A few weeks back I was invited along with the other CoFesta dudes to watch TarO&JirO perform live.
I was like "Who?"
I was so busy filling up applications, and had a job seminar earlier today so I wasn't sure if I wanted go watch some duo in a random club in Shibuya after a tiring day, but I decided to go anyway -- good music and company couldn't hurt.
And omg I am so glad I went. It was amazing It is not very often that I blog right after an event -procrastinator- but I felt like I just needed to!
TarO&JirO are an acoustic rock duo and are actually brothers (hence the name, which literally means B1 and B2 -- just kidding w) And are actually going to do a world tour this year (Singapore in summer, apparently!) which I strongly strongly recommend everyone to check out, definitely will be worth it. I'm not an expert in music but it was super intense, and 100% better live than in videos. Plus the brothers are kinda cute ;D Official Page Here
So anywhow, I'll let the pictures do the speaking. It's very rare for Japanese management companies/artistes to allow photo-taking during concerts, so I guess we were lucky this time :))
warrrrming up! At this point I wasn't very excited yet.
They played like 4 songs or so at today's live show. Super high energy. Most of the songs were upbeat and one was a kind-of-ballad song which was a nice contrast to all that rock. Throughout the whole show I was like yabai!! kakoii!! Kyaaaaa! OMG KYAAA. -fangirl- and I don't remember when was the last time I was like that, haha. Maybe FT Island's concert last year or something.
and then HE WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME OMG. Truthfully the first time he came to the edge of the stage I was quite "uhhhh okayyyyyy" but after the first song I was all fangirly HAHAHA. Awesome guitar skillz.
I think this was like the 3rd song, everyone started getting into the music and clapping along.
btw this is Jiro, the younger brother. Super cute! Too bad he was always on the other side of the stage, but towards the end he came over for a guitar solo! guess who was fangirling. I think Taro has a stronger stage presence ~aura~ thing going on though.
The very cute host for the tonight. She was so sweet and posed for me when she saw me pointing the camera at her, haha.
Check out their song Silent Siren if you didn't visit their official page! Soooo much better live though.
And guess who got to take photos with TarO & JirO! (ok their names are quite hard to type)
BOOYAH :D be jealous!!! fml I srsly wish I wasn't wearing my shukatsu gear though. asldkajldkjwa. Tried to roll up my sleeves and be cool but my heat-tech started to show -___-
Also, their show will be featured on the “J-POP NEWS” episodes posted on March 4th and 11th , and will archived here, maybe I'll appear a few seconds in the crowd too :P http://www.youtube.com/user/promictv
Anw, like I said, they are going to do a tour around world! Though they wouldn't say much about which countries they would be going to, but Singapore is definitely on the list so go and listen to them!!
Previous post was long enough so I broke it up into 2 posts
MUST DO IN JAPAN 2: TAKE SOME PURIKURA (photostickers in a shiny photobooth)
I remember when I was in secondary school and we would fork out like $12 to take some neoprints in bugis! haha. Purikuras are kind of like a regular thing that girls in Japan go to (though the frequency really varies) It's probably a pretty big part of a Japanese highschool girl's life and I'd say it's definitely something anyone should try while visiting Japan!
But be careful because the purikura corner is only for girls or guys who are accompanying girls. strictly no guys-only groups! Guys not allowed to be girly and take neoprints!? hahaha.
That aside, omg I have to say that purikura has really EVOLVED. I remember those tacky little photo booths where I went to back in JC and when I first came to Japan. Go in, take a few shots that get spammed with sparklies, then try to cut and divide them up equally with my friends. And later realise that my hair was sticking out weirdly in some photos. BUT SAYONARA TO THOSE DAYS.
As we walked into the purikura section we noticed that there were a lot of chairs and mirrors...
There was a WHOLE AREA FOR YOU TO DOLL UP! omg wth hahaha complete with hair dryers, curling tongs, cotton buds and cotton pads for you to touch up your make up!! No wonder Japanese girls always look so perfect in their purikuras. wth seriously Japanese people really think of everything! Though I think this is not very common, I haven't seen make up areas before actually.
Anw when Esther and I saw that we were like *omfg tension agaru!* and then started redoing our hair LOLOL. It was late and there was no one there so we had the whole place to ourselves!
Looks totally pro right, but the truth is the two of us probably took like half an hour trying to curl my short hair in. Until I gave up and asked esther to do the back of my head for me :x
My hair all curled in :D so inspired to take out my hair iron and curl my hair everyday now :x and that heart shape thing that esther is holding is the cotton pad for touching up make up!
Couldn't resist :x
So okay when we were finally done messing around with the hair iron and nice lighting, we went into one of the booths.
LOOK AT THIS PURIKURA BOOTH. So smart! No more having to worry that your friend looks a lot taller than you -coughesthercough- because now you can both sit down and be the same height!! HAHAHA. SO AWESOME.
After that we went to edit the photos! You can choose how much you want your eyes enlarged and stuff, like those apps on the iphone, but I dunno, something is just different about doing it at a purikura booth with your friend next to you!
