#Tokyolife post!
Sakura’s second time to Tokyo ^^.
We usually take JAL from Changi airport late at night so that the kids can sleep all the way and the danna can go straight to work after landing instead of wasting one extra day on the flight. #workaholic
STAY
We stay at the same apartment but different room every time so it’s quite interesting to experience different kinds of sizes and layouts.
This time around we have a double (queen size) bed instead of a super single. Still it is really small so Junya ended up sleeping on the edge of the bed T_T.
Narrowest bed ever lol.
Special color for Tokyo Tower on a summer day.
When you are not looking, things like this happen -____-.
Met up with RinRin to celebrate her birthday in advance!
EAT
Simple porcini risotto and salad + bread set.
First time eating rice from a jar.
Got a cake for her and Junya decorated it with candles.
Junya ate half the cake lol.
Anyway, other than tucking cheesiepetits to bed, picking up bread crumbs on the floor and finding stuff Junya hides and bouncing Sakura around the house, I actually feel that I have too much free time @.@. Compared to when we stay in KL and SG la.
First of all the serviced apartment has cleaning service once a week so I don’t have to worry about changing the sheets and vacuuming. Plus the apartment is like 1/4 the size of our other homes so there’s nothing much to tidy up. Plussssss Japanese washing machine + dryer is so damn awesome that I also save time doing airing and retrieving the laundry!
And when it comes to food… we just eat out/tapao from combini all the time. Confirm get judgmental stares by Japanese super effort moms lol.
The previous time I wrote about how we eat from combini all the time I was criticized for falsely promoting instant food as healthy.
Of course, cooking your own food (preferably 100% organic, and even better if you pluck it from your backyard or drink straight from a cow’s udders, I supposed) is always the best, but I mean, there are times you just have to go for the more convenient alternatives. And honestly, eating instant combini food could be a lot healthier than eating out when I am in KL, say for example, a plate of char kuey teow (my fav) VS zaru soba bento + a box of vegetable smoothie.
I guess a lot of people liken Japanese convenient stores with those from other countries, a place where you buy instant junk food for a quick hunger fix. But man. Japanese combini is more than that. Waaaaaaay more than that. It is a new way of life. (Did you know that you can post letters and receive your parcels from the combini?)
Eating from combini is called “nakashoku“, a culture that bridges the traditional “Naishoku” (eating in – cooking at home), and modern “Gaishoku” (eating out – in resaurants/cafe).
To shake off the image that convenient food is unhealthy, combini in Japan has shifted towards stocking more and more healthy choices, mostly additive-free, preservative-free, freshly packed complete with calorie count, allergy information and even choices that cater for special dietary needs like low-GI, low carb, high iron, people who want to get drunk, people who don’t want to get drunk, people who want to eat junk food but wanna be healthy too, etc.
The new Lawson’s healthy smoothie series is addictive. The packaging is so pretty I ended up getting every single flavor from the shelf. So many choices of fruits and also different percentage blend of fruits VS vegetable.
Instant non-unhealthy lunch: NebaNeba Soba with okra, nameko, seaweed and yamaimo. Confirm better than CKT.
Junya loved it so much he finished the whole bowl.
I have not been cooking much since our family started this 3-countries rotation traveling crazy life. And I constantly worry about insufficient vegetable intake for the family since eating out almost usually means meat and carbs.
I was surprised that the only time we are eating the most greens are when we went for combini food. Take this meal for example.
100% fruit and vegetable smoothie that contains 1/3 of recommended daily vegetable intake.
Stir-fry vegetable and meat bento, with half of daily vegetable intake. With the smoothie, that’s 80% of vegetable intake of the day in one single meal!
Spinach in sesame marinate as a side. Confirm too much vegetable liao lol. Dinner can just spam on KFC lol.
Even Junya loves his spinach.
Combini dessert.
Sometimes you even get luxurious food from the combini especially during special festive days. For example the combini sold unagi jyu bento for Doyo-No-Ushi (Eating eel on the midsummer Day of the Ox).
I think combini will slowly take over the world. Wanna eat Michilin star sushi? Combini. Wanna buy a spaceship? Combini. Hahaha.
So yes. I love my combini, thank you very much .
This is a gaishoku (eat-out) day at Torikizoku. Love this chain yakitori place. Everything at 280 yen!
ENTERTAIN
And then I watch tv. With the kids. When the danna is not working, we watch tv. All day long.
I swear I haven’t watched tv in Malaysia for at least like 10 years. We have a tv in KL but it’s for decoration purpose only. In Singapore, WE DON’T EVEN HAVE ONE HAHHAHA. I mean, who watches tv nowadays when you have Youtube and Pokemongo.
