We made coin purses!!

Today we went to Tokyu Hands after ramen as I wanted to buy a paint tube squeezer for my hand cream. I was unsuccessful in the end but on one of the basement levels they have a crafts section (which I only visited by mistake the other week). It has leather, leather tools, buttons and other items you would use for making your own goods. They had a little desk set up that said you could make a leather coin purse for 500yen, or make an appointment to make a leather purse tomorrow. After the couple that was there finished their coin purses we had ago. And below is our finished product. It was surprisingly easy, although I kind of broke mine already!!   ( -.-) I hammered one part in a bit wonky.

This past week has been fun hanging out with Sam as he took pretty much the whole week off. We are now also proud owners of Settlers of Catan. We ordered it off Amazon Japan on Monday and received it on Christmas morning (whilst Sam was at school). We invited some friends over on Wednesday and Friday night to play and have nabe. And.. I won my first game on Friday night! Whoooo !!!

Friday's nabe

Since Sam has time off I often get cooked super tasty breakfast including french toast and scrambled eggs.

Delicious french toast. Just needed some ricotta on the top!

Improved banana pancakes

Public holiday today again! =) Sam made banana pancakes again this morning! We got some maple syrup from Costco since the last time we had pancakes. These were even better than the last ones, super fluffy and moist. So blessed to have such an awesome pancake making husband!

Snickers cookies

On Friday I made my first Snickers cookies. It basically is a peanut butter cookie with either chopped up snickers mixed through it or the dough is wrapped around a snickers. I only made two with the dough wrapped around a mini snickers though, and I think they were better. The cookies with the snickers mixed through it did have these nice crunchy caramel bits that oozed out though. (^_^)

Yesterday we played our first games of Settlers of Catan with some friends from church. It was lots of fun! It is a game I would definitely consider purchasing. It is a game where even though it may not seem like you are winning you are still involved and could even come out from behind and take the win (which we saw happen last night).

Good coffee joint

A lady from church told us about a good coffee joint in Motomatchi near where we get Ramen last week. We had a look last Sunday but it was closed, so after worship practice and some ramen we checked it out today. It is a cosy little place called Espresso Bar + Plus. It did not disappoint! It was also decently priced being 300yen (approx AU$3.50) for a cafe latte. The coffee was as good as one that you would get at a good coffee place in Sydney. We are definitely going to be returning. They have a few seats upstairs (and by that I mean 6) where you can sit and have your coffee (and cake).

I also tried a different ramen today. It was the 'Special' Ramen. It was basically the same except it came with an egg, 2 wonton dumplings and thick, tasty pork. the pork was amazing!

There is another place that we have taken a liking to their products. It's called 'Daniel' just of the main shopping street in Sannomiya. They sell crepes, (mini) canneles and something called 'unagi no nedoko' (when i looked the words up separately I got eel bed/ bedroom.. haha..). Unagi no nedoko is a long narrow traditional Kyoto town house (which this place is) and also some kind of cake. The canneles are about 3-4cm high and are no match for the canneles that Emily (Sam's younger sister) makes. We visit this place for it's not too sweet crepes. You can choose the filling of the crepe, which are displayed in dishes at the counter. We have so far tried banana caramel, apple pie, strawberry and chocolate (not as good as the forementioned). The crepes also come with creme patisserie and small amount of sago pudding.

Luminarie

Yesterday we went to the Kobe Luminarie last night. It is a light festival held every December commemorating the Great Hanshin Earthquake. You start by walking down part of a street with many gates of lights. Each year the lights are different. At the end of the street there are many food stalls and another area of lights. I forgot to take the camera so I was only able to take some not very good photos with my phone.

The start of the street/ tunnel of lights

Can see the end

Sam and the tornado of chips

On another note it is has been getting colder and we saw our first snow here last Sunday. It didn't last for very long and there wasn't much of it either. You can really feel the cold in our place too. There is little to no insulation, so it just as cold inside as it is outside. Most nights you can see smoke coming out of your mouth when you breathe out. o_O

Banana pancakes

Sam had this Monday off as he went to school on Friday, which was a National Holiday. 

It was raining and we saw no need to go outside.

We slept in and we made banana pancakes!

And pretended like it was the weekend.

 Yum yum yum.. 

Adventure to Hiroshima

Two weeks ago we went to Hiroshima with Sam's sister. We took the Shinkansen up and bought some food at the station just before we jumped on the train. Sam and Lucinda got Gyudons that were self heating! You had to pull this string and leave the box closed for about 5 minutes before eating.

Sam pulling the string to start heating up his dinner

On Saturday.. it was pouring down rain..  We were told by the ladies at the reception desk that there was a breakfast place a few minutes walk away. It was a decent cheap breakfast. We continued on to the Hiroshima peace memorial museum. There were many youth painting outside the museum, under a walkway. It was a little surprising to see so many of them there as it was soo wet. Most of the paintings were really good. The museum was quite hot and stuffy inside as well as being crowded with people. It was interesting reading some of the reasons why the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The displays and pictures was an eye-opening and saddening experience as to the impact of the bomb on the city and it's people.

Memorial Cenotaph - holding the names of the people killed by the bomb

Peace Flame

Peace flame and Hiroshima peace memorial museum in the background

Sam and I turned around after taking some pictures and found Lucinda surrounded by Japanese students. Hehe.. They were elementary students learning about peace and had to speak to ask foreigners some questions. 

