fake food

 Maybe you've seen it in some countries, maybe not, but over here in Japanlands the restaurants tend to have some fake samples of their food outside to sort of show what they have to offer. As part of my Arts Workshop class we learnt how to make them, and made some ourselves. As you can tell (and as my brother so nicely pointed out) I'm gaining some seriously valuable knowledge on my year abroad. Anyhuu.

This (right) is what we were given to start with. They're made out of wax and would form the basis of our tempura.

So we'd take some paraffine and sort of squirt it into cold water to make it into an uneven surface thing. Then we put the wax food imitations and folded them in the paraffine. Done. Simple as that.

 Mucho proud over my achievement...

The result. Epic, isn't it? Not entirely sure what to do with them now, but I suppose that's another Christmas gift to check off the list.

Jo x

artsy 2.0

More artsy projects going down at the moment. After weeks of procrastination I have tonight and a few hours tomorrow to finish this one. What it is? Isn't it obvious?

Finished product to be shared as soon as it's finished.

Jo x

decembertimes

The Swedish Embassy has a Christmas market each year, and as I'm involved with the Swedish School, which is in itself closely connected to (and funded by) the embassy, I went. Truth be told, I would have gone anyway. Being abroad makes me insatiably nationalistic, and I would never pass up on a chance to mull around in Swedishness.

So the market. It was crap. But nice crap. They had some food stalls with gingerbread biscuits, mulled wine (glögg), sandwiches with salmon (not to solidify any stereotypes but...) and so on, and a bookstand with Swedish books selling for 100 yen = 10 SEK or 80p! I got two by Jonas Gardell that I've been wanting to read for a while but never really felt like paying £8 for. I win!There was Father Christmas (basking in the sunshine - hello 20 degrees!) walking around, greeting the children.

Oh, and of course the 'main event' = my kids' performance. The students at the Swedish School have been practicing for weeks - weeks I tell you! - for this day. In Sweden there is a tradition on December 13 which is St Lucia's day. On this day typically schools will hold events where the kids dress up in white gowns, put glitter in the hair (girls) or wear cone-shaped hats, and then they walk in a line and sing pretty songs. Sound weird? Take a look at this video and it will (maybe) make more sense:

So that's what my kids did, and quite successfully so I might add! Also there was the raffle. Tempted by the epic prices - e.g. return flight to Sweden with SAS (super nice airline), Swedish schnaps, gift cards to H&M etc etc - I bought one ticket, got number 77 (lucky lucky lucky!) and counted all my little chickens at once. Of course I won nothing.

Anyhuu, was nice with some Swedish feeling and hearing rich people speak (Hilfiger and LV everywhere one looked!) the lingo.

Then my friend had a concert in Shimbashi. I'm not a huge fan of ensemble music, but when they whisked out the Disney medley and the conductor wore Mickey Mouse-gloves, I was as happy as ever. My friend plays the violin.

 

That's all for now. Not much else happening at the moment, I'm afraid. I played volleyball again tonight and it rocked! Actually starting to understand some of the game now, and it makes it so much more fun. Blocks here, a (semi-)smash there - you name it. And the occasional 'what-the-F-are-my-hands-doing-shot, but those are of lesser importance. 

Tomorrow is coat-getting day. It's getting difficult to deny winter now, even here. 10 degrees today - BRR!

Jo x

mochified

 Mochi. It is a Japanese rice product, made from sticky rice. You can eat it with anything, either together with other foods or on its own. Now, I don't like mochi. I tried it with tofu and it almost made me gag. So, naturally, I decided to join the mochi-making event this weekend (Miss Logic, at your service). But let me tell you this - I am mochified. I love it! I think it's a little bit like olives: you have to stuff yourself with it to like it (and if you don't like it after a good stuffing, you never will).

Right, so first you pound the mochi into a paste (see pic right). This is done with a huge wooden club which kind of leaves little traces of wood in the mochi if you pound too hard. Maybe it adds taste?

 

Anyhuu, that done, you get this risgrynsgröt-looking sticky paste which you'll then shape into small round-ish balls.

 

Then you roll it in either kinako (soybean flour + sugar), ankô (red bean paste), goma (sesame + sugar).

kinako (def the best one)

ankô

 Or you can eat it proper stereotypical Japanese style: nori (seaweed) + soy sauce. Very odd taste.

goma

So now I'm in love with mochi and shall be eating it more often. Seeing as it makes you very full and very sick, my friends and I thought it's probably a good diet. Perhaps I should try out the Mochi Diet and report back results. The Chocolate Diet did not work the way I hoped.

Jo x

roppongi

Roppongi is a posh area in central Tokyo, and a popular living/partying/shopping place for (rich) foreigners. We went for an arts exhibition and stumbled across these wonderful Christmas lights!

