I just read seven volumes of The Embalmer online, and am wishing that more volumes were available in English. I love this manga!
It is about Shinjyurou Mamiya, a half-American and half-Japanese medical student who decides to abandon his medical studies and follow in his late American father’s footsteps to become an embalmer, a profession that is not highly regarded in Japan. He sees embalming as a way of restoring the living appearance of the dead person so that their families can grieve properly and obtain closure. Each chapter in the manga is a separate story about Shinjyurou’s experiences as an embalmer and the effects of these experiences on his life. Through these stories, we get to know more about embalming as well as Shinjyurou’s background and his human relationships.
This is a really good slice-of-life manga if you do not find the subject matter too morbid.
When I was researching on what to eat in Kyoto, a tofu kaiseki meal kept popping up. So I wrote to Hotel Mume, the hotel where we were staying at in Kyoto, to ask them to recommend us a good tofu restaurant. They suggested 
The first course of our Yen 5,000 per head set dinner. The baby squids were SO yummy.
Sashimi, my favourite course.
Mmmmm, no Japanese meal is complete for us without a flask of sake. 
This is how Tousuiro cooks their tofu at the table.
And you eat the tofu dipped in shoyu, a little grated ginger and chopped spring onions. The tofu was quite yummy but being the tofu-plebian, I could not tell how good it was. I ate one piece and let the husband savour the rest.
Another delicious course of vegetables and octopus.
Some sort of fishcake-tofu in a broth with wakame. I liked this alot.
Grilled bamboo. I lurve…! Not so crazy over the mochi dengaku though. 
Tempura.
Rice, pickles and miso soup to end the meal. By this stage, I was so stuffed and could not eat another bite. The wait staff was quite appalled that I did not eat my rice. I felt bad about wasting food but I had absolutely no space in my stomach for a bowl of carbohydrate.
So grateful for hot tea to wash it all down. Then we paid our bill, put on our coats and trudged back to the hotel, shivering in the cold weather.
Recently, I discovered this stall selling Teochew minced pork noodles in a coffeeshop at Seng Poh Road in Tiong Bahru. Besides the minced pork noodles stall, the other occupants of the coffeeshop houses include the well-known Loo’s Hainanese Curry Rice, a vegetarian food stall and a beverage stall.
I have been back many times. My usual order – a bowl of dry minced pork mushroom mee kia with chili and additional vinegar. Yummy $3 bowl of noodles. Closed on Thursdays.
I wanted to try these delicious-looking cubes of caneles but I was just too full after the eating tofu doughnuts and soy milk ice cream.
Deftly filling the portafilter and tamping the coffee powder.
At the famous Kyoto Nishiki food market. The market is a long, narrow, and covered walkway flanked by little shops selling cooked food, fresh, frozen and pickled food, Japanese snacks and groceries on both sides.
Mid-way through the market, we REALLY wanted to turn back. Had we been in the mood to enjoy the wares peddled in the market, there were way too many people for it to be much fun. I felt like I was being mobbed…
… then I saw THIS! The first thing that perked me up. Skewered marinated octopus stuffed with a quail egg! I love marinated octopus and this is one of the items that I usually pick up at the conveyor belt sushi places. 
While waiting for my turn to place an order, several Caucasian guys stopped at the stall and started making gagging noises at the skewers and you could hear them say things like “disgusting food”, “how revolting”, “octopus…gross” in loud voices. I felt like elbowing them and them to stop being such sissies, and have some respect. If you don’t fancy the food, please go away. No-one is forcing any down your throat. 
After enjoying the octopus, we walked on and nearing the end of the market, we arrived at Sakaimachi-dori and saw this shop selling tofu doughnuts and soymilk softserve ice cream.
The Sanjusangendo temple.
The view of the statues in the main hall is very impressive. Pity photography is not allowed in the main hall.
The picturesque temple grounds were accentuated by cherry blossom trees in full bloom.
Having finally been to the Sanjusangendo, I feel that it should be a compulsory stop in anyone’s Kyoto itinerary. You will be blown away by the sight of the statues.
Gosh, it is almost coming to the end of May and I am still blogging about the Japan trip which ended in the first week of April. I reckon that by the time I am done with all these posts, it would be autumn. You will be seeing photos of the cherry blossoms in Tokyo possibly only in November, just in time to start planning for another spring trip to Japan.
The Fushimi-Inari Shrine, with its stunning orange-red Sen-bon torii gates, was at the top of my to-go list. It is the head shrine in Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, at the base of Mount Inari. What is Inari? Inari is the Japanese Goddess of rice, responsible for protecting the rice fields and ensuring fertility, and foxes are her messengers. 
To hike from the main temple complex, through the torii gates, to the top of the Mount Inari takes approximately two hours. I read that the best times to do the hike are during the early morning hours or in the late afternoon. The temple and its surroundings are said to very quiet and magical then, while others have described the place to look rather eerie at that hour of the day. Going by what I see of the temple in Inari Kon Kon Koi Iroha, the temple is stunning when the sun sets.
Together with hoards of visitors, we started making our way up the Sen-bon Torii from this torii gate with the guardian fox statues. 
Shortly after, we arrived at the widely-photographed twin entrances to the densely packed torii gates. It was way too crowded for me to take a good photo of the entrances ‘cos everyone had the same idea as me. 
The side of the torii gates where the characters were painted on them. Each torii gate bears the name of its donor on one side. The view through these torii gates is really beautiful. The path looks quiet and peaceful in this photograph. From these photos, you cannot tell how crowded the path was. I had to wait for the moments when the crowds have dissipated to click the shutter. I had to be quick ‘cos before you know it, another large group of people would appear…
At the other end of the torii gates. Then we continued to march on through another stretch of less densely packed torii gates, slowing making our way up to the mountain. 
Midway point. The Okuno-sha shrine, with many miniature toriis on display. Where we turned back and went down the same route to go back to the temple complex. Then to lunch!
#throwback
This film set is fairly huge and very nice. They re-created the streets of Korea from the 1950s to the 1970s in this place. It is akin to being in an open-air historical museum, and a good place for young Koreans and foreigners to learn more about the history of the country. I remember being glued to Sandglass, a highly popular drama set in the 1960s and 1970s, portraying the political situation in Korea at that time including the events around the Gwangju uprising. 
After doing my marketing at Tiong Bahru market one morning last week, I decided to check out the Bakery Chef at Bukit Merah Central (Blk 161 Bukit Merah Central), which is just a short drive away from where I was. I had signed up for