An irresistible vanilla yogurt

One of my favorite yogurts in Japan is "vanirayouguruto - バニラヨーグルト" or vanilla yogurt in english. It is creamy and really delicious. Really an irresistible yogurt. For the price, it is sold around 200 yen for 3 pots but if go shopping on a sale day, you can find it much cheaper (150 yen).
Its ingredients are powder milk, sugar, eggs, agar and flavors (乳製品、砂糖、卵黄、寒天、香料).
More information in Japanese: http://www.nipponluna.co.jp/products/yog_01/vani.html

Gathering in front of Israel Embassy in Tokyo

There will be a gathering near Israel embassy in tokyo to protest against Israeli's raid on the humanitarian sea convoy aiming to reach Gaza with food, wheel chairs, medicines and building materials.

The demonstration is organized by a collective efforts by many Muslim organization in Japan, e.g., Islamic Center japan (ICJ), Japan Islamic Trust (JTI), Muslims Students Association of Japan (MSAJ), Pakistan Peoples Party Japan (PPP-Japan), Friends of Pakistan in Japan (FOP), etc.

The information is as following:
Date: June 4, 2010 at 3:00 pm.
Location: In front of Israel embassy.
Access: Tokyo-Metro Yurakucho Line Kojimachi Station (exit 6)
Gathering place at exit No. 6

Content of silent gathering for protest:

- distributing some papers about what happen,

- rising some pictures, and play card,

- speech in Japanese language,

- condemnation letter.

Tsumra-Ladies Cycling Tour - May 9, 2010

Whether you are a novice or an avid cyclist, you are more than welcome to join us on our next cycling tour.

• Destination: Suzumeko farm. (website: http://www.suzumeko.com/ichigogari.htm)

• Address:

すずめっこ森 マルヤ観光農園
〒315-0067
茨城県かすみがうら市下佐谷978-1

• Activity: Picking strawberries and enjoying time together.

• Meeting Point: Parking area (1st floor) of Tsukuba University International Student Center (筑波大学留学生センター)

• Date & time: Sunday 9th of May 2010, at 09:00

• Weather: http://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/8/4020/8230/3150067.html

• Distance: 14 Km (one way)

• Required time: About 75 min (one way)

• What to bring: Hat, water or drink, 800円(cost for picking strawberries), sweets or food (light lunch in a small park near the farm)

• Remarks: Don't forget to pump your bicycle before the tour :) - We may visit park and temple (Houunji) in our way to take a prompt rest.

• Map: See below. The blue line is the way that we are going to take. You can zoom in the map to have closer look.
  

View Tsumra-Ladies Cycling Tour - May 9, 2010 in a larger map

Useful words for pregnant women in Japanese-english-french

Good reading books when you live in japan

I found two interesting books, one about food buying in japan, and the other one about kids in Japan.

A Guide to Food Buying in Japan by Carolyn R. Krouse
I recommend this book to foreigners who care about what they eat. This book has a lot of information about the food available in Japan with the japanese names and how to read them. The books axplains also how to read the labels on food. This is really a good reference for muslims living in Japan.









Japan for Kids: The Ultimate Guide for Parents and Their Children by Diane Wiltshire and Jeanne Huey.

This is also a good reference for parents mainly if you live around Tokyo. The book contains many useful addresses.

Description
Every year, thousands of families visit or relocate to Japan. Fourteen years ago, Jeanne Huey and Diane Wiltshire made the crossing. Five children and six years later they wrote the first complete guide to entertaining and raising children in this fascinating but often baffling land. Now, eight years on they offer a fully updated version, with hundreds of new additions on:

• AMUSEMENTS festivals, theme parks, cultural centers, zoos, aquariums
• OUTINGS museums, beaches, parks, playgrounds, gardens
• TRAVEL TIPS moving, coping with jet lag, getting around town, day trips
• SHOPPING where to buy anything, from food to fashions to futons
• HEALTH CARE dentists and doctors, pregnancy and childbirth, medical emergencies
• EDUCATION daycare, international schools, the Japanese system, bilingualism
• ACTIVITIES talent agencies, sports, Japanese traditions, and extracurricular classes
• MAIL ORDER listings, catalogs, and the Internet...and much, much more Compact yet bulging with priceless information and hundreds of tips, the new Japan for Kids is essential reading for families heading for or living in this part of the Far East. From planetariums to petting zoos, educational materials to interactive museums, this handy reference book remains indispensable-a guide that no parent can go without.

