Showing posts with label yokohama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yokohama. Show all posts

Monday, May 6, 2013

Japan trip articles

Managed to get copies of these and scanned them~ ♡
Two of my articles on trips to Japan!

  Page 1 || Page 2 
Interview on Chubu in JNTO's Japan Travel Magazine for Girls.

The first one is a travel magazine for girls distributed in February 2013 at the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) booth at NATAS, Singapore's largest travel fair. The article is based on an interview on my solo trip to Chubu/Hokuriku (Central Japan) in July 2011. Plane ticket sponsored by Singapore Airlines, Alpine Route ticket sponsored by Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. You can check out the in-depth entries and photos at my Chubu/Hokuriku page~ ♡ After the trip, Chubu/Hokuriku became one of my favorite places in Japan, so much that I just had to squeeze in Fukui when I planned another solo trip to Kansai in 2012 (^^)

 
  Page 1 || Page 2
Yokohama trip report in Campus Magazine, Issue #20.

Campus magazine is a magazine targeting tertiary students in Singapore. The feature is my report on the Yokohama trip in September 2012, sponsored by the Yokohama Convention & Visitor's Bureau. The report is a photo-diary style summary of popular places to visit. You can check out in-depth entries at my Yokohama page~ ♬ Yokohama is a gorgeous port city, and the night view/bay view is amazing!

Monday, November 26, 2012

Cupnoodles Museum Yokohama

 
I'm sure no one's a stranger to cup noodles. Though they now come in all sorts of flavors and packaging, the original cup noodles are the ones by Nissin, invented by Ando Momofuku (founder of Nissin) in 1971. Anyway, if you're ever in Yokohama, check out the Cupnoodles Museum! 

 
Only recently opened 2 years ago, the museum is dedicated to cup noodles and the spirit of invention. Conveniently located in the Minatomirai area, you can learn about the history of cup noodles, instant noodles and even try your hand at making them ♡ You can also concoct your own flavor of cup noodles!

 
Walls and walls of the various types of Nissin noodles and cup noodles.
Ando Momofuku invented instant noodles in 1958 when he was 48,
cup noodles in 1971 when he was 61,
and Space Ram (instant noodles for outer space) in 2006 when he was 95



My "Delicious Seafood Flavor"~ 
If you're short on time but still want an original souvenir,
you can concoct your own flavor of cup noodles for 300yen!
It takes less than 15minutes, and the helping of toppings is very generous. 
You can also design the exterior of the cup.

 
Choose from 4 soup bases: seafood, curry, chicken and...I forgot^^
Then you get to choose up to 4 toppings to add in.
I chose shrimp, crab stick, fishcake and spring onions.
The fishcake is imprinted with cute chicks!

 
Then you pack it in an inflatable bag to sling over your shoulder and carry around~
Apparently it's a very common activity for couples when they come to Yokohama,
saw many of them carrying these and walking around Minatomirai.

The cup noodle mascot!

 
If you have more time on your hands, another fun hands-on activity you can try out is making your own chicken ramen, which takes about 45 minutes.

 
You get to make it from scratch, starting from the flour and oil!
Mix and knead until it becomes dough, then roll to flatten.

 
Then comes the tiring part, putting the dough through this machine to flatten it evenly.
Done by manually rotating the handles...many tens of times. Just keep rotating and rotating...

 
And the finished product!
You get to design the packaging too!

 
For children, on the upper level there's a Cup Noodles Park.

 
It's basically a playground/play area where kids can "experience" being a piece of noodle in a factory line.
Sadly I didn't get to try it because only kids were allowed^^

 
Art piece in the museum.
In the mass of noodle strands, you can see words like unique, happy and creative.

 
There's also a cool light/shadows interactive display thing.
Touch the wall and shadow things appear and move about!

 
Every museum has a gift shop!

Cup noodle-shaped manjuu!

The Cupnoodles Museum is located in Minatomira in Yokohama, very near the city's other attractions. There's also an Instant Ramen Museum in Osaka (where Ando Momofuku first set up Nissin), and they have the same activities, so if you're in Osaka you can check out the one there instead~

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Halloween-themed goodies in Yokohama

Halloween is drawing near~! As a child I used to love Halloween...all the crafts, costumes and fun trick-or-treating! Sadly, Singapore doesn't really celebrate Halloween/trick-or-treating, so after coming here I never really felt the "Halloween spirit" or the "Halloween season". Hence I was really glad to have seen so much Halloween decorations and items when I was in Yokohama. Everywhere we went, I saw special/seasonal Halloween-themed items!

 Store display at Bashamichi Ice in Akarenga.
They kind of mixed Halloween and autumn decorations cos summer's ending and autumn's coming!

Some Halloween-themed felt crafts.
Very nostalgic, I miss making all the fun Halloween crafts when I was a kid!

Little candy buckets of jack-o-lanterns, Frankenstein heads and mummy heads! 

Creepy moving hand! 

Halloween-themed candles 

Even Godiva has some Halloween hype~ 

More sweets! 

Outside Donki, there were tons of Halloween goodies, in fact, the whole section outside was devoted to Halloween-themed things! One Piece is obviously very popular, there were even Chopper and Perona sweet packs!

Halloween Haribo! 

Candies in jack-o-lantern heads and more Choppers!
Somehow, during the Halloween season, pumpkin heads suddenly seem really cute.

They had a section for Halloween costumes, and there was even a Chopper costume! 

More goodies and decorations for gift wrapping! 
There were even adorable cards and things for trick-or-treating.

