This past weekend, the Japanese Food Expo 2021 gave me a chance to experience Japanese food and culture from home! I had hoped to visit Japan this year to see their cherry blossoms, but travel plans have been on hold. So for now, I’ll fill that void with ramen and matcha from the Japanese Food Expo.  

Traditionally, the Japanese Food Culture Association (JFCA) hosts the Japanese Food Expo each year to showcase various Japanese premium foods and beverages. The goal of the exhibition is to share the simplicity and beauty of the Japanese food that has nurtured Japanese civilization for centuries. Attending the expo is a fantastic way to learn more about the Japanese culture while sampling delicious eats and drinks!

Due to this year’s circumstances, JFCA hosted the Japanese Food Expo 2021 virtually for the first time on Mar 6th, 2021. Although an online event doesn’t quite compare to the live event, I liked that I could attend from the comforts of home. No parking to scour for or crowds to battle. This expo was also quite informative! This year, it focused on three prefectures of Japan: Aichi, Shizuoka, and Fukushima. JFCA even sent me a gift box of some of the goodies to try along with the show!

Japanese Food Expo 2021 Prefecture Highlights

Aichi Prefecture

Aichi Prefecture is part of the Central region of Honshū, Japan’s main island. It is most known for its healthy food, particularly those requiring fermentation. Perhaps one of the most famous examples is Hatcho Miso. The Japanese make this miso by fermenting steamed soybeans and salt in wooden casks over several years. This process results in a dark and boldly-flavored miso often used in broths and sauces. During the expo, host Alice sprinkled the Hatcho miso powder on ice cream. She also mixed it with mayonnaise to create a vegetable dip. One-start Michelin Chef Masanori Nagano created cute miso onigiri in a live demo as well. For experimental purposes, I will definitely need to try the miso powder with ice cream!

Shizuoka Prefecture

Shizuoka Prefecture is also part of the Central region of Honshū, and it actually borders Aichi Prefecture. It runs along the Pacific Ocean coast and is home to Mount Fuji, so you can only imagine how beautiful the land is there! With its bountiful land, tea is this prefecture’s most famous product. As such, the people there harvest and produce many premium green teas, matcha, and hojicha teas. Host Midori showed us how to make some easy and delicious-looking iced hojicha latte and iced matcha latte.

Fukushima Prefecture

Fukushima Prefecture is part of the Northeast region of Honshū. It’s also located along the Pacific Ocean coast and is part of The Diamond Route. The Diamond Route, named for the shape of the route, is a tourist route that connects Fukushima, Tochigi, and Ibaraki prefectures. They boast of “sparkling treasures” in food, sights, history and more in the heart of Japan. One of the cities, Kitakata, is known for its ramen. This year, the expo highlighted kitakata ramen noodle from Igarashi Seimen. Chef Andy Matsuda, founder of Sushi Chef Institute, made a bowl of ramen with chicken and egg. I received these instant kitakata ramen noodles in my Japanese Food Expo 2021 gift box, and I loved them! These ramen noodles were so easy to prepare, and I loved the taste of the broth. I enjoyed the texture of the noodles too! They’re thicker than traditional ramen noodles and have a nice wavy, chewy texture.

Learning about these prefectures and their specialty foods from the Japanese Food Expo 2021 made me appreciate these foods more. The next time I visit Japan, I definitely want to visit these prefectures as well as The Diamond Route to experience the food and culture firsthand! But for now, I’m glad to know these products are now available in the United States. If I can’t go there, I can bring a taste of it home!

I’m hoping next year’s Japanese Food Expo will be a live exhibition, and I’m looking forward to learning and sampling more of the Japanese culture then!

If you missed the expo, you can watch the Japanese Food Expo 2021 here. Let me know which of these Japanese foods you would love to try!

The post A Japanese Food Expo 2021 Recap appeared first on Chat with Cat.

What are the Ice Castles?

The first Ice Castles were created in 2011, born from a father’s labor of love to bring happiness, magic, and joy to his children. What started out as a backyard ice cave has since grown tremendously in size and expanded to six locations – Colorado, Alberta, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Utah. *Update* – For the 2022 winter season, there will only be 5 locations – Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Utah, and New York.