Topvalue/Bestprice shokupan

I have already written a post about Bestprice bread by Topvalue to say that all the ingredients of this bread are from plants except of course milk. Now, I deleted it and replaced it with this post.

I received an email from a muslim sister living in Japan telling me that Topvalue uses margarine containing pork fat in the trays of the bread for baking.

A sister living in Gifu asked Topvalue, they said that there are many factories of Topvalue in Japan, each one uses its own ingredients. If you want to be sure about the ingredients of the bread and the type of margarine used for the trays, you need to call the topvalue factory in your area.


At the end, the factory in the area of Gifu uses only margarine containing ingredients from plants in the tray and no animal ingredients in the bread except milk.

One of my friends who can speak Japanese called the factory in Tsukuba and asked them about the margarine used in the trays. We live in Tsukuba. The company said that margarine containing pork fat is used in the trays of the bread for baking.


This is the list of the ingredients of Bestprice bread by Topvalue in japanese, as you can see, there is no information about the type of margarine used in the trays for baking:

小麦粉、砂糖混合ぶどう糖果糖液糖、マーガリン（大豆を含む）、イースト、食塩、砂糖、脱脂粉乳、発酵種（乳成分を含む）、乳化剤（乳成分を含む）、酢酸Ｎａ、イーストフード（小麦を含む）、香料（乳成分を含む）、ビタミンＣ、カロテノイド色素

Hiroshima marks 64th A-bomb anniversary

I was just watching NHK news on tv, they were talking about Hiroshima atomic bomb since today it is its 64 th anniversary. Old persons who witnessed Hiroshima atomic bomb were crying.
During the ceremony, a list of nearly 264,000 victims, as well as survivors who died this past year, was put into a cenotaph at the city's Peace Memorial Park. The participants observed a minute of silence at 8:15 AM, the time the bomb was dropped.

Many persons living far (arround 15 km) from were the bombing took place have cancer or some abnormalities in their chromosomes. Within 20 to 30 minutes after the bombing, a heavy black rain began falling in areas to the northwest. This rain contained large amounts of radioactive soot and dust, thus contaminating areas far from the hypocenter. People drunk water and ate vegetables from their gardens after the bombing, they did not know that every thing is contaminated.

I wish to see our world free from nuclear weapons and wars.
This is a documentary about Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Coop, a convenient way to have grocery delivered to your home

Coop (or Co-op) is a Japanese Consumer Co-operative, the largest consumer union in Japan. For more information, this is their website in english: http://jccu.coop/eng/

This is a list of all coops in japan:

• コープとうきょう (tokyo)
  
• さいたまコープ (saitama)
  
• ちばコープ (chiba)
  
• いばらきコープ (ibaraki)
  
• とちぎコープ (tochigi)
  
• コープながの (nagano)
  
• コープぐんま (gunma)
  
• コープにいがた (niigata)
  
• コープネット事業連合 (official website of coop)
  

After you enter the coop website of where you live, click on Co-op Deli link to go to the online shop website.
This is coop of niigata: http://niigata.coopnet.or.jp/index.php
Ibaraki coop: http://ibaraki.coopnet.or.jp/

You need first to join coop by registering using their website(in japanese): https://f.coopnet.or.jp/webapp/form/11881_zor_7/index.do?ref=9

Then a person will call you to take an appointment with you (japanese only). The person will come to your house and give you some papers to fill in, you need to give them your bank account number.

Once a week you can make an order (bread, butter roll and anything else you need), the items will be delivered to you the next week. Each week they will give you the catalog containing what they are selling and the order form. Each item in the catalog has a number, to order write the number of the desired item (for example the number of the butter rolls) on the order form with the quantity (how many do you want to take) and give it to the person of Coop the next week he will come to your house.

The shipping fees are not exceeding 200 yen. If you have a child under 3years old, the shipment will be free of charge.

