Kyoto: what it's famous for

No doubt about it - food in Kyoto is the best of Japan. I believe this is part of the reason I love Kyoto so much. Though I didn't get to much, wagashi (Japanese sweets) like anko, macha, cherry-blossom flavoured mochi are popular souvenirs amongst Japanese travellers. For dining, I suggest hitting up a restaurant that serves traditional Japanese food, like we did.



Yuba-don (anything stuck to the word 'don' means it's served on rice). Yuba is paper-thin tofu, silky and smooth. It is amongst the tastiest and one of the more famous ingredients of Kyoto. Served on top of rice, biting down a spoonful makes you oohh after some tiring sight-seeing.



Meals are served with a variety of nibblers like preserved radish/kelp/plum (umeboshi), soup, rice, tempura, the list goes on. Ain't the little flowery designs cute!



The menu on display in 3D! Plastic food is a common way for Japanese restaurants to show how appetising their menu is. On top of that, it makes it much more easy for foreigners to identify what they want to eat ;).



Also located in the station, is this wonderful modern Japanese/French cafe called Malebranche. We stopped by in need of something sweet before I headed home.



Clean, crisp & crafty interior!



Really straight macha (green tea powder) mixed with water. Intense flavour, but not the intended order. My friend wanted it with milk, and unfortunately I do believe it would have tasted better with it.

Macha cake soft serve. A macha soft serve topped with moorish macha cookie pieces. This was so damn good! There was a nice good cool creaminess with a lovely lovely lovelyyyy macha taste. Not to mention classy presentation! Kyoto is the bomb for some good ol' macha.

Oh, Kyoto!

A hub buzzing with a traditional or yet heart-warming Japanese culture, Kyoto is my favourite city in Japan. My 2 friends, Azusa and Mei (Azusa whom I met in Nara and Mei whom I met on the day!) made this a very lovely trip for me.



I bought a one day pass (1600 yen) to travel around the Osaka, Nara and Kyoto area, which proved handy as I had to get from Nara to Kyoto and back (and not to mention I forgot my luggage in the lockers in Kyoto = another half trip back down there) , then to Osaka for my night departure to Kumamoto. I recommend grabbing the one-day bus pass (500 yen) to go sightseeing around Kyoto, whilst not forgeting my clumsiness, I lost this pass after only one bus trip...which might explain why I didn't visit the famous Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion). But we did manage to visit 3 places before I had to leave. Really, all was good since this was my second visit to Kyoto ;).



Some shrine, can't remember the name but it's near Nijo Castle. Very petite and pretty.



Story goes, if you walk across this bridge (towards the camera), your wish comes true! On another note, Azusa is so cute!



Apparently you pick out these fortune-telling papers and if they're bad (or really once you're done looking at 'em), you tie them onto this pole thing.



Nijo castle: How did people from the Edo period create such intricate details! I love the colours and the design. The inside was much more mind-blowing, and unfortunately you can't take photos inside so you'd just have to see for yourself!



Beautiful scenery from the top of Nijo castle ...apparently buildings cannot exceed a certain height (of about 7/9 floors or something) to preserve the unique landscape.



Toji Temple: listed World Heritage Site.

The famous 5-story pagoda part of Toji Temple - highest wooden tower in Kyoto.



Thought this was a cute taxi sign!



Everywhere you walk is so Japanese! Love Kyoto.

Torikizune: A glimpse of local nights

I visited my friend's work place - Torikizune (I believe it translates to 'chicken lord') in downtown Osaka. It is my first time to an izakaya. An izakaya is like a mix between a bar and a restaurant (maybe like a tapas-like bar?), only selling very small dishes to nibble on while perhaps for you, the main focus is to carry on drinking and chatting. The food here is very decent for its price - all dishes were 280 yen!



Free refills of cabbage after purchasing a bowl! Really refreshing and tasty with its vinegrette dressing (sort of like the Pietro dressing that you can buy here in Japanese supermarkets).



Sweet potato salad with mustard dressing. While the sweet potato is just so good, you can get pretty full with this dish.



Takowasa = Octopus (tako) with wasabi (wasa). Think I'm starting to like wasabi ;)




Cheese mochi korokke. The best at this izakaya and recommended by my friend. The whole thing is soo oomphh - the mochi hugging a cube of melty cheese at the centre, deep-fried to perfection, served with a small slice of butter on top! Trust me, this was seriously the fattiest, oophiest goodness that I've had in a long time!



Grilled rice and potato (paste-like), drizzled with some kewpie mayonnaise, and topped with nori (seaweed) shreds.



