Last month I had to cancel my visit to a famous Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa in Hokkaido. But I bought Shirokuma (polar bear) Sio Ramen (salt flavour ramen noodle) at Shin-Chitose airport instead. When I saw a guy carrying a few bags of this noodle at a cashier, I remember that I read the article saying 'it's a very tasty instant noodle', so I bought four bags. Unfortunately it was quite a normal instant noodle (maybe I expected too much?). The ramen noodle was Asahikawa style, middle thin (not super thin) and slightly curly. The packaging is unique, I guess it would be a nice Hokkaido souvenir.

I was walking around Touyoko Noren-gai (japanese only) at Tokyu Department Store in Shibuya, I came across an interesting sweet at Toraya, one of the oldest traditional confectionery in Japan. The sweet is called Golf Monaka (monaka is a traditional Japanese sweets), Hole in One. The size is exactly same as a real golf ball, and surprisingly it was created in 1926! When my sister saw it, she said that probably some golfers who achieved ‘a hole-in-one’ buy this as gift. It make sense! I think it will be a nice small present to anyone though. The inside of the golf ball is smooth strained red azuki paste, their bean paste is classic and always good.