Oishii shokupan by Seven eleven (おいしい食パン）

It is sold at Seven Eleven convenience stores.
This bread contains margarine. Some of my friends (we live in Tsukuba) asked about the margarine, it is from plants. But each factory of bread of 7/11 uses its own ingredients. To be sure you need to call 7/11 factory bread in your area.

Homemade flan

If you miss your favorite flan because you cannot find Halal flan in Japan, you can make it at home. The recipe is very easy and the result is almost similar to the flan you can find in shops.

The recipe:
400 ml warm milk (the milk has already been boiled)
1 egg yolk
3 (or as you want) table spoon of sugar
4 table spoon of cocoa powder (or use halal vanilla if you want )
1 tea spoon agar-agar

Mix every thing together, put in a saucepan on a medium heat. Keep stiring until you see the mixture rising. Remove from heat. Pour into individual ramquins and put them in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

That is all!!!

Fares and time table of Japanese trains

Salam, I am back again.

It is summer, time for trips. If you are planning to take trains, there is a very useful website called Hyperdia which is a search engine that allows you to do specific point-to-point rail searches for travel in Japan. It covers virtually all train services in Japan. It allows you to know, for each course proposed, the time required, the distance (km) and the total amount of money.

The english version : http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi

The japanese version : http://www.hyperdia.com

Have a nice trip!

Japanese sweet Potato

Japanese sweet potato is called in Japanese Satsumaimo. Satsumaimo potatoes are mainly harvested in fall. Satsumaimo have dark-pink skin and are slightly sweet.Satsumaimo are sold fresh at grocery stores and are also used to make shochu (distilled liquor) in Japan.

Satsumaimo is a common ingredients for tempura. Also, adding diced satsumaimo when cooking steamed rice makes imo-gohan (satsuma-imo rice). Usually, satsuma-imo are used to make desserts or snacks.

Easy ways to cook are grilling or steaming. Grilled satsuma-imo is called yakiimo. Grilled/steamed satsumaimo are simple but are popular snacks in autumn/winter in Japan. Candied satsuma-imo, called daigaku-imo, are also delicious snacks. Japanese sweet potato cakes are simply called sweet potato. Sweet potato cakes are usually oval shaped and are golden yellow.

Sweet potato is very cheap in this period in Japan, in addition, it is very nutritious. So I decided to try this recipe (Sweet Southern Potato Casserole Recipe) with some modifications. It was very delicious.
I forgot to take a photo, hehe.

Potato Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:

3 cups sweet potatoes, boiled & mashed
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup whole milk
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shredded coconut


preheat your oven to 350 F, or 175 C.

In a large bowl- mix together the sweet potatoes, eggs, milk, white
sugar, vanilla extract, coconut & butter. Scoop into your favorite baking dish.

Spread some sugar on top of sweet potato mash and you're ready to bake your
casserole for 30 minutes.

"Morning Selection" bread

I received this information

"We bought by accident the bread called Morning Selection.

We asked the company and unfortunately it contains animal fat"

This is the photo of the bread

Tanabata, the star festival

Tanabata, also known as the "star festival", takes place on the 7th day of the 7th month of the year, when, according to a Chinese legend, the two stars Altair and Vega, which are usually separated from each other by the milky way, are able to meet.

During Tanabata, Japaneses write two wishes on two colorful pieces of paper (called tanzaku), and hang these pieces of paper on a specially erected bamboo tree. They believe that the wishes will become true.

I remember that my sensei during the extensive Japanese course explained to me why they put their wishes on the bamboo tree, she said that the tree will take these wishes to god. She asked me then to write two wishes and put them on the tree. So, I said that I cannot because my religion forbids me to do that, if I want to ask something from god, I should ask him directly. Elhamdulileh, she respected my opinion ^_^ without any problems.

The problem with Tanabata is that Japaneses celebrate it in schools, teachers asks children to hang their wishes on bamboo trees and tell them different stories on Tanabata. For a muslim child, believing that the tree will make their wishes true is not good. It is very difficult to raise a child islamically in Japan, since Japaneses still believe in such matters. The good thing with Japaneses is that they respect other religions, when a muslim asks teachers that his child will not participate in such celebrations, they accept without any problem.

