Japan Day 5 - Nara 奈良, Edogawa Naramachi, Arabiya Coffee, Hokkyokusei Omurice

Today is Mentaiko Bun for breakfast!




Nara today!




You'll find a tourist center right outside the train station.




Get some souvenirs inside!




There's a shopping street, we're going to walk through to get to our lunch location, Edogawa Naramachi.








Looking good.




That's the place, in a traditional house.








We have to change into slippers and the locker keys are handed to us.






Tatami seating.










This is the Mini-Ju set, 1,800 Yen.





I do think the pieces of unagi are pretty thin.


Umaki Ju, 1,890 Yen.




And this set that comes with a Wagyu Shabu. Sorry, I don't know the price for this.

The restaurant is good if you like to experience some expensive tatami dining. Food wise is above average but not really value for money.

Japan Day 4 - Osaka 大阪: The Instant Noodle Museum 方便面发明纪念馆, Daimaru, Ippudo Ramen 博多一風堂, Mizuno Okonomiyaki 美津の

This is my breakfast. From family mart obviously. Ketchup onigiri with omelette, there's a little curry sauce inside too.






Yakisoba bun. Really is '面'包. It's quite nice actually.




We got this castella cake from Tokyo Domestic Airport. Hoping that it would be as good as Taiwan's Honey Cake.




'Batman' icon wrapping inside.




Looks really good. This does not have honey. It has a very strong taste of egg in it. Cake is a little more firm.




Nice weather outside.




The garbage truck so cute one!







Our plan was suppose to be Nara Park today but we realised that the Cup Noodle Museum will be closed tomorrow, so we changed plans.

We're heading for the Cup Noodle Museum instead.




Get down at this stop. Then we have to walk to another train station. Quite a lot of walking to do when the stations are not near.








Buy tickets again.








So many platforms here. Omg.




Cup noodle museum is near Ikeda station.














Almost there.

Photo with the founder of nissin.

Opening hours here. Please note that they will be closed on public holidays.

There are people who can speak english or chinese to guide and give you a short introduction.




Or you could use the guide available.




Take a look around the museum, look at the range of instant noodles that was available throughout the years.






This one cute leh.




Oooh. Yakisoba.




The earliest instant noodles.




The steps to making our own cup noodles.




And we queue...




Now we get our cup. 300 yen which is $3.60 for an experience. Totally alright! If you have no small change, don't worry. There's a money exchange machine just beside.








Our cups!




Clean hands with alcohol spray.




Yay! Getting excited!




And we start drawing!





Totally no idea what to draw. Anyhow.






Boyfriend's.




Once ready, we get back in the queue. This time to get our noodles.






This guy got talent.




Long queue ahead.




Our turn to get the noodles in!










Then we have to choose what we want to add inside the cup. There are 4 soup flavours and 10 toppings to choose from.

So we have to choose 1 flavour and 4 toppings.




I chose curry flavour and my choices are...
- Naruto (fish cake) because it's so cute.




- Egg




- Roast pork




- Garlic





Queuing up to get sealed






Tight fitting.








Done!




Yay!




Now we put them in bags.




Puff it up for protection.




Tie it.




And it's a bag! This place was fun, I recommend everyone to go at least once.




Now we shall head back...





Many berries on the trees.






Gonna have our lunch at Ippudo!




There's only a few choices.




We have to queue here too.






Almost our turn.




I like how the Japanese always serves tea before taking our orders.















Ramen is good, above average but I wouldn't say it was superb.

- - - - -

Off we go again~





To Daimaru because there's a Calbee shop here, which we thought was something like Nissin too.




The window displays are very interesting to see.






The food level is a dessert heaven. Allow me to show you...
















I bought some very expensive honey and honey cake and everything was very nicely wrapped up. Aww~ Thanks to the lady at the booth.






Had some yummy matcha ice cream too.




Bought candies to give out.




The Calbee shop was just a booth, selling very premium and expensive potato chips. There was a crazy long queue, we choose to skip it.

I was sick of holding on to the Nissin bag, so I tied it to my bagpack.




And boyfriend tied his too. -.-




I got this maple nuts cake from Family Mart. It was yums.

- - - - -

We traveled back to Dotonburi!

Going to have dinner at the angry man restaurant.






It's just some fried stuffs on sticks, I don't really know how to appreciate this.




So you dip the skewers into the sauce before you take any bite out of it. If you need more sauce, use the cabbage to spread the sauce on your food, also one time dip.






I think only the grilled rice is the best out of everything that's ordered.




The skewers are quite expensive and not filling, so we went to an Okonomiyaki store that was popular on Tripadvisor. The restaurant's name was Mizuno.

Look at the queue.




It was about a 30 mins wait for us to get to the entrance, which also at this point of time... we realise that the waiters weren't aren't very friendly. This is the first time we met with such unfriendly service in Japan and probably the only time.




The waiters would fry the okonomiyaki right in front of us.




We ordered a Japanese yam, Yamaimo-yaki, a special that's only served during the winter season. And their usual, the Mizuno-yaki. 

The yam was gooey and we're just not used to the texture, while the usual was just alright. I wouldn't recommend this place. The restaurant that we went to in Hiroshima was far far better then this.






This was the only best thing we had in the restaurant.




Even the cripsy fried chicken salad, can go wrong... Where is the cripsy???





Strolled around... to see the famous Glico man.





Looks like pufferfish.




Shopped at the "Mustafa" of Japan, Don Quijote, or you could call it, Donki. It was a shopping heaven! Must go! This branch here has this ferris wheel looking structure, the other branches have a huge penguin on the signboard.





Here are some of the things that I have gotten... like powdered green tea.




Bath salts.




Hair brush and a teeth whitening thing.




Foot masks.




Loads of salonpas. Very good for travelling, especially when we have to walk a lot.




And we thought that it would be nice to have some coffee before heading back. Honolulu, nice place with seats facing the 'river'.










We ordered a chiffon cake, donut and some drinks. So much better than the dinner earlier on.