10.00 Taiko Drum Performance
10:30 Akemi Solloway: Tea Ceremony
11.30 Taiko Drum Performance
12.05 Shakuhachi and Koto Performance
1.00 Iaido Demonstration
1:00 – Showing of the movie Swing Girls (in association with East Asian Cinema Society). ARC Meeting Room 5.
1.20 Akemi Solloway: Samurai
2.00 Koto and Shakuhachi Performance
2.30 Akemi Solloway: Japanese Lesson with Totoro
3.00 Jiu Jitsu Demonstration
15:00 – Showing of the movie Summer Time Machine Blues (in association with East Asian Cinema Society). ARC Meeting Room 5.
3.20 aikido
4.00-5.00 perform
9.00 – After party at the Elbow Room.

In our quest to make 1000 origami cranes, we’re currently up to 522! With just 478 more to go, let’s keep working hard!

We’ve also got a few more times on the Events Page, including Sumo wrestling, a World Heritage Site Photo Exhibition viewing evening, and the all important after party.

We’ve still got more work to do, including the following tasks, so if you want to help out, then please get in touch.

Next tasks:
Tori gate
Assembling of decorations
Play set backdrop artwork
Artwork/ photo display boards
More cranes!
More flowers!

Just a reminder: Friday 11th is exclusively for schools, all helpers must attend a child protection training briefing one evening next week (contact us for more details).

Saturday 12th is open to the public so please invite all your friends!!

Thank you

Well for most of us the waistline has expanded a little from too many mince pies, chocolates and litres of beer over the Christmas and New Year. I’m happy to continue and indulge more but at my age it’s a bit harder to burn off so best listen to the wife.

I got a bit worried when she said ‘i’ll help you’ and immediately thought oh crap she’s got me a Devina McCall keep fit dvd or even worse some silly detox kit from the pharmacy. Couple of days later she hands me a bottle of iKi beer, yes i stood in silence for a few second thinking is this some sort of devious plan!

I was then told that this beer is Organic and made using Green Tea and that Green Tea has various medicinal uses and health benefits and it is used by many as a way of detox. Green tea is made from unfermented leaves and reportedly contains the highest concentration of powerful antioxidants called polyphenols. Antioxidants are substances that scavenge free radicals and Antioxidants such as polyphenols in green tea can neutralize free radicals and may reduce or even help prevent some of the damage they cause.

Well after taking all that in and the shock of my wife handing me a bottle of beer, it was time to kill some free radicals. iKi Beer to my joy is 4.5% ABV and brewed in Belgium yep not in Japan to my disappointment as there are some great Craft beers coming out of the land of the rising sun such as Coedo and Kiuchi Brewery.

The back label tell us iKi means ‘Life’ in Japanese and iKi refreshes. Green tea not only gives iKi its body, it also enriches iKi with high levels of natural antioxidants….. well there is only one way to find out! Pours a hazy pale yellow, with a thick white head. The aroma is fruity with flowers some malts and a slight hop. The taste is fresh, sweet. Fruity like citrus. Notes of spices and the aftertaste has the real Japanese green tea taste to it.

My ratings:

iKi Beer (4.5% ABV) – 3/10

Look I’d rather drink this than make my house shake to a celebrity keep fit video…….erm maybe depends who the celebrity is

iKi beer was purchased at Japan Centre 14-16 Regent Street, London, a Japanese supermarket and restaurant.

While at grocery shopping at Japan Centre for some Japanese ingredients, I came across some fish pan cake. It is not something you would see in UK normally. It is what you will find in Japan but the one I did have when I was in Japan was a mini version to the one sold at Japan Centre.

It is tradition to find the fish pan filled with red bean paste. But the fish pan cake found in Japan Centre had various flavours. I bought the pack that had custard and apple cinnamon fillings. The custard flavoured was the prefer one as it was not as dry as the apple cinnamon.

I think it would have be nicer if they were a smaller size, like the one you found in Japan which are bite size. It make it easier to snack away at the office desk!

