Japan in my country

                Japanese culture has really influence the worldwide market nowadays. Could it be because of its unique classical, vintage culture and art or could it be its modern, high-tech gadgets. Either way, Japanese culture is everywhere.

            Here in Malaysia, people can see a great number of Japanese restaurants, stores and technology for example, the Tokyo Street in Pavilion. 

Tokyo Yay~!!!

I'm going in~!!!

One of the decor in Tokyo Street

        Many locals will walk and shop in Tokyo Street to experience the Japanese environment and its decor. Along the street, shoppers can buy many types of Japanese snacks & drinks. In addition, there are also some high class Japanese restaurants inside for people who would like to enjoy eating fine dining Japanese cuisine.

Not easy pulling those costumes off.   

        Furthermore, cosplay events are occasionally held around Malaysia as well. Many fans of anime would gather on a specific day, time and venue to enjoy/admire other fans dressing up as their anime icons. Many famous cosplayers will travel across the world just so they can attend an event like this. On top of that, famous comic artists/creators will also appear on that day to show their appreciation to their loyal fans.   

The beautiful Alodia Gosiengfiao.

Isn't she adorable

      Finally, it takes cosplayers days or sometimes months to finish their whole costume before showing it to the public on the event. It is because the most attractive cosplayer will  stand a chance to win a grand prize during the event.

Hope you guys admire this post & as always stay tune for more updates. ;-) 

by IanSteven

Japanese Tea Ceremony

Let's look into the Japanese culture and the art of preparing tea.  The Japanese tea ceremony is called Chanoyu or Sado in Japanese. It is simply an act of preparing and serving tea for special occasions in a procedural manner. These special occasions include the changing of seasons such as the cold season (winter and autum) and warm season (spring and summer). The Japanese have very strict rules and aesthetics when it comes to daily or seasonal rituals of their culture. The rules implemented all have a meaning behind them, but aside from that we can conclude that Japanese people are indeed very disciplined and well-mannered. Of course, before knowing how to make green tea the Japanese traditional way, one must first familiarize with the utensils used and also some terms.

Equipment/Utensils

Natsume

Natsume is the tea caddy, basically where the matcha powder is kept. 

Chashaku

The small and thin scoop used to scoop out the tea powder into the chawan. It is made out of a bamboo stick.

Chasen

This is the tea whisk, which you may find in the images above it is the one that sort of looks like a shuttlecock. It is used to whisk the tea to give it more taste, and it is also made out of a bamboo stick.

Hishaku

Hishaku is the long bamboo ladle you can see in the first image above. This ladle is used to scoop out hot water from the kettle (kama) and into the chawan to make tea.

Chawan

Funnily enough, the Japanese and Malay word for 'cup' is the same! However, the direct translation for 'chawan' is 'tea bowl'. They have different types of chawan, some are thicker or wider, some are even smaller, and they are used for different types of tea such as thick tea (koicha) and thin tea (usucha).

Kama

What is more familiarly known to us as a kettle, kama is an iron pot used to heat water. The kettle we are more familiar with has a handle and a spout, however the kama is just merely a pot. The water is to be scooped out by the hishaku as seen above.

Ro (sunken hearth)

This hearth, which is a square-shaped hole in Tatami flooring (like those in traditional Japanese homes), is used during the cold seasons like winter and autumn to keep the kama warm and also speed up the heating process. 

Chakin (hemp cloth), Fukusa (silk cloth)

The chakin is used to ritually clean the chawan after it is used by the guest. Fukusa is a silk cloth used to clean the chashaku and natsume, and can also be used to handle the hot lid of a kama. 

Preparation

A short video of a Japanese lady preparing tea.

To summarize the entire procedure, basically the teishu (host) scoops the matcha (green tea powder) into the tea bowl, adds hot water and then whisks it before serving it to her guests. Sounds rather easy and normal when described roughly, however there's more to it than just preparing tea for your guests.

