Kuromon, Osaka’s Food Heaven

We identified this Japan trip as a culinary and traveling journey. That’s the reason why we tried to find places that served famous, delicious, and unique foods. Now here in Osaka, we visited Kuromon Market (黒門市場) that is also known as Osaka’s Kitchen. According to local history, since 1822, some fish merchants gathered in this area every morning to sell and buy fish. It was believed as a starting point of Kuromon Market. Until the end of Meiji era, Kuromon Market used to be called Emmeiji Market, because there was a large temple named Emmeiji nearby. Later, this market was called Kuromon Market (Black Gate Market) due to the color of the temple’s gate.

We took off in Nippombashi Station (日本橋駅) and walked about 5 minutes to reach Kuromon Market. We arrived at about 10 AM and we were so happy because we could find everything here, such as fresh seafood, meats, clothes, souvenirs, and others. 

Currently, there are 191 stores in this 580-meters-length shopping district. We explored around the market and found out that fruits in Japan were much more expensive. One slice of watermelon (スイカ) cost 100 yen and melon (メロン) cost 200 yen. But as you could see, all stuffs in Japan are made in high quality, including fruits. Osaka’s favorite snacks are surely takoyaki (たこ焼き) and okonomiyaki (お好み焼き). Kuromon Market has a lot of stalls that sells them but we tried to hold back because we had already planned to eat Takoyaki in Takoyaki Museum (Universal City Walk) and Okonomiyaki in Dotonbori.  

Generally, people have a strong perception that Kuromon Market was only for locals. Many of the customers are professional chefs in Japanese restaurants that come due to its qualities and quantities. But nowadays, with Japanese government’s big promotion of Japan, you could see not just locals but also a lot of international tourists have a culinary wandering trip here.

We bought grilled scallop and octopus that cost 700 yen each. Those tasted fresh and very juicy. Remember to finish your meals in a place before you started to continue again because eating while walking is forbidden in Japan. Restaurants in here have their own specialties such as tuna sashimi, sushi, fugu sashimi, kobe beef, eel rice set, udon etc. Some of them are very affordable but don’t let yourself be deported back to your country due to lack of money after all your spending here! Hahaha.............

If the day you visit the market is your last day in Japan, don’t forget to purchase souvenirs for your people back home. They provide so many items like Japanese traditional snacks, sweets, Japanese pickles, Japanese tea, kimonos etc.

Kuromon Market is done.Time to explore the other side of Osaka.

credit : kuromon.com

Location: 542-0073, 1-15-6 Nippombashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka

Website : www.kuromon.com

We eat, we walk, we talk

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Ueno Park,Tokyo : Surrounded by Sakura Trees

I am sure everyone, who plan to come to Japan in Spring, must have targeted to have hanami (sakura viewing) while they are there. Not for the whole journey but at least once in a city. Starting from Winter, you’ll see a lot of websites release Cherry Blossom calendar. We checked that too so it is normal. Usually Cherry Blossom period in Japan is at the end of March until the beginning of April. But the truth is it’s impossible to make a fix prediction because weather nowadays doesn’t have an exact pattern due to the climate change. Sometimes people get disappointed because of not-yet-blossomed sakura on their visiting period. Yet, maybe it’s all about luck and flexibility.

We were so lucky as we could enjoy sakura viewing on March 29th, 2015 at Ueno Park, Tokyo. It is the most popular park in central Tokyo. This park is easy to be found. Get off at Ueno Station then walked a bit and you’ll find a lot of people walking and facing this park. Japanese families, Japanese couples, international tourists (like us) and many more.

