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Japan 2010/11 (part two)

January 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Kuru Kuru Sushi at Shimonoseki Fish Market

Our annual visit to Shimonoseki was soon over and we drove home more than satisfied by the food and stocked up with gifts for the family back in the UK and a good selection of books for Mrs danyul to read. We spent several days at ‘home’  preparing for the arrival of Mrs danyul’s brother and his family. MiniMe looks forward to this as it means his slightly elder cousin and slightly younger cousin arrive to play with him. Each come armed with their Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii games. The 3 of them become inseparable for the next few days and are busy running around the house, eating together, and playing all sorts of games. It’s always a shame to say goodbye to them each visit and MiniMe is always especially sad to see his play friends leave.

danyul and MiniMe Visiting a Shrine

A visit to Japan has to include a stop at a shrine or three and this trip proved no exception. It is traditional visit a shrine on new years day and this has come to be one of our customary trips. However, our first shrine visit was slightly further away as we spent a day at a fantastic onsen (hot spring baths) relaxing. I remember my first visit to Japan when I was not exactly very comfortable at the onsen since it involves full nudity (men separated from women of course) but these days I don’t think anything of it. It’s also a lot easier now that MiniMe is old / big enough to keep his head above water in all the baths so I am having to continually chase him as he throws himself around like the baths are a private swimming pool just for him.

MiniMe Carefully Counting 8 Dropping Beads

The nearby shrine is very picturesque and draws many visitors from the surrounding area. I cannot profess to know much or understand much of the religion followed but the shrine is a very welcoming place and we always make sure to stop at the small shrine within the building that is devoted to children. We are always thankful to have a healthy young MiniMe but realise that there are lots of people who are not as lucky so we will all say a little prayer and make a donation at the children section.

Each year MiniMe will carefully make sure to drop and count 8 large beads strung out in front of another section of the shrine. I have no idea of the significance of why 8 beads and why this would bring good luck and Mrs danyul is unable to provide much guidance as she was never big on Japanese religion.

After having several very warm days we then had a rain storm hit the area on New Years Day so we were not able to go kite flying as usual. There was still plenty to do and MiniMe made sure to spend his New Years money well at the local shopping mall. This year he wanted to buy himself a new game for the Wii and was determined to get Wii Sports Resort after his cousins brought along their copy and the trio then spent several days playing against each other. However, it seemed that Wii Sports Resort was a very popular choice for all the kids now rich with gifts of money from their family. Thankfully the very last electronics shop we visited had a single copy left and was offering a 20% discount on all Wii games so MiniMe even had some cash leftover. Being the Japanese version of the game it meant that MiniMe couldn’t take it home to the UK but he was quite happy to have it for the rest of the stay and to leave it behind ready for the 2011/12 trip.

Japanese Shrine

I have to admit that one of my favourite reasons to visit to Japan is to sample the wide range of divine food. Not only is the choice of food fantastic, it is nearly always reasonably priced compared the same food type that you would find in the UK. You can guarantee that we will visit the ANA Hotel Ube several times just to eat from their lunchtime Viking (buffet) lunch. The price is cheap compared to anything comparable back home and the selection is extremely wide and tasty.

For a little extra you can include all you can eat desert as part of the buffet but we tend to just stick to the main meal and then move ourselves into the cafe area if we want any desert. There is a whole selection of different cakes at the cafe and you can sit in relative peace and quiet although you do have to watch out for the smokers since Japan has not yet banned smoking in public places and you can guarantee that there will still be smoking only tables in most places.

During this visit we went to a new canteen style restaurant that I had never seen before and was absolutely amazed at. The layout is very simple in that it resembles a school canteen and you simply walk along with your tray and help yourself so the small dishes before someone rings up the total at the end. The food on offer was a very high standard and I was very cheap and I was stunned to find out that this is considered a ‘working persons’ restaurant where most of the local office workers will get their food. We visited twice and I can understand why my mother-in-law rates this as her favourite local place to eat. On both occasions we stood out, primarily because I was the only non-Japanese guest, because everyone else was either dressed for office work or was some sort of construction worker taking their lunch break.

