♡ Japan Centre Haul ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Recently; I've been on a cooking whirl, and one of the cuisines I have been wanting to cook for aaagggeeesss is Japanese - but because of where I live, it's hard to get certain ingredients.

I have used Japan Centre in the past - when I used to live in London for university, whenever it was payday from student loans, I would go up to there (when it was located on Regent Street) and get the basics I liked cooking with, i.e. dashi stock, noodles, karaage seasoning and more. Fast forward a few years, and the fact I haven't shopped in Japan Centre for a long time, and we're here!

Besides the basics; soya sauce, mirin, cooking sake, sushi rice, sushi nori and dashi stock, I went with a couple of kits; the breakfast set and miso soup kit, fish cake, udon noodles and noodle extras, some snack pieces (as a treat), my favourite strawberry milk, some other basic store cupboard ingredients, a couple of bento items, and finally; a gorgeous black, matte ramen bowl w/ chopsticks. I just, literally, spent over the £75 limit and got free next day delivery because of it... score!

There are also a few items, I purchased that aren't listed here either! I managed to get hold of a few bars of the Lotte Ghana White Chocolate and some matcha powder - because I had seen a recipe for a matcha latte using those specific ingredients, I couldn't resist!

Everything was so well packed, and preserved - as the fishcake was a cold item, it came in a cool box with the gel ice blocks! Nothing came damaged, and it did stick to the "next day delivery" as I had ordered before the cut off point. I will, certainly, use the online shop again in the future, but for bigger purchases, and when I need a few items here and there, I will just wait until I go into London to pick them up myself!

I haven't cooked many dishes yet - only tanuki udon, donburi, ongiri and used the tofu for a different dish, but I cannot wait to try more! What's also handy, is that Japan Centre has a recipe section, so you don't have to scour the internet, looking for one.

Until then, do check out their site. I know you can rack up points whenever you spend, can purchase a subscription for either snacks or tea, and sometimes they hold special offers with things i.e. extra points, or discounted items because of holidays etc.

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ WTFood; Sakura Flavoured Pepsi ♡

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

♡ Hyper Japan ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

It's rare for Sapphire and I to see each other so close together after a visit from whichever person but as we both wanted to go to Hyper Japan this year, how could we both pass up such an opportunity? We only went on the Saturday with a dual pass ticket (as the day was split into two sessions) but honestly, it was the best decision to go then!

The difference between Hyper Japan and MCM Expo (personal experience here) is that I find HJ less crowded than Expo... even on a Saturday and the fact it's now the beginning of summer holidays here. Even though there are many similarities and differences between the two events... Hyper Japan is just more my thing. Yes; it's nice at Expo to get the variety of movies, games and more cosplayers where as at HJ you just get a small handful of cosplayers, no real movie promotions and a small selection of recent games to check out... it's the cultural side of things that draws me towards HJ. You get to find out about studying in Japan, learning the language, the food, travelling, what is popular and what is traditional etc etc. All in all, the experience at HJ as just made me want to go again and indeed I shall. Luckily they have a Christmas version in November so I have officially decided to skip October Expo this year and just go to Hyper Japan for the weekend in November. Sorted.

The only problem I had with Hyper Japan was the heat... recently in the UK the weather has been absolutely dreadful with high humidty and scorching sunny days with no signs of rain anywhere. Saturday was no different, and it was just so horrible travelling through London on the tube because of the crappy air-con. Plus there seemed to be no air-con at Earls Court either, except for a couple of cool spots, but other than that... I was using a programme to fan myself most of the day!

Despite the heat, I loved looking around all the different stalls at HJ. There were different section dedicated to special genres of what HJ is trying to promote - so there was a section for food, for languages/studies and a section for "kawaii" stuff such as fashion, make-up, deco etc. The 'Fringe Market' was also extremely interesting to look around, as it's an area dedicated to small, independent shops/stalls selling whatever they do in their trade - so there were manga artists, wig sellers and jewellery sellers in that area.

Gosh there were so many highlights of the whole day. One being seeing friends whom I haven't seen (for what feels like) years! Finding an actually Diamond Lash stall in the 'Hyper Kawaii' section and talking to the stall owner for like 20 odd minutes about eyelashes and make-up (yes I get happy over that) The fashion show towards the end of the day that showcased Ayumi Seto's new fashion line;

Don't all the clothes look so freakin' adorable?! I honestly cannot decide which is my favourite piece... oh and all of the models are so cute and friendly just GAH! I'm so glad that I stayed to watch this show! Also seeing NEEKO was an amazing highlight as well!

