Voices from Tokyo (East) and Shiga (West)

“Some medical supplies doesn’t arrive due to the earthquake.”

“Try to go grocery shopping after work, but all the foods were sold-out at the supermarkets.  No rice, bread, noodle.  I decided to go to parents’ house to get some food, but they couldn’t buy much food either.”

“Only 2 rolls of toilet paper left…  Are we going to use newspapers after finishing these 2 rolls?!!”

“Controlled Black Out to save energy.  Including traffic lights.  People are recommended to take public transport or bicycle.”

“Big demand on blood donation”

“Manufactures and factories shut down due to the black out.  It affects other businesses and things are very quiet…  I work at a factory for Seven Eleven’s bento boxes and onigiri, but we don’t get much ingredients from suppliers now.”

“Batteries are all gone in Shiga too.  Some people think about themselves only!”

People in Japan seem to be in panic and rushing to the supermarkets to buy as many things as they can for themselves… even in the areas which aren’t affected by the earthquake.  Why?  Some people say that they can’t believe what government and the leader of Fukushima nuclear plant say on tv.  “it is safe…” “nothing to worry about…”  Some people are frustrated by others who buy food more than they need.  Please think about others, it’s not only you who are anxious and scared…

Biggest Damage Ever, Possibly

As I mentioned before, this is the biggest earthquake happened in Japan and I can’t imagine the damage on eastern coast of Japan.  I saw video of huge tsunami swallowing houses, cars, and people who were running away from the wave.  Thinking about people who lost their family in this disaster, I just can’t think it to be the other people’s affairs.

The earthquake is still happening right now over there.  Many people have lost their houses .. and everything.  I could finally contact my friend who lives in Hokkaido – she said that all the mail delivery service has been stopped, and all the transportation, including freeway, ferry and train, are disconnected between Hokkaido island and Honshu (main) island.  People are afraid that they may run out of provisions.  My friends in Tokyo also told me that on the day earthquake hit Tokyo, they couldn’t go back home until midnight.

Two days ago, my mum told me that she had lost contact with her friend who went back to Fukushima to see his family one day before the earthquake.  As you know, Fukushima has the nuclear plant and is one of the most affected area.  My mum thought he was involved in this disaster, but he contacted her yesterday saying that he is ok as well as his family.

I hear that Japanese government had asked residents in Tohoku area (東北地方）to evacuate from the house, but most of the people who couldn’t make it or were still in their houses were elderlies.  Watching the news of rescuing elderlies from the crushed houses is devastating…

Yes, Japan is one of the richest and highly industrialised country, but this earthquake has caused a huge financial cost to the Japanese government, businesses and individuals.  And, Japan had sent earthquake experts to New Zealand to help victims over there few weeks ago.  I hope those experts were already in Japan or on the way back there.

If someone would like to make a donation, here are some websites :

The World Vision Japan Disaster Appeal

Save the Children Australia Japan Earthquake Appeal

Redcross Australia

(photos from CNN News & GlobalGiving)

The Biggest Earthquake in Japan

Today, just 2 hours ago, huge earthquakes hit northern Japan island.  The magnitude is 8.8 – which is much bigger than Kobe Hanshin Earthquake in 1995.

As soon as I heard the news from D, I contacted my families to check if they are ok.  They all live in Shiga (some of my relatives live in the prefectures near Nagano), so they said the damage is not that big.  Luckily there is no ocean around Shiga (just a big lake) so no tsunami will attack there.  My grandma said it was shaking for quite long time though.

I have friends who live in Hokkaido and eastern side of Japan.  I hope they and their families are ok too…

There are so many natural disasters happened around the world lately…  Brisbane’s flood and cyclone, earthquake in New Zealand, and now Japan is the victim.  What’s going on?   Tsunami, fire, flood and landslide…  There’ll be so many side effects.  I hope the damage of this earthquake to be as minimum as possible.

Yukidaruma

Here is a chilling photo of yukidaruma – snow man – from Hokkaido, Japan.  This tiny yukidaruma was showing its face from a snow house (kamakura) in front of a Spanish restaurant – my friend said.  As you can see, snow man in Japan has two body parts, not three.  In Australia, America, and some other countries, snow man has three body parts and I always thought it was strange.  Two-ball body looks much cuter than three–ball, don’t you think?

QLD is having another trouble again by Yasi cyclone this time.  Right after the terrible flood, I hope things will go better for QLD residents soon.  Japan seems to be having a big snow at the moment, and my friend who lives in Fukui (above Shiga) said that snow had piled up 2M!  Yeah, February is the coldest month in Japan, and I remember lots of snow storm around this time of the year.

Last night dinner at Hans Palace in East Perth (website) took 4 hours… and some of the food was still in my stomach when I woke up this morning!  We (my in-laws : 13 people) all had Chinese New Year banquet, which included New Year salad, Shark Fin and Crab Meat Soup, Singapore Style Chili Lobster with buns, Braised Pork, Roasted Chicken, Sweet & Sour Fish, Stir-fried Fish, Fried Rice, Deep-fried Crab Rolls, Sea Cucumber with Oyster Sauce, Mango Pudding and Fruits Platter.

I was so hungry … well. we all were, and when the entree was brought to the table everyone was just enjoying the food without talking.  After the Chili Lobster, the Dragon Dance began….  Everyone left their tables and enjoyed watching/feeding the dragons.  I was still hungry, but the wait staff didn’t bring up the main meal until the dance finished.  I understand that no one would eat the main meal while the dance was on, and the food would go cold if they served during the dance.  But, it was almost 8:30 PM when the dance finished.  It’d been 2.5 hours since we arrived the restaurant!  I think they should have served the main before the dance began.  It looked like all other tables were the same –  they didn’t get main meal until the dance finished.  By the time the dance finished, we started to feel full (even though we didn’t eat much food) and couldn’t finish all the main meal and desserts.  Some people were complaining about it and saying that restaurant is doing it on purpose, but we all took the leftover back home so I guess it’s ok…

By the way, today was my last day at work, and I’m going on 1 year parental leave from Monday.  It didn’t feel like it was my last day – but I enjoyed the platters of sushi and karaage that they bought from Sundays Everyday (in Myaree).  The food was delicious – I enjoyed the karaage very much.  I didn’t know my body was wanting meat so much!

From next week I don’t need to wake up to go to work anymore, but I have so many things on my to-do list.  I’m still asking my mum to fly here (she is afraid of flying) sometime around August this year.  I hope my sister cousin can escort my mum …

Bijin Tokei Ver. Shiga

Bijin Tokei, meaning “beautiful woman clock”, is a website that showcases different young ladies telling you the time every minute, and has been a big success since it started.  Now they have few different versions of bijin-tokei such as circuit-tokei (where all the girls are race queens) and Ver. Night, and also local versions of bijin-tokei in Kobe, South Korea Ver. 1 Ver. 2, Taiwan, Kyoto, Hokkaido, Thai, etc etc…

I wrote about this bijin-tokei here, here and here before in Umeboss.  Why I’m writing about it again here is because I found a Shiga version of bijin-tokei in app store!

Bijin-tokei Ver. Shiga was released in August last year.  As you know (?), I’m from Shiga and wonder that there may be one or two of my friends in the 360 girls picturing the clock on the app!  The photo shoot was carried out in the malls, universities and train stations from May in Shiga.  If I knew about it and was in Japan I might be in the queue for the candidates! hehe..

I’m somehow proud of it, because not all the cities/prefectures in Japan are used for bijin-tokei.  So far there’re only 9 cities across Japan : Shibuya, Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, Fukuoka, Kobe, Nagoya, Sendai, and Shiga.  I’m proud of it as a Shiga person (kind of), but also curious… why Shiga??  There are many other nice and famous cities across Japan.  Some Japanese people don’t even know where Shiga locates in the map.  I’m also curious about the bijin-tokei ver. Sendai.  … Why Sendai??

Hello 2011

２０１１年、明けましておめでとうございます(^0^)

Happy New Year!!

It seems that Japan is getting lots of snow since yesterday.  My mum said it started to snow yesterday morning in her city in Shiga, and in the evening she couldn’t move her car because of the snow which had been built up.  My friends also said that it’s snow storming outside.  Regardless of whether they are enjoying the snow or not, I do miss snow and wish I was there!

Perth is, on the other hand, in middle of summer.  I had Nachos and watermelon for dinner yesterday.  Oh yes, I didn’t forget to eat toshikoshi-soba 年越しそば this year too.  It’s just one of Japanese tradition I don’t want to miss.  I remember eating soba on the New Year’s eve two years ago at my house with my family, while watching a countdown to 2009 on tv.

