Japanese Confectionary : Kurumicco

 Another introducing popular Japanese confectionary blog!

Tadaaaaaa

I know this confectionary does not have a unique appearance.   It is small and it looks ordinary.

However, once you put in in your month, I am sure you will be surprised!

The basic taste is caramel and nuts but whole thing makes the taste just right!!!

In Yokohama harbour side, there is a shopping mall called "Hammerhead".

I couldn't find why it is named like that.....

Anyway there is a Kurumicco factory. Basically you can see how this amazing Kurumicco is made.

I would say the basic idea is simple. Dough, caramel and nuts. Again i am fascinated by the complete mixture!!!

Now every time I meet my friends, I bring Kurumicco and promote this hehe

This company is from Kamakura so Yokohama prefecture. In Tokyo, you can buy Kurumicco only in Tokyo station and Roppongi.

In Yokohama, there are some unique local shops so hope to find more ;)

Japanese confectionary : What Japanese people are queuing for...Cannelé

Japanese people LOVE confectionary. They can wait for hours to buy it.

Currently what is hot is Cannelé

My mom is a big fan of cannele so she bought it a lot when I was young.

This is my surprise that cannele became so big here in Japan.

One day my mom asked me to buy some. In Ginza, I had a look at several cannele shops but all the shop sold everything by afternoon.

On the day unfortunately I couldn't buy it but later that day, my mom asked me to order it online.

It seems as if there are some shops which take online orders.

They say they take order starting at 9:30 in the morning. To make my mom happy, I was ready to place an order by 9:30. 

I put a few boxes of cannele and was trying to enter an address and then I realised that they already sold out......The time was 9:34!!!!

I was really shocked! Canneles are sold out only in 4 minutes!!!!

I tried again in another day and managed to order just for pleasing my mom hahaha

Taddaaaaaaa!!!! so this is the cannele which are sold out in a few minutes.

It may be difficult to see but the each size is super small! 

This is somehow a trend in Japan. Everything gets smaller and more expensive haha

Well the taste was not bad but unfortunately it was not something like I would love to do the crazy onling shopping again.....

Another shop where you can buy cannele in Japan is PAUL. I think it's a French bakery. 

Their cannele is quite big! You don't have to queue for long to get it.

My summary of the current cannele situation here in Japan is ;

People are crazy about cannele but the taste is not super great unfortunately.

My understanding is the surface of cannele is rather crispy but majority of what are sold in Japan don't have that texture......  I guess in generally speaking Japanese people love soft things so maybe cannele became softer as well??

Anyway i will post here when I find the perfect CANNELE!!! hehe

What is popular in Japan with Corona

 It’s been almost a year since the COVID-19 impacted our life. What kind of activity or hobby have become popular with corona in your country?

In Japan, camping & BBQ has become quite big! Even before corona, activities in nature had started to becoming more popular. Majority of Japanese people live in a city which means very crowded. I think people have started to be tired of spending their time facing concrete buildings.

Now because of corona, people try to visit a city area where people used to gather. But we need something to do in our free time! Just staying home is just too much SO people come up with an idea of nature. Some people even buy their own mountain!!!!

Like no other, I also did BBQ♥

It just tastes much better if the beef is grilled by BBQ!!!

I always thought BBQ comes with s’more. Without it, you can’t finish it, no!!?!?!

When I was a child, I was a big fan of baked marshmallow and this time I was pretty much excited about it. The melting marshmallow was good but it was a bit too sweet for me..... I felt I am defiantly aging haha

Corona has made us think again about our life. Now I prefer spending more time in nature rather than spending a lot of money in expensive brands. 

What has become popular in your country under this situation?

Aoyama Farmer's market / Sunday Walk in Shibuya

It's getting cold these days in Japan.
Moreover, the weather is not great.
I thought Japan is a nice country because of the better weather than UK, but without it, I don't have no other good reason to stay here....haha

Anyways, it was a beautiful day yesterday so I went for a walk in Shibuya.

I looked up and I have found there is a farmers market every weekend at the united nations university headquarters.