When the teishu prepares the tea, there are certain rules he/she must follow. For example, the way they are dressed and how they sit have certain do's and don't's. It is important that they wear formal kimonos, and their movements and aesthetics are taken into consideration as well. It is a Japanese culture to sit on your knees and rest your bottom on your heel in a polite manner. I can't imagine just how much it would hurt if you sit in that position for too long, and then standing up with the feeling of pins and needles in your legs. Ouch! The Japanese sure are very disciplined. 

A dish with sweets, or what we Malaysians call "kuih", is to be served with the tea as a sign of harmony because it counters the bitter taste of the tea. The dish of sweets is known as Wagashi, and it is served to the guests before the tea ceremony begins. After the guests have gratefully received the wagashi, the teishu will then proceed to preparing the koicha (thick tea). As observed in the video link above, the teishu's movements are very delicate, and she does not rush her movements. In fact, she takes her time to slowly put an item down one by one, and at times she would keep her unoccupied hand on her lap or use her free hand to keep her sleeve out of the way. 

The teishu has to warm the chawan before she can begin to put any tea powder in it, and she does so by pouring hot water into the chawan and then tilting the chawan in an anti-clockwise motion to warm it. Then she'll have to discard the water into the kensui (waste water bowl), and this signifies to the guests that they can now indulge in the sweets. She carefully takes two scoops of the matcha and evenly spreads out the powder in the chawan before keeping the natsume and chashaku aside. Then she proceeds to grab a ladle-full of hot water, but carefully pours only a small amount into the chawan. Later on she uses the chasen to whisk the tea vigorously to perfection before finally serving it to her guests. The chasen must be in her right hand as her left hand holds the chawan steady, and as she whisks she must also be careful not to spill any matcha. The koicha is perfect when it is whisked until half the chawan is filled with foam. When serving her guests, the teishu has to hold the chawan in her right hand and place it on her left palm. While in her palm, she has to turn the chawan about two times anti-clockwise so that the shomen (front side of cup) will face her guest. Even cleaning the cups have a certain way of doing so. Every movement is fixed, even the placement of utensils are fixed on the tatami mat. 

Pouring the hot water from a small kettle instead as this setting is actually on a table instead of the tatami floor in traditional Japanese homes.

The whisk is the next step after hot water is poured in with the tea powder.

After the koicha is served to the guests, the teishu cleans the chawan so she can proceed to preparing the usucha (thin tea) so as to "wash down" the koicha. The ceremony of preparing green tea repeats until the guests are fairly satisfied with the tea. This is only a rough explanation on how the tea ceremony is held, but if you wish to know in specific detail what the teishu has to perform, from entering the house to bringing in and placing the utensils down, then feel free to visit this website for more information: japanese-tea-ceremony.net

Guests' Etiquette

Guests too have a couple of rules to follow to show respect to the teishu. The guest of honor is called shyokyaku, the second guest is jikyaku, while the other guests are simply known as kyaku. The last guest also has a special name which is tsume. This is to show that the guests have certain ranking and sitting order in a tea ceremony. 

The teishu serving tea to her three guests, shyokyaku, jikyaku, and tsume. I'm not sure how the order is supposed to be like, but I assume they must be sitting in order.

How guests are seated if there are many of them.

The teishu will serve the wagashi first by placing the dish in front of the shyokyaku, and the shyokyaku will accept the dish by receiving it with both hands and bowing as they do so, and putting them to the side. The wagashi is only to be eaten when the teishu has already warmed the chawan with hot water. 

When drinking the koicha, the guest must pick up the chawan with their right hand and place it into their left palm while the right hand maintains its grip. The shyokyaku will be the first to receive the koicha, hence they will apologize for drinking before others as a show of respect. The shyokyaku does not drink the whole cup of tea, but instead takes a sip before passing on to the other guests. After each person has drunk, they must wipe the rim. Wiping the rim is just a gesture of cleanliness before passing on to others. As they are done, the tsume will pass the chawan back to the shyokyaku who will then inspect the chawan before handing it back to the teichu for proper cleaning. After the koicha, the teichu will serve the usucha, which is not as heavy and thick as the koicha. The shyokyaku will ask the rest of the guests if they have had enough tea, and if they have, the shyokyaku will inform the teichu to clean up and end the tea ceremony.

