So this is indefensibly self-indulgent, but I feel like posting pics of all the bento lunches I ate in Japan.
woooooooo bento. and this concludes my japan posts for… a while, certainly. Let’s hope Idaho in winter gives me as much fun stuff to blog.
Tags: bento, food, fried chicken, fried fish, japan, kyoto, lunch, pickles, rice
You may think Japan is the land of sushi and ramen and lychees, but actually, the Japanese love donuts. And the love doing fabulously interesting things to donuts.
No visit to Japan is complete for me without a trip to Mister Donut. Mister Donut was a fixture of my childhood, until they got bought out by Dunkin’ Donuts and became… not as good. I had thought Mister Donut had vanished from the face of the planet, but in fact, no — they just all picked up and moved to asia, apparently! But as Japan is never going to be satisfied with mere honey glaze and powdered sugar, we got chocolate with… I think pistachio crunchies? and a musically-themed holiday-oriented green donut of indeterminate flavor. But wow, adding whip cream to a donut is a good idea!
Oh look, another trip to Mister Donut. I was kicking myself for not getting the black sesame. Black sesames are kind of awesome — same flavor as white sesames, but sweet! Also, a strawberry donut that tasted like it had actual strawberry bits in it.
Not exotic enough for you?
This is a beef stew donut. It seems weird at first, but actually, savory filled donuts are a fantastic idea! A wonderfully satisfying and portable meal combining meat and donuts — what’s not to like? This actually came in a little bag from a combini.
On a vaguely related note, I actually saw a bagel shop in Kyoto too… They seemed to have fruity bagels? Oddly enough, even though I’m a donut adventuress, I’m a bagel purist, so I didn’t try these.
And lastly, a totally inedible donut. Or donuts, I guess. I don’t even know if “Donuts” is the name of the band or the album, but I spotted this in a record store.
Tags: bagels, combini, donuts, food, japan, japanese donuts, junk food, kyoto
I know it might be hard to believe from this blog, but I did do more than eat in Japan. It was a little rough getting to any of the major sites scattered throughout the city, as I was located on a far, far outskirt (practically a suburb) — so any trip downtown was a considerable enterprise.
M. and I got lucky one day, though, when I — sick of walking — suggested we spend a relaxing sunday taking the suburban train as far as it would go, just to see. Little did I know that the last stop on the nearby line is the famed Kurama-dera — a gorgeous temple located most of the way up a steep, forested mountain, known as the point where Mao-son stepped onto the earth from Venus 6.5 million years ago. It’s also the birthplace of reiki.
Of course, we didn’t know this when we got off the train. We saw a gate a the foot of the mountain and figured the temple must be a few yards inside. So we start off on foot and pretty soon we’re climbing a steep hillside covered in lush green forest and dotted with tiny shrines, statues, and pagodas.
It was cold, too! There are icicles dripping from that water spout.
A rare bit of sky visible around this giant cedar. (A lot of the particularly magnificent trees were wearing these little belts, though I think the most sacred was near the top of the mountain.)
That’s the mountain peak, just behind the roof of the main building. It’s actually farther then it looks… or maybe I was just really tired. Inside, there were a few other pilgrims and tourists praying or walking around, but this one woman was making really intense hissing noises, like an angry cat. Then she started… yowling I guess. I think it was Japanese words, but it sounded a lot like cat yowling and shrieking. I got nervous and left, but everyone else acted like this was no big deal. Never heard anything like it in the downtown temples.
The view from the temple porch. That visible building is a restaurant/refreshment point a few feet below the temple. Oh yeah, and see? Japan is wall-to-wall people. ;)
We did make it all the way to the top of the mountain (huff, puff) to see these exposed roots (kinone michi)… Very cool, but I admit that my calves were aching for about a week afterward every time I went down stairs. I joked that the little ballet flats I was wearing were totally inappropriate to the hike, and all the gaijin we saw were wearing big hiking boots. But on my way down I saw a Japanese girl wearing thigh-high boots with spiked heels (these are quasi-ubiquitous among young Japanese women this season) and I thought, now that’s a real challenge.
And hey, I couldn’t go a whole post with no food at all! We needed a rest at the bottom of the mountain (and to warm up!), so we stopped in a little tea house for hot tea and dango, dipped in mitarashi, with red bean paste and crumbled peanuts.
All in all, I think Kurama might be the most incredible place I’ve seen in Japan. Of course it’s not a contest, and I saw many amazing things, but this was a truly awesome experience.
Tags: buddhist temple, food, japan, kurama, kyoto, landscape, mountain, pagoda, photography, restaurant, scenery
Hey, guess who figured out how to get the photos off his mobile phone! Yes, M. And wow, I’m so jealous now of his eight megapixels… His photos are gorgeous.
