1 day in Kyoto

I was actually excited to go to Kyoto as I knew that in-laws will love seeing Japanese temples/shrines, but it was a tiring day… (>0<)

We arrived JR Kyoto station around 11 am.  Kyoto station is just 3 stops away from Osaka station.  Because we only had one day to explore Kyoto (tight schedule!), I was just going to take them to Shijo-Kawaramachi and Gion area.  Then they told me that they want to go to see To-ji temple, which is just near the Kyoto station, so we all headed to the temple on foot.  According to the map To-ji temple is just across the street, but it actually took 30mins to get there.  It was very sunny day in Kyoto and sunlight was pretty strong :p  My head was burning~… should had brought a hut.

To-ji temple consists of several buildings, and each buildings has several buddha statues- most of them are Japan’s national treasures - inside.  The picture above is Goju-no-tou (five level tower), the tallest wooden structure in Japan.  It’s 55m tall, rebuilt in 1644.

Beautiful garden…

Then we headed to the nearest subway station to go to Shijo-Kawaramachi and Gion.  Map showed there’s a subway station with Shijo line near-by, and it directly takes you to Shijo station.  We walked, and walked…  and in the end we walked for about 50 mins!!  … No joking. (T_T)  We were exhausted by the time we arrived the subway station.  The map was small, so everything around the area was shown as if they’re gathered up in one area.  Hmm

Finally, away from the sunbeam, we sat down on chairs in subway plat home.  We took a subway to Shijo-Kawaramachi.  Everyone was hungry, it was already 1pm (!), so I tried to find a place to eat.  They wanted to try Mos Burgers’ teriyaki burger and rice burger, so we AGAIN walked to the nearest Mos Burgers.  … it took about 30 mins on foot. (T_T)  We were all exhausted and sweating.  Plus, unfortunately it was lunch time, so the Mos Burgers was packed with people  We had to Q, then wait for our seats.

After lunch we walked around Shijo and Gion area.  Everyone bought many souvenirs there.   And, we had a quick visit at Yasaka Shrine.

Then, finally, we decided to take taxis.  We couldn’t even take another step; our feet were seriously damaged! (*_*)  After arriving JR Kyoto station in-laws went back to Osaka, and my hubby and I went back to Shiga. (opposite direction)

It was a super tiring day for everyone… walking around for hours under the sun.  I knew I wasn’t going to be a good guide! (>o<)  But at least everyone seemed to enjoy Kyoto, so it’s ok. :p

6 days in Osaka

We stayed 5 nights at Osaka Hilton.  Osaka Hilton is located in front of JR Osaka train station, and this area is called “Umeda”.  Umeda, the north centre of Osaka, is the urban transport network centre of Kyoto-Kobe-Osaka region.  You can catch trains of JR line, Hankyu line, Hanshin line, and subway & buses etc from Umeda.  There are lots of office buildings as well as department stores, restaurants and other shops.  And, Umeda has the biggest underground complex among other cities in Japan.  We couldn’t walk through this complex even though we had 6 days there.

The main thing we did in Umeda was shopping.  Yodobashi Umeda and HEP FIVE area are the places I usually go to.  Yodobashi Umeda building mainly consists of Comme Ca Store, Yodobashi Camera and cafes&restaurants.  There are also some other shops inside including clothes shops and gazette shops.  On each floor between 1F~6F the half space is Yodobashi Camera shop where huge range of electric related products are available.  I found many cool stuff there, including egg shaped digital photo flame (cute!), waterproof portable 1seg tv/radio and auto-cleaning robot.  Each floor sells different kind of products (eg: 1F = mobiles and beauty related products, 5F = toys, games and DVD) and there are huge varieties!  Even in “rice cooker” section there are 20~40 rice cookers to chose from…  I can spend a day there.

I bought a hair iron from Yodobashi camera, and clothes and zakka (gazette) stuff from UNIQLO and some individual shops.  During shopping we had a quick break at Yami Yogurt: frozen yogurt (ice creamy yogurt) shop on the 7th floor.  I actually thought Golden Spoon was much better.  Yami Yogurt had only one flavor, vanilla, and it tasted bit too sugary and sour.  At least Golden spoon has 8~12 flavors to chose from.

