Pink Ginger ale

I picked this up last week. It’s a seasonal product from Canada Dry. It’s called “Sakura Mist”. Sakura being cherry blossoms, the symbol of spring for Japan.

The flavor is like a combination of ginger ale and cherry. It’s quite delicious and very refreshing. I’m gong to try and buy a few bottles before it disappears forever.

Cute Kokeshi

While we were in Yamagata I spotted this really adorable kokeshi (traditional Tohoku are doll) at one of the stores. I couldn’t resist buying it due to it’s high level of cuteness.

It has cherries on it because Yamagata is famous for growing cherries.

The Best!

I bought these packages of powder mix for making fried chicken. It’s so unbelievably delicious! The flavor is spicy as in taste, not as in heat. Kind of like Kentucky Fried Chicken or other similar fried chicken flavors.

As an added bonus the package proclaims it goes well with drinking beer.

How good is that! If you’re in Miyagi area and want to try it, the only stores that seem to carry it is the “Max Value” chain of grocery stores.

Edamame Pretz

Here’s a little something I got while we were in Yamagata. It’s Edamame flavored Pretz. It turns out that the Tohoku (northern) area of Japan, especially Yamagata and Miyagi, are famous for edamame.

That’s why we get our own special version of pretz. We’re lucky because it was really delicious!

Zombie VS Kids

Here’s a clip from a Japanese TV show. In it they convince the kids that a zombie is coming to eat them, so they must defend their house against the zombie.

One thing I learned from this video is that plastic wrap is an effective weapon against zombies. I especially like their one tactic of putting hot sauce on the floor so the zombie will think it’s blood and try and eat it. I’m sure these children are now scarred for life.

Yamadera Part 2

Here’s part two of my trip to Yamadera yesterday. The walk goes really high up the mountain so the view is quite spectacular. Here you can see  the roofs of some of the various temples.

Some were built in the most unlikely and probably most difficult places. Like that tiny one sprouting from the cliffs.

Or small shrines perched a top precarious rocks.

There’s also a kind of look out temple where you can see a great view of the whole area.

Here’s the stiched together photo that I took from there.

Of course click on the photo to get a much bigger and better look. This concludes my small photo tour of Yamadera.

Yamadera Part 1

Today we went to Yamadera, which is in Yamagata prefecture. It’s a small village that is next to a mountain that has tons of temples all over it. You can see how many in the photo I took of the map they had. Just click on it to see a much bigger version.

It’s actually the second time that we went there. The last time was around six years ago. When you’re there you can see all of these cute monk signs pointing you in the direction of the mountain.

It cost 300 yen  to climb the mountain. There are so many steps. At first it’s a little daunting.

It’s so beautiful though it makes you keep going.

The first time we went we didn’t make it to the top, just coming short of it. We didn’t realize how close we were until looking at the map at the bottom. This time we did it and saw the huge golden Buddha at the top (no photos since none were allowed).

The temple pictured above is kind of the mid point of the mountain. One interesting thing we saw almost at the top was this mail box!

Who is the poor mailman who has to hike up the mountain everyday to pickup the mail six days a week. It’s kind of strange because there are about five houses that people actually live in up there. I would imagine stepping out for a moment to the convenience store is impossible for these people. I wonder if the have sofas or big screen TVs. Anyways tomorrow Come back and see some shots I took from the top.

Mr. Manners

The poor guy who is always on the Tokyo Metro manners signs always has a hard time. The latest one though he’s really having a really tough time.

Poor guy has to stand with a broken leg while two jerks eat cookies in the priority seats. Don’t they know eating food on the subway is a major faux-pas!

Latest Pringles

Here’s a couple more types of Pringles chips to add to my on-going collection of flavors. This one is “Mayo Potato”. You can see the can is covered with cherry blossom flowers and leaves, which is the symbol of spring in Japan.

The other is not really new to me. I had previously had it many years ago in Europe.

It’s paprika flavor, which is just the Euro name for red peppers. Both were pretty good, but nothing really special. I’m awaiting some new mind blowing flavors. Mr. Pringles please work a little harder!

Mabo Tofu

I’m always looking for easy stuff to cook for myself for lunch. Recently Nissin put out a line of instant noodles in a box. Kind like a Chinese take out box. You just microwave it for a few minutes. The product line is called “Chin”.

I really love the Mabo Tofu one. Mabo Tofu is a Chinese dish which has tofu and ground pork in a spicy sauce. It very yummy. I really hope this isn’t a limited time thing. I’ll really miss it if it dissapears.