Latest news with #Ikuna
SoraNews24
2 days ago
- SoraNews24
For the ladies – An awesomely authentic old-school capsule hotel that accepts female travelers
Our experience traveler/capsule hotel newbie spends a night at Apaiser. Though a night in one is a quintessentially Japanese travel experience, the majority of capsule hotels don't accept female guests. Case in point: though our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa is a seasoned traveler, until recently she'd only spent a single night in a capsule hotel, and it was a new, modern one with fancy snore-monitoring wellness equipment. Ikuna has still been wanting to have the old-school, authentic capsule hotel experience, a night in the sort of place that helped form the accommodation sub-category during the bubble economy years when a salaryman needed a place to stay on a shoestring-budget business trip, or maybe to catch some Zs after missing the last train home of the night. Capsule hotels like that that can accommodate female travelers aren't easy to find, but Ikuna finally managed to come across one while planning a trip to Nagoya. The Apaiser capsule hotel is a five-minute walk from Exit 8 of Imaike Station, which is itself just a 10-minute subway ride from Nagoya Station, and the intersection of the Higashiyama and Sakura-dori Lines. So right off the bat, it's situated in a very convenient spot. You take your shoes off in the entryway, before even coming into lobby, and stick them in a shoe locker. Once fully inside, Ikuna checked in and was given a key for a locker in which she could keep her luggage. To Ikuna's surprise, the luggage lockers for female guests are down in the basement level, a women-only floor which also houses the women's bath, but her sleeping capsule was actually all the way up on the 5th floor. However, this setup didn't seem like it was going to be such a big problem after Ikuna looked over the hotel layout. The second and third floors have men's capsules, while the fourth floor, the 'Refresh Floor,' has various massage and beauty services. The fifth floor, in addition to men's and women's capsules, also has a manga and Internet corner, plus a powder room, and there's a restaurant on the first floor as well. With all these possible places to relax in, Ikuna didn't see herself spending a ton of time in her sleeping space idly rifling through the stuff she'd brought with her. ▼ Ikuna's reservation even included a voucher for a free welcome drink in the restaurant upon arrival. As mentioned above, many capsule hotels don't accept female guests, usually under the logic that it would be unwise to offer unsecured bunks for women to sleep in a space where guys are roaming around too. Apaiser's solution to this is to have a block of capsules for women only in a section that's separated from the rest of the hotel by a locked door. The only way to open this door is to tap a luggage locker key that's linked to one of the women's sleeping capsules, ensuring that only women staying at the hotel have access to this area. Ikuna found herself smiling excitedly at just how retro everything looked. She even loved the little steps built into the capsule bank's frame that you step onto to get to the upper spots, like a mini obstacle course. Taking a peek inside, the aesthetic continued to be thoroughly throwback…or maybe that's not the right term, since Apaiser has been around since the days when this was a new, contemporary style. Whatever you want to call it, though, it was exactly what she'd been looking for. Each capsule is outfitted with its own TV, and while you could also stream stuff on your mobile devices for entertainment, be aware that while there's a standard power outlet, there's no USB charging port. ▼ With her mind in '80s mode, though, Ikuna was fine with no USB option, and was honestly too busy admiring the just-leaving-the-analog-age look of the earphone jack for the TV, shown on the left here. Part of the reason the Apaiser has all the facilities we mentioned earlier is because in addition to being a capsule hotel it's also a public bath/sauna that's available for day use. Sure enough, when Ikuna headed down to the bath, she was impressed by how big and nice it was. ▼ Entrance's to the women's (女性専用) and men's (男性専用) baths The manga and Internet area was also spacious and comfy, feeling more like a dedicated manga cafe than a hotel just trying to squeeze a little extra utility out of otherwise unused floor space. Freshly bathed and thoroughly entertained, Ikuna crawled into her capsule, put down the shade, and had a great night of restful sleep. Even after she woke up, though, she was still finding things to love about this hotel. Apaiser's first floor sevres breakfast, and it's not just a table with self-serve toast, boiled eggs, and chopped cabbage like at some budget-priced hotels in Japan. Instead, you can choose from a variety of set meals, reasonably priced for around 600 yen (US$4.15). Ikuna's package included breakfast and allowed her to pick any of the morning meals, so