A productive table, including fresh yuzu (top-right)!



Freshly-roasted ginko nuts

I had requested to learn to make dashimaki and chawanmushi, two similar egg-based dishes, and I suspect Emi and the Canadians thought we were quite egg-mad! We also made a spinich salad and marinated grilled yellowtail.  Highly recommend.





Dashimaki, Kyoto-style

  

Chawanmushi - my favourite!

  

Grilled yellowtail



Spinach and sesame salad

Rice with soy, carrot, tofu and burdock root



  The rest of the day we did what I'm calling our highlights package, including:

- sticker photos
- eating crepes
- eating izakaya
- karaoke
- shopping at Loft

- eating ramen

- eating sweets from a basement department store   

Rice cracker salad at the izakaya 

 

Kyoto Ramen Alley @ Kyoto Station. Look at the egg!

Our ryokan room in Kyoto



Lisa left early this morning to catch a plane back to London.  I left Kyoto via shinkansen to Osaka, and spent the day eating and shopping.  Osaka is so different to Tokyo and Kyoto - the streets are filled with food, karaoke and game arcades. People are eating on the streets, and there is less of the rush that is everywhere in Tokyo.  I had lunch in an okonomiyaki restaurant - it was cool, the place had a counter setup with hot plates in between the chef and the people sitting, so the okonomiyaki is cooked right in front of you. I couldn't read the menu and the chef didn't understand English, so I ordered an "okonomiyaki surprise" by pointing at the menu and got one with seafood and kim chi and what tasted like coleslaw. Pretty nice but I may need to go back to try a different one. Two girls at the other end of the counter ordered 2 okonomiyaki, a huge monjayaki and a big plate of noodles between them.  Respect.

In a day of food ordering fails, I found Kamakura ramen, decided on the ramen I wanted but couldn't figure out which buttons on the ordering machine correlated to my ramen!  Which meant that I sat down at the counter and was handed THE BIGGEST BOWL OF RAMEN EVER.  Yes, really. I don't understand much Japanese but the sounds of awe I heard from the cooks, and the looks of amazement from other diners really just confirmed the ordering fail.  To my credit I pretty much finished it all, however I am all ramen'd out for this trip and can cross it off the "eat in Japan" list.

 

The largest bowl of ramen I have ever seen. (Use the egg as a relative size comparison)

I found another kit kat flavour in the Lawson's across the road from the Osaka hotel. The kit kat flavours I have found so far on this trip are:

- Almond

- Dark

- Salt and caramel

- Bitter almond

- Green tea

- Brown tea

- Strawberry

- Orange

Europe's snow is playing havoc with flights.  I just checked Frankfurt airport's page and Lisa's flight from Osaka is landing late and the flight to London city has been cancelled.  Most of the remaining flights to London city and Heathrow from Frankfurt tonight have been cancelled so I hope she gets back ok somehow. Australia is also having some unseasonably cold weather, so I'm concluding that the world's weather has simply gone mad!

Sticker photos and culturing up in Kyoto

Got a bus pass this morning and headed up to Kiyomizu-dera.  Went to the womb (a cool-yet-bizarre experience in pitch black culminating in some stone touching), and it was very picturesque with a great view of traditional Kyoto mixed wih views of the city.

At Kiyomizu-dera

Kiyomizu-dera views are stunning.

 

Kiyomizu-dera scenery

From there we took a walk through Southern HIgashiyama.  It was full of souvenir shops and small food vendors, rickshaw pullers and temples and shrines. Tried an amazing profiterole which was filled with green tea soft serve ice cream.  We stopped on the way for lunch at a tempura soba place. 

 

Green-tea soft-serve profiterole. Yes, please!

Lisa wanted to buy a knife so we walked through Nishiki market where she bought an Aritsugu knife.  It was so interesting as they told us how to look after the knife.  It's non-stainless steel and seems to be quite high maintenance!  We had dinner with the family of one of Dad's friends in Kyoto and they said the knife brand was very famous.  Nishiki market was so cool - it's an indoor market with shops selling everything you could need in the kitchen, like crockery, kitchenware, pots, pans, tea, pickles, snack food on sticks, sake, neon signs.  It was similar to Kappabashi-dori in Tokyo, except here there were food and drink stalls!  People were actually eating the street food as they were walking, so it seems the "rude to eat in public spaces" rule does not apply here.

 

Nishiki market

  

Nishiki market was bustling.



We have finally taken some sticker photos here and they are hilarious.  Our skin is so white and the software is fantastic - it makes hair brown, removes spots, widens the Asian eyes and is, overall, very flattering!  We may just need to go again! Haha.