If you want easy and delicious Japanese recipes you can check out Runnyrunny999. All his recipes are easy to follow and his videos are all entertaining! Whilst Cookingwithdog‘s videos are mostly traditional Japanese cooking. These are the two YouTube users I religiously check for Japanese dishes!

Here’s the Takoyaki pan! It was a good quality pan, heavy duty and very sturdy!

Getting ready! It was our first time to eat an octopus dish. I wasn’t able to shoot all the ingredients. I was so excited to start cooking the dish!

This is the second batch! The first batch turned out to be a disaster! I can’t roll the takoyaki balls and they were all sticky I was really upset! There’s something to do with the flour mixture so it was a trial and error moment for me! I managed to adjust the mixture and the second batch turned out great! Look!

And another one!

Taa daa! It was really delicious! I’m not just saying it because I cooked it but you can ask the critics! My mom, brother and the boyfriend

And another one!

You can check all the ingredients and recipe here.

Itadakimasu!

Powder Green Tea can be used to make fragrant green tea drinks (hot and cold).   Making it easier especially when making cold drinks without having to use green tea teabags.

Directions

• Simply use 2 to 3 teaspoons of powdered green tea in a teacup
• Pour hot  water and stir well until desired strength
• Can be served hot or cold

Powder Green Tea can also be used for baking your favourite cakes, biscuits, sweets, and of course – green tea macarons!  Will try that and update you folks how they turn out in the next little while.  Meanwhile, visit your nearest Japanese food shop for your very own bag of green tea powder.  This bag shown here is £4 for 50 grams of powdered green tea from Japan Centre near Piccadilly Circus, London.

TAIYAKI! Finally I got to try some XD

Had an awesome time with Purplezest. Got some awesome lootage too. It was kinda, unintentionally a Japanese-themed trip XD, all the stuff we ended up doing/seeing hehe, didn’t get to the Namco center though, one giant arcade seemed like enough somehow XD Had much fun spotting Pudding too And we saw a guy on the tube who looked scarily like Robert Downey Jr… XD

We started out by going to Forbidden Planet, as we always have a hard time finding it, even with a proper friggin’ map this time O.o Spent a fair while in there as it was air conditioned and there is ALOT to look through. Got ‘The Losers’ vol 1, a Moomin phone charm & a Droplet art toy(cos I kept seeing em around about & they’re adorable lol.)
After we headed for…ummm…. Covent Garden area I think, that and China Town, Cyber Candy, that general area, its fairly near Piccadilly anyways it seems…
After collecting goodies(always more than planned when it comes to Cyber Candy lol) I think we had a sit down somewhere shady, the weather was very VERY warm… too warm… We had a good wonder round China Town & that area though

*nom nom nom* So yummy... wish I got more than one... but in this weather I've got no clue where I'd store stuff like it. (Not the fridge I think, would go soggy as its a pancake...ne?)

We were heading for Tokyo Toys & Trocedero, but got sidetracked after finding the Mitsukoshi department store and Japan Centre right next to each other by taking a wrong turn XD Its a tad intimidating going into a shop filled with just Japanese people, makes me think thats what Tokyo would be like, only like… way more people XD Anyways, the magazines, books, DVD’s were in the basement, & I got very excited after seeing a ‘Docomo’ sign outside the door XD, cos I’d really love a Japanese cell phone lol. Bought the magazine I’d seen online before coming in Mitsukoshi, Junon, July issue. After exiting and heading to Japan Centre, right next door, we found more magazinese… one with Ikuta Toma on the front… and the June issue of Junon… I got those, plus meronpan, taiyaki, anpan, a bottle of Calpico and some odd snack things we’d seen advertised on youtube by Haruma Miura lol.