Canteen Style Restaurant

Our 2010/11 visit to Japan was once again approaching its end and we would soon be making our way home. I did manage to fit in some runs while we were there so I didn’t lose all my fitness by being away. MiniMe had a great time with his Japanese family and improved his language skills while I caught up with a lot of reading and just relaxing by being away from work. Mrs danyul was glad to see her family and seemed to stock up on the contents of each and every Japanese book store we passed while still finding room in suitcase to get as much Japanese food product as possible stuffed inside.

Japanese Canteen Style Lunch

Unfortunately our return journey home did not go as smoothly as anticipated. The plane ticket prices to Japan were extremely high in 2010 so we left booking until the last possible moment in the hope of being able to get a slightly cheaper price. Sadly the prices didn’t fall at all and the flights we originally wanted were all full by the time we went to book our flights. This meant that we had to leave a day earlier than planned, which meant we just escaped a huge snowfall that would have kept us stuck in the UK for several days, and also that we could not book a direct flight home. We flew from Ube to Tokyo as normal but then had to take an ANA flight to Frankfurt. This leg of our return journey was heavenly as the flight was mostly empty, which meant we could spread out to take a row of 4 seats each. However, the change at Frankfurt did not go well as it took an age to clear German immigration, who especially did not seem to like my Kindle so proceeded to escort me to a separate room so that it could be fully scanned. We eventually made it onto our Lufthansa flight to London but sadly the majority of our luggage didn’t. It seems that everyone who transferred onto this flight at Germany also had their luggage left behind so we wasted a good hour queuing at Heathrow to register our lost luggage. Bizarrely my suitcase did make in onto the plane so a very tired danyul family found their taxi driver and arrived home. I had to then work from home for the next few days to make sure someone was home to accept delivery of the lost luggage once it made it back to London.

MiniMe Ringing Shrine Bell on New Years Day

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Japan 2010/11 (part one)

January 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

MiniMe Cooking Lunch

Our annual Japan trip took place once more in December 2010 although we were extremely lucky to make it this year due to the snow storms that covered the UK and blanketed Heathrow for several days. We were especially lucky because we delayed booking the flights so much, due to us hoping the prices might drop (they didn’t), and we could not get seats on our preferred date. We ended up having to book flights a day earlier and so the first snow started to fall at Heathrow just as we were waiting to board our flight at the boarding date. We were delayed for 30 minutes as de-icer was sprayed across the aircraft but that was nothing compared to the mayhem that followed in the following hours as the runways were closed and no flights arrived or departed. Our original flight of choice was cancelled and so were all the subsequent flights for the next week so we would probably not have made it to Japan in 2010/11 if we had booked our flights early. As I said; we were very lucky this time.

Our outbound flight from Heathrow to Heathrow to Narita International went very smoothly and MiniMe was kept well entertained by the movies and TV shows on offer. This time around we were arriving earlier in December so we avoided the scrum that is everyone in Japan trying to reach their family for the New Year celebrations. Our journey from Tokyo to Ube involves a bus service from Narita International to Haneda Airport and then a flight from Haneda down to Ube. This becomes quite a tortuous journey in the New Year period due to entire Japanese population seemingly trying to move themselves from one part of Japan to another.

As usual the parents-in-law were there to meet us at Ube airport and were there usual excellent hosts throughout our stay. Of course they were delighted to see MiniMe again and he was just as happy to be visiting his grandparents once more. One of our first excursions was for lunch at a local restaurant where a cousin of MiniMe was the head chef. The restaurant was of a Korean style where various meat and vegetables were provided for self cooking on a stove built into the table. The meal also included some Japanese style raw fish dishes and MiniMe loved acting as our chef and cooked all the food for us. MiniMe would continue to pursue his new found love for cooking dinner for everyone and so we had a whole series of meals cooking by MiniMe throughout the stay.