Another major highlight of the day for me was seeing ONE NOT'E! After being told about them from my penpal and that they would be at HJ... how could I resist going? Also, the last official gig I went to was wwwaaayyy back in 2012!! Listening to them perform, it made me realise how much I do miss going to gigs and if there are any happening between now and before I leave for China, well I'm definitely going to make the effort! Also about ONE NOT'E, someone commented to me about the guitarist, Takato, looking extremely familiar and he really did but at that point I couldn't quite put my finger on it to where I had seen him before until I got home and googled the band... he's ex.VIRGIL! Don't you just hate it when you recognise someone but you just never remember until the moment has passed?! That was me...

Honestly, they were sooooo good performing live that I wished I had snapped out of my daydreaming and recorded some footage of them performing ahhh! I really hope in the future they'll do some more overseas gigs... if not I'm sure a quick trip to Japan won't hurt! Oh, what is a day out without food involved? My life would be incomplete without food, even though it felt like that all I had done was consume liquid most of the day because of the heat wwwaaahhh.

Oh and must not forgot about what I purchased throughout the day. You'll be able to see how truly happy I was about the Diamond Lash stall in the end! I think I picked up some amazing bargains though as well as finding out about some new shops that are worth checking out again in the future!

All in all, the day was fabulous and I'm glad that I went. I will definitely stick to my plan of going for the full weekend at Christmas time for a bit of fun (and as it's on my birthday weekend... a birthday treat!) All the above picture kind of sum everything up on how it all went on as I have nothing else really interesting left to say except for that the company was amazing, the atmosphere was brilliant and already I wish it wasn't over even though I still ache. As that is really it now, I'll just finish this post off with a couple of face pictures;

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

♡ Food Glorious (and lots of it) Food ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

As the titles of this post suggests... I'm going to ruin you all with a lengthy food post. Why? Because I have no motivation to do reviews as I'm in the middle of sorting, throwing, cleaning and everything else to my room ready for redecorating. Plus over the past few weeks I have been doing what I do best, eating. 

So, the other weekend it was my parents 30th wedding anniversary and we celebrated by having a family get together, but as my family is rather small it was only a lunch/dinner get together kind of thing but, the food involved was buffet style food. I actually didn't get a chance to take many pictures of what we had except for a Norwegian cake... marzipan... thing my brother's girlfriend made for the party as well as the puddings because... yeah I got distracted by all the cheese we had at the table.

Last week whilst I had the house to myself (parents on holiday, brother at work most of the time) I decided to take some 'me' time and enjoy myself... and enjoy food that I don't normally have;

I'm not going to lie... I ate a lot during that week and last Friday was no exception when I met up with Sharan for the day. Oh my, what normally happens when I meet up with Sharan? That's right... eating. It was actually scorching hot in London last Friday, so we walked most of the time enjoying the sunshine and each others company without the struggles of suffering the heat in the underground and the home time rushes etc. Our first pit stop was 'Burger and Lobster' in Soho;

True to its name, the 'Burger and Lobster' only have three items on its menu; a whole lobster, a burger or a lobster roll all served with fries and a salad. Before then, I had never ever eaten nor tried lobster in my whole life so this was a new experience for me and so I chose the whole lobster for my meal. We were given the choice of having our lobster either steamed the whole way through, or having it finished off on the grill and we both went with the second option. Oh my days, lobster is actually to die for! I am physically kicking myself for never eating it before! I had a watermelon iced tea to go with my meal and this is a restaurant I will definitely return to again in the future... just because.

As we were in the Soho area, we couldn't resist going into Paul's bakery for one of their giant macarons to share as well as getting bubble tea at Chatime. Soho is honestly a great place as you get so much variety in one area.

After; we headed over to Chancery Lane to meet Monique, where she wanted to take us to a little Japanese cafe called 'Necco' and we just couldn't refuse! The area is so cute and vibrant and had a sort of homely feel to it? It sounds weird but I felt really at home there. Once arriving at 'Necco', we all ordered different foods to share between us and I ordered the Japanese Afternoon Tea platter which consisted of; a selection of sushi, wasabi stick and peanuts mix, a cake of my choice (mont blanc), a pot of tea of my choice (green tea) and a mini matcha latte to wash it all down. Sharan had takoyaki, fruit cream cake and a matcha milkshake whilst Monique had curry rice, fruit cream cake and a full matcha latte. I only got pictures of my one in the end as... well food doesn't really last long enough in our group gatherings.

I was so glad that we finished eating at this point as by then, I was starting to feel a bit too full - which doesn't normally happen but when it's hot my appetite shrinks. I'm sorry for such a shoddy blog post but I will get out of my review funk soon hopefully and back on track with things... I hope ;uuu;

Thank for reading!

xoxo