My fan, thank chuck for my fan XD

We decided to continue the Japanese theme and went to Wagamama’s, introduced Purplezest to the wonderment of their Chicken Katsu Curry XD. So very yummy with the sticky Japanese rice, WHICH I just remembered I forgot to pick some up of…. Gah… nevermind. Got lots of yummy stuff anyways. I still remember the first time I went to Wagamama’s with friends & I had the Chicken Ramen, and the guy who was serving us wouldn’t give me cutlery when I asked, cos I was fumbling with the ladle-thing and chopsticks, mainly the ladle-thing though… he did it in a joking way though, that if I felt I *really* needed them I coulda had them, but I managed, somehow… so messy to eat though O.O the soup always splashes XD.

We continued by heading to the Trocedero center in Piccadilly. Always go in via HMV of course. We spent a fair while in there… Skeeball is freakin’ fun, and I am goooooooood! We got tickets too lol… (I got 400 in one game, 2 50p plays, so many tickets XD) the games were you didn’t win tickets were way fun too. The jockey one… the bouncy sega one… the Pod Racing one I like especially, very easy once you got used to the controls hehe. Forgot to have a go on the Mariokart machines tho, always weirdly fun at an arcade XD

After we went back to Chinatown again, to get our fans. I decided I wanted some odd drink I’d never had before, so looked about, but we both decided Japan Centre had the best stock and went back there.We also checked to see if the issue of Joker Purplezest wanted was in there, it wasn’t(still Eita on the cover ), BUT they had thew new-new issues of Junon XD, August, which is odd, cos it ain’t even July yet XD. Had to get it obviously, plus the drinks, I got a random grape soda, which turned out to be insanely yummy. So getting more when I can, and a bottle of (what I assume is) original Ramune lol, plus two more meronpan, just because I always regret only buying one… We then dossed around in a few parks, as it was so damn warm, we just needed shade and drinks and cool… *yay* for our fans we got in China Town XD

Wish I knew what this was called, cos it was so yummy... makes me wanna search out different grape flavoured fizzy drinks XD

We ended up following an ice cream van in the distance, which led us to St James’s park, and, what we thought for a while was Buckingham Palace XD, after checking the map properly we realised Buckingham is along the road by St James Park, but its by another park, Green Park, another nice one. Any shade in that weather is good in my opinion XD. We helped a nice American guy with directions to Covent Garden too, we just hope he got there ok XD, I’m not fantastic at giving directions… but as you just had to go through Green Park to get to Piccadilly road and follow that to Covent Garden area…. should be ok… I’ll tell ya something though, I know London alot better now XD the 14 year old A-Z I nabbed off my Dad still works well enough XD

The only new ones are the Moomin and the Coca Cola chupa chup charm Finally! Hadn't seen the chupa chup charms in bloody ages XD

After wandering up to Buckingham, taking some pics, wandering through Green Park, we headed for Green Park station to get back to St Pancras, we got there and just loitered about, read/looked at the magazines(as we can’t read much of the magazines really hehe, its good for learning though, I know enough of the hiragana & some katakana to make out some words, damn all the kanji though, I really need to learn some kanji…).
Got back and watched the Zettai Kareshi SP, which I thought ended kinda… abruptly… I won’t say anything cos I don’t wanna spoil it, but I had, well, still have, complaints… not because of the differences to the manga, accepted those, as a 16 year old with a ‘Nightly Lover’ series robot might be a bit odd in a drama lol, and weird that Soshi’s brother in the drama looked more like Soshi did in the manga XD, but Hiro Mizushima was Soshi… so that was fine. But thats not why I was kinda annoyed… After the end of Zettai Kareshi was Gokusen 2 & then Hana Kimi to finish XD.

This is posted to Figure.fm too, a few different pics, but generally the same thing.

It’s rammed every lunch time, unsurprisingly, as the sushi is wonderful and great value too. For example, it’s £2.50 for a three-pack of tuna nigiri and £1.50 for a four-pack of kakiage rolls. And, if you spend £4 or more, you get a free miso soup (normally £1.50).