Chicken rice. Also a highly recommended dish of this izakaya. This is rice steamed in chicken stock along with carrots, gobo (burdock root) and chicken! It comes to your table still needing a 3 minute steam, so it's all flavoursome and steaming hot by the time you lift up the lid. I levered some acceptance to eat food cooked with meat (thought not eating the meat) when I arrived in Japan as what are the chances I'm gonna eat this once I return to Australia. (By the way, I'm pesco-vego). Pleasantly nice and simple dish, with a good fragrance of chicken. Oh, how guilty I felt.



We ordered some drinks called サワー('sour'), which are Walker based mixed drinks. I had a glass of honey 'sour', while my friend had a grape 'sour'. Very refreshing without any slight taste of alcohol! However, it was a little sweet, but that's because I don't enjoy soft drinks and sugary fakeness as much as normal Aussies.



Well, if you are in Osaka, Japan and stuck on where to chill, eat or drink, you can find this izakaya next to the Baskin Robbins located on that bigggg road (across the road from Baskin Robbins is a massive 'PARTYLAND' sign). Once you find that lift next to Baskin Robbins, just hop on and head to 9th floor. Of course, located on other floors are many other izakayas just like this one, if I were you I wouldn't particularly head to Torikizune, but man you have try the Cheese mochi korokke, I'm tellin' ya!

Osaka: the city of big things

Ohhh, Osaka. What a beautiful place to dig out every yen you have, to purchase that brown furry (or fuzzy?) coat that you've been longing for after your first paycheck, all of course, glistening in the window display luring your wallet in.



Osaka is indeed a shopping haven, with a shopping street/arcade that runs from Namba to Shinsaibashi! You probably don't know, but I'm telling you it is LONG! It's got everything: Uni qlo, g.u., ZARA, H&M (the store I just adore!), many many nice and funky shoe stores, several independent clothes stores (some great for bargain buys) as well as department stores, pharmacies, restaurants, fast food, patisseries...the list goes on. I can assure you that you'd be tired after walking top to end of this busy shopping street.



Now, not only is shopping BIG is Osaka, they've got big things like the Glico man, big Pocky (yes those sticks you love to snack on in class...now I'd like to see you try to sneak one of these giant sticks into class) and other big snacks like a big rice cracker!



We did some lunching at an afforable restaurant chain called Gusto. Great price, great place. It's one of those restaurant chains which sell a variety of meals, like pasta, rice in soups, hamburg (which are really fat beef patties), salads, and parfaits! We had the corn mayo pizza and the kinako (mushroom) rice in soup type-of-thing. Very satisfying!



Shuu-cream was a great finish to my nights in Osaka. There's the softer pastry and the crunchy crispy pastry and I personally like the crunchy one though the soft one isn't bad either. I can't promise you which one you'll get because the texture varies with stores, but nonetheless all shuu-creams are yummy!

Nara: serenity at your eyes

Nara, beautifully adorned with warm autumn colours, this city and countryside shone with a sort of nostalgia that just makes you wanna sigh a million times because of its peacefulness. A charming place to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.




My friends Natsumi (whom I met in Australia) and her friend Ayumi (whom I am now good friends with!) took a long walk around Nara, really for a festival, though we didn't get to see much of it. The Kasuga-Taisha (Kasuga Grand Shrine) is a Shinto shrine overwhelming with a Japanese beauty despite it being located in the city. It was my first time visiting this shrine and I adored it! Let the pictures speak for themselves.



Of course, on the way there are few stalls where they sell deer rice-crackers (as Nara is known for their deers; you'd see them wondering around everywhere!). One of the stalls sell roasted purple sweet potato where it costs about 400 yen for every 200g so it can cost quite a bit depending on how big the potato you get is. You could always share! Very traditonal, steaming hot hot hot, and so yummy on cold days!



We also couldn't not have Mitarashi dango which are sweet soy sauce coated rice balls, roasted and caramelised over fire! You definitely cannot give this a pass! 300 yen for one stick with 3 balls.



Mentaiko spaghetti. Mentaiko is spicy marinated pollack roe - very small balls but lots of them! If you've tried your normal fish roe at sushi train back in your country, it's quite like that but with a spicy taste. Cream sauce and a bit of spiciness made this a satisfying pasta.

Christmas balls: Moser Roth

I received a pack of never-heard-of-before branded Christmas balls from my kids and they were very very indulgent! Some good balls right there. I had the milk chocolate and praline ones, and while both are of course delish, I would have to go with the praline. They are exceptionally addictive and cute because they have patterns engraved into these lovely balls. These are from ALDI (made in Germany) and I reckon they great Chrissy treats for your friends!

By the way, I am currently in Japan so I will keep this blog updated about all Japanesy things whenever I have access to the net!

Clothes rampage!

I had two of my Japanese friends, Mishan (L) and Misu (R) stay over at my place for about a week, and we thought we'd have some photo fun! Here are some of my fav photos :)

(Please excuse the mess in my room!)