A Load of Oranges

We were kindly sent a box full of oranges by my wife's grandparents. Despite being in their eighties her grandparents still make a living growing and selling fruit, getting up at four in the morning in order to pick their crops. I can only hope to be that energetic when I reach their age!

Should be okay for vitamin C then.

 I remember the first time I came to Osaka during the winter and how I was shocked to find oranges growing everywhere. In my naivety I never realised at the time that oranges grew in the winter, let alone in Japan!

Fruit Drops

If you are about to embark on a long car journey you need to arm yourself with a good supply of boiled sweets. If you also like your confectionary to come in attractive packaging, may I suggest these fruity drops:

Fruity!

I really love this kind of old school packaging and as a plus, the tin would probably survive the bumpiest of road trips!

New Year Trip

On Tuesday I went with my wife to visit her mother and grandparents in the southern region of Osaka called Kawachinagano. The area is fairy mountainous and had seen a lot of snowfall over the past week so looked very picturesque and it was a nice change from the urban landscape.

Snowy mountains.

While we were there we ate far too much food and my mother in law gave us a wonderful tea set from the Ippodo tea company which includes a much needed teapot for brewing green tea. About a year ago we visited the main Ippodo tea shop in Kyoto where you can sample many varieties of green tea and have a demonstration of the proper way of preparing it in their cafe.

New Year's food.

Ippodo tea.

We also stopped off at a traditional Japanese sweet shop while in Kawachinagano to buy presents. The people there were kind enough to give us a free gift of New Years plum tea which comes with a good luck fortune, surprisingly it was almost exactly the same as the one I had received with my Daruma monk a month ago! The plum tea was very salty and tasted more like soup than tea, it also had flecks of gold floating in it!

Plum tea.

I have enjoyed my first New Year in Osaka since moving here and am feeling positive about the year ahead, whatever it may bring! I am especially looking forward to the arrival of spring and the warm weather, despite it only having been cold here for about a month.

Ikeda

I have been eager to head out of town recently to see the wonderful colours of a Japanese autumn and so decided to head North to Ikeda and Satsukiyama Park. One other attraction in Ikeda is Satsukiama Zoo which is where we headed to first. The zoo is known for its family of wombats and approaching the place from the station you're not given a chance to forget about it as everywhere you look are caricatures and statues of the creatures, they have even adopted it as the town's mascot!

Wombats, wombats everywhere!

The zoo includes other animals such as wallabies, llamas and a few rather sorry looking monkeys but the wombats were by far the cutest. Unfortunately I didn't get close enough to the wombats to get any good photos so you will have to make do with one of the wallabies instead. Sorry!

Wallabies, not wombats.

After seeing the zoo we crossed the road to Satsukiyama Park. What I hadn't anticipated was that the park is actually part of Satsuki Mountain and involved climbing many steps to the summit, I was just glad it wasn't in the middle of summer!. The colour of the leaves was amazing and well worth the trip to see, covering an impressive range of Autumnal hues from deep reds through to light green, even on a single tree the colours varied considerably.

Autumnal Hues

 After an exhausting climb to the summit of Satsuki mountain we only had a moment to catch our breath before it was snatched way again by the stunning views, stretching away into the distance to the mountains on the horizon, made all the more impressive by the wonderful colours.

They look just like ant houses, if ants built houses.

Now, the long climb down.

One other thing that Ikeda is famous for is for being the birthplace of instant noodles and the Cup Noodle, the spiritual grandfather of the humble Pot Noodle. In recognition of this, a museum dedicated to the history of noodles in a cup was built in the town and of course we just had to pay our respects!

Instant noodles were first invented by Momofuku Ando in 1958 who's statue greets visitors to the museum. Ando then went on to invent the Cup noodle in 1971. The museum is a lot of fun and very well set out including an area where you can design and make your own variety of Cup Noodle! Unfortunately we arrived too late to make our own but maybe next time, at least that gives me plenty of time to think of the ultimate flavour! Any suggestions?

The great man himself, Momofuku Ando!

The tunnel of noodles love.

Were going to need a bigger kettle!

Who'd have thought they use child labor to make noodles?

The shed where it all began.

