Chinatown/ Motommachi Street+ Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum

Finally, the last post. Day 12. It was a relaxing day today.

Our 1st stop for the day was The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Memorial - Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution.

That's Nelly, busy buying our entrance tickets while we were busy ke-po-ing here and there.. didn't snap much pictures after entering the place tho' cause NO CAMERA were allowed ;o(

17th January 1995 - the date that the Japanese will never forget.
They built this Earthquake Museum to hand down to the future generations the experiences and lessons learned from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and sending msg-es to the world regarding the preciousness of life and importance of cooperation between people.

*

*

*

After finishing there, off we went to our next stop, the Chinatown & Motommachi Street of Osaka. All of us feel warm and at home when we arrived here cause u can start hearing mandarin words and u can even communicate in chinese with the sellers liao.. home sweet temporary home ;oP

It's just like we're in China.. haha.. except all the chinese here speaks fluent Japanese! I'm ashame of myself, husband teaches Japanese and yet I don't even speak a word of it. Btw, have I ever told u guys about how WE met? I mean me and my husband... it all started.... mmm.. I think I better save that up for another post ;oP

oh yes.. it tastes more good than it looks babehh~~

and most importantly, the food are all cooked!!! YES!!! not raw *yuck*. I'm so lucky to be born a chinese.. haven't u heard? Chinese dishes is the most delicious cuisine in the world!!

aaawww... those were damn good!! gosh.. I'm making myself hungry again ;o(

nah nah.. they even have instant "Pecking Duck" for sale!! 500Yen for one small piece, kanasai.. tat is like RM20 for just 3-4 bites nia..

mom definitely wasn't the only one going insane here, all of us were so busy buying food to eat, left + right hand both holding food with our mouth busy chewing!!

Us at the center of Chinatown. Heading across over to Motommachi Street. Suddenly feeling the atmosphere of Chinese New Year liao.. haha..

They even have "Sun Wukong" and its gang's statue.. man, it sure feels good to be at home.

aaahh~~ this really reminds me of my brother at home. I really missed him that time - I'm sure it would have been MORE fun if he was around ;o)

Cousin Fabrian Tiew feeling all tired and ashausted liao.. the kids didn't really enjoyed this trip cause it was more about sight seeing on historical places and not theme parks.

.... unlike those aunties! they LOVED this trip cause it was mostly about them ;o)

7800 yen for 1 Durian!!

Tat is definitely one VERY EXPENSIVE durian = RM300++ for 1 durian nehhhhh~~!!!

It's fake. Looks damn real to me ehh.. wat do u think?

Japanese garbage truck~ so tiny..

if Malaysia were to be using garbage trucks this size, I'm sure it will take them forever to finish gathering all the rubbish around town.

syoknya ini apekk..

We were all tired walking and he gets to ride on this tiny ride of his. You have just got to give credits to Japanese ppl for even coming up with all sorts of weird inventions.

oopss.. sorry for Malay readers..

I just couldn't resist ;oP

After spending about an hour++ here, it was time to move on. Feeling all full and satisfied, we head back to our bus to ride to our 3rd stop of the day.

*

*

*

And it was the....
Hakutsuru Sake Brewery Museum

Sake brewing has been modernized and old methods have been replaced by new techniques. As a result, old materials and tensils are gradually disappearing. Hakutsuru has, therefore, reopened one of its old breweries which had been used until recently for storage.

Built in early 1900's. Later used as a storage house until March, 1969.
It is in this old brewery that the tradisional methods for sake brewing will unfold.

Rice Washing (Senmai)

Refined rice is placed in a washing tub. Two young men in short sleeves, short pants and headbands stand in the wash tub barefooted and tread on the rice, accompanied by the lively chant. The water is then drained away and the trodding takes place again. This process is repeated many times.

Steaming (Mushimai)
Washed rice is then transferred to a steamer that is placed on a caldron. Openings in the bottom of the steamer let in steam from the boiling caldron, and as the steam rises it is carefully watched by the stokers.

