From the serie "Everybody loves Kakigori"

I know the image quality is not great due to very poor light conditions , but I think the moment is unique ! . Don´t you think ?

One very important factor in planning a trip to Japan is the When. Depending on what time of year you come, your experience will differ greatly due to the weather. Some people don’t think about this too much, but I would encourage everyone to keep it in mind.

Japan has four very distinct seasons, and each has its own weather. Depending on what you plan to do and how you fare in hot or cold, you should plan to come at certain times. Also, prices in hotels and other places are subject to change depending on the time of year, so that’s another thing to keep in mind!

As I write this, Tokyo is in the middle of its hot, humid summer. Personally, I don’t like Japanese summers very much. I much prefer cooler, drier weather, but I know some people who really enjoy it! If you are very sensitive to heat, I wouldn’t recommend visiting in the summer.

However, the majority of Japanese matsuri (festivals) are held in the summer. Japan has literally hundreds of festivals, but the majority are small, local festivals enjoyed by just a few. There are a good number of public festivals, though, that are worth taking the effort to see. If you participate in one you will be able to see people in summer kimono and yukata. If you have the right resources, you can also dress in the traditional Japanese garb. One of my favorite parts of festivals is the food. There are always multiple food booths set up that offer yakisoba, okonomoyaki, baked potatoes, takoyaki, and shaved ice, just to name a few possibilities! Summertime isn’t the only time of year for festivals, but it definitely has the most!

Another reason to visit in the summer is it is the only time you can really see fireworks (hanabi). Fireworks are very popular, so they get their own festivals. They are fun and usually offer an impressive display, but you have to be careful because of the overwhelmingly gigantic crowds of people!!

Finally, Mount Fuji is only open to climb during July and August. During other times of the year you can go partway up Fujisan, but these two months are the only time people are allowed to climb to the summit. I myself have not yet accomplished this impressive feat, but eventually I would like to try! It is an arduous two-day climb, but hundreds of people do it every year.

There are of course other things to do in Japan during the summer, but these are some of the highlights. I don’t much enjoy the humid heat, but many worthwhile activities are offered during summer so think well on it!

On Sunday, I went to Himaka Island (Himakajima – 日間賀島), which is a small island in Minamichita-cho, Aichi Prefecture.  (As well as the above links, please check http://www.himaka.com/english01/ for more information in English.)  It was my first time to go to the beach in Japan, so I was very curious about how much it would differ (if at all) to beaches in England (especially coming from a seaside town myself).

Actually, I was happy to find that it wasn’t so different at all!  Kids (and adults) were playing in the sea, making sandcastles, burying each other in the sand, looking for shellfish, etc.  It had a very relaxed atmosphere, and there were lots of families enjoying the beach together, which was nice to see.

It was pretty easy to get to Himaka Island from Nagoya.  We just took the Meitetsu line to Kowa Station, then transferred to a high-speed ferry which took us directly to Himaka Island.  Himaka Island has two main beaches – Sunrise Beach and Sunset Beach.  We chose to go to Sunset Beach, but we didn’t see the sunset because we had to catch the ferry home.  There were a number of hotels there though, so I imagine it would be quite a nice place to stay for a night (although there didn’t seem to be too much to do, so one night would probably be enough).

Himaka Island is famous for octopus so, of course, we had to try some for lunch.  And, as it was such a hot day, we had to have some kakigori (かき氷) too!  The restaurant we went to for lunch was probably the main one on Sunset Beach, and they served some amazing fresh fish.  In fact, the fish was so fresh that it was swimming about in the restaurant fish tank until the grave-faced man in wellie boots came out and caught the next one.  When I saw him take one, he practically just grabbed it and whacked it until it was dead, right there in the restaurant!! I was a little shocked, but curious to know how he handled the octopuses…

Anyway, here are a selection of the photos I took on Sunday.  The full set can be seen on Flickr.