It's Lisa's last day in Japan tomorrow.  We have the cooking lesson and plan to do some last minute shopping.  Will see if we can sneak in another karaoke session!

Hello Kyoto!

Took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto this morning.  Love everything about shinkansens; the pace, the leg room, but most of all, the bentos that you buy to eat on the train! Got an exciting eel bento from Tokyo station, and it was pretty awesome (as awesome as you can get for a non-heated lunch). 

[Off topic:  A small etiquette thing: ok so we sat in a block of three seats.  Lisa had the window seat, I had the middle seat and there was another passenger on my other side.  Being on the non-middle seat, you already have a dedicated armrest all for yourself, so you should let the person sitting in the middle claim the shared armrest!]

Got into Kyoto around 2pm, checked into our ryokan, and went to Fushimi Inari-taisha, a shrine with lots of red torii gates.  It was nice, peaceful (apart from one motorcyclist almost being mown down by a van), and very photogenic. 

Torii gates at Fushimi Inari-taisha

Tonight we bussed to Gion for dinner in Pontocho-dori. After walking up and down, we decided on a kaiseki place that had an english menu with prices and photos out front. We asked for a private room, and thank goodness for the private room! We are terrible at acting appropriately in Japan, but the most trouble we have is when eating. I definitely have trouble sitting in the low-Japanese chairs. Plus we like taking photos of food.

The private room turned out to be a tiny room with just enough space for the table, two seats facing the same way, and space for someone to kneel next to the table to provide service.  The seats faced a window overlooking the Kamogawa river, and it must have looked bizarre for the people down at the riverside to see us eating but not facing each other!

The restaurant and our seats faced towards the river. Wave hello to the people walking past!

Kaiseki was good, but I'm not sure how many foreign tourists they've had because most of the food it seemed like they were translating into English for the first time. What was cool was they had an iPhone that they kept using to translate menu items into English. Some of the more unusual things that the iPhone spat out were: lily bulb and wild boar. Dinner was reasonable at around Y8000pp.

The menu.  Um.  Hooray for the iPhone.

 

Sour soup



Sashimi with fresh wasabi to grate!



Sumashijiru with fish and daikon　



Grilled fish

 

Lily bulb



Wild boar hot pot

Fish liver



Rice, miso soup and pickles



Dessert! I spy fresh fruit!

Tomorrow is more temples, shrines and Downtown Kyoto for the food market.  Can't wait!

Last day in Tokyo.

Have I mentioned how much I love Japan?

Yesterday was our last day in Tokyo.  It involved eating.  It involved shopping.  It involved karaoke.  It involved drinking.  Description of a perfect day for me?  Well, just maybe.

Started off in Shinjuku with Chazsuke in the Lumine food section.  The place was full of women (the food is female friendly ie low-calorie, compared with the katsu curry place nearby which was full of men).  Chazuke was great - clean and tasty flavours.  We also got a couple of onigiri - love, love, love.

After getting the touristy stuff out of the way (seeing the view from the Tokyo Metro Government offices), it was Shibuya for some shopping.  There were two guys with loudspeakers outside the Hachiko exit shouting in Japanese, it was bizarre. One of the guys was holding onto a respectable-looking middle-aged woman, she was on the ground shouting "sexual harassment" over and over.  It was kind of sad because no one was doing anything about it, I guess they thought she was crazy.

Shibuya crossing - organised mayhem

 

Crazy party game at Tokyu Hands.  The game consisted solely of paper plates and aerosol cream.

Another karaoke session later, we headed back to Shinjuku to pit stop in the hotel.  Left for dinner late, because we were (wait for it...) primping!  Bizarre odd strange.  We had YouTubed how to curl hair using a hair straightener earlier in the week, and now we're hooked!  It was really a "wow!" life moment, the how to videos were amazing. Mind blown.

We had dinner at a place in yakitori alley.  Got talking with a regular, who spoke really good English, and it was fun.  It is so much easier when someone else can translate your food order for you!  The skewers that came wrapped in bacon were best (no surprises there).  On the basis of online reviews, we decided to go to Albatross bar (just opposite the yakitori place).  Sat next to a couple of local Japanese girls who we got talking to, and the barman, who was friendly.  Tried some weird cocktails (mainly harmless vodka-based) but with cherry blossom, lychee, almond, and peach liquers.  Cheap cheap, 7 cocktails for under $75AUD.



The bar man at Albatross. 

So after drinks, what's our late-night snack of choice? Not Kebabs (though kebab shops are everywhere in Tokyo), but tempura soba, located just at the end of yakitori alley.  That and being able to walk home, everything last night was so convenient and close, very us-friendly.  



So that's our Tokyo send-off.  Sad face that we are leaving Tokyo, but I am looking forward to getting cultured-up in Kyoto.

