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Kamonegi – Seattle, WA

Jun19

Sorry for the sudden break in blogging! I finally got to go on a trip and headed up to Seattle and then we drove up to Richmond, BC and then Whistler, BC. It was such a wonderful trip, I had a great time! I would say that Whistler was probably my favorite part of the trip, really enjoyed the small village feel, cold weather and of course my time with my travel companion.

Kamonegi is a restaurant I’ve wanted to try for years and years and years. I think when they first opened, there was an interview with the owner who talked about making their own soba that intrigued me. So anyway, I followed them on Facebook since way back when and when I finally got a chance to return to Seattle…I made the reservation! You have to pay $50 to hold the reservation but they refund the $50 back when you dine in.

They have NO parking but my bf was able to secure parking at a close by motel (lol) so we still had to walk but hey, we got parking right? Well even though the weather is cool, walking in the sun is still hot. My biggest disappointment was that this restaurant had no AC and I don’t think the fans were on. In other words, it was HAWT.

The restaurant is pretty small, we had a tiny two-top for ourselves. Here you see their little soba bar where you get to watch the kitchen at work!

Complimentary Radish Appetizer – yum!

Housemade Soda

Gosh, I should have saved their menu. They change it monthly and apparently the drinks get changed too. Bummer! Well I didn’t like it too much so we’re good. You know what I did like?? This jalapeno umeshu shot they were serving! Oh my, I don’t usually drink but I really liked it when I tried it. The spiciness and vinegary taste of the jalapeno was so good. Where can I find a drink like that here in Hawaii?

Uni Shiso Bomb | $18 for 2pc
fresh uni* from Santa Barbara, served on shiso leaf tempura with uni salt, ikura, wasabi

Pricey but good. Delicious. Would get again! Nice, light and crisp!

Shrimp Tempura | $11 for 2pc
shrimp tempura, daikon oroshi, tempura sauce

Good. Nothing special, would probably skip next time to try another dish.

Broccolini Tempura | $14.00
tempura fried broccolini, spicy cod roe aioli

Probably my favorite dish of the night. I don’t know what to tell you, I love me a good broccolini. And the spicy cod roe aioli? That just made it even better. I would definitely order this again!

Lamb Tartare | $18.00
lamb strip loin from new zealand, iburigakko, caper, chive mayo, nori chips

Oh man, this dish came out so late that it kind of was just not enjoyed as much you know? I had to remind them that we didn’t receive it yet. The lamb tartare itself was just okay, you can’t taste that it’s lamb (no gamey taste) but also I felt like the capers and pickled aspect of the dish was overpowering everything. And nori chips? No. It’s just cut up nori, nori chips are battered and deep fried no? I wouldn’t get this again.

Kamonegi Seiro | $24.00
duck breast, duck tsukune meatball, leek, yuzu zest

I wanted to try one of their signature dishes. Okay, I should have gone for a bukkake dish since it was hot in the restaurant but the bukkake dishes don’t come with duck! Disappointing. How was the duck? Ehh…well since it’s either ground into a meatball or a super thin slice – it’s not like you can tell it’s duck. The dish was okay but not great.

All in all, I am glad I tried the restaurant! Would I return? Not sure yet, maybe. I wouldn’t mind trying the other soba dishes!

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ICHIRAN – Harujuku, Japan

May29

I am not a big fan of crowds. But here I was in Harajuku. Why? Well, firstly because of Ikea. And also some other stores I had to go to buy omiyage. Ended the trip with my every Japan trip visit to Ichiran. I know it’s a bit touristy to go and the whole cubicle to yourself dining concept was a bit faddish. To me, it’s just a nice bowl of ramen you can eat quickly and go. You can also purchase a pack to take home, way cheaper than the one in Don Quijote.

Ordering Machine

No worries, there’s always a line and they hand you a foreigner friendly menu to review before you get to the machine. Makes for an easy ordering process. Then you continue to line up to get seated. You can ask to be seated near your companion, just let them know.

Me in my cubicle waiting for my ramen with my lonely egg. Each cubicle has its own water station with cups on top.

While you are waiting for your seat after ordering, you can further specify how salty you want it, how you want the noodles cooked, spice level, etc. Yes, it’s an English form!

