latch bolt

Always learning something new...

The word I learned was "latch bolt"

Our latch bolt hasn't been working...the  dead bolt is the "lock" on the "top"

The latch bolt is the "bottom" one that is whitish

Satoshi hadn’t noticed that it wasn’t working, but it was working before I went to Hawaii, so we weren't too sure when it stopped working.

We emailed our building management.

Unfortunately, it was O-bon, they called us to find out more info, but won't be able to do anything until after the break is over...

UPDATE: they are coming on Tuesday to check it out...Hoping they will be able to fix it on Tuesday...

eew

Monday morning...right after Satoshi left for work, he calls me and whispers..."Kat...look at the photo I sent you"...

Whoa?!

this dude was on the stairs on the floor below us...jamonga! (huge!)

According to online info, this might be a nihonhikigaeru (Japanese warty toad)...even its name is eew...

I went out carefully...thinking I could look down at it from our landing area

Nope...it already was on our floor!

(my picture makes this guy look teeny)

I wanna know how it got up so high because we don’t live on the lower floors

Later, when I finally went out of the house...it was gone...

Hopefully it went towards the other apartments on our floor...

or downstairs...whereever...just not in front of our apartment...

pretty sure this was one of our ancestors...since it was just O-bon...

before and after

back in March aloe looked like this
 

now...

not sure what happened but I’m pretty happy aloe is green now and I think it is getting bigger

sunmerry

Sunmerry is a bakery that has many shops around Tokyo as well as in Saitama

They have a point card...for every 300 yen (without tax) that you spend you get a stamp

When you collect 30 stamps, they give you 300 yen off your next purchase and then they cut the card in half

When you collect 10 of these halved cards, they give you 3000 yen worth of coupons 

oh and they also have double points for rainy days...

I just so happened to be looking online to learn that next year they were getting rid of the 3000 yen worth of coupon part of their point card system...

When I checked how many halved cards I had, I was excited that I had collected 10 halved cards since moving to Tokyo back in 2018...

so that same day, we went to turn it in and received 6 coupons worth 500 yen each

You cannot receive change when you use the 500 yen coupon so you'll almost always need to buy more than the 500 yen.

Still, we were glad we received the 3000 yen worth of coupons before they got rid of it.

gotanda

Friday, we wanted to make an appointment with Satoshi’s bank for the morning but they couldn't see us until 14:00-ish, so we decided to have lunch first then go to the appointment.

Unfortunately it was O-bon, so many businesses and eateries were closed.

Our first choice for lunch was closed so we went to check out Hot Spoon

Super tiny curry shop, they also have a shop in Shinjuku

I chose the simmered beef tendon curry with veggies

This was delicious! the beef and the veggies were super tender

I chose a less amount of their 10 grain rice and mild spiciness….1234 yen (tax included)

Satoshi chose the simmered katsu curry...he chose medium spicy and white rice...he said he enjoyed this…1254 yen (tax included)

Everything comes out bubbling hot hot hot!

I want to try their chicken curry next time

After lunch we walked over to Les Cacaos to have some ice cream.

I have tried their chocolates before but have been wanting to try their ice cream for some time now and finally got to 

I chose the double...with pistachio and 70% Tanzania chocolate…990 yen (tax included)

Both were so ono! lots of pistachios and the Tanzania had lots of cacao nibs! and was super chocolatey too

Satoshi chose the Cacao Pulpe...raspberries and cacao pulp in a vanilla based ice cream…600 yen (tax included)

This had a super refreshing taste

I’m glad I got to try their ice cream and would definitely go back to try their other flavors 

We also checked out Zoo, a pet shop as well as pet acting school.

They have several locations around Tokyo

Their animals are often seen in commercials, J-drama and movies.

Huge poodle, he was so chill!

It was a blazing day, we got our errand done...and had a great lunch at a new to us place...we'll be back!

Hot Spoon

1-14-8 Higashigotanda

Shinagawa, Tokyo

Open daily: 11:00-23:00

*cash or pay pay (electronic payment) only

den phal

You may or may not know that the Japanese love to shorten words 

Dunno if the shortened words are easier to remember though

Most times I have to look up what the shortened word means or stands for

The other day when I bought these orchids it was labeled "Den phal" 

After looking it up it stands for dendrobium phalaenopsis also known as cooktown orchid

Can understand why they would want to shorten this word

Got these for O-bon

6 more

we don't always drink instant coffee but when we do, we would usually buy the box on top

then I found one at the same price and made by the same company, but this one had 6 more "cups"

so now when we drink instant coffee, we buy the box on the bottom

do you drink instant coffee?