she opted for the grilled fish set, which in addition to a generously sized filet of fish gave her miso soup, rice, okra, pickles, and nori (dried seaweed). In addition to being extremely tasty, it was a perfectly balanced assortment of nutritious ingredients that gave Ikuna a protein boost to fuel her through the morning without leaving her stomach feeling bloated or heavy for the rest of the day. Honestly, if this was her breakfast every day for the rest of her life, she'd have no complaints. As a matter of fact, the one and only grumble that Ikuna had was that while there are hairdryers provided in the women's bath area, there were no electrical outlets for her to plug in the hair iron she'd brought with her from home, and such devices can't be used in the sleeping capsule either. But aside from that, Ikuna gives this ladies-friendly capsule hotel full marks. She was even satisfied with the prices, which are 4.300 yen (US$29.75) per night Sunday through Thursday and 4,800 yen on Fridays, Saturdays, and nights before holidays, with a breakfast voucher an additional 500 yen. Just be aware that female guest capacity is limited to 20 travelers per night, so making a reservation ahead of time is recommended. Hotel information Apaiser / アペゼ] Address: Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi, Chikusa-ku, Imaike 5-11-14 愛知県名古屋市千種区今池5-11-14 Website Bath/sauna interior photos: Apaiser Manga corner photo: Apaiser All other photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
SoraNews24
16-07-2025
- General
- SoraNews24
Can you use McDonald's French fries to make Japanese-style croquettes?【SoraKitchen】
And if you can, should you? In a shocking turn of events, we recently found ourselves with leftover French fries. And we're not talking about one or two unclaimed fries, but multiple orders of them. We're as surprised as anyone, given that SoraNews24 HQ is usually a sort of black hole in which unclaimed food is absorbed and devoured with cosmic-level force. But even our collective company stomach has its limits, and we'd reached them the other day after we noticed we had a whole bunch of free French fry coupons for McDonald's Japan which were all about to expire, so we used them all at once. This sudden influx of French fries itself was cause for joy, but as our stomachs filled and our giddiness wore off, we were left with a grim premonition. French fries never taste quite as good after they've cooled down and been reheated in the microwave, which meant we now had a couple of sub-par spud snacking sessions in our near future… …or did we? It's been said that crisis and opportunity are two sides of the same coin, and so our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa came up with a plan to flip things around. Instead of eating diminished reheated French fries, she would use our leftover McDonald's fries to make croquettes. She'd need a few other ingredients to do this: an onion, some ground meat, butter, flour, eggs, breadcrumbs, and cooking oil. Starting with the onion, she peeled and minced it, then added it to a frying pan along with the ground meat (in our case a mixture of ground beef and pork) and butter to sauté them together. ▼ Ikuna used half an onion, about 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of ground meat, and roughly 8 grams (0.3 ounces) of butter. Now it was time to get our leftover McDonald's French fries out of the fridge and start them on their path to rebirth. We had two medium-size orders to work with. Rather than try to mash them up cold, Ikuna put them in the microwave for three minutes so that they'd get very hot. Then she got to mashing with her spatula. This turned out to be surprisingly difficult. Though the fries were looking droopy and squishy after being reheated, they weren't easy to crush with the spatula. Ultimately, Ikuna ended up using the spatula's edge to stab at the fries, rather than trying to press on them with the flat face. After about 10 minutes, they looked like this. The next step was to combine the quasi-mashed potatoes with the sautéed meat and onions… …and then to form the croquettes, which Ikuna did by hand, placing a scoop of the mixture in her palm and pressing it like she would when making a rice ball. Our two medium-sized orders of fries were enough to make six croquettes. However, maybe because the fries weren't completely mashed, the croquette cores Ikuna formed felt like they were on the verge of crumbling almost immediately. This meant there was a ticking clock as she applied their breading, and she moved as quickly as she could to cover the croquettes first in a layer of flour, then a coating of egg, and finally an outer layer of breadcrumbs. Now all that was left was the final step, frying them in oil for three or four minutes, after which her leftover McDonald's French fry croquettes were complete! Ikuna, by the way, would like us to remind everyone that her croquettes do not look sloppy or unprofessional at all, but are simply bursting with rustic homemade charm. So, how do they