Tokyo Skytree is the tallest structure in Japan, and is the 2nd tallest structure in the world (as of Jan 11, 2015)! 

Not only is the architecture impressive - it's a fun place to go since there are so many shops & restaurants. 

Check out my past article for the most important recommendation I discovered :)

東京スカイツリー
やっぱりまだ
大人気！

Probably the most simple Carbonara recipe you'll ever find - and it's healthy, light (believe it or not), tasty and approved by my boyfriend!

Japanese people LOVE their Italian food. Tokyo has Italian restaurants all over! They are all quite delicious too. This means that we (Japanese) are very picky with pasta. We're not used to the heavy homestyle Italian dishes though, we're used to the more light, healthy kind (which is the version served in Japan). 

All you need is (for 1-2):

• Pasta (200g)
• Onion (Half a medium)
  
• Garlic (Sliced)
  
• Milk (1/2 cup to 1/3 cup)
  
• Cheese (1 - 2 sliced cheeses)
• 1 whole egg
• Olive oil, salt, pepper
• (Optional) Bacon, ham, any meat of your choice

Steps:

1. Chop the onions, slice the optional meat, start boiling the pasta but remember get the pasta out ~2 min early (because we're going to cook it a little more in the pan with the sauce)
2. On medium heat, heat the olive oil, garlic, (optional meat) and onions until cooked through
3. Weaken the heat to LOW and throw in the sliced cheese. Tear it up into little pieces so that it will melt through. Add the milk.
4. Once the cheese is melted, throw in the drained pasta. Add salt & pepper as necessary.
5. Stop the heat, pour in the mixed egg. Mix the pasta so that the egg goes through evenly.
6. Add some more pepper, if you need....and that's it :)

Chocolate chip panko cookies!
I have never thought about using panko for a dessert but this turned out to be super simple to make and delicious!
They are such great crunchy sweet cookies. I got great feedback from the people I shared it with at my work :)


Since I don't like my desserts too sweet, this recipe might be not sweet enough for you. In that case, just add some more sugar. But hey, why not lessen the sweetness of these cookies and enjoy it with a nice hot sweet drink instead?

Here's how you can make it today, using all the panko leftovers.

What you need:

• 40g of panko (I used whole wheat)
• 20g of sugar
• 40g of butter
• 1/2 cup of milk
• vanilla essence

Steps:

1. Simply mix all the ingredients together
2. Heat the oven to 300F
3. Roll up into little balls (I used a tablespoon measure to make it easier & scoop)
4. Bake for 15min or until brown

パン粉でクッキー作れるなんて思いもしなかった!!
でもサクッモチッなクッキーになって幸せいっぱい♥︎

Yup, I took that photo! 

Not only can you see beautiful gardens and THE golden pavilion when you visit. Here are some things you may not have known about the famous "Kinkakuji".


1. It's a Zen Buddhist Temple.


2. It's real name is "Rokuonji" (鹿苑寺).


3. It's a World Heritage site!


4. It was completely burnt down in the 1950s, but almost fully recovered by 1955.


5. Before becoming a temple, it was a shogun's (Ashikaga Yoshimitsu) house (1930s), this is when the garden was built. It became a temple after his death in the 1400s.


6. The shogun's grandson built the "Ginkakuji" (Silver Pavilion), also a famous spot a few decades later.


...and don't forget to buy "Dango" (rice cake) dipped in special sweet soy sauce.




京都観光する時に欠かせない金閣寺!
知っとくと面白い事６つ：
①禅寺である事
②本命は鹿苑寺であるという事
③世界遺産であるという事
④1950年に全焼し、1955年にはほぼ完全に復活したという事(再建)
⑤足利義満の別荘であり、死亡した後、寺になったという事（１４００年代）
⑥足利の孫が金閣寺をインスピレーションに銀閣寺を建てたという事

In Japan, there's really not yet a trend of women consuming protein shakes and powder. 
[More on that on another blog post.]
It's only when I moved to San Francisco that I was exposed to all these protein powder recipes! 

So I tried this recipe from Lee for my very first non-bake protein balls! They turned out nutty, sweet and delicious.
Maple syrup was sweet enough for me so I did not bother with the chocolate chips.