And here are the results:
OMG OUR SKIN SO SMOOTH AND MY EYES ARE SO BIG HEHEHE :D
You can also get soft copies of your photos sent to your phone so you can continue editing them until you look perfect have a digital keepsake forever. we totally copied poses suggested by the purikura machine, but we just looked stupid in some hahahaha XD
And look at that! No more having to fuss over who gets which photos. They came pre-cut into two pieces and I could even choose the design of the template! I chose one that had pretty leopard print deorations since I never cut up my purikuras anyway.
And the best thing? This only cost 400jpy! Which is like, what, 5.20SGD. siao! so cheap! that's only 2.60 per person! we almost went to take another one on the way out LOL but it was cold and late and we wanted to play taiko no tatsujin lol. But it was too noisy and we couldn't hear the music so we just went home instead D:
So anw my conclusion is that purikura is awesome and everyone should try because it probably isn't as awesome and available overseas. Just make sure there are some girls present or you may get kicked out :P
(warning: image heavy! )
So Esther and I went to Shimokitazawa 下北沢 yesterday after the reunion gathering at our Japanese Language Centre in TUFS (the University used as a backdrop for Souta-kun's sister's "highschool" in Shitsuren Chocolatier lol -- more on that later). Everytime people go to Japan, they will visit Shibuya and Harajuku blabla, okay lah those are the main spots but I think Shimokita really needs more love!
Shimokitazawa is so awesome. I love it. It's filled with small little shops that sell vintage clothes and accessories, food trucks, florists, indie looking cafes and stuff. I always feel like a young cool hipster when I go there, haha. Before I get to purikuras and UFO catchers I need to show how awesome shimokita is! I'm just gonna let the pictures do the talking.
vintage/second hand clothes store. loved the whole atmosphere of the place.
"eh nice right??" "no looks like pyjamas leh." -puts back-
Interesting selection of clothes here. I think there were some local designers/vintage/imports. Handpicked by the shop owner maybe?
Super funky second hand clothes shop. Prices started at 390jpy here O; good for people who love retro looking stuff I think.
But this time I managed to resist temptation from buying clothes! My save-money-mind was working quite well until we went into the UFO catcher shop...Haven't messed around with those for a while and it was so fun! XD Which lead me to my first point.
MUST DO IN JAPAN 1: UFO CATCHERS
You can catch the weirdest and sometimes most awesome things in UFO catcher shops in japan haha.
SUSHI KEYCHAIN HAHAHA. Once I even saw like, realistic looking fish keychains
That's right. Hokkaido cheese tarts and SHIROI KOIBITO. WHAT. now I don't have to go to Hokkaido to get these! I just have to fish them out from here... though I don't know which is harder, lol. There was also a huge bar of chocolate the length of my arm @0@
Nameko!! And next to Nameko was...
Rilakkuma. Dangling precariously by a rubber bad balancing on top of a red ball.
"Come get me (・△・)"
How to resist???
They even had hints on how to knock it off the red ball thing! Looked easy enough... but it was damn hard because it was one of those rubber bouncy balls that had a super grip on the piece of plastic balancing on it! Cheat my feelings haha. But with every failed hook Rilakkuma was taunting me. And I peservered!
Though I think I was looking pretty hopeless halfway, the shop assistant came over and helped me adjust the set up so it was slightly easier :x
AND AFTER I THINK 18 TRIES I GOT IT HEHE :D
I ran out of cash halfway and had to borrow from Esther first lol. Spent almost 2000y on it I think but totally worth it!! Probably costs more at a shop anyway. Btw it was 100y for a try and 500 for 6 :x
Anyway after that we decided to go take some Purikura (or neoprints, for that matter haha) since we were at the arcade. CONTINUED HERE.
Photo of 三四郎池 sanshiro-pond in Todai during the snow. Looked like a scene out of a fairytale.
I had no idea this pond was famous until
my friend showed it to me in a guidebook. Thought it was just a random pond in the school.
According to traveltokyo.info,
After the fall of Osaka Castle in 1615 the Shogun gave the property that is now Sanshiro Pond to the Maeda family. Maeda Toshitsune, the richest daimyo outside the Tokugawa family, was know for his lavish lifestyle and worked on the beautification of the pond and the garden around it. When he died, Maeda Tsunanori, the fifth lord in the Maeda family, continued his work on the garden, making it renowned as the most beautiful garden in all of Edo.
When Natsume Soeseki wrote about this pond in his book, it became widely known as Sanshiro Pond after the title of his book.
Lol I have been driving myself crazy these couple of days trying to make macarons. I don't even remember why I wanted to make them in the first place!
I'd made them once back home in Singapore with my sister's recipe which called for powdered egg whites, and had succeeded on the first try so was all 'pfft all those people who keep failing making macarons must really just suck at baking lol' but okay I'm sorry. I was wrong.
THESE PRETTY COOKIES ARE AN ABSOLUTE BITCH TO MAKE
There are like 1 million ways they can go wrong so even when I failed (7 times in 2 days fml) I had no idea what I was doing wrong.
