Makuhari Dokidoki Flea Market

I can't remember how it started, but during this year's Golden Week, one of my best buddies and I decided that we wanted check out the annual Makuhari Dokidoki Flea Market.

We drove as we had our usual obligatory trip to Costco afterwards - so we gave ourselves an extra time to get there at opening time, in case we ran into the epic traffic jams that apparently form around around Makuhari Messe because of this event.

Tickets available at the door for 600 yen!

In fact, there was no traffic whatsoever. We arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule, so we stopped by one of the ticket booths located right at the escalators leading from the parking lot to the Messe and purchased tickets for ourselves and our lovely kohai who would be joining us later on.

...but then, we got absorbed into the human traffic jam waiting at the walkway leading into the Messe.

Sea of people waiting to get into the flea market.

They didn't let us in until exactly 10am...but then it was shopping showdown time!!

For the record, there were two more halls of the same size...so much flea market to be had! (taken around 10am)

I hadn't been to a flea market in ages, but I don't think any of us were prepared for how hard core this flea market was.

After a bit of scouting, we decided to fill our stomachs before really tackling the shopping:

International food corner! There were also rows of booths with foods from different areas of Japan.

Toppogi from the Korean place!

The flea market in full swing.

A couple hours later, the crowd had really gathered (no worries - we'd done a fair share of shopping too!). This photo is of the same area pictured 3 photos above...crazy!

The flea market was split up into different areas - for example, an area dedicated to luxury brands, and another dedicated to vendors selling out of the back of their car. My favorite area was by far the "artist's alley" of the flea market.

"This pug sticker is cute...but so is this one! う〜ん迷う"

Matcha green tea and rich chocolate gelatos!

Finally, we were shopped out - so we concluded on a sweet note with some delicious gelatos! Mmm.

And my personal haul from the flea market:

"What a haul, what a haul!" - does anyone know what anime that's from?

(front left) 3 postcards from an artist - 200 yen apiece (I think?)
(front right) 2 mini stickers from an artist - 150 yen apiece (and I got one for free!)
(bottom) Bright red kimono under robe - 1000 yen
(top) Sculptures (owl in a tree, and person? holding an onigiri) 800 yen apiece

ALICE.

By far my greatest discovery of the day - this gigantic stuff Alice doll! I'd seen a bunch of merchandise from this series a couple years ago - all sorts of Disney characters were considerably "simplified" (and I have a thing for characters with dot eyes).

I was so excited when I found Alice that I immediately ran over to the sellers and asked them how much - they looked at me like I was crazy (I guess they weren't expecting to sell it?) and said "er...100 yen?"

SCORE. :)

Just one night. (@Tokyo Disney Sea Hotel Miracosta!)

So at the end of May, my mother came to visit. As a part of our late Mother's Day celebration, I arranged for a stay at the wondrous Tokyo DisneySea Hotel Miracosta!

Our room keys. Each guest gets their own - to keep! Also, straight lines are hard to draw on a trackpad...

My family has gone to the Disney Resorts in Florida and California a handful of times when I was growing up. We've stayed at a handful of the Disney hotels, and when I was studying abroad in Tokyo, my parents and I even spent a few nights at the Tokyo Disney Ambassador Hotel. I was pretty confident I knew what it was like staying at a Disney hotel.

But the Hotel Miracosta rocked my socks off.

When I talked about how much I liked Disney, people here would almost automatically respond that I needed to spend a night here. But all I really knew was that the Hotel Miracosta is so popular that it's nearly impossible to book...supposedly you need to book over a year in advance - well, if you're trying to book directly. I hadn't planned that far in advance, but I barely managed to find an opening through a travel agency. Aside from the suites, Miracosta's rates (and availability!) depends strongly on which view you are booking - but I'll get into that a bit later in this post.

I was pretty skeptical with all the hype, but despite the lofty price tag, it was totally worth it. I'd so do it again.

Hotel lobby!

Land of dreams for sure! Cast members in the entrance area will enthusiastically approach you to see if you need help with your luggage. If you come around check-in time, the lobby will be overflowing with people waiting - not too long at all! - to be shown to their room by a cast member. The Miracosta has all the best parts of Japanese and Disney service combined.

Studiously checking out the hotel info channel.