taste? Not bad! But also not really great…? First thing first: they do taste like croquettes, so in terms of answering the simple question of whether or not you can use leftover McDonald's fries to make croquettes, the answer is 'Yes!' However, the flavor was definitely on the mild side. As you might have noticed, Ikuna didn't add any salt to her croquettes, figuring that the McDonald's fries were probably already salty enough on their own. However, she also didn't add any pepper, which is a common croquette ingredient but not something that the McDonald's fries were bringing to the party by themselves. There was also a bit of a discordancy between the mild flavor of Ikuna's croquettes and how oily they were, perhaps owing to the potato part now being twice-fried. The potato filling was also noticeably firmer than it is with conventional croquettes made with mashed potatoes. But again, they weren't bad, and when Ikuna added some of the Worcester-like sauce used for croquettes in Japan, the overall eating experience was pretty good, at least in line with normal croquette expectations. So since we've already answered that you can do it, the next question is whether or not you should make croquettes with leftover McDonald's fries, and the answer to that isn't quite as simple as 'Yes' or 'No.' Using McDonald's fries didn't grant our croquettes any special magical qualities beyond the results you could expect with using regular potatoes and mashing them, so we wouldn't go out of our way and make a French fry run with the specific premeditated purpose of using them as croquette ingredients. But on the other hand, the croquettes we made did taste pretty good, and this was definitely more fun than wistfully eating a plate of limp leftover fries that had been reheated in the microwave. So in the unlikely event that we ever end up with leftover fries again, we'll definitely have to keep the croquette option in mind. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
SoraNews24
14-07-2025
- General
- SoraNews24
How to turn cold McDonald's fries into the best hash browns you've ever tasted
This hack from Japan will change the way you eat fries forever. For fast food lovers in Japan, McDonald's fries are a top contender for any respectable list of 'world's tastiest foods'. However, cold McDonald's fries quickly puts them on list of 'world's worst foods', because no matter how you reheat them, they never come close to tasting as good as they do when freshly made. Still, the unfortunate reality is that there will be many times in life when you end up with cold McDonald's fries — as a fast food lover, it's simply unavoidable. But what if there was a way you could take those cold fries and turn them into something even better? That was the thinking of our reporter Ikuna Kamezawa when she let her fries go cold recently, and what she came up with was so good she decided to share the hack with us so that fry fans around the world can enjoy the fruits, or should we say 'fries', of her labour. The first thing you'll need for this hack is, of course, some cold fries, and, if you like, a hash brown because — spoiler alert! — this is what she'll be trying to replicate. ▼ Taking a closer look at the hash brown… ▼ …Ikuna saw it had a rough, textured surface that kind of resembled chopped-up French fries. In theory, Ikuna's plan should work — she'd simply chop up the fries… …and then shape them with an oval ring moulded from the hash brown before frying them. However, after chopping up the fries, she saw they appeared to be hollow due to moisture loss and they failed to clump together like she'd imagined they would. Running a quick search online to find a solution to the problem, she discovered that potato starch can be used as a binder so she quickly mixed in some potato starch she had at home… …but even this didn't work! The fries became stickier but they still wouldn't hold together, so in the end she decided she would have to carefully place them into the mould while it was in the hot frying pan. Splashing some oil in the pan, she placed the foil mould in the middle of it all and then carefully spooned the fries into it, dropping some by the wayside in the process. This actually turned out to be a good idea, because after hearing the whole thing sizzle for a few moments, she flipped it over… …and saw the bottom was a beautiful golden brown! Surprised that her plan seemed to actually be working, Ikuna continued to fry her creation gently for around five minutes, even going so far as to remove the foil when it looked to be holding together. The aroma was fantastic, making her salivate as the smell of refried fries filled her kitchen. When it was golden brown on both sides, she removed her masterpiece from the pan and stared in surprise at what she'd created. Placing it side-by-side with the hash brown, Ikuna's home-made version looked a hundred times tastier. Now came the moment of truth, as she lifted the freshly fried creation to her mouth for a bite. The crunch was simply out of this world, with