Tokyo, I love you (especially your food...)

So finally I have made the trip to Tsukiji.  Wasn't going to get there at 4:30am, so we decided to go to be in time for a late sushi breakfast at around 11am.  The outer markets were buzzing with people - lots of businessmen, chinese and korean tourists, a few token westerners and us (but we were greeted with "ni hao" by a few of the vendors, so were considered chinese tourists).

A lot of stalls selling kombu, seaweed, seafood (in various formats: dried, cooked, frozen, raw), tea, spices, kitchenware, etc. What I was most looking forward to were the sushi restaurants, and they were everywhere!  Most had a person outside spruiking when we were looking for a place, and after looking around at various modern ones and some empty ones, we decided on one that was traditional looking and pretty popular with a nigiri menu.  After the shambles of the "exciting super chef's special" at the sushi dinner a couple of nights ago, we decided to keep it tame and go for the moderate 10-piece, what we called the "menu for beginners".  Essentially it had some of the more basic ones including  lean and normal tuna, tamago, cod roe, sea urchin, horse mackerel, prawn, and scallop. Much less risque!  Most of it was melt in the mouth and it's one of the meals that make me just love Japan.

From Tsukiji we went to the National Museum at Ueno.  Spied some red bean fish waffles so had a snack-u on the way.  After getting a drink from one of the ubiquitous vending machines which said the temperature was 4 degrees celsius, it suddenly felt freezing!  Gotta love ignorance.  National museum was nice, very pleasant - warm, free storage lockers, plenty of seats and not busy!  Ideal.

From Ueno we headed home to Shinjuku to have another snack-u, this time at Afternoon Tea, a (you guessed it) cafe selling tea and cakes in our hotel building.  Tea is really expensive in Japan... 1 cup was almost $10AUD!  Lisa ordered a special "fruit tea" which we suspected to be hot breakfast juice.  What was more surprising was that it came with actual fruit pieces, including floating banana, orange and apple.  Very bizarre, probably the most surprising thing I've seen (food-wise) here.

Fruit tea... with fruit!

Tonight we went to Roppongi to see the Mori Art Museum and the Tokyo city view.  Surprised at how many non-asians there were there, I'd say the asian:non-asian ratio is higher in Box Hill! The view was really nice, better at night than during the day.  Mori art museum was impressive, very focused and edgy.

Tomorrow is our last day in Tokyo.  This means shopping and karaoke. I miss Tokyo already!!!

Guidebook success

So during this trip we are not doing too badly in finding food places that have been recommended in guide books.  This time around we have the internet in our hotel room... things are so much easier to find with the internet!  (Special thanks goes to google maps!) To make it a bit more interesting, a lot of the places recommended have been a little off the beaten track, with only a rough map and main street signs noted.  So - success! 

Today went to Harajuku.  Got a crepe along Takeshita-dori, then walked up to Meiji-Jingu shrine.  It was the first real cultural thing we've done so far (except for a brief encounter with Ueno park), and it was really nice to get away from the super-awesome-craziness that is Tokyo. 

 

Massive Torii at the entrance of Meiji-Jingu

 

Purification fountain



Main yard leading to the offering hall

These guys were getting wedding photos taken.

We wrote our wishes for the future on a small piece of paper, put it in an envelope for it to be presented to the deity for blessing.  We went to the offering hall and I got quite moved.  It was just the sense of peace and calm and the chance to reflect on things away from the crazy world.

Outside the shrine, on the bridge, were girls offering "free hugs", and the hugs were very involved!  A woman went to accept a hug and she was hugged for over 10 seconds, with some rocking side to side action included!

So after getting a bit lost we managed to find Maisen, the Katsu place recommended by Lonely Planet.  It was pretty amazing, definitely worth the trip! We ordered the Lunch set of Katsu-don and a side order of Crab Croquettes, which were THE BEST CROQUETTES I've had ever.  Full of crab meat, creamy and in a panko crumbed shell (similar to the yam ball coating at yum cha), and coated in a crab sauce, it was just freaking awesome.  I still can't believe we managed to find the place.



Crab croquettes. Love, love, love.



Pork katsu.  Melt in the mouth.

This follows from yesterday where we found an obscure soba restaurant in Lisa's Food and Sake guidebook, after getting lost and asking some Japanese dudes, it ended up being around the corner from where we were at.  Really nice soba noodles, they were al-dente and came with tempura, including conga eel and Australian asparagus! Haha. 

Had our first Karaoke experience today at a Karaoke-kan chain in Shinjuku.  It was actually quite an old chain, but such a quick way to pass 2 hours.  I think Lisa was not quite so keen going into it but she has already started talking about our next visit!  Well, when in Japan...