A Day at Fresh Market

Konnichiwa!

It's finally Spring Break :D When springtime hits, I really like to engage in activities that make me feel cleansed and relaxed. So this afternoon I took a trip to Fresh Market. if you have a whole foods market in your town, you should definitely give it a visit. Organic food is better for you and the environment. Plus it tastes great! Fresh Market always provides various samples and they always have free coffee. Plus the atmosphere is very zen.

Here are some cool things I found there

 If you read my last post, you know how much I adore green tea with mint. This was unreasonably priced though ($14!!) 

 In case you don't have time to actually make green tea, here's some for on the go! Grab it before work or school

 If green tea isn't really your thing, try one of these fruit-infused choices. It's like 0-calorie juice :)

 Organic Sencha

 It's not all tea; here's some Udon and Miso soup! Bonus: it's gluten-free for any of my allergy-prone readers

 prettier packaging on this Organic Sencha

SUSHI!! (sushi is hands down the best part of Japanese cuisine, am I Right?) This sushi is very similar to the Dillon's sushi. Surprisingly it's cheaper!

This last picture made me hungry for some sushi. Since it's a friday of the Lenten season and I am a Catholic, I can't have meat anyway. Sushi it is :)

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

Christmas/GTOTM

Konnichiwa!

... and Happy New Year! My friend Ayana let me know all about the Japanese new year. They go to the shrine and buy charms, and then have a big meal. The meal includes kamaboko, which is a really weird [pink and white-striped gelatinous fish puree (not interested :/)The holidays have left me SO behind on this blog, and life in general. So I apologize in advance. But if you're still with me then you might just be interested in some of the many cool Christmas presents I got from my mom, hmm? Thought so :) If you're an avid reader (and of course, I hope you are), you will recognize some of these things from previous posts, before I owned them. Let me show you some pics

 Does anyone recall the sushi shorts my mom bought me from Hawaii? Well these are the sushi PANTS. 

 tea set from The Spice Merchant- LOVE IT SO MUCH

 Three types of tea from Chelmsford Tea & Gift: Kapchorua, Vanilla, and Lemon. All are types of green tea. The Kapchorua has a very strong earthy traditional green tea flavor. When you take it out of the package, it kinda looks like the pellets you feed to fish. The other two are probably both forms of sencha green tea; one with vanilla blossom petals and the other with lemon peel shavings. All are very soothing and delicious, but my Green Tea of the Month has got to be the vanilla green tea. It is AMAZING!!! Sorry I didn't give it its own blogpost, I forgot to take pictures of me steeping it (I use the new tea steeper from my boyfriend, which works fabulously) plus I didn't want to do two blogposts in one day (bit of an Ainsley overload for you pals)

 sushi erasers from World Market ( ^-^)

and here is the one my mom was most excited to give me. It's a legitimate antique kimono that she had shipped in from Japan (my favorite part was probably seeing the Japanese characters on the packaging, I'm so lame) This picture was taken before we watched the video tutorial on how to properly wrap it (but this way shows off my curves, eh?). You basically pull up the ends until they are at your ankle then wrap both sides around you. Next you pull the belt around the front, cross over the ends in the back, and then tie it in a bow in the front again. You tuck the bow under. After that you pull up the fabric at the chest until it is billowing over the belt so much that you can no longer see the belt. Voila you're in a kimono!

Hope you all enjoyed, and I'd love to hear what you did or received for the holidays.

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

A Day at World Market

Konnichiwa!

If you are an American you know yesterday was the infamous... Black Friday. Getting up extremely early and heading out for good deals is what I was all about. As part of my "holiday" experience, I took a trip to a store called World Market. They have products from around the globe: Italy, Sweden, Germany, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese- you name it. While I enjoyed browsing all of these cultures I mainly, of course, enjoyed the Japan sections. Here are pictures of some goodies I spotted while shopping.

 Hello Panda & other treats

 mochi & other treats

 ramune drinks (I spy a Hello Kitty ramune)

 traditional Japanese teapots with steepers inside (i find their extremely flat and round shape rather intriguing)

 the picture says it all

 teacups with lids

 a kokeshi Christmas ornament- bringing something Japanese into an American tradition. And its adorable!

 and my personal favorite... SUSHI ERASERS. Definitely want for school

 sushi stapler

sushi rolling mat with chopsticks and a rice paddle- perfect dining packer

So if you're looking for a gateway to the rest of the planet, check out World Market. Clearly it has captured other cultures with class! (props for alliteration there hmm?)

