10 great tips from Lonely Planet can be found in here.

It’s time to start writing about how not to starve and go bankrupt at the same time. The answer is, eat like locals! But remember your roots- no need to force yourself to eat something you hate ;)

[If you are Japanese, stop reading immediately! This is not sushi-master approved recipe. This is my cooking 101, at-least-this-time-I-haven’t-set-the-kitchen-on-fire recipe with “close enough” effect. I like it, it’s my kitchen and so on]

And here comes the tuna roll sushi recipe. It is a really sushi, not some strange discovery- I’ve seen in sushi bars. It is easy to prepare, contains products that are easy to obtain and suit continental tastes. Enjoy!

Ingredients: 

• tuna in can x1
• 1/2 of small onion
• wasabi
• sushi rice
• rice vinegar (there’s a special type just for sushi)
• nori (the long and thin type
• mayonnaise 

Preparation:

1. Cook the sushi rice (I cooked it normally, just a pot and water). Remember to add rice vinegar so it will get more sticky and easier to form (one tea spoon for a bowl of rice).

2. Chop the onion in very small pieces (as small as you can). Mix it with tuna and mayonnaise. If you like it spicy you may add pepper. If you like it more mild, you can add boiled egg. Now you have tuna salad!

3. Form 5 cm (2 inch) long rolls of rice.

4. Wrap rice in nori. Put some wasabi on rice if you like.

5. Put tuna salad on the rice, inside the “basket” made of nori. (I’m pretty sure that’s not the right order, sushi masters probably put the nori at the end, but I was afraid that the salad will fall off).
6. Serve with soy sauce and gari.

Version with an egg

SOS tips:

• if the nori doesn’t want to stay together, you can use wasabu as a “glue” on the edges or just put a little water on them 
• if your nori’s shape is not the one you want, remember that kitchen scissors are your friends

Tea ceremony is one of the most known Japanese traditions. The one we were allowed to experience was quite plain and I’m sure it skipped some parts since it was only a few minutes long. Still, it was a very interesting experience.

Japanese people love green tea- this is something you’ll notice after an hour in Japan. Green tea is everywhere- in restaurants, coffee shop, in vending machines, in cakes, biscuits and sweets. Starbucks sells matcha latte, KitKat has a matcha flavour. But it all starts with traditional green tea and tea ceremony. I was lucky enough to see how it’s made and take part in the ceremony.

One of the popular dishes that can be bought almost everywhere in Japan is takoyaki (たこ焼き or 蛸焼). It’s a ball made of wheat-flour based batter with pieces of octopus, tempura scraps and some vegetables. They are fried on special pan (iron griddle with half-spherical moulds) and served on paper boats with special sauce or mayonnaise.

When I came to Japan I was prepared for some communication difficulties to occur. After all, I barely speak Japanese, so what else could I expect? But what surprised me the most was that the very first area I had really huge problem with, was sense of humor. Really. I literally can’t make jokes in here.

A relation from a trip to Inokashira Koen, which is a great place for a sunny afternoon.

Map of the park can be found  just after the entrance

Just next to the park is the street and blocks of flats

Trees are really huge!

Big stone with carvings. I even managed to understand some of them (mostly dates)

Path to the shrine

Shrine to sea goddess Benzaiten

 

The lake in the middle of the park with long bridges

For some reason every tree had this this tiny scrap of paper

Shrine and fountains seen from the middle of the lake (thanks to the bridge)

You may not see it, but these koi were HUGE!

You can rent a boat and enjoy even more of the lake ;)

Japanese Garden in the middle of the park (it's tiny- that's almost all of it)

A word you’ll learn really fast in Japan is konbini (コンビニ) which means convenience store. Why? Because they are really, really convenient.

The festival starts at 18th of April and ends at 6th of April. The wisteria is not the only attraction. Among the best ones are: food and Kodō (drumming troupe).

Food booth- looks like fried balls with filling

This one smelled great

Bananas (I would be careful with calling this chocolate, it might be red bean paste)

Japanese ice-cream which is basically ice with juice on top

Gold fish hunting!

This thing was really long

Shish kebabs? In Japan?

That's how you make cool beverages. Who needs tourist fridge in Country Of High Tech?

My favouirte- fish on stick grilled around the pile of coal

Dorayaki (filled pancakes)

This one looks familiar :)

Okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancake)

Octopus on a stick

Wisteria for sale

 Another popular thing to do during festival is buying charms and talismans, so the shrine’s mikos had a lot of work that day.

100 yen fortune

And finally, the best of the best: Kodō (鼓童) a professional taiko (big Japanese drums) troupe and their show.

Address:
3-6-1 Kameido
Koto-ku
Kameido Tenjin Shrine

Station Kinshicho

Kameido Tenjin Shrine (Shitamachi-no Tenjin-sama -Tenjin shrine of downtown Tokyo) is a place really worth seeing. Surrounded by houses and blocks of flats, hidden from the main street, this place surprises with it’s beautiful garden. There’s a pond and some bridges as well as some animals.

Apart from the Main Hall and the gates, there’s a lot more to see on temple’s ground.