I♥栃木

Tochigi residents are sure nice people. Don't believe me? A random comment of mine over at  Yoshi's Extracting Abstract and the dear Anna (and Yoshi too) of Budget Trouble really took the trouble to send me not one, not two but three absolutely awesome I♥Tochigi T-Shirts. 

Aren't the t-shirts cool? Me, being a brat just couldn't resist showing them off to friends and colleagues over at the office. (I gave my office address because seems like I've been missing quite a few mails that was sent to my house address).

No photo of me or the hubs here. I look fat so I won't be showing off my fat self any time soon!

Can't wait to visit Tochigi one day and you bet we'll wear the t-shirts there! ^-^

This is my "show-off I got cool friends over in Japan"  post and I thought of putting it up for a third entry this week for Budget Trouble's : Show Me Japan. Well, never mind. Can't be too greedy. ^^! Anyhoo, check the link for awesome Japan posts.

Fresh Wasabi!

One of those things you think about Japan - sushi and the condiment: wasabi. Some of us only ever see the green paste form and not the root form.

Found these on sale at the cable car station, on the way up to Mount Mitake.  Sure ain't cheap, these horseradish.

Fresh leaves of wasabi can also be eaten and have some of the hot flavor of wasabi roots. The leaves can be dried and used for flavour in foods such as salad dressing, cheese, and crackers or pickled fresh in sake brine or soy sauce. I read somewhere that there's wasabi wine sold  in some Japanese specialty stores as well as a higher alcohol content Wasabi liqueur.How does it taste, I wonder?

I put this photo up after eating a strongly wasabi flavoured "ika wasabi" a manager in my department bought for us as souvenir from her trip to Hokkaido.Sure cleared the nasal passage, eating these.

The Aizenkatsura Tree

Visiting the Kitamuki Kanon Temple, I was enthralled by this majestic looking tree. This Aizenkatsura tree was designated by Nagano Prefecture as a natural monument in 1939. It is said that a Buddhist deity, Avalokitesvara (Guan Yin) changed form to this tree some 1,200 years ago.

The tree leaves bears the shape of hearts, and there's a believe that single people who came to the tree will meet their perfect partner there. You should know that Kitamuki Kannon is also unusual in that she is said to answer prayers for this life rather than the next.

Aaaah.... the tree of love. The tree's name from the Aizen Myoo (The Japanese god of love/Ragaraja/Airan Mingwang) and was given by the master artist Kawaguchi Matsutaro. Aizen Myoo is known to transform worldly lust into spiritual awakening.

Another "romantic" spot one can visit here is the Nogura Couple Dosojin, some 20 minutes walk from Bessho Onsen. Don't you just go aaaawwww looking at the statue. :) 

They do say that Dosojin are worshipped for bringing fertility and children's growth apart from warding off danger near village borders and crossroads.

More Sushi - For Dinner

OK, so we ate sushi for lunch at Sushi Zanmai  in Asakusa earlier. You didn't think that was the only time we visited Sushi Zanmai while in Japan, did you?

We made a return visit for dinner too. This time, instead of sitting at the counter, we chose to sit at a table.

Sitting at the counter meant that the all orders are directed to the sushi chef who will be taking your order personally. At the table, you get this huge menu and it's in multiple language and you fill up the chit/order form (or whatever) to order. Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese in one menu - now, you wouldn't have any problem ordering, right?

We ordered a bowl of clam  miso soup (or something). I need to look for the receipt to confirm but I'm lazy.

Some sushi - ika (squid), tako (octopus) and sake (salmon). I must say, ika and tako together on a platter don't make good photo subjects. All that whiteness!  Well, I am not a great photographer either otherwise, even white food would look great.

The staff will always ask whether you want the wasabi or to exclude them. For us, we want wasabi on the side because although Mommy loves wasabi (it clears her sinus.LOL),  Raimie can't take them.

Anago (conger eel) and kohada (gizzard shad). I like anago better than unagi because of anago's softness and the apparent lack of bones.

yummy yummy

followed by my fave - uni (sea urchin)! And tamago (egg) & bintoro (albacore tuna or pink tuna). Oh bliss. I miss those uni. Eating good uni in KL can be an exorbitantly expensive affair!

and more order of the yummy, melt-in-my mouth bintoro tuna, ika and salmon. Our tummies were happy. I would love to order the fatty tuna variety but there was no promotion for the fatty tuna and it'd be a tad expensive for us to eat them so we settled for those pink tuna. Pink tuna or fatty tuna, I was satisfied.