A show thing sponsored by an airline (not specifying which - ha! advertisement strategy, failed!). It was cool though - started off with this blue field image...

 Then swishy swoshy lights swished and swoshed in the back, creating more and more lights.

 And then it turned red and the logo of the airline came up - and the magic was broken. But the blue show went on for a good few minutes.

Gosh, I love Christmas lights. More to come, I'm sure.

Jo x

my ikea christmas

 A tedious Sunday evening after a tedious Sunday whole day of studying resulted in a quick trip to IKEA. As December is coming up I was in dire need of gingerbread biscuits and glögg to fulfill my Christmas spirit. And look what welcomed myself and my friend Rin outside: a whole busload of Christmas trees! They were real ones and the smell was magical. For a moment I considered getting one as they cost about £17, or 180 SEK but there is no bloody space in my room! Ah, that smell though. Lush.

Food, food, food!

 And see here what I found in the Food Court: lussekatter! No idea how to translate that into English, but you get the deal. Very Swedish, very Christmassy. I don't really care much for them to be honest, but it had to be done. Every Christmas I eat them; every Christmas I wonder why. They do look nice though, and the little board thing beside it had an explanation as to where the name comes from. That's more than I know.

 After having paid for the gingerbread-scented candle and my new carrot soft toy (hereafter referred to as Mr C) it was time for the reason at least I'd gone there - Food Shop. Gingerbread houses, Christmas ham (very traditional, although not for a veggie as myself obviously - IKEA, where's the vegan ham???), super extraordinary expensive gingerbread biscuits and lots and lots more.

Mr C.

Usual IKEA food stuff. Super cheap ice cream at roughly 5 SEK / £0.40 etc. This is my happy place.

Today's treasures. The gingerbread biscuits were 700 yen, or £6, or 65 SEK; glögg £8 / 75 SEK; + the essential raisin and almond for a lovely £0.70 / 8 SEK. Very happy (and soon fat-ter) lady.

Jo x

sweet's paradise: the face of gluttony

 Christmas is approaching also in Japan, and the decorations are starting to come up! This (see right) horrible garlic-looking decor is in Shibuya. Vampire-repelling or not, I like it. I love Christmas and all the crazy decorations that are socially acceptable (well...) to put up, and soon I shall ornament my own room with glitter, spruce, and cones to max! (Although the 16 degrees and sun somewhat detracts from that Christmassy feeling.)

Anyway. Yesterday we had a full afternoon in Shibuya after my private tutoring (where I talked politics, believe it or not - something I know close to nothing about! My students really should not listen to a word I say) and we went to Sweet's Paradise. Yes, Sweet's Paradise. It's just as amazing as it sounds.

Basically it's a buffet. Of cakes. And food. In Japan (and also in Canada I've learnt) buffets are time limited - not like in Sweden or UK where you can just goff down food for hours on end without anyone giving you the evil eye. For the one we went to we had 80 minutes to stuff ourselves with pasta, rice, curry, crackers (carbs, carbs, carbs), veggies (yay!), soft drinks - and cake. Sadly I didn't take a photo of the cake counter but I'll see if I can steal one off one of my friends later. For now, let this suffice:

There were all kinds of cake: brownie, Green tea cake (the green stuff, also the best one!), 3 types of cheesecake, and so on and on and on. Must have been about 20 different ones there. + of course the chocolate fondue. Now, to be honest, yes, it wasn't the best of quality and the same sponge cake was probably used for half of them - but still! They also had mochi and jelly cubes but I'm too scared of the latter to eat it. Needless to say, this was Sweet Paradise in the very definition of the word. It cost us 1500 yen, so roughly £14, or 145 SEK. Not bad, eh? And because it was so cheap they didn't have a lot of meat, so I could eat almost everything! Jo vs Japan 1-0!

Might have gained about 3 kg just from this meal though. So much pasta and not to mention sugar from the cakes. All worth it.

Outside a restaurant. Freakshow!

Shibuya never fails to deliver. This guy was standing on the street, as you do, wearing his, erm, outfit. Not entirely sure why he was doing this, but according to my friend he said: "If you don't laugh, you don't live" or something like that. Very true, and he did make me laugh, so kudos.

Goldfish ear rings. For reals!

This Sunday does not promise anything overly exciting. All of a sudden I have lots of work to do, so at the moment I'm trying to write the optional essay of 2,000-infinity words (mine's looking at 5,000 at the moment!) and I have never been bullshitting so much in my university career! Hopefully the Cambridge-graduated professor won't notice...

How's my RoHo doing? And my Sweden? I must say the updates are lacking a little these days...! 

Jo x