I measured every single ingredient, I had the egg whites at stiff peaks (and wtf sometimes they just refused to whip up to stiff peaks I had to chuck the mixture even before baking! wth was wrong with those eggs?!), I made sure I didn't fold it too much, it was winter and the room was dry and I did the finger check before sending every batch into the oven. I even used a freaking HAIR DRYER to dry them. And they would still. fail. crackly and pockmarked :(
imagine this coming out of the oven SEVEN FRAKING TIMES. :D My mom used to tell me that this is what my husband's skin would look like if I didn't finish the rice on my plate.
But when they decided to show me their feet I was over the moon ;o; baby finally came home.
In the end, I realised it was my sugar, I had run out of icing sugar after the first time I failed (probably because I had too much liquid lol) and used caster/demerara sugar that didn't dissolve completely. But when I fixed that I succeeded!
Lesson Learnt: Follow the instructions strictly. Not much room for creativity when it comes to these babies.
So here's my recipe. It has no almond flour, so it's cheap to make and you can keep going until you succeed lol. Recommended for people who want to practice making macarons on a budget :p Or people who are allergic to nuts. So go ahead and try this macaron recipe made without almond flour!
I got this from Japanese recipe off Cookpad, but I don't have the link anymore Found it! http://cookpad.com/recipe/1254379 For anyone who's interested in reading the original XD
I failed so many times I've memorised the ingredients already though hahahaha.
Now. On to the recipe. Even if you fail, don't give up and keep going!! It's wheat flour so it's cheap and you can make lovely silky yummy creme patisserie out of the egg yolks!
Ingredients
Eggwhites 40g
Caster Sugar 30g
Pinch of salt or a drop of lemon juice
Cake Flour 25g
Pure Cocoa 10g
Icing Sugar 30g
This picture lied. It was my first attempt and I used demerara (that brownish thing) sugar and hazelnut extract. Don't think that's a good idea because it's kind of moist.
Preperation
Because these little babies are soooo delicate, there are some you must do before even starting.
1. Egg whites -- okay some recipes say you need to leave them at room temperature uncovered for like 2 days. I was like o___o ewww that's just super gross. There are also people who say you should freeze your eggwhites and then thaw themm which apparently makes them more stable. But that was too troublesome so thankfully I found another way to do it on some other website
1. Microwave your eggwhites for 10s.
Okay this will bring your egg whites to room temperature so it beats better and dry it out a bit I think. Use medium or low or your egg whites may get cooked, lol. It's tempting, but don't over do it.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients. Just to make sure there are no clumps 3. Switch on the heater/air conditioning and make sure your room is dry
humidity is evil. EVIL.
Method
1. Put your egg whites into a metal or glass mixing bowl (it has to be absolutely clean and oil free) and beat it with a tiny pinch of salt or drop of lemon juice (stabilizes the egg whites).
2. When it gets nice and foamy, add one third of the caster sugar and beat it until it's all dissolved. Repeat until you've added all the caster suger. Adding it in thirds makes it easier to dissolve.
3. Beat till stiff peaks. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved. You can test this by rubbing the meringue between your fingers. If it's grainy, its not dissolved (duh). If you turn the bowl upside down your meringue will not fall.
4. Add in sifted flour and cocoa and icing sugar and give it a good mix (like 3-4 times until it's slightly incorporated) It looks terrible and awful at this point but after like a few folds it will come together.
5. MACARONAGE. This step is the bomb. You need to make sure you get enough of the air out, but not too much. Consistency in the end should be kind of shiny and like ~lava~ It should flow a bit when you tilt the bowl. When you lift some of the batter down and drop it down, you should get ribbons that disappear after 2s or so.
There are a million videos on youtube showing you how to macaronage (yes, its a real word). This was my favourite:
You need to make sure the mixture is smooth. Any undissolved sugar will give you my lovely pockmarked macaron above ;_;
6. Transfer into piping bag (or ziplock bag like me) and pipe. Pipe from like 90d above the spot and you will get a nice round circle. After you're done piping, give the tray a few taps to flatten out the surface of the macaron and get any big pockets of air out.
If you are a n00b like me, use a template to pipe. I googled some and got mine from here
7. Rest and let the babies dry. Time depends on your room. Could take from 20min to 2 hours. It is done when you can touch it and it doesn't stick to your fingers.
8. While that is resting, preheat your oven to 170deg
10. When the macarons have finally dried, put it into your oven, lower the temperature and bake at 140deg for 18min. Macarons should lift off clean. If at the 4min mark your macarons are not showing their feet, stop the oven and chuck the whole batch. Don't waste electricity.
At this point I was so annoyed at not knowing why I was failing I started to do experiments, lol.
At 4 min mark, the successful macaron would have shown its feet.
Macaron on the left was made with icing sugar. Pockmark cookie on the right was made with demerara sugar lol.
MUST DO IN JAPAN 2: TAKE SOME PURIKURA (photostickers in a shiny photobooth)