MiniMe at Tokiwa Park

A visit to Ube would not be complete for MiniMe without a trip to the rides at Tokiwa Park. Unfortunately our first attempt was accompanied by a big bag of fail because we arrived in the morning to find all the rides were closed until the afternoon, when we already had commitments. MiniMe was just a little grumpy but he did get to visit again a few days later when everything was actually open. However, it was sad to see that a number of rides had been retired, removed, and not replaced since we visited in 2009/10. Most notably the log flume ride was completely gone and MiniMe was a little disappointed since this was one of his favourite rides and was also a ride I had to accompany him on each year due to age / height restrictions. His grandmother did go on the ride with him once but then vowed to never repeat the experience following the terrifying drop down into the water.

MiniMe Cooking Dinner

Being away for the Christmas meant that Santa san had to be told of our whereabouts and extra care given to make sure that an appropriate bag was left out for Santa to leave presents. Also, we had to make a special trip to the local shops so that MiniMe could select the perfect carrots to leave out for the reindeer and some suitable cookies for Santa himself. MiniMe is still erring on the side of caution by making sure to write a nice letter to Santa but equally he has become quite persistent in asking us about whether Santa exists. We suspect that next year we move into non-believer territory but we’ve had a fun time over the years. This year Santa san brought nearly all the items requested by MiniMe but his favourite gift was a remote control car that he then spent hours with outside. An elaborate track was made at the front of the house using  various gardening items and MiniMe would send the car racing around.

Proud Owner of Remote Control Car from Santa san

Japan hasn’t quite dived into a full Christmas loving nation, with New Year being the prime holiday period of the year, and it doesn’t really fully fit since the normal Western Christmas holiday means time off work while the 25th December is a normal working day in Japan. However, I have noticed more and more Christmas related items sneaking into Japanese culture each year and this time around I really noticed the use of Christmas Carols and related songs in the local shopping malls. Christmas cards are available and so are Christmas themed cakes so it is becoming more common for gifts to be exchanged and some activities to take place.

Christmas Cakes

We again travelled to the nearby Shimonoseki for an overnight stay to use the onsen (hot spring baths) and to go shopping at the large shopping mall. For the first time our visit coincided with the Shimonoseki fish market so we made sure to visit and to eat lunch at the karu karu sushi (conveyor belt sushi) situated overlooking the fish market. The market itself is full of people inspecting the freshly caught fish or buying fresh sashimi and sushi from the brightly lit stalls while the stall holders call out for visitors to inspect their fish and to draw everyone in. The sushi looked fantastic although we didn’t buy any, quite a few would buy their lunch from the various stalls and go find somewhere to sit down, and we added our names to the lengthy waiting list for the sushi restaurant. We killed an hour or so walking around the market admiring the weird and wonderful types of fish although I did notice that quite a few stalls were selling whale meat, which I stayed away from based on my Western sensibilities. Finally our names were called for the restaurant although this was only the ‘outside queue’ and we now had to queue again as part of the ‘inside queue’ until a suitable table became available. Following another shortish wait there was a table available (seats had some and gone on the sushi bar but we preferred a table) and we settled down for one of the best sushi meals that I have had the pleasure of eating in Japan.

Shimonoseki Fish Market

We left MineMe with his grandparents and took a walk around the surrounding area. The area is known for its Fugu (puffer fish) catch and during popular seasons there will be a rush of Japanese visitors specifically to buy or eat Fugu. We found a nearby statue (pictured below) that shows how the market traders and fishermen used to trade their catch through various hand movements enclosed by a large glove like object so no-one could see how much each respective catch was being sold for.

Fugu Trading at Shimonoseki

Given the amount of times that we have visited Shimonoseki it is quite surprising that we had never visited the island of Ganryujima that sits between Honshū and Kyūshū via a short ferry ride from Shimonoseki Harbour. The small island is well known in the surrounding area for the duel between Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō and has been setup as a tourist focal point to celebrate the fight. Japan has a rich history and the feudal period of swordsmanship is visited upon across popular media and is celebrated by the Japanese as well as the image visitors have from other parts of the globe.

