Ichigo Melon Pan

That's Strawberry Melon Pan to the uninitiated.

Shyarott Strawberry and Milk

I think the Shyarott is charlotte?  I'm not too sure.  Thanks Katakana.

OK, here's a weird one.  I bought this thinking it was a sandwich.  Look at that shape.  Totally makes you think sandwich.

Universal Studios Japan. Lazy trip

USJ have seasonal attractions and I made a trip there over Christmas to check out the lights.  Yes I am attracted to pretty flashing things.  I ended up having lunch there, as well as morning tea.  Aaah, bugger it, this is a general "Day at USJ" post.

I found Scones!

I don't eblieve it!  I found scones in a cafe in Japan.  Odd since I have so much trouble finding nice coffee.

Damn Americans bring their horrid drip coffee over here and Japan loves it.  Grumble grumble grumble.

Anyway, I found a place with socnes and decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up, especially since I hadn't had them for a long long time.

I combo-ed these babies up with a hot milk tea.  Something which I won't be doing again.

On the plus side, they came with Jam and cream, but they should have provided more.  Sadly those scones look pretty sad.

Square.  If I had to summarise them in one word, I'd use 'compact'.  They obviously hadn't risen at all.

The jam and cream was nice, but there wasn't enough.  The hot milk tea is a nice way to ruin a nice cup of Early Grey.

I would go back to the place again.  I'll just be avoiding the scones and milk tea in the future.  Sadly I can't remember the name of the place.  Great, that's how memorable this was

View from a hotel toilet in Awaji

Wow.

Curry Udon Pan

Keeping in the Curry theme of things and life in general, here is Curry Udon pan.  Udon is a type of noodle.  Curry Udon is what you do with left over curry sauce and left over udon.  Does that mean Curry Udon pan is left over bread, left over curry and left over udon?

Ps, this was the one I got on special.

Curry Melon Pan

Man, I feel like I've been cranking a lot of melon pan lately.  It seems Japan loves it so much they'll put anything it.  Dayum.  I've had Curry pan before, which is like a sweet curry mix in a lightly deep fried (is there such a thing?) bread roll.  It's characterised by being um, "Prickly" looking and isn't as disgusting as it first sound.

Curry Melon Pan however.....

Shokola Melon Pan

Okay, here's an interesting one.  A Shokola (chocolate?) Melon pan, with the additional flavour of Macha.  That's green tea.  Macha and chocolate is a good mix as the chocolate sweetness counters the bitter flavour of the Macha nicely.

To be honest, this one had me the moment I saw that Macha bowl and mixing spoon on the package.

The outside seals the deal with a good combination, Macha Melon (sugary outside coating), With "Shokora" (Say it with a dodgy French accent ) and whip cream.

Belgian Chocolate Melon Pan

If you have a look at my previous Melon Pan post, it explains there that Melon Pan seems to be the standard way of describing buns with sugar layers on top.  I just said it there too...  How very nice of me!

Today, I am having an eat of the Belgian Chocolate Melon Pan (BCMP), a winter only special.  Let's just ignore the fact that it isn't winter yet.

Strawberry Jam and Whipped Cream - Bread review

Having a soft spot for ye old scones, jam and cream (as well as pike-lets jam and cream), I got a bit over excited and bought this bun hoping for it to be somewhat similar.  After all strawberry jam and cream usually make almost anything taste delightful.

Mocha Cream Melon Pan - Bread Review

Carrying on with my bread reviews, I bring on another.  Here is one for Mocha Cream Melon Pan.

Usually melon pan is a bun with a sweet melon flavoured covering of sugar over the top forming a patchwork of diamonds on the top.  It's delicious, full of excessive calories and is probably very bad for you.

I love it.

I see that recently, Melon pan has become a term for a bun covered with the patchwork diamonds and sugar coating, but it doesn't always have to taste like melon anymore.  This Mocha Cream Melon Pan (hereby referred to as MCMP as I am lazy fingered) had no melon flavouring in it at all.  Which I was relieved about.

Diamond covered bread like this is usually means it's covered in sugar.  You are warned!

Cheese Fondue France - Bread review

パン  It's Japanese for bread. That's why this blog is called Jya-PAN.  Here is the first of my Japanese bread reviews.

Cheese Fondue France

Bathing in Japan

My travels in Japan have taught me one thing.

• When a tall gaijin goes into an onsen hotel, the staff get worried.

Therefore, I aim to educate people into that wonderful thing that is:

Japanese Bathing Culture!

Vocab: 温泉 Onsen [Hot Springs]
　　　外人 Gaijin [impoilite way of saying foreigner]
　　　銭湯 Sentou [public bath (has no volcanic water)]
　　　露天風呂 [open air bath]