Japan: Ordering Rice From A Vending Machine

It was over 2pm. Hungry stomachs were craving for food while tired bodies were eager to rest. The best solution was to rush to a 24-hour-operating fast food restaurant. The nearby "Nakau" came to Ah Yu's mind.

As soon as we entered the restaurant, close to the door were two vending machines.

Having seen vending machines everywhere in Japan, I assumed they were for selling drinks. This time, I was wrong. They were for ordering menus and dishes!

Each button with a picture and a price represented a dish or a set. After we had chosen our dishes, Ah Yu pressed the buttons. Next, he inserted the corresponding money into the machine slot and collected the change and the tickets. Then he passed the tickets to a staff member who sent the order to the kitchen.

What an idea to save cost in employing staff to take orders and payments!

Since our meals were not directly dropped from the machines, we had to wait a little while for our meals to be prepared at the kitchen. The bar counter was empty at that hour. Working individuals had already returned to their companies.

Only our strange combination of Japanese-Malaysian-toddler-housewives-and-on-leave-employees family members were enjoying our food which was served quite fast.

This Japanese chain restaurant was specializing in both rice topped with meat and noodles.

I had my first meal with beef "gyudon". Pink pickled ginger added a nice colour to the rice.

I did not specially favour beef. But I just liked to try something that I did not cook or eat often in Malaysia.

It was very tasty. The next day, when we had lunch at a food court, I still ordered the same dish accompanied by a salad and a soup.

Seng had already had "gyudon" a few times for breakfast earlier. He was going to have to hard time at home in Batu Pahat where Mum would never buy any beef...

Japan: Outing To "Shiki No Sato" Garden

During our stay in Moriya from early June to mid June, there were only two days with abundant sunlight. The first sunny day was a Sunday, Ah Yu brought all of us to Mount Tsukuba. The other day fell on a weekday. As Ah Yu had gone to work, Emi drove the rest of us to "Shiki no Sato" garden.

We had bought our breakfast from a bakery on the way, so we had a picnic under the shelter.

Behind it was a windmill

which circulated on a stream.

The water flowed to the lake inside the garden,

which created a beautiful landscape.

After our arrival, more visitors came in.

Most of them were golden-aged Japanese who had ample time to spend in appreciating the nature,

capturing it with colour pencils.

or telling old stories at a quiet corner.

Compared to those people, this abandoned boat looked more lonely.

This place is so famous for its irises that the Iris Festival is held there annually in the middle of the year.

It was a pity that we would have left Japan. Nevertheless, it was already a blessing that we were able to enjoy flowers in full bloom, especially those who reminded me of my trip to France during the same season last year:

the hortensias

and the irises.

This time, I had another thing to remember: Yuri in his blue T-shirt and pants could have turned into a flower and merged into the garden.

Japan: From Tarts To Buns

I like to have bread for breakfast. I grew up with white bread of traditional coffee shops. In France, I discovered many types of loaves: baguette, croissant and other types of bread, which contributed to my then chubbier cheeks. Now in Melaka, wholemeal bread, white toasts, "roti canai", etc. keep me energetic to climb up the stairs to the 13th floor at city campus.

In Japan, while I was enjoying the typical breakfast which consisted of rice, I still desired something made of wheat flour. One evening, we went to a bakery to buy bread for the next morning. After that, we entered the supermarket next to it. Inside was a bakery department which was promoting their buns with different fillings. I was so happy to help myself with the free samples that I temporarily put aside my habit to abstain from bread at night.

Later one day, Emi drove us to another bakery. It looked French from outside especially because of the terrace.

There was a nice display of a variety of bread.

Some buns with toppings looked like cute animal faces. Those ideas were most probably from Japanese creative brains.

While the French people liked to be served at a bakery, we Asians preferred self-service.

After tasting a few types, I loved the ones with bacon and chopped potatoes filling most.

The day before our return, we bought bread again for the next morning. It was a stall with the title "Vie de France" at the food court of Moriya railway station.

The best-seller there was also Emi's favorite: buns with apple and cream cheese filling. I also picked other buns with bacon and spinach filling.

While tasting those buns, the memory of the French cuisine, especially the tarts, returned to my mind. But in fact I had never seen similar buns in France. Finally, I realized that the Japanese had simply converted the French tarts with topping into buns with filling, using almost the same ingredients, to suit the Japanese teeth.

Back to Malaysia, I found bread with delicious fillings. However, I began to think of those buns in Japan.

Maybe after all, I miss bacon.

Japan: Touring 100-Yen Shops

Ping who lived in Johor Bahru was the first one to tell me about "Daiso" in Melaka last April.

If three years ago, I just settled down in the new house, I would have got very excited to shop for household items. Now, the opening of this store where goods were imported from Japan and mostly sold at RM5 each would not motivate me to drive more often to Bandar Hilir.

But Ping whose studio was already crowded with decorative items still spent a lot of time and money during her first visit there. I thought after that trip she should be satisfied with this outlet.

Before our departure to Japan, Ping handed over a list to us, asking us to do the shopping on her behalf. Since I was not keen, Mum passed it to Ah Yu later, who fixed it on the refrigerator with a magnet. When we went out for meals, he would arrange a stop at a "Daiso" outlet.

This largest franchise of 100-yen shops had more than two thousand stores in whole Japan. So we easily found several outlets in and around the city of Moriya.