This 100% natural juice was just amazing!!!!

They sell vegetables, flowers, plants and food.
People were very nice and I felt it's good to buy something from people who actually made them.

After this, I head to Meiji shrine in Harajuku since there is beautiful green.

I asked my boyfriend to take a good pic of me again and again and he was bit tired of me lol

It was such a beautiful day :)

I wanted to take a proper photo with the cute cardigan but it was too hot and I didn't wear that for long... hehehe

A Little Walk in Harajuku/Shaka Sandals/Japanese Hot Sandal Trend

Since it was a beautiful day, my boyfriend and I decided to take a walk.

Well I wanted to go to a park or somewhere with green but we somehow wanted to go in a famous street in Harajuku, Takeshita street.

Like it reminds me of junior high school, the street is for teenagers.

There are many shops selling young idol photos.

You can see many people

just people people people

Obviously there are many changes from what I knew from about 10 years ago

I was surprised that there is a MONKI store

This brand reminds me of London shopping....

This type of display is super japanese

After you go through the street, you are in Omotosando area.
My impression of the area is a bit poshy
There is a ice shade store i wanna go but there's always a massive queue.....

being natural......

After a lot of window shopping, we decided to buy sport sandals we've been looking for these days.
Well my boyfriend wanted to buy one last summer but I couldn't understand it.....

Anyways i went for SHAKA's sandals.

Since my boyfriend bought Teva's ones, I was thinking to buy same ones

Well Teva's sandals are really light and seems really  easy for walking in. 

However, when I thought about whether they match my summer clothes, the answer seemed No. SHAKA's ones would match better with my clothes, that was my answer.

I cannot wear sandals for work so I'll update about this again :)

By the way, shinjuku new south exit was renewed.

I know this sounds funny but I bet that exit used to be called as New south exit anyways.

Now there are this monument!

It's like Amsterdam. Maybe they imitate?? haha 

Happy Mother's Day/My new bag;FURLA METROPOLIS

Happy mother's day!

It seems as if Japan follows American rule for mother's day.

When I was in the UK, I sent a card to my mum a way before because British mother's day in March, and her reaction was just like "?" haha

Anyways I went for a lunch with her and did a mum-daughter shopping :)

AND I bought a bag!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a big fan of small shoulder bags and I've fallen love with FURLA's bag;metropolis.

My friends and my mum asked me 'Can you put all your thing in the bag?'

Well, YES.

I only need my wallet and phone.

I used to carry many things like books, candy, water, cosmetics...... well something haha

but carrying many things becomes just heavy and I realise I seldom use them

Now I just carry money and phone with a small bag 

I'm looking forward to use this bag :)!!!!!!!!!!

DIY Washroom storage/insulok

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My washing room storage is completed!

There is a big sink but its wall storage is super tiny.

Can you see the black one? That's about it.

I don't use a lot of makeup items but I need more space. 

Since we rent this flat, I don't want to damage any walls.

In Japan, you're not allowed to paint or make a hole on walls. Well you have to pay when you move if you do so.

I thought there were readymade shelves using tension rods but it was very difficult to find one. There are many for spices in the kitchen but they are too short for the washing room.

I saw someone made a storage by themselves on the internet and decided to make one by myself.

I'm super bad at DIY so I was really nervous.......

When I went to 100yen shop, they have just everything I needed.

All I had to do was putting them together using insulok.

Thanks for 100yen shop, my kinda DIY has turned out really well.

I'm not quite sure an English word for this product but seems 'insulok' right??

In Japan, you can get them easily at a 100yen shop.

I was worried each box is too heavy for insulok to be banded.

However, insulok really did put the box, the poll and the net all together.

Insulok is really strong!

I think i can use it for decorating my room more :)

GOLDEN WEEK!!!!!

Finally 10days holiday!

At the beginning of May, there are several national holidays.
With a combination of Saturday and Sunday, it becomes about a week holiday every year.
This year, yes thank God, it's a ten-days-holiday!!!!!!

