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Happy New Year! (Better Late Than Never)
New Year in Japan is usually the time when you return home and visit your family. This year we decided to do something different and visited ‘Toy Kingdom’ in Hyogo. ’Toy Kingdom’ is a good name, but ‘Toddlers Paradise’ is probably more appropriate! This place was crazy! It has extensive grounds with lots of outdoor and indoor activities. We have two daughters, one is three and a half and the other just over one. Both girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves and had to be dragged away at the end of the day!
I would be able to begin to list all the fun facilities and toys they had there as they had it all. Outside they had a stage where the Toy Kingdom characters, Breibu (Brave), Pinki, Shigerun, Haato Hime (Princess Heart) and Tenda, could perform. They also had a magnificent merry-go-round, Thomas the Tank Engine trains for children to ride on, flying elephants, bumper cars, steam engine, giant cup and saucer ride, an overhead monorail, mini helicopter ride, roller-coasters, swing boat, crazy golf, a giant ferris wheel and much more!
In several hanger style buildings they had different themed activities such as Little Tikes Playland – all the little tikes brand, slides, gym, fort etc. Action Game World with lots of tabletop games and some arcade games, an educational playroom with computers for kids to play with, wooden toys, Brio trains, xylophones and other instruments, magnets and puzzles. A huge area of lego blocks for building, a bouncy castle and ball pool. Tomicar/Playrail land – trains, trains and more trains! You can make your own set with all of the materials there or just look at the displays. A room dedicated to Licca house dolls and dollhouses, as well as Sylvanian families – an entire town of them! The huge array and selection of toys was outstanding! My daughters favourite place was where they housed the Mell-chan doll. They had play houses and kitchens complete with plastic foods, so many that it actually looks like a small grocery store!
We brought a package deal and stayed at a hotel which was literally across the road from the park. The hotel had a special ‘child friendly’ package which we chose.
This included the usual amenities that you would expect but with a few extra features like a children’s library in your room, and some specialist wooden toys.
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Hakone Open-Air Museum
For my daughters birthday we decided to take a short break to Hakone and visit the magnificent Hakone Open-Art Museum. Opened in 1969 it was the first open-air art museum in Japan. With 70,000 square metres of exhibition grounds, it is home to over 100 pieces, by well-known modern and contemporary artists, including examples from such world famous sculptors as Rodin, Bourdelle, Miro and Moore.
The museum has a collection of over 300 works by Picasso, and has one of the world’s largest collections of works by the English master sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986). The museum is set in the stunning landscape of Hakone and is well worth a visit. They have great facilities and are family friendly. You can easily spend a day looking, exploring and playing at this wonderful place.
I don’t know why it is not mentioned on the website but the pictures above are of this amazing climbing/play area. My eldest daughter Lily loved it, and did not want to leave. Being the smallest adult present, and lets face it at 4ft 8 1/2 I am always the smallest adult present, I was sent on the mission to locate and retrieve. Once inside though, I have to say that I completely understand why she didn’t want to leave. It was like a beautiful, relaxing, colourful, maze of fun. If you do visit I highly recommend losing your child ‘accidentily’ in it, so that you have to go in. I have put in a request with my husband for one in our garden, but he said I would have to wait until we have a place with a garden – bah humbug!
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Dinner Is Served …
I love food! Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, French, English, American, Spanish, Italian, Thai, Indonesian and Portuguese – all good food. I love to learn about other cultures through there culinary delights. In recent months I have gotten braver when it comes to Japanese food trying sea urchin and cows colon (which is delicious – it tastes a lot like pork cracking).
I have been living in Japan so long now that I have forgotten how I used to eat in the UK. The biggest difference is that the Japanese like to share dishes rather than having there food served on one plate. Japanese cuisine is based on combining staple foods, typically rice or noodles, with a soup and some side dishes made from fish, meat, vegetable, tofu and the like — to add flavor to the staple food. These are typically flavored with dashi, miso, and soy sauce and are usually low in fat and high in salt.
A standard Japanese meal generally consists of several different okazu (side dishes) accompanying a bowl of cooked white Japanese rice, a bowl of soup and some tsukemono (pickles). I thought you all my find it interesting to see my attempts at a typical Japanese dinner – typical in our house anyway.
