Kodomo no Nomimono - Kid Beer

Here's something you'd never seen in the US: sodas for children that are deliberately made to mimic the appearance of alcohol. Definitely one of the weirder things to show up in my local grocery store.

A friend was visiting last week, so we decided to sample a couple. I chose the "beer" soda and she got the "sparkling wine" soda. We almost forgot about them, but then on her last day we drank them for breakfast. Or should I say tried to drink them, they were super sweet and very artificial tasting (and I mean more artificial than regular artificially flavored sodas.)

I don't think I'd recommend them, but the fact that they even exist is still pretty funny.

Kodomo no Nomimono

The foam is pretty impressive looking, isn't it?

Autumn in Tokyo

I can't believe how quickly November is flying by! The leaves are all turning and I've even worn my puffy coat a few times. One of my favorite parts of fall here is the beautiful shade of yellow that all the gingko leaves turn. I love the way they make the trees look like pillars of light, and then the bright yellow blanket they make when they fall to the ground.

Fall Leaves at Hikawa Jinja

Last week I volunteered at an auction to raise money for TELL, a non profit organization that offers mental health services in English here in Tokyo. The event was at the French Embassy, and it was absolutely beautiful. I had a lot of fun meeting other people, and they raised a lot of money!

The ikebana (flower arrangements) were gorgeous

Hallway Selfie Before the Event

This past weekend we went to the Tokyo Whisky Festival which was basically a trade show of different distilleries and bars. We got to sample lots of different bourbons, scotches, and whiskys, and John even got interviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

Doesn't he look knowledgable?

And best of all, Raku is back from her long vacation! I'm so glad she was able to have a wonderful relaxing trip, but it's great to have her back.

Yay! (Notice the guy in the background that sampled too much whisky)

Summertime Sadness

When I was a kid I thought summer was the best season. I don't mean it was my favorite, I thought it was a fact that everyone all over the world understood. Maybe it's because there's no summer break to look forward to anymore, or maybe it's how unbearable Tokyo summers are, but I've reversed my opinion completely. Summer is now the season I dread for the rest of the year.

This summer hasn't been quite as awful as last year. Maybe I'm better adjusted, but I think it's actually just been slightly cooler. We're in what I hope is the very worst of it now. This past week has been the hottest week of the summer, and I've been melting. The weather report says there will be some relief next week, but I'm scared to actually believe it. This week I started seeing fall decorations in the stores and fall beer cans, but whoever decided it's time for that is delusional (or maybe just hoping for cooler weather as much as I am?)

Despite my whining, it's not all bad. This year there are frozen chu-hais in pouches sort of like capri suns. Yesterday Raku and I tried the lychee flavor. They have a wonderful slushy consistency and are really refreshing. The alcohol tastes strong, but the flavor is good too. The packaging say's it's 6% alcohol, but they're only 150 milliliters, so you won't get trashed (at least not on one).

We also had some really delicious, if slightly pricy, popsicles at Tokyo Midtown. They're sold at a new stand called Paletas. Raku had the Grape Grape (green grapes frozen in purple grape juice) and I had the White Sangria. They were absolutely gorgeous, and we both agreed the White Sangria was amazing. Raku wasn't crazy about the frozen grape texture (a little mushy), but the apples and orange slice in mine were great, and the popsicle base had a wonderful fruity cinnamon clove flavor. There are a lot of creative and delicious sounding flavors, but don't wait too late in the day or they'll be sold out. They cost 480 yen, which is silly for a popsicle, but they're worth it.  Think of it as five minute $5 vacation.

Best popsicle of my life

Frozen chu-hais = Genius!

If only it were really fall

Recent Conbini Finds

I love poking around in conbinis (convenience stores) looking for the latest seasonal flavors of snacks, laughing at weird novelty items, and finding the newest flavor of chu-hai. I don't know why I love them so much, but I really do. It's been a while since I've posted a round-up of my finds, so here's the latest.

Pasta flavored popsicles.  I haven't tried them, but I don't think I need to.

Caramel Cinnamon Mojito in a can. I didn't try this one either, but the flavor combination sounds terrible. Where do they come up with this stuff?

Blueberry Yogurt flavored Oreo bites. Alright, I should have known better than to buy this one. It was just so weird I couldn't help being curious.  They're awful.  Like oreos mixed up with flintstone vitamins.

Melon flavored chu-hais. These are delicious! Before coming to Japan I didn't care either way about melons, but now they're one of my favorite things. I hadn't seen this flavor until recently, and I can only find it at Family Mart, but if you get a chance try one!