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To be honest, Biz had me at “For your lucky time, have some biz!” but I was also intrigued by the flavour; green tea and red bean. It’s based on the refreshing, traditional summer dessert Kakigori Matcha Azuki (green-tea shaved ice topped with red beans and condensed milk). This blog has some good info about Kakigori.

Anyway, these are cute little crunchy domes of green tea flavoured chocolate, crisped rice and red bean puffs. Oishi!

Who knew a dessert with just three things could be so amazing? Shaved ice, uji syrup and condensed milk. Yes, folks, it is officially hot enough for kakigori かき氷! I was lucky enough to go to Taketomi Island, a teeny island that is a part of the Yaeyama group in Okinawa. Since the weather there is summery and beautiful, I couldn’t help but get my first shaved ice of 2009 ^_^.

“Uji” syrup is a simple syrup flavored with powdered matcha green tea.　A small mountain of freshly shaved ice is topped with the syrup and a generous drizzle of condensed milk. The slightly bitter sweet syrup, creamy condensed milk, and chilly shaved ice was perfect! Refreshing, and I’m already looking forward to my next kakigori (or pat bing su, ais kacang, raspado, cendol etc…. )

Bosen ama cimol/es yoghurt ato yang gitu2 doang??? Makanya hari ini Orange-kun akan introduce kalian ke JAPANESE DELIGHTS!!!!

Apa itu Japanese Delights?

Japanese Delights adalah rubrik cooking yang saya akan introduce ke kalian. Di rubrik ini, saya akan beri kalian informasi tentang 2 pencuci mulut tradisional Jepang yang enaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkk banget!!! Oke, marilah kita lanjut!!!

KAKIGORI

Kakigori adalah pencuci mulut tradisional Jepang yang terbuat dari shaved ice dan syrup. Kakigori ini hampir sama dengan snow cone cuman, kakigori agar lebih “kasar” dari snow cone dan HARUS PAKE SENDOK kalo lagi makan ini. Kakigori ini sangat populer di Jepang dan bisa ditemuin dimana aja-dari toko2 pinggir jalan sampai festival dan restoran.

Popular Flavours: Strawberry, cherry, lemon, green tea, anggur, melon dan blue Hawaii.

How to Make it:

Pertama2 kita harus beli mesin yang bisa nge-shave es. Nah, terus kalo udah beli, es-nya di-shave sampe kecil2 gitu. Terus kalo dah selesai, esnya dituang ke gelas kecil dan berpotongan rendah. Step terakhirnya, syrupnya di tuang ke esnya dan kalo mau, get 2 small scoops of ice cream and put it on the top and the bottom the the ice!!

Hasilnya kayak gini:

Kakigori is best served on a hot day!!

DORAYAKI

Pasti buat kalian yang sering nonton Doraemon udah kenal ama dessert satu ini! Dorayaki adalah pencuci mulut yang berbentuk dua layer pancake-like patties yang terbuat dari kasutera yang diikat sekeliling oleh azuki bean paste. Didalamnya, Dorayaki juga diisi dengan azuki bean paste. Dorayaki ini juga populer banget di jepang dan karenanya dari Maret-September, “Doraemon Dorayaki” dijual di Jepang dan katanya jauh lebih enak daripada Dorayaki biasa!!!!Ah!!

Popular Flavours: Semuanya rasanya sama, tergantung yang buat. XD

How to Make it:

Taro telor dan gula didalam mangkok dan di-whisk sampai rata. Tambahin air. Perlahan-lahan, tambahin tepung kedalam mixturenya. Panasin sebuah skillet (gambar ada di Google) dan tuangkan sedikit minyak. Tuangkan adonan ke skillet-nya dan bikin sebuah pancake. Turn over ketika bubbles2 mulai keliatan. Dinginkan pancake-nya dan masukan azuki bean paste di dalamnya.