At first I helped to search for items which Ping could not find at "Daiso" Melaka. I started to get bored with exporing one "Daiso" after another while Ah Yu was still trying his best to fulfill Ping's request.

When we met her at Skype, she would ask, "How is the preparation of my list?" which made us smile, thinking of ourselves as servants of a shopping addict sister.

For her sake, we also went to a 100-yen store "Seria" owned by another company. Next to it was a 1000-yen shop which had been closed down.

There I finally found treasures for myself: rice bowls.

So, next time if you come to my house for a meal with rice, you will have a choice among my Chinese plastic bowls, Dumex ceramic bowls and Japanese 100-yen bowls.

Japan: Forty-Four Plates Of Sushi

My Japanese friends in France taught me how to make sushi with tinned tuna, mayonnaise, frozen crab stick, salad, cucumber, omelet, seaweed and round rice from Spain. Having grown up with long rice, I simply found the round rice was stickier and required more water to cook. But Akio once commented, "In Japan, this quality of rice is for dogs!" Thank God he did not further rebuked the processed seafood...

During recent years, sushi became popular in Malaysia and could be purchased even at hypermarkets. Every time I tasted one made with our local rice, Thai flagrant rice or other round rice, I would imagine Akio shaking his head.

So, I must not miss authentic sushi when I was Japan. Even though sushi restaurants were everywhere in Moriya, we only tried "Kura Sushi" recommended by Emi which was more than half an hour's driving from their house.

The specialities of this restaurant was their additive-free food all sold at a fixed price of 100 yen for every plate.

As we were six, we chose a table instead of the counter seats, around a rotating conveyer belt.

When plates with sushi, fruit and dessert were moving steadily in front of our table,

we picked our selections. If we could not find our desired dishes, special orders could be placed through the computerized screen above us. Then, the plates would be put on red bowls on the conveyor belt or marked, so that other customers knew those were ordered by someone.

Self-served tea and ice water were complimentary, with green tea powder in a storage container on the table. Condiments like pickled ginger were there to enhance the taste of the raw seafood. As soon as my tongue sensed the dipping sauce, the wasabi which was claimed to be without chemical seasonings somehow caused a chemical reaction inside my oral cavity. Then I would stop chewing my sushi for a few seconds until all vapour passed through my nostrils and ears!

Colourful "nigirizushi" (hand-formed sushi) and "makizushi" (rolled sushi) were a delight for our eyes. I was busy sending one sushi after another into my mouth, as Seng and Emi who were sitting next to the conveyer belt kept taking new plates onto our table. I could picture Akio smilingly saying to me, "Only our Japanese rice and fresh seafood can make this perfect combination deserved to be called sushi..."

When we finished the plates, we dropped them into a counting machine near our seat to be counted automatically. Last, we pressed a button to call the attendant and settle our bill. We had altogether consumed forty-four plates of sushi and two bowls of soup.

I doubt we would ever order forty-four plates of chicken rice in Batu Pahat which would cost the same price.

Japan: Going Up Mount Tsukuba By Cable Car

As Ah Yu was going to send Emi and me to Tsukuba International Christian Assembly Church that Sunday morning, he also planned an afternoon activity for all of us: visiting Mount Tsukuba, the main tourist attraction famous for its double peaks, Nantai-san (Mt Male Body) and Nyotai-san (Mt Female Body), which make a couple.

When we reached the car park, the first thing I noticed was a frog statue on the right.

I thought it was a theme park. Later I learned there was a frog-shaped rock "Gama-ishi" up there at the mountain.

We walked towards the left building

to take the cable car.

It was the first warm sunny day since we arrived in Japan. We were blessed with a clear view of the sky, the plain and the mountain.

Upon the arrival at the station on the notch, we had an ice-cream break at a restaurant-souvenir shop.

Then, we hiked towards the top of Nyotai-san, the higher of the two peaks.

The panorama was magnificent at 877 metres' height.


But Yuri did not seem to be very impressed.

Small shrines at both peaks were devoted to their respective gods based on the legends.

We enjoyed the abundance of nature

while climbing down the steps.

If I had wings, I would have flown in a glider instead of using the cable car again...

Japan: All The Children Love Anpanman!

During my primary school days, stories of Doraemon occupied an important place of my reading list, and that of many other Asians of my age. The animated series of this Japanese cultural icon, besides Crayon Shin-chan, are still one of the children's favorite TV programmes in Malaysia now.

When I was in Japan, Emi introduced to me Anpanman,

whose author Takashi Yanase was a Christian. This manga superhero with a head made of "anpan" (bread filled with red bean jam) goes anywhere to help anyone in trouble, to drive away villains, and to save people from starvation by allowing them to eat his head. After that, his father Jam Ojisan will bake a new face for him.

The fact that Anpanman, who sacrifices himself for the sake of justice, shares a lot of similarities with Jesus has been arousing questions of the analogy. Maybe that is why Malaysia has imported neither the manga nor the cartoon series to make known Anpanman, currently the most popular fictional character among the children under twelve in Japan.

Heavily merchandised, Anpanman appears on every imaginable children's product: game machines,

food packets,

even diapers packets, etc.

After seeing this cute man of justice everywhere for more than one week, not only I did not get bored, I grew to love Anpanman more and more.

May the children who are touched by stories of Anpanman will know Jesus Christ, the true bread of God who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world (John 6:32-33).