Elderflower and Lemon Peel Sparkling Water. Sparkling water isn't a very big thing in the US is it? Or maybe just not where I grew up. I've really come to appreciate it. 7-eleven grapefruit and lemon sparkling waters have long been my favorite, but I just found this flavor today. The carbonation doesn't last quite as well as 7-eleven's, but the flavor is very floral and refreshing.

Back in the Swing of Things

I haven't been very good about blogging so far this month, have I? Now that the New Year's holidays are over it's been back to regular life - John going to work and me back to my daily working out and writing routine. It's been hard to get back into the swing of things though. I just want to go fun places or watch TV curled up under warm blankets all the time.

But just because it's been back to reality doesn't mean we haven't done anything fun. John's birthday was this week and I made him a really awesome chocolate stout cake (if I do say so myself) decorated with edible gold (and for the careful observer, the exact same candles that I used on his cake last year). We also had some weird "champagne" (and I use that term loosely).  Around New Year's a lot of stores sell fukubukuro - or "Lucky Bags" that have unknown contents in them. There are some variations where you actually do know what you're getting, or you at least know the possibilities are. We did one where we bought mystery bottles of wine and the one John picked was this bright blue drink that is less alcoholic, but "based on" champagne whatever that means. The flavor was a little earthy which was jarring - with such a bright color I kept expecting it to taste like a blue raspberry slushy or something.

Speaking of weird things, I also tried a new weird snack food this week. After Raku and I tried the Sausage Doritos and the Fried Chicken Cheetos I was really excited when I found a bag of Camembert Doritos to buy her! But we tried that last night and they were terrible. Seriously, if you ever see them do yourself a favor and walk away. When we opened the bag the smell was really strong, in an unpleasant stinky cheese way. And the taste was just bizarre. They were really sweet! There must be at least as much sugar as weird cheese flavoring in them. With all the other novelty chips we've at least managed to finish the bag even if we wouldn't buy another, but with these we threw them out after one bite each.

Tomorrow is Coming of Age Day, so it's a three day weekend. I think we might celebrate by going to the spa in Yokohama. John's never been but I think it will be the perfect way to relax on a cold winter day.

Southern Food

When my sister came to visit I had her bring me some grits. I'm sure you're completely shocked to hear they're not available in the grocery stores here. I waited a few weeks trying to decide how to use them first, and finally decided to try and recreate a meal from Crook's Corner, an awesome restaurant in Chapel Hill. Shrimp and grits, and frozen mint juleps.

Doesn't that look amazing?

They have a frozen mint julep on the menu (both cocktail and dessert) that is to die for. It's a shot of bourbon over a scoop of mint sorbet, served with a tiny spoon. I've been wanting to recreate this drink for years, but I've never been able to find mint sorbet. Finally it hit me, I could just make a mint granita in the freezer and use that in it's place.

Aaaaa-mazing!

It was perfect! Almost exactly like the original. We were in heaven. For dessert, we had cheesecake (pre-made from 7-Eleven) with raspberries (from Costco). All in all, it was a fantastic meal of comfort foods.

If you're indulging, go all the way

Summer Cocktails

I can't believe that it's almost the end of August!  Just this week I've started seeing fall beers for sale, but summer is still going strong.  I've been making a few interesting summer drinks lately.

Earlier in the summer I infused a bottle of vodka with cucumber and dill fresh from my windowsill.  It makes great vodka sodas.  The dill makes it unexpectedly savory while the cucumber keeps it light and summery.

Infusing Vodka 

Then this week I got even more ambitious and juiced a watermelon.  It was a pretty messy ordeal (pureeing watermelon in a food processor and then slowly straining it through coffee filters), but the result was good.  I got over 2 liters of juice from a medium sized melon!  You can drink it on it's own over ice, or with a shot of silver rum.  John recommends two ounces of rum to 4 ounces of juice.  I think it might be even better with tequila.

Fresh Watermelon Cocktails

Tiny Case of Beer

Back in North Carolina it was pretty normal for us to buy a case of beer and just have it sitting around in the fridge.  Not so much in Japan.  Beer is almost exclusively sold individually, and on the rare occasions that I do see a case it's only ever a six pack (and roughly $2 per beer).  Can you imagine buying a 24-pack for $48?  Me neither.

Yesterday John and I found this hilarious little case of beer which was unusual both because it was a case and because it was Budweiser - which we don't see much of.  We bought it for novelty's sake.

