This is mostly Japanese language learning. I took a short break on Latin American Spanish but went back to Japanese.
Next stop, 365 days. It’ll happen, because Duo threatens me daily from a widget on my Home Screen.
Getting there
Tag: Japanese
Hokkaido Cheese Waffle
This was delicious. It’s not as good as a mochi donut from KAI Sweets, but it was a nice treat for today, and something different than what we usually get.
I enjoy that Mitsuwa Marketplace runs fairs occasionally. The fact that we can’t get this item all the time makes it more special.
Mitsuwa Marketplace itself is undergoing some renovations right now. It was kind of disappointing, because we wanted to get sushi rice but the rice wasn’t out on the shelves. The cooler where the mochi is kept was off too, as was the cooler for the alcohol. I’m not sure what the coolers have to do with the renovations being done, but they are putting in new lighting so I guess they had to turn that circuit off.
I’m looking forward to seeing what the place looks like when the renovations are completed. The ceiling they’re putting in is dark, which seems like a weird choice to me. It seems like you’d want a grocery store to be brightly colored and brightly lit.
SMISKI Collectibles – Series 4 Box
There is a Kinokuniya bookstore across the river in Edgewater, NJ. We stumbled onto it while we were looking for the Trader Joe’s that’s a few minutes up the road. Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore. The first time I visited one was with my wife in Singapore. They have a large selection of Japanese and English language books, magazines, and manga.
The Kinokuniya in Edgewater also has a stationary consignment shop inside that is pretty nice. The shop is located in the same shopping center as Mitsuwa Shopping Center, a Japanese grocery store with a food court. Mitsuwa is pretty cool, too. I like walking down the aisles and looking at the products. They also carry items that we already enjoy like Ito Ten roasted rice green tea and Yakult, a probiotic drink.
Anyway, Kinokuniya is set up so that when you walk in, you’re in a section with a bunch of cute knickknacks and collectibles. One of those collectibles is called Smiski – Opens Japanese language website. It’s basically a blind-box item, where you open a box and get a random version of the collectible.
When I saw them, I was reminded of these forest spirit things from an animated movie called Princess Mononoke.
After a few visits, I decided that I wanted to buy one and open it. I don’t know why, but I like the idea of having them on my bookcases, or in random places in the apartment. It would be fun.
I picked a series 4 box. I was hoping to get the guy laying down with a smaller Smiski sitting on his head, but I got this guy that’s climbing up the edge of my books, which is also fun.
They’re supposed to glow in the dark, but I haven’t noticed that happening with mine. I don’t think it’s defective, though. The spot it’s sitting in doesn’t get much natural light.
I’m looking forward to picking up more of these. Maybe once a month?
Namie Amuro’s Coke Zero Ads
Once known as the “Teen Queen” and referred to as the “Queen of Japanese Pop Music”, Amuro Namie is a singer, entertainer and former actress. She started out young, debuting as an idol in a group called the Super Monkey’s (that’s a fun name!) at the age of 14. She’s one of the longest surviving popular female acts in Japan and is the only female artist to have had a Top 10 single each year for 14 years straight. Not bad!
I’m just getting into the whole J-pop thing. My experiences with Japanese culture have been restricted mostly to anime, manga, some history courses and video games, so I wasn’t familiar with her work. I did recognize her name though.
I first found out about this ad campaign here in the Philippines when I saw a poster (pictured below) hanging up while waiting for a ride back to my neighborhood.
And here’s the corresponding TV commercial, though it looks this one ran in Japan rather than here in the Philippines:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=llbIJxL6wUo
Not bad for a 33 year old woman with a 13 year old son, huh? Almost makes me want to drink Coke Zero, but I can’t stand the stuff. I prefer the regular version, which I like to call Fatboy Supreme, because it’ll put some weight on you pretty quick if you’re not careful.
I can’t say I’m too crazy about the song, but if you’re interested, here’s the full HD video of “Wild”, which is what the Coke Zero advertising campaign is based on.
The Sake Inn
The Sake Inn isn’t actually an inn, though it would be a good name for one with a free sake gimmick. The Sake Inn is a store in Singapore that sells mostly sake, but it’s also where I picked up the canned drinks I showed in a previous post. I’ve never actually tried sake before, though I’m interested. My wife and I bought a bottle of sake from a Spring Kyushu Fair in another mall in Singapore, but never had the opportunity to drink it. We got busy with packing and wound up giving it away as a gift. Maybe next time.
I was impressed with the amount of Japanese goods that were available in Singapore. Besides sake stores there were Japanese themed bakeries, restaurants and clothing stores, like Uniqlo. I’m a little disappointed that there isn’t as much available here in the Philippines, but maybe I’m just not looking in the right places yet. If you’re wondering where in Singapore this sake store is, it’s in the basement of Tampines 1, located right next to the MRT station.
Samurai Car Paint Job
There was a car that was always parked near our place in Singapore that had a really cool paint job on it, consisting of the Japanese rising sun symbol and a samurai. It’s possible that the owner of the car is Japanese. I never met him. It’s probably more likely that the person is just interested in Japanese culture and history.
The paint job was very well done and I liked the style, so I went ahead and took a photo of it.
