Adventures in Japan: 2014

In 2014, I took an epic trip to Japan during the cherry blossom season, and I haven't had a chance to write about it. I wanted to make sure I did the trip justice, and I fell into a funk of nothing but business, career, and job. Now that I've got my priorities more settled, it's time to share my amazing Japan trip with you!

It was a whirlwind fifteen days. I visited cousins, gave my respects to my ancestors at our temple, visited our ancestral house, and trekked up a cliff to visit our family grave surrounded by citrus trees. I dressed up as a geisha (maiko to be specific) in Kyoto, hugged deer near Hiroshima, got lost on the Tokyo train system more than once, and explored the enchanting Ghibli Museum. Most of all, I ate tons of amazing Japanese cuisine, and I can't wait to share it with you.

Yawatahama's many graves on the hillside

I thought a bit about how I wanted to present all the information and pictures without turning this blog into a travel blog, but also not leaving you with the impression all I did was stuff my face (to be fair, it was a main feature). So for each city or province I visited, I will have a short post with some history, pictures of what I did besides eat. This regional post will be followed by a review of a restaurant if possible, or perhaps an overview of the regional food will be worked into the first post if not. Lastly, I will have a recipe for each place inspired by my visit. I hope you enjoy sharing my adventures, and I hope that my recipes will allow you to experience a little bit of what I enjoyed on my travels!

This post will stay on top until I complete my Adventures in Japan series so that you can skip to places at your leisure! Each region page will have a list of all the ingredients and recipes associated with it linked at the bottom!

Miss Mochi at Miwajima Island

Fukuoka, Fukuoka prefecture, Kyushu region

Yawatahama, Ehime prefecture, Shikoku region

Beppu and Yuifin, Oita prefecture, Kyushu region

Hiroshima and Miyajima, Hiroshima prefecture, Chogoku region

Kyoto, Kyoto prefecture, Kansai region

Tokyo, Tokyo prefecture, Kanto region

Adventures in Japan: Hiroshima and Miyajima!

The places in Hiroshima we visited weren't exactly fun, but they were important.

They really made me wonder what would have happened if Japan hadn't tried to expand their power into the mainland and fought in WWII. Would I be fluent in Japanese? Would I have known my relatives in Japan better? Would I even exist? All the fear and hatred of the Japanese here in America: would my grandmother have known a life without that constantly over her shoulder?

And I know that going to such a museum and thinking about how everything affected you and your loved ones is probably the height of arrogance, but that's how I felt. I also felt numb at how pointless it all was, the wars, the bombs--every time someone picks up a gun in the name of their country. A city devastated, thousands killed, nothing gained, and ultimately everyone loses. And we as a species do it over and over again. I think that what depressed me the most is that I couldn't think of a good way out of this spiral of hatred. It's been over 70 years and we are still killing each other.

A beautiful but sad sight: millions of paper cranes

We visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also known as the A-bomb Dome (shown above), the only building left standing in the atomic bomb's hypocenter, and visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Inside the museum, we saw many artifacts from the blast as well as details of their survival following radiation exposure. What stuck me most was the Peace Watch, which resets itself every time a nuclear test is performed around the world. It struck me how fragile peace truly was, with so many countries not only capable of leveling an entire city with a single missile, but actively testing the technology.

After a sobering day of memorials and millions of paper cranes, we went to Miyajima island and I have to say it was probably the prettiest part of the entire trip. The cherry blossoms were at their peak and it was mind boggling. The petals really do cascade like snow falling when the wind blows, and I danced around in them without shame.

Adventures in Japan: Fukuoka!

After taking a long plane flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo, we took a teeny plane from Narita, Tokyo to Fukuoka, Kyushu where most of my relatives call home.

Fukuoka is the capital of Fukuoka prefecture, and it's one of the biggest cities in Japan. What I liked the best about Fukuoka is even though it's the 6th most populous city in Japan, it has a lot of open spaces, greenery, and little shrines even in the heart of it.

We were led through Fukuoka at a blazing pace by my relatives. Coming from Orange County, which has virtually no public transportation, we were amazed when we took a plane, private car, taxi, ferry boat, bus, train, and subway all within a 24 hour period. Not only was I jet-lagged, I was overwhelmed.

Fukuoka had two of my favorite shrines. I fell in love because they weren't tourist attractions, like I would experience later in Tokyo and Kyoto, crowded with people of all walks of life.

Miss Mochi's Adventures Now Has a Facebook!