Since our arrival in Tokyo (March 27th, 2015), the weather wasn’t so cold anymore so we could put down our jackets and it’s a big deal. Enjoying our sushi that we bought from Tsukiji Fish Market on the bench was an awesome experience. The sushi was delicious and the sakura was beautiful. After we finished eating, we approached a pink sakura tree and started to take some pictures. Suddenly, a group of tourists came to the same tree. Guess what? An Indonesian tourist (we knew that she’s Indonesian because she spoke in Indonesian) started to pull the branch of sakura tree to take ‘selfie’ photographs. What the hell is that? She wanted to look like a pretty woman with Sakura beside her face? Truly, it isn’t normal except you are as tall as Yao Ming. Soon after that, a Chinese tourist followed her action. True travellers won’t do something impolite like that, right? Peace =)

If it is just about sakura viewing, what is that special thing here? You can enjoy sakura viewing everywhere in Tokyo, can’t you? Ueno Park has more than 1000 sakura trees lining at its central pathway and becomes one of the most lively cherry blossom viewing spots in Japan. Maybe it’s not too comfortable to walk in the middle of the huge crowd but sakura trees here has been the main reason why people around the world come to Japan. 

In Spring, you could see Japanese do hanami (花見) under the sakura trees. They brought carpet, lunch meals, tea or beer or sake and some also brought Shogi (Japanese chess). 

Would really love to visit the museum and zoo but because we didn’t have enough time so we left and headed to Akihabara. We will definitely come back here soon to explore more!

If you have more free time, maybe you can explore more inside Ueno Park:

·       Shinobazu Pond and Bentendo (Free)

·       Tokyo National Museum (620 yen)

·       National Museum For Western Art (430 yen, free on 2nd and 4th Saturday each month, and November 3rd)

·       Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (due to exhibition)

·       National Science Museum (620 yen)

·       Ueno Zoo(600 yen,free on March 20th,May 4th and October 1st)

·       Keneiji Temple (Free)

·       Kiyomizu Kannon Temple (Free)

·       Toshogu  Shrine (Free, inner shrine area 500 yen)

·       Shitamachi Museum (300 yen)

Locations: Taito, 110-0007, Tokyo

Opening hours: 05.00 AM – 11.00 PM

We eat, we walk, we talk

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Kobe Beef Steak Steakland : Marble in Kobe, Japan

credit : steakland.jp

Kobe Beef was the main reason why we decided to visit Kobe and stayed for one night here. It is really famous around the world and as known, the price is really expensive. Why is it so expensive? Here is a little bit explaination that we got.

Kobe beef refers to beef from Tajima strain of Wagyu cattle, raised in Hyogo prefecture as rules from Kobe Beef Marketing And Distribution Promotion Association. It is called Kobe-Niku (神 戸 肉) or Kobe-Gyu  (神 戸 牛) in Japanese. Beef that could be labeled as ‘Kobe Beef’ must fulfill these following requirements:

1.    Tajima cattle that was born and breeded in Hyogo prefecture.

2.  Steer or castrated bull.

3.  Processed at slaughter houses in Kobe, Nishinomiya, Sanda, Kakogawa or Himeji in Hyogo prefecture.

4.  BMS (Beef Marble Score) in the level 6 or above.

5.  Meat quality score is 4 or 5.

6.  Beef’s gross weight from one animal is 470 kg or less.

Kobe beef has higher unsaturated fat than saturated fat with ratio 2:1. It also has high level of oleic acid, fatty acid in olive and canola oil that could lower bad cholesterol (LDL).

Restaurant that we chose to try Kobe Beef steak was Steakland. This restaurant is famous and quite strategic. We took Hankyu line and took off in Sannomiya Station. Just take a bit walk and usually you’ll find it crowded. We arrived at about 1 pm and queued in line. Steakland placed the price list on board in front of the restaurant so we could calculate how much money we would spend. For lunch, they offered Kobe Beef Steak at 3.180 yen (150 gr). Lunch time is from 11.30 AM until 02.00 PM. After lunch time, it would cost 4.480 yen (200 gr) and for dinner, 5.480 yen (200 gr). All prices included tax already. 

