04.01.10
Posted in Bento Box, Event at 9:31 am by jflairhomestyles
It’s already April and our first debut at the Cherry Blossom Festival on Saturday, April 10 is approaching fast! We will be in the “Ginza Marketplace” of the festival, which is between Pennsylvania Avenue & Constitution Avenue and between 14th street and 10th street. Our tent will be at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue NW & 13 1/2 St NW on the Freedom Plaza side.
According to the festival website, they had about 140,000 people last year. We really don’t know what to expect from this big event, but we’re excited about being a part of the festival!! We’re always appreciative of people who enjoy the Japanese culture, food, and gift items.
We cannot bring everything from our website as the space is very limited, but we’ll do our best and bring as many as we can. Items we’ll be showing include bento (of course…), tea sets, soap, sushi sets, artwork, home decors, bags & purses, stationery, and many more gift items. Some of our new items will be available only at the festival, so make sure to come early and grab them if you see anything you like! Everything is first come first serve!! Also, even though there are some ATM machines somewhere, don’t forget to bring some cash! You know when so many people are around, it takes much longer to do a simple task…. The event will go on rain or shine, but let’s hope that it will be a nice day!
See you guys soon!!
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03.25.10
Posted in Bento Box, Japanese Gift, Japanese Unique Gifts, Tea, gift idea, shinzi katoh at 1:50 pm by jflairhomestyles
Our love affair with Shinzi Katoh started a couple of years ago when we first discovered the wonderful Japanese “zakka” paradise. “Zakka” means household items in Japan and there are many Japanese houseware designers. Among the designers, I’d say that Shinzi Katoh is one of the top and a well respected designer. Shinzi Katoh has produced so many fun and unique products over the years and loyal fans around the world are eager to collect his newest additions.
We have been adding his collection a little by little, and now we have enough items to make a special category just for Shinzi Katoh goods!
Shinzi Katoh bento boxes are our staple and many of our customers enjoy these cute lunch boxes.
We also have his stationery, including pens, pencils and decorative tapes.
Our newest additions are his canvas bags and Tea for Two. The canvas bags are very durable, functional with many pockets, and have colorful designs. We have 4 designs now.
Tea for Two is very adorable too! You don’t see this kind of tea set often. It has a pot on the top and two cups on the bottom. One tea cup holds 200ml and the tea pot holds 400ml, so it’s not that big. It’s so cute and unique that you can use it as home decor in the kitchen area! It comes with an adorable gift box, so it will make a great gift too!
Are you curious of what else we have? Check out our Shinzi Katoh collection!
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02.22.10
Posted in Event, Japanese Gift, shinzi katoh at 3:31 pm by jflairhomestyles
We’re so excited to let you all know that we’ve been accepted to participate in the 50th annual Cherry Blossom Festival in DC this year!! The festival is the biggest Japanese festival on the East Coast and we’re very lucky to be a part of the event! Below is the detailed information about it:
Date: Saturday, 4/10/2010
Time: 11am~6pm
Place: Ginza Market Place section of the festival (Pennsylvania Ave NW between 10th & 13 1/2th Streets, and on 12th street NW, between Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC).
We’ve been preparing for this festival, but now we know this is a “go”, we’re speeding up our orders for the event. We cannot offer everything from our store, but we’ll try to bring as many items as possible from our non-craft items.
We’ve found a talented Japanese lady who lives here in NC and makes amazingly beautiful bags! This is a must see!! We’ll introduce some of her items as well as other new items. We ordered new bento boxes and bags from our popular Shinzi Katoh collection from Japan, but not sure if they’ll arrive here on time as they’ll be coming via boat… If not, you can always shop from our website!
Other items are tea pots, kitchenware, home decor items. We suggest that you come early for this event as there will be tons of people! And also, if you see something, just grab them! In the past, we had many people came back to our booth after looking around and asked us “Did you already sell_____?”. Everything is first come first serve!!
See you all there!
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02.14.10
Posted in drawing at 10:56 am by jflairhomestyles
Hope everyone is having a sweet Valentine’s Day with your loved ones!
At JFlair, we promised to pick a winner from our Facebook fans today and we did! The lucky winner is…..
Vinsensia Devina
Congratulations! The winner needs to contact JFlair and we’ll provide a $25 coupon code to be used on JFlair’s website.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
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02.13.10
Posted in Culture, Japan, Japanese sweets at 4:13 pm by jflairhomestyles
It’s cold, snowy, rainy…. Whatever the winter weather may be in your area, the cold air makes you want to cuddle up in a blanket at home, right? If you can get one thing to complete the coziness, what would it be? For me, it’s Oshiruko! It’s a typical Japanese dessert for winter and it’s sweet azuki (red bean) soup with mochi (rice cake). I know it sounds weird, but it’s very good! I made it again this year, and it brought back some memories from my sweet home, Japan. For mochi, you can either use regular mochi or shiratama-dango. (see “Mochie Feast” from last year’s article for mochi.) Shiratama-dango is a small mochi ball and made out of rice flour – shiratama-ko. I like Shiratama for my Oshiruko experience and here is how I make it.
(You’ll notice when reading below that I don’t provide a recipe with the exact portion of each ingredient. That’s because I’ve never followed recipes so I don’t have them…. I think experimenting with ingredients and flavors are the fun part of cooking. You may get disappointed with a first try like I always have, but I think you’ll improve your sense of curiosity that way. )
Shiratama Dango
It’s very easy to make shiratama dango. The rice flour you need to make this dango is not fine powdery flour. It’s rougher and larger texture and usually in a small 150g bag. A Japanese grocery store should have them.
Just put about a half bag (5-7 servings) of the flour into a bowl and pour water a little by little until you get a “play dough” consistency. The dough cannot be too sticky to your hands like mochi texture. If it gets like this, just add more flour to it. Once you make the dough, make a small 3/4″ ball. Press the middle with your finger to make a “belly” and make it a little flatter.
