Asian flavour

Out of pure coinsidence we stumbeled upon a Japanese festival on Trafalga square this weekend, this is what I love about living in the city, constantly new things happening! I've missed a lot of Japanese food so I took this opportunity to sattisfy some of my most pressing cravings.

Macha green tea ice cream

Japanese vegetable curry

Pudding parfait

宝塚歌劇団

Takarazuka is a kind of lavish musical theater performed exlusivley by (and in 90% of the time for) women. They put on productions of Western musicals, stories adapted from shōjo manga and Japanese folktales.

It's acted a great influence on the shōjo genre, originaly inspiering works such as "Princess Knight", "Revolutionary Girl Utena" and "The Rose of Versailles" wich is also arguably Takarazuka's best known musical.

The male roles are played by actresses called otoko-yaku, who one Takarazuka instructor described to be "more suave, more affectionate, more courageous, more charming, more handsome and fascinating than a real male."

The otoko-yaku do everything that real men don't do: they tango, say sweet things, show understanding and kindness and never tire of expressing their undying love in the practiced baritones. Shinja Ueda, the president of the Takarazuka, told the Japan Times,

"The performances have an abundance of lines and acting that women want to hear and see from men, however unrealistic...but women are too embarrassed to say."

Explaining the mainly young female fanbase of the productions usualy takes one out of two routes, the one that seems to prevail in the west is that women are drawn to its inherent lesbian overtones. Lesbian themes occur in every Takarazuka performance, simply by virtue of the fact that women play every role.

The second theory is that women find escapism in the actresses performing free and empowered male parts. The subversion of stereotypical gender roles is something that's particurlarly appealing in a society like Japan with notoriously rigid conception of what is male and what is female.

For me personaly I think it's a lot simpler, it's about having something that's just for girls, by girls. Just like with Lolita fashion it's something generally doesn't really involve or appeal to men and it enables you to completley rejecting the notion that it's a man's world for just a moment. I don't really mind all the things I do for and with guys but that's probably due to the fact that I also have my escapism. I like "having my own thing".

Look vinter chocolate

Best coffe chocolate ever!

Let's try it: Chocolate on chocolate Pocky ~ Praline

No surprise the chocolate x chocolate pocky are my favourite, more chocolate is always better!Praline is a little bit bitter, I guess to emulate more expensive chocolate with a high cocoa percentage, but really yummy!

Let's try it: Pocky ~ Salty cookie crunch

I thought theese would be a lot more interesting in flavour, I think I got stuck on the salty part of the name and kind of expected a crushed saltine. They are actually not really salty at all, it's like regular cookie crunch. They remind me of something we used to do when we where kids, mixing cocoa, suger and butter together with corn flakes.

Let's try it: Pocky ~ Sweet pumpkin

My latest package not only contained a bunch of false lashes and the like, it was also stuffed to the brim with a bunch of new Pocky flavours. I'm not a huge fan of pocky but I miss my snack posts and since I don't have access to all the whacky KitKat flavours anymore I figured this will do.

First up is the Sweet pumpkin pocky, the smell is nice but the taste isn't unmistakably pumpkin, it's just a hint. It's less sweet then the regular pocky and a little buttery in flavour, overall I really like it.

Great quake

Both my facebook and twitter accounts are overflowing with everybodys updates on the earthquake in Japan, I'm glad to see that my friends and extended family are alright in Tokyo (I had to leave work and call around to make sure), but still the consequenses are devastating. I remember how scared I was everytime we had a quake when I lived there, taking cover under a table and not knowing what to do, and I only ever experienced smaler ones. I feel for everyone affected, natural disasters have never been a threat as I live in Sweden and watching the news reports on this it's something I'm really thankfull for.

Japanese food items I didn't expect to miss

Curry Pan

Sort of a non sweet fried doughnut kind of dough filled with vegetable Curry, can be eaten hot and cold and sold at the konbinis and curry resturants. I think I was the only one out of everyone I knew who ate this more then once, I belive a lot of them got an upset stomach from eating it. Even though I was fine after eating them several times I had no clue what kind of cravings I would later develop for theese buns. I have not tried to make this at home yet but I did find alot of recepies when I was browsing for pictures so maybe it's about time. Sugar & butter fried toast

The name pretty much says everything, toast panfried in sugar and butter. I'm pretty sure no one else in my class tried this one, everyone though it sounded pretty nasty and at first I could agree, but after eating it it's quite good! It tasted alot like a sweet pancake! I only ate this once and never saw it at the konbini next to my school again. Meiji chocolate

Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing really weird about meiji, it's a great chocolate! The thing is, if you don't alredy know it, Swedish chocolate is ridicilously delicious and before I went to Japan I thought I would go insane without it, so all the time I though Meiji was just a substitute for Marabou. Since I got home I really miss it though. I didn't think about it at the time but how thin the chocolate bar is makes it so good, it feels light and melts in your mouth. My favourite's Hi-milk and extra milk.

More of the essential english

Look chocolate continues their pilgrimage to educate the sweet loving public.

Purikura fall

Or is it Purikura fail?

Memories of Tokyo

Class picture outside the Edo-Tokyo museum.

Learning essential english from Japanese candy

...But home is nowhere.

I imagine the feelings I'm experiencing upon my return ought to be close to the ones of Alice, when waking from Wonderland.
I'm back from the magical, whimsical world, I'm back from the rabbit hole.

お雛祭り

Today is the Hinamatsuri here in Japan, girls day and a festival of dolls. It's a day to pray for young girls growth and happiness.

When compared to all the celebrations I have experienced in the rather short time I have lived here I feel, more then ever, that I don't really have any cultural heritage of my own. I wish I had, something to cherish, something worth teaching my children and grandchildren if I ever have any.

Love is in the details

I can't help but love Japan when I go into a regular bookstore and the music playing is my favourite nocturne by Chopin.

It's a perfect day atleast

From the window of my second floor room I can reach out and pick this autumns last kaki from the withering tree in the garden.

Roberto and his Umeshu

Such a fun, lovable and seemingly carefree guy.

I want to be inspiered and try to be more like that...

Banao

Elite Banana

Sparkeling strawberry

Not only is it pink, it's delicious!