Ganryujima Island - Musashi Miyamoto Fighting Sasaki Kojirō

Shimonoseki is also known for Buzenda, which is known as the most famous shopping area in Yamaguchi Prefecture. We always make a trip to the shopping mall for Mrs danyul to stock up on books from the very large book store while I wander around picking out some gifts to take back for family in the UK. I used to also look around for clothes for me, since the New Year period is a time where all the retailers hold significant sales, but I always suffer from my larger Western build and I’ve found that most of the clothes for Japanese men are a little on the small size for me. I am not significantly large by UK standards so I always wonder how the larger Japanese built gentlemen get on when they go shopping for clothes.

Our yearly Shimonoseki visit to was coming to a close and all that was left now was the relaxing use of the onsen back at the hotel. If I were able to export some products or services back to the UK then the proliferation of hot spring baths would certainly be in the top 3. I am pretty sure that reasonably priced good quality sushi would also make my top 3 as well, something that Shimonoseki has in abundance.

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Yochien Natsu Matsuri

July 10, 2010 by 1 Comment

Yochien Natsu Matsuri

The summer months bring about the summer festivals at the two local Japanese yochien (pre-school) in our area and they are always both great value for money. MiniMe attended one of these yochien for a number of years so previously we were also involved during the summer festival with Mrs danyul often preparing food in advance and then helping to serve on one of the stalls during the festival. I always had the honour of keeping an eye on MiniMe armed with a cold can of beer… such a tough responsibility!

Previously the first yochien would hold their summer festival on a Friday evening and the second yochien would hold their summer festival on the following day. However, this has now changed and there is a gap of a week and one day before each event but I have no idea whether this was a deliberately changed because the two schools are competitors and possibly were not comfortable holding similar events so close to each other. So on a blistering hot Friday evening I accompanied MiniMe to his former yochien for their summer festival with MiniMe dressed in his traditional Japanese kimono style outfit. I armed him with some coins so he could go find his friends but told him to come and find me when he was ready to eat as I would buy his food for him. However, I did have to keep track of him and his friends to make sure that he was drinking enough water because of the extremely hot weather.

The summer festival is always well attended and the food stalls are always very popular as families arrive to eat their dinner following the older children completing their school day from the local Japanese primary / secondary school. I proceeded to hit the food stalls myself and tried to unsuccessfully find a spot in the shade to sit and eat. I also had the task of buying some food for Mrs danyul who was due to arrive a littler later on her way home from work. MiniMe was busy spending his cash (un)wisely on the various stalls in an attempt to win prizes that would later be consigned to the rubbish bin but for the next few hours would be his prize possessions. I sat back and watched some of the yochien kids perform their dance with all their dutiful parents watching and fondly remembered MiniMe doing the exact same thing a few years back. Mrs danyul then arrived so we sat together eating in a shaded area before saying goodbye to various friends and heading home.

Drummer at Yochien Natsu Matsuri

A week and one day later, on yet another extremely hot and sunny summer day, the three of us attended the second and final yochien summer festival of the year. This is a larger and more elaborate event, with a mixture of ‘amateur’ and ‘commercial’ stalls, and tends to attract a large attendance from the local community and also further afield. This year MiniMe had school in the morning so we arrived in the early afternoon with a plan to buy some lunch from the various food stalls and then go our separate ways as Mrs danyul scouts the second hand goods, MiniMe finds his friends and spends money on the games, and I just wander about saying hello to friends and generally checking out what was going on. I did sit and watch the live action Ampanman show, which MiniMe loved when he was younger but now brushes off as only being of interest to babies, and also the Japanese drumming show. I did catchup with MiniMe (“Please dad, don’t go near me and my friends as it is not cool”) and managed to persuade him to go get some cold noodles together (amazing what he will agree to when he wants more money).

MiniMe Hunting Cold Noodles

I also took on responsibility for buying the raffle tickets although we have never won anything in all the years we have been attending. First prize is always a air ticket donated by ANA for a trip to Japan (return ticket for one person only if I recall) but there are also a lot of other prizes on offer based on donations from Japanese companies. We stayed until the end so we could watch the raffle draw and would have been happy to win one of the many ‘lower grade’ prizes (bags of rice, vouchers for local Japanese stores etc) but for once we won something and we won something very useful – a £100 voucher for a nearby large shopping mall. Amazing. I had a look through the prize list afterwards and although it was not the ‘highest ranked’, it was the prize I would have picked given a choice because it meant we could spend the money on whatever we liked. So there went all our raffle prize mojo for the next 10 years and we quickly put the voucher towards a new DVD / hard-disk recorder & player, which is something we have been meaning to get for some time since our old one collapsed in a heap well out of warranty.