the twice-fried fries oozing out oily potato deliciousness throughout her palate. If she had to describe it in detail, she would say it was like eating a bunch of French fry tips, but that doesn't do justice to how delicious it is — in fact, it's so good that Ikuna says it was the best potato dish she's ever eaten in her life. With a medium-sized order of McDonald's fries, you can make three of these hash brown-like creations. After leaving them at room temperature for five hours, the flavour did drop a bit, but the crispy texture remained, making this is a genius-level hack. After making these wondrous morsels, Ikuna says she's scared of her own talents but she'll definitely be making them again. And she now has four words for French fry lovers everywhere: You. Must. Try. This. After making them once, you'll never even think about going back to regular store-bought hash browns again. It just goes to show that even when your fries go cold, there's always a silver lining — only in this case the silver lining is a rim of foil that'll transform a bad situation into a golden opportunity. Photos©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
SoraNews24
24-06-2025
- SoraNews24
Searching for Japan's 'river of the dead' in Tottori Prefecture【Photos】
Legends say Sai no Kawara exists on the border between the realms of the living and the dead, but the map says it's in Tottori. Our Japanese-language reporter Ikuna Kamezawa was born and grew up in Tottori Prefecture, so it's a part of the country she's very familiar with. And yet, until recently, Ikuna had no idea that Sai no Kawara, the river of the dead, is in Tottori. First, a little cultural background. According to Japanese Buddhist tradition, Sai no Kawara is a river/riverbank that divides the worlds of the living and the dead. It's sort of like Greek mythology's River Styx, but Sai no Kawara is especially associated with the souls of children who die before their parents. On the riverbank, the souls of the children gather and are tasked with building stone stupa towers to earn salvation, but demons regularly come to knock the structures down before they can be completed, and the children can only persevere with the merciful help of the Jizo Bodhisattva. Ikuna can't recall having ever seeing any of those things during her days in Tottori, but when an acquaintance told her that Sai no Kawara is in her home prefecture, she was intrigued. So Ikuna whipped out her phone and fired up the map app, and sure enough, there it was in the town of Daisen, Sai no Kawara. ▼ 賽の河原 = Sai no Kawara But this only made Ikuna more confused. Daisen is where you'll find Mt. Daisen, the tallest mountain in west Japan. Ikuna has hiked the mountain and also visited the town at its base multiple times, and never knew the river of the dead was in the area until now. So Ikuna knew what she had to do: go back to Tottori and investigate. You can drive partway up Mt. Daisen, and the part near Daisenji Temple is a popular sightseeing spot. But since the map showed Sai no Kawara isn't on the drivable street network, Ikuna was going to have to go the rest of the way on foot. The path started out easy enough, but as she got farther away from the town, the smooth walkway began to get bumpier, and the path started a steady incline. Eventually the road turned into cobblestones, and then irregularly shaped rocks which had Ikuna wishing she'd chosen more outdoorsy footwear than a pair of stylish sandals. On the other hand, the scenery was beautiful. Though she was ostensibly headed towards the river of the dead, she was surrounded by lush plant life, with the trees' leaves a bright shade of green in the early summer sunlight. But while she saw plenty of picturesque forestland, Ikuna hadn't seen a river, so she stopped to check the map once again, only to find that she'd apparently already passed Sai no Kawara. Spinning around and heading back in the direction she'd come from, Ikuna kept an eye out for any sort of indicator of where she was supposed to turn off to get to Sai no Kawara, but she never saw one. However, when she got to this sign, located about six minutes on foot from Daisenji Temple and roughly halfway between it and Ogamiyama Shrine, her map app said she was very close to the river, and now she noticed something she hadn't when she'd passed by here before. There was a trail leading off from the main path. Now Ikuna really wished she'd worn hiking boots, or at least sneakers. With each step, she could feel buzzing bugs, sticky spider webs, or scratchy underbrush on her exposed toes. But still, she bravely pushed onward, and soon she could hear the sound of running water, telling her that she was getting closer to her destination. And Ikuna's courage and determination were rewarded when she passed through the last line of trees… …and arrived at Sai no Kawara! With Ikuna's reserves of bravery already depleted, she was glad to see there were no ghosts of demons here, just some lovely, tranquil scenery. And yet, this really is Sai no Kawara. There's