Hasilnya kayak begini:

Sebenarnya, isinya dorayaki gak hanya azuki bean paste. Terserah kamu kok ^^

Itadakimasu!!!! ^^

Hola Bienvenidos,

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En este sitio encontraran todas las noticias mas relevantes, respecto a nuevos productos que vallan llegando, tiempos de pedidos, informacion de los productos para aquellas personas que no los conoscan.

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Tambien de vez en cuando tendremos reportajes hacerca de cosas que suceden en japon y algunas novedades en cuanto a J-culture se refiere en nuestro pais.

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Esperamos sea de su agrado y esperamos sus comentarios, pedidos y lo que tengan que ofrecernos.

*Los nuevos productos llegan el Lunes y son los siguientes:

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Ramune ( de Limonada[original], de Fresa y de Melon)

Pockys (presentacion de 40g y 80g de Chocolate y Fresa)

Yan yan ( Sabor doble Crema)

Hello Panda! (Doble chocolate y Vainilla)

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Tambien  el nuevo pedido de aretes deberia llegar para el proximo Viernes asi que esten pendientes.

Sxludos de Su xmigo,

Edgxr

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Pd.  En la zona de descargas (aqui a su derecha), tenemos un wallpaper de la tienda por si quieren unirlo a su coleccion ^^.

Tokushima-shi Sumiyoshi 5-3-55 Inouchi Manshion A-101

Tel
088-677-7989

Open Hours
10：00～21：00
* No set holidays

Soft and fluffy shaved ice, available the whole year round.

The owner of the store here opened it with the aim to popularise Taiwan-style shaved ice (chami snow ice) in Tokushima. Different from the usual kind of shaved ice found in Japan, a variety of toppings such as mango and chocolate, caramel, green tea and other flavours is poured onto very thinly ground white ice. The result is a very smooth, natural taste that is easy to eat. Other items on the menu include cupcakes and pudding made using an ingredient known as sakura eggs, and all orders can be eaten at the store or taken away.

• Shaved ice, 350yen and up

Store Interior
The name for the store comes from the French word for sweets, and was selected by the owner to present a fun, open atmosphere for customers. The store itself is not so large, but there are three parking spaces next to it for customers to use. In Japan, shaved ice is usually available during the summer time, but this store is open all year round.

Map

View Larger Map

Three yummy summer kakigori かき氷　shaved ice specials at Kihachi Ice Cream. In addition to the required shaved ice, these chilly desserts also come with a serving of Kihachi’s famous vanilla bean soft serve.

Yellow:Mango pieces, a citrus syrup, tipped with a grapefruit gelee.
This was my favorite of the 3, the sweet fresh mango goes really well with the tart grapefruit.

Green: The traditonal　ujikinntoki 宇治金時 or sweetened red beans with a matcha syrup, topped with kanten 寒天　jelly pieces.

Red: Red raspberries with a scoop of annin purin アンニン　プリン almond pudding, topped with a sweet raspberry syrup and condensed milk.

Kihachi Soft Cream@ Lumine building, Shinjuku station, Tokyo, Japan

Jumonjiya’s pineapple and ice cream kakigori

Although it may not feel like it this week due to our grey skies and rainy days, summertime in Japan is usually hot and humid. Last summer in August the temperature rose over 40 degrees Celsius (about 105 Farenheit). The muggy weather really saps my energy.

A great way to refresh your body when you’re feeling the heat is with a cooling bowl of kakigori, shaved ice. You can buy shaved ice at a lot of places like festivals and family style restaurants: you can find it anywhere where you see the red and blue flags with the character for koori, which means ice, but if you really want to appreciate the cooling refreshment of kakigori you should go to a specialty shop. Here you’ll find that the ice is shaved finely into a fluffy ball of snow and topped with just the right amount of syrup. Two of my favorite shops in Maebashi are Noguchiya and Jumonjiya.

