Japan destinations

Tokyo:

The first 3 points are all things we did in odaiba. For specifics on how to get to each place google works really well. and you might want to google other things to do there cos it is about an hr away from Akiharbara area.

Giant Gundam in front of Diver City

1. Big Gundam and Gundam Cafe are in Odaiba. Catch the JR to Shinbashi (yamanote line) and change to the Odaiba island monorail. I think the stop to get off is Daiba station. You should be able to see the big Gundam from the monorail. Its right in front of a big shopping center called Diver city Tokyo. The light show is at 7.30pm and 8.30 pm weekdays, 7.30 and 8.15 weekends.

Diver City is quite big so you can do heaps of shopping here.

Open 2 wheeler at Megaweb

2. Mega web: The toyota showroom where you can see toyotas technology and test drive cars. Theres a booking system and you may or may not need your international drivers license to be able to participate. So check out the details beforehand if you think you might want to drive any of the cars.

3. Joypolis an amusement park/ arcade. Ken and I went here only for the Intial D cars. Theres a few other interactive games but only the halfpipe game and the jet shooting game looked interesting. Theres an all day pass you can buy for unlimited rides and if you go later at night theres a cheaper rate.

Initial D game at Joypolis

4. Remm Akihabara: We stayed here for the week we were in tokyo. It was about $150 per night. The room was small ish but really well set out and functional. Theres also an awesome massage chair that was really cool.

The best thing about staying at the Remm was location! The station is right next to the hotel and on the other side of the station is a 7 story yodobashi. The station is on the yamanote line and chuo lines.

Ken also checked out a hotel called the Washington hotel akiharbara. Its accross the street from the Remm. He chose Remm because its newer and the rooms didnt look as nice.

5. Main tokyo suburbs:

Akihabara: Heaps of models and figures and Tech. Look around before you buy everything, prices vary a bit for the same item and chances are you'll see it in another store. If you plan to do electronic shopping theres a website that lists the best prices around akihabara (kakaku.com). And if you shop at yodobashi or softmap we have loyalty cards that you can borrow, you get 10% (@yodobashi, 1% at softmap) of the purchase price as points and you can redeem it for other items. Great if you plan on getting any big ticket items.

Don Quijoto is akihabara is a 5 storey variety store. Its where you can get the theme onesies, funny hats in the shape of taiyakis or takoyaki and lots of snacks. Its a franschise so we also went to one in osaka.

takeshita street in harajuku

Ginza: Sony and panasonic flagship stores are there. Its the more posh areas for shopping.

Harajuku: not as many harajuku girls here anymore but the park is nice and there are still lots of people there performing (drums, dj painter, old people dancing to Elvis music etc). Theres also a main shopping strip in harajuku and home to many crepe places. The street is on the opposite side of the station from the park. cross the street and head left. just follow the crowds.

Random dj painter in the park @ harajuku

Shinjuku: Mainly fashion and shopping. Heaps of restaurants that looked interesting.

Shibuya: This is where the huge intersection is that you see in movies. Its on the corner just as you come out of the station.

6. Ghibli Museum: You can get tickets from JTB in townhall its about $15pp. Just look them up and fill in the online order sheet, they'll have tickets for you in a few days to pick up. you can also order your JR pass from them.

Nice place to visit if you're into the ghibi art and movies. Gift shop there sucks though so if you only want to go there for the merchandise then just look for a ghibli store in the main suburbs somewhere. The museum is in Mitaka about 40 mins away from akihabara.

 

Kyoto:

7. Contact the Good Samaritan Club: you can fill in a registration form on their website and nominate what days you would like to have a guide. Its free, you just shout them to lunch and pay for their ticket into the temples. They have a guide pass for some of the temples but not all of them. We had three days with them and all three of them were really fun and nice to hang out with for the day.

The mochi at the stalls around the temples are yum make sure you try the free samples. Kiyomizudera is the temple at the top of the hill, its surrounded but the old style city, It's one of the nicest areas. They'll probably take you there but if not you should ask them to take you its a nice area.

8. Melon Pan!!! ok this is actually the hokkaido melon pan but we found it first in Kyoto. Its the only melon pan that has the melon filling. It so delicious we had it every time we saw it! its the one with the smooth green top and only the one in Kyoto had the nice smooth rockmelon filling. The ones in tokyo had a different kind of melon filling and whipped cream. The kyoto one was better.

Hokkaido Melon pan!! *Drooooooools*

 

9. Shinkyugoku and Ninja Restaurant: This is just a fun ninja themed restaurant you might want to try. It's on the main shopping strip on Kyoto called Shinkyogoku street. There is a big department store across the street and street main shopping strips. Two of them are shops for clothes and souviners and one of the strips is all food.

The ninja restaurant is off one of these strips. You should try the maze after you have dinner. It's not hard just a bit of fun.

10.

 

More info:

I came across this website that has all the clubs that offer tours in different areas. http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/arrange/travel/guide/list_volunteerGuides_a-n.html

 

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Simple Macaroons

As part of our sweets making day I put up a picture of the fantastic macaroons my friend taught me to make. We made purple/ lilac colored ones half choc peppermint and half choc passionfruit flavoured.

