-Shop cute Japanese products and cool products from Japan. This cute blog is about Japanese kawaii, kawaii Japan, kawaii fashion, Japanese pop culture and more. It's a kawaii blog from Japan, Japan blog in English by a Japanese girl.

this is how sweet potato vendors sound like.

Laundry pole vendors. (I wouldn’t recommend you should buy poles from them. They repeat “2 poles for 1000yen” but they are in poor quality. Good ones cost way too much. )

Ramen vendors.

These music (?) never changes no matter how many years pass by. I feel these all familiar from my childhood. I think it’s the same no matter which area in Japan we live in.

Going back to the original topic, I found it interesting to check out the Tofu vendor. I’m not a big fan of Tofu myself, and I don’t usually buy quality Tofu from these people or at special Tofu shops, but I end up with getting ordinary ones from supermarkets.

Yes, I brought my camera with me because I thought I could blog about it, especially for some people who love Tofu! It was however a bit embarrassing to ask the vendor if I can take pictures for my friends. :p But he was kind enough to tell me that nowadays foreign people are sometimes more serious learning how to make Tofu, Soba or Ramen. So it’s not like an out-of-the-blue kind of story that foreigners are interested in getting apprenticed to a Tofu maker to be independent Tofu maker/vendor. I see!

I didn’t notice this difference until he told me but it’s true we used to bring a pot or bowl to buy Tofu from them. At that time, Tofu was not packed. It was simply in the water and the vendor cut it and we received it in a pot or a bowl. I remember I had to run up to the vendor with a bowl in my arm when I was little. (I helped shopping Tofu for my mom. ^ ^) Since some time ago, every Tofu must be packed for hygiene reasons, according to him.

Also, it was not only Tofu he carried but also some Tofu related products such as soy milk cake, Yuba (soy milk skin), Okara (Tofu refuse), and some pre-fixed food and frozen food made from those.

The vendor is focused on sales but his friend eventually got involved in production, he continued. His friend has to wake up at 3 in the morning to start making Tofu. It requires a lot of work to get soy milk from soy beans, however, the price of Tofu doesn’t allow his friend to hire employees. “It’s a tough job and it’s not easy! People prefer cheap Tofu from supermarkets. Tofu vendors like us are decreasing…” he said.

I purchased Tofu hamburg, deep-fried bean curd and a Tofu dressing from him and paid 1050yen. I already had a Tofu at home, so maybe I could try their quality Tofu next time.

Hope they taste good.

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This Ramen restaurant seemed still new.

My husband selected a set of ramen, rice and boiled gyoza (dumpling), while I ordered salt flavored ramen. Both of us got a bonus Ajitama (half-boiled egg seasoned with soy sauce and dashi) because we had Gurunavi coupon. ^ ^ As is usual with some Ramen restaurants, Oomori (large portion) is the same price as regular portion. This doesn’t make me happy if I am alone, but I ordered Oomori because my husband could help me finish it. ^ ^;

I liked these bite-sized boiled gyoza that came with my husband’s ramen set.

I’ve never tasted chicken char siu before. (Char siu is a Chinese-styled barbecued pork. It’s usually pork.) Compared with pork, chicken smells less and it was less oily. But hmm…I think I’ll prefer pork char siu. The soup was also less oily, which was my taste. To be exact, I felt dashi taken from fish in the soup. I think that Japanese taste makes ramen less oily. I don’t like ramen soup with too much oil.

The noodle was thick and straight (not frizzed or curly). I personally prefer thin frizzed noodles but I thought the noodle was matching with the soup. The mianma (the brown one in the picture, which is actually Chinese bamboo shoot sliced and seasoned) was yummy. Ajitama was so delicious by the way. I liked their ramen. ^ ^

The Crystal Bowls music live or a healing session was held in this shrine. I’m not sure if I should call it a concert or a session or a workshop. It was the first time for us to listen to Jun Makino’s performing live Crystal Bowls. I quite liked his CD book.

We were allowed to lie down on the tatami and many people naturally fell asleep, thanks to the healing sounds. However, tatami floor was too hard for my body shape and I felt quite uncomfortable with my back and it was also cold in spite of the air-cons’ being fully operated. I fell asleep while I was sitting before I knew…

Jun Makino’s Crystal Bowls are not just white. Crystal Bowls sounds are considered effective for healing and good for health. I expected I’d love the live music much more than the CD, but my honest thought is that I’m quite OK with CD music to which I can listen from home. Home is the most relaxing place to me. I don’t like to sit or lie on a tatami floor.

Well, I was supposed to write two different posts categorized two different categories, but this time I made it one. Sorry if it was confusing to you. It’s just another daily life of mine from Tokyo! Hope you had a nice weekend!

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This kimono is categorized as “Ohshima” and it’s quite expensive, according to my grandma.

This kimono is “Shibori” and it’s also considered a good quality. But I didn’t like both colors. -_-

It’s Haori, or a half coat. I liked its modern pattern.

This Fukuro-Obi is so golden. I liked it, but then the kimono must be very good one too to be coordinated with it, according to my grandma. Hmm…I’m afraid I’m not confident enough to dress myself up with a good kimono…:(

I liked this one.

But unfortunately her taste is different from mine. I didn’t like most of the designs and colors she had. >_<

When my grandma was young, she was very good at needlework and especially Japanese embroidery called “Rozashi” which is like this. I’ve heard of it, but it was actually the very first time for me to see her Rozashi works. She did Rozashi embroidery on her kimono! It’s so amazing and I totally loved it! Nowadays it’s hardly possible to find people who can do Rozashi any longer in Japan. She had such an amazing skill! She was also a business owner and a single mother in 1940…

She could have shared with me so many things before she became too old. She is going to be 90 in 6 months, and she says “I don’t remember that any more” to almost all the kind of questions I ask to her today. I don’t think I can be good at needlework no matter how well she could have taught me, but I feel that it was too late…She is too old now. I regret that I didn’t even know that she put such a nice thing on her own kimono until today!

I’ve heard my father or relatives talking about her being good at making Rozashi but I didn’t even ask her to show me what she’d created until this time. Well, I didn’t even expect that I could encounter her works with kimono. I was more impressed by her works than kimono as a consequence. I also saw her hand-crocheted stoles, lap robes and a Haori (half coat made for kimono) which also looked so professional. I remember that she made many sweaters for me when I was a kid. But I didn’t even notice that her skills were so professional then.

The nice Rozashi Japanese embroideries will appear at some points. I fell in love with this kimono and some other ones with nice Rozashi embroideries.

The Rozashi Japanese embroideries that she also put on a Fukuro-Obi. *lovely* ^_^

Well, it was another kimono post from my grandmother’s collection, but I’m much more impressed with her Rozashi, or Japanese embroidery as you may notice. :p

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