In the morning of New Year’s Day, we eat special food called osechi, and zenzai or ozoni in Japan.  Zenzai is a sweet red bean soup with mochi (rice cake), and ozoni is sweet miso soup with mochi.  I had delicious osechi food and ozoni in Perth last year at my friend’s house (I wrote about it here), but this family has gone back to Japan for good and I can’t experience it anymore.

I was actually going to make zenzai at home, but just couldn’t find time.  It’s too hot to make hot azuki soup here anyway…  So, instead, I made mitarashi-dango.  (rice flour dumpling with caramelised sauce)

The process of making dango was fun.  But, after eating just a couple of these I became so full!

Well, at least I started this new year with some Japanese traditional food.

My family is going to visit a shrine for hatsu-moude 初詣 to pray for a new year tomorrow.  My mum said she will pray for me, D and my baby, and buy an amulets and send it to me.  I really wish I was there too.

Today is a start of new year.  My New Year’s resolution is to be honest.  I want to be honest to my feelings and try to share it with other people.  I hope this year will be one of the wonderful year of my life.

a

Planning a Homecoming Trip

Planning a trip is always a fun thing to me – especially when the destination is my home country!  Imagining what I could do there makes me daydream 🙂

Well, I should be thinking about the birth plan or something related to my baby (I do though) but part of my head is already planning what to do in Japan next year.  As the trip will be a whole new experience to me (first time with a Jr) I know what I can do there is limited.  But, it’s just a plan, and planning is always a good thing to prepare for the trip.

This time, I’m thinking to go driving around Biwa Lake in Shiga.  I always drive Kei-truck (you can read about it here, or my Japan Trip posts here) when I go back, but there are only two seats in the car and three of us (me, D and Jr) won’t be able to fit there.  It’s also very uncomfortable to drive for long distance.  So, I’m planning to hire a car for few days and go driving around the Biwa Lake side road.  

My grand-parents’ house is 50 km away from my house and D and I normally take a train to visit them, but the road between our houses has such beautiful views.  I love driving to their house because I could stop at convenience stores or shopping malls to get a cold drink and snack on the way, and get off the car and walk around the lake shore if I want to.  

Having your own car is very essential in Shiga (same as Perth).  If you go shopping you will need a car to put all the stuff you bought.  We are going to buy many things in Japan for sure, so renting a car is one “must” thing to do.

I don’t think we will be traveling around much this time.  Just within Shiga, I think.  We can do so many things already just in Shiga and I don’t want to take a tiring train trip to other prefectures with Jr.  (Of course I can’t drive there, driving to Kyoto and Osaka is much more stressful than taking a train!)  It’s ok.  D hasn’t explored entire Shiga yet.  There are so many things he has missed out on his last visits!  

If we go there in summer we can enjoy fireworks and summer festivals wearing yukata.  If in autumn we can enjoy the scenery and delicious food.  If in winter we can play with snow!  Still thinking when is the best…

a

What is Booming in Japan Now?

It’s almost the end of October…  If you don’t carefully watch the calender every day, you’ll be surprised how fast the time flies.  

October –  November is middle of Autumn in Japan.  What comes to your head when you hear the words “Autumn” and “Japan”?   Beautiful trees dressed in red, orange and yellow leaves?  Cold air that you feel on your cheeks? In my case, it is food that comes first to my head.

There are so many Autumn food in Japan to list, but the king of Autumn food would be this: Matsutake mushroom.  Matsutake mushroom are harvested between the end of September and the end of October, and they are quite pricy.  (especially the ones harvested within Japan)

The Matsutake harvested within Japan costs around 5000 yen each.  Others (those imported from China or Korea) costs around 1000 yen each. Why are they so expensive compared with other mushrooms?  It’s because they are difficult to be cultivated by human hands.  How Matsutake grows (how they get the nutrition) is different from other mushrooms.

Autumns is called “eating season” in Japan.  You will see many fliers and advertisements of foods at train stations, streets, on tv etc.  People head to grape, nashi pear, chestnut and sweet potato farms to get all-you-can eat harvesting experience (customer pays around $2000 per head and harvest the fruits from the farm as much as you can, and eat them at the farm), and travel around Japan to enjoy the remote area’s speciality food.  Short trip and day trip are the boom around this season. The purpose of the trip is, of course, to eat delicious food at ryokan (Japanese style hotel) or restaurants.