Ingredients (for 9 small bites):

• 1 scoop of vanilla protein (I use whey)
• 1/2 cup of almond meal (I bought mine at Trader Joes)
• 1/4 cup of almond butter
• 2-3 tbsp of maple syrup

Steps:

1. Mix the protein powder & almond meal
2. Mix in the almond butter & syrup
3. Using saran wrap, make little balls out of the dough.
4. ENJOY

プロテインパウダーって日本女性の中ではあまり人気がない気がするけど
サンフランシスコでは大人気！
スムージーとかに混ぜて飲む人多し。
ということでお菓子感覚で食べられるプロテインボールはいかがでしょう？

Coin Lockers.

They are located in every station - You'll see them everywhere you go in Japan.

For $3 - $7, you can store anything for 24 hours. You simply put in the money and grab a key, or enter a passcode.
They are usually located at a train station, for ultimate convenience.


It's useful for:

• Keeping your travel luggage if you want to look around the area before going to your next location
• Storing your shopping bags, if you shopped a little too much :)
• Keeping your heavy jackets and coats, if the weather ended up being warmer

These lockers are always clean & pristine.  You'll never have to worry about putting your bags into some dirty box.
They are not only used by tourists, but are used by locals too! There are also people who work for these Coin Lockers who look around and make sure lockers w/ lost owners are taken care of, so don't worry and make use of them! 

The lighter you feel, the better. Especially while exploring Japan!

コインロッカー。便利で綺麗な日本のコインロッカー。
残念ながらアメリカには存在しません。
存在しても汚くなって恐ろしい事になりそう。

I made these Japanese potstickers "Gyoza" for a dinner potluck on Friday. They were a hit! Great for a casual appetizer. They are savoury, easy to eat and will open up your guests' appetite for the upcoming meal.

I've posted a recipe here in the past but the ingredients I used this time are much simpler & easy.
Vegetarians! Keep in mind you can also make these without meat.

Ingredients (makes around 25-30 potstickers):

• Gyoza wrappers (you can buy them at a Japanese supermarket or an asian one. I've seen them in Wholefoods here in SF)
• 1/3 minced meat (I used turkey, I also recommend chicken or pork)
• Chinese Chives (I bought these also at the Japanese supermarket), if you don't have them, use spring onions
• (optional) Any other greens you like, like cabbage
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/2 - 1 tbsp grated garlic
• 1 tbsp each of Japanese soy sauce, sake, sesame oil

Steps: 
Please follow the steps on this recipe, I've provided step by step photos! 
Just make sure to pan fry them right before you are ready to eat them!

For those of you who unaware of this interesting phenomena in Japan, this might be interesting.

In Japan, the tradition is for women to express their love to a man by giving them chocolate. No flowers, no gifts,  just chocolate from women to men.

There are 2 types of chocolates women give on this day in Japan - "real" chocolate ("honmei") and "fake" chocolate ("giri").

• GIRI chocolates are bought in stores and are given to friends, coworkers and families.
  
• HONMEI chocolates are usually handmade and are only gifted to the woman's love.

Now this becomes a huge deal in middle school and high school. You often here boys/men bragging about how many "Honmei" chocolates they received. 

But wait - So what does the man do?
.....He has White Day (March 14), to give back.

It seems like Valentines Day started and became popular in the 1950s in Japan, through at a Department store marketing scheme. They simply put "For a lady to give to their man" on one of the ads. 

I tried out Skinnytaste's flourless brownies , but adjusted some of the ingredients & amount of sugar.

In Japan, sweets are much less sweet than in America. I always find American desserts a little too sweet - so these adjustments really help me :) And trust me, these brownies were sweet enough! I also cut down on the chocolate chips since I usually find them overpowering & skipped on the coffee beans.

These brownies came out very chewy, chocolatey and delicious. My boyfriend couldn't even tell what the secret ingredient was :) 

バレンタインデーは小麦粉を使わない、ブラックビーンブラウニーなんていかがでしょうか♥︎
まったく豆を使ったブラウニーだなんて考えられない、もちもちブラウニーになりました。

Ingredients:

• 1 canned organic black beans, rinsed, drained
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 or a little less of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 tbsp soy milk
• 1 teaspoon Japanese rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350F, oil the baking pan
2. Mix all ingredients (except for chocolate chips) in the mixer until smooth
3. Mix in the chocolate chips
4. Bake for 30min!
5. Cool & Serve.

According to many, many, many Japanese news articles and blogs, the new Blue Bottle Coffee which opened in Tokyo this week has been observing lines which go for 2-4 hour. 

....I personally am a great fan of Blue Bottle's New Orleans Ice Coffee (@ Hayes Valley) but, 4 hours?! 
Crazy!

Photos of Tokyo Blue Bottle (below) were taken from here.