I noticed it at the beginning of this year and booked a trip straight away.

I tend to get super excited when I book the trip and become less interested in it once the departure day gets closer.... haha
To be honest, I'm not that super excited but I'm sure it will be a nice holiday.

I guess Japan is a famous country that people do not take a long holiday.
However, there are about 17 national holidays every year.
(UK bank holidays are five this year)

I'm curious why other country people can get like two weeks holiday or much longer....

Anyway I will sleep a lot tomorrow hehe
Hopefully I will post my trip to PHUKET soon ;)

cherry blossoms/SAKURA/桜/HANAMI

As you may have heard of, March and April is cherry blossoms season.

Japanese people like to start their year with cherry blossoms so the school starts in April.
Some companies start their business year in April.

The thing comes with cherry blossoms is Ohanami.
Literally means looking at flowers
It is basically a picnic in a park.

It is often said that the most junior employees, most likely new grads, have to go to the park really early morning to get a place for Ohanami.

I was often asked 'Did you do ohanami this year?' last couples of weeks but for me, honestly, this hanami thing does not make sense.

People say it is good to drink and have party while looking at cherry blossoms but what they actually do is only drinking.

Cherry blossom is just an excuse for them to have party and drink crazily.

Anyways cherry blossom is beautiful and I recommend to visit Japan during this period if possible.

How to make a grass cup in Hokkaido/北海道でグラス工芸体験

I was looking back my photos and found nice photos in Hokkaido.

I like experiencing activities while traveling.

I don't think grass experience is only for Hokkaido but there is a place famous for grass, called Otaru.

From Sapporo, it takes about 30min to go there by train.

I went to a place close to the music box museum.

First of all, I chose a type of a cup and colours.

It is difficult to see but there are chemicals for colourings in the photo.
A teacher put them on melted grass.

Shaping

To make the bottom of a cup, hit to the ground 

Now it's time to blow!

It was difficult because I had to roll the stick at the same speed.

Thanks to the teacher, my grass cup came out really nice.

It took weeks before receiving the finished cup.

Well I don't know where this cup is to be honest....

Hopefully somewhere in my family house

anyways it was a great experience :)

オイシックス/Oisix

「献立を考えるのをやめた理由」

その言葉に惹かれて試したOisix

必要な分の材料が袋に入っていて、切って焼くだけ！

Oisixのホームページが非常に分かりづらく、最初すごく困ったのですが
こういう事みたいです。

定期宅配オイシックスクラブには以下3つのコースがある。
【おいしいものセレクトコース】
【プレママ＆ママコース】
【KitOisix献立コース】
クラブ会員になるための会員費はなし。
コース毎に定期的におすすめ商品を提案してくれる。
提案されたものを全て変更することも可能。
一定以上の金額で送料無料

980円の牛乳飲み放題は、この定期配送のコースを頼む必要がある。

実は、この牛乳飲み放題を利用したくて定期コースの申し込みをして、
牛乳飲み放題の商品だけを頼もうと思ってました。
しかし、そこで発生したのが送料問題。
商品自体は0円なのに、送料が７５０円！！！
せっかくなので、定期配送を使ってみようと言う事に。。。。

詳しい写真はないのですが、こんな感じで届きます。
新鮮な野菜ということで、次の日までに使わなくてはならないので要注意。

KitOisixにはレシピも入っていて、すごく便利
献立、料理の幅が広がります:)
ただ最近思うのが、副菜が少し適当・・・？

今度、頼んだボックスの詳細をお伝えします。

2015 is almost over!!!!

OMG!!!!
It's been super a while since I posted the last article here.....
and 2015 is almost over....

After about a half year passed since I started to work!
OMG, I didn't imagine how it would be especially me working at an office!haha

Anyways, somehow I am a business women now.
Well maybe not fully professional YET 

I thought it would be a pretty good timing for me to spill out my thoughts after a long time
Well I have to keep it a simple otherwise this article will stay as draft as previous ones

So I have decided to move on, which means change a company

This sentence makes me really emotional now
Maybe because I really like my co-workers, the fact I won't work with them or meet them often anymore makes me feel a bit upset....