Cooling (Hourei)

The steamed rice is then divided, depending on various usage, such as for mash or moulding, and spread out to cool. Following tradision, the stoker spreads the steaming rice on a straw mat. He then draws a lone, then two and then three to assure even cooling.

Mould culturing for the Steamed Rice (Koji)

Koji (moulding rice) is cultured in a special highly humid chamber. It is stirred twice at two or three hour intervals to make sure the spored of mould grow evenly.

*

Seed Mash (Moto)
The koji and steamed rice are precisely measured and placed in shallow boxes. Water is carefully poured in using a special tap called a Dragon's Mouth (Tatsunokuchi), and stirred with a paddle-like stirrer.

Main Mash (Moromi)

A new mixture of steamed rice, water and koji is added to the seed mash in 3 stages. The fermented mash is then returned to tanks and then to smaller containers.

*

Filtering (Joso)
The fermented mash is placed in filtering bags and pressed to extract sake. The first rough filtration is followed by another on the following day. To obtain perfectly pure sake, the process is repeated again for another day.

Skimming (Oribiki) and Pasteurizing (Hiire)
As the fresh sake is still cloudy, it is allowed to settle for another week and then skimmed. The clear sake is then pasteurized with a temperature of about 60 degree.

Storage (Chozo)

Purified sake is placed in storage tanks and the bubbles on top are skimmed off. The tanks are covered and weights are placed on top to secure them. And the long sleep until autumn begins.

*

Barreling (Taruzume)
Clear sake is poured into barrels made of Yoshino cedar. They are wrapped in straw mats, marked, labeled and prepared for distribution.

Random pictures taken.

There is an air of dignity as one walks among the aged, solid wood pillars and subdued atmosphere of the museum. The centuries-old method of sake brewing, which originated in the eary seventeeth century is recreated here with life-lie models and real tools.

Amida

A pulley system for lifting and lowering equipment between the 1st and 2nd floors.

A scene showing the dining area for the brewers, so that not only brewing methods but daily living habits are also portrayed.

Some of the equipment used during ancient sake brewing.

That's about it for the Sake Museum and the ancient sake brewing process.

There was a small area in the museum for the visitors to shop some souvernirs such as sake or facial care. I bought 2 boxes of facial care here which I have yet to try out ;o)

*

*

*
4th stop,

Kobe Harbourland!

First, I don't know why we were here at all. No shoplots were open - nothing to see at all.. hahaa.. we got off the bus and then snap a few pics den head back to our bus. All in less then 15mins time!!

Maybe the travel agency was running out of ideas on where to bring us to liao since we requested to spend 14Days for this trip, guess they ran out of places to bring us ;oP

Ok, tat's it for Kobe Harbourland.. haha..

*

*

*

We finished earlier than we expected so with so many extra time to spare, Nelly decided to bring us to the largest Outlet store in Japan,

Kobe-Sanda Premium Outlet

Nelly telling us the route to take + wat time shud we meet up.

We have 2 hours to shop here and then we'll be heading back to the hotel to pack for home tomorrow liao..

Crocs.. Crocs.. yea, I'm a fan!!

But I didn't bought any cause' I was saving it up for the shopping in KL when we get there ;o)

It was all BRANDED goods sold here. I didn't even bought 1 single thing! haha.. cause I tend to find branded goods sold in Japan are much more expensive compare to the same thing sold in KL - even after discount!

aaaawwww~~ I miss BamBam so much when I saw this little fella'~~~

But mama is coming home!!

We finished here around 5pm so it was really getting late and we really shud be getting back to the hotel. When we got back to our hotel, we were all busy squeezing the stuff we bought into our bags, praying that it will fit. We spent another 4 more days in Kuala Lumpur and there was where the shopping really began for ME larr.. hehe..

Over-weight 50kgs when we catch the plane from KL back to Miri.. sigh.. had to pay RM15 for each kg, YES!! tat is a lot of money!!! sienzz.. oh well, at least we had fun ;o)

-Finally, The End-