But not in Japan. First thing after waking up – tv. Watch until hungry then go combini get food. Then do housework while watching tv. Try to blog/work while the tv is on = NOTHING GETS DONE.
That’s how great Japanese tv programs are. For sure I’ll experience both stomach pain (from too much laughing at variety shows) AND wiping tears off secretly (from overly dramatic but meaningfully touching documentaries) in one day, if i watch enough tv. That’s how evil Japanese tv is.
Also, I learn lots of useful shit without even consciously wanting to, from just not switching the tv off. It’s like the tv wants me to be a smarter person. I probably learn more things from a 30 sec tv commercial than reading 50 rubbish blogs (like this one) LOLOL.
I learnt how to differentiate a delicious tomato from mediocre ones, how to prevent wall mould, how a cicada hatches and how to live a long and awesome life over an hour of TV watching.
Did you know? Piman (Japanese bell pepper) is the most delicious when it is red color. (As in green-turned-red. Piman is also different from capsicum species, I have never seen Japan selling red-color piman!). But most supermarkets sell it when it is green because once it turns red, it only lasts for a few days before going bad.
Did you know? The Shinkansen bento can come in a Shinkansen bento box.
Did you know? Fishermen hate otters because they eat all the uni (until no more left). This uni fisherman master says that he feels tulan just looking at cute otter faces in the zoo lol.
There is also a program on how big families (typically 6-10 or more children in one family) in Japan live their lives. Seriously, I only have two kids and I feel like I need to level up until borderline kisiao already. This mother has 6 kids @.@ and it is like she is pokeMOM level infinity lol.
To cut cost, each meal she cooks for a family of 8 is below 500 yen wtf. That’s like SGD6. You get 3 buns from BreadTalk lol. Plus her meals are not even like shabby wan. It’s proper and nutritionally balanced.
She would visit 3 supermarkets to compare prices just to save 6 yen on bean sprout. Wait I don’t even know how much that is in SGD. Hold on let me google.
Ok it’s SGD0.079. Yeap.
That’s all. Gotta go level up now. #pokeMOMgo
You must be stupid. Red peppers are actually ripened green peppers. It’s not just Japan that is magically growing red peppers from green peppers. This is also why red peppers are generally more expensive than green ones and that theg taste sweeter.
And another thing, smoothies are not technically healthier option than consuming the fruit and veggie as is because in smoothies form there is no fiber (one of the main reason why fruit and veggie are important in our diets is beacause of fibers) and it’s basically just sugar in liquid form. Of course smoothies is healthier than eating sweets and candies but still u don’t derived any nutritional value fro it apart from water and sugar. And all the antioxidants from the fruits and veggies will be oxidized anyways since it’s bottled and packaged like that.
And please, I know you love Japan and all and I don’t fault you, it is a great country. But can you stop putting down Malaysia, which is also a great country, just to make Japan look better. They are both great and you really don’t need to compare it that way.
To Sarah: I think YOU are the one who is stupid because smoothies are basically blended fruits and vegetables with lots of fiber, which is why people drink smoothie when they had no chance or time to eat vegetables and fruits. The fiberless drink you are talking about is called JUICE. Go back to school. And you must be living in past century or a technologically retarded country to think that bottled smoothie has no nutritional value. Also, I don’t see how Cheesie is putting down any country or making any comparison at all. You are easily offended because… let me guess, maybe you are upset that you are stuck in your technologically retarded country that sells bad smoothies?
To Cheesie: Reading your blog always give me new perspective on living in Japan. I followed your blog long ago and I loved how you make Japan sound like an awesome place but never really get to experience it first hand. Guess what? Two years ago I applied for a work holi and now I am living in Saitama and it is just the best thing I’ve ever done. I totally understand all the amazing things you mused about, because I am seeing it myself. Also, I have finished reading your ebook few weeks ago and I must say that it is one of the best read in my collection. I hope you come up with a sequel! 🙂
‘Smoothies let you consume a lot more fruit than you usually would during a sitting, which means that even if you’re not adding sweeteners like honey or agave, you’ll still be getting a good deal of sugar. A store-bought fruit smoothie can pack 58 grams of sugar in a single 16-oz bottle. (By comparison, 12 ounces of cola has about 40 grams of sugar.)
It’s the same reason some studies have warned against fruit juice, which can pack as much sugar as soda and is linked to higher blood pressure and obesity. Juice strips out the fruit’s naturally occurring fiber, which greatly speeds up absorption of sugar.
Barry Popkin, PhD, professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health, sees smoothies as similar to fruit juice, another drinkable fruit product that has a health halo he doesn’t think it deserves. “Actually, long-term fruit juice intake is linked with increased risk of diabetes and other health problems,” Popkin says.’
