Movie Review: The Ramen Girl

Konnichiwa!

Last night my parents and I sat down to watch a movie called Ramen Girl. I had been looking forward to watching this movie for a long time, seeing as I have a slight obsession with Japan. I have always wanted to try real ramen (the packaged 50 cent stuff in America is crap), but there isn’t any of the good stuff in Kansas.

Anyway this movie is about a girl who moves to Tokyo so she can be with her boyfriend at his new job, but he dumps her and leaves (right after sleeping with her too!). She finds refuge in a steaming flavorful bowl of ramen at the ramen shop across the street from her apartment. She is overcome with a desire to learn the art of ramen cuisine, and dedicates herself to convincing the chef to teach her. There’s only one problem… the language barrier of course!

I won’t spoil the rest of the movie for you, but I’ll give you my opinion of it. The main character Abby, played by Brittany Murphy, is completely obnoxious. Murphy’s acting is horrible and her botoxed lips are extremely annoying. This girl Abby consistently drags on to the Japanese restaurant owner about her horrible life and boyfriend even though he CLEARLY CANNOT UNDERSTAND HER. She does this throughout the entire movie. It takes her forever to learn even simple phrases like “I don’t understand”, “I’m sorry” and “please” (I felt pretty smug because I knew all of them). What’s more, the idea of her being able to master ramen in a year is pretty unrealistic, as is the teacher’s willingness to teach a white girl, along with the fact that he puts up with her very offensive antics. This being said, the movie was worth watching because of the heartwarming storyline, the intriguing sights into the ramen world of Japan, the ability to listen to the Japanese language and the hilariously cute Japanese characters. If you have Netflix, it’s free anyway so give it a go, and let me know what you think!

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

P.S. since there were no pictures in this blogpost and I don't want to bore you to death, here are some random pics of me eating fasian food (both f's intentional, if you catch my drift). 

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

ANOTHER present from Ayana!

Konnichiwa!

So you remember my pen-pal Ayana, right? Well she totally surprised me and sent more Christmas presents :D And I mean a LOT. And its all extremely awesome stuff. Even the packing is freaking adorable. I feel really blessed to have her as a friend, and to live in an age of technology where international online correspondence is available. Here are pictures :)

 the gorgeous packaging

 I love seeing all the Japanese characters- its the little things that excite me<3

 extremely soft 'A' bag (A is both my initial and hers)

 strawberry lotion. I actually had put strawberry lotion on my Christmas list, so now I can cross it off :)

 flowers/watermelon bellyband. I've never had one of these before!

 Hi-chew candies! yum yum yum

 again with the authentic Japanese characters

 chopsticks with a holder!

 fake eyelashes. So glad to receive these because I planned on using fake eyelashes for prom

 unique envelope<3

 little Japanese stickers. So kawaii ( ^-^)

 very heartwarming, hand-written letter (Ayana's English is really impressive)

and here they are all together - yay!

I am so absolutely astonished at her generosity, and I have already found a use for every gift. This Christmas season has provided me with a lot of culture and love<3

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

Boyfriend Christmas Exchange: Matcha Tea Set

Konnichiwa!

It's that time of year again... hence my posting this one day late :P It's Christmas! Definitely my favorite holiday. Obviously, my boyfriend and I spend Christmas with our families, so we exchange presents early. And he got me the COOLEST traditional matcha tea set ever, some matcha tea (hello lattes) and a new tea steeping ball, because mine broke. The tea steeping ball is actually shaped like a tea pot ( ^-^)

Here are some pictures

 Isu Matcha (powder green tea)

 adorbs tea steeper

 bamboo tray

 tea set box

 tea set

 bowl

 scoop

whisk

And here are some pictures of me making it for the first time

 filling the teapot with water (yes, my pot is Irish. Hoping for a Japanese one as a Christmas present)

 heating the water

 filling the bowl

 gettin a scoop :)

 dumpin that scoop!

stirring...

 Almost done!

 Yum yum soothing ( ^-^)

So basically I have the best boyfriend ever<3 Let me know what you get for Christmas, and what your favorite present is! And please, inform me if I'm making this incorrectly; I didn't look up instructions online, I just winged it. 

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley

Christmas Gift Exchange With My Japanese Penpal

Konnichiwa!

Welcome to my blog; I just know you're as excited for the holiday season as I am :) I want to introduce you to my penpal from Japan. Her name is Ayana. She's seventeen and we've been talking since the summer. Ayana's a really cool girl; she has a little sister and an older brother, she's a big One Direction fan, and she has taught me a lot about what life is really like as a teenage girl in Japan. I've got to say, with the tough educational curriculum there, I'm not jealous! Here's a picture of the cutie<3 

Isn't she lovely?

Well for Christmas we decided to do a gift exchange. I wanted to do a theme for mine: Christmas in America. So I got her a bunch of little things and wrote a letter explaining how each item related to the holidays in the U.S. and how she could use it. I gave to her- sugar plum lotion, mocha cappucino packets, pink striped fuzzy gloves, peppermint bark dipped in dark chocolate,   and then the last two items were a fusion of America and Japan to symbolize our friendship. They were a "hello kitty" Christmas ornament and a framed haiku poem that I wrote for her about the snowfall. And then I wrote her a second letter about my family's Christmas traditions in case she was interested.

here are my little presents for her^

I recently received, via the mail, her present for me and I simply could not wait til Christmas to open it. I was already so intrigued by the real Japanese postage stamp!

here it is^

Anyway, here is what she gave me. It was this ADORABLE little christmas book with a Father Christmas on the front. His beard is actually furry! On each page there are little encouraging messages written in Japanese characters (Ayan kindly translated to English beneath each). And on the last page she wrote me a special message<3 Here are some pics

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to make international friends online; if you are even considering a penpal you should definitely go through with it because it will bring you great joy and you will learn a lot about another culture:)

Keep it kawaii folks!

-Ainsley