It's so tiny!

What?  You were expecting 4?

The 4th was a coozie!

Golden Week

Golden week is a series of holidays that fall close together in the spring, and this year it fell as a three day weekend followed by a four day weekend.  John and I didn't do anything in particular, but we had a fun time relaxing and enjoying the extra time together.

Early in the week we made a trip out to Kawasaki and signed up for a Costco membership.  It's exactly like the US, except there are a bunch of Japanese products for sale as well.  But we bought a lot of produce and John found an enormous bag of chocolate chips.

So many chocolate chips!

Another evening we went to a beer garden selling frozen beer.  To be honest, the concept was great but the evening was a little too cold to enjoy it properly.  The frozen beer itself didn't taste great, but it kept the beer underneath (a huge glass, by the way) delightfully cold.  I think it would be excellent on a hot afternoon.

And every once in a while you need a bottle of champagne in the morning to go with some pancakes like we did on Saturday.

Perfect weekend brunch

Speaking of pancakes, John prefers "pancake" syrup while I prefer maple syrup, and I will argue forever that the real thing is better.  But I have to admit that the pancake syrup here has an amazing bottle with a spout that pours both a thick and a thin stream of syrup.

Lots of syrup?

Or a little.  Cool, right?

After our boozy brunch we decided to rearrange the furniture in our living room.

It seems more social this way

Besides that, I've been cooking a lot.  When we moved here I found a food blog - Tokyo Terrace - by another expat in Tokyo that I really liked, but unfortunately she had moved back to the US and wasn't writing anymore.  But just recently she started up a new blog - Set the Table - that I've really been enjoying.  I'm putting up pictures of the recipes I followed, but her photos are waaay better than mine.

I've made her Brussels Sprouts that are cooked with soy and pineapple.  They paired really nicely with pork chops and mashed potatoes.

We got the brussels sprouts at Costco

I also made her Bacon and Egg Polenta.  I'd never eaten polenta before, and wasn't sure what I'd think, but it was amazing!  John and I both enjoyed it and I can't wait to make it again.

So delicious!

When I was making the eggs for the polenta I cracked one open and discovered it had two yolks!  I've never seen that before.  Of course, I immediately broke one of them, but I think you can still tell in the photo.

Grapefruit Obsession

You know what fruit doesn't get enough attention?  The grapefruit.  Before coming to Japan I never really thought about it.  Once in a while John and I would drink grapefruit juice (and Simply Grapefruit is undeniably delicious) but I never sought it out.  In Japan however, grapefruit is a very popular flavor.

7-Eleven has a line of sparkling waters, and the grapefruit is excellent.  It was this drink that first made me realize how much I love grapefruit.

Delicious!  And only 88 yen.

Once I was paying attention I started noticing common grapefruit is as a flavor.  Peach is also a very popular fruit, but I see grapefruit everywhere.

I think this is a seasonal flavor

I like the concept - but they're not the best.

 One of my favorite bakeries - Maison Kayser - has even introduced a grapefruit pastry.

Being french they call it "pamplemousse"

My second favorite grapefruit product (after the sparkling water) is the Grapefruit Chuhai.  Chuhais are fruit flavored alcoholic beverages, that can actually be made as a cocktail, but are mostly sold in cans.  The name comes from "ShoCHU HIgh ball" This basically tastes like grapefruit flavored Sprite.

Time for karaoke?

Sakura Cocktails

I got so caught up in the start of spring that I didn't do a very good job of blogging last week.  But never fear, I'm back.  And I've been working on sakura cocktail recipes to celebrate the cherry blossoms blooming.

The first drink John and I attempted was a Sakura Martini.  It was pretty strong, and the consensus was that you'd have to really like Gin to like this drink. Now, I really like gin, but even I thought it was a pretty intense drink.  It might be better with vodka, but in general it wasn't necessarily a winner.

Sakura Martini

1.5 oz Gin

0.5 oz Sakura Liqueur

Maraschino Cherry

Ice

Combine Gin and Sakura Liqueur with ice and shake well.  Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.

Next up I tried a Sakura Gin and Tonic.  It not only looked prettier, it tasted a lot better too.  I'd recommend this one.

Sakura Gin and Tonic

1.5 oz Gin

0.5 oz Sakura Liqueur

4-6 oz. Tonic Water

Maraschino Cherry

Lime Wedge

Ice

Combine the Gin and Sakura Liqueur over ice, top with tonic, garnish with a maraschino cherry and a generous lime wedge.  On a side note, did you know Tonic Water is different here in Japan?  It's not allowed to have quinine in it, so the flavor is a little different than what I'm used to.

