Chattie's Komachi

This is a Japanese owned cafe/restaurant in Chatswood, Sydney.

They've been around for a year but I didn't discover them until recently.

So far, I've been there for dinner, lunch and take away lunch.

They use rice called "Kita Akita Komachi" from Akita, Japan. I always knew delicious Akita Komachi brand rice but I never heard of Kita (means North) Akita Komachi rice. It was SO tasty!
I dislike so called Asian or short grain rice from supermarkets so I usually Japanese rice from Japanese groceries. Yes I know it's a lot more expensive but for me, it's worth it.

You can buy Kita Akita Komachi rice from this cafe. There are small and big sacks available.

I loved their hamburg stake. It was so tasty. My husband loved his Katsu curry. Usually katsu we find in other shops are dry and tough. But this one was soft but still crunchy. It was so juicy too.

We also tried dessert which was made by rice flours. There were daily free cheese cakes available too.

When we went back there for lunch, unfortunately it was really busy and there were only 3 staff. We ended up waiting for a long time. We did receive apology from the owner. I'm not sure if one of their staff was absent or they were not used to with full capacity.

Their food is seriously great but in terms of service, they might want to improve a bit? All the staff were very friendly but I noticed there were few things they could do to minimise the waiting time.

Until they improve that part, perhaps, we should avoid busy lunch time. But we'll definitely go back there again.

Kyoto Emporium

Kyoto Emporium in North Ryde, Sydney is a Japanese take away and gift shop.

It opened a couple of month ago. I live near this shop but I didn't discover it until I started going to a chiropractic which was located opposite to this shop.

I was very surprised that there was a Japanese style gift shop so close to where I live! The shop is running by Keiko & Patric and also Akiko. They are all lovely people.

They are currently selling some of Kyo Modern's hair accessories, chirimen teddy bear and dog straps. They offer a large variety of other Japanese fashion accessories, kokeshi dolls, ceramics, traditional kids toys and many more.

As for food, they have a very good range of sushi, donburi (rice) and ramen & udon (noodle).

The shop is inside a little shopping plaza so it might be hard to see from the main road but you will see a sign outside. When you are in the area, please pop in and check out their amazing range of gifts. 

Kyoto Emporium
3/22 Blenheim Road, North Ryde
0403-644-290

Mon-Fri: 09:30 to 17:00
Sat:9:30 to 14:00
Closed on Sundays (catering available) 

Buku Buku Soap

 Apart from correcting and selling Japanese style fashion accessories from Kyoto, I love collecting handmade soaps.

I use them of course, but because I have so many of them, it takes me a while to use them up.  I recently found this Japanese lady who is based in Sydney is selling handmade natural soaps.

She runs a course on Saturdays but you might want to check availability first.


If you would like to purchase her soaps, you can place order via her site. There are many people who make natural soaps but she is the only one I know sells soaps with Azuki (Japanese red bean), Sake and sesami!

http://www.bukubukusoap.com/

I ended up buying few other ones and they all smell great. I just want to look at it. They smell too good to be used!

I will try not to buy any other soaps this year but the temptation is alwasy there.

One love project

It's been so wet and cold in Sydney. I can't remember when the last time the town experienced so much rain. It rained for at lease a week!

It's finally sunny today and I'm feeling more motivated. (Yes I know I shouldn't use weather for an excuse..)

Some of Kyo Modern's products will be available on discounted price at fundraising bazaar which will be organised by a none profit organisation called One Love Project.

One Love Project was established by a Japanese lady Shiho in Sydney. She runs bazaar and invites Sydney based artists to run workshops. All the sales are donated to earthquake victims in Tohoku region in Japan.

It's been more than 2 years since earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku. Because we don't live there, many people don't think about it any more but victims still need lots of help. Many of them are still can't return to home, have mental damage from the incident and need more support for day to day life.

As Shiho says, sometimes it's difficult to keep supporting victims in natural disaster zones continuously. It;s so much easier to give one off donation. However her and her volunteers aim to give that continuously support. I'm very glad that I can take a part of this!

As for what kind of Kyo Modern's products will be available at the bazaar, I will be uploading the photos on Kyo Modern's Facebook page closer to the date.

The bazaar and workshops will be held from 9am to 12 noon on the 21st of July 2013 at 12/14-20 Eric Road Artarmon NSW.  

Play dough workshop commence at 10am. Origami workshop will commence from 12noon for adults and 1:30pm for kids. These workshops will be conducted in Japanese but of course, artists can speak English! 

Please the names below for more information of up coming events:

One love project

Kyo Modern

(Photo: Origami artwork by Midori  Furze. I will be joining her work shop from 12noon on the 21st. She  runs many other workshops in Sydney. For more details about her and workshops, please visit http://www.midorifurze.com   )

Joy of choosing new products

When I feel down, it makes me feel better to look at new products I might want to import from Kyoto.


When I decide what I want to get from Kyoto for my business, it's bit hard to choose what I want. Because I tend to choose what "I want" first and then start thinking "Hang on, I should get what people want instead!!"

But I think it's important to sell what I love- I want to share the joy of having Kyoto made Japanese fashion accessories. It's the colour, shape, history and people who make interests me.

Most of Nishijin products are made by an Nishijin weaving articst Shisen. I deal with her daughter to purchase Shien's products.