Penguins part 3

I couldn't resist buying these sweets due to the lovely picture of a penguin and polar bear happily greeting each other, although I am sure the reality of the situation would be much different. Reality aside, the sweets called Korizatou consist of sugar and......well, thats about it, pure lumps of crystallized sugar! They are actually surprisingly tasty and great if you need a sugar rush. You will have to excuse me now, I'm feeling a little fidgety and in need of quick run around the block....

 

Sugaaaar!

Forest Eating

Yesterday we took a trip to my wife's home town, Kawachinagano which is in the southern regions of Osaka. My wife's mother had kindly offered to take us out for a meal at a fantastic restaurant called 'Santouka' which is situated in the mountainous forests around the area. The food was really good, with many small dishes including sesame tofu, tempura, grilled fish (which was particularly good) and many others. Not only was the food good, the views are great as well, looking out through the surrounding forest, very relaxing and a much needed break from the city.

 

Inside the restaurant.

 

The view outside.

 

Lunch.

 

The surrounding forest walk.

 

Local wildlife.

Autumn's Debut

Today autumn finally made a dramatic entrance as blustery winds threatened to blow me off the balcony, bringing with them menacing grey clouds. The temperature has dropped suddenly from a lovely 23 degrees to a chilly 13, prompting me to dig out my cardie from the depths of the cupboard. I can't grumble however, I hear that it has been an unusually long hot summer for Japan that has lasted longer than most.

Menacing clouds roll in

Seeing as the autumn has arrived, I thought it was a good excuse to get into some serious comfort snacking. Firstly, one of my favourite savoury snacks at the moment is Cheese-Almond, individually wrapped rice crackers with cream cheese and an almond top, its a perfect combination of flavours! I also really like the retro looking packaging.

Almond-Cheese, yum

The other treat that caught my eye is a wintery 'caramel latte' edition of choco-pie (I think the name actually translates as something like 'pie's fruits'?!). I have expressed my penchant for this particular snack before so felt it my duty to investigate this latest incarnation, all in the name of research! (yet again)

And thus ends my snack report.

Choco-pie wintery edition!

Nara

One place I have been meaning to visit for a while now is Nara. As Saturday was a warm, sunny day we decided to finally make the trip and headed out by train to the West of Osaka, the journey took around forty-five minutes and passed in no time.

After a trek from the station up a hill that leads up through the town past various shops selling Nara souvenirs, we reached the main park area of Nara. We stopped at a small nearby soba restaurant that we had read about, we ate cold soba with tempura which was really tasty and some of the best I have tasted, the place is nice and quiet too. I say quiet, however there is one custom in Japan that I have still yet to become accustomed to, that of making as loud a slurping sound as possible when eating soba (supposedly a sign of appreciation). Anyone that knows me well knows of my lack of tolerance when it comes to loud eaters, so this is a particularly tough challenge for me but luckily this restaurant was the only place where it was that noticeable).

A great place for soba, if you don't mind the slurping!

After eating we headed up through the park, one thing that is immediately noticeable is the amount of deer, there are hundreds of them! They are all really friendly and quite happily stand around amongst the crowds of people, hoping for a rice cracker that you can buy from stalls dotted around the place.

Deer oh deer!

Our second stop was at the Daibutsuden temple, which is the biggest wooden structure in the world and houses a fifty-foot statue of Buddha. The sheer size of the building is breathtaking, as is the statue inside and a definite must-see when visiting Nara.

 

That's one big temple.

 

The entrance to the temple.

 

That's one big Buddha!

 

A scary looking customer!

After spending some time strolling though the park, dodging deer droppings, we eventually headed back into town and spent some time browsing the various small shops along small back streets. One place of particular interest was the Narakougei-kan Crafts Centre, a place selling many incredible wooden sculptures by local artists. Unfortunately they were all a little out of my price range otherwise I would have come back with armfuls of those wonderful things!

 

Some cute bunny wunnies.

A nice cuddly octopus.

Visiting Nara was an very enjoyable day out and I would like to go back again to see the things we missed, and to climb Mount Wakakusa to the west of the park, something I just didn't have the energy to tackle this time!

 

The four attack skills of an angry deer.

 

Not more deer!