Japanese Face Wash

Since we got here I've been testing out different face washes, trying to find one I really like.  John gave up on this after about 3 weeks, and decided he was just sticking to his US face wash even though he has to bring it in with him.  Here are my reviews of all the products I've tried so far.

Biore Acne Care アクネケア

This is the first face wash that I tried, and the only one targeted directly at acne.  It did a good job, but it was very drying to my face, though that may be partly because I was using it in winter when the humidity was very low.  The face wash had a slightly medicinal scent, and the texture of it was very slippery.  It left my face feeling squeaky clean.  I would definitely use it again, but it wasn't my favorite.

 Perfect Whip

This face wash foams up nicely, but I think it may be a moisturizing face wash, because it feels a little oily on my fingers, and I quit using it because my skin is pretty oily on its own and quickly started breaking out.  This might be a good choice if you have dry skin.

 Dove Men+ Care

I originally bought this for John, but he didn't like it, so I thought I'd finish it for him. It has a nice botanical but masculine scent, and the texture is slippery - much like the Biore Acne Care. Unfortunately my face broke out like crazy with this, just like John's, so I didn't finish it. Of everything I've tried this is probably my least favorite (to be fair I'm obviously not the target audience,  but John didn't like it either).

Dove Deep Pure

This face wash was one of my favorites.  It comes in a smaller tube (for the same price) than other face washes, but it lathers up into a really nice foam.  I thought it did a good job with my oily skin without over drying, and John says he's used it before and also liked it.  It also has a slightly medicinal smell like the Biore Acne Care, which was the only thing I didn't care for.

Men's Biore Double Scrub ダブルスクラブ

I wouldn't have picked this out myself, but my friend Hunter loves it and introduced me to it.  This was the only exfoliating face wash that I tried, and according to the website it has two different exfoliants: black beads that target black heads and oil and white beads that exfoliate dead skin.  I don't know if that's really true, but this was my other favorite face wash.  My face felt great after the exfoliation, and it has a wonderful grapefruit scent (which you know I love).  Hunter likes to mix it with a little of the Dove Deep Pure for a combination of exfoliation and lather, but I think they both work well on their own.

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?

Yokohama Ramen Musuem

This week Raku has had a friend visiting, and the three of us went out to the Ramen Museum in Yokohama.  For some reason the museum spells it "raumen," but I'm just going to stick to the regular spelling.

The museum area of the museum is actually quite small.  It's just a wall inside the gift shop with some history - all in Japanese.  But the point is not to read about ramen, it's to sample the ramen!  The museum has recreated a little 1958 ramen village with nine ramen shops.

Main Square of the Village

Ramen Alley

Everything has been aged to look like it's from 1958

The museum has selected from the most well know in the country to represent the four major types of ramen: shoyu (soy) broth, miso broth, shio (salt) broth, and tonkotsu (pork) broth.  The shops all have vending machines that sell tickets for half and full sized bowls.  We decided to try three different types, but even with the half sizes we were stuffed by the end!

Our first ramen was tonkotsu style from Komurasaki.  Tonkotsu is my favorite type of ramen anyways, and this was excellent.  The broth was wonderfully flavored with garlic and had a rich almost creamy consistency.  There is red pepper on the table than you can mix in, which I did halfway through.  Both ways were great.  The only bad thing I would say it that noodles were maybe slightly overcooked.

Komurasaki: Tonkotsu Ramen

 Our second stop was at Sumira for some miso ramen.  This was my least favorite of the day.  The noodles were thick and crinkly, with a nice springiness to them, but I didn't care for the broth.  It was very thick and very oily, with a strong ginger scent.  I normally love ginger, but I thought it clashed a with the miso, and that the flavor of the bamboo shoots clashed even more.  I did like how the pork was diced rather than in slices.  For what it's worth this was Raku's favorite miso of the day, but her friend agreed with me.

Sumira: Miso Ramen

By our last stop we were all losing a little of our enthusiasm (even though I didn't finish my ramen at Sumira).  Luckily, at Shinasoba-ya the small portions were significantly smaller than at the other two places.  The noodles here were the thinnest and most delicate which Raku and I both enjoyed, though her friend preferred them thicker.  The broth had a delicate flavor that Raku and I both though reminded us slightly of Udon broth.  Raku found this very unsettling, but I was just glad it tasted better than the miso.

Shinasoba-ya: Shoyu Ramen

By the time we finished our tongues were burning from both the salt and the hot broth.  In our dehydrated state we went to the gift shop which was very entertaining.  Raku's friend bought some ramen to take home, and we all laughed at the ramen themed gifts.

Classical and Jazz Noodle CDs?

Super cute ramen stickers!