If all else fails, Kirin's got you covered with a Sakura Wine Spritzer perfect for cherry blossom viewing.

Ao Oni (Blue Demon)

I'm sitting here, having what is in my mind a delicious beer (but apparently not according to the users on BeerAdvocate), but perhaps my tastes have been tainted by the lackluster Japanese market.

The beer is unfiltered and has a full bodied taste unlike many other beers on the Japanese market. The nose is malty with some hints of citrus (but mostly malts). Once it hits your tongue its still pretty malty (as far as west coast IPAs go) but has a good amount of hops to balance it out. I would comment on the mouth feel, but no one cares.

Apparently the owner of this brewery worked at Stone Brewery for three years, which means this beer is very bitter by Japanese standards. Importantly, this actually tastes like an American beer and is not as light and "empty" as many other Japanese beers I've had. Even the very hoppy beers I've had that are trying to copy the West Coast IPA style seem to go just for insane bitterness and forget that there are other tastes that one might like to find in a beer to balance the tastes.

I only bought one can of this (for 410 yen which is more than it goes for in America) but I think I'll be buying some more in the near future.

Food In Japan

Alright, I'm going to try to do two blogs today, one about food and one about the last part of our time here. But the food blog is going to be way easier to do, so it comes first.

The thing about food here is that sometimes it seems so normal you let your guard down, and then sometimes it is the weirdest thing you can imagine. Earlier this week John and I went to an awesome American style pizza place where we got greasy pepperoni pizza and legitimate ceasar salad. It was so good! But you have to be very careful with pizza, mayonnaise and corn are both normal pizza toppings here.

John already told you about the cheddar cheese disaster. We had both been craving it, and it's not served anywhere. But I found some in the stores. Generally it comes in a block about the size of a deck of cards and costs 900 yen ($9-10.) I almost bought some, but then I saw they had kraft brand, which I bought because I recognized it. Seriously, do you see any warnings that this is not real cheddar cheese?

But this is what we found inside:

It's American cheese. Who on earth would want to eat a wedge of American cheese that thick?

Another thing Japanese people love is packaging. Everything is packaged! And then when you buy it, they might wrap it again, put it in a bag, tape the bag shut, and then give it to you. For example, these apples have been put in individual cushioned holders, placed two in a box, and then the box was wrapped in plastic.

An individually packaged lime

My personal favorite the "Monkey Banana"

Complaining and making fun aside, a lot of the food here is really good. Freshness is very important here, so the food is always very high quality, and the presentation is usually beautiful! Even if the food doesn't taste great it always looks delicious. At lunchtime many people buy prepackaged meals (called bento) that are usually very good. Several options I have tried are rice with a scrambled egg on top with curry beside it, slices of chicken with a sort of egg salad dressing with rice and vegetables, or cucumber and egg sandwiches. All of them have been pretty enjoyable. John normally gets sushi with salmon and pesto on it for lunch.

One thing that really surprised me here was the number of bakeries. Japanese people love bread and pastries! You find them nearly every block with usually more choices than you would find in a bakery in the US. On one of my first days here Ali, Hunter, and I got cupcakes in Tokyo Station that were amazing! Mine had a decorative piece of royal icing on top, vanilla icing, and raspberry and rose jam filling. Delicious!

It was called a "veil cupcake" because of the white decoration on top

The craziest thing John and I have eaten here, was in Kyoto. John ordered meat sashimi, which is thin slices of raw beef. They have to use extremely fresh meat in order for this to be safe (and every cow in Japan is tested for mad cow disease), and I was pretty scared to try it. Surprisingly, it was really good. There wasn't a whole lot of flavor, but it was extremely tender, and really not bad at all.

One thing I notice here is that I'm always thirsty. Drinks here are very expensive, and tiny! You might pay $4.50 for an 8 oz. coke. Now, I realize that a lot of things in America are comically big, but look at how small this glass of water is.

And forget about trying to get a refill

I had to ask 3 times just to get that glass of water in the first place. Alcohol is even more expensive. The cheapest beer on tap in most places around here is 900 yen (which is about $10 right now). And cocktails can easily be more than that. Strangely though, liquor in a liquor store is much less expensive. We bought a bottle of bombay sapphire for $18!

Well, I've got to run and mail some postcards and turn in our train passes. But I'll try to do another post today to wrap up our time here. Thanks for reading!

Wendy