Green Tea Ice Cream

I am having Green Tea ice cream withdrawals it's not even funny. My blog's green theme is driving me insane. There is such a shortage of green tea flavoured anything here in Australia!

Such a contrast to Japan right? In Japan, you couldn't pass a restaurant or food shop that DID NOT sell Green Tea flavoured dango, ice cream... even kit kat!

I will forever miss Japan's green tea craze.

To get such delicacies, one must travel to the edge of the world! Lol literally!
Nahhh in Australia, you would most likely find it in an Asian grocery, or in a Chinatown. I don't know if Sydney has a Japantown..

Green Tea Ice Cream - Bought in front of the Kinkakuji trail exit

I ate so much green tea stuff in Japan, I may have a whole album of it. Hmmm do I?

[Update]
I just checked the pics I took in Japan.. I'm not the type to take pictures of my food before eating it. As you can see from my ice cream above, I was in the middle of eating it before remembering to take a photo! It's SO YUMMY!

I definitely recommend that ice cream snack bar in front of Kinkakuji!

Usually in Japan, they offer green tea ice cream combined with vanilla option.

But me.. im like "NU-UH! I have plenty of vanilla ice cream at home! Im going to make the most of my tourist experience and have stuff I can't have back home. In it's completion!"

So here's a bunch of pics. Most of the green tea stuff I found was in Kyoto.

The Snack Bar at Kinkakuji

 At the kinkakuji exit, there were also stalls selling these cute boxes filled with cute Japanese snacks. And the sellers spoke okay English. They even let us eat some samples!
But I felt like a pig just eating the samples and not buying. All the Japanese people around me that were trying ended up buying. Is it impolite not to buy? I sure felt impolite ahahah.
So I coerced my sister into buying a box.

Box of Dango

Dango Sticks

Oh! And you can't forget actual Green Tea tea right? The hotel we stayed at in Kyoto gave us free green tea every day! They were such hospitable people!

Green Tea at the Village Kyoto Hotel

Munching on green tea dango while drinking some green tea in our hotel room

 Okay, so not everything Green Tea I bought was edible! I regret buying this hand cream because it's so small! There was a larger size that I wanted but I was saving my money for Tokyo afterwards. But I wonder if maikos actually use this hand cream? I bought this hand cream at a store in Gion, the 'geisha district'. Mind you, I didn't see any geishas that Wednesday night. My mum saw some in taxis though.

Green Tea Hand Cream Case

Green Tea Hand Cream - 300 Yen

Snapchatting

 We also went to the Kyoto International Manga Museum! It was such a beautiful place and I could have been there all day just reading the manga! Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.. but I can't stop kicking myself about not taking pictures or selfies OUTSIDE. The building was so pretty! And the courtyard had the greenest grass ever I could've eaten it.

The only pics I took at the International Manga museum was what I ate. It was really good though! It was so cold that day and I had been so tired after walking around and getting lost in Arashiyama all day just a few hours before.

Green tea + mochi cubes

the animation on the wall of the restaurant (in the background)

 On our final day in Kyoto, we went to the only halal restaurant on our Japan trip. Wow. Rose cafe was a cosy little place right around the corner from the Kyoto Masjid. I loved how we had our own little room at the back. And best of all, it was halal!
So we ate here while my dad was at Jum'ah Prayer at the Masjid. Convenient right? Unfortunately women weren't allowed in. My dad said the place was packed to capacity. (Masha Allah). After my dad finished, there was another round of Muslim men waiting outside to pray Jum'ah. Subhanallah. Whereever you go, you are bound to find Muslims.
Most of them were from Malaysia and Indonesia though.
So anyways, when we got to the restaurant, I was craving some hard core meat. The store didn't really have any traditional Japanese food. But I was okay with that. I've been eating that for the past 3-4 days. So I ate a steak burger. And of course, the green tea thing on the menu: green tea (of course) and green tea chocolate cake. I couldn't really taste the chocolate though. And the green tea was subtle. But still. YUMMM.

Green Tea Chocolate Cake

 And then it was the shinkansen to Tokyo. I bought a packet of green tea kit kats from Kyoto station. I had bought a packet in Osaka as well..  but forgot to take a pic of it. To be honest, I can't really taste the difference between the green tea kit kats I bought in Osaka and the green tea kit kats that were labelled with "Kyoto Edition" as if it were some limited "must buy" thing. But hey. Blowing money on a holiday to try new things is what you're meant to do hey?

Eating Green Tea kit kat on the Shinkansen to Tokyo

 I've had a green tea latte before. But I have NEVER had a green tea latte at STARBUCKS before. IN JAPAN. IN SHINJUKU!
There was a foreign couple sitting behind me at starbucks. One was an English man, the other.. I can't remember. Was it a Scottish or Irish woman? Anyway, they were speaking in English and were talking about learning the Japanese language. The woman was going on about how difficult reading Japanese might be because of all the kanji.
I really wanted to join in on that conversation because... after all, I did study Japanese for two semesters and could have offered my bag of 2 cents'.

Green Tea Latte - Shinjuku Starbucks

I ate a green tea ice cream cone at the Ghibli Museum as well. But forgot to take a pic.

And to end my Japan journey, what better way to end it with a green tea bang! I think the best treat was saved for last. I bought this cup of green tea ice cream + wafer + red bean glutinous rice balls. It was delicious. It makes me want to cry because I miss green tea Japan so much!

Green Tea Parfait: Green Tea Ice + Wafer + Red Bean Glutinous Rice Balls - Haneda International Airport
Taken by my Mama