Japanese food is not to everyones taste, just ask my mother and brother who for some reason don’t like Japanese rice, as they find it to sticky/starchy. Raw fish and egg often takes time to get used to. I, however, love it and feel healthier for it. Japanese cuisine is known for its emphasis on seasonality of food, quality of ingredients and presentation. The Michelin Guide has awarded Japanese cities by far the most Michelin stars of any country in the world (for example according to Wikipedia, Tokyo alone has more Michelin stars than Paris, Hong Kong, New York, LA and London combined).
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Only In Japan …
Bunny cappuccino!
You have to smile!
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Be Inspired!
Whilst there is still so much more to do, I found these images so fascinating and inspiring. I hope you do to!
This story was taken, in part, from a blog article by Josh Tolentino.
It’s been three months since March 11th’s disastrous earthquake and tsunami, and though it has faded from the rest of the world’s notice, the people of Japan still struggle to recover.
Not that it’s bad to let matters irrelevant to one’s interest fade from consciousness, but every so often it’s good to be reminded of what’s happening outside one’s immediate community.
That’s what the Boston Globe did, with a photo gallery of Japan’s tsunami-hit areas, showing how they look three months on.
Check out the Boston Globe’s home page.
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Kawaii Bento (Cute Lunchboxes)
This is an example of a regular bento.
Bento is the Japanese word for lunch box. Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops, train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.
Bento can be very elaborately arranged in a style called kyaraben or ‘character bento’. Kyaraben is typically decorated to look like popular Japanese cartoon (anime) characters, characters from comic books (manga), or video game characters. Another popular bento style is oekakiben or ‘picture bento’, which is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants.
Usually Lily will eat meals provided by her school, but she is a little fussy, so sometimes the school asks me to prepare a bento for her on particular days. This is my attempt at a Kawaii bento …
Still a long way to go to get the balance of cuteness and nutrition right but it’s a start!
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Spring-time Salutations!
Fashion Of The Week Returns!
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Nagano
We spent a weekend with my husbands parents in Nagano. People visit Nagano throughout the year in Japan for many reasons such as climbing in the Japanese Alps, soaking in an Onsen, looking at Snow Monkeys at Jigokudani Monkey Park, eating delicious Soba Noodles, visiting temples like Zenkoji Temple, skiing, looking at Cherry blossom in spring or watching the leaves change colour in the autumn. I always thought that last thing so strange, visiting a place just to look at the leaves changing colour. As a foreigner I just didn’t get it, that was until we went camping last Autumn at the America camp village. The vibrant colours on the trees were so beautiful and calming, so I get it now!
This is not my photograph, as we didn’t visit the park, but I had to include it as he is sooooooo cute!
Anyway, my in laws love Nagano, eating traditional Japanese food and visiting an onsen. So here are some pictures of our weekend in Nagano.
The scenery outside our hotel.
Scrumptious sushi! Check out the amazing care the Japanese put into there presentation.
This is how a traditional Japanese dinner is served at our hotel. This is what was on the table to begin with, but a beautiful Kimono-clad lady brought in several other courses.
I am very shy when it comes to bathing naked. Whilst most Japanese people are not, I need more than a hand towel to cover all my girly and wobbly ‘bits’! That doesn’t stop my mother-in-law asking me to join her everytime … but the answer will always be ‘No’ everytime! This time was great as my husband and I were able to rent our own private onsen room.
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Home Sweet Home.
Gifu
When we returned to Japan after Hawaii, we decided to visit my husbands family in Gifu. We hadn’t been back in two years, and Lila had reached 6 months without having met her grandfather, plus we were unsure of what was happening with regards to the nuclear situation in Fukushima. I think it is at times like this that you want to reassess with loved ones close by.
Here is a run down of our four day stay …
On our first day we relaxed, did washing, and went to Uniqlo to pick up some warmer clothes for us and the girls, as Gifu in March is a lot colder than Hawaii!
