Japan diaries: Ladies’ High Tea and Fashion Party

A few weeks too late, but better late than never! These are some pics we snapped at the ladies’ high tea I held at the apartment a while back. All in the name of fashion, food and fun, it was a fabulous afternoon of chit chat, shopping, eating and drinking. Thanks to all the lovely ladies that came to support Trixie and Flo! I have two very important recipes to share with you: The best carrot cake, the best cream cheese icing recipes IN THE WORLD!
1 high tea

Japan diaries: Onomichi and Setoda

A set of pictures that remind me of some solo wanderings, times when I made the effort to notice my surroundings and see the beauty in the little things: views from above and views from below, sunsets and heavy skies, colours and textures, layers and landscapes. Wordsworth describes it best: 
“For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.”
These photographs may not be of daffodils, but I can look at them and think back and smile at many a time when I stumbled upon beauty while “wandering lonely as a cloud”. 

 

Japan diaries: Cafe in Fukuyama

If it weren’t for friends’ recommendations, I’d probably still be sitting at the same café week after week doing the same old same old.  It often just feels like mission impossible when you’re wondering around back alley Japan in hopes of stumbling upon something incredible. I’ve often found that a lot of cafes and restaurants here are so unassuming, so hidden you’d never find them unless you had the inside scoop. Or if you did, there’s sometimes an unexplainable intimidation preventing you from peeping in somewhere that looks cute and cosy, as if you’d be interrupting some intimate moment behind a restaurant curtain. Well, I’m here to share…and I’m really excited to be blogging about this place. It’s called “&S” and is a beautiful mix of creepy, gorgeous and cosy. I could’ve sat there all afternoon, though considering the size of their set lunch, it’s as if they want you there all day. This is possibly the first time I haven’t been able to finish a restaurant meal in Japan. I loved the price too, for just 850yen you can choose between four set lunches that includes soup, salad, main meal, dessert and drink. The dinner menu looked gorgeous too so I’ll definitely be back! Their attention to décor detail is impeccable and the chef in top hat just adds to the whole charm of the place. So no excuses, use this map and go, go, go. 
The lunch sets pictured in order above are: muffin sandwich set, one plate lunch (a delicious, chicken, veggie, egg mix with salad and rice) and the coconut curry lunch with extra mixed beans. All of them come with a drink of your choice and a set dessert (last pic).

High Tea at the Oyster Box Hotel

I think I’m nearly two years and about 20 blogs too late on this trend, but Durban’s Oyster Box Hotel High Tea was all I dreamed it would be and more. Possibly one of my best days out, it was one filled with laughter, gorging and more gorging. For just R150 (1500yen) we started off with our afternoon cuppa, and then helped ourselves to the wide selection of savouries and desserts. Make sure to call a few weeks ahead (especially during holiday season) to avoid disappointment xoxo.

Japan diaries: Markets, tea and obligatory cake

Some late November sunshine drew me up those Onomichi hills to Hodoji temple, where the annual handicraft market was being held. My first thought was: “I have never seen this many well dressed kids in one place before.” The items for sale were all true to the quirky, artsy, cute vibe that seems to emit from every nook and cranny of this little town. All I ended up leaving with was a tasty miso and sesame muffin and a big smile. I later ended up at a gorgeous wooden table with a lovely group of ladies at Pontefract, a cute little tea shop near the water.  Herbal tea, cinnamon cappuccinos and great conversation were the orders of the day.  A day out in Onomichi is never complete without a glance into the donut shop and a cake at the always cosy Yamaneko café.

  

Japan diaries: Hiroshima Baby

A weekend in the city never fails to provide a sweet escape from work and the general blandness of regular routine.  This particular tale begins in the cutest little coffee shop where we unashamedly devoured half a loaf of bread soaked in syrup, then toasted and filled with vanilla and chocolate ice-cream and fresh fruit (I’m still at the gym trying to work that one off!). The weekend escape concludes with a rosy cheeked llama and then coffee and quiche at Starbucks where we contemplate life while watching people walk around on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Um, can I live like this every day please?

Japan diaries: Daiwa, Japanese Grannies and Real Meat

Daiwa is such a beautiful area in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan.  We went to one of the high schools’ festival that had the oldies out in droves. I loooove old people in Japan: A) They play croquet B) They’re so cheeky, and they’re not shy of physical contact: yes I got me some granny hugs woohoo! Highlight of my year: witnessing a crowd of oldies (all over 80) watching a Japanese rock band play Linkin park. A couple got up and left but the others all just sat there apathetically as if it were a classical music concert. It was a memorable and possible one of those “had to be there” moments. We also pathetically attempted hammering away at some mochi, a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice that’s pounded into a paste. After that we rewarded our “hard work” with some festival food and sunshine. Gorgeous day!

Japan diaries: French dining in Onomichi

If you’re living anywhere near Onomichi, Hiroshima, you have no excuses!  A group of us went to Restaurant aux Herbes on Sunday afternoon for the lunch set. It includes a starter (I had liver pate – delicious!!), main (mine was roast lamb), dessert (chocolate cake!) and a coffee. Bread baskets arrive in abundance too, and good bread is such a treasure in Japan. Supermarkets usually sell bread so white it couldn’t be considered bread anymore. So get yourself over there (with this map) and order the lunch set. You won’t be sorry! 

Small Town Japan

With all the weekend trips and vacations I’ve managed to squeeze into this year I feel like it might be easy for readers to get a warped sense of my life here. Small town Japan plays a major role in my Monday to Friday life. So in hopes of not overlooking the everyday, I have a few pictures to show you of some buildings I pass on a nearby island that I work at once a week. It’s known as Setoda or Ikuchijima, and is just a 30 minute ferry ride from Mihara port. How many people can say they catch a ferry to work?! A pretty kitsch one at that!
Everything about Setoda is charming in a “holding on for dear life” sort of way. From the bus stop furniture to the buildings I pass en route to work, to the very school I work in each week. It’s a school building that could easily fit 600 students, yet only 60 students actually attend. Smaller towns in Japan have started to suffer as families decide to relocate or school their kids in bigger cities. Many small town schools actually end up closing down because of it. On the other hand, many of the students that go to this school don’t even live on the island. Parents send them from neighbouring cities possibly for quality education and the more “small town innocence” that is often (but not always) missing in city schools. I love being welcomed by a classroom full of waving hands as I walk from the bus stop towards the school building!! Unfortunately, a day at work often leaves me craving food, a bath and my bed, so further exploration of the island is embarrassingly nonexistent on my part. But watch this space yo!
PS. I see a few new faces poking around here, so a big thanks to Kristine (my new blogger friend in Japan) for featuring me and my little blog on hers: “Kristine or Polly.” You can check out the guest post I did for her here and have a mosey around at her outfit posts and cute anecdotes about life in Japan xoxo

Chuo Shinrin Park

Have you ever lived somewhere and discovered a place that you couldn’t believe you’d never been to before? For me, this place is Chuo Shinrin Kouen, the park surrounding Hiroshima Airport. Just a thirty minute bus ride from Mihara Train Station separates me from one of my new favourite places. I’m going to get all “lonely planet” on you and tell you to head to the main office and ask for a map to the Sankeien Gardens. It’s the only part I managed to get to: Chuo Shinrin covers a maasssive area and it’s covered with bicycle routes and hiking trails if you’re keen to spend the whole day there. Entrance for the Sankeien Garden is just 300yen, definitely well worth it! I threw on another shortened granny dress and some unfashionably filthy slops/flip flops/ thongs for the day trip… here comes summer!!