We waited for about one hour and half and finally got the first waiting line. We were so shocked when the waitress of Steakland removed the lunch set signboard. We were panicking and only could think ‘does it mean that we will have to pay 4.480 yen to eat that?’ So we thought to order one portion of Kobe Beef Steak set (4.480 yen) and steak set (2.880 yen) to save cost. 

credit : steakland.jp

A few minutes later, a waitress approached us and placed us in a 12-seats rounded table in second floor. It was really crowded as no other empty seat was available. She gave us the menu list and luckily, we still could order the Kobe Beef Steak Lunch set that cost 3.180 yen per portion. Yes! Luck never leave us along this Japan trip, for sure. Peace! =) By the way, you could check the update prices in their website http://steakland.jp  

Kobe Beef Steak Lunch set contains rice, miso soup, salad, grilled vegetables, japanese pickles, kobe beef steak, mineral water or coffee or orange juice (after we had done eating). The chef cooked in front of us so a lot of people, especially tourists, love to do video-filming of this attraction. We sat together with a couple of average-age Chinese couple, a young Japanese couple, a family of 5 people (2 adults and 3 kids) and also a Korean. We enjoyed our food very well. Because it was served well-done, it wasn’t too juicy for us. But what we loved very much was that we didn’t find any fat in the steak, which meant that it was a healthy steak. In the end, the waitress offered us coffee or orange juice, it was up to our choices. Then we headed up to the clerk on the first floor to pay for our meals. The Japanese couple paid for their orders separately as how the culture in Japan is. After our stomachs were full, we headed to Mountain Rokko!

Location           : 1-8-2 Kitanagasadori, Chuo-ku, Miyasako 
                          Building 1-2F, Kobe 650-0012, Japan

Website          : http://steakland.jp

Opening hours : Everyday 

                         11.00 AM – 10.30 PM (last order 10.00 PM)

We eat, we walk, we talk

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Yebisu Beer Museum : Best Beer in Town

Nowadays, in Japan, beer has become a common beverage that Japanese loves. We could find it everywhere, in convenience stores, in vending machines and in restaurants. But based on Japanese law, it is prohibited to consume alcoholic beverages if you are under 20 years old.

We decided to visit Museum of Yebisu Beer to learn about beer brewing history in Japan. We took JR Yamanote Line to Ebisu station and walked to Pavilion of Yebisu  Garden Place. This site was named that way because Yebisu Beer Brewery was founded in 1987 in this area. You can enjoy a German-style garden and restaurants here if you have free time.

Yebisu Beer Museum opens at 11.00 AM. As always, it was opened on time and we didn’t have to pay admission fee. Yeah, it is free! Except if you take a 40-minutes tour that costs 500 yen for adult (include beer tasting), a brand communicator (Yebisu expert) who will explain about the history of Yebisu and there are areas that only tour visitors can enter such as tour lounge and communication stage.

Maybe you get confused by asking ‘is there any typo here between Yebisu Beer and Ebisu Station?’ Sounds quite same, right? Because Yebisu Beer was really famous, it later became name of train station and district. Before World War II, Japanese language had Ye (ゑ) as one of the alphabets. But after World War II passed, it was reformed. Ye (ゑ) was erased from alphabet list and E (え) was used to replace Ye (ゑ) until now. But why does Yebisu Beer still use Ye as their brand, not E? They said that there was a history behind the name and they wouldn’t let it be vanished.

In front of Yebisu Beer Museum, you’ll see a super big can of Yebisu Beer and we are sure that you won’t miss the logo which is Ebisu God. This God is one of Seven Gods of good luck (shichi fukujin) that protects fishermen, luck, business prosperity and fair dealing. He is usually described as a man that holds a fishing rod and a red sea bream. In Japan, fish is a mark of good luck.

If you would like to take a tour, you may go to tour counter. Five minutes before the tour is started, please go to the tour lounge and brand communicator will meet you there. We didn’t take any tour so we directly went to Yebisu gallery.

