Japanese Souvenirs

When you go to pick up someone at the airport, you can usually figure out where arriving people are from by looking at the gift shop bags of the airport. When I used to work at Detroit airport, our team used to check the passengers group by looking at those bags. This one on the photo is the bag from Tokyo Narita Aiport which my cousin Mon-chan brought.

Inside the bag was filled with yummy stuff!

These are ramen noodles produced by famous ramen shops in Japan. Inside the boxes are uncooked soft noodles and soup.

Mon-chan couple and we ate one of them together with lots of vegetables, and after Mon-chan left, Aibo-kun and I ate the other box. Both of then were so tasty and we enjoyed them more than eating at any ramen restaurants in LA.

Ramen is so popular in Japan that whenever we go back, it is on our "must eat in Japan" list.

The next one in a red wrapping is spicy cod roe. We usually enjoy them with freshly cooked write rice, but Aibo-kun's favorite way to eat them is with "kuri-gohan", so I cooked some and enjoyed them together. This was a very good quality one that I was very very satisfied!

The sweets was special, too.
As soon as seeing the round packages, I was soooo excited! This is one of the most famous and most difficult caramel candies to get in Japan right now. They are produced by a famous Japanese comedian who owns his own farm in Hokkaido (northern Japan), and even you are in Japan, most people have hard time getting them.

Mon-chan ordered them on-line and the moment you put one in your mouth, it melts on your tongue. The photo is the chocolate flavor one, and we also got to taste the original one. Personally, I like the original one better.

Then the main gift really made me excited! It is a egg pan made with copper. I always wanted one, and when Mon-chan and I went shopping together in Tokyo last spring, I almost bought one, but didn't, and really regreted that I didn't get it. Mon-chan wanted to try using it, so we cooked two eggs, and voila! It turned out beautifully.

For sure, I will cook eggs more often then ever.

Thank you Mon-chan!

Received from Japan!

My blogger friend iikayo-chan sent me a gift package from Japan. She sent it so I can open it before Christmas, but for some reason, the package got lost and my previous landlord called me and said "I have a package for you" on the New Years Eve. I guess I was lucky to receive it because the package was almost sent back to Japan!
Anyways, iikayo-chan is a friend whom I met through the Japanese blog, and she and her husband has a photography business in Japan. They have a very good taste and I like their work style as well. This is their business URL.

Opening a cafe at home is easier in Japan than in the USA (which actually is one of my dreams for the future, too!), so they are planning to open one this year, and she sent me two kinds of organic tea they may use at their future cafe.

Darjeeling had a very fresh straightforward taste without any additives, and I liked it a lot. The tea bag one had a nice flavor, too. You can tell that both of them are very high quality teas.




Then the pretty traditional Japanese candies made me smile!

The leaf shaped one is made from a traditional special sugar called "wasanbon", and since you are tasting the sugar itself, the quality of "wasanbon" is very important. This one is very delicate and has a good aftertaste.

The other sweet is called "konpeitou". You can find all kinds and colors of "konpeitou" in Japan, but it is quite difficult to find a high quality ones because "konpeitou"'s taste also depends on the quality of the sugar.

Iikayo-chan ordered them from her favorite sweets shop in Kyoto City which is the most popular site seeing place in Japan because of its old temples and atmosphere.

Being apart from home, it is always nice to taste and feel Japanese things in the USA, and that is because my sweet family and friends always care about me. Thank you a lot!