Maybe because I only really stay at business hotels in Japan, but the sheer size of the room really impressed me. I guess it is the size of a standard hotel room back home though - I guess I mostly only stay at business hotels here in Japan, where the rooms are about the size of a closet ;D

Being silly in the powder room.

View from our room!

I touched upon this at the beginning of the post, but room availability and rates depend strongly on which side of the hotel you're trying to book. For standard rooms, there are three views are available (in the order of price/difficulty to book): the Porto Pallazzo side, the Venetian side, and the Toscana side. We were on the Venetian side, which offered a partial (but still gorgeous!) view into Disney Sea. Porto Pallazzo is by far the most popular side because it offers a full view into the park...someday I will stay in one of those rooms!!

Out front the hotel! (Also, yes my sweatshirt is insane and that's why I love it!)

Guests of Tokyo Disney Resort get to enjoy all sorts of perks during their stay, like an unlimited pass for the Tokyo Disney Resort monorail during the duration of your stay, and early entry into the Tokyo Disney Land or Sea (available on the day of your check out as well)! Even cooler is that (1) if you purchase anything from the shops within the resort, they can deliver it directly to your hotel bell service - fantastic considering how much omiyage people buy here in Japan! and (2) even if you're only staying one night, like I did, you can check out and they'll hold your luggage until late that evening (10pm, I think?)!

Wandering the Tokyo Disney Resort.

After settling into our room, my mother and I decided to take advantage of our monorail pass to go wandering around the resort. We took a lovely ride to the JR Maihama Station area, which is connected directly to the Ikspiari shopping mall and Tokyo Disney Ambassador Hotel!

Random shots as we wandered the Tokyo Disney Resort (counterclockwise, from the top left):
(1) Awesome giant map painting of Tokyo Disney Sea, located right by the Hotel Miracosta entrance to the park
(2) Ceiling mural at the newly renovated Ambassador Hotel - where my parents and I stayed 6 years ago!
(3) Giant cookie art (Happy 30th Anniversary, TDR!) the bakery inside the Ambassador Hotel.
(4) Mickey grabby things inside the monorail car!
(5) My mom being boss inside the Ambassador Hotel lobby
(6) One of my new favorite cafes - the epic nana's green tea, located on the ground floor of Ikspiari!

Retracing our steps from 7 years ago!

Next post...mother-daughter date at Tokyo Disney Sea!

A rest stop for foodies.

I like to drive. A lot. So even though driving is technically unnecessary for me now that I live in the city, I still do it anyway because I love the freedom it offers. Particularly, the freedom to go to my beloved Kamogawa in southern Chiba whenever I want (times for public transportation to the countryside can make travel to these areas kinda inconvenient).

For almost a whole year, most of Ichihara SA (Service Area), one of my favorite places to stop at on the way back to Chiba, was blocked off for renovation.

Happy posters covered the walls erected around the construction areas.

But then, finally the time for me to visit the spanking new service area came!!! I wish I had before pictures - it wasn't...bad before, but it did feel kinda old before.

And so...a photo tour of the reborn Ichihara Service Area!

All nice, new, and pretty now!

I love the colors they chose - so soothing...and the logo is simple but adorable!

Stroll in, and you'll find yourself in a spacious wonderland of vending machines, packaged souvenir goodies, and further in - a food court of yummies for the hungry traveler!

(not so pictured to the left) row of vending machines, (right) convenience store slash souvenir shop,
(straight ahead) more fun!

I haven't had the chance to eat here yet, but it looks like they've got a couple chain restaurants in here (Lotteria and Wired Cafe), but also a place that has food made from locally produced veggies and the like!

What I did get...freshly baked goodness.

In the front is a mini pizza covered in Chiba-grown vegetables, left is a cheese danish, and the back was some mass of bready deliciousness.

If only rest stops back in the U.S. were as nice as this!

Grand Opening of the Shisui Premium Outlets!

Opening day!

Last Friday, April 19, the spanking new Shisui Premium Outlets (酒々井プレミアムアウトレット) opened up just 10 minutes away from Narita Airport. After going to the grand opening of Mitsui Outlet Park Kisarazu last April, my fashion-forward buddy and I decided it would only be fair if we went to Shisui on opening day too.