My toppings! Yum!

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Tokyo Disneyland

May26

This one is a short post, we didn’t do much here. Actually, I basically ate the mochi balls and left. Sad yeah? I think I either have to go with someone who is super into theme parks or it’s just wasted on me. I’ve been many times. If I were to just walk through the park, I would probably pick DisneySea over Tokyo Disney.

Hot Dog Set | ¥1090

Not the best – I just thought I had to get one more thing before leaving the park. We left before even dinner time and mind you, we ate lunch at a outside restaurant too.

My must get anytime I come to this park, these dang alien mochi balls! I forgot each one is filled with a different flavor, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. I’ll eat the vanilla one even though I don’t like vanilla haha.

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SEIRYUMON – Ikspiari Mall, Japan

May24

We were starved before we hit up Tokyo Disney so we decided to eat at the Ikspiari Mall before going into the park. Love this mall! We decided to check out SEIRYUMON because we were craving some Taiwanese/Chinese food. It’s going to be a long post but I really enjoyed this meal even if it was tourist trappy.

Egg Drop Soup

Dried Tofu Salad
I know this looks like noodles but it was tofu! It was good!

Dimsum
Bleh

Rice (lol)

Stir-fried Shrimp & Egg with Chili Sauce Lunch Set | ¥1430

This was my lunch set, pretty good price ah? Plenty food! And it’s shrimp! It totally hit the spot, just felt like something tomato-y with rice. Loved it. Well the dimsum was blah but everything else was good!

Another version of dim sum

Crispy Fried Chicken with Sweet & Chili Sauce

Fried Rice with Meat & Seafood | ¥1540

Not my dish, but this was also a set meal. I think the chicken was part of it? I don’t remember, it wasn’t my meal. 🙁

Taiwanese Stir-fried Pea Sprout | ¥1100

I was in dire need of vegetables and always wanted to try pea sprouts. Oh my gosh, hands down my favorite dish of the meal. I would definitely order this again!!

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Gyukatsu Motomura – Ginza, Japan

May22

Hi folks. Sorry for the two week break, I was so tired that I didn’t even have time to tell you folks I needed one break. But it’s okay, cause I barely ate anywhere anyway so I didn’t have much to update. I am going to preschedule some posts because I am going on a trip this week! Sooo excited for the trip and I hope to come back with lots of updates. I’ll be heading up to Seattle and Canada!

Anyway, I’ll finish up some Japan posts. Gyukatsu Motomura was definitely one of my favorite meals in Japan, there was a long line way before dinner time. And is this a good thing? A lot of Koreans in line, lol. Anyway, we had to line up in the freezing cold and the young girl in front of me was wearing like a sexy type school girl outfit so her legs were super exposed. I am cold just remembering that. Gyukatsu serves up a nice piece of meat that has been breaded, flash fried and sliced to your table. You are given a hot plate and you can cook up the slices of meat to your liking!

Menu – you basically just choose the size of meat you want!

Just a quick pic of the cute pepsi drink, I love Japanese bottles.

Sorry I forget what size meat I got, probably like the middle size. If I’m going to eat here, I gonna grind okay? Was delicious! Loved the side dishes, and they are pretty fast once you get seated, just gotta be patient for the line to get in.

Here’s the little hot plate they give you, get one tealight underneath. Watch the video below to watch me completely fail at cooking a slice of meat. You might laugh.

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Mixed Plate Friday (Japan)

Mar24

My favorite Arare and Peanut Mix

I got this pack from Family Mart and regret not getting more. I got a pack from their 7eleven and boy it was not the same. So I only recommend the family mart one!

Random Natural Lawson dinner one night. We were both baus tired from Disney so we just got dinner in. Luckily our hotel was located next to some restaurants! I still went the combini route and enjoyed it. I got my friend McDonalds, lol.

This is the airline I took from Tokyo to Osaka. It was a bit cheaper than the shinkansen and we didn’t want to worry about how to store our luggage in the train. Would I do it again? Ehhhh, I don’t know. I feel like your entire day is wasted traveling. The check in for this airline was wild, not once was my identification checked. It was hilarious. Also, since the tickets are cheap, they nickel and dime on everything else. While the check-in and luggage check was easy going from Tokyo to Osaka. Coming back from Osaka to Tokyo was crazy. They were seriously measuring and weighing all bags (including carry-ons), checking ID, etc.