My current company, literally saved my life and taught me a lot
When I was doing a job-hunting, I was really ignorant. Just didn't know anything about this society, how the economy works.

Like other Japanese well-known uni students, I thought I could easily get an offer from a well-known company and go back home early with good salary.
Well life is not that easy.

Even though at a big big biiiig company, people work really hard!
On the other hand, a small small small company people work very hard and also effects this society as well as a famous company.

Of course, small venture companies tend to have a lot of problems since they haven;t experienced a lot so far.
However, they are the future world leading companies. Without them, our economy is just going down.

Anyways, it was such a great experience for me to work at a venture company, especially my company.

Maybe some people is wondering, 'ok, why are you leaving?'
Well I just would like to use English more. That's it.
English has taught me soooo many things.
I am always motivated to study English, nothing else.
So I have decided to move forward to change a company where I can use English a little bit more.

It just so unbelievable that I told my boss 'I'm leaving'
and I'm feeling really strange.....

I guess in the future, I will be like 'oh gosh, I really don't understand what I meant at this time'
anyways this is how I feel now 
just a bit upset, surprised, puzzled

Happy New Year 2015

A happy new year!!!

I wanted to write posts about my trips within 2014 but I was too lazy and I was really ill just before going to Canada.

Anyway 2014 has gone and 2015 has come! 
This year I want to keep diary as much as possible.
When I went to the U.K. last summer, I bought this 5 year diary so I really want to have a habit of keeping my diary everyday. 

I bought this at Anthropologist in London. Initially my friend recommended this book to me. This diary has a question everyday and I have to answer it every year on the same day.
After 5 years, I would know how much how I think changes. Well if only I can keep on writing! hehe

This year will be a big year as well since I start working finally!
Before that, I'll enjoy my free time :)

豚のミルフィーユ鍋/ Hot Pot

今日のよるご飯♪
豚のミルフィーユ鍋

Today's dinner

Pork mille-feuille hot pot

もう最近じゃないか。一時期めっちゃはやったよね。今更ながらやってみた！

参考にしたレシピはcookpad: 691669

ゆずをおだしに入れるといいかも！って思ったんだけど、すだちな気分だったのですだちをスライスしてだしにいれて一緒に煮たら、めっちゃいいにおいがした！

白菜と豚肉からとってもいいお出汁がでて、家族はぽんず使わずにそのままお出汁と一緒にたべていました。

満足してもらえたみたいでよかったよかった。めでたしめでたし。

When winter comes, the hot pot becomes really popular since it's warm!

You might think the name of this dish is strange but that's what it's literally called in Japanese. It is because layers of Chinese cabbage and pork look like mille-feuille.

The hot pot dish is really easy to cook. All you have to do is basically cutting veges and meat and put them all in the pot. DONE haha

Since I put soya based soup from the beginning, amazing soup is created after being mixed with the extras of pork and vege. People often put rice or noodle after the hot pot dish, since the great soup is made. I'm looking forward to put rice in the soup tomorrow morning for my breakfast :)

クレープメーカー ドレミ Review

I bought 'crepe maker' the other day. I think in the U.K. people call it as pancakes.

I guess until three years ago, there is a crepe shop called Hediard in Ikebukuro which was my mom's and my favourite place for tea. Now it's replaced to Tokyu Hands.....
Basically after I came back from my study abroad, I can't enjoy crepe anymore in Japan :(

I had crepe in Nottingham at a place called Aubreys Traditional Creperie. It was just amazing and I really enjoy it! If you visit Nottingham, you definitely have to go there! 

Anyway after this wonderful crepe experience in Nottingham, I miss crepe more. Haha But there is no place to have good one close to where I live, I decided to buy the crepe maker! Brilliant idea right :p?