Put the dango balls into boiled water (medium heat). Once they start to float on the top, they’re ready to get scoped up. You can then eat them with anko, kinako (roasted soy bean powder and sugar mixture from “Mochi Feast”), ice cream or whatever you like.
Oshiruko Soup Base
Cook azuki beans like any other beans until they’re tender – soaking in water overnight helps to cook faster. The only additional step is to drain the water after it’s boiled to remove the bitter taste, and replace with fresh water. Don’t worry about how much water you need right now. The beans will soak up most of the water as you cook and you’ll end up adding more later.
Once the beans are done, add sugar to your liking and a little bit of salt. These are the only ingredients, so play around with your sugar until you get what you want. You cook for an hour or longer at low heat after adding the sugar so that all the water on the top gets dark and azuki color. Some people like more beans and others like more soup. If you like more of the soup part, add water and adjust your sugar. As I like seeing and tasting beans, beans occupy about 2/3 or more of my oshiruko portion.
And finally serve the oshiruko in a small bowl and add shiratamko. A cup of green tea will make your Japanese dessert experience complete!
So, what’s your comforting dessert??
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02.01.10
Posted in Japanese craft, Japanese rubber stamps, Kodomo No Kao, kawaii rubber stamps at 8:24 pm by jflairhomestyles
Sorry for the long wait!! We’re excited to let you know that our popular Japanese rubber stamps are here! A lot of our stamps got sold out quickly and we couldn’t offer many items for a while. BUT we’ve just received a whole bunch of cute stamps from Japan!! YAY!! We wouldn’t have received them until April, but thanks to the manufacturer in Japan, we got our stamps here much sooner than expected. If things get sold out again, you might have to wait for a while since it usually takes a couple of months to receive orders from Japan. So, if you see something you like, just grab them!!
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01.23.10
Posted in Event, Japanese Gift, drawing at 4:09 pm by jflairhomestyles
To thank you for your support, J Flair is offering a $25 coupon code to a lucky winner on Valentine’s Day! We’ll randomly pick a winner from our Facebook Fans and announce a winner on 2/14/2010. If you want to be considered, just become our FAN now!!
The coupon code can only be used from our online stores (www.jflair.com or www.jflairhomestyles.com). It doesn’t have any cash value and cannot be redeemed for cash. It cannot also be used with other offers. The coupon code is valid through 12/31/10.
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11.06.09
Posted in Japanese Gift, Japanese Traditional Gifts, Japanese Unique Gifts, New Products, Tea, gift idea at 4:44 pm by jflairhomestyles
Where do we begin… We have been busy adding new items this past month or so and more to come… We’ll list up what we have received so far. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, let us know. We’ll put them on our wish list!
1. Paper Pot: This is an award winning product from Japan! You can use it for tissue paper as well as toilet paper. Your friends will certainly notice this beautiful paper pot!
Paper Pot-Black
2. Ninja Shuriken Magnet: “This is cool!” That’s what your friends would say when they see it. It’s so unique!
Ninja Shriken Magnet
3. Perfume Atomizer: Tired of spraying perfume all over yourself? This is the perfect solution! Just roll it on yourself without anybody noticing it. Small enough to put in your pocket!
Slick Perfume Atomizer
4. Rubber Stamps: We’re so excited to have this new collection of cute Japanese stamps. These are very popular in Japan and we’ve just ordered more. If you’re creative and into crafts or scrapbooking, you’ll love these!
Petite Stamp - Tea Time
5. Chopsticks & Chopstick Rests: We’ve got a lot of Japanese chopsticks and chopstick rests! They’re all beautiful and almost everything is made in Japan. We recommend hand wash for long lasting use.
Chopstick Rest-Rabbit
6. Sushi Plate Set: Love sushi? Get our sushi plates so that you can enjoy sushi at home! Of course, you can use these flat plates for other food. The high quality plates will show off your meals!
Sushi Set - Brown Beige Platter
7. Sushi Slicing Play Set: You want to share your love for sushi with your children? This is the perfect toy for kids to learn about sushi! You can also teach them about how to use chopsticks and Japanese culture while you’re at.
Sushi Play Set
8. Coin Storage: Do you see a lot of coins laying around in your house? This is a great way to remember where it should go. Before you know it, you’ll have stashed away enough money for something special!
Coin Storage-White
9. Wind Chime: We’ve got a beautiful collection of Japanese wind chimes (”furin” in Japanese)! Hang it on your porch and enjoy the relaxing sound!
Wind Chime - Castle
10. Tea Pots & Tea Cups: This is another beautiful collection. All of them are made in Japan and are high quality items. If you need to take a break, brew a cup of tea and indulge yourself!
Tea Set Pearl White
Whew! That’s it for now. We’ll update our site and blog when we get more!
Thank you for browsing!
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09.28.09
Posted in Event, drawing at 3:28 pm by jflairhomestyles
Thank you all for entering the drawing for the $50 Target gift card – about 95 people participated in the drawing.
And the lucky winner is…..
—-Wanda Diaz from Atlanta, GA !!!— CONGRATULATIONS!!!
The winner has a week to claim and give us a shipping address. If we don’t hear from the winner by 10am on Monday, 10/5/2009, we’ll select a different winner.
Thank you again for participating!
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09.24.09
Posted in Event, Japanese Gift at 3:00 pm by jflairhomestyles
Thank you for coming to our booth at the JapanFest in Atlanta. We were told that about 16,000 people attended the festival this year. It was great to see everyone and get great feedback! It’s always nice to interact with customers.
Thank you also for participating in the drawing. We’ll be announcing a winner on Monday, September the 28th!!
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