Do you celebrate Halloween in your country? Places in Singapore don't really have much Halloween decorations or Halloween-themed goods (though clubs have Halloween/horror parties etc), and only select supermarkets have a limited selection of Halloween candy :(

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Yokohama 横浜: Day 3 ♡

 Started off the day with the best breakfast/meal of the trip, a Japanese breakfast! ♡
The restaurant was Oshima at Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay.
By the way, this is a picture of the table beside us that had already finished their meal ^^

 The breakfast set had so many dishes: fish, scallop, tamagoyaki, tofu, soup, rice, tsukemono...

It even had one of my favorites, mentaiko!!
I love mentaiko! And every time I'm in Japan I'll buy mentaiko onigiri from conbinis^^
There's just something about mentaiko that makes it so tasty, especially with rice!
Needless to day, breakfast was delectable and extremely filling, it was more like a brunch to us!

After breakfast we checked out, left our luggage at the hotel and headed to Motomachi 元町, a shopping street. It's located very near Chinatown, you get off at the same train station.

Motomachi is a lovely cobblestone street that closes entry to traffic from 11am on weekends. We reached slightly before 11am, when they were just about the close off access for cars! The street is lined with pretty plants and flowers, which is always a plus point as greenery adds scenery. You will also be spoilt for choice by the many patisseries selling delectable cakes and pastries!

Adorable dogs and children are a common sight, as people flock here during the weekends to leisurely stroll  along the street. This cutie was somewhat reluctant to be pulled along by its owner and kept running here and there!

Halloween-themed chocolates at Godiva! 

Pretty cutlery...and very expensive! 

Colorful and cute umbrellas with animal heads as the handles! 

Cute dog with a pink shirt, resting on a bench^^ 

 ♡ Beautiful buddy resting outside a store

Spotted at a drugstore: limited edition pink Hello Kitty packaged D.U.P eyelash glue!! I thought last year's limited-edition pink packaging was cute, but this year it's not only pink, but Hello Kitty as well! I didn't get it though, I still have lots of tubes to use up...

Stopped for a short tea break, 1st montblanc of the day.
Montblanc is one of my favorite patisseries! ♡

This was kind of a scam, we wanted to just order cakes, but then the lady said we had to get drinks too, as it's part of a set (there wasn't a proper menu, you select cakes from the display). And the drinks cost more than the cake! But oh well, tea breaks are always nice!

 Two collies in a pram....I don't know why.

Yokohama Doll Museum ♡
Take caution when coming at night, the dolls behind the glass will scare you!
There was a doll near the entrance that was eerily lifelike, like a child.
Even my camera's face/smile detector detected it.

Marine Tower, a popular symbol of Yokohama. 
Built as a lighthouse in 1961, it is now a popular venue for holding weddings! They even have a special web-page regarding holding weddings there. Illuminated at night, the tower has restaurants, cafes and bars, and is popular spot for night dates.

Couldn't leave Yokohama without visiting Donki

Halloween Haribo
There were tons of Halloween-related goodies outside Donki. And all around Yokohama like candy stores, supermarkets and even in malls like Akarenga and Colette Mare. Wish Singapore could have that too!

Headed back to the hotel to dump stuff in our luggage, and on the way back saw some university students performing in Queen's Square (mall linked to Minatomirai station). Students from the flamenco club of one of Yokohama's universities! 

There's an area in Queen's Square called Minatomirai 109, which has a bunch of 109 brands like Cecil McBee, Esperanza, Dazzlin, Glad News...etc.

After that we headed over to Cosmo World, a small theme-park located by the bay. Here you can find rides, take purikura, play UFO catcher machines and Gashapon capsule toy dispensers. The arcade area had UFO catcher machines...which we didn't try^^

The main point of going to the arcade was to take purikura! 

There were also rides like this spinning thing which I would have loved to try, I love exciting/thrilling rides! 

And the main reason we went: to ride the Cosmo Clock 21, the world's largest clock, that's also a Ferris wheel! Standing at 112.5m, it has 60 passenger cars and takes 15 minutes to complete one rotation. After looking at it everyday since we got to Yokohama (our hotel rooms had views facing the bay and the Ferris wheel!), we just had to ride it.  

 At the wheel goes round, you can enjoy a 360-degree panoramic view of the Minatomirai area! 

  

Another mall in the area, World Porters. 

And Akarenga again ♡

Yokohama Oktoberfest, which was held right outside Akarenga!
Admission to the premises is 200yen, food and drinks are separate costs. 

Held annually at the Redbrick Warehouse, the event recreates the authentic Oktoberfest atmosphere of the Munich festivals.

There was a large selection of locally brewed Japanese beers and authentic German beers specially flown in.


And there was also the variety of German food like wurst and sauerkraut, and not forgetting the entertaining live band; the event was so much fun! I loooove sauerkraut, it's just so delicious!

Kanpai! 

Headed into Akarenga for more food cos the queues at Oktoberfest were crazy long and crammed. 
This is Kiyoken 崎陽軒, they make famous Yokohama shuumai/siew mai.

This is how Japanese shuumai looks like...very different from Singapore/Hong Kong siew mai! 
But it's sooo tasty! The skin is thin and the meat is juicy...
Now I will buy Kiyoken shuumai whenever I go to Japan!

Also got a special autumn bentou set. The kanji in the middle is "aki", the word for autumn. 



Montblanc #2 of the day, from Bashamichi Ice. This one is ice-cream!
It's soft serve vanilla ice-cream in the center, covered by chestnut cream on the outside ♡

Pan Pacific at night. 

Colorful lights of the amusement park rides reflected in the water ♡ 

Montblanc #3 of the day, along with green tea float! 
Last meal of the day before heading to Haneda airport :(

One of the purikura we took ♡