Kracie Food Kit: Taiyaki and Odango

I've done a few Poppin' Cookin' kits in the past and saw this Kracie one and decided to try it out. It was definitely my favourite. It's a sample set of traditional Japanese desserts/snacks: taiyaki (a soft fish shaped biscuit with chocolate pudding like spread in the middle), ichigo daifuku (sweet rice flour dough with a strawberry filling), ramune (soft drink), and mitarashi dango (dango are sweet rice flour balls and in this style they're covered in a salty sweet sauce - you can also get dango with other sauces of which my favourite is black sesame).

The kit consists of a series of powders you mix with water in different combinations in the plastic insert (it also contains the fish pattern you microwave for the biscuit). You also cut apart the back of the packaging for size measurements and presentation aids. My Japanese isn't what it used to be (and it used to be fairly poor anyway) so I had to watch a video to get the microwave time and some other details correct.

 The finished product not only looked amazing it tasted fantastic (some of the other kits didn't taste that great). It was a fun kit to do and as they're expensive imports, I'm glad this one was worth eating. ;)

Book Review: Another by Yukito Ayatsuji

Translated by Karen McGillicuddy

Pros: tense, makes you second guess what’s going on, fascinating characters

Cons: repetition, some gore

Fifteen year old Koichi Sakakibara moves in with his grandparents at the beginning of his third year of middle school. A collapsed lung keeps him from attending the first week of class and he finds things… odd when he does start school. Everyone seems tense and there’s a girl who sits at the back that no one seems to acknowledge is there. He slowly learns of the third-year Class 3 curse, a phenomenon that leaves members of Class 3 and their immediate family dead.

I loved the two main protagonists, Koichi Sakakibara and Mei Misaki (note, following Japanese custom most characters are called by their last names, so I’ll be doing that in my review). It was interesting seeing Sakakibara’s illness, his hesitation when joining the class, trying to figure out what was happening, his consideration of and compassion towards Misaki, his gratitude towards his grandparents. He’s a highly sympathetic character going through difficult times. Misaki is equally interesting, and quite different, being standoffish and mysterious. Seeing their friendship bloom was great.

The book has a very tense atmosphere. You’re just as in the dark about what’s going on as Sakakibara and it makes for an eerie first half of the book, wondering what’s up with Misaki, wondering what the curse is. When things start going wrong it’s quite terrifying. There are a number of twists to the story, making you question and re-question what’s happening.  

The translation doesn’t clarify any social or cultural Japanese aspects of the book (aside from explicitly pointing out the meanings of the written characters (kanji) used for various people and place names. This doesn’t affect understanding of the story, though knowing some of this myself did add to my enjoyment of the book. 

I did notice there was a fair amount of repetition with regards to conversations and plot points. The afterward to the paperback edition (printed at the back of the English edition) mentions that the book was originally serialized, which probably accounts for that. 

There is some gore as several deaths are described. It’s a little graphic at times.

One thing that annoyed me was that the ending turned on a fact that the narrator (ie Sakakibara) knows, but you - the reader - do not. So it’s possible for him to figure out the final twist but much harder for you to do so.

On the whole, if you’re looking for a creepy read, this is a good choice.

Popin' Cookin' Obento!

I've heard of Popin' Cookin' Japanese candy mixes before but they weren't a thing when I lived there, so I've never tried one.  Well, my husband located some and here's the one we did:

Inside the box is a foil packet that you cut apart for the box and accents, little packets of fruit flavoured candy powder, and a container for making the shaped candy that includes a little cup for measuring the water.

Here's a video by Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi showing how to make the various components.



And the finished bento box with broccoli, spaghetti, fried chicken (meatball shaped), fried egg, hotdog octopus, and rice balls (onigiri).  I've displayed everything in the containers made from the foil packet.

The taste was... interesting.  I found some a bit grainy (maybe I didn't mix them long enough) and while I really liked the soda and grape flavoured onigiri, some of the others weren't that great.

Still, it was a lot of fun making everything.

Music Video: Bad Apple by Touhou

I love the black and white silhouettes used in this video.  The song is upbeat and catchy.  I pulled the original video from IbukiSuika1's youtube site.


You can watch the same video, with a fan version of the song in English by ValliereVee and Pat McCarthy here (for her version with a set background) or below (with the original video)(taken from megabobi1's youtube page). The singer's great though my Japanese isn't good enough for me to comment on the translation.

Japanese Monsters do Thriller

I love Japan! ^_^