Sakura Matsuri ー Washington D.C.

Hello everyone!

I'm sorry I disappeared for like…a few months there, school became a little hectic and I unfortunately put my blog on the back burner for a bit. I'm hoping to post at least once a week until school ends, then pick up to once a day like I'd originally planned to. I think I got a little burnt out, putting in too much effort blogging at once…even if I was doing only a small amount of blogging to begin with.

Long story short, I'm back. :)

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In a more blog-related topic…

Last Saturday was the annual Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) in Washington DC!

Unfortunately, there weren't many trees out that still had blossoms, since the rain the week before the festival washed most of them away. 

In any case, the street festival was still fun! They had the usual food stands set up, where you're able to get yummy foods like udon, soba, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, sushi, taiyaki, and a bunch of other non-Japanese things, too. Though the lines were kind of horrendous…like always, but still. There's only one stand (as far as I'm aware, at least) that sells takoyaki and okonomiyaki so the line is always incredibly long, while there are a ton of stands selling stuff like lo mein and chicken teriyaki so those lines aren't as long…but their foods aren't much different than what you can get at your normal Chinese or Japanese restaurants. 

There are also a bunch of souvenir stands, where you can buy charms, t-shirts, fans, etc. I bought a few charms that were too cute to pass up, but most things were a bit overpriced for me. My stinginess overpowered the cuteness of most of the stuff I wanted to buy there, unfortunately.

It was fun, though, and a nice event to go to if you live close enough! Just hope for it to be warmer than this year, haha!

Green Tea Ice Cream

It might be a commonly-known thing, but one type of ice cream you can buy easily in Japan is green tea / matcha ice cream!

You can buy it in America, but it's definitely a lot harder to find. In Japan, Häagen-Dazs even sells their own version in grocery stores. I didn't buy their brand, though. Instead, I got it at a little ice cream / takoyaki / snack bar in a small town I was sight-seeing in. It was good, although a bit overwhelming flavor-wise after a few licks. I'm sure that depends on the maker, though -- I might've just been unfortunate to have my first time eating matcha ice cream be with extra matcha!

Tea Treats!

I'm probably going to sound like all I do is eat by posting yet again about food, but it's just that I'm hungry at the moment. :P

Whether in America or in Japan, one thing I absolutely love to have as a snack is a warm cup of black tea with a little milk with some sort of baked good on the side. And while I was in Japan, thankfully I didn't have to settle for boring old cookies!

Pudding parfaits! Whenever I went to the store, I always checked for these (they tended to sell out of them a lot! Although I did tend to go to the store later in the day). This one was kind of a mix of a layer of pudding, a layer of cake, and strawberries in syrup, topped with whipped cream, a bit of cheesecake, and a little chocolate straw.

I haven't been able to find something exactly like this where I live, although I do live in the middle of nowhere. If I do see something similar at the store, they're much larger (maybe twice the size as this one).   Maybe I should try making my own...

Sushi

I'm craving sushi right now. I bought some the other day from the Chinese restaurant in town, and while it was pretty much the standard type of sushi you'd expect from a small downtown restaurant, I could so definitely go for more.

Really, nothing special about it. Just can't stop the craving, you know? I hardly ever get anything besides spicy tuna or spicy salmon rolls wherever I go; there's not much more of a selection where I'm from.

When I was in Japan, I got salmon, lettuce, and mayonnaise rolls at a local grocery store once. Maybe it was because I also got BBQ chicken wings during that same trip, but that was one of the best meals I bought from a grocery store.

(Also, they were huge! Four of these equals, like, ten of the sushi I bought in town.) 

And here I thought posting about sushi would lessen the craving for sushi, whoops. Instead I'm wishing I could get more of those mayo/salmon/lettuce sushi.