This time I didn’t buy anything from HEP FIVE as I had no time to walk through each floor this time.  (I had nothing to buy from there this time anyway.)  Because the ferris wheel on the top floor was under repair while I was in Umeda, and all the illumination was off, we couldn’t see where the HEP FIVE was from Yodobashi.  (I usually use the ferris wheel to get direction)  I was a terrible guide! :p

The room in Osaka Hilton was cozy.  I loved the sliding window cover made with wood and paper (Japanese thing).  I’ve stayed in four different Hilton hotels in this trip (Hilton Perth, Singapore Hilton on Orchard street, Conrad Hotel in Singapore, and Osaka Hilton), and this sliding door is the thing that was different from other Hilton hotels.  My house in Shiga has these paper sliding doors and window covers as well, and my hubby is saying that he really wants to have these in Perth.  I also want to have some Japanese-looking rooms or spaces in our house in Perth, but I guess it’s gonna happen only when we buy our own house here :p  We can’t modify his parents’ house just for ourselves!  Umm I really really want to have our own house now..

24 hours in Singapore

We had 24 hours to transit in Singapore, so we booked our rooms in Hilton hotel so that we can take a rest before arriving Japan and also have a little shopping there.  It was actually my first time to go out of Singapore airport.  Now Singapore is the 3rd country that I’ve been to!  (1st: Australia, 2nd: Indonesia)

Oh my gosh, Singapore is very humid…  I was wearing tight jeans, and it was so hot :p  I should had worn short pants or something…  And, I was wearing mule with heel, so my foot got tired after walking around Orchard street.  Silly me, why I chose to wear this mule..  The first thing I bought in Singapore was a pair of flat sandals.  (><)

I knew that our first day in Japan will be a very tiring day as we need to travel around, so I had a deep sleep!  Then we went out to have dinner in the food court in Takashimaya department store.

We had chicken rice, rojak, prawn & spare rib noodle soup, laksa, ice kachang, chandol, green tea egg tart, and taro potato bread.  Parents were having some food, I don’t remember..  It was good, I love Asian food and we won’t be able to eat these type of food in Japan anyway.

At midnight we took a plane and headed to KIX (Kansai airport) in Japan.

Miso

Same as soy sauce, miso paste is one of the ingredients we can’t miss in Japanese cuisine. These days miso paste with dashi (=a kind of stock, mostly made with dried bonito flakes and kombu seaweed) is available at Asian grocery shops.  (called “dashi iri miso“)  Because this dashi iri miso already contains dashi, you don’t need to use dashi powder separately in cooking.  I think this item is very useful for miso soup and some other dishes.  What you do is just dissolve the dashi iri miso into hot water, then cooking miso soup is done!

Made with wheat instead of rice malt.  It has plain taste with sweetness.

(Example of wheat miso: Inaka Miso)

  

  

I like white miso (rice miso) and my house in Japan always use this for miso soup and other dishes.   Some people like red miso, and some like white.. it really depends on which miso they use in their area. 

   

I’ve posted few recipes using miso.  You can basically use any type of miso, it’s really up to you

  

Chunky Miso Soup  Grilled Miso Mayo Salmon

I will post more recipes with miso paste in the future.  Miso paste is not just for miso soup!

With Pancakes!

I love eating pancakes in the morning!  The soft and sweet pancakes with maple syrup and butter…  I’m sure lots of girls will be happy when her boyfriend or husband makes a sweet pancake for her in the morning.  Or even some guys like pancakes as breakfast.  It’s easy to make pancakes using pancake mix packets, or if you want to make them from scratch here is how.

Now, what do you usually eat pancakes with?? 

The typical accompaniments are maple syrup, butter, freshly whipped cream, honey, ice cream… and some fruits!  I usually make fruits sauce for pancake and eat with maple syrup and whipped cream (and sometimes vanilla ice cream).  I know it’s high in calories, but that’s why I eat it in the morning.  It’s always best to consume “carb” and “fat” in the morning rather than at night.  

The fruit sauce is very easy to make!  I use frozen berries.  

1. Place berries in a micro-safe bowl or a cup.  Sprinkle vanilla sugar (how to make: keep sugar in an air-tight container with split vanilla pod) and heat up in the microwave. (appx 1 ~ 1.5 minutes)   If you don’t have vanilla sugar you can sprinkle normal sugar and a drop of vanilla essence.
2. Once the sugar dissolved, stir with a tea spoon.

You can decorate the pancake with a scoop or vanilla ice cream, berry sauce, icing sugar, mint leaves and a drizzle of maple syrup (or honey).  If you love chocolate you can drizzle chocolate sauce over the pancake.  Why don’t you try making pancakes for your loved one this weekend?