With the raffle concluded we said our goodbyes to our friends and headed home. The weather remained perfect for both festivals this year, which is something we haven’t had in recent memory, and I know we’ll be back in 2011 to once again lose at the raffle.

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School Fete

June 26, 2010 by 1 Comment

MiniMe Eating Yakitori

A blinding hot June Saturday saw us descend to MiniMe’s primary school for the summer fete. Mrs danyul had been tasked with preparing and cooking ingredients for the Japanese food stool as run by the Japanese families so had been busy all week adding food onto sticks to make Japanese yakitori. I had also been helping in the kitchen where possible although I was not needed on the day unlike Mrs danyul who was scheduled to spend some time helping to serve on the stall. MiniMe had no concerns other than; a.making sure he had enough cash to see him through the day; and b) making sure he was not seen with his parents too much otherwise his friends would not seem cool to his friends. My job was to keep an eye on MiniMe to make sure he was ok and not wasting his money on too much junk while I also had to make sure I bought some food from the Japanese food stall to support Mrs danyul.

It really was a extremely hot and sunny day so we made sure that all of us were covered in sunblock and that we all had a hat on to protect our heads. Mrs danyul had to head straight for the Japanese food stall, MiniMe was racing off to join his friends, and I took some time to wander around the fete and check out some of the competitions and also the other food stalls. Mrs danyul was soon relieved from her first stint of the Japanese stall so we bought a selection of food from across the stalls, a veritable feast of cuisine from around the globe, then found a spot in the shade to sit down and eat. The food was fantastic and was a great advert for the multi-cultural background of the school and also for the amount of hard work that the PTA puts into the event with the aim as raising as much money for the school as possible.

Mrs danyul was back on her food stall selling again while MiniMe put in an appearance to ask for more cash since he had spent all his pocket money on food & drink plus all the various competition stalls. After emptying my wallet for his benefit I walked around again and took part in some of the activities to show my support for the school. I had no need to win anything and just wanted to contribute some cash towards the cause. Mrs danyul then had her final time allocation on an indoor stall selling laminated bookmarks with your name, or personal message, written in the language of your choice. There was a wide selection of different languages on offer but I made sure to go and buy myself a bookmark with my name written in Japanese to make sure that Mrs danyul had at least one customer.

MiniMe 007

The final activity for the day, which was sending all the kids into a complete frenzy, was the mass water fight on the lower playground. We had no idea what was going to happen but with what seemed to be packs of kids running and screaming around everywhere, this was going to be the highlight of the fete from their perspective. The lower playground was emptied of stalls and a single large stall was left behind that was soon swamped with what appeared to be hundreds of kids waiting to buy a water gun. This was yet another cracking fund raising idea by the school / PTA as children were banned from bringing their own water pistol / gun and instead had to buy one if they wanted to take part… and boy did every kid want to join the fun. Each kid was soon armed and with bins full of water strategically placed around the playground, mayhem soon ensued as everyone went made soaking each other. I joined in the fun by buying my own water gun and joined in with a few other parents who let themselves get soaked by their offspring and generally everyone else. I also acted as a partner for MiniMe since I would load my gun with water and he’d find me to swap with him so he would save time having to refill.

Eventually we dragged MiniMe away from the fete after an hour of soaking everyone, including MiniMe emptying a bucket of water over my head, and we said our goodbyes. The PTA, as a registered charity, makes a lot of money for the school and provides an imense amount of support for the children, the parents, the teachers, and the whole school. The 2010 fete made an astounding gross income of over £13,000 or which approximately £9,500 was net profit. The Japanese food stall contiributed approximately £800 towards that sum and with no expenses (the Japanese parents pay for all the ingredients themselves) then this was all profit. We had a great day and hopefully the 2011 fete has the same type of weather!

