Missing aussie chocolate..

Getting lazy with posting.. =P Made a bento with some extra chicken katsu for Sam last week. Been making some tuna-mayo onigiri recently. I actually really like them! Easy to make, taste good, not too much seaweed and very filling! =) They're a lot better than the sushi rolls you get in Sydney. Made a fried noodle bento on Monday. Wasn't as good as the first time we did stir-fry noodles and I went a little overboard with the salt. Here are some pics:

Katsu bento

Tuna onigiri

Stir-fry noodle bento

I have really been missing blocks of normal chocolate/chocolate in Australia for the past couple of weeks! Most of the chocolate here has a unique taste to it.. I don't know how to describe it though. I have tried a few different brands and varieties since we've been here with no luck. Did find a nice one today called Meltykiss made by Meiji. It's a new variety that I saw in the supermarket today. It reminds me of a truffle. And of course, they are all individually wrapped as are most things you buy here.

Disappointment in a packet

Inside view

I bought the snack above thinking it would have a soft mousse like texture. It was the complete opposite. It was hard and tasted bad.

It has started to get darker earlier. I wonder how early it will get dark in winter. When we visitied mum in London around Dec-Jan it seemed to get dark at around 3-4pm (according to my memories.. =P). It's nice walking around and seeing trees with some of their leaves having turned red. Can't wait to visit Kyoto with Lucinda (Sam's sister) when she comes in November! I have heard they have really pretty autumn leaf viewing spots. =D

Katsu

Sam made chicken katsu for dinner tonight. Was SOOO good! Was crispy top and bottom. =)

Sam's bento last Thursday

Trip to Nara

We went to Nara on Monday. Lots of tourist and school groups there. The deer are so used to people it's kind of strange. You can freely pat and touch them too. You can buy some deer food (they just look like rice crackers) and feed them. Some of them get fed too much that they won't eat it if you give it to them. Others will come up and nuzzle you if you have food. I wouldn't like to have come when there weren't lots of people as you'd have heaps of deer trying to get food from you. Some deer are pretty smart and stand near where people buy food and they come at you once you get it. Some children got really scared with the deer coming at them for food. One little girl started to get surrounded by 5 or 6 adult sized deer. She was crying and screaming for her parents. =( Her dad ended up grabbing the bag of food from her, ripping it and the deer just went for it. Tried to feed some smaller deer, but if there are bigger ones near buy they just bump the small ones out of the way. =( Deer make some very funny but weird noises. Went to see some temple but it's being rebuilt and won't be done for another couple of years, which is kind of sad.

We also got to see some guys hitting some mochi. That was entertaining to watch. They get soo much business after they do it too! The mochi was really yummy too!

Katsudon and soba

Chicken Tempura and Udon

Kit kat ball/squares

Pigeon hanging out amongst the turtles

Hehe..

Sam was actually trying to feed the little deer but this one wouldn't let him. =P

This deer on the ground gave same Sam some good nuzzling

There are several of these warning signs around

Sleepy fawn

The Giant Buddha is inside

Stairs or a ladder?

Big Buddha

Big butterfly

Crazy roots

Where to go?

Old school lanterns

The fawn started crossing at the crossing whilst calling for it's mum.

It then started to walk down the road.

Kobe water science museum

On Saturday we went to the Kobe water science museum. Decided to use apple maps to take me there. We reached where it said the museum was and all that we could see were some apartment blocks and a school. Grrrr... Used google maps and we weren't that close. Luckily apple maps took us in the right direction at least. We walked for another 10 minutes and eventually got there. I think they were having some special promotion as we didn't have to pay to enter. =) The lady at the reception desk saw we were a little lost/clueless so she helped us with some of the displays. The displays are pretty interesting and fun as well as tiring. =P

Sam and his tortoise won against my hare and I in a water pumping race.

Whirlpool is starting to form

The amount of water in Sam

They had this one area that had a 3D hologram display, that looked really cool! They had these two computers where you could draw a fish/ sea creature and send it into these projected fish tanks.

My fishy

Sam's snorkel man

My snorkeller

There is also a display/show where you get to see this machine cut a piece of wood with water!! It was pretty crazy! The lady gave us a cut out as well as a souvenir! =D SCORE!!

The finished product. I didn't get this one as she gave it to some little boy. She gave me a girl one.

We went to some tea place that we saw in Sannomiya to have some cake/ scones. Was disappointing and really overpriced! =( I got some scones that were quite dry. Sam got a creme brulee. It wasn't bad but nothing great for the price.

Creme Brulee with Earl Grey Madeleine

We had some nabeyaki udon that night. Tasted better than it looked!

It's a double rainbow!

After all the rain and wind from the typhoon the other week, the sun decided to show it's face! It also meant we got to see a double rainbow!! =D Got to see the full rainbow arch as well. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take a picture of the whole rainbow. Seeing it reminded of a verse just after the great flood has happened in Genesis and God is talking to Noah:

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Genesis 9:13-16 (NIV)

It reminded me that God remembers His promises. Also that after a cold miserable storm there can be warmth, light and joy.

Had some Japanese curry that night. They don't have the S&B Mild Golden curry cubes that I used back in Sydney, so I tried some other mild one with apparently 10 different fruits in it. (Haha.. It's not like you could taste even one) Curry tasted good though. =)

Sam's rice mound with a curry moat.

Leftover curry bento? O_O