Saturday, September 24, 2011

Lunch at Denny's

Those living in the northern hemisphere would think it's now fall. A very strong typhoon landed Japan last week, and it was very humid because of the rain, but now it's gone and we're feeling much drier and cooler than in early September. 


 I want to introduce a new restaurant every time I make a new post, but you can have different meals at the same restaurant if you visit it in a different season. I introduced the restaurant called COCO'S before, and my city has many of it, but my favorite has been always Denny's.

 People say I have less for lunch than ordinary guys. This was a sandwich that had vegetables including avocado. The sauce you can see beyond was mayonnaise that had cod roe. Its taste was a bit too strong, so I had the sandwich as it was.

And the name of this dessert was "Rolled Mocchiri Purple Sweet Potatoe". It was basically sweet potato wrapped in thin sheets that were made of rice cake. The meaning of the "Mocchiri" is "soft and elastic". It is like a variant of Mochi, which means rice cake. 

The Japanese Denny's is one of a few family restaurants where you can have very good desserts. It's autumn after all, so why not try some fruits that you can have only now?

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Walk in Akihabara -17-

I've been a bit busy this month, and I haven't visited Akihabara in a while. But I got done an important thing last week, and managed to come to this Otaku area yesterday.

 I had a favorite anime that was broadcast this time last year, and the name of the anime was "Ika Musume". "Ika" means squid, and "Musume" is like chick. And it's going to have the second season that starts to be broadcast on Sep 26. This is a banner of the anime that I saw on the facade of GAMERS.

 And I had Ramen for lunch as usual. This shop's name was "Hito Hana", which literally means "One flower". 

The one I ordered was based on soy sauce. The taste was so-so. I wished it didn't have many bean sprouts since it diluted the taste of the broth. 

I'm an Otaku after all. This K-Books sells manga, light novels and Doujinshi for guys. There were really lewd ones too, but that's not an element I want in manga. 

So I bought this Nagato-themed Doujinshi. It was fun to read and funny at the same time. Some stories were based on the second season of Haruhi, and you wouldn't enjoy them unless you know the second season. The price was only 210 yen.

And when I was walking along Chuo Street, I saw this truck where you can experience mock earthquakes. The level of the earthquake intensified from Scale 3 to 7 as I watched. You will be forced to be on your knees when a Scale 7 earthquake hits. You can see the man is putting his head under the table as the room on the truck jolted. 

There is a Tower Records in Yodobashi Akiba, and it was selling imported cds very cheaply because of the soaring yen. I belatedly bought the latest Limp Bizkit cd. They're going to perform in a rock festival "Loud Park" on Oct 15th. I wish I could go. 

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Kibachibou

In Japan it's autumn now and we've started to feel cool in the morning and evening. But it gets as hot as 30 degrees Celsius around noon. However, as it's not humid at all, we can do without air conditioners all day. Btw, my friend informed me that there was a really good Soba restaurant in a nearby city, so we had lunch there.

 This restaurant's name was "Kibachibou". Though I can understand the "Kibachi" and "bou" separately, the combination made no sense to me. "Kibachi" is a wooden bowl, and "bou" is a monk or a little boy.

But I guess the "bou" in this case meant a monk, as there was this Buddha picture on the wall.

I explained what Soba was before, but it's basically noodles made from Soba powder, which can be taken from berries of the plant called "Soba". You can look at a pic of the Soba berries by clicking this

The Soba noodles were really good, but what I really enjoyed was this "Tempura" which had fried shrimps. You're supposed to have this after dipping it in the green salt on the left. The reason for the green color was because it was a mixture of salt and green tea.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

K-On Doujinshi

I went to Akihabara again to buy K-On Doujinshi. I wanted to go to this year's first Comiket in the middle of August to buy new Doujinshi, but it takes about 3 hours from where I live. So I bought the Doujinshi in Akihabara where I looked for some electronic devices as well.

 I know there are some people who are interested in Japan but not in anime-related topics. But in my opinion young foreign people tend to associate Japan with anime. And as I happen to like anime too, I want to introduce anime topics from time to time. 

 These cost as little as less than 2 US dollars for each. There are many Doujinshi for other kinds of anime, but I think the K-On Doujinshi tend to be in better quality than the others.

And the backs of the Doujinshi. Please put up with these pictures as I'm not allowed to reveal the contents. Btw, do you know a Seiyuu group called "SPHERE" where two of the K-On voice actresses are the members? The Seiyuu for Mugi and Yui are in the SPHERE, and the group did voice for the American movie "Suckerpunch". I'm planning to see the movie a second time in the Japanese dub.