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

Kigoi Sushi & Steakhouse

Konnichiwa!

I'd love to share with you my favorite sushi bar that opened close to home just this summer. Previously, all the sushi bars nearest my house were at lease a 20 minute drive, so to have one just a block or two away was undoubtedly exciting for me (an my boyfriend!). If you've seen my "a very genki birthday" post you've already seen one picture of a dish offered there, but here are some others.

 House Special Roll

 Chirashi Don

 ?

?

They're very picturesque aren't they? Tasty and cheap too! That's what really made this place stand out among all the other sushi restaurants I've been too: it is extremely reasonably priced. (ideal for an unemployed student like me of course) However, i DO have some other favorites in the area: Wasabi, Kanai, Ninza, Hibachi Boy, and even Dillons. Once I take pictures of their sushi sets I'll show you those as well. Hopefully soon!

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

Movie Wars- Jiro Dreams of Sushi vs. Sushi: The Global Catch

Konnichiwa!

My family recently got Netflix so I've been movie binging, of course. My boyfriend and I have watched two sushi documentaries this month (see blog title) and I'd like to give you my reviews of each, anddddd determine a winner!

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

This documentary follows the life and training of famous artisenal Japanese sushi chef, Jiro Ono, at his expensive (but totally worth it apparently) restaurant Sukiyabashi. The film goes into in-depth detail of how the sushi is prepared (even the rice has very specific and difficult preparation techniques) and how the fish is selected. Jiro's son, Yoshikazu, narrates for a while; he is apprenticing to take over the business when his father dies. Overall, a very interesting documentary. And the food looked delicious!

Sushi: The Global Catch

When this documentary begins, it appears to be centered on sushi as a whole, but don't be fooled; it's all about the freaking tuna! I pen a whole hour watching a film on the endangerment of the wild tuna species and the effect of the sushi industry on it. :P The only thing I liked about this movie better was that it was in English instead of in Japanese with English subs.

So clearly the champion is.....

Jiro Dreams of Sushi!

Seriously though, I highly recommend it, and its free if you have Netflix. Let me know what you think :)

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

The Sushi Shorts

Konnichiwa!

I hope everyone at blogger is having a lovely week! I certainly have, and if you'd let me I'd like to brag a little bit about a little present from my mom 

Check out these adorable sushi pajama shorts she got me online from David and Goliath! (sorry I don't know why I can't get the picture to rotate). She saw them when she went to Hawaii for her 25th wedding anniversary with my dad (just a bit of info, there's a huge Japanese population in Hawaii and I'd absolutely love to go someday), and ordered them when she got back home after showing me. I love them :) :D However I can't really wear them around non family members because she ordered an extra small, asian extra small. And I gots a big booty for a little girl so they're a bit inappropriate for public wear (besides the fact that they're umm... pajamas ^-^)

My favorite part is this little guy. Poor thing got chopped in half!

Today's blog post was rather short, but hold tight for next week because I'll have to tell you all about the asian festival i'm going to this weekend. So excited!!! There will also be a Green Tea of the Month post for October.

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

A Very "Genki" Birthday

こんにちは 
Hello! As you may know, Genki is the romanized version of the Japanese word meaning both enthusiasm and good health. I thought this was the perfect word to encompass my 17th birthday :) As you can imagine, my friends and family are all very aware of my weird Japanese "fetish", if you will. So i started off the night with a great sushi dinner date at my favorite Japanese steakhouse, Kigoi. (My boyfriend and I waited an HOUR because we are fools and didn't call ahead :P) but seriously, check out that sashimi/nigiri action!

To top all that deliciousness (mm mm ^-^) my mom surprised me with two gifts perfectly suited to me: Human Japanese (a software for learning the Japanese language) and reusuable chopsticks of which I had been desperately in need. There are some pictures below this text of both presents.(One of the pairs of chopsticks has pictures of naked women on it- yikes!) My favorite are the pink ones with the adorable little bunnies. I haven't gotten very far in the Human Japanese program yet, but I can already tell you it is GREAT. It really feels like the teacher is speaking directly to me, and more as a friend than a teacher. And not only does it teach conversational Japanese, but reading/writing as well. I highly recommend it.  So excited to learn! Let me know what you think of these lovely gifts. Also, I do not know why my font is highlighted on my blog post, how can i fix this? It is really frustrating me.

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley