Saturday, April 28, 2012

Gourmet trip in Minamiboso.

Inside the restaurant area of Hina no Sato.
Recently I had the chance to make some progress on one of my ongoing missions....hunting down deliciousness in Chiba, particularly down south!

First stop -  Michi-no-Eki "Hina no Sato" (道の駅 鄙の里) in Minamiboso! I've gone to almost all of the Michi-no-Eki in the Awa region of Chiba...I'm working on eventually going to all of them! As I mentioned in a previous post, Michi-no-Eki are kind of like rest areas, but better!

Miyoshi's dairy products are hardcore!!
Hina no Sato sells products mainly from Miyoshi, the area of Minamiboso that it's located in. Miyoshi is really big on dairy products...still need to try that yogurt liquor they had!

(Okay I am cheating and leaving the photo small on purpose because it's a bit blurry...sorry my lovely models!)
Our first target...Hina no Sato's soft serve! They change the flavor every month...this month's flavor was strawberry yogurt! Mmm...the weather's getting warmer = ice cream season! Can't wait to find out what the flavor for May is.

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Our other target...BINGO BURGER! I love Japanese food, but every once in awhile there's just this urge to take a huge bite into a good burger, y'know?

Juicy meatiness!
Okay, we went for the burgers right after the soft serve, so I chickened out and got a Bingo Jr...but that's just more reason to go back another day and get a real Bingo burger! I was a little surprised that the burger bun was actually bread, but it goes really well! The hamburger patty is seriously amazing...and it comes with dessert haha.

Tucked away near Tateyama Station.
That evening, we went for a nice, relaxed dinner at CoCoTTE, a simple and comfy restaurant in Tateyama. They had a lovely, light course meal that I shall leave you with for this post (they have a larger course if you're feeling hungrier though!)...many more restaurants to dominate in the near future!

Appetizer: some sort of spicy soup, lovely spring roll, salmon, and I think some kind of meat?
You can choose fish or meat for your main...I got the fish, which was fried madai and something else...yum!!
My companions got the meat, which also looked fantastic.
Dessert...you get to choose THREE! I got creme brulee, yuzu sherbet, and almond mousse ice cream. All of it was delicious, but the almond mousse was particularly a really nice surprise!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Drummin' it up at the Narita Taiko Festival.

Hordes of people came to see the festival.
This year, I was absolutely determined to go see the Narita Taiko Festival (成田太鼓祭)! With about 55 teams (wadaiko, drum, and Japanese dance) that come to perform here each year, this event is said to be one of Japan's greatest taiko festival - and more importantly, who doesn't like taiko??
 
The Narita Taiko Festival is usually held on a weekend in April. I had originally planned to go Saturday, but then the forecast called for rain...which makes it difficult to take decent photos, no? So I went on Sunday instead. I think everyone else figured the same thing - or the crowd for this event is just always incredible. On second thought, I think it's both.

All for one, one for all!
Everyone was crammed into what is normally a gigantic open space (it only feels this cramped during the festival!) particularly for the Sengan Hana Daiko (千願華太鼓) performance, which is held at 10am both mornings of the festival...except if it rains, and this portion of the program is cancelled. Which is what happened this year.

I am really really glad I got to see it though! I can't explain well enough how amazing and intense it is...imagine about 700 drum players performing all at once! Surprisingly it is not deafeningly loud (because it is wadaiko, or Japanese drums???) but the drumbeats vibrating throughout the whole plaza is one awesome experience.

Since words don't do very well, here is a short clip I filmed:


Sadly the audio is pretty horrible on my recording, so here is a much much better quality clip of the Sengan Hana Daiko on youtube:


Yes, it's early, but if you actually want to be able to see the performance, you should plan to get there waaaaaaaaay before 10am. We got there maybe 15 minutes before everything started, and there were easily 5-6 people in front of us in every direction. No matter how much you try and shift, it was impossible to see...so the only glimpses I actually got of the performance were through my camera, when I stuck it in the air to take photos.