How do you tell the staff you finished eating and want a check? Just catch one's eyes and make a cross sign across your chest with your arms to mark you are finished.  Go to the cashier and pay afterwards. Simple.

We are definitely eating here again this year! If we managed to stash away some extra dough for the trip, that is. ;)

Anyway, we've been talking about the next trip, Zaini and I. Maybe we'll just hit Osaka and below the next time we go to Japan. Zaini wanted to get onboard the new shinkansen. ^^

All For Peace

Point a camera at me, and the "peace" sign will automatically come up without hesitation. I should try and vary my poses. But it's kinda hard to control my hands and stop my fingers from forming that V sign. LOL

p.s. this is my excuse of putting up my old photos of my "younger self" up in this blog. Haha Cheesy, I know.

Bear with me. This is after all MY BLOG.

An enlightening post on Japan next, I promise. :D

A Fleeting View Of Japan

Sure makes a long-distance trip on the numerous train rides we took more interesting . Who needs personal video entertainment system or handheld games when you have these out your window? I keep my camera in tight grip though, while staring out of the window, ready to press the shutter button. ^^

This is my second post for Budget Trouble's : Show Me Japan. this week.

Kitamuki Kanon Temple

Located in Bessho Onsen, Kitamuki Kanon Temple or north-facing hall of the Goddess of Mercy; was founded in the Heian Period (8th-9th century) by Jikaku, the chief priest of Enryakuji Temple, Hieizan. A rare construction in Japan with the hall facing north, it is said that if people visit Zenkoji Temple, which faces south, to pray for their future and happiness after death, and do not pray for divine favor for the present by visiting the north-facing hall　of the Goddess of Mercy, their devotions will be unbalanced. 

If you remember my posts about Bessho Onsen earlier, we visited this temple on Day 10 of our trip to Japan.  More posts on the area can be found here.

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This is a post for  Budget Trouble : Show Me Japan. Click the link for more awesome Japan-related blogs.

A Night Of Terror

My son loves his haunted house rides. When we visited Tokyo DisneySea last year,  he kept bugging us to go up the Tower Of Terror.

We didn't manage to get our hands on the Fastpass for this particularly popular ride, so before we got in the Tower of Terror, we experienced the terror of looooooong queue. How long?

Need I say more? Actually, this wasn't as bad as the time we were in line for the Monsters, Inc. ride at Tokyo Disneyland in 2009.  o.O

The Tower seen during the daylight

The queue. We were not even halfway there yet!

The Tower, after the sun came down.

The Tower of Terror is an awesome drop ride.  "Plunging" down in the eerie elevator ride when it's already dark was much better than doing it during the day. The view of illuminated theme park was really lovely from the tower. That is of course, if your eyes were open and you take a breather from all your screaming. LOL

Sushi For Lunch

All those posts about the food we enjoyed while vacationing in Japan last year, we have yet posted anything on sushi, haven't we? It's just to show that contrary to popular belief, Japanese food is not about just eating raw food. Well, it is, and more. There are plenty of awesome cuisine that one can experience and taste while in Japan and most of them were, in fact - cooked!

We waited till the last few days of our trip to finally step in a sushi place. It was intentional because eating sushi can be a rather expensive affair! And we didn't want to splurge so early in the trip.

Our favourite place to get our sushi fix in Japan is Sushi Zanmai in Asakusa. The place offers sushi at affordable price. No revolving belt here - everything is made to order! Read about our visits there in 2009 here and here.

I've also written about us being mistaken as tourists from different parts of the world - mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. When we were shown to our seats at the counter, the chef asked us whether we were from US! Now that's new! His second guess was spot on. He guessed correctly that we were from Malaysia! Yeay! There must have been Malaysians eating sushi there before us, eh?

See those sushi platter on promotion in the menu? That was the two sets what we ordered for lunch.

It was great watching the sushi chef was making our order right in front of us. He'd make a few and gestured for us to start enjoying them. I sheepishly told him I wanted to wait for all the sushi to be lined up in front of me and he understandingly said - ahh... for photo! Yes! For photo. We are tourists after all.

Those we got in the photo above did nothing to satisfy our lust for sushi, and we actually ordered more afterwards. All in all, I think we spent about 3 to 4,000yen for lunch. A huge amount for us to be spending. But regret, we certainly did not. It was well worth the money spent.

p.s mizu (water) is free, ocha (green tea) is not here. ;)