Wow. Imagine how patient and discipline the Japanese are to be able to sit in the same position with very little movement and heavy clothing. I doubt anyone in Malaysia would be able to stand that! I've always wanted to live in Japan and experience their tea ceremonies, but I'm afraid of being called a rebel there just because I can't seem to sit still. I wonder if the secret to their life-long health is harmony and inner peace, because they seem to have a meaning or reason behind every movement during the tea ceremony. Also I wonder if all this training is also the cause of their fantastic punctuality, as compared to Malaysians' punctuality. Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from the Japanese. They are after all, a huge influence in the world today, and they are one of the most advanced countries worldwide.

I guess this marks the end of my post. I would have written more, but there were just too many rules to the procedure and every movement is just so specific, I'd probably bore my readers to death if I go into that much detail. I hope this rough explanation will suffice.

Till then.


Nabilah M.

 ANIME

Anime:

Japanese animation/cartoons that appeared on television and movies, containing themes and genres like science-fiction, action, comedy, etc. Sometimes they contain violence and explicitly sexual materials.

Anime has been around since the early 90’s and the style of anime developed somewhere in the mid 90’s. Anime and manga (Japanese comics) are known to many people worldwide because of the style that it’s drawn in, especially of how the girls drawn (most of the time). Thin waist, large chest, big hips, and eyes, randomly coloured hair (at times) and has that certain sex appeal. It’s ALL about the sex appeal now-a-these-days. Here are a few examples:

She has BLUE hair.
What's up with that?

Big bewbs. small waist.
Have fun with the backaches.

Her hips. Are HUGE.
(cute though...)

One of the greatest pioneers of anime is the great Osamu Tezuka. 

(3^rd Nov 1928 – 1989).

Osamu Tezuka
(dashing fellow, ain't he?)

Being a cartoonist, manga artstist, producer, animator activist, and a medical doctor (who never practices medicine), he is compared to and called the Japanese version of Walt Disney himself, for having the same ability to inspire and entertain people, both young and old, with their cartoons and animations. Many people gave Osamu the title, the “Godfather (or God) of Anime”. His best known works were Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and Black Jack.

Since then, the style of any has taken many shapes and sizes as well. different artists had different ways of drawing and expressing themselves. I can still remember the first anime (which I didn't what to call it back then besides "cartoon") I watched as a child, and that was 

Pokemon!!

Back then I wished I was like him; going around the world, catching and training Pokemon, and just being the best I could be. The different kinds of Pokemon within the show actually inspired me to draw when I was a kid really. Later, from the year of 2000 onwards, I discovered more anime and most of them were quite an eye-opener :D

Studio Ghibli

Their fiction movies are FREAKING amazing. if you watch their movies (which I recommend VERY much) you will notice how much detail they put and digitalize within every scene. It's so beautiful, it'll make your jaws drop, I swear! The genres they do are mostly science-fiction, romance (with a hint of comedy), action, and fictional (magic, mostly). One of their movies, Princess Mononoke, 

was the first one I watched as a kid. I was horrified by the violence, but was amazed at the storyboard and characters. It's about a banished prince, who seeks to lift a curse he recently caught form a demon, and on the way, meets the Wolf Princess, Mononoke (who is human but thinks she's a wolf). I won't spoil the story for you, I guess you'll have to watch the movie to find out more :D

P.s. I have a collection for most of their movies. That's how much of a fan I am  :P

Metropolis

Directed by Rintaro, written by Osamu Tezuka, etc.
Metropolis is a story of how important emotions are and how they separate humans from everything else. The movie follows a young boy and his uncle (a private investigator). The story is set in the far future where humans and robots live together, unfortunately not in harmony. Many robots are forced underground and are terminated for entering unauthorized areas. They are more or less servants to humankind. The plot starts to unfold when the boy meets a robot named Tima and they get in all kinds of trouble. Never a dull moment when you've got a robot by your side.( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293416/ )

This anime is one of the best I've watched so far. I almost cried. So many emotions ran through me...huuhuuu~ AAAANYWAY, the amount of detail was GLORIOUS. The content and character designs were absolutely beautiful, just as beautiful as the storyline :)

(also a recommended movie to watch)

As seen from the pictures above, there are many style as mentioned above and it's about the variety that makes this type of work interesting to both, watch and read.

