Trying a Japanese Raindrop Cake

Several months ago my Dad got my Mom and I a combined birthday gift: A year getting Bokksu boxes. A Japanese snack box.  We share them, and a lot of snacks come in pairs so they're easy to split. Our first box was the April Sakura box, which was so much fun. And each box that has followed have had a variety of really nice snacks, both sweet and savory.  

When starting I thought the sweet snacks would go first, but it's been the savory snacks! The black sesame snacks are so good, as are miso snacks. Suddenly my mind is forgetting flavor terminologies! The fishy snacks haven't been so good, apart from those Osaka octopus snacks which are delicious.

The latest box has a Raindrop Mochi Cake. According to the description these snacks have become very popular.  Honestly, I hadn't a clue what to expect.

The mochi cake really does look like a raindrop!! Looking like water.

The mochi jelly was sweet. And when putting on the soybean powder or the syrup the taste... I haven't a clue how to describe it. Sweetly soyish. There's a reason I'm not a food commentator. Eating this snack was fun. I liked picking it up with a fork and making it jiggle. The taste wasn't one of my favorites, but it was still really nice trying such a unique snack.

Have a great day!! :D

Sarah

(Japan, I miss you!)

Mermaid Lagoon at Tokyo DisneySea, Japan

(April 2019) It's hard to explain exactly what it's like visiting Mermaid Lagoon in Tokyo DisneySea.  The outside is currently the only castle in the DisneySea park, Triton's undersea palace, and as you go underneath you're greeted with sea wonders.  It's essentially an underground Bug's Life playland, if you ever visited that section of California Adventure before being replaced with the soon to be Avengers Campus.  Mermaid Lagoon is a delight to see with an incredibly neat atmosphere.

Along with simple kiddie rides, an eatery, and a shop, there's also a Mermaid Lagoon Theater where King Triton's Concert is performed.  There's projections and video, but also a live performer playing Ariel suspended on wire as she "swims" above the audience.  The show is in Japanese, but still enjoyable.

If you're able to visit Tokyo DisneySea don't gloss over Mermaid Lagoon.  It's easy to miss, tucked away in between Mysterious Island and the Arabian Coast.  Even if you don't want to see the show or take kids on the rides, it's worth a walk through.

Photos by Sarah, Robin, Steven, and Ty

My Sticky Egg Situation at Tokyo DisneySea: Good Information for Those with Food Allergies/Intolerance

So, in the last few years I realized that I have an egg intolerance.  It's not full blown allergies as I can have eggs baked into things, and if I haven't had eggs in awhile a little egg won't give me pain mixed with other issues.  So no eggs boiled, fried, scrambled, quiches, etc.  Since I've stopped eating whole eggs my health has improved greatly.  And sadly I've probably been dealing with this since Middle School, but never made the connection until recently.  Getting nauseous after eating eggs should have been a big giveaway, among other things, I just didn't want to give them up.  I really, really love eggs.

Thanks to having an egg intolerance traveling can be a little difficult, especially breakfast.  And since I visited the Tokyo Disney parks in April, several items had eggs.

This is where it got interesting:

I'm at Tokyo DisneySea with my Mom.  Steven and Ty entered the park earlier than us and were elsewhere.  My Mom and I decided to get something to eat as it was around noon and we didn't have breakfast.  The Deli in the New York section of the park isn't too far from the entrance, and I love a good sandwich, so we headed there first.  While ordering I was getting confused with which sandwiches had eggs verses the ones that didn't, and I made the mistake of saying I have an egg allergy.

Suddenly everything went crazy!  I had to wait for an employee to come help navigate the menu, and this nice lady brought a tablet.  Honestly, it was impressive.  She could access every item served and what was in it.  Where it got lost in translation was explaining that I can have mayonnaise.  But then she would say, "It has eggs!"  No matter what I said, in broken Japanese, I couldn't convey the fact that mayonnaise was okay.  And we were in a deli, everything had mayonnaise, and they wouldn't let me order.

My brother Steven came, who knows Japanese, and still nothing.  After fifteen plus minutes I was allowed to order a Reuben without the mayonnaise.  After we got the order my Mom asked for a side of mayonnaise and I put it on out of sight.

It was a little frustrating, but honestly it was really nice seeing a place completely open and willing to help those with food allergies.  If you ever have an issue with dietary needs, know that the Tokyo Disney Parks are fully ready to help.  Just, heh, if you have an intolerance verses an allergy you might just want to skate around the issue.  I learned this the hard way.  For the rest of the trip I purposely made sure I ordered things that didn't have egg, or where the egg was easily removable.  Lesson learned.  But it was nice seeing how prepared they were, and so willing to help.

And the Reuben, after taking the sauerkraut out, was really good.

What my Mom ordered.

New York and the American Waterfront at Tokyo DisneySea

(April, 2019)  The onward adventures of Tokyo DisneySea, or, in other words, why Tokyo DisneySea is my favorite Disney park of all time.  The American Waterfront is where you can find New York and New England depicted in wonderful, detailed glory.  There's three shows: Big Band Beat, New York, and the Duffy Bear shows.  There's also Tower of Terror, their version involving an antiquities collector ending up with a cursed statue.  Also a replication of an old ocean liner, SS Columbia, which has an amazingly delicious restaurant.

If you've ever visited Disneyland in California, while exploring Main Street USA you can hear recordings of people talking and whatnot in the upper buildings, bringing the atmosphere to life.  The same thing can be found in New York.  I was waiting for family, listening to the music, and up above I heard the track of a tap dance class.  It made me so happy.

This post is picture heavy, but that's the thing about this park, there's so many things to get caught up in, and I haven't even gotten into the Steampunk section, Mermaid Lagoon, or the Arabian Coast.  Oh, and that fortress is amazing, too.

When my brother Steven was talking to friends about visiting Tokyo and how much time we spent at the Disney Parks instead of the city, his friends were like, "Why?!!"  And Steven was like, "You have no idea!"

Photos by Sarah, Robin, Steven, and Ty