The most popular food people seek is a course menu of Matsutake mushroom.

Grilled, row (as sashimi), deep-fried (tempura), steamed (with rice as Matsutake rice), and poached (in chawan-muchi) are the common dishes in a course menu.  My dad emailed me the other day saying that he went to Shigaraki (a town in Shiga, famous for Shigaraki Ware) to eat all-you-can-eat Matsutake food!!  All-you-can-eat….  I’m sure I can eat at least 50 Matsutake!  (I’ve never eaten Matsutake before, I think) Dad said the place does the all-you-can-eat Matsutake each year around this time.  It’s another reason to go back to Japan next Autumn!  😀

Sento – Japan’s Public Bath

What I really missed this weekend was sento and onsen. I’d been wanting to wash my car (as it was already dusty when I picked it up from the dealer) and I finally had the chance to do it on Sunday.  I didn’t have any plan going out, so stayed home doing some cooking and cleaning.  Then, I spent my whole afternoon washing my car (and in-law’s car) in the yard.

It was pretty hot day and the sun beam was strong.  After washing and waxing the two cars, I was exhausted and sweating – all I could think of was taking a bath!

If I was in Japan, I would fill up the bath tub in the house and enjoy the early bath time, or head to the nearest sento. I used to go to sento often with my friends and stay there for hours.  (Read my last sento experience in Japan → sento)

Usually sento has several types of baths, including indoor and outdoor, jet bath, separated bath with different types of water, and also a bath of cold water to refresh.  My friend and I usually start with normal baths, then go outside to cool down a bit, enjoy the bath outside, then go back inside and enjoy another bath, then go to sauna room to sweat out, and take another bath before leaving.

After drying the body and getting dressed, we normally proceed to either relaxing room or dining room.

Most sento has massage chairs, and possibly napping room.  The floor of the room is tatami-matted, and people can just lye down and relax, cool down the body after taking hot baths.

The dining place inside sento is usually like izakaya.  It’s because people normally want to drink alcohol after taking bath.  The place is cozy, and anyone including family with kids can enjoy the food there.

It’s the best if your house is very close to the sento, as you will feel so sleepy after taking hot bath and eating the delicious food.

I do miss Yufuin onsen…  I wish I could go back to the quiet ryokan surrounded by only the nature.

(Read my trip to Yufuin in Kyushu Island, Japan in 2009 → 1, 2, 3, 4)

a

Photos from Shiga -2-

I received some delicious photos from Shiga, Japan again.  I know there are millions of restaurants across Japan, and some people may wonder why I bother posting those photos from such a small restaurant in Shiga.  I just had to show these photos here, as I love this type of small individual restaurants serving natural, delicious, home-cooking style of food.  The restaurant is located in the hill, in Northern Shiga around the mountains.  During winter people from other prefectures gather around to this area for skiing.

A small “pit-stop” looking restaurant (shokudo).

The curry is made from various fruits and vegetables, and it has a distinct sweetness with spiciness from the hidden spices.  The rice is a blend of black rice, red rice, green rice and some other ancient rice which are locally harvested each year in Shiga.  It has the different texture and taste from those in normal white rice.  A set of curry, rice and salad is 700 yen.

Nishin Soba – soba noodle in hearty warm soup with nishin (a kind of fish).  Is this a Shiga’s speciality food?  I see this dish everywhere in Shiga.

A set of soba noodle (cold) with dipping sauce and crispy tempura.

The five kinds of rice they use for their menu contain more vitamins and minerals than white rice or brown rice.  I would like to try it out someday 🙂

aa

Ghost Street, Kyoto Japan

This is one of my favorite Japanese old story.  In Heian era, there were many reports of ghost appearances, especially in Kyoto.  (Kyoto used to be the capital city of Japan that time)  

Some people saw ghosts and monsters walking on the street at night, and there are many drawing of these scenes still remain in Japan.  So, in Heian era, people were scared to walk outside at night, especially on this day called “yakou-bi 夜行日”.  This day is considered to be the day ghosts comes out from their world.  When people had to travel at night, they talked to On-myoji 陰陽師 (person with gift) to get advice and a protection (a piece of paper filled with spell written by On-myoji 陰陽師).  There are few Japanese films about On-myoji 陰陽師, if you are interested in.  They are very interesting.