On our second day we decided to go for a long walk down by Nagara River with my beautiful mother-in-law. Nagara River is famous for being a clear-flowing river, it has been named one of the ‘Three Clear-Flowing Rivers in Japan’, along with the Kakita River in Shizuoka Prefecture and the Shimanto River in Kōchi Prefecture. Together with Gifu Castle, the Nagara River that flows through the middle of Gifu City is a beloved symbol of Gifu City. A lot of fish live in Nagara River, and it attracts many anglers fishing for ayu (wild sweetfish). The time-honored and world-famous traditional Ukai: Cormorant Fishing on the Nagara River is also held along this stretch of the river. Cormorant fishing is an ancient tradition in which cormorants are used to catch various fish in lakes and rivers.
I found this old photo on line, and I have to say not much has changed. The outfit and technique has been pretty much the same for 1,300 years. Though eleven other places in Japan also host cormorant fishing, only the fishing masters on the Nagara River are Imperial Fishermen of the Household Agency.
I love this picture, a wind-swept Sumi family portrait. Lily with stick in hand, refusing to pose for the camera with Taka desperately trying to engage her. Lila where she always is, firmly strapped to her mother, and me looking scarily like a slightly uglier version of my own mother when she was young. Genetics – you can’t escape it!
This is my husband re-living childhood Spiderman fantasies, and my daughter insisting on copying her beloved Daddy!
Say cheeeeeeeeeeeeese!
After a long walk we went to a traditional Japanese coffee shop, hidden away in the back streets, for refreshments. You can really see the effort that goes into presentation in Japan. On the left you have a creamy cherry blossom pudding, with clear jelly on top holding real cherry blossoms and gold leaf decoration. On the right a rich green tea sponge cake. Both were delicious!
On the third day my husband had to catch up on some work so my mother-in-law decided to take me and the girls to pay our respect to the family ancestors. I thought you all might find it interesting to see what a Japanese cemetery is like.
Here Lily is learning about how to take care of your ancestors, clean the grave, adorn with fresh flowers, a cup of water, some food and light incense, before bowing your head and saying a prayer. My husbands mother repeats this ritual every other month.
Here are some pictures of the grounds surrounding the grave. A very beautiful and peaceful place. I particularly like the tree with the paper wishes folded and attached to it.
After such serious business we visited a local farm which had an amazing playground in it.
Lily particularly loved the sleeping pigs.
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Here, There And Everywhere!!!
So again it has been a while since I wrote a post. I feel a little overwhelmed as I am so behind. I have been to three places and have yet to write them up, and next week is one of my favourite Japanese festivals and then we are off to Hokkaido for a short break!
In the words of the great philosopher Nike, ‘Just do it!’ :)
Hawaii
I should start by saying when my husband and I got married 9 years ago, our entire two week honeymoon came in around the £250 mark. This trip to Hawaii is at the other end of the spectrum – not a back pack in sight! This is without question the fanciest place I have ever stayed, and it has to be said it took me a couple of days to adjust as it was so overwhelming. I think as a Brit you often get that feeling when visiting America.
I remember going to New York for a week when I was at Uni, and I had a similar feeling, as everything was just massive. I remember asking a door man at Macy’s the time. He couldn’t understand a word of what I was saying and moreover he just didn’t understand me. He stood at some 6ft 5, where as I am around the 4ft 8 (& 3/4!!! There is obviously something very wrong if you have to use fractions!) He just looked at me quite confused and said,’What are you!’
Anyway I will stop rambling and get back to the main point of this post, the beautiful island of Maui. The island of Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian Islands. You would be hard pushed to find somewhere more beautiful. There are generally two seasons in Maui. Winter (November through April), when temperatures typically range between 20 – 26, and summer when the high can run into the low 30s. To quote the Lonely Planet guide, ‘According to some, you can’t have it all. Perhaps those folks haven’t been to Maui, which consistently lands atop travel-magazine reader polls as one of the world’s best, most romantic islands. Why? Most start with its wealth of glorious beaches and go from there: luxe resorts, friendly B&Bs, gourmet cuisine, fantastic luau, and world-class windsurfing, whale watching, snorkeling, diving and hiking.’ We stayed at The Fairmont Kea Lani Maui, Hawaii beach resort, and it was all that and then some. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.
The Lobby!
The hotel room.
Amazing food!
Riding horses and feeding fish!
Playing on the beach.
My beautiful daughter Lily playing in the pool.
Me and Lila and a lot of bamboo!
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