Have a good day peeps :D

Peace~

- Timothy James Mah (57750)

Gathering at Hokkaido Ichiba @ 1 Utama

Looking back at my photo albums remind me of my high school life. It's been three years I graduated from my lovely school. Look at these photos! Time and tide wait for no man. I feel old! Although we've been apart for a long time, we still keep in touch and frequently call up a small gathering when the time's right.

Annual meeting 2009.

Graduation day. Photo with my juniors, practical prefects.

My junior, Daniel, just came back from America for his one month break. He is doing very fine now.  Except his waistline. *LOLLL* So he dated my another junior, Cynthia and I for a lunch at One Utama since Cynthia was working there.

L-R : Cynthia,me,Daniel.

It was a sunny Saturday. 

Perfect day for hiding inside an air-conditioned space and get a big tub of ice cream and refreshing drinks.

Or maybe something delightful. ;)

We chose Hokkaido Ichiba as our station this time. Its cosy environment is just nice for gathering! Warm lighting, relaxing atmosphere and natural wooden furniture and decoration. Ain't it nice? ^^

Wooden banisters divide the space into several private space.

Before talking about our foods, here a few information about Hokkaido Ichiba : 

Hokkaido Ichiba has two sections - Kita No Zen (dining area) and ice cream section.

Hokkaido Ichiba is under the management of 
SuperSushi Sdn. Bhd. - same management as 

Sushi/Pasta Zanmai, Rakuzen, Zen and Kura.

It priced between Rakuzen and Sushi Zanmai, targeting a more high class super dining experience. In fact, the foods here cost at least 20% higher than the normal price of Japanese foods. But I can guarantee you the foods here are worth every single penny! Believe me! Also, they do serve an extensive range of sushi, temaki, sashimi and so on. Bento sets are available in affordable price, and good in value as their portion are really big! (I'm a big eater but I hardly finish a set! D: )

Salmon Mentaiyaki

Salmon Mentaiyaki Half-cooked salmon topped with Japanese mayonnaise
Unique taste of the Japanese mayonnaise totally brings up the real taste of salmon. I felt the salmon was swimming and slide through my throat with creamy mayo!

Tamago Mentaiyaki

Tamago Mentaiyaki Sweet omelette (egg) with Japanese mayonnaise
Oh man! I couldn't tell you how deep is my love to this! Madly in love with Tamago Mentai <3
 Charred smell, slight grilled mayo and sweetness in omelette. Perfecto! 

Chicken Katsu Curry

 Chicken Katsu Curry 
Like curry but cannot bear with those hot spices? Here goes something that can ease your tongue! Tadaaa!
Japanese curry. Basic vegetables like carrots, onions and potatoes to make curry. For the meat, you can opt for beef, pork or chicken. The rice here was roundy, bouncy and juicy. A spoonful of healthy Japan rice with dense chicken curry definitely brought me to heaven. Chicken was well marinated and still crunchy-crunchy even soak in curry sauce for a period. *fly*  

Inari Ebiko

Inari Ebiko Prawn roe and deep fried tofu skin
Prawn roes exploded one by one and savoury dispersed evenly inside my mouth. Sweetness from deep fried tofu skin balanced the savoury from roes. 

Kani Tamago Maki

Kani Tamago Maki Omelette with crab stick
Just an ordinary maki. My favourite 'appetizer'. :D
Oh but this crab stick was way better than other Japanese restaurant because it didn't taste fishy.

Kaki Fry

Kaki Fry Oyster
I don't like oyster. But I still took it from conveyor belt because it looked nice! Surprisingly, this Kaki Fry was good! The oyster was big, fresh and juicy. Much better than the one I ate at Sushi King. (Well, can't compare these 2 Japanese restaurants as they are 2 different targets/levels.) =/ 

Salmon Ikura Temaki

Salmon Ikura Temaki Salmon slices with salmon roe
Ermm...This was quite disappointing tho. As you can see in the photo, the salmon slices were as thin as paper. The ingredients were too little. I can hardly taste the salmon. Also, the seaweed was soft when it reached my table. It's hard to chew and insipid! *totally upset* The best temaki I ever had was at 
Umai-ya . (Umai-ya offers buffet at affordable price too!)


