Posted May 2nd, 2012 in Japan, Ume and Hiro, Ume's Interests | 2 Comments »


Hiro at 08:50 (AM).
Website →Kid’s Tokei


Hiro at 20:41 (PM).
This one doesn’t look like Hiro… but I remember he kept trying to move around. The location was at the church.


He looks hilarious.
☺☺☺
Posted April 9th, 2012 in Perth WA, Ume's Interests | No Comments »

Have a Breakfast McValue Meal® and you can get a free copy of The Sunday Times!
This offer starts from the 11th of April for a limited time only, and is only available until 10:30AM. McValue Meal® includes Hash Brown and Small Espresso Pronto as well.

I saw this ad on The Sunday Times I was reading at McDonald’s yesterday. It was late afternoon and I felt like something cold – perhaps frozen coke or thick shake – but I got $2 Chicken McBites and a chocolate sundae in the end. I still got to read The Sunday Times for free coz someone had left it on the table.
Was I the only person who didn’t know that McDonald had started showing the calories of the each food item on the menu panel? It’s just like Japan – everywhere you go you get to see the calorie of each food on the menu. I heard that other fast food chains (KFC, Hungry Jack etc) are also going to show calories of each item on the menu board. You know, it’s good thing that you get to know how much calories you are getting by eating the food, but at the same time you just have to compare this item is lower calorie than others and sometimes chose the item that you weren’t planning to order. That’s what happens to me every time I dine at family restaurants and cafes in Japan. I feel like eating cheesy chicken and vegetable pasta, but I end up ordering a healthy wa-fu mushroom pasta instead. It’s just because I see the calories on the menu.
Anyway, get back to the free The Sunday Times thing. You can also get a free copy from Spud Shed when you spend $5 or more at one transaction. I’m not sure if all Spud Shed do this, but Jandakot one does! Sometimes you need to ask for it at the casher though. Oh, and McDonald’s free newspaper offer is only available in WA too!
Posted February 8th, 2012 in Japan, Ume's Interests | 2 Comments »

Kids version of bijin tokei has been on internet for some time but I didn’t know about it at all until I saw one ad of a photo studio near my house looking for models for Kid’s Tokei. Haha, I’m not a mother who wants to make my own child to be famous or star, but the deal at the photo studio was really good (2000yen for printed photo, data, unlimited costume change etc) . The deal was that I had to send the photo taken at the studio to kid’s tokei to enter the competition, and had to write down the name of the studio as a referrer.
On the day of photo shoot, I realized his chin was covered with red rash. It was perfectly clean till the day before, but why today! (><). Anyway we had our booking and headed to the studio.
For the costume I was thinking taxido but we decided to use “Momo-taro” instead. Hiro was happy…. just until we tried to change his clothes. He started crying when he saw “strangers” (staff at the studio). He cried and cried, and all his photo was his unhappy face with tears
This is the photo we chose out of those screamig faces…

I didn’t think he would be chosen for Kid’s Tokei, but I sent this photo anyway.
….. Guess what! He is chosen for a Kid’s-tokei model!
We are having the photo shoot for website this Friday, and he will be on kid’s-tokei website around May this year
)). I want to update about it when it comes closer to the date.
Posted January 9th, 2012 in Ume's Interests | 2 Comments »

Suntory, one of Japan’s leading beverage companies, is selling something that some people were looking for….. All Free! This All Free is a drink with no calorie, no sugar, and no alcohol. Yap, all free.
Some may ask what’s the reason of drinking this… Why don’t you drink water or herval tea instead? Well, this All Free is actually a non-alcohol beer. It tastes like beer, but has no alcohol, sugar, or calorie. This is selling well in this busy drinking season…

Georgia, a popular brand of coffee-flavored beverages sold by The Coca-Cola Company in Japan, sells this unique can of coffee. It’s a mixture of “coffee” x “green tea”. It’s not green tea latte. It still has color of coffee, brown, and contains matcha powder from Uji in Kyoto.

Pepsi in Japan sells these unique flavour drinks. Azuki, Cucumber and Shiso! I’ve never tried these, but I think shiso may taste better than others. It’s just my guess…

I love that cute little tirol chocolate – love the cute little square shape, and their variety of flavours. But I didn’t know that this popular chocolate snack “tirol chocolate” has its drink version! Tirol chocolate drink tastes like its original chocolate. It should taste very rich?
Posted November 28th, 2011 in Ume's Interests | No Comments »

Lotte Koala-no-March, chocolate snack in Japan, is one of my favorite. I’ve seen Chinese and Korean version of this snack in Perth, so I don’t know if it’s originally Japanese though. Inside, each chocolate-filled snack has different face of koala – one is smiling, one is crying, and one is angry. Some of them are wearing sunglasses, and some of them wear kimono.
If you like this snack like me, you’ll probably want to stay in a hotel room filled with this cute koala character. Yes, there are in Japan! Koala-no-March theme hotel rooms.


This Koala-no-March themed hotel room has koalas everywhere – on the wall, bed cover, curtain, pajamas, and amenities. Not only children but also adults will be exited to stay in this room, I think


This Lotte City Hotel Kinshi-cho (Sumida-ku, Tokyo) has beautiful views of Tokyo Tower, Sky Tree, and also JR trains from some rooms. And, there is a chocolate factory cafe on the ground floor where customers can enjoy chocolate making. Curry, pizza and hamburgers contain chocolate at this cafe.
There is a chance of winning a night at this Koala-no-March hotel room. Simply go to campaign site and answer the question, and submit the answer to the address shown on the website.
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