Day 40 (Mar 8) Part 2 - Honganji, Zak, Karaoke + Izakaya

Location: Chuo-ku & Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan
Weather: 11 degrees + cloudy
Author: Amy

Looking back, I realised that we did a lot today!

TSUKIJI-HONGANJI TEMPLE

We made our way to Tsukiji in Chuo-ku in the morning and had a short walkaround. Tsukiji Market was closed cause as it was a Sunday so we missed out on that. However, we stumbled across Tsukiji-Honganji temple.

A kind security guard offered to take our pictures

We didn't go into the temple as we were supposed to meet Jeannie and we wanted to go to Kabukiza first. So we just strolled around the front of the temple.

Look, Danny! Giant Onimusha safe point!

Chrissie's zen spot. She said she felt very zen just listening to the water trickle...

KABUKIZA

We heard from some other friends that the famous Kabukiza is closing down this March 2009 so we went there to have a look and take final pictures before it was too late. I think it will be torn down. So this month, this Kabuki theater is showing all the famous plays before its final curtain.


After taking numerous shots of Kabukiza (last chance, you know!), we met up with Jean and went to Sushizanmai as shown in Part 1.

After lunch, with very happy tummies, we walked to Jeannie and Rob's apartment, which was only maybe 15 minutes away. The reason? To see Baby Zak of course!

BABY ZAK!!! oh... and mom and dad...

Little Zak was actually asleep when we got there. We decided to sneak a peek at the sleeping (and snoring) baby but accidentally woke him up instead. So we played with a tired and grumpy (but still very cute!!!) baby.

Dance with me, Daddy!

Yes, Daddy?

Mom! Mom! Look at me!!! I'm Japanese! (see his right hand)

And BLEH to you, Auntie Chrissie....

Hmm... doesn't smell like Mommy... should I spew?

KARAOKE + IZAKAYA

We met up with some other friends after that. As the title suggested, we went to karaoke!!! This karaoke place in Ikebukuro is very cheap. Because we went in the afternoon, we only paid 700 yen each for 2.5 hours (including free drinks). We must go back there again!

Out of the 5 of us, 4 are Tohoshinki fans so there was a lot of Tohoshinki songs. It is very interesting hearing beautiful, fluent Japanese coming from the 2 non-Japs in the group... Chris and I vow to polish up on our Jap karaoke skills!!!

After karaoke, we met up with a couple of new friends and had dinner at a nearby izakaya.

Chris ordered umeboshi (Japanese apricot wine + soda).

The apricot was very sour... but then again, Chris loves sour stuff so right up her alley!

An izakaya is sort of like a hangout place where you can drink, chat and eat snack foods that compliment whatever drinks you have. It is a very informal, casual place, good for groups as there are usually sectioned-off tables or sometimes, rooms.

I guess that's something we're missing in Perth: a nice place to just hang out, drink and eat. Without dealing with loud, loud music in the background (pubs), or ordering lots of coffee (cafes) or feeling guilty about occupying a table for so long (restaurant).

We had all sorts of side dishes:

This is pickled bedok, a root that is very good for you.

Bedok root is a common food for Japanese people and is very good for your health. Mom, you'll be happy to hear I ate some. ^_^ Chrissie liked this dish.

Sashimi salad. The nori went very well with the salad. I was surprised...

Cheesy egg. Very yummy! Chris will cook this for me.

Deep fried chicken cartilage. Another surprisingly yummy dish.

Daikon salad. Refreshing but not as tasty as the rest. Very healthy though...

All in all, today was a good day. We had wonderful company, great food and we didn't get home too late so we didn't over-tire ourselves...

The next posts will be on what we did in February. Sorry for skipping ahead. Until next time!

Day 40 (Mar 8) Part 1 - The Best Sushi Experience Ever!!!

Location: Chuo-Ku, Tokyo, Japan
Weather: 11 degrees + cloudy
Author: Amy (cause this update is about FOOD!!!)

For once, I am writing the post on the correct day! I have skipped many many days as you can tell cause I've jumped straight into March. But I was so excited about this afternoon's visit to a really amazing sushi restaurant, thanks to Jeannie, so I had to share this experience with everyone while it is still fresh in my mind.

Us outside Sushizanmai (Actually taken after eating but never mind...)

This restaurant is located close to Tsukiji market and according to Jeannie, the queue for this restaurant on Saturdays can get pretty long... Even when we were eating, we could see a long line waiting to get in. It's called Sushizanmai and is part of a chain of restaurants but Jeannie reckons this is the freshest. I cannot thank Jeannie enough for bringing us to this restaurant! And you will see why...

Hmmm... what shall we have?