When I looked up the Internet, as always there are many and different prices. I just got confused and gave up choosing one. But my eager to have crepe motivated me to find the right one haha
This Do Re Mi is the one I came across at the beginning. Since this is really cheap, I wasn't quite sure whether this works well or not. I read some reviews saying the heat power is not good but there are many positive ones too. After being confused a lot, I decided to give it a go. If it didn't work, it just cost around 3000. 

One day after I replaced the order, it arrived! 

I failed the first one of course but when it comes to the forth try, I made this good crepe!!
I like banana chocolate custard crepe the best so I used Nutella ( I bought when I was in the UK) and I made custard.
When I cook, I always look up to CookPad ( jp recipe site) and I found a really good recipe for custard. 
The recipe ID is 2892140 so you can have a look if you're interested in :)

It seems like the heat at the centre of the plate is a bit weak.

As you can see, the edge of dough becomes a bit burned when the centre is ready. 
Anyway I can make crepe easily with this maker and I am really happy with this.

The second time I made crepe using this machine, I didn't have milk to make dough so I used yogurt drink instead of milk. It tasted sweeter than normal but still acceptable. If you have a trouble of running out of milk to make dough, you can use yogurt drink if you have it!

I would like to make crepe with not sweet things such as chocolate and fruits. Maybe I can put tuna, sausages and cheese. I'm thinking to find a good recipe for it.

If you wanna make crepe at home as well, I recommend this to you :)   

How to Choose University / 大学の選び方

Recently I've been complaining a lot about my uni. I just can't stop it so I've decided to write a post about it. I hope this helps someone not making anyone annoyed.
最近自分の大学に対して文句しかなくて、とめられないのでまとめてみることにしました。読んでる人が嫌な思いをするのではなくって、大学選びの参考にしてもらえれば良いです。


To begin with, I won't tell directly which uni I go to but I'm just gonna list up characteristics of it.
まず、私の大学の特徴を。

-Girls University (well I do know the choice is limited now haha)
-女子大（選択肢がとっても狭まれられました笑）
-Used to be famous for its English education
-かつては英語教育で有名だった
-Location is bad
-キャンパスの場所が最悪

I think every complains come from the first fact, girls uni. It automatically becomes small scale. Only one faculty, limited access to everything.
Now I'm writing my thesis and what most irritates me is limited access to references. I'm interested in Sociology of Religion. There is no professor in my uni who does this study which means really really limited books in uni library. Well maybe you think why on earth I'm studying something no professor in my uni does. Well I got interested in religious studies when I did a study abroad in Bristol. I just wanted to keep doing it. Also my department focuses on international relations. I think religious studies should be in as well. This "International Relations" is really tricky thing in Japan. You basically can't study anything deeply. Basically you just get to know many things from the surface. How can you compare more than two countries or cultures even if you don't know fully about one? 

These whole complains caused by me. Well I just didn't choose my uni carefully enough when I was a high school kid. In Japan, it's just bloody difficult to enter a university. You've got to remember so many stuff to get good marks which is ridiculous and meaningless personally. So lazy Ayah chan thought, if I choose only girls uni, simply I don't have to compete guys which means less people!! haha 
Well for the sake of myself, I also add I was fascinated by the founder of my uni back then. I still think she is admirable but the followers haven't done a good job to preserve her good will. Anyway so I didn't research anything about universities. I just wanted to get in. I didn't know what I wanted to study, I just did know I wanted to keep studying English and do a study abroad.Apart from these, I didn't think seriously anything further so I just chose a subject which I can decide my major later on. As I mentioned before, this idea was terribly wrong.... 
Well I personally think if you take current Japane education, it's very difficult to know what is sociology? Business? Marketing? Everything. All I did was bloody memorising histories. Basically all you have to do is to get a good mark and get in a uni with a good reputation. it doesn't matter what you do at uni. 
I hated the Japanese university idea of doing nothing. I wanted to study something even though I didn't know what I wanted to study apart from English. Well it turned out that if you want to study something, you need a good environment to do so. To make research, you need references, books and teachers. It is sad that university also needs the funds to gain all the facilities. Big well known unis have money to have all of them. 
In the end, it might be true that going to famous uni is nice.... Well I just want anyone to think back the uni's facilities if you are choosing your future uni now.