even a sign marking it as such. So how did this place come to be known by that name? At some point in the region's history, it became a custom for parents whose children had passed away to visit this river. As mentioned above, at the Sai no Kawara in the realm of the dead, the children's efforts to construct stupas are constantly undermined by demos, so here in the world of the living, parents who came to this shoreline in Daisen would make stacks of stones for their children's sake, in hopes of providing them with comfort in the afterlife. It's a tradition that carries on to this day, and Ikuna did indeed see stacks of stones along the river, though she decided not to photograph them. However, visitors aren't discouraged from visiting this place, and Sai no Kawara has its own page on the official Mt. Daisen Tourism Guide website here, where it's listed as a historical site. Ikuna herself is fortunate enough to have never had to experience the sadness of losing a child, but seeing the stone stacks built by parents as a sign of love from parents to their children who've passed on left her with a deep sense of gratitude to her own mom and dad, and while her first thought after arriving back in town was to be happy that her toes were no longer at risk, her second was that she should give her parents a call and see how they're doing. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
SoraNews24
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
An elegant and hefty cheeseburger bento awaits at the 'Japanese Costco' Lopia
It's so classy, you'll want to eat it with a knife and fork. There's a supermarket in Japan nicknamed the 'Japanese Costco' because much like its namesake, it sells very large quantities of food at bulk-discount prices. Its real name is Lopia, and our writer Ikuna Kamezawa often enjoys going there even though many of the things for sale are way too big for her to ever eat on her own. But this time, a certain cheeseburger bento caught her eye. It was large, but not too large, and only cost 1,078 yen (US$7.40), so she decided to take the meaty plunge. It was so big that she could barely fit it into her shopping bag and things only got worse as it started to rain while she walked home. She had to carry it very carefully too, for reasons we'll see in a moment. After getting home, she unveiled her Manpuku Burger Double Cheese and confirmed its size at about 25 centimeters (10 inches) in length. Popping the lid off we can see that the very fancy arrangement was why Ikuna had to carry it so carefully, and the sheer volume of it all was the reason it was priced a little more than a Big Mac combo. She felt kind of bad disturbing the elegant layout of her bento, but she had to take stock of what was inside before eating it. There was a double cheeseburger with two patties and two slices of cheese, some seasoned fries, and two breaded chicken filets. That photo might not do the size justice so she took some shots alongside a pack of matches for scale. Sure, a matchbox might not be the most universally understood comparison, but she was just so excited to eat this thing. ▼ Fries ▼ Chicken Filets ▼ Double Cheese Burger Ikuna turned her attention back to the cheeseburger and tried to reassemble it in a normal way. That's when she noticed something was off with the proportions of the bun and patties. She thought this must be some chic designer cheeseburger arrangement she'd never seen before. That might give the illusion Lopia is being chintzy with the meat, but rest assured they were good-sized beef patties. For a more understandable comparison, Ikuna placed a Yamazaki Bakery convenience store cheeseburger next to it. This store-bought burger selling for about 99 yen is slightly smaller than a McDonald's cheeseburger and the Lopia burger blows it out of the water. ▼ Lopia's burger ▼ Yamazaki's burger There were definitely some structural integrity issues with it though, so our writer opted to eat the whole thing with a knife and fork. A fancy burger like this deserves fancy eating utensils anyway. The hamburger patty wasn't juicy at all, but it was very dense and meaty. This texture might turn some burger aficionados off, but she felt kids would really go for it. There was also a sweet ketchup on it, but really the flavor of the beef stood out so much that she barely even remembers eating the cheese and bun. While it might not be for everyone, the taste of this burger bento was right up Ikuna's alley. Her only complaint — if you could call it that — was that it was too much for her to eat in one sitting. But for the price she paid, that's the kind of problem you'd want to have. In conclusion, she definitely recommends the Manpuku Burger Double Cheese for big eaters. Lopia can be a little random with their offerings, especially in the bento section, but Fridays are known as 'Fry Days' there which is when they usually go all out in that department so your best chance is to find it then. Happy hunting! Photos © SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