An experienced sushi eater, Jean recommended some sushi for us and did all the ordering. We just laid back and tucked in happily. ^_^

The menu. Pictures don't do them justice.

She got us started on the milder sushis and we worked our way up to the tastier ones. Clever, isn't it? This way, you can appreciate the taste of the sushi or else if you eat a really strong sushi like eel, then ate a mild one like roe, you would think the roe is less tasty.

Our chef of the day behind the counter. Each of us had a wooden sushi table in front of us for our freshly made sushi.

While we were waiting for our sushi, I noticed the fish tank behind the counter and I asked Jean if they catch the fish, slice it up and serve it there and then. And she said that during lunch, they usually serve a 'special' and sometimes it could be the freshly caught fish. More on the 'special' later!

Fish tank behind the counter for fresh sashimi!

The first sushi we were served was Sea Urchin Roe (Uni). It was a very good beginning because Chris and I had never tried it before and it was very interesting! The texture of sea urchin roe is very soft, almost like it could melt in your mouth. And it had a subtle flavour. It was very tasty. Apparently, if the roe is not fresh, it would taste fishy. I can tell you this was very good!

Sea Urchin Roe (Uni)

The Japanese way of eating sushi is to put the soy sauce on the roe/fish/prawn instead of dipping the rice bit in soy sauce as we usually do.

Squeezing a few drops of soy sauce directly on the roe.

Next up was Sweet Shrimp (Amai Ebi?). I was expecting this sweet tasting prawn (as in natural sweetness). Instead I got a burst of wasabi up my nose... Yup! I can't handle wasabi... so I couldn't really taste the sweet raw prawn... just the wasabi...

Sweet shrimp (Amai Ebi)
You can see the wasabi leaking out of the side already!!!

For these types of sushi, again the correct way of dipping it is to dip the prawn bit into soy sauce, not the rice. So Jean showed us how to tip it to the side (if using chopsticks), then dip it into soy sauce and chomp!

Turning the sushi on its side to make dipping easier.

Don't drop it.... doooooon't droooopppp.....

Then next came medium fatty tuna (Chutoru) and scallop (Hotate) sushi. At this point, I had already requested the chef to put less wasabi in my sushi. Very un-Japanese of me... but I prefer to taste my sushi, not the wasabi.

Scallop (Hotate) and Medium Fatty Tuna (Chu-toro)

Then we ordered the salmon sushi. I don't normally like salmon but this salmon was superb! Instead of just raw salmon, the salmon was out on a grill, then cooked with intense fire on the top for a few seconds (I'm sure there's a technical term for this). This resulted in a still soft, raw salmon on the underside but just cooked bit on the topside. It was THE BEST salmon sushi I have tasted!

Scorching the top side of the salmon.

Mine is the one on the far left cause I wanted mayonnaise on mine. I cried out to the chef to wait until I could whip out my camera before he cooked the salmon. I think they laughed at my enthusiasm...

And voila! My salmon sushi with mayonnaise.

Then we ordered the seawater eel (anago). There are 2 types of eel: freshwater (unagi) and seawater (anago). Again, this was cooked over the grill but no hot blowtorch this time. It was just normally cooked but it was cooked to perfection!

Cooking the eel. This was called 'Top quality sea-eel' on the menu.

The yummiest eel (Anago) sushi! The flesh was very tender and tasty.

And the cucumber slices on top complemented the unagi very well as one is tasty while the other is clean and fresh.

Ah! And we were in time for the SPECIAL! During lunch hours, they usually have a special which they would announce to everyone by ringing a bell and bellowing the special of the day to everyone.

Ringing the bell to announce the special which is....

...egg and seaweed roll!

I was actually hoping for the fishie in the tank... but no matter, the egg roll was nice too. It was not overly sweet and was quite refreshing because it was a change from the other sushis we had before.

Egg and seaweed roll

At this point, we were starting to feel a bit full but still wanted to have more amazing sushi. So I got a type of fish called Shima-aji and also herring roe sushi. The shima-aji wasn't as tasty as the other sushi we had previously but this could be because it was a mild sushi and my palette was already spoiled by all the other tasty sushi so this one seemed less tasty by comparison. Same for the herring roe. It was crunchy but not much taste other than that.

Shima-aji

Herring roe

Chrissie and Jeannie opted for squilla, which is like a prawn, and also broiled fatty tuna

Squilla

Broiled fatty tuna (Aburi-toro)

And that was the last we had... Actually, I wanted to end my sushi experience with something really tasty so I ordered another eel sushi (a smaller one) but I got too excited and ate it the moment it came so didn't manage to take a picture.

I think, the winners today were sea urchin roe (as a starter), salmon and eel (for me anyway). Chrissie liked chutoro (medium fatty tuna), uni (sea urchin roe), anago (sea-eel) and hotate (scallops).