As told before, Yebisu Beer Company was founded in 1887. At that time, Japanese brought German brewmasters to teach them how to make beer in German-brewing methods. Finally after three years (1890), Yebisu Beer was born and gave a higher quality than beer in other areas. It even won a Gold Prize in Paris Expo (1900) and Grand Prix in St. Louis Expo (1904). At that time, beer was an expensive stuff. For comparison, in 1904, beer was sold at 20 cents (100 cents = 1 yen) and a bowl of noodle was sold at 2 cents. It means 10 times higher but it could reach its popularity and became extremely successful until 1937. 

Because there was World War II and  tough years for Japanese so money shouldn’t be wasted for leisure and luxury stuffs, the government then took control on this industry such as making an authorized price for beer, controlling the distribution and abolishing all brand labels. Brewery could still produce beer but they only could receive a based-on-government-standard label. We could say the label was too simple and not attractive at all. Based on the condition that breweries faced, a lot of them were closed and only the larger breweries such as Asahi and Sapporo could survive. Yebisu was one of the breweries that nearly closed. But luckily, in December 1971, Sapporo Breweries Limited took Yebisu to join its group due to customers’ requests.

If you are interested to taste the beer, you have to buy tasting salon coins at vending machine and give that to the staff but pay attention a bit here. As Japanese law that we mentioned on the first paragraph, tasting salon staff can’t serve beer to a driver or people under 20 years old. Beer consumption while pregnant or nursing could give a bad impact to fetal /child development. So watch out with this! Make sure you don’t get drunk because there are a lot of places that will be needed to be explored! You also could visit museum shop to buy only-available-here souvenirs. Have fun!

Information that you need to know:

Opening hours : 11.00 AM – 07.00 PM

                         (Last Yebisu Tour: 5.10 PM)

                         (Tasting salon last order: 6.30 PM)

Closing days    : Monday (Tuesday if Monday is public holiday)       

                         New Years holiday period

Admission fee : Free of charge

Tour fee         : 500 yen (20 years old and over) includes 
                        beer tasting

                      : 300 yen (Junior High School until 19 
                        years old) includes soft drink

                      : Free (Elementary School student               
                        and under) includes soft drink

Address         : Yebisu Garden Place,4-20-1 Ebisu,
                        Shibuya,Tokyo

Website         : http://www.sapporobeer.jp/

Prohibited      : Smoking, pets, beverage and food from 
                        outside, photographing and video filming

We eat, we walk, we talk

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Kyoto International Manga Museum : Paradise of Manga Readers

Credit : Kyoto International Manga Museum

If you have any interest in manga, Kyoto International Manga Museum is a must-visit. Nowadays, Japanese manga has been very popular around the world and this museum was built in order to give any contributions of life-long learning, tourism promotion, human development and creation of a new industry.

On April 2013, officials of Kyoto Seika University gave a proposal about Kyoto International Manga Museum to Kyoto City Government. It was planned to be built on the site of the former Tatsuike Elementary School and approved by the committee on the use of former primary school sites in Kyoto. Then they began to start their project. Kyoto International Manga Museum officially opened on November 2006.

Credit : Kyoto International Manga Museum 

Former Tatsuike Elementary School, that was opened on Nov 1869, was built with the donation from residents of Tatsuike school district that hope for a great education. In the first years of its founding, this school played a siginificant role in Kyoto but due to decreasing number of students in recent years, it was merged with Umeya, Chikkan, Fuyu and Kasuga on April 1995 to become Gosho Minami Primary School.

Credit : Kyoto International Manga Museum 

Kyoto International Manga Museum is a kind of paradise for manga readers. After you paid the entrance fee (800 yen/ adult), you could enjoy reading all mangas here. This museum has 300.000 item of collections, but 250,000 books, including historical works, is stored in Research Reference Room for conservation and research purpose. Majority of the manga here is provided in Japanese (most of the collection were donated by rental bookstore Okubo Negishi Books from 1970s – 2005). But don’t worry, they also porvide mangas in other languages and it is placed in Manga Expo section. Foody even read a volume of Dr. Slump (English series). They realize that 10% of visitors are international tourists and also to show that manga has reached ages and regions in the world. You could also donate mangas/comics, comic magazines, comic information magazines and animation information magazines published abroad to them (make sure the condition of those stuffs are great) by filling the donation first in their website by clicking here

Credit : Kyoto International Manga Museum 

Museum Guides :

·      -Manga Expo (1st floor)

·      -Manga Studio/ Portrait Corner (1st floor). Opens only on Saturday, -  Sunday, and National holidays

·      -Children’s Library (1st floor) . On weekdays, opens for public but on     busy periods, only could be entered by children in elementary school   age or under, and their parents/ guardians.