Noguchiya is a few blocks from my school, so many students head there for an after school snack in the summer and fall. The ice is refreshing and not too expensive, but since it’s often crowded with students from many of the nearby schools, be prepared for a wait if you’re going on a weekday afternoon. They have an old-fashioned ice shaver that makes a huge, fluffy mound of ice. You can choose from a huge list of flavors. My favorite is the early-summer special flavor of no-ichigo, wild strawberry, but late in the summer it’s sold out. I also like matcha flavor, which is sweet and bitter. In addition to choosing your flavor you can also add condensed milk or sweet adzuki beans for a little extra.

Noguchiya | tools for carving and carrying ice blocks at Noguchiya

Noguchiya’s ice shaver | Noguchiya’s kakigori, kanro (plain syrup) with milk and adzuki

Jumonjiya is on the north side of town off of Route 17 in the tiny front room of a small house. The menu offers several varieties of sweets, including about five flavors of kakigori served with or without icecream. The ice is here is sophisticated, served as a neat ball topped with an adorable scoop of icecream and the syrup on the side. Your dessert comes with a steaming hot cup of green tea, which seems a bit strange in the summer, but it helps to rewarm your mouth after you’ve cooled it off with a big bowl of shaved ice.

Jumonjiya

Many people say that the keening of cicadas is the sound of summertime in Japan, and I think that sitting back and listening to the cicadas with a bowl of kakigori is the taste of summertime in Japan.

copyright 2008 LMS

I attended several summer festivals this year at small villages all around the island. The most impressive was held in my town –  Minamitane’s Rocket Festival, this year celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The festival opened with the firing of ancient Tanegashima muskets. Tanegashima was the first place in Japan to trade in firearms when in 1543, Portuguese traders were shipwrecked to the south of the island.)

Mikoshi (御輿） is the name given to portable shinto shrines. Each village in Minamitane makes their own mikoshi which is carried around town by elementary and junior high school students,  all the while shouting and laughing hysterically.

Shop owners, gas station attendants, firemen (basically anyone who could get their hands on a hose) sprayed water over the children to keep them cool under the hot mid-day sun.

It wasn’t just children who got to carry the mikoshi. Every year Minamitane’s surfer community get together to construct a mikoshi of their own!

During the summer in Minamitane, a string of beautiful lanterns run down the main street. As the sun sets, they light up and create a beautiful atmosphere for all those attending the festivities.

Come evening, everyone moves to the town’s sports ground where a wide variety of acts entertain the crowd – shamisen groups, traditional Japanese theatre, even some body popping!

Around the perimeter of the ground, a wide range of stalls are set up selling fried chicken, fried octopus, fried potatoes (it’s really healthy!) as well as an assortment of children’s toys.

A popular summertime treat is kakigori (かき氷), shaved ice flavoured with fruit flavoured syrups. So many choices…

A trademark of Japan’s summer festivals is the wearing of the yukata (浴衣), a casual form of the kimono. Decorated with a wide variety of colours and patterns, they look beautiful and are worn by men and women of all ages.

I was very lucky to be able to play several gigs this summer with Wakasa Hime (Princess Wakasa), a rock band based in the north of the island. Almost every Saturday we would meet up in the afternoon for a small rehearsal and sound check, baking under the hot sun. Things got cooler towards the early evening when we would play a mixture of original Japanese tunes and some covers of rock classics (Eric Clapton, Eagles, Beatles etc).  Here’s a small clip of the band playing an old Ventures tune..

And for the grand finale, a gigantic firework display to bring the festivities to a close. I’m not really a fan of conventional firework photographs so I used two very last lenses, the Zuiko 55mmf/1.2 and Noritar 80mm f/2 to create some sparkly bokeh…

So some great times at this year’s summer festivals, for me the highlight of the Japanese calander. Phew, drumming and taking photos can be tiring in this heat. Time for a beer. Or how about some ice cold Danish schnapps at Moon Bar?   またね！

More photos

]]> http://troutfactory.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/tenjin-matsuri-2007/ Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:21:00 +0000 Trane DeVore http://troutfactory.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/tenjin-matsuri-2007/

This year’s Tenjin Matsuri was really a lovely time. I left the boat behind and my friend Marié “The Fantastic” Abe and I decided to walk around, eat street-food delights, people watch, and check out the hanabi (fireworks).

