A Japanese Girl's Life

Japanese fast food shop, Mos Burger is my favorite.
They use domestic meat,
also they use vegetables which are grown at their own farm,
and open the information.
Although they don't serve fast as same as Mcdonald,
the food is hot and delicious as they start to cook
after they receive their customer's order,
The price may be a little expensive.
But, recently, Mcdonald's food is getting expensive.
So, I think the price is not that different to Macdonald.
And it's cheaper than Starbucks.
When we eat in the shop,
I like that they serve coffee in ceramic cup instead of plastic cup.
Also, in some case, there are magazines in the shop.
I can drink coffee reading a magazine in a relaxed way.
Sometimes, I order sweets together with coffee.
Their sweets are nice for a fast food shop.
I'm really sorry that there is no shop close to my house and office.

Mos Burger HP
http://www.mos.co.jp/english/

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I went on a business trip to Tokyo last week.
It was for an exhibition from Thursday and
I stayed in Tohyo one night.

The next day, after the exhibition,
my co-worker and I went to Yokohama in private.
We had reserved a hotel in Yokohama.
While going to the hotel ,we were excited!
After check-in, we went for dinner to the sea side in Yokohama.
An old-style brick warehouse was there and
it was restored and there were restaurants and shops in it.












We had booked one of the restaurants in advance.


BEER NEXT
http://r.gnavi.co.jp/a004300/


We had ordered a course already.
We drank beer and talked a lot.
During work, we can't talk so much.
We had a very good time!

When we left the restaurant, it was past 11:00pm.
But no problem becasue the hotel was not far from the restaurant.
We were going back to the hotel chating and laughing!

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I went to Kagawa prefecture in Shikoku.
It took for 4 hours from Osaka by car.
Kagawa is famous for Sanuki UDON which is a type of Japanese noodle.

At first, I visited Yamagoe Udon".
There was a long line in front of the restaurant!!
I was waiting for about 30 minutes.



Yamagoe's udon noodle was boiled for a minute and
placed in a sauce of raw beaten egg.
I put a fried fish sausage on it.
The udon was 200yen and the sausage was 100yen.
We ate it sitting on an outside bench.
My boyfriend and friends said it was very delicious,
but I didn't like the fresh egg...

After that, we did sightseeing in Kagawa and
stayed at a hotel in the city.

The next day, our breakfast was udon also!
We visited another udon restaurant , called "Nekko".

I ordered KAKE-UDON
which is hot noodles with hot soup.
Also I ordered fried fish sausage here.
The udon was 180yen
and the sausage was 100yen.
It made me warm and
I liked it very much


Next, we went to "Ikegami".
Ikegami is well known for the owner.
She is 75 years old but doing well and cheerful.
She was introduced on TV many times for her character.
Unfortunately, we couldn't eat udon at Ikegami
because, on that day, the hot-water kettle
for boiling udon was broken...
We had to give up on the udon of Ikegami.
I wanted to see the owner, Rumiko-Gramma!


After that, we went to RITSURIN park.
http://www.pref.kagawa.jp/ritsurin/index_e.html
It's very large Japanese style park.
I'm not really intrested in Japanese style park,
but I liked the park very much.
It was very beautiful. If you go to Kagawa, you should visit there.



After leaving the park, we went to the last udon restaurant "Okido".
http://www.okido-udon.com/

I ordered Bukkake-udon
which is cold noodles with cold soup
and of course fried fish sausage!
The udon was 260yen and
the sausage was 100yen.
The udon was soooooooo delicious!!
I liked Ookido's udon best!


There are so many Udon restaurants in Kagawa.
Going around in Kagawa for udon is called an "Udon Pilgrimage".
I want to go on the pilgrimage again some time!

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A restaurant will be closed on the 8th of July.
This restaurant is "KUIDAORE".
60 years ago, Mr.Yamada made this restaurant
for the recovery of damage from World War �U.
He wanted to cheer up Osaka.

The restaurant is
famous for a doll as the billboard.
Nearly everyone knows him.
His name is Taro Kuidaore.
He is wearing a gaudy clothes
and playing a drum.
He is on the street,
out side of the restaurant.
The founder hoped to entertain not only
his customer but also passersby.






The big crab from a restaurant called Kui-douraku,
a neon bord from Glico, and Taro Kuidaore are
the most famous landmarks in Osaka.


I was shocked when I heard the restaurant will be closed...
Taro Kuidaore will be free after closing the restaurant,
but many companies want to get him!
I want the company which gets him to keep him in Osaka.

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I went to see cherry-blossoms in a park
near my boyfriend's house last weekend.
My boyfriend and I got up at 9:00 and made a small lunch box
with ONIGIRI(rice ball), fried sausage, rolled egg, a bowl of salad,
and a bottle of milk tea.
I was in charge of fried sausage, rolled egg, a bowl of salad,
and a bottle of milk tea, and he was in charge of ONIGIRI.


We left his house at 12:00
and reached at the park around 12:20.

Many people enjoyed picnics
in the park.
I bought a can of beer at
a small shop in the park.
I regretted not bringing it
from his house
because it was a little more expensive
than usual.








We settled down
close to a baseball ground.
On the ground, little league teams
were having games.
There was a row of
cherry blossom trees here
and many people were eating
lunch and enjoying cherry-blossoms.










