Categories
travel

Heavily Jet-Lagged.

I had a very long April 23rd; left Japan in the evening, arrived back in San Francisco in the morning. Still April 23rd.

I was lacking a lot of sleep due to staying up all night on Tuesday/Wednesday and having little sleep on the plane. Yesterday, I made myself stay awake until sunset so I could somehow reset my internal clock. I went to bed around 9pm.

Today, I woke up at 5pm.

Granted, I did wake up a few times throughout the day; I went downstairs around 2pm to pick up my vacation mail. Still, I ended up staying in bed until 5pm.

I don’t think I have ever experienced such jet lag before. But, this is probably good, to sleep 20 hours in one night–I am forcing myself tonight to get to bed by 11pm so I can try waking up early tomorrow.

Categories
Japan Starbucks

One last look at Starbucks in Japan…


I decided to order one last thing from Starbucks in Japan–something I could only get in Japan.

This is the Coffee Jelly Frappucino; a mix of coffee, grass jelly (? actually, not too sure of the English translation of this jelly; let’s just say, it’s not fruit jelly), and cream.

Light coffee taste, and slurping up the jelly pieces made me crave bubble tea.

Categories
#foodie Japan

Zaru soba and oyako don.

Simple words for the day:

Zaru soba – cold buckwheat noodles with shredded seaweed on top. Eaten with the sauce/soup on the side.

Oyako Don – chicken, egg, onions served over rice.

These two are some of my favorite Japanese foods. More, please!

Categories
#foodie drink Japan sweet treats

Red bean desserts.


I had my filling of red-bean desserts today. Red bean is a very Asian sweet–I know there are red bean breads in China as well–so, I decided to eat some desserts with red bean to experience the flavors.

Granted, I have had red bean before, but not in the way that I had it today. First, for lunch, I had the dessert pictured on the far left–I forget the exact name of it, but it was warm and the white balls were similar to mochi textures. Apparently this dish was rather healthy.

When I met up with my former classmate in the evening, I tried this “Frozen Green Tea Drink” at Doutor Coffee. It came with red bean and the same mochi bit on top.

I really need to learn how to make these desserts for myself! I imagine they’re a bit complicated, but probably not impossible.

Categories
Japan Starbucks

Starbucks in Japan

I’m on a rampage to “discover” the differences in taste/style/portions of American food companies in Japan.

So, today, I went by Starbucks. I faintly remember from two years ago that the experience in a Japanese Starbucks is different from an American one. There’s still the ambience of relaxing, but it’s quite different–for one, the prevalence of free wireless is not so common in Japanese Starbucks. Actually, the Japanese rely more on Internet access via their cell phones rather than through laptops.

I ordered myself a green tea frappucino–yes, green tea has become one of my favorite flavors of Japan, by the way. The small size was incredibly small–could probably pass as the kid’s size in the US! That makes me sad.

The frappuccino was creamy, had the taste of authentic green tea. I felt satisfied after drinking this.

I guess when I get back to the US, I will order the green tea frappucino there and compare afterwards.