So remember that piggy-looking pork bun I was talking about yesterday?
Well, if that isn’t just the definition of kawaii.
And his little piggy tail!
Tags: Circle K, combini, food, japan, kawaii, kyoto, piggy, pork bun, snack
Straight from Japanese combini (circle k, seven eleven, family mart, etc.) to your computer, it’s more fabulous Japanese junk food! (See previous junk food here)
First up, it’s a wafer cookie with pop rocks inside. Or at least, that’s what the packaging seems to by indicating to my uncomprehending gaijin eyes. I mean, isn’t that what’s suggested by that inset that says “soda” and shows lots of bubbles coming out of the blue pebbly things? Assuming I’m right, this candy gets a 9/10 for concept, but the execution was a disappointment — I didn’t get that tell-tale poprock fizz at all. Maybe the concentration of rock wasn’t high enough? I’m not totally sure of the physics here.
Shrimp burger! They sell these premade in little bags, the way we sell twinkies — but they’re actually good. Talk about convenience food! Also confirms my theory that everything is better with a ton of Japanese mayo.
More hot burger action! Except not hot, and in fact, only resembling burgers.
Tiny burgers, made of cookie and chocolate and a layer of peanut butter “cheese”. These are freaking adorable. Also, the “bun” tastes like toasted sesames.
A mystery. In America, marketers are always insisting that chocolate is for the ladies, so I’m not sure what everyone’s favorite Japanese stick treat is getting at here, with their “male only” candy. You might assume there was another box on a nearby shelf containing “Women’s” pocky, but no.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand my number one favorite combini snack is not featured here. The only picture I have is currently (and tragically) trapped on M.’s phone, so you’ll have to make do with someone else’s depiction:
It’s a warm pork bun… shaped like the world’s most adorable little piggy!
This article talks about the reactions of Japanese customers to the item:
Shiori, age eight or nine, and her grandmother, who was over 60, were two of the more vocal purchasers. Shiori, spoke first, “That pig is just so cute!” They talked at length about the cute floppy ears, the cute snout, and the cute pig shape.
That describes pretty accurately the conversation M. and I had when we saw it, so I guess we’re turning Japanese.
Tags: burgers, candy, chocolate, food, japan, junk food, kyoto, pocky, poprocks, pork bun
At the Emperor’s Birthday dinner the other night (boy, that sounds impressive, doesn’t it?), we were asked what we’d seen of Kyoto so far. I mentioned a few shrines and temples… “You haven’t been to Nishiki Market? You must go to Nishiki Market!” And M. was promptly given the following day off for this purpose. So we went.
Nishiki Market is a centuries-old covered market in downtown Kyoto, filled with tiny stands selling all the various ingredients that show up in the Kyoto style of cooking: pickles, dried foods, fresh seafood, and vegetables mostly, plus also an apparently famous kitchen knife store that was founded by Aritsugu Fujiwara, a master swordsmith, over 400 years ago. (I just found that out via wikipedia, but we did visit the store and it was pretty amazing.)
Things we saw:
Fish for sale. Those are splayed-out eels up top, with their spines all swirly. The pink blobs in the foreground are fish ovaries, still filled with millions of fish eggs. It seems a little weird, yeah, but if nature gives you a perfect carrying case for roe, why not use it? And of course oysters to the left. (Does anyone know what that white, brainy looking stuff behind the ovaries is? I haven’t a clue.)
Octopus tentacles.
And fresh eels! Ooh, squirmy.
When we reached the end of the market street, we turned a corner and discovered that it ajoined with a much more modern mall-type structure. So then we wandered through past movie theaters and food courts and eventually wound up at…
Shakey’s Pizza. I had never actually seen a Shakey’s outside of that Southpark episode when Cartman uses stem cells to clone endless Shakey’s Pizzas. So it seemed appropriate to go for the first time in Japan.
We had the Lunch Viking (!) buffet. You’ll have to tell me how close this was to the American version, since I don’t know.
The pizza on the right is fairly ordinary pepperoni and green pepper. On the left is, I think, barbeque pork and corn. There was corn on a lot of their pizzas. Oh, and not shown is the surprisingly tasty custard and chocolate sauce pizza they served toward the end. There were also pastas and fried potatoes (which struck me as weird with pizza, but I gather they do that in the states, too?), and just in case none of this seemed like “real” food, they also had big pots of rice and japanese curry.
