Sushi night!

Last night, family from my mom's side (her cousin+husband and aunt) came over from dinner. For my birthday I had gotten this really cool sushi making kit that was so awesome!

So before the guests came we (Mom and I) had to make lots of rice. 5 cup of rice! We only ate 4 cups but it was still a lot. Most rice you eat is warm right? Sushi rice is meant to be room temperature and not warm like normal rice so once it came out of the rice cooker, we had to do a special process. My mom added vinegar to make it taste more sushi-ish and  I had to fan the rice while my mom stirred the vinegar in. We also had lots of topping materials like salmon, tuna, egg, spam, squid, mackerel and shrimp. We also had the outside of inari.

The kit was two pieces made of plastic. Both pieces inter lock exactly. It is a really smart design that everything works out perfectly. 
Piece One: Flat with holes the size the rice should be
Piece Two: Raised pegs that fit exactly in the holes of Piece One.
Both pieces are about the size of an iPad mini but piece two has a mini stand on the bottom.


Remember to do this all on a cutting board or something because the rice might get messy. One time makes 10 rice balls.

1. First you put rice in each hole of piece one. Make sure to put it in loosely and do not squish it, yet. Also, put the rice up to the brim but try not to go out of the hole.
2. Next, take piece two and place each peg over each hole. Press down. Make sure NOT to lift up piece one. This step is all about balance so try not to press too hard or too soft.
3. Take off piece two and you see that the rice got more compact. Now you want to place the toppings over the holes. Do not press the topping down. If you want to make an inari then don’t do any topping.
4. Then you want to take piece one, toppings rice and all and place in on top of the pegs of piece two. This is where step two comes in handy because if you pressed too lightly then the rice will fall out.
5. Gently press down and watch as your home made sushi rises up. The rice will lift the topping you didn’t press down in step 3.
6. Lastly, eat the delicious sushi. Then repeat. If these ones didn’t work out this time then try try again (and eat eat again also)!

Traditionally, sushi is made by hand shaping the rice one at a time then placing each topping on carefully and patting it down with 2 fingers. One at a time!!! So slow.

Sushi night was really fun. I am mildly surprised that it worked. The inventor must have really thought it out and worked a long time to make it. I am really exited to make some sushi again and maybe I wan to experiment next time. Now it is time to finish up my blog. Speaking of blogs if you write your email at the top you get an email alert every time a tasty story has been written .

Joypolis

This week I went to a place called Joypolis that is a indoor theme park. It mostly has simulators and arcades but there was one roller coaster. Joypolis has lots of scary rides and zombie games and stuff. I went with my mom, Ryo and Man-chan. We were not allowed to do horror/haunted house rides but that was OK with me because I had lots of fun. We were the first ones in so when we went up to the 3rd floor by escalator all the staff were like "Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Joy poliiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The staff were lined up everywhere!!! It was kind of weird.

First four rides we did were all simulators. A simulator is a machine that makes you feel like you are doing something, in this case moving but we really just stayed in one spot. They use 4d effects like blowing wind in your face or splashing you. They also tilt the car so it feels like you are moving. And the screen help to get the image in your mind and the car tilts with the screen.

The kids went on the first simulator, then my mom joined on the 2nd and 3rd. Then my mom wanted to do the first one again so we did. These were called the "Wild" series. There was Wild Wing (airplane), Wild Jungle Brothers (jeep) and wild river splash (raft). My favourite was wild wing because 1.there was an english dialog and 2. the jungle made no sense because the jeep could OOO and that was a little weird (I don't want to spoil it). Also I really did not appreciate getting wet and 10 o'clock in the morning. Even though it was  just splashes it was a little annoying.

After that we wanted to do this shooting thing. We were lining up and Man-chan said "My hands are too tired from gripping the bar from the simulator because the rides were rough." So instead we went to fortune forest. Basically you get this memory crystal that you put some data about your self on. You also can put what you want to learn on it.  Then you go into the forest and you go to 3 machines. First you "mix up your marbles"on the screen then answer some questions about yourself (i.e. if you have somehting partly done do you always try to finish?). I really with there was a sometimes answer.  Last you choose a marble that represents your past. Then you do this 2 more times for present and future. Then a new machine takes the data and writes your personality. It was surprisingly accurate.

The shooting game was not that fun. You basically just get laser tag guns and you do target practice. Then enemy come and interrupt the training. You have to fight them off and they shoot back. Some group of high school girls lasted longer then us but only because they were shooting the barricade that we used as cover. Over all, a bit disappointing.

My favourite ride was the Tokyo half-pipe. It was a skateboard themed ride. Two people get strapped into a giant skateboard while standing. The skateboard goes up and down in the halfpipe. Then, you wiggle the board and you start spinning. But if you stop wiggling, you stop spinning. It was really fast!!!!! You also get points for the timing of the spin but I didm't really care about the points. It was really hard to continue spinning. And it was also really fun!

All in all, Joypolis was super fun. I really want to go back there. If you want to subscribe, enter your email at the top to be alerted when another awesome story has been written.