We sat down under a
cherry tree and ate lunch.
The lunch was not luxurious
but very delicious.





After lunch, we were just lazy and relaxing.

Around 3:00, we left the park.
I want to go to see cherry-blossoms next year, too!

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In Japan, a drama is usually shown once a week for 3 months.
I don't like to watch TV so much.
I think it's tiresome to keep watching a drama for 3months.
However, I like a drama now which is called
" SHIKA-OTOKO AWONIYOSHI".

The story is strange and a little bit silly.
The scene is Nara, an old Japanese city
like Kyoto.
Long time ago, a very big catfish
ran wild.
One of the Japanese gods silenced it.
The god clasped it's tail
and then screwed it down,
and buried it under ground.
He asked a particular fox, a particular Japanese deer,
and a particular mouse to drive a screw
in once a year in turn. They needed a special tool
which is called "SANKAKU" to drive the screw.

There is only one "SANKAKU", so the fox, the deer, and the mouse
have to transfer it every year.
Humans which are chosen by them have to help
the delivery and receipt and the ceremony.
This year, it's the deer's turn.
The deer chose one man for the delivery and receipt from the fox.
But the man couldn't receive the "SANKAKU"
because of the mouse's disturbance!
If they can't drive the screw, the catfish will run wild again!!

The man which was chose by the deer is acted by Hiroshi Tamaki.
He is very handsome...


This Thursday (Tomorrow!) is the final episode.
I'm looking forward to it very much!!

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Recently, items that look like sweets are in now in Japan.
For example, there are jewelries, keyholders,
and straps for cellphones.
Also, this motif is used for patterns on bags or clothes.

　

The item which I'm most interested is parts for cellphone.
They are like food model which are made from silicon or plastic and
put on the cellphone by glue.
The cellphone becomes like a dish of sweets!
But I wouldn't try that because my cellphone
would be very heavy...

Meanwhile I bought
a cake motif keyholder.
I like it very much,
but sometime it makes me hungry!

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March 3rd is the day of the Doll festival in Japan.
It's called the HINA-MATSURI.
The HINA-MATSURI is a festival for girls.
On the day, special traditional dolls are set up.

On the upper tier,
the emperor and empress　are
desplayed.　On the next stage,
three female attendants are set.
On the next, five male attendants
are set.　Additionally, there are
three old mans, peach tree
branches　and dishes.









Families which have daughters display
these dolls for the festival and
hope for their daughter's healthy growth.
Usually the daurhter's grandparents gave
it the family.


These doll sets are very expensive.
For example, the set in the above picture is
more than 800,000 yen!
So, it's more common to buy only the emperor and empress.
As for my family, we have only the emperor, empress,
peach branches, and dishes.
When I was a child, my parents displayed it each year.
But now, they don't because it's a bother.
We have to put it away soon after the festival, or
it is said that the daughter's marrige would be late.
I think that it is only a superstition.
But my mother says my late marrige is because of it!

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I went to the seaside in Mie prefecture.
There are some small islands in the bay.
One of them is my friend's home town.
The friend, her boyfriend, my boyfriend and me went
there by my friend's boyfriend's car.

I've been to the island in summer a few times,
but this was the first time I went there in winter.
At the beach of the island, many oysters can be picked.

We reached a small port and my friend's uncle took us
to the island by his boat.
They had prepared the venue for us already.



I was very excited
when I found a lot of oysters!!!



My friend's uncle cooked them for us.
At first he put them a
special wire basket,
and then put them over a fire.



After cooked well, we wore thick cotten gloves and
pried open by using picks.

The oyster was sooooooo delicious!!
We kept eating like crazy.







I didn't like oyster until some years ago.
I can't believe myself!

My friend's uncle and aunt had prerared
some other nice dishes also.


We became very full.
I was very happy to eat so many nice oysters!

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In 27th Jan., Osaka governor's race was held.
Five people entered the race.
In Japan, the voting rate has been low recently
because most young people aren't interested in politics.
As for myself, I wasn't interested in the race also.

One day before the race, I went drinking with my friends.
One of them said she would go to vote without fail.
I was surprised because she seemed not to be
interested in politics like me. We asked her why she thought so.
She said " I like Judo very much as you know.
Mr. Yamashita, a Japanese major judoist is
in International Judo Federation.
He was a director of the federation for a long time.
But he lost the race for the director last year.
I 'm afraid that the new director may change the Judo rules.
Now the important thing is how beautiful the technique is.
But they would change it to how powerful the player is.
That is disadvantage for Japanese.
This is bad situation for Japanese players.
I think Mr Yamashita lost the race because
he don't have appeal skills.
I've known the most important thing for top person is appeal skills.
So, I will vote for Mr.Hashimoto at this race."


Mr.Hashimoto was one of the candidates.
He is 38 years old, very young for governor.
He is a lawyer and appeared TV show often.
He doesn't look serious.
So we were surprised when he entered the race.
We had knew who he was from TV show well and
we could understand his policy easily
because he is good at speaking on TV.

As for the other candidates, they were old men and serious
but I didn't know who they were and what their policy was.

My friend said that means they didn't have appeal skills.
After listening to her story,
I was interested in the race and went to vote.

In the end, Mr.Hashimoto won the race.
The voting rate was 5% up than last Osaka governor's race.
I think young parents supported him
because he have seven children.

I hope his good work now!!

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