Tags: japan, kyoto, live eels, nishiki market, ovary, shakey's pizza
It may be Christmas Eve Eve in the Western world, but yesterday was a national holiday in Japan — the Emperor’s birthday! I asked M.’s host how this holiday is traditionally celebrated, and he said, “Hmm. The emperor comes on TV. Everyone stays home to watch. It’s not very exciting.”
He made it much more exciting for us by taking us and another couple out to a wonderful restaurant meal — after first checking multiple times to be sure I was willing to eat traditional Japanese food. I assured him this would not be a problem. :) It’s a little tragic though, because every dish was beautiful — but I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t want to look like a total dweeb. I did, however, do my best to retain a detailed list of what we had:
We started with a little bento-style dish with six tiny aperitifs: mushrooms with I think red-bean-dyed tofu chunks? and little chunks of squid (ika), and half a brussel sprout with chopped red pepper, and daikon slices with sweet black beans. And I don’t remember the other two.
Then we had incredibly delicate thin sliced white fish in some kind of fruity marinade with chopped cucumber and shrimp. At the same time they brought plates of raw duck breast with sprouts, shoots, and a fresh tofu cube, which we dipped in a pot of hot oil to cook. The duck was delicious, and the tofu amazing — smooth and silky! Tofu is usually so dull in the States, but it’s a completely different experience in Japan. Not that I’m any tofu expert or anything, but in my experience.
Then they brought out bowls of fruit chunks (pear, plum, pineapple?) with a slice of camembert all in yogurt sauce. This actually worked surprisingly well together, and we all pretty much thought it was the end of the meal, because it was a sweet. BUT NO.
Because then they brought out little bowls with lightly steamed daikon, broccoli, and big fat oysters.
Then came little clementines that had been carved out and filled with shrimp roe, with a whole shrimp artfully capping the dish.
The came little ramekins filled with what can only be described as shepard’s pie. It was like a tomato-y vegetable sauce topped with mashed potatoes and maybe a little cheese and then baked. So like… western? But done in this incredibly delicate and delectable way that could only be Japanese.
And then, just when I thought things were winding down, they brought out huge plates of sushi! I mean, they were probably only slightly bigger than standard size sushi dishes in America, but after all the other food… wow. And the salmon, instead of being on a rectangle of rice, was draped over a little ball of rice and looked like an adorable little animal. And there was tomago (egg) and shrimp and mackerel and unagi (eel) and ika (squid), and a fried tofu roll. I managed to finish everything but the tofu roll… yum but also a ton of food! And then M.’s colleague’s wife was like, “yeah, I can’t eat more than a piece or two of this, do you want it?” and he wound up eating most of hers, too.
Then came a very smooth, light pannacotta with red bean sauce, along with a teeny tiny scoop of matcha (green tea) ice cream. And kocha (black tea).
And with it all, we started with big glasses of Asahi beer, then moved on to many different kinds of sake… when M.’s boss found out we’d been drinking minimart sake, he insisted we try sakes from every region of japan, both cold and hot. Lovely!
And the whole thing was served on low tables and tatami mats and we exchanged gifts and talked about Idaho and bears and stuff. All in all, an amazing dinner… And now as I pack up to spend a very long Christmas day on planes and in airports, I at least feel as though I’ve had a real holiday meal.
Tags: food, holiday, japan, japanese food, kyoto, restaurant, sushi
(food, that is)
There’s a ton of delicious food here in Japan, but some of the cheapest and most interesting tidbits can be found in local “combini” — not an Italian term, as it might appear, but a Japanese corruption of “convenience stores”. This stuff may not always be the healthiest or most traditional foodstuffs on offer, but the combination of appealing salty/sweet flavors, idiosyncratic packaging, and wee prices make them hard to resist. Here’s a sampling of my favorites — I’ll try to limit myself to only a few.
Okay this is amazing. It a little double pouch of mustard and ketchup; squeeze it in two, and both condiments come out side by side — ideal for drawing perfect flavor lines along a delicious corn dog.
I’m always charmed by food that does what it says. This little cake is shaped like a banana, has BANANA writ large upon it, and is made of banana-flavored cake stuffed with banana cream filling. A semiotically brilliant deconstruction of the relationship between signifier and signified.
I’m mostly entertained by this because the name makes me think of something best drunk of a pimp cup. But it’s just a line of crunchy chocolate things.
I really really REALLY wanted this snack to be actual, chocolate-covered crabs. Sadly, it’s just a perfectly ordinary cake shaped like a crab. Which begs the question, why do you want your snack cakes shaped like crabs? It’s anyone’s guess, pretty much.
