どうぶつ Cute fan

Why cool yourself with a plain old fan when you can have this small brown dog cool you with his behind! I found this website called Cube Works which has four versions of these little breezy animals that will offer you a refreshing cool breeze from their behind all while looking at you with a smile. There’s also a bear, elephant and panda for you to choose from.

美少女戦士セーラームーン This brought me back to my childhood: Sailor moon gizmos

So I came across this a while ago and had it saved in my photos only to finally post it up. This really brought me back to my childhood days of waking up early enough to watch this before school and then later rushing to the tv after school to watch it again. Oh how I’m so glad with the 5 year old that I was to have fell in love with Sailor Moon. Who knew it would open up my love of Japan later down the road when the Internet came around.

かぼちゃ と みそ For lunch today, boiled kabocha and miso soup

So I finally made my own boiled kabocha and to accompany it I also made a hearty miso soup. It turned out really well so I thought I would share it.

So here how I made it!

Kabocha Ingredients:

1 kabocha
3 cups water
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp soy sauce

Wash and cut kobacha in half. Be carful since it’s super hard to cut. A good sharp knife is needed.

Take all the seeds out and peel off as much skin as you like. I left some for color (and plus I was lazy). Then cut them into about 1inch pieces.

Get a medium size pot and add water, sugar, salt, sake, mirin, soy sauce and give it a good stir. Add kabocha, boil and cover for 5mins. Leave the lid on and simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes so that they are tender but not falling apart. (I cooked them a little too long and they became a little too soft.)

Now they are ready to serve! You can add a little of the juice to the serving plate so they stay moist and flavorful.

Hearty white miso soup ingredients:

8 cups water
2 tbsp dashi no moto
1 pack of small assorted potatoes
Half a pack of enoki mushrooms
1 carrot
2 green onions
6 tbsp white miso paste

Add dashi and water to a medium to large pot and bring to a boil to dissolve dashi.

Cut small potatoes in half but leave skin on then add to the boiling water. When potatoes are tender add carrots, enoki and green onions. Boil for 4 mins.

Add miso by adding small amounts in a ladle with some dashi mixer in pot and use fork to stir till miso is dissolved. Continue this till all miso is added. (I do this to keep chunks from forming in the pot.)

Now it’s ready to serve!

レストラン Traditional Japanese restaurant in the states

The other day I was online to see if I could find a restaurant the served the traditional Kyoto style kaiseki in the New York or Philadelphia area. To my surprise I found a place that wasn’t to far. The restaurant is called Fuji and it’s in Haddonfield, NJ. My fiancé and I went there mostly because I saw they have chawan mushi which I was craving but can never find in most Japanese restaurants that mostly serve sushi and tenpura. We didn’t try the kaiseki since it was $80 and wanted to first see if the place was any good. But I can say in the end it was excellent. Even the waitress wore a kimono. Everything was amazing and I was more then happy with my chawan mushi that I was craving so bad. So I can’t wait to go back and try the kaiseki!

かんじ More food related Kanji

Here are some more food kanji I’m learning to memorize. Now when I look in a cook book I have some idea of the ingredients used.

牛肉　　ぎゅうにく  Beef

豚肉　　ぶたにく     Pork

鶏肉　　とりにく     Chicken

油　　　あぶら        Oil

ごま油　ごまあぶら  Sesame Oil

酒　　　さけ          Sake

原宿 Halloween in Japan

Halloween in Japan is becoming more popular and you can see in my photos below. I took these a few years ago in Harajuku at a Halloween parade. Also in various shops I saw many decorations for sale. One of the Lush stores at a train station in Tokyo was completely Halloween themed. All the ladies that worked there were dressed for Halloween and they sold all kinds of awesome Halloween soaps.

This little kid was asking my friend and I why a lady in the billboard looked so funny.

This dog is pretty awesome! The owner matched the dog’s costume too!

かんじ Food related kanji I’m memorizing

So starting yesterday I am on a mission to learn two or three food related kanji a day. So next time I’m in Japan I can read the Japanese menu! Here’s what I have so far.

桃 もも peach
苺 いちご strawberry
西瓜 すいか watermelon
栗 くり chestnut
卵 たまご egg
肉 にく meat

If anyone can think of some common kanji used on a menu leave me a comment.

おもしろい Barcodes of Japan

Thought these were really interesting.

しごと My dream of working in Japan-Tokyo Disney Style

About a month ago I was looking for ways to work in Japan and since I don’t have my Bachelors degree it seems a bit hard to find work. Luckily I came across the Disney website and saw Tokyo Disney, along with other Disneys, were looking for character look a likes. I was so excited just to think how fun it would be to be Cinderella or any other princess performing in parades and doing meet and greets. Though they were doing try outs across Europe and America I thought I might still have a small percent chance of making it. So Friday morning I woke up at 5:30am to head to NYC. I never wake up that early unless it has something to do with Japan! So when I got there at about 9:30 I signed in and waited for short while, then the ladies judging us came in and their were two Yoko’s, another Japanese woman, and to caucasian woman. The main Japanese woman talked and made everything seem sooooo exciting! They broke us into two groups of 60, I was 67 so I had to wait for the first 60. I was starting to get fidgety waiting but luckily I met some really nice girls to chat with. The Japanese lady came in and said they were ready for us. When our group walked by the elevator nearly the whole first 60 were leaving. Uh oh! So they put the girls on one side of the studio and the boys on the other and we learned a short character dance. It was a little difficult to keep up but I got the basics and just tried to keep smiling. At the very end they broke us down into groups of four. I did the dance but knew I didn’t have the whole thing right, oh well. In the end they thanked everyone and kept only about 7 people. Even though I didn’t make it, it was still very well worth my time and I had a great deal of fun! I can’t wait to try again next year. In the mean time though I will still be looking for ways to move to Japan and work there.

This is a photo I took on my old phone last time I was in Japan at Tokyo Disney Sea.

すごい Japanese kimono meet ups in Philadelphia

I might be crazy but I’m trying to start something: a kimono/yukata night out in the Philadelphia area.

Check out my facebook page for Cute Nippon Stlye for meet ups!