A mini one just for fun

For the shells we need:

140g egg whites (room temperature

180g caster sugar (split into 2 seperate bowls)

160g icing sugar

160g almond meal

Food coloring

Essence (Optional)

• First we sift almond meal and icing sugar into a bowl and set aside
• Mix egg whites in a bowl on low speed with an electric mixer until there is no more liquid.
• Then add in one of the bowls of caster sugar. Gradually increase speed and beat until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
• Add the second bowl of caster sugar, mix until the sugar has dissolve and the meringue forms stiff peaks.
• Add coloring to the mixture of dry ingredients, essence can also be added at this stage if you wanted the flavoring in the shells rather then the filling. Lightly mix color through.
• Tip into the meringue mixture. Starting slowly stir mixture together making sure all ingredients are combined. Then start scratching the surface while accelerating as you stir. You can be a bit rough at this point because you want to knock out some of the air.
• The mixture will become more liquid and it is ready when it falls off the spatula easily and takes about 20 seconds to ooze back. If the fallen part just sits on top then keep mixing.

• On a lined baking tray pipe out the shells trying to keep consistent sizes. After piping is finished take both sides of the tray and bang it a couple of times on a hard surface. This is to get rid of some air and to settle the imperfections from piping.

• Preheat oven to 150 degrees and leave the macaroons to sit in room temperature until they form a skin. Bake in the oven for approximately 12 minutes or until they are solid when touched.

• Leave them to cool before piping in the filling.

Ganache:

100g Dark Chocolate

90g of thicken cream

20g of Butter

1/3 can of passion fruit pulp or

1 tsp of peppermint essence

1. Melt chocolate in the microwave and mix in the butter and thichken cream.
2. Split into two portions. In one portion add in a few drops of peppermint essence and mix.In the other portion sieve in the passionfruit pulp and mix.
3. Put mixtures into the fridge until ready to use or is set. Should be less liquidy.

To assemble:

• Match up the shells together
• You can either use a piping bag or we just used a spoon. Place a bit in the center of one side and place the other half on top and give it a little squeeze. The filling should come just out to the edges.

We got the recipe off YouTube but used a slightly different ganache recipe. It's a French chef making the macaroons and a domestic kitchen. Enjoy!

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Cocoa Chiffon cake

For over a week I'd been craving pandan cake but when I went to the Asian supermarkets in Auburn, none of them had pandan leaves or essence. Not wanting to drive to cabramatta we decided to at least have chiffon cake.

I found this recipe from the group recipes website but we just made the cake and not the icing. We also adjusted some of the amounts, 7/8 cups is a bit fiddly to measure out. The link to the original recipe is below if you want to checkout the original.

Also we accidentally added bicarbonate soda instead of baking powder, so the cake turned out a little more dense then what's expected of chiffon cake. It was still tasty even if it didn't turn out exactly how we wanted.

Cocoa Chiffon cake
Serves 8

Ingredients
100mls of boiling water
1/4 cup of cocoa
1 cup of sifted "soft as silk" flour ( we used gluten free wheat flour)
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of salad oil
4 unbeaten egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp of cream of tartar

Method:

• Mix cocoa and boiling water and stir until smooth.
• In a mixing bowl sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
• Make a well and add in order; salad oil, unbeaten egg yolks, the cooled cocoa mixture and 1/2 a tsp of vanilla. Beat with a spoon until smooth.
• In a large mixing bowl, whip eggs hits lightly. Add the cream of tartar and whip until it forms stiff peaks.

• Pour cocoa and egg yolk mixture gradually over the whipped egg whites, gently fold together with a rubber spatula until just blended. DO NOT STIR.

• Pour into an ungreased pan at once. Bake at 160 C/325 F degrees for 50-55 minutes.

• The cake is ready when a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for a bit and over turn onto a plate.

Yum yum.

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Moon series by Laurent Laveder

Moon Games is a series's of silhouettes featuring people interacting with the moon using props. The series was taken by French landscape astrophotographer and astronomy journalist Laurent Laveder. It's a simple concept but made for amazing photos.

There's heaps more in the series but here are a few of my favorites.

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Mind map of a toddler

Anyone who has kids or regularly looks after children will find this funny and somewhat true. I especially like the muppet appreciation lobe. Oh Elmo how I have come to dislike your voice! Sometimes anyway :)

 

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Pork Rolls - Meadowbank

A little gem we found a few years ago in meadowbank. The little bread shop underneath the apartments serves the best pork rolls you can get. Even compared to the pork rolls you can get in cabramatta I'd save myself the trip and go to to this place.

The pork rolls are $4 each, it's packed full of three kinds of pork, pickled carrot, cucumber, lettuce, fried onion and soy sauce. The rolls a so huge by the time the ladies are finished making them that they wrap the ends up in cling wrap before serving it in the bag.

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Nerf Wars?!! Part 2

Recently in an attempt to organize out Nerf arsenal I realized that it had grown substantially since my first Nerf post.

