Best cheap sushi in Tokyo

Looking for a fun sushi experience while in Tokyo? While sushi trains in Japan are so cheap and pretty fun, nothing beats the freshness and taste of the nigiri made right in front of you by professional sushi chefs as they are called.

The place we found was a standing sushi bar and was full of business men probably on their way home. Scott ordered a beer and I got a miso soup. We then just had to tell the chef behind the glass what we wanted and he would make it up and place it down in front of us in seconds. For those who don't speak english (they had an english menu BUT), you could get away with just pointing at the fresh fish behind the glass and indicating how many pieces you want.

One serving of nigiri (two pieces) was only 150yen whereas in other sushi bars they are start at 600yen and climb fast. Scott and I were button-busting full at only 2500yen for the two of us!!

We found this tiny place near Shinjuku station West exit. It is in the same vicinity as the Electrical street (Yodobashi Camera building etc) and is on the same street as the starbucks, but a block closer to the station

Japanese ryoukan (traditional inn) dinner and breakfast

Scott and I recently spent a night at Hotel Konansou in the town of Kawaguchiko on one of the five lakes near Mt Fuji.

I wanted him to experience a traditional Japanese inn, hot spring bathing, see Mt Fuji and eat a full Japanese spread. We succeeded! Our room was all tatami flooring (woved straw) and had its very own hot spring tub outside looking out to Mt Fuji. It also had a western bathroom, toilet, tea facilities etc.

Dinner was served in our room, and as usually, was huge and varied! We had a hot pot of beef and vegies, a hot plate for the abolone, squid and wagyu and other small dishes included a crab miso soup and groud pork dumpling. Lots of seasonal vegies, some pickled, sashimi, a huge oyster, sweet potato, chestnuts and different tofus.

Breakfast was a similar afair but held in a common dining hall. As you can see, it is all about many small dishes of different things. The hot pot on the right had tofu, cabbage and some meat. Such breakfasts often include a piece of salt cooked salmon, pickled vegetable, miso soup and small egg sweet egg square.

Staying in a RYOKAN is definately reconmended to those travelling and wanting to experience something really authentic. It is much more expensive than your average hotel, but such a special experience and a memory you will have forever!

The day of the 10km race!

This morning was the Daito-City local 10km race event. I had heard about it a few months ago and since then have been running 5-6 mornings a week in hope of being able to run in it from start to finish. The last time I did a 10km race was back in Australia where I walked and ran it in about 1hr15mins.

A beautiful day for a local funrun. Right in the middle of Autumn, the wind was fresh and crisp with a cool breeze, yet the sun beat down bright and warm!

Ran into Mr Ushijima who I run with in the mornings if we happen to bump into eachother (He lapped me and must've placed fairly well in the men's division.) So many of the morning run regulars were there to chat with while warming up and shout "ganbatte anna!!" as they overlapped me haha. It made me think how great it was that I had made some friends completely seperate to host family and school life. Like I really was apart of this local community.

Me waving at hostfamily and some of Mama's students who also came to watch!

The final stretch

An awkard wave. I was secretly thinking "wonder if I can pass this guy past the finish line"

and...I did haha..different divisions but it made me push that little bit extra:p

 Could not get this image to flip over for me! But it says i ran 10000m in 57min14sec, placing 9th in the women's open division.

I ran at about 5min36secs which is on the fast end of my morning jogs. Trying to keep up with people up ahead and being cheered on by all the spectators and volunteers around me made it easier to keep up this pace

 The whole family came to watch me run. Knowing they were up ahead waiting made me keep running when it started getting tough. They would jump up and down and wave and chase me with a camera each time I came past. Was the greatest energy boost!

9th- the only name not written in kanji haha

Was great to see Baba on the side lines too:) The family often joke that my legs are almost up to her shoulders haha

Home again home again jiggity-jog.

 Pizza base being kneaded in the bread machine, and the family has just ducked out now to grab some topping ingrediants. I've had a nice hot shower and am back in the trackydacks for an afternoon of Japanese study!

Now that I've tackled the Daito-City 10km funrun, I'm thinking it's time to aim for the Goldcoast Half Marathon (Aug 2013)...maybe:p

winter, Bloglovin, pinterest, weight journey support

Hey guys. I got to uni a bit early this morning and my phones about to die so I thought I'd run up to the computer lab to charge it and fit in a blog post as it has been a while. AHH my hands are frozen I can't type fast. It's meant to be max 15degC today...coming from Australia this is like the height of our winter! Whereas it is still technically Autumn here in Japan. I struggled to find something weather-appropriate this morning but eventually managed to get some layering happening, which is serving me well so far.

