The good things in life
I just went to Kyoto yesterday and after another hot day, I thought I’d buy this cheap chocolate ice cream from a vending machine just to cool off. Much to my surprise, the ice cream actually taste very good. They are in the shape of 6 chocolate bon-bons and the brand is “Lady Borden”. The strange thing is that I can’t seem to find the brand anywhere else (ie. Combini). This is really strange because I’m pretty sure that just like any other ice cream in Japan, it’s made by Lotte and that brand can be found easily in any combini.
Earlier that day, I had a brunch inside Osaka station since I had missed breakfast and I know I wouldn’t be able to get lunch once I arrive in Kyoto since I’ll be too busy walking between one temple to another. I can’t remember the name of the place but it’s a typical vending machine place. I ordered some kind of Chicken Katsu. Much to my surprise, it comes not only with Rice and Miso Soup (which are typical of set menu in Japan) but also with some pickles and soft tofu. It was tasty albeit a bit too much size-wise.
I didn’t feel like eating another carbohydrate-filled menu for dinner so I ended up just buying 5 pieces of Oden from the local Combini (convenient shop). Again, due to the cheap price (60 Yen per piece), I thought the taste would be crappy but it’s actually pretty good. I really like that you can actually self-serve yourself and choose what kind of Oden you want in your takeaway bowl. I think my favorite Oden would have to be this piece of fish cake. The fried tofu was pretty good as well.
Today, I decided to buy a dango for breakfast. Well, it wasn’t my kind of food. It’s actually salty while I thought it would be sweet. It was good that I tried it though and I did like the chewy texture. For lunch, I stopped at Matsuya and no, I’m not referring to the department store. This Matsuya is just a chain of eatery that is frequently visited by salarymen and students. You order using vending machine and the foods are the Japanese/Korean variety. I ordered the Gyuudon and it came with this raw egg - which I didn’t eat.
13 Comments so far
Leave a reply
Oh man those look delicious… I’ve always thought Dango was sweet too though, I’m surprised you describe them to be salty
I think other dango (the one with kuromitsu topping) is probably sweet. But this grilled dango was definitely salty.
Regarding Lady Borden, this is very old brand in Japan. When I was a child, I used to eat this ice cream. This was like Haagen Dazs. I mean there are not so many “a little bit expensive” of ice cream when I was a child. There are so many expensive type ice cream now, though. It seems like there were some troubles of the brand among companies. Yes, I remember I did not see any Lady Borden before but can see it again now.If you know Japanese, you will know the story here.
If you go grocery stores, you will find Lady Borden, not at combini (I do not know why but it is probably channel matters.)
Yes, kuromitsu topping dango is sweet. Shoyu paste dango is a bit salty but I feel some sweet with Shoyu dango either. It is sweet-salty taste (the sound does not make sense,though.)
I received DVD Vol.3 of DARKER THAN BLACK today !
Do you know ep26 will be on DVD Vol.9 ?
I am looking forward to your next post !
Have a good day !
Hey, I’m leaving for Japan in about 8 hours, and I’ve just started my own personal blog to put pictures/do daily logs on my journey. I’m using wordpress like you are, but I’m wondering how do you manage your photos? Where do you upload the pictures to in order to post on your blog?
Jin, I have my own personal web server. And I really recommend that you have one as well (I think Wordpress offers some space for free, no? I wouldn’t know because my Wordpress is just the software). If worst come to worst, you can always use free image server like imageshack.
Hi Garten,
I’ve booked the Flexstay Inn in Osaka; thanks for your help! It’s a great deal. Where are you staying in Kyoto? I might luck out the same way!
There’s another giant motorised crab in the downtown Kyoto market arcades. Thanks for your photos and updates!
I stay at a friend’s place, unfortunately. So I haven’t done any research on paid accommodation around the area.
Heh, I ended up using photobucket… It’s working fine for now. Visited a few temples and feeling pretty tired/sore from all the walking >
Thanks anyway - I’ve decided to base myself out of Osaka - really looking to getting there!
dango dango dango dango, dango daikazoku…
hi ill be visiting japan in 2009 and i was hoping to ask you for some tips on how to gett around and dining and stuff like that anything would be apretiated, ive also looked at all the stuff you have whritten on your blog.
any info would be apretiated thank you :D
my e-mail is unknown_regret@hotmail.com
*drools* the food in the pictures you posted look absolutely delicious 0__0
I guess you didn’t like the whole idea of dumping the raw egg on top of the gyuudon, mixing it all together and eating it? XD Japanese people have a strange habit of using raw egg as part of their “sauce” for meat dishes e.g. Sukiyaki O__o
Lefiel, sorry for the late comment but if you still see this, I’d recommend that you buy Japan Rail Pass since that will cut down your travel cost. You have to buy this in your home country though and you can only use it as a tourist (not if you’re traveling on Student visa or work visa). Then you can use Shinkansen to go from Tokyo to Nagoya to Kyoto to Osaka to Hiroshima, etc.
KC, I didn’t know I was supposed to dump the raw egg on top of the gyuudon. If I knew, I’d have done it. I have, indeed, eaten Sukiyaki and dipping it in raw egg.