History of Tanabata:
Tanabata originated more than 2,000 years ago with an old Chinese tale called Kikkoden. Once there was a weaver princess named Orihime and a cow herder prince named Hikoboshi living in space. After they got together, they were playing all the time and forgot their jobs. The king was angry at them and separated them on opposite sides of the Amanogawa River (Milky Way). The king allowed them to meet only once a year on July 7th. This is why tanabata is also called the Star Festival. People say that Orihime and Hikoboshi can't meet each other if July 7th is rainy, so they pray for good weather and also make wishes for themselves. From (http://gojapan.about.com/cs/japanesefestivals/a/tanabata.htm)

How to clean toddler teeth?

I think it is not safe to use a toothpaste for a toddler even if the manufacturer says it is safe. I never used a toothpaste for my son who is a toddler, as the dentist has recommended to wait until he can spit the toothpaste out.

In Akachan honpu and Kawachi, it is possible to find wet tissues for cleaning toddler teeth, I think it is the safest one. The tissues are called in japanese: HAMIGAKI NAPPU (歯磨きナップ）.

Mugi-cha

Roasted barley tea is the best drink for summer, called also mugi-cha in japan (麦茶), it is a popular tisane made from roasted barley. In Japan, it is regarded as a summer beverage. Many people in Japan believe that mugicha helps to cleanse the body.

You can buy prepared mugi-cha from shops, but I prefer to prepare it at home. I bought a bag of roasted barley (198yen, topvalue brand), the bag contains 52 small bags. I put one small bag in 1.5l of water and put it in the fridge for about 1 or 2 hours and the mugi-cha is ready.

You can give mugi-cha to children, it has no side effects. In the nursery school where my son is, they start to give mugi-cha from age 6 months. In shops specialized with baby food, it is possible to find mugi-cha for babies.

How can you travel cheap in Japan

You might be interested in discovering the beauty of Japan. Have you heard that traveling in Japan is very expensive? Well, traveling in Japan is not necessarily expensive. Fortunately, there are cheap ways to enjoy traveling in Japan.

• Transportation: Japan Railway (JR) provides very cheap tickets that you can use to take JR trains anywhere in Japan. These tickets are called 18 kippu. They are usually sold during vacation (see here). 18 kippu are sold as a set of 5 tickets. You are allowed to share with other people. One 18 kippu costs 2.525 円 (about 24 $) and you can use it for 24 hours with different JR trains! So convenient. You can plan your trip in advance by using this database of transportation in Japan.
  

• Hotel: There are youth hostels (Japanese website, English website) everywhere in Japan. Usually, one night costs around 3000円 (about 29$). Youth hostel is a dormitory, where you share your room with other people. An excellent opportunity to make friends. Women dorms and men dorms are separated in Japan. In some youth hostel you can stay in family rooms, but usually they are more expensive. I personally like staying in youth hostels because they are clean, cheap and offer a friendly environment, like a home!
  

• Food: Generally, the managers of youth hotel provide you with sanitary hot water if you ask. Now, you may ask what you can do with hot water. What about having Nescafe with sweets that you brought from home as breakfast? What about having sea food cup noodle as dinner? Moreover, some youth hostel have shared kitchen. So nice, you can cook your dinner and prepare sandwiches or obento for lunch.

Finally, is it safe to travel in Japan? Yes it is! Actually, Japanese are glad to meet foreigners that are interested in their local customs and sightseeing. If you behave politely and respectfully then you receive warm welcome and generous help.

Enjoy your trips :) !

A website to share Crime Announcement in japanese forums

I read that Japanese launched a website to share Crime Announcement on internet. The website is Yokoku.in where anyone can share crime announcements that can be found on any Japanese online forums.
I tried to see the website but it looks that it is not working for the moment

This is inspired by the stubbing in Akihabara on june 8, to prevent another crime at an earlier stage. The 25-year-old man went on a killing rampage in central Tokyo on Sunday, he posted a series of messages on an online bulletin board from his cellphone. He wrote that he intended to use his vehicle and knife to kill people in the central Tokyo district of Akihabara. Seven people died and 11 were injured. Kato was splattered with blood when he was arrested during the attack.
I started to feel that Tokyo is no more safe for families, may be it is exaggerated but when I think about the victims who died on that day, they did know that their lives will end like that. May be they were just walking or shopping. May Allah protect us inshallah.