Random trivia: "Shisui" was listed as one of the most difficult place names to read in the Suumo journal!

More celebrity sightings!

The outlets were all over the news this week!

The short haired girl blinking in the center of this photo is Maiko Sota, the お天気お姉さん (= term for young female meteorologists on news shows) for Mezamashi Saturday on Fuji TV (channel 8 for anyone in the Kanto region!). I didn't get to catch Saturday morning's show, but there is always a segment where Maiko checks out tourist attractions throughout Japan, which I assume is what they were shooting.

We saw another reporter-looking chick as we were leaving - I didn't recognize her, but a ton of people were crowded around trying to snap a photo.

Long-awaited California Pizza Kitchen

I must admit...my actual main goal for the day was to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. I loved CPK back in the States, and when I was studying in Tokyo I was ecstatic that there was a location near-ish my dorm in Kawasaki. But because of the inconvenient distance, I had only been back once during my 5 years working in Chiba.

I was slightly confused when we got into CPK at the outlets and it was...semi-fast food?! You order at the counter, and then they bring the food to your seats. The menu was probably 1/4 of what I remembered it to be (although I must note that they've created a "Sweet Eel Pizza" especially for this location - combining Narita's specialty unagi (sweet eel) and one of Chiba's symbols - nanohana!). I had the original BBQ chicken pizza (pictured above) which was as amaaaazing as expected.

After a bit of research...the Kawasaki location closed down last year?! I wonder if CPK is changed their strategy to a more casual dining experience. If you look on the CPK Japan website, there are currently only 2 locations in Japan now: Shisui and Sano.

In any case...I am excited one of these two locations is just 30 minutes from where I live!

Airport runway theme in the food court

Flight info displayed on the giant monitor setup in the food court

There are all sorts of extras in store for visitors, like apparently drivers who exit through the also newly opened Shisui IC (btw, isn't on Google maps yet, as my friend and I found out when we tried to use our Maps app to get there! luckily there are lots of signs along the way) by 10:30am every day until May 6...I think? will receive a 500 yen coupon for the outlets.

One thing that was pointed out amongst all the hype on the news - and something I've wondered about as well - was the fact that the niche for outlets is already played out in the Kanto region. Shisui is apparently the 10th outlet facility in the Tokyo Metropolitan area (4th in Chiba alone - talk about outlet central!).

But! The Shisui Premium Outlets is particularly targeting visitors from abroad, traveling to/from Narita Airport. For instance, free wi-fi is available to visitors from abroad - all you have to do is show your passport at the Information Desk, located at the center of the complex. Shisui is also apparently the first outlet mall in Japan to have currency exchange services available on-site. I love that they have flight information available in the food court - they are really serious about making the outlets the pre-flight stopover!

Wanna go to the outlets? Here are a couple of shortcut links for your perusal:
Getting to the Shisui Premium Outlets: http://www.premiumoutlets.co.jp/en/shisui/access/
List of shops here: http://www.premiumoutlets.co.jp/en/shisui/brands/index.html?mode=keyword_en&keyword_en=ALL

Under the stars.

My time left here ticks away, but there are still so many places I haven't gone - or don't even know to visit! One good example is today's subject, the Chiba City Museum of Science (千葉市科学館).
 

Special elevator for the Museum of Science.

This adventure began with a random conversation at lunch. A couple of my former coworkers wanted to plan more time to hang out - but for once, something other than just grabbing a bite to eat together. After some thought, one of them thought - how about a trip to the planetarium? It was perfect because the other two of us had never gone before, and I'd been wanted to go to a planetarium for aaaages. So off we went!

Strange cardboard creatures...perhaps the museum mascots?

After a quick dinner (and actually, I skipped dinner because I had come straight from FOODEX/World Sushi Cup), we timed it so that we could watch the final planetarium show of the day. If you take a look at the schedule, they've got a pretty diverse program, and showings are almost once every hour from 10am to 7pm! Cool stuff.

We happened to go to the showing for 星空散歩 (I suppose I could translate that to something like "starry night stroll"), which was just awesome. I'll describe it in more detail below.

More random contraptions in the lobby area.

Like going to see a movie in Japan, you buy your tickets, then hang out in the lobby until you hear the announcement to enter the theater. The museum exhibits close down at 7pm, but the planetarium is open until 8pm.

