My Purezento

Lately, Santa friends in Japan and my 2 Beijing friends gave me some presents again ! :) At first, due to my visa problem, I thought I have to leave Japan soon and some friends gave me some farewell gifts. Domo arigato for all your presents ! Now visa problem is settled, I can stay till my project is over !!
In my earlier post, I have shown the 2 Japanese fans I got from my friends. Below are the latest editions to my purezento list !

Very nice wrapping and colourful paper bag ! Guess what is this ? I was wondering the moment I tried to unwrap it

A coaster, a pair of chopsticks in pink casing and a table mat. haha Tomoko knows I love pick colour ! Thank you !

Any idea what is this ? jewellery box with a red rose as design in a transparent box. This is a surprise present from Chieko when we went to Garden Museum. She was told of my Chinese name is '立玫' so she thought is meaningful to give this gift to me. hehehe..My chinese Kanji character means :立 is 'standing ' , 玫 is 'rose' haha standing rose ! may be good in a way, standing is a symbol of strong and tough ! hehehe , rose in Japanese kanji is different character so I thought to give a better explaination to Japanese friends here.

On the same day, I bought a colourful ring at JR Osaka station assessories shop. haha. immediately I make use of the jewellery box !

Present again from Chiaki ! Chiaki bought me this Japanese mirror with a little Japanese kawaii bag. New addition to my traditional Japanese souvenirs ! Chiaki always gave presents which represent Japan or gifts I can't get it outside Japan ! Can use it normal day or when I go out in yukata again , it will be perfect ! :D

Beijing Olympic 2008 souvenir from Shirley and Peggy, my friends from Beijing working together in same project. It is a mobile phone string and mobile phone assessories. Very cute one ! Very meaningful present as Beijing friends bought Beijing Olympic souvenir all the way from Beijing to Japan ! Show you the 2 cute stuffs below !

Once again, thank you everyone for your wonderful gifts !

Home-made Tamago Yaki

In June, I visited my good friend in Chieko in Kyoto. I was talking about I wondered how to make tamago yaki, I love 'tamago ' (egg) yaki and I also love Tamago sushi ! Chieko try to demostrate to me by doing a LIVE DEMO !

Main ingredients : Eggs . In this case , just a simple demo so we used 3 eggs. Add some salt, little sugar or soy sauce.

Beat the egg well to have a even and smooth texture.

First pour the egg in a pan, by right should use a special tamago flat pan. But for demo purpose to me, we used whatever we have.

When the first layer is done, roll it to the corner. Then pour second layer of the egg.

When second layer is almost done, roll it to the corner and pour in third layer.

You may keep doing as many layers as you wish, the thicknest of the tamago yaki depends on how many layers/ times you roll it and also depends on how much eggs you used.

Now roll the final layer.

This is how it looks like now !

Move the egg roll to the chopping board.

Use the paper to mould the egg roll in nicer shape and at the same times it will absorb the extra oil.

Cut it into pieces now.

Final output = Home-made tamago yaki !

Chieko told me the tamago yaki selling in sushi shop need additional ingredient which we don't have. But I appreciate her showing me the whole process and now I have a good idea how to make tamago yaki. I found a recipe about tamago yaki online which explains the exact ingredients :http://www.recipezaar.com/119558.

Yodogawa night 淀川花火大会

It has been for more than 1 month I have stopped blogging. I have been extremely busy for the past few weeks. I will slowly catch up my blog with all my interesting events. For now, I would like to share about the recent special event I went last Saturday.

On August 9th, I went to Yodogawa hanabi ( firework festival in summer http://japundit.com/archives/2008/08/10/8808/) with my Japanese friend , Ai . Ai is my Yukata teacher, she trained me how to wear yukata and tie the Obi( belt). On Saturday, she came to my apartment to dress up for me as she told me she will be my 'coordinator', Yukata wearing and tie the hair , she has helped to transform me into a 'Japanese lady' for the night !

Ai is the first friend to visit me in my apartment. So I cleaned up the apartment before she came. I have housekeeping every Tuesday but when comes to Saturday , the floor is dusty.After cleaning my apartment, I got ready all the things for the firework festival, Yukata, Geta( Japanese slipper for Yukata), bag, hair pin, 2 fans ( presents from 2 friends), handkerchief.

Let's zoom in to show you my presents and hair assessories I bought.

Fans from Chieko with handkerchief in a set.

Fans with cover from my friends ( Sandro and wife Kana)

Hehe, to complete the Japanese look, I bought the hair assessories to match yukata. Of course normal time I don't wear a flower on my hair :P

Ai's master piece !

We both took a cab to somewhere near Umeda sky building. Once we arrived at the place, it started raining,pouring heavily and we were without umbrella. We both walked in the rain to search for umbrella and our yukata were all wet. hahaha first experience walking in heavy rain! Unforgettable ! I was worried if Ai and me will catch cold.

Umbrealla was sold out and we changed position to somewhere we can see firework better, but the view is blocked by trees and building. One man approached us asking if we want a better viewing place for 1500 yen with a drink, so we took this opportunity. We were allowed to view firework at the balcony of the restaurant, many people were standing and holding umbrella. When it was raining, we thought we got no chance to see firework. But we were so lucky that we found this place ! Good view ! At lasttttttttttt!

The firework session was around 40 min. After that, we were hungry ( Onaka suite). Ai showed me around for restaurants near by. I decided to have Okonomiyaki ( Japanese pizza ! ). After dinner, we took a picture outside restaurant. By that time, my yukata was almost dried hehehe.. my make up also melted kekeke!

Ok ! save the "Best" for the last !

Ai and me in Yukata. Her yukata is very beautiful and suits her,elegant style. This is my beautiful memory of wearing JAPANESE Yukata to JAPANESE summer festival with my good JAPANESE friend, and eating JAPANESE Okonomiyaki after that. haha be Japanese for a night ! Of course, walking in the heavy rain enhanced this memory !