Taken in the bathroom at uni to send to my boyfriend haha. He mustn't forget how cute I am...:P

Does anyone out there have any tips for winter dressing?! I have no experience what so ever.

The reason my phone is so flat is that I always spent the majority of my 1.5hr train commute flicking through recent posts of my favourite blogs through the 'Bloglovin' app and 'Pinterest'. I find this activity a great way for me to start my day. It makes me feel a little connected with the non-Japanese world. I mainly flick through health blogs, looking at recipes I could try here or when back home, yoga and running tips, which keep me motivated to keep it up while here. I stumbled across a cute blog, through a motivational Pinterest photo, that is written by a girl embarking on a new weight loss journey. Her posts are so honest and real and she seems really keen to rally up support for herself but also as a way of supporting others. I love these sorts of reads on the train. If you are looking for some support and motivation in your own new health/lifestyle journey, I recommend getting involved with her new blog here! 

Ahh late for class!!!!! ttyl

Get out of the house!

So my running has been going great. I am now varying from 4km on a busy day to 7km on a relaxed morning. Aiming to hit the 8km mark this Saturday:) 3.5weeks til the 10km race!

Apart from that, all I've been doing is sitting at my desk trying to study Japanese (exam 4 weeks away), which is often broken up with A LOT of net-surfing different running websites, health food blogs and ideas for things to do when Scott gets here (3.5 weeks!!). So by the end of the day I feel like I've spent the WHOLE day at the computer doing..shit all. This really depresses me.

Yesterday I was up at 5:30 and went for a great 7.5 km run. Had showered, enjoyed a raw pumpkin, persimmon and oatmeal thickshake, and was at my desk, text books open by 9.

I actually did pretty well, staying pretty focussed on my grammar and kanji work books and before I knew it, it was 12:30 and I was hungry! So I went down stairs and enjoyed a deliciously bowl of orange, carrot, spinach, pumpkin and parsely soup. Yum yum, full tummy. Felt tops by this point of the day.

But I did not want to return upstairs to my room of poopy study. So I figured I should have a half a hot chocolate as I'd been so good today. This one half a hot chocolate turned into, nibbling on sugary granola in front of my laptop in the kitchen. No one was home so I felt free to raid the snack box of spiced rice crackers and salted peanuts. It hit 2:30pm and I was still down stairs netsurfing. Feeling really guilty about 1. lack of study and 2. the mindless snacking. Then the boyf rang!!

As always he saved the day. He was quite set in the opinion that I needed to get out of the house and do something that made me feel like I was giving myself enough of a break, so that by the time I was done I would feel ready for real study, and not the half-hearted stuff I've been complaining to him about all week. When Scott suggests something I always feel like I should do it even when I really don't feel like it...as he sees things from the outside, and can see what will make me happy in the end. Grrr.

He suggested I ride my bike to the gym and spend a litle time in the sauna and hot baths. I figured that was a great idea as the bike ride would blunten my granola-guilt. As always, I took this one step furthur and spent 20mins on treddy on max incline, then did 20mins of arm strength machines. I felt healthy and alive again! I topped it off with 5 minutes in the sauna talking to some Japanese grannies about how cute the actor on Tv was, and soaked for another 10. I was pretty much smiling the whole 20min bike ride home. Felt like me again. I got home and studied PROPERLY for a good two hours before dinner...and then PROPERLY took the evening off with a movie and some blogtrolling.

Proof to Scott I was out!

Just quickly, I tried this method again today, studing PROPERLY in the morning, then when things at the desk started to get slack I picked up the books and studied across the road in the park for a good 90mins.

 Now my study is done and I am going to enjoy lunch and watch the next episode of The Compassionate Brain and go for my run. Once the run is done I'm sure I'll be in the right mindset for some a good two hours study before dinner!

Moral of the story is:

1. If you want to get things done properly you must take breaks properly.
2. Get out of the house at least once during the day to clear the mind. Not through net-surfing, channel flicking and eating!!

Apple crumble breakfast thickshake

I discovered Green Thickies while drooling over food-porn on Pinterest yesterday. It is a fantastic blog full of raw food recipes using a variety of fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds, to make delicious, wholesome thick smoothies. The creater of the blog also shares her amazing weightloss and illness-recovery journey which she gained through switching to thick yummy smoothies for breakfast and lunch.

Not following any particular recipe, but using them as inspiration, I gave it a go for lunch yesterday. I threw together some pumpkin, carrot, cabbage, green tea, sesame paste and tuscan spices, which when heated, turned out to be a really filling, tasty and warming soup. You can control the thickness of the meal with how much water you add. I liked it thick enough to eat with a spoon.