·        -Exhibition of 100 maiko illustrations (1st & 2nd floor)

·        -Tatsuike Memorial Room (2nd floor)

·        -Playhouse of Picture-Story (kami shibai) show (2nd floor, gallery 5)

·        -Object  D’Art Hi No Tori (Pheonix) / (Atrium & 2nd Floor)

·        -Main Exhibition Room “What is Manga?” (2nd floor, main gallery).    They provide mangas from 1945-2005.

·        -Research Reference Room (3rd floor, Research Room 2).

·        -Wall of Manga (1st floor – 3rd floor)

o   1st floor  = shonen (boys) manga

o   2nd floor = shojo (girls) manga

o   3rd floor = seinen (young adults) manga

·  -Exhibition Rooms (2nd floor, Gallery 1,2,3,4 and 6)

o   There was a exhibition of Osamu Tezuka’s blackjack on the day we got there. It’s very interesting to read one by one of doctors’ quotes based on the scenes in BlackJack manga.

·    -Workshop (only on Saturday, Sunday, and national holiday). Also

o   available for groups of 5 people or more on weekdays with advanced reservation.

·        -Archives (basement), not open for public.

·       -Museum shop (1st floor)

·        -Museum cafe (1st floor)

o   Footy enjoyed time here with drinking coffee and eating french fries, waiting for the late Foody. Hahaha.......

Credit : Kyoto International Manga Museum 

And of course, a super big courtyard in front of Kyoto International Manga Museum. A lot of kids brought mangas and laid there while reading those. No other places that gave freedom like this, we thought.

 Credit : Kyoto International Manga Museum 

“ I am pleased to announce that I will serve as executive director of the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Manga is sometimes regarded as a subculture. Actually, however, manga has played a significant role in Japanese culture. Elements of expression in Japanese manga, which have become increasingly popular around the world, are already be found in picture scrolls, produced in the Heian period (794 - 1192). I think it is extremely significant that the Manga Museum will be established in Kyoto, where traditional culture still thrives.

I believe that the Museum should not be merely a place to preserve and exhibit historical materials. Instead, it should always endeavor to create a space that is "alive and keeps moving." I hope that this museum will set a standard for those wishing to learn manga culture and those who wish to become manga artists.
We will explore what can be done to further improve the services and functions of the museum, while undertaking a wide variety of activities. I sincerely ask for your extensive support and advice.”

- Takeshi Yoro, Executive Director of Kyoto International Manga Museum

And these are what you have to pay attention to:

Location           : Karasuma-Gike, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, 604-0846,Japan

Website           : http://kyotomm.jp

Admission fee : Individual  :Adults                   = 800 yen

                                           Senior High School= 300 yen
                                           Junior High School= 300 yen

                  Elementary School= 100 yen 
Group (20   :Adults                   = 640 yen

                          people/more)Senior High School= 240 yen
                                           Junior High School= 240 yen

                                             Elementary School = 80 yen

* Preschool child = FOC (free of charge)      

Opening hours : 10am – 6 pm (last admission: 5.30 pm)

Closed on         : Wednesdays  (if Wednesday is national holiday, next

                          following day)

                          During New Year’s holiday

                          During maintenance period.

Prohibited for : Photographing and filming any items on display and

                          copyrighted works

                          Eating and drinking inside museum

                          Smoking in all areas

                          Using mobile phone inside museum       

Credit : Kyoto International
Manga Museum 

We eat, we walk, we talk

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