Overall, Hokkaido Ichiba is pretty good. I become one of the regular customers since their opening last year. *I've abandoned Sakae after first try of Hokkaido Ichiba* *grins*
If you are a typical sushi addict, make sure you drop by and try this outlet. It won't turn you down! Their foods are presented with extra care, come with huge portions and taste incredibly fresh and good! However, Hokkaido Ichiba will be floaded with people on weekends. So maybe plan your visit on weekdays? ;)

Rate
Service: Fast and friendly
Food: Fresh and well
Environment: Clean and comfy
Price: RM40+- for my meal (Fine for me because those foods worth it!)

* make sure you try their ice creams as well! Made from high quality Hokkaido milk. I love it!

Address: 

Hokkaido Ichiba Japanese Restaurant

LOT LG 101,

Lower Ground Floor Promenade,

1 Utama Shopping Centre,

No 1, Lebuh Bandar Utama,

Bandar Utama Damansara, 47800 Petaling Jaya.

 Another outlet:

Hokkaido Ichiba Japanese Restaurant
Lot T-201, Third Floor,
The Garden Mall 59200
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03 2283 1060

By lovely and pretty Jesyka, Yen Min (55499).

Fantastic Food Find: Sushi Zanmai.

Konnichiwa, minna-san! That means, "Hello, everybody!" in Japanese.

Just the other day, my group mates, Timothy and Ian, and myself decided to do a food review on a Japanese restaurant. We headed to Paradigm mall one fine afternoon and after much contemplation, we decided to go to Sushi Zanmai for lunch. Let the criticizing begin!


Ambiance..

First and foremost, the ambience of Sushi Zanmai was rather comfortable. It wasn't anything fancy, but we were quite enticed by the modern Japanese concept the restaurant had. They had modern Japanese art displayed here and there. Also, we find that the service there was rather efficient and friendly, however, this trait would vary from various outlets.

The interior of the restaurant. Basic design in most Japanese restaurants.

Some Japanese artsy fartsy stuff for a complete look.

The restaurant on the outside. Note the edgy Japanese feel. ;)

Before we decided on our orders, we asked for hot green tea, but our green tea was served luke warm. The shopping mall's air-conditioning is centralized, so it was no wonder that the hot green tea would turn cold fast because the restaurant was freezing! 

Our "warm" green tea, that sufficed when it came to keeping us warm for even a little bit because it was just too cold in the mall.

FOOD!

Moving on to the main agenda, the dishes we ordered and tried out. We ordered at least a single dish from almost every type of dish they serve, such as the makimono, the temaki, the agemono, and so on. Let me just do a quick run-through of every dish we ordered.

Makimono actually means "rolled things" in Japanese. Makimono initially referred to the horizontally rolled-up Japanese scrolls, and because this type of rolled up sushi resembles the scrolls, they call it makimono as well.

Tamago maki

[Omelette roll]

Not much to comment on for it is just a simple, plain sushi, but the egg is nice. 

WE RATE THIS: 6/10

Futo maki

[Pickled radish, omelette, cucumber]

The cucumber didn't taste as fresh, probably due to the fact that it's been on the conveyor belt for quite some time, so if you like fresh vegetables this would be a little off-setting.

WE RATE THIS: 6/10

California maki

[Avocado, crab stick, omelette, shrimp roe]

The avocado was too little, which is quite upsetting for someone who loves avocados such as I, and the omelette overpowered the other ingredients. I suppose because egg is the cheapest ingredient in this dish and they are trying to save costs. The overall size was rather large and filling. It was almost impossible to stuff the whole sushi in one go! 

WE RATE THIS: 5.5/10

Timothy attempting to fit the entire sushi into his mouth.

Ian doing so without any struggle.

Temaki is almost similar to the makimono, because it is also a rolled up delicacy, except instead of small rolls, temaki is a hand-roll sushi that's shaped as a cone. 'Maki' means rolled up, in case you don't already know. We ordered two types of temaki because we love temaki so much. It could be eaten as a light lunch or a snack.