This morning again, I just used what I could find to make a thickie for breakfast.

I'm sorry I didn't take a photo as it was sooo yummmy. Was sweet enough, had great texture and so filling! It was so good I wrote a note on my phone to send to family and friends haha.

FYI-- 351 calories, 4g fat and 9g protein (thank you soy flour).

Can't wait to try more over the next few months as it get's colder!



10km running challenge Week 3

Week 2's performance? Two thumbs up! I am very proud of myself actually.

Ended up running 5 days, and power walking only one. I hung around the 4km zone most runs until Saturday I decided to run with a duration goal as opposed to distance. I set my goal for 45mins which to my suprise got me to 6.8km! I would not have thought I was ready for a 6km run last week but apparently I was! So I tried again this morning with the 45min goal and reached 7.3km (yesterday I was stopped mid-run by some elderly women for a chat about where I came from and why I was in Japan haha).

So I can officially announce that 4km is my new 'Short Run' hehe yay!


Recovering this morning after the 7km



Week 3's (rough) running outline

Mon- Rest day

Tue- am Power walk (40min) or short run (4km)

       - pm 30DayShredL2/own strength

Wed-  Run 6km, abs and stretch

Thur- 45 min run (7km?), stairs

Fri-    Power walk (40min), 30DayShredL2/own strength

Sat-   Run 6km, abs and stretch

Sun- Long run (8km!?!), Big stretch.

Four weeks left until the big day:)

Flourless, sugarless banana muffins!!

Last week I could feel a weak moment with snacking approaching so quickly ran into the kitchen and tried to pull something satisfying and healthy together. This is what came out of that:

GUILT FREE Banana Oatmeal Muffins

This was the product of an emergency moment so no time to source a recipe or even work out exact measurements. I set out expecting to be eating mushy banana porridge by the end of this. But miraculously it worked.

What I found in the kitchen:

• About a cup of steel cut oats
• Half a cup of LSA meal (linseed, sunflower and almond)
• Tblsp of chia seeds
• Tsp baking powder (assumed this was needed..even though I had no flour to make rise :p)
• An egg white or two in a dash of milk
• Cup of mashed banana
• Cinnamon
• Squirt of Australian Capilano honey (the best!)

  
I just combined the above ingredients until the batter looked like the consistency of something I would normally spoon into a muffin tray. I had the oven preheated to 180deg (356degF) and they took less than 20 mins to rise and produce a clean fork when tested.

I was expecting to need to eat this with a little honey or jam as it has no sugar in it. But no, the mashed banana and capilano honey gave it all the beautiful sweetness it needed.

I ate one on the spot and threw the rest in the freezer before I could get to them. Took one to uni this week and it had defrosted by morning tea time, and had retained its moisture and flavour! The LSA and banana kept me full, while the Chia would have provided the much needed energy for the 90min kanji class that followed.

Hope if you give this a go it works for you too! Just get creative and give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen? You end up enjoying some delicious banana porridgy thing instead :p

Mindfulness and homesickness

The last two days I have felt pretty down. The days have started great as I love mornings, my new morning run routine and of course breakfast! Then as I don't have class on Wed and Thurs I spend up until lunch time trying to study Japanese. Soon after starting however I quickly feel overwhelmed by how much I don't know, and by noon am depressed and exhausted by the mental energy and persistance it requires to get through a few pages of text book questions. This had led me to over eat at lunch, feel horrible and unable to face the study desk once more, sleep all afternoon (I am not usually a day time sleeper!).

I then remembered this afternoon the link mum sent me for a seven week free streaming video event series on The Compassionate Brain. Basically, every week 60min long interviews of leading professors in pyschology and neuroscience are shared online. The interview content covers topics such as how our thoughts, feelings and meditation practices can create real changes in our brains, balancing compassion and assertiveness, cultivating forgiveness for others and self etc etc. It is all backed by scientific research so is pretty exciting I think.

To check it out for yourself go to http://live.soundstrue.com/compassionatebrain/ All it requires is an email address to register.  (I haven't gotten any junk mail from them since registering last week).

Today's lecture was with Dr. Dan Siegel on Mindfulness, a practise I think could be useful to me for anxiety, stress, attitude towards food and eating etc. Anyway, it led me to his website where I stumbled across this great resource called "The Healthy Mind Platter".   Basically it outlines the seven daily essentail activities for optimimal brain matter and well being:D Who wouldn't want some more of that right? I'd like to take the chance to use this space to record how I incorporate these activities into my daily life.

