I'm Cooking Japanese!!

I cooked my first traditional Japanese meal – ‘Okonomiyaki’. We had lunch at one of Steve’s teachers houses and they cooked us this dish. We have eaten it many times at restaurants and it is absolutely delicious. I watched very closely as to how it was made so that I could attempt to make it myself. I finally got all of the necessary ingredients required to make this meal and chose a night to give it a go. Okonomiyaki is like a pancake type meal with cabbage, capsicum, mushrooms, thin slices of meat and these puff things that look like rice bubbles. Once the pancake has been cooked on both sides you put a BBQ type sauce and mayonnaise over it, sprinkle some ginger and tuna flakes on top and ‘wolah’ you have okonomiyaki. The good thing about it is that you can put anything inside of it. You could make it seafood or vegetarian or whatever you like. I got the thumbs up from Lauren and Marie. Steve was in Tokyo with Denzel so he missed out. He will have to wait until next time!! I’m not sure if it looked exactly as the Japanese make it, but it was okonomiyaki ‘Tina style’.

Beautiful Sakura

8th March, 2007

Easter in Japan was very different from Easter in Australia. Japanese do not celebrate easter so forget all the usual easter traditions. Instead we spent our day having lunch at one of our Japanese friends houses. We had a feast yet again with okonomiyaki, sushi, rice balls and all sorts of other yummy things. After our lunch we headed to the castle yet again to view more beautiful cherry blossoms. Seemings as they only happen once a year i thought that i would put up some more photos so that you can see how beautiful and gorgeous these blossoms actually are. I must admit the photos just don't do them justice. Seeing them with your own eyes is much more beautiful.

Festival at Himeji Castle

7th March, 2007

Food, food and more food. All I feel like I have been doing lately is eating. I have now had 3 hanami parties and have stuffed my face at every one. They have all been fantastic though. There was a festival at Himeji Castle (Kan-o-kai) so we got up early so that we could get a good seat because we knew that it would be packed. We arrived at the park a little after 9am. The weather was a little drizzly so there weren’t as many people around as I expected but as the day grew finer more and more people arrived (so I am glad that we got there early). We found ourself a spot and set up for the day. We had the best position, we were centre stage and right in front of the castle. You couldn’t get any better than having a beautiful view of the castle with cherry blossoms in front of it as well as being in the middle of the stage. We were very lucky. The day was filled with all sorts of things happening – there were 100 koto players all dressed in kimonos to start with. That was amazing to watch and listen to. The koto is a musical instrument with a beautiful sound. I couldn’t believe that there were actually 100 of them all playing at once. After koto we watched some fan dancing, lion dancing and taiko(drums). Every section was amazing and brilliant. The whole festival finished at 4:30pm so it was a very long day. We even got to meet the mayor of Himeji. He came over to our tarp and sat down for 2 minutes – well just long enough to eat some Cadbury chocolate and have a photo before he was off again! There were lots of food stalls set up each with some different types of Japanese food and you could buy sake in a souvenir cup. People were all over the park having their own hanami parties enjoying the festival as well as the sakura. My favourite part of the day were the drums. I thought they were absolutely amazing. The sound that came out of them was brilliant. I can’t get over how much beautiful culture Japan actually has.

Huh? Episode 4

Huh? is back!! Check out these strange sightings.



Ok ok we get the message......



What's going on here? Why would anyone buy this as a souvenir?



I would never have thought to put noodles in my sandwich - would you?



Healthy???????



An ice-cream vending machine. What will they think of next??



Hmmmm what might be in there?

Well that's all folks- for now anyway!!

Purikura

Purikura is a fun popular gimmick in Japan. I just love saying the word and have quickly become addicted to it. It is where you go with your friends and pose for the camera in a not so little booth. You get to take a variety of pictures which are put onto different backgrounds like riding a bike etc…. once all the photographs have been taken you head into another booth where you can decorate you photos with all sorts of cute little pictures. You can write on the photos, add pictures, borders and all sorts of cool little things. Once you are done they get printed out. Now, all the instructions are in Japanese of course so it’s difficult for us to understand what we are doing. We haven’t quite mastered purikura yet but I am very keen to keep trying until I get it right.

The first time we did it we had just met some kids on the street and they took us there. There were about 10 of us in the booth at once – it was so much fun. They knew exactly what to do but we had just come from the sake tour so I was in no state to remember the steps. The second time it was the girls having a go, the third time is was just Marie and I – we didn’t get hardly any of them finished because we ran out of time. The next time it was Steve, Marie and me. We got better but still haven’t quite worked it out. Everyone time I walk past one I want to give it a go. They are so much fun, very corny but cute. If you come to Japan you must try ‘purikura’. (I just wanted to say the word one more time!)

Hanami

4/5th April, 2007

Hanami parties are very traditional in Japan. Once a year when all the sakura start to blossom people sit and enjoy the beautiful tress whilst having a ‘hanami’ party. It is amazing seeing so many people all at the same time having picnics under the trees. Wherever there are sakura there are hanami parties happening – whether they be in a park or on a footpath it doesn’t seem to matter. Lots of food and drink and some tarp to sit on is all you need to begin the party. The blossoms usually only last around 7-10 days so you have to get in quick or have as many parties as you can during this period.

We experienced our first ‘hanami party’ last night inside the grounds of the Himeji Castle. It was freezing cold but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. There were a few other teachers and some Japanese people and lots of food and drink to be eaten and drunk. It was a fantastic first experience. There were so many other people young and old also having hanami parties under the sakura. I was amazed at how many people were actually having these parties. I didn’t realise how big these parties actually were.

During this period the grounds to the castle is open to the public. We were fortunate enough to be able to enter inside. It was very beautiful in there with all the trees lit up with lights. It was amazing to see. We had a little walk around before it was time to leave.

Today I experienced my second hanami party. Just like the previous day – it too was amazing. We had the party with my students from the university as a lesson where we compared Japanese foods to Australian foods and then talked about Australian sports. Today was even more packed then yesterday. There were people all over the grounds having parties. It was fantastic to see so many people excited over Sakura. I really enjoyed both parties. I hope I get to have another one before the season is out.

Crepes

Crepes are everywhere in Japan and are the most delicious sweet EVER. They are like a pancake filled with pretty much anything you want. Strawberries, cream, icecream, banana, chocolate, berries – all sorts of wonderful yumminess. We first tried these crepes in Osaka, but have discovered that you can pretty much buy them everywhere. My favourite ones so far were from Tokyo – just outside the Tokyo Tower. They are so good that they deserve to be blogged!!