Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Uzumasa. Show all posts

During our stay in Kyoto, we saw a lot of Japanese convenience stores everywhere from the Kyoto Station to right outside Uzumasa Station. From the manga that I read and anime that I watch, a lot of Japanese people are actually living from the food sold at these convenience stores. Curious about what the real convenience store sells in Japan, we proceeded to enter Family Mart to have our lunch before continuing our walk to Toei Kyoto Studio Park.

10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Uzumasa's Family Mart

My first impression, Family Mart has a pretty good selection of drinks. It even has limited edition Starbucks sakura latte. Since it is very difficult to get a seat at Starbucks in Japan, I guess there is a market for a quick-take-away Starbucks drinks from the convenience stores.

There are a lot of iced coffee and yoghurt drinks spotted on the drink shelf. Most of the drinks sold here have straw attached to them. Not like in Singapore where most of the drinks are not attached with the straw, with the exception of Yakult I guess (which originated from Japan).

Japanese Coffee Drinks at Convenience Store

I've had my coffee that morning so for lunch, I chose the blueberry yoghurt drink because it looks good. My friend chose the strawberry one. Both are located at the bottom left of the picture below. If you see closer, the straw may look pretty short but the length of the straw can be extended once you have opened the plastic wrapper. Cool~~

Food wise, there are not much selection as the Family Mart which we visited right in front of Uzumasa Train Station is not that big to begin with. I ended up grabbing one of the onigiri (re: triangle shaped rice). I totally don't know the filling of the onigiri that I picked to be honest with you.

It looks kinda like roe (re: salmon eggs). Well, taste wise, the onigiri tastes rather salty but I suppose that's how they are supposed to taste?

Salmon Roe Onigiri at Family Mart in Kyoto

The experience of eating food bought from convenience store is pretty interesting to me. I can't wait to try other stuff from the Japanese convenience stores.

If you ask me what kind of superpower that I'd like to have, I would probably say none because superheroes went through certain accidental exposure to radioactive material (except Batman, because he's so damn rich) before they turned into superheroes. On the other hand, I would gladly go for a training to acquire one of those silently-moving-in-the-dark skill which is owned by the ninjas. Imagine being able to leave unnoticed in the middle of office function or leaving office on the dot without being busted by your fellow colleagues or worse, boss? Awesome, right?

Where is the best to place to learn these skills? None other than the Ninjatown (which is officially known as Toei Kyoto Studio Park but it sounds less cool, so I'll stick to Ninjatown). Hmm, Ninjatown looks pretty much peaceful when I just made my entrance. It seems that we are starting at the business district of the town where there are a lot of stores at the side of the road.

10D9N Spring Japan Trip: Ninja Training in Kyoto

Since I have not started my ninja class, maybe this is the right time to enjoy a bit of sake or ocha at this road-side stall.

Konnichiwa fellow apprentice! Oh am I supposed to get that uniform too? Not that I mind since it looks pretty much cute. <3 (There are uniforms available for boys too and they are in blue).

Ninja Girl Costume at Toei Kyoto Studio Park

Alas, I have found the Ninja Training Dojo to become ninja but but...oh no, the line to the entrance to the training hall is so long. Is this some kind of test whereby our patience and perseverance are being put toward challenge?

Ninja Training Dojo at Toei Kyoto Studio Park

The ninja standing guard insisted that I have to go for the line if I want to master the true art of ninja. Oh man. But anyway, if you are more interested in ninja stuff (rather than the art itself), you can buy t-shirt and ninja-related materials (like shuriken), you can immediately go to the store behind the guarding ninja.

Right, back to the training dojo Toward the front of the queue, there is an illustration where you can see what kind of trap that the training dojo has. All of these are necessary for you to train to become a real ninja (although traps are by right, supposedly hidden?). XD

Ninja Training Dojo Traps at Toei Kyoto Studio Park

The biggest challenge toward my journey to master the true art of ninja are after all...1,600 Japanese Yen. The entrance fee which I paid earlier (6,000 JPY) does not cover this training dojo. Yikes.