Mihana in Crows Nest

There are plenty of nice Japanese restaurants in Sydney but Mihana is the only one I know as a Japanese style "dining bar". 

The term dining bar is perhaps incorrect English. This term is widely used in Japan. It basically means it is a bar where you can have decent food.

Mihana offers large varieties of Sake and other Japanese style drinks. And also tasty Japanese food! They are open till late so I go there when I can't be bothered cooking on late Saturday night or after watching a late night movie session. 

Their website is under constructions at the moment but you can still get the idea of the atmosphere of the place from this website. 

http://www.mihana.com.au/

They open Monday to Saturday, closed on Sunday.  Private rooms are available for small groups. 

My recommendation is Chashu (pork) salad. Desserts are pretty good too!

Mihana Dining and Sake Bar
32 Falcon Street
Crows Nest
(02) 9901 3895

Trip to Cowra

The trip to Cowra from Sydney was suppose to be 4 hours and 20 minutes but because of traffic jams, it turned out to be 5 hours! It always bit busy around Kattomba and there were roadworks.

It was such a warm day so perfect for the festival.....except all the Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) were finished already!!



It must have been very warm in Cowra in this spring. It looked like Sakura finished about 2 weeks ago. So I was bit disappointed with that but still enjoyed the garden.

Cowra Japanese garden is the biggest Japanese style garden in Southern hemisphere. There were many native Japaneses plants, rocks and beautiful water features.





The entertainments at the festival included demonstration of Japanese sports(ie Aikido) and music. I was expecting to see large varieties of Japaneses style gifts in the garden's gift shop but there wasn't much.

After visiting the festival, I went to Cowra POW camp and the cemetery for Japanese hostages. The cemetery was very quiet. It was very peaceful. Many of the grave stone had age of hostages and some of them were very young. It made me cry. If they didn't have a mind set of being hostage is a stigma, they would have survived.

I spent one night in a town. It was the first time for me to stay in a motel!! I wasn't expecting much but a room was clean and all the necessary amenities were there so it turned out to be ok.

A funny thing was, on the way back to Sydney, I stopped over in a town called Leura. And they seemed to have a lot more Sakrua than Cowra. And it was still blossoming!  It was probably because Leura is colder than Cowra(I coould be wrong)

In the end, I was very glad that I finally went to Cowra after living in NSW for 5 years and I had a good time. It was worth it!

Azuma cafe in Sydney CBD

I only know one Japanese style cafe in Sydney.

It's called Azuma located in The Regent place in Sydney CBD.

Japanese sweets culture is based on French style. Azuma is the only cafe I know where I can eat my favourite Mont Blanc(chesnut cake) in Australia!


Of course other sweets are just as great as Mont Blanc. If you have time to kill in CBD, please visit Azuma cafe. They are open till late.

Azuma cafe
Ground Floor Regent Place Shopping
501 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Review from Smh Sydney

Spring is here

I came back from Melbourne a couple of days ago. It was nice to see friends and check the trend in Melbourne! It was very sunny and warm day for Melbourne but Sydney is always warmer.

It's been 5 years since I moved to Sydney from Melbourne. Many people ask me which city I like and I always answer " It depends on what you like"

If you like Japanese food, nice weather and beach culture, Sydney is better. However if you like locally designed fashion accessories, clothes, cultural events, art festivals, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Vietnamese food, Melbourne is better.

I do prefer shopping in Melbourne but I love the markets in Sydney. They are everywhere! As some of you may know, I hold a stall at  Kirribilli market occasionally.  I like the vibe of Kirribilli market. Apart from this one, I like Paddington and Glebe market.

I've been trying to get a stall at the next Kirribilli market but their website is not open at the moment. It was suppose to reopen today but it didn't! Hopefully it will open soon so that I can book a stall.

In a mean time, please go to my website or shops in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.


(Photo: Sunny morning in Balaclava, Melbourne)

Thinking of Kyoto

In 2009, after having three wedding reception in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, my husband and I did honeymoon in Japan.

I left Japan when I was 16 years old so I didn't travel much while I was still living there. So it was a very good opportunity to rediscover Japan.  We did top half of Japan in 2009 and the second half in April this year.

Each prefecture (this is how we address a state in Japan) has different culture, food and dialect. In terms of food, I liked seafood from Tohoku region which is the north end of Honsyu island the most. It's the area where the earthquake happened in March this year. It made me so upset when I thought of people who I met during the trip. I hope they are back on the track of their life now.

Jet Star is keep doing Japan sale which is very tempting.  As I mentioned above, I just went to Japan in April so I'm trying not to go back until next year to save some money.

Going to Kyoto in autumn is great. My town is very famous for nice autumn food and leaves! To see beautiful autumn leaves in Kyoto, it's best to go closer to the end of autumn. I would suggest mid to end of November.

If you are heading to north end of Japan for that, you can go from late September to mid October. 

(Photo: Autumn in Kiyomizu temple)

New shelf

I changed the location of my products at Beehive Gallery.

I moved  my products to a different shelf which was opposite to where I used to use. I have added more hair accessories, teddy bear and dog straps、chirimen cardholder and  Kanzashi.

I also added the explanation  of what Nishihin silk is so feel free to pick it up. I left about 6 copies. 

Please droop into the shop when you are in Newtown, Sydney!

Beehive Gallery

Shop1 441-443 King Street
Newtown 2042 NSW
Australia

Kyo Modern: Funktion Fashion

Recently, I started selling some of Kyo Modern's products at a lovely clothing and designer artwork shop "Funktion Fashion".

The shop is located in a busy district of Neutral Bay. The address is,  176 Military Road, Neutral Bay New South Wales.

The shop offers casual and formal female clothing, large varieties of  fashion accessories, gifts and cards.  This is the one stop shop to go before going to a party-You can choose your dress, select matching shoes, decide on hair accessories and pick up a gift & card!

The shop is certainly full of gems! Unique African cushions, cute shawls,handmade soaps and stamps are also available.

Some of Kyo Modern's chirimen hair Accessories and handmade kimono silk pouches are available at Funktion Shop. If you are passing by Neutral Bay, please pop into the shop!

If you would like to know what kind of chirimen and kimono silks are used in the products, please visit my site.

And to see which Kyo Modern's products are available at Funktion Fashion, please go to the shop facebook page for photos.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Funktion-Fashion/182620645116084?sk=info