We Love Calpis!

One of the drinks available in Japan that the three of us love is Calpis. The name Calpis derived from word combination of calcium and "salpis", a sanskrit word suggesting the ripening and fermenting of milk, or refinement of flavor.

Yummy, milky drink with ingredients that include water, non-fat dry milk and lactic acid.

Some people say that the name Calpis sounded too much like cow piss... to which I agree. But that didn't stop me from liking this drink. Now... Pocari Sweat on the other hand, I had doubts drinking just because I always felt like I'll be drinking and tasting sweat once I chugged one; although it sure doesn't tatste like that. LOL

We decided on a splurge and went to Jusco to buy a bottle of Calpis the other day. (Seems like we are splurging quite a lot lately...)

That bottle in the first photo cost us 268yen (about RM10). A bottle in Jusco here in Kuala Lumpur will set you back RM19.90. Not bad lah considering these drinks came all the way from Japan but would you buy an almost RM20 of milky water? We did!

We bought some 500ml Calpis Soda a few days earlier (or was it last week?) that was on sale at 50% less (the drinks were nearing their expiry dates) and we just want to drink more so we got a couple more bottles a few days later.

Our latest acquisition : a peach flavoured & lemon flavoured calpis. Enjoy!

What's your favourite Calpis (or Calpico) drink?

A Day Of Retail Therapy In Karuizawa

After spending a night at Taenoyu Onsen, enjoying the onsen then taking the steam locomotive and being swamped by people in Omotesando, it was time for some retail therapy for us. Armed with our JR East Passes, we took the shinkansen to Karuizawa, about an hour and half from Tokyo.
Me, in front of Karuizawa station before embarking on our retail therapy session. Karuizawa is an upmarket mountain resort at the foot of the active volcano Mount Asama. Apart from the shopping opportunities that we were there for, there are various outdoor activities, such as tennis, hiking, cycling, golfing in summer and skiing and skating in winter that can be enjoyed in Karuizawa.

We spent almost a day just walking from shops to shops. The first shop we went in was Nike Factory Outlet. You bet I acted like a girl in a candy shop here. I simply love my Nike stuff. I'm decked in Nike from top to toe when I hit the gym, after all. Despite my grand intention to do some serious shopping here, I only bought a skirt, a boot and a Nike gym bag. Zaini did more damage to his wallet buying one stuff that wasn't in his shopping list. At the Nike shop, he got himself a new pair of pants. We also bought Giants T-Shirts (got one for Zaini as his birthday present which was on Sep 23rd) at Adidas shop. Went completely ga-ga drooling over designer goods, but luckily I was sane enough to stop myself from going on a mad shopping spree. I was reluctant to even enter the Coach boutique but somehow can't resist after Zaini's prodding. I wish I have more $$$ to spend!!! Zaini spent a bit of time at the BAPE store; trying out stuff, but ended up not buying anything there.

If you are looking for something to eat, you might want to consider this one. A popular ekiben which was first sold in Karuizawa, it is called kamameshi, and are still sold in nearby stations. It contains mountain vegetables and chicken cooked with rice in an earthenware pot. The pots make a nice souvenir to bring home.

The earthenware ekiben was kept heated and you get a hot meal when you purchase them. We witnessed a huge queue at a stall selling this ekiben. And each customer seemed to buy more than one. Impressive.

Zaini's big splurge. A foldable Hummer bike he got for 18,980yen. He forgo his intention to buy a miniature train set (which was almost the same price as the bike) to get this. I wanted to buy the train set for him as a surprise birthday gift, but sad to say, I can't afford them. :(

Bento For Lunch And A Trip To Kasukabe

After our trip to the museum, we decided to head to Kasukabe in Saitama. Any Crayon Shin-Chan fans would know that Kasukabe is where the anime is set in and Shin-chan's creator, Yoshito Usui also lived in Kasukabe.A brightly coloured monorail plying the route to get to the Railway Museum and Omiya Station.

My lunch for the day - a bento bought from a nearby konbini. Delicious! Both Raimi and I had our lunch at the bus stop outside Omiya station. We were so hungry that we couldn't wait any longer and scoffed our food in a matter of minutes! Well, actually it was me who nearly had a meltdown due to hunger. Haha

Raimie had onigiri. He does love his onigiris, which is a rice ball. A great on-the-go snack.

At Kasukabe station. We went around the nearby area to sightsee. No, there's no Shin-Chan statues or whatnot to be seen anywhere, if anyone is wondering or looking, except for the odd Shin-Chan ad like the photo above.

We found an Ito-Yokado branch here and I went on a shopping spree. It's funny that for the past few years, whenever we went to Ito Yokado, I always ended up buying Hello Kitty undies. Can't find them during this visit even though Zaini wanted to buy some for my birthday. Pity...

We found some bargains for Raimie - Kamen Rider and Shinkenja t-shirts at a low price there. Just 300yen for a Kamen Rider t-shirt! We even got some souvenirs to bring back home cheap here, which some of you reading might have gotten them already by now.

Stairs, Stairs And More Stairs

A friend is flying off to Japan for a 10-day holiday with her siblings today. Apart from helping her out with the Tokyo itinerary and dumping all sorts of brochures for her to read, I gave her one piece of advice as she intended to use the vast, highly efficient train system to get around. Be prepared to climb a lot of stairs in Japan. That, and reminding her to collect all those free tissue packets.

While there were escalators and elevators in bigger stations, smaller stations just have those concrete stairs for you to climb up and down. Just looking at all those stairs, especially the narrow ones was enough to make one dizzy! LOL

Make sure your thigh muscle can stand climbing all those stairs, ya. And good upper body strength too, if you need to carry your child (maybe plus a stroller) up, like I did sometimes!

It may not be much of a problem without luggage, but imagine lugging around heavy bags up all those flights of stairs. It sure wasn't something to look forward to, climbing up stairs after getting off from a train from a particularly tiring day of sightseeing. Ugh...

Anyway, people seems to be heading off to Japan left right centre over here. Apart from this friend, a colleague will be heading off in Feb next year. One is thinking to go. One is in Japan as I write this. And they all blame me for their trip. LOL If it's true, then I make a good (albeit FOC) ambassador for Japan tourism, no? *^-^*

Enjoyable Time At The Tetsudō Hakubutsukan (Railway Museum)

The Tetsudō Hakubutsukan or the Railway Museum is an interactive museum. There are plenty of exhibits that can teach us about all things railway and how it evolves throughout history.

The Museum had different zones for exhibits; History, Learning, Entrance, Park, Collection and North Wing.

For us, after spending a grand time checking out the trains on display, going into each of them, we went to the Learning Hall.

Raimie had fun checking out all the exhibits and being a train driver at the Learning Hall. Children will not be bored spending a day here, that I can tell you.

Plenty of interactive display to show how trains work so it was such a learning experience not only for children but for adults too!

There's a mini operating train area outside that you can ride for 200yen. We took the free mini Hayate train instead. The staff was sporting enough to pose for photos with visitors.

There were a souvenir shop and restaurants inside the museum but they were so packed with people, we decided against buying anything.

Why is it that souvenir shops in Japan are always so packed and Japanese shop for souvenirs like there's no tomorrow?