Long awaited MOCHI WAFFLE!
We took a break in between all the excitement to hunt this baby down. Yes - it is a waffle, but entirely made of mochi! I wonder if they stick the mochi into a waffle maker??? It was simple and PERFECT. You can choose from "Western-style (洋風)" or "Japanese-style (和風)." The Japanese-style has red bean paste, kinako, and kuromitsu on it, and looked delicious! I got the western style (pictured above), which has maple and chocolate syrup on it...it sounds weird, but it was pure genius.

The cafe - it's near the entrance to Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. The inside is super cute too...I would love to come back.
Navigating the sea of people along Omotesando Street.
After refueling, it was time to wander Omotesando Street, which connects Narita Station and Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. There are a bunch of individual stages set up directly along this street, and after the Sengan Hana Daiko in the morning, each of the taiko teams take turns performing at these stages throughout the day. Not to mention, the historic feel of this area is lovely, and you can find a lot of fun shops to buy stuff in and/or eat at.

OMG this guy! He kept taking giant leaps into the air as he slammed a baseball bat-sized taiko stick onto the drum. WIN.
As we strolled around, we managed to come across one of the teams we were hoping to see perform individually - a group called 和 (wa)-jin.

Once again, words can't describe how EPIC their performance is, so here's a video:



And also, recording of much better quality from the previous day (once again not mine, found on youtube):



Choshi Hane-daiko drummers!
I will end this post with a group from our very own Chiba - the Choshi Hane-daiko (銚子はね太鼓)! I don't know too much about it yet - but it is a traditional style of wadaiko from Choshi, the most eastern tip of Chiba Prefecture (aka CHI-BA+KUN's ear?).

One dude leaps up after being pinned down.
 The really cool thing about Choshi Hane-daiko is how one guy will pin down the other guy and both of them will continue drumming like nothing's happened. As my friend put it, it's got this whole "I am man" masculine tone to it. It must hurt to be knocked to the ground like that though?

Here is my not-so-good recording:



I couldn't find any recordings of the Choshi Hane-daiko from this year, so here's one from last year:


In conclusion - taiko is epic! There are a couple of other highlight events I didn't get to see this year (the taiko performances by fire at night on the first day, and the taiko parade throughout the streets on the second day) - hopefully I will get to see them next year?

Friday, April 20, 2012

Sakura Season.

Cherry blossom has totally come and gone for this year here in Chiba....Did you get to enjoy the flowers? I was able to - twice! While it's not much, I just wanted to share some photos I took when I went hanami (cherry blossom viewing) with some of my coworkers a couple weeks ago.

Lots of other people enjoying the cherry blossoms on a gorgeous day in Chiba!
We went to Inohana Park (亥鼻公園), which is a little less than a 10 minute walk from my work. There were tons of people wandering around, so I guess everyone else had similar ideas too.


This is Chiba Castle (千葉城), which can also be found in the park! I've never gone inside - actually this was my first time seeing it up close...but I hope to come back to wander again at some point!


We found ourselves a nice spot to settle into. The weather was just right, so it was really tempting not to just roll over and take a nap (except for that we all had to get back to work, so it wasn't actually possible...reality can be so hars


We all ordered obento to eat in the park! I ordered a mini portion one - never want to eat too much for lunch, lest it puts me to sleep in the afternoon. :)

Food vendors line the park paths just for cherry blossom season.
Okay, not the greatest shot...but you can see a glimpse of where I work behind the flowers!!
April has been a pretty hectic month - I will be relieved to have it over with! Just one more week until Golden Week...Hope everyone else is have a good April so far!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Grand Opening of MOP Kisarazu!

Mitsui Outlet Park = MOP. For some reason I just think that's super adorable!!
Curious about all the hype, yesterday I went to check out the grand opening of the shiny new outlets in Kisarazu, right near the Chiba-side entrance of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line.

To be honest, I was a little skeptical about this place. I love shopping, and I love shopping even more so in Japan....but I feel like it's always really hard to find clothes for prices that I'd ever actually call a bargain. I am happy to say that I was quite wrong!!