After over two years of blogging, I have finally decided to create a Facebook page for Miss Mochi's Adventures. At first it seemed unnecessary, not to mention more work for technologically-impaired me, but I have a lot of giveaways planned for this summer and I think it will make it a lot easier for everyone to enter!

Also, if you "like" my blog on Facebook, you will be able to see links to my blog posts as soon as I share them. In addition, I plan on sharing recipes and food news on my page from some of my favorite blogs and websites.

Please bear with me on getting Miss Moch's Adventures page full of fun recipes, pictures, and posts: Facebook has kindly informed me that there's a known issue where page posts are disappearing and reappearing at random. Already I've double posted something I thought had somehow been deleted!

To follow Miss Mochi's Adventures on Facebook, click here to check out the page and "Like" to follow!

The photo is a sneak peak on my recent travels in Japan! I went full-blown tourist and dressed up like a geisha (maiko) in Kyoto, and loved every second of it. My mother is in the foreground in the brown kimono, I'm right behind her in the black kimono. Photo credit goes to the Bro-Chi.

Fruit Sando (フルーツサンド)

Today is the second anniversary of my very first blog post here at Miss Mochi's Adventures. I'm still wrapping my head around that fact. Do me a favor and don't look back too far, some of the pictures definitely need updating! I'm still not very confident in my photography skills, but anyone can see I've made a big improvement.

The very first recipe I posted for this blog was ichigo daifuku mochi, so in celebration I decided to post another recipe involving strawberries. This one garnered a lot of interest when I mentioned it in my katsu sando post, after all, who here in the states has heard of a fruit and cream-filled sandwich?

The Japanese definitely treat bread and sandwiches differently than we do. They don't balk at strange sweet sandwich fillings, because they don't have a long standing history of savory sandwiches like we do. Fruit and cream sandwiches as well as other sweet sandwiches like chestnut cream are on the convenience store shelf right along with ham and cheese. And if you think about it, we certainly have sweet sandwiches that are immensely popular: PB+J anyone? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are so ubiquitous that they have an acronym in popular use! No one would think twice if you made a peanut butter and banana sandwich, or a peanut butter sandwich with some strawberry slices thrown in.

10,000 views and the future of Mochiland

Miss Mochi's Adventures, which seriously started in May 2012, has received over 10,000 views to date.

I felt like this should be addressed. Not only is it surprising and awesome, but I want to let everyone know how this blog is going forward. Think of it as a "State of the Blog Address."

Miss Mochi's Adventures is definitely a pet project that I am enjoying a lot. But it became clear to me that I was going to have to involve myself in the blogging process a little bit more. I will always be considered a writer first, then possibly a passable amateur cook. Photography and computer smarts are somewhat down my ability list, resting right below shoelace tying and babysitting.

To put that in perspective, my only babysitting job involved the children accidentally locking us out of the house, carrying a shoeless toddler several blocks to my parent's house, and the older child getting a migraine and vomiting spectacularly everywhere.

And my shoelaces never stay tied. My mother used to outfit me in velco sneakers for a reason. I keep telling myself that having dog paws scrambling over my sneaks all day long is the cause, but in my heart I know better.

Setting aside my other inadequacies, I've been seriously working on my photography skills. Sometimes I will delay posting a recipe because I want to wait for my day off to be able to use natural light. Most of these recipes are made around nine to midnight, but even during the day I have to bring the food outside because my kitchen is so dark. My apartment is like a cave or maybe a nice adobe house. Great for keeping the air conditioning in, but not the best for food photography.

So for my Hatch Chile Apricot Jelly recipe, I actually waited a whole week to post it because I wanted to get good light. I set my alarm on a day off. This is sacrifice, people.

So I have been posting less frequently, because I want the quality of my posts to outweigh the quantity. It also doesn't help that my oven was either dead or vacationing in an exotic locale, but it managed to pull itself together for a recent plum cake. Then, I somehow managed to bug out my camera and the pictures of bubble tea took almost a week to make it on here, saved from a corrupted doom by my dear brother.

Speaking of which, I am also working on my computer savvy brother, to help elevate this blog away from its very generic stock template. I want this blog to express my love of cooking, love of mixing cultures, and love of food. I want to have the best navigation, the best look, the best damn blog experience ever for you guys.

Most of all, I just wanted to thank everyone who takes a look! Nothing warms the cockles of my heart like a nice comment. Feel free to contact me via email at devthekoala@gmail.com if there are any suggestions for this site, or feel free to comment below.