Its mission? To bring joy and winter memories to everyone around! It’s no longer just for kids – couples, families, and even friends travel from all over to see these incredible sites. In fact, this winter phenomenon was one of my main reasons for wanting to travel to Denver, Colorado. Although the Ice Castles aren’t exactly in Denver, the attraction is close enough to plan for an afternoon of fun. It’s a perfect place to go after lunch in Denver. As soon as ticket reservations opened online for this winter season, I booked some for me and my friends.

Arriving at the Winter Attraction

When the day finally arrived, my friends and I took a trip out to Dillon, which is about 1.5 hours or ~70 miles west of Denver. As we drove toward Dillion, we started seeing more snow and ice along the way! When we pulled up to the castle grounds, I eagerly scoped out the site, only to see that my view of the Ice Castles was blocked by a chain-link fence covered with tarp. I could still see the top of the ice structures peeking up over the fence though, and I could hardly wait to run inside.

After waiting in a short check-in line and signing a mandatory waiver, I walked into the ice castles! It’s a self-guided experience, so there is no one inside to tell you where to go or what to do. Now before you start picturing the castle in Frozen or any other Disney fairy-tale, I must warn you that these ice castles are not nearly as big or grand. However, the site is still very impressive! The whole frozen structure was built entirely by hand, with professional ice artists carefully placing each icicle by hand.

My Frozen Experience

It certainly felt magical at the Ice Castles. As I walked through the snow and brushed my hand along the walls of ice, listening to whimsical tunes that at times took a dramatic turn, I felt the childlike joy and wonder well up in me. I plopped myself on an icy throne and gazed at the rainbow colors dancing on the frozen walls as the sun began to set. My friends and I crawled through tunnels and felt the thrill as we slid down slippery ice slides, not once, twice, but three times.

I probably would have stayed longer to enjoy the nighttime fire show, but the cold was starting to set in my bones. Unlike Disney’s Frozen Queen Elsa, the cold unfortunately DOES bother me, so I eventually had to call it a night. I was not the least bit upset though, as I felt my time there was already more than memorable!

General Info about the Ice Castles

The Ice Castles typically run from late December or early January until March. The season really depends on the weather and varies by location, so make sure to look on their website for the specific city you want to visit. At the time of my visit, general admission tickets sold for $16.99 Monday – Thursday, and $20.99 Friday-Sunday and holidays. Child admission tickets (ages 4-11) sell for $11.99 Monday – Friday and $15.99. However, prices vary by location. There are also standby tickets, but I would NOT recommend buying standby tickets, for reasons stated in my tips below. On average, the attraction takes about an hour to see, give or take, depending on how many lines you want to wait in and how many photos you take.

Tips for your first visit to the Ice Castles

If you’re thinking about going, here are 6 practical tips for visitors checking out the Ice Castles for the first time:

1. Make your reservations early and online. You’ll have to pick the date and time you’ll be arriving, which are available in 30 minute increment slots. For example, you can choose to arrive on a Friday between 3-3:30 PM, but you can stay inside the Ice Castles for however long you want! Weekends and sunset hours are the most popular times, so those tickets will sell out early. If tickets sell out, there will be no standby tickets available. Not only are standby tickets MORE pricey, they’re also NOT guaranteed. Your best bet is to reserve in advance!
2. Plan to arrive just before sunset, so that you can see the ice castles during the day and at night. At night, the castles are lit up with colorful LED lights, and it is so pretty!
3. Wear snow boots or waterproof boots. Trust me, you don’t want to go in sneakers as you’ll be walking through a foot of snow at times. Also wear shoes with good grip, as some walkways are icy and slippery.
4. Bring gloves and hand-warmers. It gets so cold! I stuffed some hand warmers in my gloves, and they saved my fingers from falling off from the cold. No joke.
5. Wear snow or waterproof pants. As I mentioned, there are multiple ice slides! You get to sit on a mat on the longest slide, but for the smaller slides (hence, shorter lines), you sit directly on ice. Having thick waterproof pants will help you keep warm, stay dry, and give you an extra cushion!
6. Use the restroom before you go. There are portable toilets just outside the entrance of the Ice Castles, but none inside. Once you enter the Ice Castles grounds, you probably won’t want to make your way out and back in again, as the exit and entrance are one-way and on opposite sides.

These Ice Castles are the perfect excuse to travel in the winter! Would you consider going to the Ice Castles phenomenon? If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me in the comments below!

For more info, you can check out the Ice Castles official website here.

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