Focus time - JLPT study, childrens english class, uni class work

Play time - Enjoying a midday drama, cooking, flicking through favourite blogs and pinterest

Connecting time - talking to people at uni, chatting with host mother with a cup of tea, or phonecall

Physical time - running, strength training, stretching

Time in - a 10-20 min meditation/self awareness activity each morning or night oron train to uni

Down time - cup of tea in bed, completely relax while on the 50 min train

Sleep time- sleep!

I hope to use ideas from this interview series and strategies like "The Healthy Mind Platter" to keep negative energy and homesickness at bay. Only a month til Scott visits and then another two months after than until I'm back in Australia.



1. Focus time

10km running challenge Week2

 So I've just penciled in my plans for this week of running. Tried to balance it out with different levels of cardio with the aim of getting through the endurance run on Sunday. I love pre breakfast walks so have kept them in this week, as opposed to last week which were runs every morning.

Mon- Rest day

Tue- slow run (4km)
      - core ("AbWorkoutPro" app level 'Express Abs- 16mins')
      - stretch

Wed- walk (40-60min pre breaky)
        - strength (30 day shred/own strength upper body workout)
        - stretch

Thur- slow run (4km) +stairs
       - stretch

Fri  - med-fast run (3km)
       - strength (30 day shred/own strength lower body workout)

Sat - walk (40-60min pre breaky)
      - core ('I am spartar- 30mins')
      - yoga

Sun- endurance run (5.5km!)
      - stretch

Have an 8:50am class tomorrow so have to be on the 7:20 train...which means waking up at 5:30 to get that run in!! :):):)

10km challenge Week 1

I want to be able to run 10km all on my own.

In the past I have completed 10km FunRuns before (at about 1hr15) and found running with a huge group of strangers a lot easier than on my own. I've been through phases of running 3-5 kms on my own for a few weeks over the years, but that eventually dies away and I recently decided pre-breakfast walks were just as good for my weight maintenance (which they were!).

But one morning the other week a group of local runners in the park asked me to run with them for a while. I reluctantly joined them, and ended up doing two whole laps of the park with them (6km). I felt great and so impressed with myself :p Since then I have gone for 3km runs on my own about three or four times. The people I ran with that day however run abuot 10-15km every morning! I want to see if I'd be capable of lifting my game just a little more.

I then discovered that the local park is holding a 10km FunRun November 18 (two days before Scott visits!). I registered straight away and began researching running programs to get me to 10km. Most programs require three months, but I'll take what I can from them and see how far I can get to by November 18. So I think the funrun should be just one milestone in my challenge with the final victory being able to run it on my own, no crowd of strangers.

I'll be reporting on my running progress with the help of my new app "mapmyrun" which records where I'm running, how far, how many minutes and at what pace. Here is this morning's run:

The plan for now is to do a shorter run at a slightly faster pace at the start of the week, with a longer but slower paced run towards the end, complemented with strength, core and flexibility training in between. 
This week was 3km on Monday then 4.5km today. I'll think I'll stick to those figures next week too before making the 4.5km my short run and 5.5km my long. I'd like to sit down and work it out a little more clearly but have to STUDY!!! NO MORE POSTING UNTIL AFTER DINNER ANNA.

Fighting the study abroad weight gain

Ask anyone who has gone travelling or studied abroad for any length of time and I bet they'd confirm they put on weight. Well, moreso for women perhaps, as a lot of the male exchange students here complain about losing weight (no gym and lack of cooking skills perhaps?). I put on a fair few kilo's on my first exchange here in 2009, which surprises many as Japanese food is seen as very pure, fresh and healthy. This is true for traditional Japanese cuisine, but western-style Japanese food is another story altogether!

Right now I am sitting in front a TV program all about Japanese bread. The two hosts have gone from store to store in downtown Osaka showcasing the ever popular deep fried curry pockets, bean jam filled hotdog buns, and strawberry and creme sandwiches. I am faced with the aroma of hot custard filled scrolls and chocolate crossaints every day on my walk to uni from the train station. Did I mention on averyage such 'breads' as they call all baked goods are only 150yen ($2)!

The Japanese would also have to be the biggest "souvenir" giving people in the world! I witness this most through my host mother, who is given 'Thank you' gifts such as boxes of gourmet chocolate chips, mini caramel puddings or slices of deep fried pork from her students parents and neighbourhood friends who have either just come back from a trip away, or are giving the gift in return for a gift they received from her! She spent a lot of our recent trip to Hokkaido writing lists of who she had to get souvenirs for and then trying to fit them in our suitcases. The following photo is a classic! After we had managed to fit everything in our suitcases, Mama then proceeded to buy the few remaining this at the airport! Yes all the bags are ours.

