Never Dine Alone in Moomin Café

There’s a theme restaurant in Japan that offers a very special accommodation to their solo diners. Moomin Café, inspired by the popular classic anime—Moomin—has been keeping their solo customers in company with cute giant stuffed toys of Moomin characters!

According to Benelic, the company that manages Moomin Café branches, “…the policy has been in place since the café opened in 2003.” The café’s decorations, foods, drinks, as well as their merchandise, are also inspired by the series’ artwork.

However, this sweet and unique albeit eccentric accommodation has gathered both positive and negative comments from people. Some are saying that they feel more awkward sharing the table with a huge stuffed animal.

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Traffic Safety With Moe!

Tokyo Police Campaigns Traffic Safety With Moe!

Recently, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police launched their safety driving/bike riding campaign in special collaboration with Mimana Orimoto’s manga Bakuon!!. The cute characters from the manga appeared on posters, magnets, stickers, and lotteries — with the hope of raising awareness of road traffic safety.

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Rice Paddy Art - 田んぼアート

Rice paddy art 【田んぼアート，tambo āto】is a form of art that originated in Japan. The art is defined by people planting rice of various types and colors to create giant pictures on the paddy field. It started in 1993 when people of Inakadate looked for ways to boost their village. The villagers then decided to honor the village’s 2000-year history of growing rice by creating the rice paddy arts. A mock castle was also erected at the village office so people can view the giant pictures from above. Over the years, the designs had become more complex and well-known.

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Green Tea - 緑茶

The Benefits of Green Tea

Green tea helps to prevent cancer.
Green tea restricts the increase of blood cholesterol.
Green tea helps to control high blood pressure.
Green tea has the capability of lowering blood sugar levels.
Powerful antioxidising agents such as vitamin E and vitamin C restrain the aging process, green tea contains
both these vitamins.
Green tea deters food poisoning.
Green tea has the ability to kill certain bacteria. 
Green Tea originated from China, but had become a huge part in Japanese history and culture.
 Matcha (抹茶) is powdered green tea 

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Ameshin

Want to make your own hand-crafted sweets? If so, visit Ameshin!

Ameshin is a hand-crafted candy shop where all of its beautiful animals and flowers are made of candy! You can even try to make your own candies as well!

  

Ameshin

Totoro "Tsumu Tsumu" Stackable Toy

Fans of the hit Ghibli movie My Neighbor Totoro will want to get this cute Totoro Tsumu Tsumu Stackable Toy. Featuring Totori and his cuddly friends, play a game of stacking and see if you can stack all of them. Set contains Big Totoro, Medium Totoro, Small Totoro, Kurosuke, Caterpillar, Mushroom, Leaf, Acorn and Horestail. You can stack them however yoku want. An official Ghibli product.

Find it HERE.

Dango vs. Mochi

Colored mochi

The only difference between mochi and dango is the way that they are made.  To make mochi, you start with actual glutinous rice that is ground, steamed, and then pounded to make a sticky ball or cake.

Dango on the grill

Although it looks similar to mochi, dango is made from different types of rice flour (including a sweet glutinous rice flour, of which the base is called mochiko).  Dango is easier to make since it doesn’t require you to pound the dough.  You simply mix the rice flour with hot water to make a dough, separate it into small balls, and boil them in salted water. Both mochi and dango can be eaten in similar ways – filled with azuki, grilled, with a sauce, skewered, etc. – so it’s easy to confuse them with each other especially if you’re not the one making it!

Cat Sweets too Good to Eat!

A Japanese housewife, Caroline, creates these lovable cat-themed sweets annually on Cat’s Day (that’s on 22 February in Japan). She started off with making cat shaped nerikiri, a traditional Japanese sweet made by mixing shiro-an (sweetened white bean paste) with gyuhi (made of glutinous rice, similar to mochi but softer), then tinted and sculpted into various shapes and styles.

Unfortunately, these adorable sweets are not available for purchase.

They are just too cute to eat!

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Disney Girls Project

In 45 stores at Laforet Harajuku a limited edition of Disney Girls items will be for sale, from February 2nd until April 6th. Such things being sold are clothes, shoes, bags and accessories featuring Minnie Mouse, Alice, Marie and other characters. Some special events, such as a Frozen Styling Contest and Girls Day Party will take place.

‘Foxy’ Minnie Mouse shoes – available at the Jeffrey Campbell Boutique

 Minnie Mouse Dress – available at E hyphen world gallery BonBon

Special Disney installations are placed on the different floors from LaForet

LaForet and Disney

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Le Souffle

Le Souffle is a french restaurant located in Tokyo. As you can guess by their name, their specialties are souffle's. A customer has to wait about 15 minutes to get their own fluffy and delicate souffle.

Le Souffle

Unagi

 

It’s said that unagi (freshwater eel) has been consumed in Japan since thousands of years ago. As it’s rich in protein, vitamin A and E, and so on, it’s believed that unagi gives people stamina. For thisreason, it’s eaten the most during the hottest time of the year in Japan. It’s a Japanese custom to eat unagi on Doyo-no-ushinohi (the ox day during Doyo period) in summer which fall between mid July and early August.

Filleted and deboned unagi is commonly glaze-grilled, and it’s called unagi-no-kabayaki. It’s skewered and grilled with sweet basting sauce, and is popularly served on top of steamed rice. Vacuum-sealed unagi-no-kabayaki is often available at Asian grocery stores.

Unagi-no-kabayaki is cooked differently in eastern Japan and western Japan. In eastern Japan, unagi is generally steamed after it is grilled, then it’s grilled again. In the western part of Japan, unagi isn’t usually steamed before grilling. So, unagi-no-kabayaki in eastern Japan is more tender than that in western Japan.

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Rilakkuma Rims

For those of you who are obsessed with the popular San-X character, Rilakkuma rims will go on sale in April. They will come in two colors:

Pearl White

Silver

Even the valve caps are cute!

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Mikeneko-san

Legendary furry cat sells roasted sweet potatoes in Kurayoshi!

 

Yaki-imo (or roasted sweet potato) is a popular Japanese snack, especially during cold weathers. Yaki-imo can be prepared in several ways, which include roasting the satsumaimo (sweet potato) on small heated stones — a method called ishiyaki. 

The most famous ishiyaki-imo seller is the legendary cat mascot known as Mikeneko Yamada.

Mikeneko-san’s ishiyaki-imo stand can be found around the Kurayoshi City of Tottori Prefecture. As one might guess, this furry cat selling sweet roasted potatoes on the streets is so popular — especially among children!

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