Apparently I should be living in Tokyo

A funky little application in facebook called WhatCity suggests I should be living in Tokyo.

You plug in answers to a series of questions - sort of like a little personality test - and WhatCity returns the city that think most resembles your personality traits.

Here's what it says about why I should be living in Tokyo:

"Admit it - you love the taste of teriyaki bowls, sushi, tempura, and a side of wasabi. Salivating yet? Living in Tokyo lets you treat your tongue to new and exciting experiences. Have fun with all the new tools and gadgets, making your life easier in this technologically-advanced city."

Given my love of all things Japanese, this was hardly a revelation!

A beginner's guide to making sushi rolls

Just to prove we made our own rolls, here's the step-by-step evidence.

1) Gather ingredients:
- Nori sheets (dried seaweed)
- sliced avocado
- sliced peppers
- sliced cucumber
- crab sticks
- prepared sushi rice
- black and white sesame seeds
- Japanese mayonnaise
- latex gloves and a sushi rolling mat



2) Lay the seaweed on the mat, spread the rice evenly across most of the seaweed, leaving an empty edge - this is the part that will stick onto itself and close the whole package up shortly. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.



3) Place other ingredients down the middle of the rice, squirt some mayonnaise down the centre, and begin to roll, holding the underneath side of the mat, and folder the rice over enough for it meet itself. Move the mat back and keep rolling the package until the seaweed overlaps itself. Seal by lightly dampening the seaweed and sticking it to itself.



4) And voila! Perfect rolls. Slice into 1.5cm wide rolls, arrange and serve with wasabi and soy sauce.

If I have to get older, I'd rather do it like this...

It was one of those birthdays that in some cases, sent me into the next worrying age bracket. For others, it poised me right on the edge.

Ok ok, I turned 35 this year, but Ant ensured I celebrated in style, with a day full of fun and yummy surprises. The instructions required that we be in town - early. Or early for a Saturday morning, anyway.

We arrived at Yoi Sushi headquarters, just behind the London Eye, for a 10am start. About 20 of us lined up around a conveyor belt, for a 3-hour sushi-making workshop.



Our host was a Japanese sushi chef, who had been making sushi for years. He took nearly an hour to explain the importance of perfecting sushi rice - a process that involved much washing of the Japanese short grain rice, and a specific method for cooking it over a pan - or in a rice cooker if you prefer.

He explained that you could substitute italian arborio rice if you could not find the pure (Australian or Californian produced) rice most frequently used in the UK for sushi rice. That said, Japanese sushi rice is available at the Japan Centre in Piccadilly, and many other shops in China Town.

He demonstrated how to blend rice wine vinegar into the sushi rice, and how to store and handle it during the sushi-making process.

He then went on to demonstrate how to fillet a whopping big fillet of salmon. I was impressed when he said that his shop alone consumes over a tonne of fresh salmon each year. That's a hell of a lot of filleting.

At this point, I was pondering whether I needed to adorn my kitchen with a dedicated sashimi-fillettng knife, but continued to watch the dude's dexterity in fish-slicing, in the mean time.

He did amazing things with the very fresh orangey fish. We got to sample it straight of the fish's back, so to speak. He showed us to to fillet the pieces to create sashmi or nigiri sushi.

We then progressed to learn how to roll sushi-rolls and california rolls. It's not as hard as you may think, once you gets the tips from a pro. Latex gloves and japanese mayonaise certainly make life easier.

Our host did a finale, where we each got to pick an ingredient for him to include as part of mega sushi roll. It looked fantastic, although I don't know if the combination of teriyaki chicken, avocado, salmon, peppers and god knows what else, would all combine to create the perfect and-rolled sushi. The salmon on the side was fab however.

We were then let loose on our own mini-setup, to practice rolling our own magical creations.

It really wasn't as hard as we'd anticipdated, and with a bit of practice, we were rolling cylinders that actually resembled those that you might buy in shops.

Lunch followed, and we got to take our magical creations home.

The best lookin' meal ever. Oishikatta desu ne!

Dinner was included in the accommodation cost, and our our hostess had it all lined up on a trolley outside the room.

We were ushered into the main room with the large low table, and asked to sit crosslegged as she laid out in perfect mirror image, two whopping meals.

























I love the Japanese obsession with presentation and layout. What I really would have liked at the time was someone who could explain in detail, what each dish was and what it meant. I have read about the Japanese philosophy of fives - that is, five flavours and colours. The meal laid out before us certainly seemed to meet that criteria.

There was the obligatory rice, and a large range of unidentifiable pickled root vegetables, fish, miso soup, sushi and sashimi, candied bits and pieces, jellied stuff, steam boats and carefully styled fruit pieces.

Tea and beer accompanied the meal (beer was our choice!), and we sat wide-mouthed through most of the meal, contemplating the tastes and the meaning of it all.

Everything tasted extremely fresh, and it had obviously been prepared with love and dedication - soppy, but you know what I mean.

Then came the absolute best part of the meal - the phone call to reception to clear up the remnants of dinner.

The clearing was quick and efficient, and within a few minutes our clean-up lady was out of the room, leaving nothing but chocolates.

Another knock followed, and the futon-making man appeared, ready to make our beds for the evening.

Two layers of foam on the floor formed the bed, then the thickest duvet/doona ever was placed over the top. It's somehow comforting being low to the ground when you sleep...something about not having too far to fall out of bed :-).

In any case, it was the most inspiring meal. And breakfast was pretty much the same thing all over.

Inside a traditional Japanese guesthouse

The ryokan was simple but intensely Japanese. Tatami matting lined the floor, and a series of sliding doors sectioned off the two main rooms from the long narrow hallway.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a full bathroom with a deep bath. The loo had a heated toilet seat - a really popular contraption in Japan.

The main room was sparse in terms of furniture and lounges for that matter. The only seats that existed in this ryokan were the two arm chairs in the little indoor balcony that overlooked the temple, and two ground-level chairs that we gathered formed part of the dinner ritual.

We knocked back a few beers and pondered life in Japan, when a knock at the door signalled dinner.

It was indeed a spectacle that deserves a post of its own.

O'genki desu ka? Two nights in Tokyo

The Oz trip flew, and in what seemed like no time, we were saying another difficult goodbye to my folks, and heading off for a two-night stopover in Tokyo.

I love Tokyo. I'm a huge fan of Japan, having studied Japanese at highschool, and visiting the country a couple of times in the early 90's with Mum.

I wanted to experience as much of Japanese culture as we could in two days, and booked us into a ryokan near Narita.

I found Wakamatsuhonten on Google, and it looked fine. I had the feeling that it would be a bit out of town, which was fine.

When we arrived by cab from the airport, I was pleasantly delighted to find that our ryokan overlooked Narita Temple...it was literally across the road, and in the most fab little street in what I gathered was Narita's "Old Town".

We weren't able to check in until mid-afternoon, so spent the day pottering around the shops from the top of the hill at the Keisei Narita Train Station back down to Narita Temple.



I am SUCH a fan of Japanese crockery - the little tea sets...the matching saki sets with saki warmer and matching cups...the beautiful packaging of everything, the weird gelatinous sweets....

Although I could only understand about 0.0001% of what was being said, my attempts at retrieving highscool Japanese from the depths of my sozzled brain seemed to be appreciated. The Japanese seem to be surprised and curious when Westerners start speaking their language.

Unlike Australia, the weather in Japan in mid-April was chilly, and the rain wasn't helping matters.

At about 2.30pm, we decided to head back to the ryokan, and ask to check in an hour early. Thank god they were ready to let us in!