Why I’m writing this is because, there is a street called “Ghost Street” in Kyoto.  

In 2005, a small shopping square in Kyoto started this project to get more customers to this area, and named ichijo-dori street as “Ghost Street”.  This area of Kyoto still remains its historical image of ancient Japan, and the Japanese ghost stories and this area are a great match, I think.  In fact, this area really used to be capital area in Heian era.

This street is now a famous tourist attraction.  There’re not only those scary (and interesting) events all year around, but also many shops selling Japanese ghosts-related products.  

Food, clothes, accessories, and fashion goods…

This Yokai Croquette (ghost croquette) looks like ugly monster or ghost, but is made from Maccha green tea for the inside and bamboo charcoal powder for the coating – very healthy.  Yokai ramen also looks interesting too.  Purple noodle and black soup!!

If you have the guts, or like this type of things, or even, just have a plan to travel to Kyoto sometime soon, why not step into this ” “Japanese ghost” town in Kyoto?  

I’m sure you will enjoy the experience…

a

All I Can Think of Is…

Food….  I really really can’t wait going back to Japan next year! (><)

My friend (mother of my former student) from Hokkaido sent me some photos.

Wow, look at the size of soft serve placed on top of the Hokkaido melon…  

On her email she said that she traveled to Furano and Sapporo (cities in Hokkaido) during summer (She lives in Hakodate, Hokkaido), and told me that she enjoyed sanma (saury) sashimi and buta-don (teriyaki-style pork donburi).

As I can’t eat sushi and sashimi now (or any raw food) now, and it makes me want to eat even more!  Especially after hearing her story…  I really miss sushi and sashimi in Japan.  

I wonder if pregnant women eat raw fish in Japan.  My doctor says what you can/can’t eat during pregnancy just relates to the risk of food poisoning – if the food is fresh enough (and your immunity level is ok enough) you can basically eat anything.  I wouldn’t eat raw fish in Perth as I can’t trust the freshness.  And, I think it’s best to avoid some seafood due to the Mercury content.  But, I don’t think my mum avoided eating sushi and sashimi while she was pregnant with me…

Anyway, I’m thinking going back around Autumn next year.  It’s just because the food is so delicious in Autumn in Japan and I want to enjoy it 😀

Umm… to think about it, it’s another 1 year away! (it’s Autumn in Japan now)   Hayaku~…

a

Lawson Obento

My favorite convenience store was Seven Eleven, but I often go to Lawson while I’m in Japan as the closest convenience store to my house is Lawson.

I was browsing the list of “websites of good design” online, and Lawson’s website was on the list.  I was looking through it and all the foods made me hungry!

When I go to convenience stores, I normally buy onigiri (rice balls), sushi, bread, or just drink.  I didn’t normally buy bento (which I don’t know why now) or pasta dishes from there.  When I was a high school student, I used to stop at a convenience store on the way to school and grabbed just a drink, or some snack which was easy to eat in the car while driving.  On the other hand, my brothers loved buying hot snack foods such as karaage and nikuman from convenience stores.

etc etc….   Everything looks so good.

But, my favorites are the very simple ones.

Mini Snack Sandwiches.  The fillings are normally just strawberry jam, peanut butter, or chocolate cream.  I loved the soft bread since I was a kid.

Simple flavored onigiri.  I love maze-gohan (seasoned rice).

Ummmm….  I’m so hungry now.

a

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!

Baby Cosplay

Are you familiar with Japanese cartoon characters?  Bandai, a Japanese toy making and video game company as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits, is selling character featured baby rompers.

©石森プロ・東映　©円谷プロ　©藤子プロ・小学館・テレビ朝日・シンエイ・ADK 　 ©ダイナミック企画　©バードスタジオ／集英社・フジテレビ・東映アニメーション

From top left: Devil Man, Dorami chan, Doraemon, Ultra Seven, Ultra Man.  From bottom left: Dragon Ball, shocker, Kamen Rider, Go-ranger (red), and Go-ranger (pink).

They also sell baby bibs in Japanese characters.

©石森プロ・東映　©円谷プロ　©藤子プロ・小学館・テレビ朝日・シンエイ・ADK

So cute..!  I personally like Doraemon (>v<)

Obon

© Librairie Seizan of KYOTO

Mini Stop