4 extra units and lots of ammo. My favorite is still the long clear one and the massive circular cartridge. Though the transformer is probably the most coolest.

There are foam bullets EVERYWHERE!

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Takoyaki!! Yum

After watching a cute anime episode where two kitty cats fought and chased after a takoyaki, I definitely had a huge craving for one :p.

We prepared all the ingredients for the filling and prepared the batter. If you aren't a fan of octopus you can make vegetarian ones or use different types of meat. We used some cabanossi, zucchini, sweet corn! And one of my favorites is using the laughing cow cheese, either on it's own or with sweet corn.

We used a mistral brand dutch pancake maker, it's a good one to get because there is an electric bottom so you can make it at the table or you can take the iron pan off and use it on the stove. It also has a picture of an octopus on it haha so maybe they should just name it takoyaki maker.

 

So when all the ingredients are ready spray the moulds with oil. Half fill each mould with batter and put in your filling, then fill with more batter til the mould is full. Wait for the batter to crisp up a bit, this next part gets a bit messy. Pour more batter onto the pan so it overflows and start turning and tucking in the overflowed batter into the takoyaki with skewers. Repeat that until they form into nice crispy balls.

They can be served immediately but the filling is super hot. Pour mayonnaise or bulldog sauce on top and Bonita flakes before serving. Enjoy!

All this talk of takoyaki I think we should make it again :)

Takoyaki batter Recipe

2 eggs
200g wheat flour
680ml icy water
1 tsp granulated dashi
2 tsp soya sauce
Pinch of salt

1. Crack eggs into bowl and whisk.
2. Add icy water, dashi, soya sauce, salt and whisk together
3. Add flour, sift in 1/3 at a time and mix

 

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Truly Random

Yesterday something happened that truly reflects the title of my blog. I was home in the afternoon and decided to take out the trash, the bins are only about 5-10 meters from my front gate. I threw out the trash and as I turned back there was an older Chinese lady walking towards me with some pieces of styrofoam to throw out. I smiled as you do and she started talking to me in mandarin ( my mandarin is not great, I usually resort to deciphering what they're asking through context and the few words I do understand).

It was a nice little chit chat but as I started heading into my place she asked to see the interior because the place she lives in with her daughter has the same layout except with only 2 levels instead of 3. I was shocked but I said yes because she seemed like a nice enough lady.

Here's where it begins to get more random. A few steps down the path she exclaims that she should go get her daughter to come over too and she started pulling on my arm insisting that I should come over and have a look at their place first. So with maybe a fleeting thought that I could possibly be in a Charlie the unicorn type situation I quickly locked up and head over to my neighbors.

The lady's daughter (Linny) was just as surprised about the situation and a little embarrassed I think because their place was very messy, my place is messy too I told her. So after making awkward introductions I chatted to Linny for a bit before her mother insisted on showing me their upstairs. The place was practically the same layout but without a hallway to upstairs and she had replaced the carpet with floorboards, it looked nice.

After a couple minutes Linny's mother proceeded to tell me about how she used to have a mole on her cheek in the same spot as mine and that she removed it herself by stabbing it multiple times with a needle and that it hurt for a month but after the scab fell off it never came back. @.@ it sounded pretty painful.

Anyway, we headed over to my place and my friend had been waiting for me outside. I quickly gave her a rundown of the situation which she found hilarious and let us all into the house. I showed them the garden and my plants, which I am quite proud of even though it is a little neglected. She was very interested in my vietnamese celery and shocked me again by asking for one of the babies that had started coming up around the base. So I dug up a baby plant and put it in a pot for her. Meanwhile jancypants is inside trying not to laugh.

So we head back in and I showed them the rest of the place to many comments on use of space, how big our tv is and asking if we had a son when they saw Kens nerf collection ( which has grown since the initial post) haha.

Then as her daughter Linny was trying to shooe her out because she knew that I needed to go grocery shopping for dinner, she proceeded to check out my parsley plant for babies as well.

Haha truly a random event of the evening/ month. I'm glad a got to meet one of my neighbors and that they are friendly if not a little strange haha. Tis my life's randomness :)

 

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Sweet sweet dessert day!

Yesterday a friend came over to show me how to make macaroons and in our excitement we ended up turning it into an awesome cooking day. We made macaroons, a roast pork for dinner, a snow egg and a little creme brûlée.

Here are a few peek previews and I'll link in the posts soon.

Our purple ( which turned out a lilac colour) macaroons.

My pork roast, a method I've trial over many years, its not perfect but pretty good almost every time, no major disasters.

Our snow eggs which we ended up making over three weeks. It was worth it in the end!! Extremely yummy and once we got it right it think it was as good as the one we had at quay.

And lastly our creme brûlée which we made last minute because we had a lot of egg yoke left over. It hasn't yet been eaten so I'll put up another photo of the sugary caramel top when we do.

After all that we'll definitely have to hold off on the sugar for a while :) ...... Maybe ;)

Thanks for the awesomely fun day Jancypants.

 

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