(Please note: The photo at the top of the page was taken at the very end of the evening when all of the boats had already gone home. The river really is full when the parade is in full effect.)

We ended up somewhere near Sakurabashi (I think), and then followed this flow of people down to the riverbank. Somewhere between several hundred thousand and perhaps even a million people show up for Tenjin Matsuri, which runs up and down the Okawa River. The riverside is lined with revelers, food stalls, lights, and flaming torches. There is a fleet of boats that parades up and down the river carrying the mikoshi from Tenmangu shrine, and tons of party boats follow along. There are also stationary boats that feature dancers performing traditional dances and — my favorite — several fire barges where a man with a scooper full of what seems to be gasoline scoops the fuel onto a flaming pyre to create huge gusts of all-enveloping flame.

This is a kakigori stand. Kakigori is like shaved ice, but with different syrup flavors of goodness than we normally get in the States. Not like a Slurpee (TM) or a Slushy (TM), but genuine shaved ice and very, very delicious.

The grilled chicken was good too. Mmmm.

Here’s part of the enormous crowd waiting for the hanabi to start. This was a large open area and it was packed from wall to wall with people. The theory behind this spot was that from here you could see both displays of fireworks (which are set off at different points of the river) at the same time. Unfortunately what it actually meant was that you could sort of see most of the fireworks half of the time. Enjoyable nonetheless.

Watching both sets of fireworks at the same time also allowed us to ascertain that one of the sets of fireworks clearly involved a much more vaster sum of money than the other. Red blooms above the treetops are nice in any weather, however.

This year I brought several film cameras with me, since last year I was only somewhat satisfied with the digital shots that I took. I loaded my LOMO with Fujifilm’s Natura 1600 (available only in Japan), perhaps the greatest color night film ever made, in the hopes that I could get even somewhat close to capturing the intense energy and festival vibe that surrounds the river and the food stalls. In fact, I think I failed in this, but I did get several good shots of street vendors (including this man, who was selling some rather delicious takoyaki).

Although the crushed ice in these cups relegates this particular kakigori to less-than-classic status, the crazy sci-fi tubes that transport the syrup are certainly awesome to behold.

Apparently this is a kind of teddy bear lottery. You buy a ticket and if your number comes up you can redeem it for teddy bear prizes. And for other cute stuffed-animal type things as well.

I do like these Hello Kitty fries! (“Sanrio — The Official Fry of Tenjin Matsuri 2007.”)

These are bananas that are coated with chocolate, strawberry, and something else that I can’t quite identify. Waxy and delicious and fantastic.

This lantern-adorned boat is one of the boats associated with the parade of the mikoshi. Apparently this boat carries sacred objects that are carried from Tenmangu shrine. It also travels up and down the river at about three times the speed of the other boats, so you get to see it several times during the course of the evening.

Sakurabashi with a big streak of a boat passing beneath.

One of the most amazing moments in the evening was when two boats of festival drummers temporarily docked on the shore right near where we were standing. The two boats took turns pounding out traditional rhythms that only get played once a year, during the festival itself. The drummers were incredibly friendly and as full of energy as you would expect from a team that only gets to present its practice one time a year. It’s at these moments, listening to rhythms that have been passed down for hundreds of years, that the festival both shrinks and expands, almost as if the spatial locus of attention is reduced to the span of the two boats while the temporal locus expands simultaneously into the past and the future. And one of the boats also had a young boy dressed as a samurai on board and ready to pose for pictures. What could be better?

A couple wearing yukata buy delicious fried things. Mmmmmmm. It really is hard to stress how utterly delicious all of this stall food really is.