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Thai New Year

April 17, 2010 by 1 Comment

Former Big Brother Contestant

We headed to Wembley to eat lunch at Pacific Plaza and found that an event was taking place to celebrate the Thai New Year. The food hall was pretty packed with events taking place on the stage area. We entered the spirit of things and ate lunch from the Thai stalls while MiniMe wandered around checking out some of the entertainment. We noted that there was a scheduled Thai Lady Boys show later in the evening but decided to steer MiniMe away from that one as we were not quite ready to explain why some boys wanted to dress like girls.

On the entertainment stage there was an interview taking place with a former Big Brother contestant although I had no idea who it was and at the time I didn’t note down her name. I was never a Big Brother fan and hardly watched any part of any series so apologies to the nice lady who was being interviewed on the stage, who I assume comes from a Thai background, but who unfortunately I cannot name.

We sat and watched a cooking demonstration and also some demonstration of what appeared to be traditional Thai music before finishing off our food and heading on our way. It was great to see another event taking place at Pacific Plaza and hopefully this would draw more people to what is a great place to eat authentic national cuisine from various Asian countries.

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Pacific Plaza

January 26, 2010 by 2 Comments

Oriental City was a shopping centre in London that began by specialising in Japanese goods along with an Asian based food court and widened to providing a wide range of Asian goods and services. We would often make a trek from Kent to Colindale so we could stock up on rice and food, Mrs danyul would raid the Japanese book shop, and we would eat from the fantastic food court. We continued to make the trek from Docklands before we then moved across to West London where a 20 minute car journey meant we would spend most Saturdays eating lunch at Oriental City. Unfortunately the site was closed in 2008, despite a very large scale protest to keep the centre open for the benefit of the Asian community, and the owners began to proceed with a plan to redevelop the site for housing and a chain store. The building remains boarded up and empty to this day while no further work on the site appears possible due to the downturn of the economy.

Tetote Factory at Pacific Plaza

Thanks to a tip off from Route 79 I was made aware of a blog entry from Will Eat for Money that a possible replacement for Oriental City had opened under the shadow or Wembley Stadium and was now open for business. We were visiting Japan at the time but quickly penciled in a visit for our return to the UK. Pacific Plaza opened in December 2009 and is located in a very unassuming location, somewhat sandwiched between a sofa store and a discount electrical store. In fact we had eaten at the wonderful Alisan Chinese restaurant in December so had parked in the same outlet car park without even noticing Oriental City. So we headed back and were immediately hit but the smells emanating from Tetote factory, which is a Japanese bakery located next to the building entrance. MiniMe was straight into the bakery picking out melon buns, cream buns, curry buns, and a tuna / cheese / corn bun concoction that we took home to share for dinner.

Doki Ltd at Pacific Plaza

Doki Ltd have setup a tableware shop downstairs, much like the small store that used to be located at Oriental City, and sells large range of bowls, plates, cups, and other Japanese and Oriental style kitchenware. We had a look round but did not buy anything since we are fully stocked in our kitchen although we will probably be back when Christmas time approaches again since my family would appreciate some of the items on sale. All the bowls and plates we previously purchased from the store at Oriental City are in good condition, which gives an indication of the quality of the goods they sell, and I am sure that we will be back whenever we need to replenish our stock.

Food Court at Pacific Plaza

The main draw for us was the food court where we hoped to see a return to the quality of food and the atmosphere of Oriental City. The seating area is smaller than Oriental City and a number of stores are either still vacant or have ‘coming soon’ signs but new tenants have been appearing every few weeks and there is a well rounded selection of food on offer. ‘China House’ dominates the far wall of the court and serves a wide range of dim sum and other Chinese food and there are stores providing Japanese, Thai, Korean,  and Malaysian food. We have sampled all the different stores and now have our own favourites that we veer towards on our weekly visit although we are always keen to try something new and so enjoy whenever a new little restaurant opens.

I am not going to go into a review on the food on offer but I heartily recommend a visit and taking a look for yourselves. The atmosphere or general mayhem of a packed Oriental City is not there yet but the foundations are in place and reviews and starting to pop up online:

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