– http://time.com/3737812/smoothies-healthy-breakfast-fruit/
And just so you know, I am actually living in a Birmingham right now and not in a technologically retarded country that sells bad smoothies. And also I am dietitician working in Birmingham Children’s Hospital and have worked in Canada and Singapore
Yeap yeap yeap, keep on name dropping. Did you just googled that? 😀 That makes you sound real smart. 😀
It shocked me that a self proclaimed dietician can say things like “smoothie has no fiber”, only to adjust her statement after some convenient googling. Marvelous. I wonder how many of your patients have suffered from your ignorance. Poor children.
I have never thought of buying green peppers also 😲 We have green and red bell peppers here in philippines. but i always buy the red one, don’t know why? so yeah not only japan has red bellpepper
Are you able to inform people without insulting them first? That is so incredibly rude.
Dear Sarah,
It appears that you have mistaken me, the humble Juice, with my magnificent cousin Smoothie. Nevertheless I feel much maligned by your claim that I have no substance and am merely water and sugar. I’ll have you know that your assertion doesn’t hold water and you’re leaking loads of it by the bucketful. For one, my composition consists of water-soluble nutrients like vitamin c, folate, potassium and phytonutrients. When packed immediately into airtight containers, my constituents doesn’t oxidize as much as you make it to be.
Yours indignantly,
Juice
HAHHAHAHAHAHA. Good one.
We are arguing about SMOOTHIE here. REALLY? lol. I’m quite offended.
Yes. With some cherry-picking on the side. All this on a blog called Cheeserland. Bring on the corn. It’s a free-for-all brawl at the smoothie bar! Love it! *Applause*
Hi Cheesie,
What is the brand of the dryer?
Thank you!
Cheesie may I know if you bring two strollers to japan for your two children? We are planning a trip and I am stuck with packing T_T. Anyway really admire how you handle traveling with two kids, definitely no easy job!
Japanese combinis are awesome!! Love all their seasonal items especially all the seasonal Haagen Dazs flavors that we can never get in Singapore!! 😭 There’s a misconception that everything in Japan’s too expensive but cost of living in Singapore now is actually higher 😭 And comparing the quality of stuffs you get in Japan, it’s so much more value for money even daily necessities. Every cafe/restaurant there is worth every penny (well other than the touristy areas), and you really get what you pay for! It’s always nice reading your blog cause things you share about Japan are all so so true 😆
The Neba Neba noodles look really yummy though… Seeing you bringing 2 kids around all the same really inspire me to be a better mum 🙂 Gambate!
http://www.millionmars.com
I love the green smoothie from Lawson.. Must have it every morning when I’m in Japan… And yes, Japan’s combini rocks!!!
I remember freaking out when I learned that green peppers were just unripe red peppers!! Like WTF lol. So whenever bell peppers go on sale, I only buy red ones because they are worth more haha.
Also I wanted to ask if the smoothies you pick have no added sugar? The problem with convenience food is that often times, manufacturers add a lot more sugar or salt to make it taste good. Like I picked up loaf of whole grain bread and the second ingredient was sugar!!!! But japanese combini food still looks a lot healthier than what I have in my to-go section in the states.
Convenient stores in Japan sounds too wonderful sometimes. I agree there are a lot of efforts made to make their food and services great, but to only shining the spotlight on that part is a bit misleading. For instance, Japan put out a lot of waste products, eventhough they separate their waste thinking that most of them will be recycled and well managed, they still ALL goes into the same landfill? And most local Japanese don’t even know it, because the government does not state clearly where and how they will process the waste. That not to say the Japanese public is at fault, but my point it that blindly promoting something and claiming it to be something that is marketed as “healthy” affect a lot of the misinform readers. I’m not blaming Cheesie on this, but when some of the readers points out something that may not be agreeing with Cheesie, they get bombarded with hate, though I think sometimes the disagreeing readers’ language are a bit harsh.
Yeap yeap and we are also merely pointing out some reader’s misleading comment.
And talking about bombarded with hate, dude, should we applause a reader when she starts her comment with “you must be stupid”?
Your double standard needs some serious revision.
“You stupid!”
“No YOU stupid!”
“No I not stupid. Look I know how to Google.”
“Know Google very smart meh?”
“Don’t wan friend you liao. You don’t believe what I say one”
“I also don’t wan you. You so rude”
Hi Cheesie! Your food entries always make me hungry cobini or not, healthy or not…lol! Lovin’ every post.
PokéMom, Y U SO 搞笑！ Read your blog horr very distress leaaa LOL