Things that I really love about MOP Kisarazu so far:

Look out for the bright orange balloons (with banners hanging from them that say "三井アウトレットパーク木更津") when you get off the highway!
The first thing I love about MOP Kisarazu: it is so close! I was coming from Chiba City, and my friends came from the southern outer edges of Chiba Prefecture...but it totally only took us about 40 minutes! It also only takes about 40 minutes to an hour (depending on where you're coming from) by highway buses departing from Shinjuku, Yokohama, Kawasaki.

It also looks like they've expanded and cleaned up the local roads and they had a TON of parking, so we didn't have to wait long at all to get into the outlets!

Another thing I love about MOP Kisarazu: Shop selection!!! They had a lovely balance of Japanese brands and non-Japanese stuff! For example: ok they have the Nike outlet store here. Okay, they have it at Makuhari too - and for that matter, I can get stuff for much cheaper from the Nike outlet back home in the  US. On the other hand, what I *can't* get in the US:

Store hopping for Japanese fashion brands!!
I have always loved the designs at these three brands: Apuweiser-riche, E hyphen world gallery, and earth music & ecology...so I was really really excited to see them here! They also had Design Tshirts graniph and tsumori chisato, some other stores I really love. Since the prices here were actually reasonable, I don't think I can ever shop at regular retail price again!

This guy looked SO confused when he popped out of the store just in time to stare into my photo.
Another long time love...Vivienne Westwood! This is just another thing I definitely cannot buy back home in the US.

Wappa Chaya at the food court.
After a good shopping spree, it was time to refuel at the Food Court! They had a fantastic variety of popular restaurants from all over Japan, as well as local specialties from the southern Chiba area!

Seafood fresh from the Boso!
As we were getting ready in the morning to head out to the outlets, they showed this on the news...how could we NOT get it! The sashimi was so fresh it just seemed to melt away in my mouth. I really do miss the fresh seafood I could get for cheap when I lived near the coast...

We also made some new friends at the food court:

Also located in the food court is the Chiba Tourist Information Center, aka the チーバくんプラザ!
...where we met the always adorable CHI-BA+KUN!
Nokotta-kun, from Kisarazu!
He is holding beach combing stuff, which is a really popular activity in Kisarazu from now until the end of the summer. Hopefully we will get to go this year!

Perhaps our greatest discovery of the day: P-man!!!
This super cute and creepy mascot is P-man (Pマン)! He is supposed to be a delicious peanut born and raised in Chiba - that goes great as a snack or a side dish for beer! Apparently he pops up from time to time here at this souvenir shop selling Chiba-made foods, etc. here in the food court too....perhaps you'll meet him too!

@ the Mother Farm Cafe
After our meal, we decided to brave the long line at the Mother Farm Cafe. Although I have yet to go, Mother Farm is a tourist attraction where you can go play with cows, sheep, etc., have barbecues, go strawberry or blueberry picking...they've extended their business to run these cafes! I only know of two now...the one here, at MOP Kisarazu, and the other one at the Lalaport Tokyo Bay shopping mall, but their soft serve is absolutely amazing. Since I am a sucker for limited edition things, I couldn't resist getting this "Boso Strawberry" parfait soft serve. It had vanilla soft serve topped with a mass of strawberries, with yogurt and chocolate crispies underneath, all in a giant waffle cone - and it was perfection. Apparently this is only available here at MOP Kisarazu, so come and get it!

MOP Kisarazu at night.
With our stomachs full and hands full of shopping bags, it was finally time to call it a night! I think we spent a good 5-6 hours at the outlets. It was interesting to see how much the crowds had cleared out in the evening...perhaps because most of the people we saw there that day were families with younger children? So if you are trying to avoid the crowds, it might be a good idea to avoid coming here during the day and try coming in the evenings instead.

MOP Kisarazu...I hope to be seeing you again sometime soon!

Mitsui Outlet Park Kisarazu website:
http://www.31op.com/kisarazu/index.html