These souvenirs are all local sweets and savories. Therefore it is VERY hard to avoid being offered snacks and treats almost everyday here. Even if I am not being offered as such, I face the internal battle of saying no to what we have laying around the house! As a result I came back from Australia last month prepared. I brought back with me packets of Chia seeds, LSA meal, rye mountain bread and other bits and pieces. While this isn't going to make the snacks disappear, being organised like this in my breakfast and lunch options, keeps me motivated to stay good and clean for the rest of the day! Here is what I've been enjoying lately:

My new favourite breaky! Scott would fall over if I asked him to try it haha.
Yoghurt, LSA meal, chia seeds, cinnamon...and whatever tickles my fancey that day. Today was baked apple and a little aussie Capilano honey!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this lunch:
Japanese omlette with a bit of cottage cheese and tuscan spices on a bed of greens (lettuce, rocket or spinach), with tahini sauce and some quince paste in rye mountain bread. So filling and makes me smile:)

Peanut butter and sultana carrot sticks

Couldn't get this image to rotate but this is a standard dinner in this household:
 Grilled fish, greens and a soupy dish (this one was cabbage with tofu cakes). (oh I usually skip the white rice cos it just leads to me eating more white rice..and then some more:P)

Tonight we are having my all time favourite dinner here which is the Japnese Hot-Pot! Photos to come.

Back on the blogging horse

OK I'm back. I don't know exactly what had me away for so long as I was really enjoying it, but have a few ideas. I think blogging must be a form of escape and pleasure during my study-intense uni weeks. Only with assessment and mock exam questions piling up, do I get the desire to browse through my favourite blogs, which in return motivates me to write something of my own.

The past two months have been summer holiday in Japan so no class work (and I seemed to just forget the fact that I still have my JLPT exam in December). I spent three weeks in Australia visiting my boyfriend, friends and family, which gave me new found motivation for getting back into the last five months of my time in Japan. Then Dad, Jill and brother Dom were here for a week and we hiked a little through Nagano and Gifu Prefectures, as well as seeing the best of Osaka city life.

Water fall on one of the 9km hikes. The other hikers were pretty surprised!

Then having two whole months pass without a post, nothing seemed worthy enough of being THE comeback post haha. Everything seemed too random and out of the blue. Then on my jog today (post to come) I figured I just needed to get straight back into it as I do enjoy it and for now it is for me. It doesn't matter that I don't have strong 'blogging goals' and 'intended audiences' but that this is a good way for me to feel balanced and connected while living in another family's home in another hemisphere.

Host mum on our holiday trip to Hokkaido

So get keen for some snippets of my time in Japan (whoever you are). I'm getting big on study, exercise and healthy eating, and hope to check out a few more kooky and cool places around town in these last ... FOUR months!

English for kids

Today was hot and humid so I wasn't really keen for too much dancing and jumping around in today's english conversation class. My six adorable students also seemed a little flat...

SO WE MADE BISCUITS FACES!!!!!

And ofcourse to make this seem appropriate to the paying parents it was all in the english vocab we had learnt so far :)

So if they wanted a different coloured icing sugar they would say, for example, "yellow please".

They named the parts of the face as they were making them..."eyes", "ears" etc.

We made "angry" faces and "happy" faces.

While making the faces we sang "The months of the year" and the "What do you want to drink?" song...

I often had to raise my voice with "sit down please!" or "stop hitting her!" haha

This bright girl learnt to say "Can I make one more please?" as she was super speedy!!!

All in all it went really well...I might always allocate the last half of class to some kind of fun activity like this. While flashcards, board games, and 'Simon says' is fun and teaches them a lot, due to the energy shortage after the fukushima tsunami, this summer is gonna be a shocker! Any ideas for a cool, relaxing activity for kids? Fruit kebabs!

The last eel dinner

My hostmother came home this week with a big batch of glazed eel dramatically announcing it will  be the last eel we ever eat as export from the US is tightens.

A popular article in the national newspaper 'Asahi Shimbun' stated, "Following Europe's lead, the United States is moving toward regulating the international trade of eel under the Washington Convention, which is aimed at protecting endangered species". Also claiming that the Japanese are responsible for up to 70% of the worlds eel consumption. See full article here.

That morning on all the morning tv shows, tv hosts were eating eel in all sorts of ways, celebrating the soon to disappear big part of Japanese culture.

Mama prepared a lovely eel on rice dish for the family Sunday night while papa was home. Served with miso soup and egg tofu. Eel is a little too oily and strong tasting for me, but I savoured every moment:)

The below photo is not the result from Sunday's dinner, but I thought I should share what Mama must put up with when our fun happy family BBQ's end. Well, they finish for Papa and the boys at forks down...can't say the same for mama:p