California Temaki (right)

[Avocado, crab meat, omelette, fish roe, cucumber]

All that can be said about the California hand roll is that the ingredients were evenly spread out and they were quite generous with the serving for this dish. I enjoyed every bite of it. 

WE RATE THIS: 7/10

Soft Shell Crab Temaki (left)

[Deep fried soft shell crab]

The crab was just nice and biting into it was a soft and crispy experience, if that makes any sense. However, the portion seemed a little bit too small for the likes of Ian.

WE RATE THIS: 8/10

Me, attempting to fit it all in one bite instead of taking more bites that are smaller. I'm too much of a glutton to wait for smaller bites!

Yakimono are grilled or fried food, such as fried chicken and fried noodles. The "yaki" stands for fried or grilled, for example, fried soba noodles are called 'yakisoba'.

Sakura Ebi Okonomiyaki

[Sakura shrimp pancake]

This pancake is not one you eat with maple syrup, it is instead eaten with savoury toppings. The mayonnaise and soy sauce blended well together. The shrimp was cooked to perfection, however I wasn't very fond of the pancake itself. A real okonomiyaki is supposed to contain vegetables in the pancake mix itself, but this was just pure flour and eggs only.

WE RATE THIS: 7/10

This is me trying to stuff the entire slice of the pancake into my mouth, but my mouth is obviously too small.

Agemono is a category of deep-fried food. The best example is the famous ebi tempura which many Japanese food fanatics would surely have tried before. However, we decided to order something that was the second-most frequently ordered agemono; the soft shell crab.

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

As it can be clearly seen in the picture, the soft shell crab appeared to be too small of a decent portion. The dish fell short of what we expected it to be due to its' portion and flatness, and it was also a little overcooked as it was too soft on the inside. The lemon juices and the soy sauce with spring onions they served it with was very overwhelming in taste.

WE RATE IT: 3.5/10

Donburi means "rice bowl dish" in Japanese. This rice bowl dish will be served with either fish, beef, or chicken as well as additional sauce to go with the dish.

Salmon Don

[Raw salmon, vegetables on the side, served on plain sticky rice]

The dish looked pretty decent, but it appears that the salmon slices were too thin, which I think is more of a personal preference. The ikura (salmon eggs) were too little, and there was more rice than the other ingredients. It is known that the Japanese really love their rice, so I suppose they follow Japanese customs to put more rice? However, it seems that this custom does not appeal to Malaysians.

WE RATE THIS: 4/10

Inari sushi is made of rice stuffed in a fried tofu pouch. The basic historical background for its' name is that it was named after a Shinto God who had a fondness for fried tofu. Inari sushi is meant to be eaten as it is, not dipped in soy sauce or topped with wasabi or ginger. 

Inari Ebikko

[Shrimp roe, fried tofu pouch]

We have no complaint on this dish at all. It was overall a nice, plain and simple dish. 

WE RATE THIS: 6/10

Nigiri sushi is a 'hand-formed sushi' where the rice is compressed into an oblong shape and it will be topped with raw fish and such. The ones topped with raw fish are normally just left bare as it is, but other types of 'neta' would sometimes need a strip of seaweed to hold them together. We also chose something rather simple for this type of dish.

Tamago Mentai

[Omelette with roasted cod roe]

If you're a fan of toppings/sauces like I am, then you wouldn't enjoy this sushi as much. However, the roasted cod roe is sufficient enough to give you just that mini explosion of taste in your mouth.

WE RATE THIS: 6.5/10

This is the end of our fantastic food find! Well, at least until we hunt for another restaurant to report on. Overall, the experience was a good one, as our lunch was filled with joy and laughter. However, the pricing on the food depends on what kind of budget you have, really. If you have a budget of below RM50, then you would probably think Sushi Zanmai is a bit pricey, but for those who have unlimited cash flow (parents' money) then I don't think there's any need to complain about the price. I hope that you find this review helpful for first-timers who would like to try out Sushi Zanmai. I recommend that you MUST try out this place, if you really are a fan of Japanese food like we are.

Till then.

Nabilah M.