Display made from folded paper cranes

People around the world fold paper cranes and send them to Hiroshima.

Children's peace monument

Bit hard to see, but the trees around the area had these green leaves coming out from where the branches branched out. Some trees looked like they had really hairy armpits. =P

A-bomb dome

Sam and I continued on to try some Okonomiyaki (my first time). I got a normal one (cabbage, bean sprouts, yakisoba, thin strips of pork, egg and special okonomiyaki sauce) with some fried garlic, whilst Sam got a 'special' one that had squid and prawn in it. It was tasty, however I thought it needed more sauce.. =P It was very big a filling for the price. I read about this cake shop called Maison Rabelais  in a brochure I picked up from the place we were staying. We then headed to this cake shop to pick up a cream puff. The cakes they had were beautiful as well as being reasonably priced. They had these really tasty passionfruit marshmallows too. Sam and I got a cake as well as some cream puffs (lovely chouxs as they were called). That night we tried a different Okonomiyaki place called Ren Ren and had a Hamburg okonomiyaki. It was really good! Instead of having the yakisoba/udon on the base it had a meat pattie and cheese. Their normal Okonomiyaki was a better balance of ingredients that the place we tried earlier that day.

Delicious cake with a pistachio mousse and these amazingly tasty praline parts through the middle of the cake

Looks like the bird is asking for food rather than saying No!

Hiroshima had many of these yellow leaved trees

On Sunday it was beautiful weather and we went to Miyajima. We got a two day tram pass (2000yen/person) that allows you to take unlimited street cars (tram), the ferry to Miyajima and the Miyajima ropeway (cable car). The pass is worth it if you take the ropeway even if it's just for the day as the ropeway itself is 1800yen return. It was packed with people. We saw the Itsukushima tori gates, but didn't go into the shrine itself as there were many people queuing up to enter. We went on a little detour up to the ropeway. There was many people waiting and took approximately 70 minutes to get on the ropeway. The first ropeway takes about 10minutes, then you change to a larger car that holds about 30 people that takes about 4 minutes. The view was amazing from the Shishiiwa observatory. You can walk to Mt. Misen from there (about a 1 hour round trip walk). We decided not to as we were short on time (especially with the long queues).

Can you spot the man who is leisurely paddle boarding through the gates

View from the ropeway

View from the observatory

Adventure to Kyoto

Three weeks ago we travelled to Kyoto with Sam's sister. It took us about 50 minutes on the JR to Kyoto station, which was surprisingly quick. After we checked into the hotel we walked around a little bit in search of somewhere for dinner. We came across and Ippudo ramen restaurant and decided to get some ramen. After returning to the hotel we tried some chocolate planets that Lucinda and Sam had picked up from Osaka earlier that day. Each planet had a different flavour. Earth was one of the coolest looking!

Saturday was a big day for us. Woke up fairly early and headed for Kinkakuji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion). Some of the leaves had started to change colour but we didn't get to see many vibrant red trees. I did like seeing multi-coloured trees with green, yellow and red leaves. Got to try some tasty matcha dango and this unique green tea soft cream. It didn't taste like matcha but like green tea.

Crazy tree

Some mossy carpet

We walked to Ryoanji (A zen temple with a famous rock garden). We were given some strange tea soon after entering the grounds that tasted like dashi and had seaweed in it I believe. The grounds were really beautiful.

Not sure why these little stone are up here

Spot the odd one out

We eventually got to Arashiyama after getting lost on our way there. It was very busy and it would probably be even busier now, as more trees would have changed their leaves. We walked through the bamboo path to get to Okochi-sanso villa (the former villa of a famous samurai movie actor). It was a pricey admission fee of 1000yen but I think it was well worth it and highly recommend visiting it. You also get a tea and biscuit as well as a postcard. It's beautiful garden with little stone pathways winding through the trees. There was also a little building where you could sit quietly and look out at this garden. 

I got to try some tasty soy-milk soft cream that tasted like asian soya milk rather than the western kind. They were also selling these tasty green tea biscuits. They didn't have open samples, however people would just come straight up and buy them without having to taste. We got a sample eventually and it was super tasty. It was a strong matcha flavoured biscuit with a slice of white chocolate in the middle! I wanted to get some but I thought they were a little too pricey. However, we got some from Lucinda (YAY! ) when she was leaving.

We were pretty tired and worn out by this time and decided to head back to the hotel to have a little rest. We went to some nice Katsu restaurant at Kyoto station where Sam had been with his parents when they visited Japan.

Sunday was a pretty miserable day as it was raining all day. We headed out to grab some breakfast followed by a quick look at the Nishiki ichiba market. We didn't have too much time as we needed to go back to the hotel and checkout. We bought some famous tofu donuts to eat whilst we were going..

Cookies from the markets

Next was Kiyomizudera, which was packed (especially one of the streets leading up to the temple) regardless of the poor weather. We were planning to see the tori gates at the Fushima Inari Shrine but gave it a pass due to the weather and all having soaked feet and shoes. 

People getting a drink of 'holy water'

Super red tree

Tasty nabe that night for dinner. Num num num...

Nabe pre soup and cooking

Ready to eat

Saw these two flavoured kit kats and had to try them. The one on the left is the flavour of some Kyoto biscuits that are strong in cinnamon. Too much cinnamon for my liking. The one on the right as you may have guessed is tea flavoured. That one I did like.