Think the combinis here have nothing but packaged junk food? WRONG. They also have junk food that sits in mysterious liquid all day under heating lamps. I got this because I thought it might be a vegetable — some kind of tuber, perhaps? — but M. insists it’s an animal product. Tripe, he says, but that’s a damn big intestine, if so. My best guess is that it’s a chopped-off, marinated Cthulu tentacle. Whatever it was, it was tasty.
Plenty more where that came from, but I don’t want this page to take 800 years to load. Stay tuned!
Tags: 7-11, Circle K, combini, convenience store food, crunk, crunk juice, Family Mart, food, japan, junk food, kyoto, Lawsons
Americans love to tell exciting stories about Japan. Before I came here the first time, everyone wanted to warn me about the vending machines that sell used underwear*. (Oh hey my statcounter is going to have fun with that…) And yeah, according to snopes, I guess that story is real, but let me tell you, they must put those machines somewhere special because I have not seen them.
What I do see, once about every 50 ft, is vending machines that sell HOT DRINKS. In cans! It’s utter craziness, and I want to know why no one in the States told me about this miracle of modern technology.
See that can there? That’s hot chocolate (or as they say here, hotto chyokoruto)… from an ordinary vending machine! They also have many exotic flavors of coffee and tea. So it’s just like Starbucks, but without that annoying conversation about how venti means big and you should really know that by now.
Also, Corn-Choco is delicious. It’s basically Corn Pops coated in chocolate, and rarely have I tasted a more satisfying treat. Oh man, I just realized that’s an economy pack. Was it supposed to last me all month?
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*ETA: a warning if you wind up clicking that snopes link — it’s correct about the specifics (yes, dirty vending machines really do exist), but the rest of the article is completely uninformed, racist fearmongering. For some reason, Americans have a need to view the Japanese as creepy, bizarre, and incomprehensible; maybe it makes them seem less threatening? But the truth is, yeah, there are perverts in Japan, just like there are perverts in every other country in the world. Yes, sometimes women here are sexualized and objectified — just like everywhere else. Is this a defining element of the culture? Absolutely not. There are a ton of fascinating cultural differences between Japan and America, but ultimately, the Japanese are as friendly, helpful, and generally normal as any population I’ve encountered.
Tags: barbara mikkelson, corn choco, debunking snopes, hot chocolate, japan, japanese snacks, junk food, snopes, underwear, vending machine
If you came here looking for the English manual for the SH001 phone, it can be found here: http://www.au.kddi.com/torisetsu/pdf/sh001/sh001_basic_e.pdf
It’s snowing right now in Northern Idaho, but I’m not bothered… because I’m visiting M. in Kyoto for school break. Or rather… I’ve decided I need to stop telling people I’m in Kyoto, because it conjures up images of monumental shrines and kimono-clad geishas. In fact, I’m hanging out in an area of Kyoto so remote, it might as well be just an ordinary little town. There’s a Circle K and a car mechanic and a medium sized grocery store a few miles away.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t an adventure… Yesterday, for example, we took a bus to the nearest shopping mall to buy M. a mobile phone. No easy feat, with a language barrier the size of Rocky Mountains! The sales girls were sweet but as daunted by the situation as we were. Still, we kept our spirits up and managed to cross the great cultural divide.
First lucky break: we found a booklet that had an English section that described the plans available, and M. was able to indicate which one he wanted. Then the girls informed us with wild and cheerful gesturing that “Each Yen! Each Yen!”, which we eventually came to understand meant that certain phones could be had for one yen, when purchased along with a 2yr plan. And there was much rejoicing.
Then the girls had a few more logistical questions for us, and one of them came up with the genius plan of typing them into her own cellphone and using a dictionary app to translate them into English. This got us past a few more steps — then the girls called a service number and, by requesting an English-speaking agent, got us patched through to a call center in India. The Indian guy asked us the necessary set-up questions in English, then entered the answers into his computer system, whereupon a Japanese agent could interpret them and pass them along to the sales girls. Phew.
Then M. was handed some forms to fill out, all in Japanese characters, natch. His two months of studying served him well enough, and he was able to copy his name and address off his ID card, with only minor corrections from the sales girls. Then they sent us away for an hour while they charged the phone, and when we came back, they had not only switched the phone’s interface language to English, they had picked up a few new phrases themselves! I think they must have done a quick brush-up revision while we were gone…
And then, at the end of it all, M. had a new phone!
The Sharp sh001 8 megapixel camera phone. But in BRIGHT RED.
Not available outside Japan. Now the only problem is finding an English-language instruction manual.
Then to celebrate we went out for okonomiyaki and beer.
Yum.
Tags: au, food, japan, mobile, okonomiyaki, phone, sh001, sharp
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