Taste of Kyushu

A new school year has begun, so that means new teachers and new 1st year students in junior high school. It's quite common for teachers in the same grade level to get together for dinner at the beginning of the school year to get to know each other better and this time, the 1st year teachers and I went to a place called Yamauchi Nojo Kosoku. It's a couple of minutes from Nagata Station and specializes in Kyushu cuisine. 

The teacher who planned this dinner ordered the Yakushima course for us. Yakushima is one of the islands belonging to Kagoshima, and is also the inspiration for the forest in Princess Mononoke, a popular Studio Ghibli movie :) This course along with nomihodai (all you can drink) came out to about 5,000 yen per person, but it was definitely worth it. I'm usually still hungry after dinners with my teachers because the food portions are so tiny (a mouthful and a half does not cut it for me....), but I was pleasantly surprised with this dinner! 

One of two mango waters for the night! It was a lot thicker than I thought it would be which was nice :)

Started off with chilled cucumbers and cabbage with two different sauces: one was miso-based and the other was more garlicy. I wasn't a huge fan of the raw cabbage, but ended up eating almost half of the cucumbers with the sauces--super refreshing!

A standard salad was next

Got an apple sort of soda with no alcohol in it and it was yummy~ 

Probably one of my favorite dishes for the night were the gobo chips (behind the fries) and French fries. I've never had gobo chips before, but they were addicting!

Tried a couple of pieces of sashimi and they even had horse too O.o I wasn't able to get a picture, but I tried a piece of horse sashimi..

Tsukune~ these are chicken meatballs that are skewered before they are grilled over charcoal and usually brushed with a sweet shoyu sauce called tare

Pork and chicken are a must :) They carried it out in the cast-iron skillet still sizzling and it smelled AMAZING.

Tonkotsu-based soup. Tonkotsu broth is made from cooking pork bones for a long period of time, breaking down the fat, protein, marrow and other minerals. This gives the broth a very opaque, yet rich and buttery texture. It was very comforting, but I was unable to finish mine despite the small cup size because it was a little too rich for me. 

Onigiri with a miso-based paste with shrimp brushed on top. By this time, some of the teachers had stopped eating because they were full although I'm sure multiple drinks had contributed to that as well :)

Finished it off with some matcha ice cream! A wonderful way to end a great dinner with some great teachers filled with plenty of food and laughter ^^

Thank you so much for reading and I hope  you all have a wonderful week!

Chionji Handicraft Market: Omiyage Heaven

I love going to the handicraft and flea markets in Kyoto because there is always such a variety of goodies that you can find and buy. My parents partially planned their trip to Japan specifically around the Chionji handicraft market after seeing pictures. While I like to purchase gifts and omiyage for people whenever I go, I chose to focus on taking pictures this time around. My mom is the queen of omiyage and she always had her market bags ready to go. She might have been ecstatic when she saw the hundreds of vendors there :) Like me, my dad was taking pictures although he still enjoyed walking around and looking at what each vendor was selling. If you're looking for unique omiyage that's hand-made and not sold in every omiyage shop, this is definitely your place ^^I hope you guys enjoy the pictures! 

One of my favorite vendors! I absolutely loved all of the wooden products that she was selling. 

I actually made a beeline for this vendor when I saw the food, thinking that it was real...

Looks pretty convincing, right?

Donguri!!!! My mom would have definitely bought this if there was a safe way to transport them back home. 

Nothing like some fresh, cranberry bread as a quick and yummy snack ^^

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Ice Cream of Japan part 2

Back again with another post dedicated to the wonderful ice cream in Japan!! :) I hope you enjoy them ^^ I might suggest that you have ice cream near you because I'll definitely be craving some after this post!

Summer ice cream flavors from Arashiyama.

Got this one in Arashiyama while I was taking pictures of the fall leaves. 

Satsumaimo soft-serve :)

One of the creamiest soft-serve cones I've ever had. The matcha was nice and bitter (but not too bitter) and blended really well with the sweet vanilla. If you go to Himeji be sure to stop by this shop along the main street as you head to the castle! It's one the left side of the road as you head towards the castle from the station.

Bought this from a vending machine while I was walking down Tetsugaku no Michi. Ice cream vending machines are seriously one of the best inventions ever :D

This mammoth ice cream cone can be found at Daily Choco in Nakano :) From top to bottom: strawberry, cafe-flavored, vanilla, chocolate, sweet potato, sesame, matcha and  ramune. 

Italian Parfait at Gion Kinana :) 

Jumbo-sized ice cream at Otaru! Chocolate and vanilla swirl :)

Seven-layer ice cream in Otaru. From top to bottom: Grape, strawberry, matcha, melon, vanilla, lavender and chocolate. 

Ume ice cream outside of Osaka Castle.

Kinako ice cream at Fushimi Inari and it was heavenly~. Maybe because we had been walking up stairs for awhile :) But the flavor wasn't too strong or too subtle. 

Yuba ice cream. It actually had little pieces of yuba-dofu inside!!

Honey ice cream from a honey shop near Ginkakuji

Eating ice cream yet? :) If not, better go get some! I hope you enjoyed this post and have a wonderful week! I'm off to get myself some ice cream now ^.^

Minatogawakoen Handicraft Market: Buy Local

I haven't gone to the Minatogawakoen Handicraft Market since summer, but decided to go this past weekend :) It's held on the fourth Saturday of every month and is located literally on top of the station at Minatogawakoen! Just go up the stairs as you exit and you'll find yourself at a large park area with all of the tents. There were some new vendors in addition to some familiar ones as well and I was able to pick up a couple of gifts for my parents there! :D I love supporting local businesses so I asked vendors for their business cards or blog sites if I took pictures of their products. I'll have those sites below in the pictures if they gave me one! ^^Please be sure to check them out :) They would make wonderful gifts and omiyage as well!

This was one of the first vendors that I stopped by and I couldn't decide what I wanted to get so I ended up coming back again :) I'll link the blog in their last picture.

So you can carry your water bottle in style :) It'll be the cutest one out there!

Musubi pouch? Too good to be true :D

Their blog can be found here

I was really tempted to buy more from this vendor! He and his wife were very nice to me while I asked them about a couple of their products. They have a blog so I'll link it at the last picture.

Blog can be found here

The owner was extremely nice to me when I asked her if I could photograph her sweets. She nodded enthusiastically and asked if I could put it on my blog and then gave me her business card as well! ^^ Ended up buying some chicken curry and those cute animal cookies on the right :) 

She also sold an assortment of jams and the yuzu jam looked really tempting to buy! Her blog can be found here and her online site here

More bakery goodness :)

Really liked her setup :)

Blog can be found here

Blog can be found here

Online store can be found here

Site can be found here

One of my favorite vendors. Chatted with him for awhile and he told me that this was his first time selling at a market so he didn't have a blog or site yet, but he encouraged me to take lots of pictures :)

If I had a real-life tree house like this, I wouldn't come out of it :D

This man made clocks out of everyday items!

Blog can be found here

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful week!