Planetarium ticket! You can tell how long I've been uh, saving this post...

Of course, photography/video isn't allowed inside the planetarium - but I wish I could show you! It was incredible. My favorite part of the show was when they "dim" the sky down so that you can see the nightscape of the area immediately around Qiball (for instance, the guide/narrator pointed out the Chiba Prefectural Offices where I work, Tokyo far in the distance, and other landmarks). Then, streetlights are magically "blown out" and until you are surrounded by countless stars, and learn about a number of constellations.

I don't wanna spoil it for you (if that's possible) so I'll stop here...but if you like stars, you will definitely want to check this out! I could watch this show again and again.

 Qiball during the day!

My excuse for taking forever to post this is that I was waiting for a chance to walk by during the day, so I could get a picture of Qiball. The round thing you can kinda see inside the building is the planetarium.

To be honest, I don't think I've been to a planetarium since...elementary school! You know, those days when you learned about the solar system and memorized the planets with "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas"? (Ah...the days when Pluto was still a planet.)

P.S.: The post title comes from a very fantastic song of the same name by Morning Parade!

Spring is coming.

Today's tale begins on an incredibly windy day in the Boso. Other than the crazy winds, the clouds were gorgeous clear...at least for the first half of the day. So off our merry little crew went to check out Mother Farm (マザー牧場) down south. It was a pleasant hour or so drive from Chiba City.

Spring has come!!

Our main mission was to see the nanohana (Chiba Prefecture's official flower!). We were actually a bit too early - the hills pictured in the top two photos of the above collage are actually the smaller locations for prime nanohana (rape blossoms) viewing. There's another hill which hadn't bloomed at all when we went, but we were able to catch the last of the plum blossoms and daffodils!

On the bright side, it looks like right now (this week?) might be prime season for the nanohana. Mother Farm updates their website every 1-2 weeks with the conditions of the flowers in season. You can check out the nanohana here (unfortunately, this info is only available on the Japanese version of the site though): http://www.motherfarm.co.jp/location/flower/rape-blossoms.php

Mr. fluffy sheep! You can kind of tell just how windy it is by how our hair and his wool are getting tousled around.

These fellows were waiting just by the entrance to welcome visitors...and there was a pretty good crowd despite the terrible winds!

A jumble of fun.

This is just a quick intro to the many different activities you can enjoy at Mother Farm. To be totally honest, we couldn't enjoy a lot of it because the wind was so strong we were dying to run inside for cover for every 10 minutes we walked outside.

Starting from the top left, counterclockwise:  (1) feeding baby sheep, (2) rows of jizo statues at a temple onsite, (3) more feeding baby sheep, (4) sheepdogs decidedly hanging out on top of their sheep buddies, (5) baby pig race, (6) horse sign.

One of my favorite parts of visiting a new place...new NOMS.

For some reason or another, I hadn't been able to eat breakfast that day, so I was starving rather early on in our visit (I'll blame part of it on the energy needed to battle the winds). Thankfully there are yummy cafes strewn all throughout the park. I had a yogurt drink and lamb hamburger sandwich, both of which were absolutely fantastic.

For the record, there are Mother Farm Cafes outside of the park - I've previously been to ones at the Mitsui Outlet Park in Kisarazu and Lalaport Tokyo Bay shopping mall in Funabashi. I know they offer a similar selection in drinks and soft serve ice cream, but I don't remember what they have in terms of actual food.

I partook in this beauty later on in the day - strawberry cheesecake parfait soft serve ice cream! It is as epic as it sounds.

After our energy levels were restored, we continued our trek through the park and stumbled on a small building offering a variety of hands-on activities:

Pretty paints!

Take a dish of your choice and create your own unique masterpiece!

...and that is indeed exactly what we did. You'll receive a...half-baked dish (need to be careful because apparently if you grip it too hard, it'll shatter!). You paint on the design of your choice, hand it back to be glazed and fired, and voila! Your masterpiece is complete. The 7 paints picture above are available, but you can't overlap/mix colors because they won't set correctly.

Carefully planning the design...

...and leaving it to artistic genius!

Thus new treasures is born.

It only takes about 30 minutes for them to have your work glazed and fired. They'll also nicely wrap up your work to lessen the danger of being harmed along the way home. Hurray!