Canned Japanese Juice Drinks
Ok, so one of them isn’t really a juice drink, but I love coffee so I couldn’t resist picking one up. I bought these at a shop in Singapore that specialized in Japanese canned drinks and sake. They were on a 10 for 10 SGD sale so I figured, why not?
They were all pretty good, but I liked the Grape and Apple the best, probably because they’re the flavors of juice that I grew up drinking in the US. The only one I actually didn’t care for too much was the Grapefruit juice. It was a bit rough. I think I could’ve used it to remove paint from the walls. I’ve never liked grapefruit too much though. When I used to eat it at my grandmother’s house I’d have to douse it in sugar to bury that harsh, acidic taste.
Naruto Ramen Soup
If you look at the red underlined portion under the menu item ‘Batchoy’ you’ll see that the ramen includes ‘naruto’. I don’t watch Naruto but I was really amused when I saw this. I was wondering if it was a typo or if there actually is something called ‘naruto’. Well, turns out that naruto is a type of kamaboko, which has the following definition on Wikipedia:
Kamaboko|蒲鉾 is a type of cured surimi, a Japanese processed seafood product, in which various white fish are pureed, combined with additives such as MSG, formed into distinctive loaves, and then steamed until fully cooked and firm.
It looks like this:
Public Domain picture via Wikipedia. Originally uploaded by Kinori.
Looks like I’ve eaten naruto quite a few times without even realizing it!
One other thing I thought worth mentioning is that there’s also a town called Naruto on the eastern end of the island of Shikoku in Japan.
Spring Kyushu Fair
These are pictures from the Spring Kyushu Fair held in late March to early April of this year in Singapore. This is what I meant about being agitated about not having a Japan blog, because I should have posted them then. This is a bit dated, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway!
The fair’s banner was hanging in the center section of the Tampines Mall. Tampines Mall is set up as round levels with an open center.
This is the view from above, from I think the third floor. The fair was set up in the middle of the mall and was jam packed with people every single day.
I was shocked at how expensive these arus melons from Miyazaki were. If you look at the blue text on the sign you can see that 49 SGD was already the marked down price from their usual 60 SGD. I think we went on the last day of the fair. I tried to do a little research on the melon but there’s little available, through Google anyway. What I did find says that the arus melon is considered “The King of Japanese Fruits” and is highly sought after as a gift for its fragrance, beautifully netted skin and great taste.
There was a booth selling selections of fine tea. I kinda wish I’d bought some now that I look at the photo.
Photos of the crowds and some of the booths.
A lot of the booths were doing cooking on the spot, like this booth, where a girl was preparing takoyaki balls.
And what Japan fair would be complete without a booth selling sake? The sake he was holding was actually really, really good and I wanted a bottle of it but he had already sold out. He didn’t mind letting me have a few shots from the sample bottle though, which was pretty cool of him. We wound up getting a sparkling rose sake for my wife, but got so busy with getting ready for our trip to the Philippines at the beginning of May that we we gave it away as a gift instead.
I’m looking forward to visiting another Japan-related Fair. Hopefully there’ll be one in Manila sometime soon!
Japanese Sesson Grill at Manpuku, Tampines 1
We’ve gone to Manpuku quite a few times, but we still haven’t tried everything the place has to offer. That’s not so much for lack of opportunity, but lack of desire. You see, Manpuku as an establishment has slowly been going downhill.
When Manpuku first opened, the place was packed all the time. It was fresh, it was clean, the decor was awesome and the food was a novelty. Unfortunately, most of the choices weren’t anything to get excited about, especially for the prices they were charging. Most of it is little better than hawker food.
A few months ago, I’m not sure exactly when, Manpuku’s customer base shrunk to the point that they did away with the charge card system. It used to be that when you arrived you would queue up to wait for seating and to get a charge card. You would use the card to pay for the items you wanted from the various booths inside. Then, before leaving you went through a register check-out lane, kinda like in a grocery store. That’s where you settled your bill. Now, you just walk in and pay at the specific booth you want to eat from, either cash or NETS. If you want to use a credit card you still use the original charge card system. I suppose that system became more of a hassle than it was worth in regards to having extra employees just to ring up the bills and the owner realized it would be more cost effective to have individual booth workers handle their own cash payments.
With the lower patronage comes lower standards it seems. The trays are usually covered in a white grime and the eating utensils still have residue on them when you pick them up. It makes me wonder if they even use washing soap or if they just rinse them with water. I’ve also had trouble communicating with some of the employees lately.
Despite these issues, there are still a few gems to be found there. The ramen from Aoba Hokkaido Ramen is pretty good but we wanted to try something different, so we went to Japanese Sesson Grill, which is in the corner near the MRT tracks.
The food is a bit pricey. Individual kabobs were between 2.50 and 3 bucks apiece, which seems expensive given their size. We settled on having a set meal that came with five skewers, rice and miso soup for 13 SGD. It seemed a fair enough price to pay for what we were getting.
One good thing about Manpuku falling out of public favor is that it’s less crowded and you can actually have a quiet sort of meal there. We went to the very corner, overlooking the MRT station area. It was even a bit cozy feeling there.
The food itself was better than I hoped it would be. It’s nothing to get too excited about but I definitely felt that I’d gotten what I paid for and left satisfied.
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