We are so going back there again! Highly recommended for all!

The Smallest Kitchen in the World

Location: Smallest Kitchen, Tokyo, Japan
Weather: Nice & warm indoors
Author: Greedy Pig Amy

Surprisingly, I have been quite motivated to cook since moving into our apartment. Partly because I love going grocery shopping and getting ingredients I can't get in Perth. Partly also because eating out can get monotonous after a while. There is only that many times I can go to Yoshinoya and Matsuya.

We've cooked quite a few things already but have never bothered to take pics. So I have made a conscious effort to take pics of certain dishes we make.

COOKING JAPANESE CURRY

Only managed to start taking pics after we cooked the curry...

Yum yum!


MAKING BIBIMBAP

After several attempts, we finally managed to find a Korean supermarket and got gochujang to make bibimbap. The reason being it is so fast and easy to make. All you really need is (in my case anyway) rice, egg, cucumber, maybe carrots or beansprouts, meat is a bonus. Voila!

Before

After

USING MY CUTE SUSHI MOULDS TO MAKE ONIGIRI

I love the 100 yen shop! That's where I got my cute sushi moulds to make onigiris, sushis, etc. And because I'm crazy about sushi moulds (onigiri moulds in particular), I took pics of the cheaters steps on making onigiri.

Get the mould ready. Mine is actually mini-size. So cute!

Put the seasoned rice in. This is chicken and egg flavour.

Press top part of mould down to get the triangle shape

Pretty onigiri!

Turn upside down

Push it out

Remove mould carefully

Ta-dah!!!

And that concludes today's episode of The Smallest Kitchen in the World. Please tune in next week for omurice (omelette rice) and hmm... what else should we cook?

Mom, are you proud of me? ^_^

Day 15 (11th Feb) - Finally in Tokyo!

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Weather: Not that cold compared to Sapporo! Maybe 8 degrees C?
Author: Amy (yes, I finally got off my *ss and did something)

We got up pretty early to get to the train station. After our costly lesson of lugging suitcases over icy snow, we decided to take a cab to the JR Sapporo station. Got there while staying nice and warm (and unharmed!). And off to the airport we went!

We had to go to the Sakura House office in Shinjuku to get our keys and sign a bunch of papers to lease our apartment. We got to Shinjuku maybe 3 or 4pm but it did take us about an hour to finally find the office. By the time we finished everything, it was 6pm! Then came the 'find the apartment' game.... sigh...

The description on the map described the walk to the apartment as '10 minutes walk' but by the 20th minute, we were thinking 'BLOODY LIARS!!!'.

Obviously, we got there safe and sound...

Our apartment building. Ours is the top left.

Because it was pretty late already, we didn't have the time or energy to get anything for the apartment so just used whatever was available. Including smelly futons and quilt.

Testing the futon... Verdict: VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!!! And did I mention smelly?
Actually, I was so tired I fell asleep. Chrissie was trigger happy while I was sleeping

The apartment itself (not including the loft where I sleep) is ~14 square metres. That's the size of my bloody bedroom in Perth! But surprisingly, I don't feel claustrophobic... probably cause I only stay in my bedroom in Perth anyway!

Entrance way where the shoes are, door on left leads to bathroom, kitchen to the far left.

I knocked myself silly using the bathroom the first few times cause there's no room to manouver.

The kitchen is a single hotplate stove next to a sink. That's it!


So I've become quite efficient at cooking and washing at the same time. And planning ahead how to cook to minimise effort in washing pots, pans, dishes, switching hot plate on and off...

At least we won't take long to clean up in the kitchen....

The washing machine backs up as a temporary table while cooking and preparing food, something we found out after staying there a while.

Our other 'table'

But all in all, quite cosy and easy to clean.

Microwave is also the toaster, grill and oven. Hurray Jap technology!

And everything is nearby so easy to access... except from my loft...

I have to climb down 20 times a day, I reckon... so I've learnt to be efficient... it's called 'Chrissie'....
'Chris! Can you pass me water???' & 'Chris!!! Can you take this plate down?'

While we're pretty much settled in now, that was not the case on the first day. I basically slept on a very thin futon (think quilt) on a very hard floor. My smelly pillow was as thick as a storybook. I got bruises on my tailbone and hipbones from sleeping on that hard floor. Danny would be delighted to know that maybe I'm not as well padded as I thought...

Chris on the other hand had a great sleep on the first night compared to the previous 2 weeks in Sapporo. But she did have to put up with me climbing down the squeaky ladder many times at night while she was sleeping...

More to come in Amy & Chrissie's cooking adventures in The Smallest Kitchen in the World!