by Jeannette

【両国】Tokyo Edo Museum - Edo Zone

My scholarship field trip to

Tokyo Edo Museum

江戸東京博物館

(website here)

When the word Museum pop out

a lot of people will think of

BORING

but this Museum has a lot of things to see

worth to see!!!!!

☆☆☆☆☆

The exhibition inside separated into 3 zone

Edo Zone, Tokyo Zone, the second exhibition zone

「江戸ゾーン」「東京ゾーン」「第２企画展示室」

It has 5 floor

and you really need some time to walk around

of course you can enjoying taking photo inside (^^,)

☆☆☆☆☆

It is located at Ryoukoku

A place famous for sumo!!!!

You will need a entrance fee of ￥600

and student for ￥480

The building is very very HUGE

It has a lot escalator to reach the entrance

This is how it looks inside

the exhibition area is on top

After entering the lobby

There is a lot of character walking around

with strange thing on their head

actually the strange thing represents

Tower from the world

eg: Tokyo Tower, Eiffel Tower, ......

(cant remember... to be frank... I do not know LOL)

Not only walking around posing for the audience to take photo

they have dancing performance as well!!

This is the map

After the entrance

you will be entering the

Edo zone

江戸ゾーン

you will see a replica of

This is the Nihonbashi bridge

日本橋

(more info here)　

（The real Nihonbashi now is renovated and is very beautiful)

From the bridge you can see a

car (status?) a like thing

sorry I do not know the exact name for it

but it is use to carry by a bunch of people

in some kinds of festival

The Festival to celebrate some god i think

Just the past the bridge

this will start the introduction to the politics of the Edo Era

one can then view display portraying

the lifestyle, the economic system, and the culture

of the Edo Era

The Edo zone portrays the characteristic lifestyle of the Edo culture

☆☆☆☆☆

There is a lot of small modelling in the exhibition

that replays the history in more creatively

I really enjoy the history in this way

Here is the town nearby the Nihonbashi bridge

town full with business man and professional

which they named it

寛永の町人地

(more info here)

The is the mansion

寛永の大名屋敷

(more info here)

This is the theater where the Kabuki is performed

芝居小屋・中村座（正面部分）

(more info here)

For those chinese

I think you might see this before!!!!!

a car runs by human leg!!!!!!

which means

(the chinese old history)

The bride will hop into the small box

then 2 or 4 guys will carry the box with the long pole attached to the box

you can imagine how big is the box↓

For some of you might be familiar with it

This is very famous in Nagoya

The dragon fish

This item is usually put at the edge of the roof of the castle or temple in Nagoya

Not sure in other prefecture

The water pale used to carry water

I still wondering what is this..........

small modeling of a town with bridge

This is a very HUGE flag thingy

use in disaster or rescue

so how did it works?????

The lag thingy is dam HUGE

and is heavy!!!!!

This flag is being used when a fire is out

to alert the residence of the town

an old shop selling drawing

Taiko (Japanese drum)

It is very obviously a sailing boat lol

when we get bored

we always do stupid stuff

That is me in a jacket with long ears and tail

and

that is me being pull

hahaha

old shopping mall

三井越後屋江戸本店

(more info here)

There is a corner that shows all the pattern that is

fashioned during Edo period

Those pattern currently still used

for the yukata (summer japanese cloths)

Not only the Fashion

There is also the hair style!!!!

Lastly

The statue of the Edo kabuki actor and actress

The kabuki is still continue until now!!!

and guess what

I will go to the National Theater

and watch kabuki this coming October!!!!!!!

But I do not sure whether I can take photo of it or not

If can I would be delighted (^^,)!!!!!!

Looking forward to watch Kabuki!!!!!

歌舞伎！！！！

Banana Bread

It's baking time!!!!!

I always craving for banana cakes

After I arrive Japan

As there is no banana cake on sales!!!

So I decided to make banana cake

After I search through the Internet for recepi and I found a recepi without using butter

It sounds non oily and healthy

(I think)

So I decided to try it

☆☆☆☆☆

Another good thing to make banana cake is

You can get rid of your ripe banana!!

☆☆☆☆☆

The ingredients are

A Ripe banana, 60g flour, 40g sugar, 2 eggs and vanilla essence

熟したバナナ、60g 小麦粉、40g砂糖、卵2個、バニラエッセンス

☆☆☆☆☆

First

You need to divide the egg white and yolk separately

「卵白」の「黄身」を分ける

☆☆☆☆☆

Then

Now pill of the banana skin and insert it into a bowl smash the banana

バナナの皮を抜いてからボウルに入れて

バナナをつぶす

Then

Insert the egg yolk into the bowl and mix all up

黄身をボウルに入れてミックス

Then the egg white part

blend it with a electrical mixer

(or you can use your hand to beat it with a mixer but it will takes up ages)

until the egg white become sticky bubble

ミクサーで卵白をメレンゲに

Then

insert the flour and sugar and

mix all together

小麦粉と砂糖を入れて混ぜる

Then insert the egg white sticky bubble into the mixture

メレンゲを入れる

Then lastly pour the mixture into a mole with cooking sheet

(to avoid the mixture stick to the mole after baked)