Yokohama Ramen Museum

Admission: Adults 310 yen, Children 100 yen

Hours: Typically 11:00-10:00, but varies daily, consult this page

Phone: 04-5471-0503

Address: 2-14-21, Shinyokohama, Kohoku-ku

Map

Kyushu: Dazaifu

While we were in Kyushu, Sarah got to visit two of her friends that had been JICA volunteers (the Japanese equivalent of Peace Corps).  One of them had a car, so they drove us out to Dazaifu, which is a town near Fukuoka.

Daziafu is know for Tenman-gu Shrine.  It was the perfect day to go - the sky was sunny and blue, it was warm and breezy, and we were all happy from our delicious waffle brunch.

Tenman-gu was incredibly beautiful, and it was great to be there with Japanese people.  We all got fortunes and they read ours to us (John and I always struggle with that part) and they explained the history of the area.

I'm always terrible at taking pictures of shrines and temples.  It's partially because I'm just using my phone, but it's also because I want to focus on the details rather than the whole shrine, so lets just get this first picture out of the way.

Tenman-gu Shrine

The Shinto religion celebrates nature, and I've heard of shrines where a tree will grow up, and they will just let it grow through the building, but I finally got to see an example!

Isn't that great?

We saw some really interesting trees that were covered in a sort of hairy moss.

And there were lots of turtles sunbathing in the lake.

Turtle Dominoes

We stopped to have some green tea and grilled red bean and mochi cakes.  I've said before that I'm not a big red bean paste fan, but when it was warm the texture was a lot different - smoother - and it tasted better too.  We sat on raised tatami at a little table, and it was absolutely lovely.

Snack Time!

After the shrine, we walked up and down the little shopping street in Dazaifu that sold crafts and snacks and souvenirs.  It reminded me a lot of the main shopping street in Kamakura.  On the ride home we could barely keep our eyes open, but it was a really wonderful afternoon!

Kyushu: What We Ate

I was looking through all my pictures from Kyushu and realized that about half of them were of food, so I thought the food deserved a blog of its own.

On our first night in town Hunter took us to one of her favorite restaurants, Ante.  She goes so often that she's good friends with the bartender/manager.

Ante Italian Restaurant and Bar

They named a drink after her!  (It's the bottom one)

We got their specialty, Omu-rice, which they made extra large for us to share.  Omu-rice is an omelette filled with fried rice.  It is normally topped with ketchup, but this one came with a cream sauce.  The rice inside was very delicately flavored and mixed with shrimp.  It's sort of an unusual dish, but this one was really good.

Omu-rice

The next night we went out in Fukuoka and came across a Japanese sweets shop.  Ichigo Daifuku is a seasonal confection consisting of a fresh strawberry wrapped in mochi, with some red bean paste filling.  This place however, was selling fruit tart daifuku, which included multiple fruits and a little bit of tart crust.  I'm not crazy about red bean paste, but this was delicious!

Yum!

So beautiful!

My favorite thing from the whole weekend was an amazing fruit waffle that we had at brunch.  We were joined by two of Sarah's friends, and all five of us ordered the same thing.  It was absolutely gorgeous and tasted just as good as it looked.

Can I have this everyday?

And finally, on or way to the airport we saw this cute little steamed bun guy in a convenience store. We didn't actually buy any, so I don't know if they're any good - but they sure are cute!

Steamed Bun Monster

Hello Kitty Donuts

Right now Mister Donut is selling Hello Kitty themed donuts!

Of course we had to try them.

Truth be told, they're not that great. They all have fillings that are very artificial tasting, and the consensus was that they would be better without the filling. They are adorable though. If you spend at least 600 yen you get a Hello Kitty hair bow cellphone charm that plugs into the headphone jack.

It's too bad the jack is on the bottom

Visiting Kyushu: Kurume

Over the weekend Sarah and I went to visit one of our high school friends who lives in Kurume, a small town in Kyushu.

Reunion!  We're all blonde now.

Kurume was really interesting to see, since I've only been to a very few locations outside of Tokyo. The streets and sidewalks are much wider, and it felt like I could see farther because the buildings weren't nearly as tall. The town had a very warm friendly atmosphere, and Hunter has friends all over, and is also acquainted with all the neighborhood cats.

Small Town Japan

The chickens slide back and forth on the hour!

It turns out that Bridgestone Tires was started in Kurume. I had no idea, but Bridgestone is a Japanese company. The name comes from the Ishibashi family whose last name means "stone bridge."

Hunter with the Tire

We didn't actually go in, but Hunter took us past a karaoke place that looks crazy!  It's actually based on Gaudi's architecture, but it sort of looks like a hallucination.

Creepy, right?

But everything was really beautiful while we were there.  There were still some Sakura blooming (though they're not the normal kind - these remind me a little of carnations), and the carp flags are out for the Boy's Day celebrations.

Sakura Lined Canal

Carp Flags

Stay tuned for a post about all the food we ate there!