Miyuki no tame no lamingtons

31 July 2016

This is a special blog post for our friend Miyuki who we meet on our Nagomi home visit in Tokyo. She told us that lamingtons were a favourite for her from her backpacking trip around Australia!

So my friend, Miyuki, here is how to make lamingtons (and I will try to translate too) 

Here are the things you need:

Zairyō 材料

Sponge cake 

Suponjikēki スポンジケーキ

Cocoa powder

Kokoapaudā ココアパウダー

Icing sugar mixture 

Konazatō kongōmono 粉砂糖混合物

Butter 

Batā バター

Dessicated coconut 

Dessicated kokonattsu dessicatedココナッツ

Here is how you do it

Setsumeisho 説明書

Either bake or buy sponge cake - may be  something like this from supa:

Cut sponge cake into pieces 

片に切断スポンジケーキ

You can also cut cake in half to make jam sandwich. 

ジャムのサンドイッチを作るために半分にケーキをカット

Could use anko instead of jam あんこ

Soften one tablespoon butter 

1大さじバターを柔らかく

Sift in three and one half cups icing sugar mixture and quarter cup of cocoa powder 

ココアパウダーの糖混合物と1/4カップをアイシング3と半分カップにふるいにかけます

Add half cup boiling water. 

半カップ沸騰したお湯を追加します。

Stir until  chocolate icing mixture is smooth

チョコレートアイシング混合物が滑らかになるまでかき混ぜます

Use fork or chopsticks to dip sponge cake pieces into chocolate mixture 

チョコレート混合物中にスポンジケーキ片を浸漬するためにフォークや箸を使います

Then let excess chocolate mixture drip off 

 その後、過剰チョコレート混合物が脱落しましょう

Roll in dessicated coconut

dessicatedココナッツでロール

Put on wire rack and leave for two hours for chocolate to set

ワイヤーラックに入れて、設定するチョコレートのために2時間放置

Enjoy - they are yummy mate

Oishī desu yo

A few things I learned in Japan

1. Selfie sticks can be dangerous 

2. There is a lot of rice grown in Japan.  Along all our train journeys we saw lush green paddies on any bit of flat land - from vast fields in rural areas to tiny corner allotments in towns and villages. 

3. Traditional culture and the modern world seem to comfortably co-exist in Japan 

3. We met some lovely people on our trip. The locals  were delightful - polite and kind, and genuinely appreciative and forgiving of my attempts to speak the language. 

4. My attempts to speak Japanese improved over the trip - I could make myself reasonably well understood but understanding what was being said to me continued to be very difficult. I wished I could have had more conversation in Japanese with the people we met.

5. Ohashi (chop sticks) are good way to eat - you kind of have to slow down a bit and so you enjoy your food a little more - particularly the more traditional Japanese meals where each food item is served on its own little dish rather than just piled onto one plate. We all got pretty proficient at eating with ohashi. 

6. Train travel in Japan is easy to use and the best way to see the country. 

7. I love spending time with my family! Ok, I already knew this but traveling together in Japan will hold lots of special memories for each of us. I am sure we will be reminiscing and telling our stories about this amazing trip for years to come!

Tōkyō de no watashitachi no saigo no hi

Friday 8 July 2016

We all slept in a little, enjoying the big soft hotel beds after many days on futons, waking to another warm cloudy Tokyo day; sadly our last in Japan but still plenty to see.

First stop was around the corner to visit the famous Tsukiji market, the biggest fish market in Japan. As a huge working market it is a crazy busy place, but tourists are allowed to visit certain areas – at your own risk! Bicycles, motor scooters, fork lifts, small trucks, motorised trollies and people (some whelding razor sharp knives) were going in all directions, along the labyrinthine alleyways lined with stalls. We saw many near-misses and at least one crash as we very cautiously edged our way past the stalls, watching the fishmongers at work and marvelling at the array of seafood, particularly the size and quantities of tuna. 

Continuing to make good use of our JR passes, we rode the Yamanote line – the main city circle line (29 stations and over an hour to circumnavigate – impressive compared to Melbourne’s five station city loop) – to Harajuku. 

We wandered down Takeshita Dori, the heart of Tokyo’s “kawaii culture”, with shop after shop of teen fashions and cute accessories, making a beeline to try out the famous Marion Crepes. Totemo oishii desu yo! 

As if that wasn't sweet enough, Em could resist stopping off at Candy-a-go-go for a big bag of lollies. 

Still in Harajuku, walked up the Omotesando to the Oriental Bazaar for some serious souvenir hunting, much to Kerryn’s delight and the disinterest of the boys (at least until we offered to buy them a t-shirt). 

Before backtracking to a couple of iconic sights we had previously visited very early in our trip, the Meiji-Jingu Temple 

and Shibuya scramble, so that Em could see them too.

Then back on the Yamanote line to Shimbashi, to collect our luggage as well as some packs of flavoured (strawberry and matcha) KitKat from a Don-Ki (the wackiest discount store in Japan – the range of stuff for sale combined with the crazy store layout was an experience in itself. Kerryn actually got lost in the store trying to find bike accessories!!), before battling – suitcases in tow - with the peak-hour train squeeze to get around to Tokyo station to catch the Narita express out to the airport. 

Another busy but fun day in Japan, before our overnight flight back home to Australia…..

Nihon wa densha ni ikimashita Easy-peasy desu na!

We have found all the trains in Japan to be clean, comfortable, scrupulously punctual and dead easy to use - from Tokyo metro subway to Shinkansen. A great way to get around and see the country. 

We got bargain price 3-day Tokyo metro passes with our Narita to Tokyo skyliner train transfer. These passes just run through a slot at the automatic gates at all the subway stations. Can't use these passes for JR lines in Tokyo though. Also didn't work for our monorail trip to Toneri, for our Nagomi visit, but buying tickets from the machine was simple, as there was an English option on instruction menu. 

The JR passes - a deadset bargain for foreign tourists - are easy. Once activated (can only do this at certain major JR stations - we did this at Ueno, a couple of days after we arrived in Tokyo) we just showed the passes to station staff at the ticket gates (can't  go through automatic gates) and were waived through with a polite "arigato gozaimashita". 

Reserved seats for longer trips are booked with JR pass at station ticket offices and, as it is all networked, we could  book multiple reservations for connecting trains at the start of our day's journey. 

The station staff are very polite, appreciated my bubbling attempts at Japanese and usually had enough English to sort our tickets and point us in the right direction. 

HyperDia - a train journey planning app - was helpful but we always allowed plenty of time to sort reservations at stations, as a few times we couldn't use the Shinkensen (a couple of super-fast ones are not available for JR pass) or the train was sold out (in this case station staff were very helpful with alternatives and we always got to where we wanted to go!)

PS just don't loose or damage the JR pass - no refundable and no replacements. Kerryn was the queen of our JR passes so we never missed a beat!