And the pictures below are taken by me. My favourite Blue Bottle Coffee in Hayes Valley :)

サンフランシスコのブルーボトルコーヒーはそれほど混雑していませんし、素敵な雰囲気が好きです♥︎
毎回購入するのはニューオーリンズアイスコーヒー! ほどよい甘みとミルキーさがたまらん♥︎

Located in Yokohama - This restaurant, Motoya (aka Pancake Ristorante) in Motomachi, serves the most fluffy, dense and perfect Japanese pancakes.
Their omelettes are the softest, fluffiest you'll probably ever have too.

For only $10 USD, you get a drink (coffee, tea or juice), 2 pancakes and a whole omelette plate cooked to perfection.
The quality of all the dishes served were very high - not to mention the service, which was impeccable. 

Who doesn't love super fluffy omelettes?

Japanese girls like me are into fluffy snacks, fluffy food, fluffy anything right now. 
Pancakes, omelettes, pastries....The list goes on.

So instead of lining up for 1hr to get fluffy omelettes, why not try it at home?

This applies to those living in San Francisco too!


Recipe for 1 omelette:

• 1 large egg (or 2)
  
• 2-3 tbsp of milk (I use Whole)
  
•  (Optional) Cheese, veggies
  

Steps:
1. Whisk the egg and milk. Try to get some air in there!
2. Heat a pan on medium heat.
3. On the heated pan, add a little olive oil or butter to prevent sticking.
4. Pour in the egg, add any optional goodies if any and mix the top layer so it gets a little scrambled.
5. Put the heat down to low and start cooking the egg to your favourite consistency slowly. Slowly!
6. Fold the egg and cook a little more.

fwah-lah!

You can eat these meatballs warm or cold. My mom used to put it into my bento box for lunch all the time. Nostalgic!

The sauce is a savoury Japanese sauce - almost like teriyaki sauce. It goes perfectly with white rice. 
We call these "niku-dango". Niku is meat, and dangos are the bite sized mochis/dumplings usually eaten as dessert.

Recipe for approximately 10-15 meatballs:

• 1/2 pound of minced meat (I used turkey)
• 1/4 large onion
• 1/4 cup of bread crumbs (panko)
• 1 tbsp milk
• potato starch (this makes the sauce more sticky)
• ★ 1 tbsp of Japanese sake
• ★ 1 tbsp of Japanese mirin

• ★ 1 tbsp of Japanese sake

• ★ 1 tbsp of water
• ★ 2.5 tbsp of Japanese soy sauce
• ★ 2 tbsp of sugar

Steps:

1. In a bowl, mix the panko & milk. Once the crumbs get wet, add the meat and chopped up onions. Mix.
2. Mix well, then create little bite sized balls. Like a "dango" (bite sized mochi). 
3. Put them into a bowl or bag with some potato starch. Make sure the balls of meat are covered in them.
4. Boil the meatballs until cooked thoroughly.
5. In a separate pan, start cooking the sauce (all the items marked with ★)
6. Add the boiled meatballs into the pan with the sauce.
7. Cook on low heat and simmer until the sauce becomes sticky or saucy.

Serve with white Japanese rice. Yum!

Kimono rental in Kyoto is something every tourist should experience upon visiting! 
I went to "Yume Yakata", located conveniently in the downtown area of Kyoto. 
For just $60 (USD), I was able to rent a whole winter outfit + perfect hairdo! 

The experience was one which was quite interesting...First of all, the rental place is located in a building - Surprinsingly enough, the inside of the building was a fully functioning factory! 

Here's how it went:

1. 1st floor - Reception / Waiting area 
2. 2nd floor - Pick your kimono! (You can get help too), and pay
3. 3rd floor - A professional will help you wear the kimono. In a huge room with a bunch of other girls getting changed. (~20 minutes)
   
4. 4th floor - Pick your bag (which goes with the kimono) and place your belongings into their locker system
5. 5th floor - Hair set!

The whole experience was super efficient (Yep, we're in Japan) and my boyfriend ended up having to wait only 40 minutes.
You can rent the kimono for the whole day (until  7pm) and they also have sets for men :)

Looking for a fun little way to give your friend, co-worker or significant other a gift or card? 

I made these little, cute and colourful envelopes for my boyfriend. They are made out of Japanese Origami paper. You can purchase them at a Japanese bookstore or stationery store. In San Francisco, that would be the Kinokuniya Store in Japan Town.

Simply follow the steps (photos) below and you'll find yourself with these little cuties!
By the way...I put a mini card in these envelopes :)