Anyway, some miracle this trip was. I fell asleep through every plane ride. Yes, even this short domestic ride. The travel gods were with me on this trip!

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Japanese Breakfast

Mar22

My friend and I were wandering around Ginza one morning and I just wanted to eat at one of these breakfast joints. Shoot, I don’t even know the name so I apologize but it’s really one of those in and out places that you order from the machine up front and take a seat with your tickets. They bring you your food, you grind and then you’re out. All so simple and tasty and a great value too!

Look at the picture above, everything is so clean and anything you could think of is within your finger tips. Loved it!

My set! This was like a cold udon seat with mentaiko over rice. I added on a side of natto because I wanted to okay?

Oyako Don Set

I can’t leave without leaving a gratuitous egg yolk picture. Felt kind of waste to crack the egg and separate it yourself. I feel like they could have just done it for me and saved the egg white for something? I don’t know. Threw the bonito flakes on too and mixed it with their sauce. Yummy!

My natto mixed lol

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Daiki Suisan Kaiten Zushi – Osaka, Japan

Mar20

This is the second time I’ve been to Daiki Suisan Kaiten Zushi, it’s not a fancy restaurant by any means but they serve up good sushi at good prices and the service is super efficient. It’s like a dream genki sushi if you will, only tastes better and is cheaper. What do I miss in Japan though? Spicy Tuna!

Can you tell I was PMSing and craving weird foods?

LOL yup, I eat like a child. I just had a hankering for hamburg steak and Japanese does it best! Or does Hamburg do it best? Hmmm…

Sorry, I don’t have a lot of details on the pricing! I can’t access their menu and it was all done through either ordering on their ipads or grabbing right off the revolving belt which was great, that belt was fully stocked at all times. If I am ever back in Osaka, I would most definitely return. Oh yeah, it’s definitely a tourist trap but I just need to brew my own green tea, mind my business and chomp down!

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Mixed Plate Friday (Japan)

Mar17

We were so pleased that our hotel in Tokyo and Osaka had laundry rooms! The machines were cool because you can wash and dry in the same machine. A few things that were off. You have to know how much your clothes weigh before you wash them. Secondly, it DEFINITELY DOES NOT DRY IN ONE CYCLE. And well, you have to pay for every cycle you use right. We were washing some thick clothes cause it was winter so I wouldn’t recommend using these machines unless you have choke time to wait for your clothes to dry.

Mandatory visit to Ikea in Japan and mandatory swedish meatballs meal. It was good! It’s the same everywhere lol. Japan has a slightly different menu but it was good! I also liked that their store isn’t a maze and that they have cuter stuff made for Japanese audiences I think.

I feel like I mentioned these tarts already but I’ll mention it again since I found the name of it in my pictures. So good fresh out the oven. Eating this in the cold weather was perfection. We found this place in Osaka.

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Universal Japan – Day 2

Mar15

Most popular and biggest attraction by far. I didn’t know that you had to reserve a ticket to even walk in so we got stopped as we tried. No one speaks good English so I had to play around with their mobile app until I figured out how to reserve tickets. It’s free to walk through, they just have timed visit slots. I think I tried to reserve it at like 10 AM and couldn’t get a window until 3 PM. Highly suggest you check in right when you arrive to reserve your time slot! You cannot do it ahead of time, they make sure you are on property to reserve.

It’s pretty surreal when you walk in, you really feel like you are in the video game! I didn’t even know they had a ride, not that I ride rides. I just enjoyed walking through!

Red Shell Calzone with Cheese & Ketchup Spaghetti Filling | ¥850

This tasted like it sounds. Not good. I don’t think they even serve it anymore lol. I was so full from eating earlier in the day, how do people eat so much at theme parks???

Mixed Berry Christmas Highball | ¥650
Non-Alcoholic Christmas Fruit Cocktail | ¥550

Special drinks for the holidays! I had the non-alcoholic drink. It was gooood!

I forget what this drink was called but I thought it looked cool, it was also not mine lol. I think it was enjoyed!!!

Pretty Christmas tree/show to end the night!

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