ミックスしたものをクッキングシートが敷いた模様に入れる

Lastly!!!!

prepare your oven/microwave oven with

170 degree with pre heating

and bake for 35minuts

最後に

オーブンレンジを170度に設定して（予熱あり）

35分焼く

Finally you will get

it should be a banana cake

but there is no butter in it and it taste more like bread

I named it

Banana bread

instead of banana cake

If you want it to be more fluffy

You may insert baking powder

If you want it more volume

add in another banana

(the photo below....I used 2 banana and I get my bread more "wet")

I tried with 1 banana before and

it comes out very fluffy

So by using 1 banana is

recommended (^^,)

Lets try!!!!!!!

【新宿】 Hanami @ Shinjuku Gyoen

This is another Garden/Park in Shinjuku, Tokyo

Shinjuku Gyoen 新宿御苑

(website here)

There is an entrance fee of ￥200

The entrance fee is very cool

I took a video of it

(This video was taken at yr2010 so I might have a strong Taiwanese essence)

haha

Hanami season on the weekend

is full with crowd

we queue for some time to go into the gate

Just see the crowd!!!!!!

The park is kind huge though

easy to get lost

so better stay close with your friend during this season

Just see the crowd below the sakura trees

so hard to find a way to walk

The Japanese just love to sit under the sakura tree for picnic

You know why????

There is a legend that

During this season

If there is a sakura petal drop into your drink

(But not by hand!!!! is by nature!!!!)

Then you will gain luck and happiness

Shinjuku Gyoen is one of he best spot for hanami

you can see the sakura tree is so HUGE

This is the image of the Cherry Blossom that is fully blossomed

When the sakura is fully blossomed

It is very beautiful

The picnic dishes

Japanese treat with Sakura flower flavoring

This scenery looks very story book

If you are early enough

you can get the seat with table

But the tree is not as huge as just now

When the evening is reaching

everyone start to pack off

The sakura flower is very pretty!!!!!

The national flower of Japan

This was my First Hanami when I arrived Japan

It was in year 2010

lately the weather changed a lot

suddenly hot suddenly cold

It is very hard to know when the Sakura will blossom

a lot of people asked me the same question

when is the best time to go??

When is the Sakura will blossomed??

I wish I am the GOD

Usually the period is Around Early - Mid April

That is the normal period in TOKYO

There is different timing in all over Japan

This year in 2013

The weather gone CRAZY

suddenly hot in the middle of early of spring

that caused all the Sakura blossomed in the Middle of March

That is the biggest shocked I ever had!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 month early......

I am too busy till cannot enjoy my hanami this year

I thought it was on April

＊SAD＊

I bet all those foreigners who bought their ticket to see the Sakura

will be disappointed with that

So conclusion is

depends on LUCK!!!!!

for you guys out of Japan

If you wanna see Sakura

either take the risk

or take longer holiday

(This is a bit tough though)

Good Luck!!!!!!

【渋谷】 Napolis Pizza

Gathering @ Shibuya on Saturday Nite!!!!!

as usual the crowd is amazing

Shibuya is a place that

the movie of

Tokyo Drift

took place at

Actually that was a CG (Computer Graphic) though

☆☆☆☆☆

This gathering is mainly on celebrating

the success of our Job Hunting

The group that met at GE Health care

during the seminar and group discussion

But

There is none of us get into GE Health care

LOL!!!!

The fate that bring us together

we get along very good though

High tension group whenever we get together

So the whole group of us decided to gather again

in Shibuya

☆☆☆☆☆

The other day I come across this shop in a TV show

Napolis ナポリス

(website here)

a pizza shop

that is baked from

the stone oven

石窯焼きピザ

It is a chain shop so there is a few shops

The shop we went is located at

〒150−0041 東京都渋谷区神南1−20−16 高山ランドビル1F

Geographically is located behind Apple store

Out from Hachiko exit ハチ公口

then walk towards Tsutaya direction then take the right lane

then walk straight then turn left some where

The shop looks like this

Red background with yellow font

very striking!!!!

This is the Buffet Menu list (all in Japanese though)

You can speak English to the waiter

cos almost everyone is foreigners is working there

you can see the other Menu at here

The pizza prize range is ￥350～￥650

additional of ￥300 or ￥600 for the set
with drinks, salad, fries and/without desert

Or you may get a Buffet at ￥2000 for the eat all you can pizza
with fries, nugget, sausage and 1 drink

To add alcohol free flow add ￥800

☆☆☆☆☆

The pizza is awesome!!!!!

as I told you

although is a chain shop

they made and baked it one by one with the stone oven