I regularly get lunch from here, and while the sushi is extremely good, I preferred it at the old Japan Centre deli (on Piccadilly) when supplied by Yoshino.

tuna nigiri + kakiage

Restaurant info:
~ Lardbutty rating: 4 / 5
~ Type: Japanese, sushi
~ Postcode: SW1Y 4PH
~ Nearest station: Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square
~ Website: Umai Factory at Japan Centre
~ Menus: sample sushi + sashimi menu
~ Location: Japan Centre map

First off, if you’re wondering where to buy, I would recommend the Japan Centre or Mitsukoshi (Piccadilly, London), both excellent stores. Or if you can’t get them there, there’s my good friend J-List.

I would definitely advise all anime fans to import at least one Japanese mag. in their life of fandom, so here is my humble guide to buying them.

First up…

Nov 2003 issue

Newtype is likely familiar. It’s pretty thick, always has at least one pull out smexy poster, a manga chapter and some pretty interesting articles.

It’s a monthly magazine, and one which I used to get in bundles at anime expos as getting new issues will set you back (in my experience) anywhere between £12-£17. Ouch. But, a lot of people think it’s worth it. It’s so popular in Japan it gets a lot of good interviews and exclusives….oh and I did get a free model with it once!!!

“Newtype, the Moving Pictures Magazine” had its 300th issue anniversary in March, and is still going pretty strong. I, however, wouldn’t buy it anymore. Not enough freebies for the price, too much text if you’re not a Japanese speaker, plus I always find the posters to be few, and not something I’d want me Nan to see…(though this may be your thing!), there are better out there.

Second…

Aug 2007 issue

Megami…OK . Would never buy. Ever. Even if….I was paid to.

Well alright, I probably would if I was paid, but the principle would still be there somewhere.

If 14-year-old girls with no clothes on, in wierd positions, and maybe falling into other naked prepubescents is your thing (which, hell, might be. I won’t judge….well…), then by all means buy buy buy. It’s just….not really mine.

I’ve never seen it for over £11.50, and I’ve seen up to 20 posters included before. I think it’s J-List’s top-selling anime mag…So yeah. Not my cup of tea, but might just be yours.

Third…

May 2010 issue

Well, this will be bias. I’ve spent so much money on this magazine last few years, damn everything to hell if I’m gonna bad mouth it now.

It’s actually by the same dudes who did Megami, this is like…it’s tame, not so pervy little sister. Not that it’s just for females or anything, that’s why I like it, it’s just…well what you want from a magazine. OK, the issue pictured on the left, also included 4 posters, 2 A4 files, a song book, page of stickers and a real sense that you just contributed to a great institution. Or summat like that. Admittedly, the A3 poster with Lelouch on it probably had something to do with my keeness…*FANGURL*…Definitly sexiest character ever, with an allure like no—–anyway. I digress.

I paid £11 for it at Mitsukoshi in London, you can get it online for around the same, and you can subscribe (like the others). It’s one of Japan’s most popular magazines for good reason, a decent all-rounder and certainly one I’d recommend if you’ve never bought a Japanese magazine before.

Other notables would be Nyantype-a cute girl orientated mag. Or try Dengeki G’s Magazine-for those with a penchant for DD’s. Also, if you’re into figures, I’ve always liked Hobby Japan, or Figure Maniacs.

Or how about you go wild…and get Mum to buy you Moe Moe Uniform Encyclopedia for yurr birthday?

]]> http://hongkonghigh.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/a-homage-to-london/ Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:15:20 +0000 Kate http://hongkonghigh.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/a-homage-to-london/ It’s been nearly 10 years since I first moved to London as a PR exec, fresh from student life in Cardiff. Inevitably it took some time to get used to the big city, having known only the slower pace of the Welsh capital, and before that childhood and teenage years in Devon.

I’ve been walking the streets alot over the last few weeks, recalling all the memories attached to the different parts of the city: a mammoth trek from Victoria to Tower Bridge with friends from Sweden; pinics in the parks on summer days; tea at The Ritz for Mum’s birthday; Christmas carols at St Martin in the Fields; turning into Birdcage walk for the last stretch of the marathon; Sundays strolling down the South Bank.