This man is making hand-made candy. He pulls a lump of raw candy material from out of an ingredients box and then molds it into whatever shape you might prefer. Marié chose a goldfish (painted with beautiful orange and black spots) and I chose a wild boar, since the Year of the Boar was the year that I was born in. The craft of candy making is becoming increasingly rare, and in fact I’ve never seen anyone else in the Osaka area with a stall like this (though I did run into the same candy maker at a different festival later). It’s unfortunate that there aren’t more stands like his — there’s a kind of magic in his hands as he turns an indistinct lump into recognizable form, almost literally animating it.

This is Tenjinbashi, one of the central sites for Tenjin Matsuri. This photo was taken pretty much after the festival was over, but you can still see the lanterns lining the railings.

Here are Marié and I with our candies!

(That’s a Bogulta shirt I’m wearing, in case you’re wondering.)

Tenjin Matsuri 2005
Tenjin Matsuri 2006

The full set of photographs from Tenjin Matsuri 2007

El kakigori, es un helado japonés a base de hielo raspado y siropes de diversos sabores (fresa, limón, te verde, uva, melón…), endulzado con leche condensada.

Cuando estuve en Japón lo podías encontrar en casi cualquier sitio (junto con los conos de helado cremoso al más puro estilo MacDonnals). Es bastante caro allí, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta que es más simple que el mecanismo de un juguete, pero la verdad, estando allí con el calor que hace y sobre todo el bochorno, se agradece.

Aunque no tengo la máquina que raspa el hielo (la cual quiero comprar), el otro día me decidí a hacer uno. Compré sirope de fresa y chocolate (de los que uso sobre todo para los crepes y tortitas… mmm tortitas -lease como Homer Simpson-), y piqué el hielo con una picadora de carne normal (de estas que son dos cuchillas que dan vueltas).

Una vez picado el hielo, como para llenar un vaso aproximadamente, se le echa por encima unas tres o cuatro cucharaditas de leche condensada y chorreones de sirope de fresa (el chocolate no le pega xD), y listo para comer a cucharadas ^_^

(por fin un post corto).

Este primer kakigori es de fresa hecho por mi.

Este otro, es de te, hecho por mi amiga de Tôkyô.

Este verano tuve el placer de probar el kakigori (かき氷),  pero por aquel
entonces no sabia que ese postre se llamaba kakigori ya que mi vecino
vino a mi casa un dia a pagar la comunidad y me vió haciendo granizada
con la licuadora y me comentó que el una vez probó en no recuerdo
donde el hielo picao y le hechaban encima sirope, entonces un servidor
al no tener sirope (en verdad tengo pero no lo encuentro) le eché
granadina a lo que iba a ser una granizada y resultó que el invento llegó
a buen puerto y me gustó

Al poco tiempo vi en kirai que el helado en cuestión se llamaba kakigori
aunque tiene numerosos nombre a lo largo del mundo como Raspados
(en centroamérica) o Seui Bing (taiwan) asi que muy exclusivo de
Japón no creo que sea pero antiguo este postre-helado si que es ya que
en la película Memorias de una Gheisa se ven comiendo kakigoris pero
el origen puede venir de mucho antes segun leo aunque halla variado

a lo largo del tiempo.

En la foto de arriba os muestro la granadina que utilizé para la
elaboración del kakigori lo compré en el mercadona y su precio no
llegó a los 2 euros asi que podemos decir que el postre es bastante
económico y fresquito en verano por lo menos aqui en Sevilla con los
40 grados a la sombra que sufrimos en julio-Agosto ^^.

Ya para concluir el post una nota para los sevillanos acerca del III
Nihon Matsuri por lo visto se ha suspendido y de momento  lo van
a posponer para finales de Enero debido a problemas con el
ayuntamiento no me quiero mojar mucho por lo cual os dejo el enlace
y sacais vuestras  propias conclusiones
Pd: Se me olvidaba hoy es el cumpleaños del usuario Monoborracho pues
este post va dedicado a su persona que hace tiempo que no le veo y a
ver si nos tomamos unos santos refrigerios^^ y felicidades!