多分女子大で学部が一つ、規模がちいさいっていうところが結果良くないんだと思うんだけど、とにかくすべてが不便。今卒論を書いていて一番イライラすることが本や文献にアクセスできないこと。勉強する環境がまったく整っていないのになぜか施設維持費は毎年たくさん徴収される謎。私が勉強している分野の先生が私の大学にはいないからそこからもうなんでこの大学を選んだのかしらっていうミステイク笑。それは私がとっても安易に大学を選んだから自分のミスなんだけど。留学してイギリスの大学でとった社会宗教学にとっても興味もって日本にかえってきてからもそれを勉強したいって思っただけなんだけど、まあ気づくのが遅すぎたね。そもそも、女子大を選んだ理由が高校生の時にあんまり勉強したくなくて女子校の方が競争率低いだろうとか思ったからというほんとに最悪な理由なので、もし今大学を選んでいる人がいましたら、少なくともどんな勉強をしたいかはやっぱり考えるべきなのかなと思います。
が、しかし、日本の高校教育だといまいち商学部？社会学部？経済学部？のイメージがわきにくいんだよね。少なくとも私はなんのイメージも抱けずとりあえず英語といろんな文化が学べそうな国際関係学部へ。しかし、国際とつけばなんでも学べるというとっても素敵なこの学部では、結果どんなことでも薄い知識しかつけることができないという落とし穴があることを私はしらなかったわけです。もちろん、やりようによってはちゃんと勉強できるし、国際関係学部ですばらしい成果を残している人もいるけれど、個人的にはやっぱりいろんなものを比較するときに少なくとも一つのことに精通している必要性があるとは思って、もし国際社会をやりたいのであれば、土台となる社会、私の場合だったらやっぱり生まれ育った日本社会のことをちゃんと勉強する必要があるんじゃないかと思うのです。でも、この一つの社会を学ぶのでさえもとっても奥が深くてそれこそ一生かかるのに、違う社会もってなるとなんだかやってることが少し浅いのではないかと今までの私の大学生活を振り返って思うわけです。
ここで、何を勉強するかよりも大学選びでは規模や施設の充実さが何よりも重要ではないのかなと。悲しいけれど、結局大学もビジネスの一つ。お金がなければよい設備を整えられない。結局有名な大学に行くのがいいってことになってしまうかもだけど、この設備という面から大学を選ぶことを考えてみては？？

Hot hot hot hot Summer in JP!/Toshimaen Pool

This year I experience Japanese summer after 4 years! Most of the past years, I was in Europe and enjoyed sunshine and beautiful summer.
Well there is sunshine here in JP but it just burns people. An announce of 'staying inside a building and refrain from staying outside too much and any sports' is often made these days. CRAZY
My body is definitely super tired.....

No matter how miserable the weather is, I have to enjoy my life in Japan. My friend and I went to Toshimaen pool today to feel a bit of summer. 

A tiny bit of a tip for an entrance fee. If you go to a discount ticket shop and get 100 yen discount ticket, you can get 1200 yen off :) hahaha

Considering to other famous pools, this one is a bit small but we really enjoyed!
I don't know Japanese people's summer holiday trend, it was not too crowded yet. There are exiting water sliders as well. If you wanna try them with a tube, you've got to pay 600yen. I'd say 600yen is cheap comparing to other pools. 

Another thing I wanna share is a list band which allows you to shop without bringing any coins. Basically you deposit some money on it beforehand. You can shop by touching the band. Well the whole IT thing is really convenient!

After enjoying the pool, we went to a hot spring spa called Niwanoyu. just next to Toshimaen. We could wash our body properly and get a massage. Sooooo relaxing!

After these exciting and relaxing moments, we ate lots of oysters for our dinner. What a wonderful life!
It was funny that we're talking what if there is a limit for a person to be happy in a whole life.
Well I really enjoyed today and feeling super happy!!!