Most of Kyo Modern's chirimen products are made by various places and people in Kyoto.

For a personal reasons, I can't go back to Kyoto this year but I will keep eye on goodies that I might decide to import.

I miss going to markets in Kyoto. There are heaps!!I want to buy products for myself and Kyo Modern from there...

I've only been to Toji, Shimogamo shirine and Kitano tenmangu market. There are a lot more but I can never stay in Kyoto long enough. Most of markets are on monthly basis at a shrine or temple but because there are so many of them, there is always a market held every week. (It's not necessary on weekends).

Here are the some of the market names:

Kobou san market at Toji Temple

Chionin market at Chionin Hyakumanben

Kamigamo market at Kamigamo shrine

Tenjisan market at Kitano Tenmangu shrine

Be there early. There are usually many people at markets!

Mother's day gifts

Mother's day is coming soon.

In Japan, it is common to send carnations to mother.

I thought people would do the same in Australia but I see people send varieties of flowers and organise family gathering on Mother's day.

Since my mother is in Japan, I can't invite her for dinner or anything so I plan to order flowers online from a florist in Japan and organise delivery.  Life is getting so much easier with online shop!

If you are thinking of sending gifts to your mother, how about Nishijin gamaguchi?  Mothers and grandmothers often purchase this products for themselves.

Nishijin weaving is known to for rich colour and smooth texture. Inside the gamaguchi is supported by inner layers so it's very durable.

Pouches are pretty popular too. 

There will be more products uploading on the site soon.

Chinese lion dance and Japanese lion dance

I celebrate new year twice a year.

I celebrate 1st of January and Chinese new year as my husband has Chinese back ground.

When I saw Chinese lion dance for the first time, I thought it was very powerful compare to Japanese one and a lot more gaudy. (My husband said Japanese one looks cheap but anyway)

In Japanese, it's called "Shishi-mai"  (獅子舞) The roots of Japanese lion dance said to be from China which I expected but colour of lion, music and dance are very different. 

Chinese lion dance is pretty fast and music is loud with a drum. Japanese lion dances follows normal  to slow speed and music is relatively quiet with small drums and Japanese traditional flute.  Until recently, I didn't know the style of dancing and design of the lion differs by region in Japan. 

The one I know is a red wooden  face with green cloth body. I do remember Okinawa which is part of Japan but very close to Taiwan has lion with lots of hair. But I really thought the rest of Japan all has the same lion.

Japanese lion dance is not only performed on the new year day, also at regional festivals through out the year. 
It looks like the one I know (red face one) is only performed on the new year celebration? 

Lion dance in Kanto region which is Tokyo and surrounding regions is very different to the one I know of.  It's done by 1 person inside, the head of lion is above eye level and a dancer plays drum while he dances! 


I became particulary interested in Sanbiki shishi-mai (Three lions) from Kanto region.  Fukushima is famous for that too. 

One of the site I visit occasionally had a good details of Sanbiki shishi-mai. It's only available in Japanese but has few pictures to give you ideas of how they look like. 

Sanbikishishi-mai at Nagasaki shrine, Tokyo


There are many Japanese lion dance footage available on You Tune. I spent 30 hour browsing different style. Now I feel like visiting different regions to see different lion dances in Japan.  

Happy New Year to all!

I hope everyone had a good holiday. I've been back to work for a while now.

I ate "Osechi" which is traditional Japanese cuisine for the New Year's Day. Usually I'm in Japan this time of the year so I eat osechi made by my mother.

I did know that different family or different generations use slightly different ingredients to make osechi but I didn't know what each food represents.

The only thing I knew was Konbu(Seaweed) represents "Joy" as the name konbu sounds similar to "yorokobu" which means joy in Japanese.

There are other food such as "Tazukuri" which means making rice fields, "Kazunoko" for having many kids, etc.

My mother makes what's called "Meiji style Osechi". Meiji is the era from 1862 to1912 in Japan.
In Meiji stule osech, most of ingredients are brown or black. More modern "Heisei style Osechi" (1989-current) looks a lot more birhgter with colour of red and white.
I always thought I should inherite skill and style of making osechi from my mother but at the same time I thought "But I can't get all the ingredients in Australia. I could get some of them but they don't taste as nice"

So when I ordered osechi from one of Japanese chef, I wasn't expecting much but it was much nicer than I thought! I want to know where he gathered the ingredients from.

I ordered osechi from Urasan Japanese catering. It was $200 for 2 to 3 people. ($20 discount if you order early)

There were other places that were also offering osechi for similar prices. They are:

Hana Jurin: Located in Crows Nest. http://www.jurin.com.au/hana_jurin/
Blancharu: Located in Elizabeth Bay http://www.blancharu.com.au/
Shiki: Located in The Rocks:  www.shiki.com.au
Mino: Located in Mosman: www.mino.com.au
Ura san Japanese catering: Locagted in Sushi e in CBD. 0405 147 055 http://merivale.com.au/sushie

*Blancharu is a Japanese owned French restaurant. Their osechi is mix of western and Japanese cuisine
*Hana Jurin was the only one where the price was over $200 but that was because it was for 4 people.

If you are interested in eating osechi for the new year day in 2014, try contacting one of the restaurant above in December 2013!