Chapels on Whatley

On the way from my sister-in-low’s house, I found this little antique shop called Chapels on Whatley.  From the music from the shop and the chairs/tables displayed outside, I thought it was just another Chinese furniture/antique shop.  But, once I stepped inside there are more than Chinese ornaments and drawings.

First, lots of scented candles caught my eyes.  There are many antique kitchen wares and furnitures that reminded me of my grandma. The shop was quite big –  there is another building at the back displaying Chinese ornaments and birdcages.

The owner of this shop is very friendly, and offered us some Chinese tea.  Then I realised there’re so many kinds of tea leaves sold at the door.

From familier ones such as oolong tea and rose tea, to Pu-Erh tea and lemon grass, there are more than 30 kinds of leaves sold and being available for tasting.  D tried lemon grass tea and another smoky tea (some kind of root: I don’t remember the name).  Lemon grass was very refreshing, he said.

Brewing flower tea is one of the most beautiful thing to watch.  Very pretty.

The owner told us that there is going to be a cafe inside the shop around February where customers can enjoy different kinds of teas and coffees.  I am so looking forward to it.

Address: 196 Whatley Crs Maylands Perth WA

Phone: 08 9272 7738

website

Daiso is Here!

Daiso, the multi-billion dollar Japanese Phenomenon, has arrived in Australia.  Last year the chain was declared the 10th fastest growing retailer in the world.

<I wrote about Daiso at here (Japan), here (Jakarta), and here (Japan)>

From potholders to pencils, lollies to locks, there are so many variety of items sold at Daiso.  I’m sure many of you have been to Daiso if you live or have been to one of the countries which has Daiso shop.  There are 24 countries which have already embraced Daiso, and Australia is number 25!  The first city to host this latest overseas raider is Melbourne.

Daiso is known as the 100 yen store in Japan, but in Melbourne every item is priced the same – just $2.80.

“Eyeliners, mascaras – they’ve won an award in Japan, the mascara, so that’s how good the quality is,” Store Director, Ms Hii said. (from Today Tonight)

The chain is set to snap up retail space all over the country and is determined to become a household name.  I really hope they open up a shop in Perth sometime soon (really soon!!).

The Australia’s first Daiso store in Melbourne open this Thursday, at 9AM.

Shop 23 313 Victoria St
Abbotsford VIC 3067
info@daiso.com.au or visit www.daiso.com.au

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Bento and Antique Shopping

Last week I packed a o-bento and headed to a park with my husband.

We didn’t really make destination, but ended up going to Lake Mongar area.  It was such a beautiful day, and we sat down on the grass and enjoyed the view of the lake and many birds.

I didn’t have any ingredient for bento at home, so I just made onigiri (rice balls), dashimaki (omelet), horenso-ohitashi (seasoned spinach), naruto (fish cake), and hijiki-no-nimono (seasoned hijiki seaweed).  If I had more time, I wanted to make some meat dish for my husband (karaage or meatballs) and other food.  

After lunch, we went to Mt Lawley area to shop at antique shops we saw from the car the other day.  There’re few antique shops on Beaufort street.

There’re some interesting things at the shops, but some of them are quite pricy.  But, at one shop, we found some antique gadget at reasonable prices.  They are plates, kitchenware, and some ornaments.  I bought one little vase at $2.00 (it was made in Japan!), and my husband bought an antique Kodak camera.

It was pretty dusty when we bought it, but he cleaned it up and polished the leather area.  This camera was made in 1960s (?) and no longer works, but it looks good as an ornament.  

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Baking, Window Shopping, and Reading

It was another relaxing weekend for me.  The Saturday was hot, I didn’t need to wear a jacket and I saw many people enjoying the marine sports at the Swan River from freeway.

I had many banana left which were starting to have black spots, so I used them all up to bake banana bread.  It turned out to be good, I could smell the delicious cinnamon from the oven while baking.

Just after I took it out from the oven, one of my sister-in-low and her husband visited our house.  They just came back from Dubai and gave me this souvenir from Daiso which I’ve asked them to buy for me.

Wood clips.  I actually wanted a simple one (like the one Kiki-K sells), but they said that’s all they could find at Daiso.  

The left wooden clip got a motif of chef, because they know I like cooking  and, I can probably take of the rings from the wooden clips (centre on the photo) to use for papers and notebooks.

I gave them a half of the banana bread as a “thank you”, and I brought another half to another sister-in-low.  Last week she gave us tuna bake for dinner (she said she cooked too much) and it was delicious.  This banana cake was a “thank you” for the tuna bake.

Then, we headed to Subiaco.  There wasn’t anything particularly we wanted to do in Subi, but just wanted to walk around and do window-shopping.

We walked into Henry Hiccup – a toy shops for kids.  We loved the image of the shop and the product range.  

We sat down at Oriel cafe to have a cup of drink.

It was a pretty windy day, so we sat down on a couch inside.  He ordered flat white, I had fresh OJ, and a pecan tartlet to share.

At the cafe we talked about many things – this is one of the reason why we go out for a cup of coffee sometimes.  We can talk more things outside compared to when we stay at home.

After the pit-stop, we went to Borders to get inspiration from the books, and stayed there until late.   In the end of the day I was tired, but it was a good day.

Hikone Castle Road

These are the photos I took while I was in Japan.  (I think it’s last year)

This city is Hikone, just next to my city in Shiga.  There are many historical buildings remain across Japan and you will find many temples and other buildings everywhere.  Hikone is one of the city which tries to remain the historical parts.

There is a road called “castle road” near the Hikone Castle, and all the buildings, including police station, and lights around the road are designed “old-looking”.  White wall and black roof.  Very famous tourist attraction place.

There are many shops including restaurants (where you can enjoy Ohmi wagu beef and other Shiga food), souvenir shops, cafes, and art shops on the Castle Road.  I heard that there is a new shop opened just recently – called “Mask Elementary School”.

What interests me is that the second floor of this shop is a cafe where they serve kyushoku-like food.  (I wrote about kyushoku here)  I love this type of places (>v<)!

The bread (above photo) is age-kinako-pan.  It’s a deep-fried bun, coated with kinako (sweet soy powder).  I know how high calorie it is, but It was my favorite kyushoku item.  They seem to have different coatings (including maccha and cocoa), and there are menu for age-kinako-pan parfait for 350 yen.  I will definitely try this place out on my next homecoming!