Happy Halloween!

Best costume of the year!

Japan Trip, Oct 2006 - First Dinner

Since Ms YI's wedding is held in Okayama, we took the train to Okayama as soon as we arrived in Japan. We arrived in Okayama at around 6 o'clock that evening.

Ms YI was nice enough to come around to catch up for a short while (that was the night before her wedding) and she took me to a tempura restaurant, which she promised me would be very good. She can't stay with us for dinner but she ordered for us, so that we are getting the proper Japanese experience.

The small family-run restaurant is in a quiet residential area. It was not TOO far from the station and the hotel (15 mins drive?). But taking into consideration that Okayama is not really a city (more like a town), the area was considered suburban. There were no touristy things to do around that area so SP and I would not have ventured out to that area by ourselves.

We had some rice wine to begin with. I don't think it was sake, but I don't remember what it is anymore. And apparently, it is customary for the locals to start off with a beer. So we did both. hahaha

The food is prepared over the counter and it is freshly prepared as we go. The dishes arrived one by one, which included miso soup, tofu, tempura fish, tempura prawn, tempura mushroom(!!), eggplant with miso etc... The various tempura also have individual matching sauce/condiment, which is a new concept to me. One of the tempura fish is matched with Japanese curry salt while another type of fish is matched with special salt.

Tempura fish with special salt.

The tempura was definitely different from what I used to having in Hong Kong or Australia. It is far superior! The batter is light yet crunchy. The ingredients are fresh and is well-matched with the sauce/condiment and the Sake.

Now, what deserves a special mention is the Sake. We knew that Ms YI has ordered this especially for us and it is the good stuff.

We didn't know it was going to be this good. The Sake is the best that we've had, by far! And even though we tried a fair range of Sake during the rest of the trip (which were also very good), it can't be compared to this 'stuff'!

SP with his new love. We have never tasted Sake which is soooo good.

 
This is the bottle of Sake. It is from a small brewery and it is not available publicly.

Update (10 Mar 2007): The details of the sake: 翠露・純米大吟醸酒（生酒原酒）. Desc:: 気品ある舌触りに花の吟醸香、豊かな甘味が調和する高貴なる名酒（長野）

SP and I were contemplating whether to get another serving of the Sake towards the end of the meal. At that time, we were jet-lag and had already drank a fair bit. So, in the end, we decided to leave it, hoping that we would find other good Sake during the rest of the trip.

Now, this Sake can only live in our dreams!

Thanks you Ms YI and her mother for the meal! It has been the best tempura that we've had!

Update (10 Mar 2007): : I've found a slip of paper from Ms YI with the name of the place on it.

Here are the details:

Name: 天婦羅たかはし (Tempura Takahashi)
Address: 岡山県岡山市京町8-1
Telephone: 086-223-8452

Away again

I am going away this weekend. No updates until next week! :)

Japan Trip, Oct 2006 - First Meal

Between our train trip from Narita to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Okayama, we had 1.5 hour break.

We wasted no time in finding some 'authentic' Japanese food.

We took a walk around the Tokyo train station. When we walked past the big silver bell, we saw a restaurant packed with 'local' people. It offers set lunch for travellers. It appears to be the most popular establishment around.

So SP and I walked it and waited for our table. We both ordered sashimi on rice set.

 

A few things which we've noticed:

(1) The miso soup is different from what we are used to having. The miso is a little lighter. A couple of slices of lime peel is added to the soup, making it more refreshing.

(2) The wasabi is very grainy and STRONG. SP took just a little dab and he was totally shocked. He limited his wasabi consumption from then on.

(3) There were an unidentifiable 'leaf' sitting on the top of the rice. At first, SP saw the person next to us have left the leave untouched, so we decided to treat it as a garnish.



Later on, we saw a few others who actually ate the leaves! Either way, we didn't know what the leaf is and whether it is supposed to be consumed. It tastes herbal :p

If you know what the leaf is, please let me know!

Japan Trip, Oct 2006 - How to use a trolley on the escalator

We landed in Tokyo, Japan the day before Ms YI's wedding. Her wedding is held in Okayama, so we need to take a couple of train rides.

The train system is very efficient in Japan, and the seat booking system is fairly easy to use. 

There was something odd about the airport train station though.

As we enter the train station area, we saw people using their airport lugguage trolley/cart on the escalator. SP and I immediately thought some people are being stupid and causing danger to the general public!

However, when we got to the other end of the escalator, we noticed the following poster:

The activity is officially sanctioned (and encourgaed!) by the Japanese authority!!!

SP and I was the silly one unloading the lugguage at the top end of the escalator. hahaha

On our way out of Japan, we tried using the trolley on the escalator. It seemed quite safe going up. We are not sure about the other way round though.

Do you know of any places which allow the use of trolleys on the escalator?

Japan Trip, Oct 2006 - DoCoMo Dake

Japanese loves their characters. And I like some of their characters too!

DoCoMo created the "DoCoMo Dake" character in the recent years. Suddenly, it became a hit!

Dake (take) means mushroom in Japanese. It also has the dual meaning of "only". So, "DoCoMo Dake" can be taken as meaning thatthe DoCoMo service package is unique.

I first saw the character when I was travelling with my newly-wed friend, Ms YI. As she was leaving us to go home to her husband, she taught me a very direct way of asking for the DoCoMo Dake freebies.

My target was of course the big soft-toy in pink!

On my first attempt, the guy was a bit shocked, and then he slowly went to the back office to search for a small Dake. It is decorated with the autumn leaves, which is a local theme of the moment. (Japanese loves their autumn leaves. More on that later)

[Photo to come]

The Dake character has seasonal theme. So the one just past (before autumn leaves) was a school-boy Dake. And there was a Dake with a watermelon (probably for summer) and Dake with a strawberry! I really want to collect a series of the character.

Unforunately, I wasn't so lucky on my second, third, fourth attempts at the different DoCoMo shops. They have simply ran out, or so I was told.

Anyway, I was glad that I can take a Dake home as a sovenir. Thanks Ms YI!

On a side note, KDDI (au) also created a character, called "au shika". Shika means deer in Japanese but it also has the dual meaning of "only". Of course, their new service offerings are also unique! The "au shika"'s favourite food is the mushroom and it eats mushroom with enthusiam. The character has since disappeared because the Japanease do not like this kind of competitive aggression. Nevertheless, the whole competitive character thing is very amusing.

We are back!

There are much to write about!

Please bear with us though. We have got a few trips planned for the coming weeks! :P 

Watch this space!