Puppy Cam

This live video feed debuted Oct 8 on Ustream tv.

The six Shiba Inu pups, (3 boys and 3 girls) turned 11 weeks old on December 23rd. This is the first litter from their mom, Kika.

Girls:
- Autumn (Purple collar) – Is now with her new loving family.
- Ayumi (Formerly Yellow, now Lavender collar) – 6 lbs 6 oz (as of Dec 12th)
- Amaya (Red collar) – 6 lbs 8.5 oz (as of Dec 12th)

Boys:
- Aki (Green collar) – 8 lbs 0.5 oz (as of Dec 12th)
- Akoni (Black collar) – Is romping around the yard romping around with fallen leaves at his new home.
- Ando (Blue collar) – 7 lbs 3 oz (as of Dec 12th) – Is being a perfect angel at his new home.

Why don’t you get a peek on these cute puppies?? (>v<)

BTW, at night the owners turn off the lights and the camera so the dogs can sleep.

Fish Market near Japanese Ocean

Today I went to Tsuruga city in Fukui Pref.  The purpose was to buy some crabs from this famous fish market

(BTW Tsuruga city is located next to Obama city = was unofficially supporting Barack Obama during U.S. Presidental election because of the similarities in names.)

There were so many people inside… many seafood too :p I saw a huge octopus (approx 50m x 1.5m), lots of crabs, lots and lots of dried cuttlefishes…  One of the them looked like a face; is that the face of cuttlefish?? :p  (for more photoes, click here )

As there were hundreds of crabs to choose from and all of them looked nice & fresh, we just grabed 2 huge crabs which were arranged on the ice near us.  Costed 5000 yen each.

Then we decided to have lunch at a kaiten sushi restaurant inside of the market.  Everything was so delish and fresh, I ate so much :p  My favorite was tsubu-gai (shellfish) and aburi-salmon (seared salmon).  Yum!

Then we headed to home.  I love the view from the car…  Lots of mountains and lots of rice field…  (country side!)

At night, we cooked crab steam boat (kani nabe)   Steam boat is the king of Japanese winter food!  Lots of veggies… so healthy   The juice from the crabs and veggies were soooooo delicious and tasty, I didn’t need to season it much.  Just water and drops of ponzu. That’s it!

Ate a lot again…

Osaka Food

In Japan every area has its speciality food, but I believe that Osaka food is very unique.  The famous ones are Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki.  In Osaka you can find takoyaki / okonomiyaki shop everywhere!

They use this special grill plate for takoyaki; pour mixture into the grill, and make them into ball shape.  You will need a skill to do it!  In Perth you can only get deep-fried takoyaki from Japanese restaurants (they just deep-fry frozen pre-made takoyaki) but originally takoyaki is supposed to be “grilled”.

Takoyaki means octopus balls, but nowadays you can get many flavors (not just octopus); cheese, mochi (rice cake), corn, meat, fish etc…  So fun!

If you go to okonomiyaki restaurants you will grill okonomiyaki by yourself.  Waitress brings the mixture to your table, and you grill the mixture on the grill plate (which is attached on your table).  All the condiments (sauces, bonito flakes, nori powder, beni shoga, mayonnaise etc) are prepared at each table, and once okonomiyaki is cooked you eat them straight from the grill plate.  Yes it’s hot, but very nice (>v<)!

Finally… bagels!

One of my best friend in Osaka started a business this May 2008, a bagel shop  I’ve been checking up her blog from Perth everyday and thinking “aaa… I wish I could get nice bagels in Perth…”.

I don’t get to see any bagel shop in Perth.  I think there is none??  I only see bagels at a corner of supermarkets and some bakeries…  Not many people seem to know what bagels are too. (surprising!)

Bagel is one of my favorite food, I love its chewy texture (>v<).  This friend lived in America for about 2 years, and she loved American bagels.  After she got back to Japan she couldn’t forget the taste and texture, so she started making them up by herself!  According to her blog, she loves tough, chewy heavy texture like I do, so her bagels seemed perfect to me

To taste her bagels was on my To Do List in Japan, and today I finally had the chance!!  I met her in Osaka last night and she gave me some of her fresh bagels…  I was so happy♪  (thanks yutsuki♥)

If you live in Japan and love bread/bagels, why don’t you try them♪ Available through online Sysouer Bagel Recommended!!

Eating out

On the next day we arrived Japan, I had dinner with one of my best friend.  I was taken to this neighbor Italian restaurant “Cannery Row”:  one of my favorite place

We ordered cheese fondue, chicken pizza and fresh basil & smoked salmon pasta as main; salad, drinks, entree and dessert are in buffet section, they are “all you can eat”. 

All the food is very nice!!  but the reason why I like this place is their service.  Staffs are so polite and friendly:)  Love their uniform too:)

There are millions of restaurants in Japan and the places I’m showing in this blog are just one of them.  During this holiday I went to buffet style restaurants quite often.  This Cannery Row is also buffet restaurant, and other place I went was an organic and slow food buffet restaurant “Hinano”.  It’s a fusion of Japanese and Western cuisine, and they only use organic food  I think their target is women (as most of their food was vegetable, not so many meat), and I love all the food!(I’m a girl )  Japanese style salad, udon, grilled fish, tempura, pizza, few kinds of rice, etc etc….   They keep serving different food every 30min so we didn’t get bored.  I ate a lot…  OMG :p

(these plates are not only for me!  a table of my family (9 ppl) :p)

Their interior and plates are also nice; I think this type of restaurants “natural” “slow food” “healthy” “organic” “buffet” are Japanese trend now. (maybe?)  Inexpensive too!