Also the more everyday - black cab journeys by night; avoiding eye contact and armpits on packed tubes; taking in the views from Waterloo bridge; stepping into Italy at Cafe Italia; stepping into China in one of Chinatown’s supermarkets (a taste of things to come!); wonky creations from a ceramics course at Chelsea College; art house fiilms at The Curzon; cheap eats with friends; posh meals for special occassions.

So, my top ten London – based mostly on what pops into my head and in no particular order:

1. Breakfast at The Wolseley - stepping back to the 20′s
2. The John Soane’s museum and every other London museum come to think of it
3. The School of Life - so much to learn and read
4. The Curzon cinema - how cinemas should be
5. Scandinavian Kitchen and with it evey other Scandinavian bar and cafe in London - has kept me in cinnamon buns and good coffee in between visits to Sweden
6. Battersea park and Albert Bridge for picnics, runs and Sunday walks
7. Beirut Express  and the many other great Lebanese places for wraps and sheesha
8. The Japan Centre for great sushi, salad dressing and chewy sweets
9. People watching and performances on the South Bank 
10. London Walks - for discovering the hidden city

So thank you London for many years of happy memories. It’s goodbye for now but we’ll be back!

Albert Bridge, Chelsea

Lady Chic in Evening Standard

Thanks to Charles Campion’s article in the Evening Standard last Thursday, Lady Chic sold out at Japan Centre. A speedy same day delivery by SAM Sake replenished stocks for last minute Christmas shoppers yesterday.

Where:  Bookstore LG, Japan Centre, Picadilly, London.

When: 4/11/18 & 25th July, 12 -5 pm.

Cost: Free

Met a colleague at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly to take in the new Kuniyoshi exhibition (of Japanese wood block art) that opened at the end of last month. Loved it! Really is my kind of thing.

The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition on one of the greatest Japanese print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition presents Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design. It reveals the graphic power and beauty of his prints across an unprecedented range of subjects highlighting his ingenious use of the triptych format.

The majority of the exhibition has been drawn from the outstanding collection of Professor Arthur R. Miller which has recently been donated to the American Friends of the British Museum. This is the first major exhibition in the United Kingdom on Utagawa Kuniyoshi since 1961.

These pictures are, if you like, the earliest form of comics and manga. They were hand drawn, then the master printers would carve the image onto wooden slats which they then used to mass print. Really, really good show. I enjoyed it so much I bought the catalogue (like a coffee table book, softback) to admire the images again and read about them in more detail. I am a Japan-ophile, in case that wasn’t obvious (I lived there in the late 1990s), so most things Japanese do really interest me.

After an hour or so at the (rather busy!) exhibition, I took my colleague/friend (the ex-army one) to the Japan Centre for lunch. I’ve been going there for 6 years or so. To my mind the most authentic Japanese food in London and such good value and unpretentious. It’s like a Japanese cultural centre and there’s a big supermarket, large cafe/restaurant, travel agent, etc. Really good place and somewhere you ought to visit if ever you come to London.

The (late) lunch was wonderful. We each had the kara age chicken set menu which is my favourite. As most know – I don’t eat either chicken or lamb (or veal and a number of other things) – but they use really good quality organic chicken and it’s deep fried in such a scrummy way, that this is the one time I break my own rule and do eat chicken. Served with miso soup and sticky rice. When Hen and I worked together I took her here too. We drank genmai cha which is a favourite of mine (green tea and roasted brown rice).

We then leisurely strolled to the station (through St James’ and then Green Park and then past Buckingham Palace – the front of which was packed out with tourists. Very stately Mexican flags lining the Mall as there was a state visit a couple of weeks ago). Weather has just about stayed dry so can’t complain too much. I’d just missed a train (not the end of the world) so did an M&S food shop. Stocked up on Gold Label teabags of theirs which I really like, also their sparkling water, fruit and some other random bits and pieces. At the Japan Centre I’d stocked up on genmai cha and also wasabe peas.