What a haul! (props if you can guess what anime that's from)

Various things I picked up at Mother Farm, including a block of black pepper cheese (top center), a bin of cheese and shio-koji in olive oil (top right), and a giant half loaf of fresh bread from the rest area on the way home! Most notable is the candied salted tomatoes pictured in the forefront...which oddly enough, taste quite similar to raisins.

Gone to foodie heaven.

Back in Makuhari Messe! I was here for the Tokyo Game Show in 2011, as well as a private tour.

A couple of weeks ago, I got to go to FOODEX JAPAN 2013, the biggest international food and beverage exhibition in Asia. Held annually since 1976, the exhibition is renowned amongst food industry professionals a fantastic opportunity for business expansion. Over 7,300 exhibitors from 70 different countries and 75,000 visitors participated came this year.

Unfortunately, this event isn't open to the general public...but I was allowed to go for work. :3

FOODEX was spread out over the entire 54,000 square meters of the International Exhibition Hall.

To say the event was HUGE is still an understatement. We spent a good two hours here, and still probably only saw - or rushed through - one fifth of everything this event had to offer.

Just a peek into the venue.

So much delicious food and drink to be had!

Since I couldn't really take photos inside, I collected pamphlets and flyers of all the food I'd seen (and perhaps also sampled?!). I didn't actually get to try that tomato makgeolli, but I did have a giant serving of Dippin' Dots (honey cotton candy flavor? I don't think we have that back home!), chocolate wafers, fresh beef and pork, picked veggies, dried fruit, fresh juice...the list goes on and on.

Makes me seriously want to consider a career in the food industry.

World Sushi Cup Japan 2013!

But there was still our other target for the day - the World Sushi Cup!

Organized by the prefecture and other related organizations, the World Sushi Cup Japan 2013 comprised of two events: the individual competition on March 6, and the restaurant competition on March 7-8.

Chefs competing in World Sushi Cup Japan 2013

We attended the Original Sushi Restaurant Competition. Top sushi restaurants from Belgium, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Singapore, the U.S., Sweden, and Uruguay selected by the All Japan Sushi Association (AJSA) competed on sushi cooking techniques, creativity, and flavor at this event. Each of the chefs from these restaurants have outstanding careers, such as possessing a Michelin-star rating or having won famous sushi competitions abroad.  

The restaurant competition was held over 2 days, with 2 rounds each day. Participants compete by creating 4 original sushi (one for each round) using fresh Japanese ingredients provided by the organizer. Contestants were also allowed to use their own ingredients.

Sushi from our session! The two photos in the middle were made by the winning chefs:
(center left) Sweden, (center right) Belgium

 The U.S. competitor smoked red sea bream fish from Chiba for a more traditional taste, while the representative from Uruguay went for a Western take on sushi by topping it with avocado and cream sauces. Many of the participants chose to combine Chiba’s ingredients with flavors from their home countries, such as the Ukrainian restaurant which accented their sushi with soba (buckwheat) seeds from Ukraine to symbolize the friendship between their country and Japan.

Boxes for tasters to put their votes in for the tastiest sushi

After tasting all of the sushi for that session, attendees were given 3 slips of paper – one for each of the following qualities: deliciousness, appearance/cooking technique, and originality. It was certainly difficult to decide which sushi was the “best.” The winner was chosen by a panel of judges and the votes of attendees.

And the winner is...SAIKO!

We chose the final session so that we would be able to attend the awards ceremony directly afterwards! The winner was the representative from Sweden, a restaurant called "SAIKO" (literally, "the best"). And their sushi was indeed saiko - they made a nigiri sushi toped with salmon - and on top of that a minced, fried fish ball rolled in gold flakes, almonds, and a homemade mayonnaise using fresh Chiba eggs. Nomnom! Apparently their theme was fusing traditional sushi with Scandinavian flavors, which I thought was really cool. They certainly had gotten my vote :)

Check out the special edition Kewpie doll - sushi chef style!

As my coworkers called it, this trip was "おいしい仕事” - which would literally translate as "tasty work," but would probably be better translated as "appealing work" and usually refers to fun and/or chill work. Tasty work or not, we are always very serious about our jobs...but this day, we got to go home with very (overly?) full tummies. Mission success!