A good Easter Sunday.

Here’s one from the Japan Centre…

And then another from the National Gallery……

While living in the U.S., I am pretty sure I have made my share of Veteran’s Day jokes (usually along the lines of its stature as a holiday for which you don’t get the day off from work, and therefore, it follows that it’s unimportant). But one of the big differences between living in Europe and in the U.S. is how real and recent the world wars are in the UK.

For example, judging from its interior, the Victoria & Albert museum is a fully-modernized, attractive museum, but the building’s exterior has been purposely left sooty and riddled with big and small holes – reminders of bombings and gunfire during the Blitz.

In general, people in the UK seem to truly remember (and want to remember) the world wars, probably because being attacked by the Germans was a harsh reality for so long.  I’m very impressed by how the simple act of donating money to veterans (and in exchange receiving a cheap lapel poppy pin), forces everyone to remember the human cost and sacrifice of war.  Everywhere I look – on the sidewalks, on the tube – I see people wearing these red poppies on their lapels. It’s nice to think that despite everyday preoccupations, people take time to remember.

As proof of how quickly a person moves on from thoughtful moments, though, Jon and I went with Cathy and Bobby to see Avenue Q on Saturday, which just opened in London at the Noel Coward Theatre.  The show was just over two hours long, and the theatre was cozy and ornate, which seemed an odd setting for a somewhat-edgy, dirty musical about 20-something college grads (including one earnest young fellow named Princeton) moving to the boonies of Brooklyn and going through the painful transition into “real life.”

At first, it took me a while to catch on to the fact that the humans directing the puppets were not characters themselves, but rather were extensions of the puppet characters. But the lyrics, singing and acting were so clever and funny that at some point, I stopped focusing on the human actors and instead I transferred the facial expressions of the human puppeteers onto the puppets.

I especially enjoyed how creative and ironic the show was. For example, songs about serious “adult” topics were accompanied by Sesame-Street-cheery melodies.

However much I enjoyed the show, I did wonder if many of the jokes were too American-specific for anyone else to enjoy. For example, one character, who is Japanese, sings about how offensive she thinks the word “oriental” is (“Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”), and here in the UK, oriental is the mainstream, accepted word for what we call “Asian” in the US. (In the UK, “Asian” means someone from the Indian subcontinent).

Then there’s Gary Coleman as a character in the show – a pretty funny touch, but I doubt Diff’rent Strokes was a big thing here in the UK.  I guess I’m just curious how much the UK audience enjoys Avenue Q’s very American sense of humor. Luckily, everyone laughs at puppets performing sex acts. I was glad we went.

After the show, we had dinner at the Japan Centre, which has a Japanese restaurant on the ground floor, a Japanese bookstore on the top floor, and a Japanese grocery store on the basement floor. The shrimp tempura futo maki was fresh, but otherwise, it was just shrimp tempura and lettuce (of all things). So the maki satisfied my craving for tempura maki, but otherwise I’ve had much better elsewhere (such as at the Japan Centre-affiliated Yoshino).

The agedashi tofu, which we’d never had before, gets a shout out for being lightly fried with a crisp texture, and Cathy’s spicy ramen could have been good had it not been so salty. The ramen was fresh and al dente, though, so we’ll have to go back and try a different fresh ramen.

Jon’s udon soup was a little paltry, but he seemed satisfied. Our total tab came to £60 for three people, which is a lot for eating at a cafeteria-style restaurant, but hey, London is pricey. We will cope.

After dinner, we walked towards Green Park and had drinks at Fakhreldine (85 Piccadilly, W1J 7NB). It’s a Lebanese restaurant with a dimly-lit, attractively-sleek interior filled with lots of cozy banquettes and tables for gathering your friends together and chatting. We didn’t stay long, but I liked that it was a pretty place to sit and hang out.