mosquito magnet

I don't know about you, but I'm a mosquito magnet

I was using the spray on the left and the one time I missed an area, I got bit

Another thing kinda junk about this spray is that it has powder in it, so sometimes I have this white line, going down my arm, leg...

And then I started thinking about the environment, that maybe I shouldn't use too many aerosols...

So after that can was used up, I bought the spray on the right

The junk thing about this spray though is that you have to "spread" the sprayed liquid out, to cover areas...I didn't know this and got bit in areas that the spray didn't hit...boo!

So, after this bottle gets used up, I'm either gonna go back to the one on the left, or find a different aerosol spray without powder.

game changer

Found this at the supermarket and have been using it whenever I make musubi with kombu in it.

Fujikko-ni is part of the Fujikko group.

This is their kombu for onigiri/omusubi.

Instead of the long strips of kombu tsukudani, the kombu is chopped up.

I used to buy their sesame kombu and shiso kombu but whenever I put these into musubi, a long piece of kombu would come out and I would hardly have any filling left…boo! 

If you find this where you are and try this let me know what you think

docomo hikari

So...we got new routers for wifi from the reno guys...

I thought we could return our old router to Docomo...

We made an appointment with Docomo, to tell them to cancel our Docomo wifi...which is called Docomo Hikari

I dismantled the router, put it back in its box and carried it to our appointment

The guy at Docomo, was the same condescending guy as when Satoshi bought his phone..sigh

He told us, he cannot cancel our wifi, we would need to call the Service center...and he gave us their number.

So we went home and tried to call the Service center with our landline...but our phone was dead

(After dismantling the router, I had plugged the phone into that dark beige area in the photo)

Panicking.. I put the router back together, plugging the phone into that tiny slot to the bottom left that is marked with the kanji "hikari"

Doing all of this, we were able to call using our landline...whew!

When we finally got in touch with the Service Center, the woman on the other side kindly explained that Docomo Hikari is not only wifi but also telephone lines

Our landline and wifi was a fiber optic type...

She then explained that if we cancelled and only wanted phone line, we would have to have them come in to set up an "analog" style phone line (the dark beige area) and our phone number would change...sigh

Since we didn't want to have to change our phone number, we decided to just keep the fiber optic line...though if and when we need to move, we'll definitely get rid of it.

We learned a lot from this experience...small kine stressful, but grateful it all worked out. 

this and that

1st time trying spray on sunscreen, love it!

Remember the crow's nest? and that I called the electric company to tell them about it?

Well, there was a sign on the pole that the nest is on...it says that the electric company will take care of the nest after the crows leave and since they make their nests from hangers, to watch out for falling objects

neko no mimi...in Japanese the crust of bread is called "pan no mimi" (literally ears of bread)...found this at the shop that sells the neko shokupan...150 yen (plus tax)

Apparently was only supposed to have 4 slices but my package had 5...whoo!

Only the top slice was "fancy" the others were plain flavored

Still, even if it was a thin slice it was just enough for toast in the morning.

1st time trying the acai smoothie at 7-eleven...delicious

Between Thursday and next Thursday, the reno guys will go to everyone's apartment to install wifi routers.

Apparently it will be included in our rent/maintenance fees...both will go up a little when we renew our contracts...

We were lucky they installed our router on Thursday, the first day.

no rain no rainbow...so so humid though

our dehumidifier has been on all day and all night...

They are saying that rainy season may be over for Tokyo soon?! so fast! which only leaves us with the krazy heat for the coming months...sigh

Hope you are keeping cool where you are.

adapted

Since I had most of the ingredients, I rried Jalna's sister, Dd's Ume Sesame Seed Dressing.

Dd's Ume Sesame Seed Dressing

1-2 Tablespoons umeboshi paste, 4 umeboshi seeds, removed** and chopped into a paste

1 Tablespoon water**

6 tablespoons white sesame seeds

6 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon agave nectar

2 teaspoons sesame seed oil

2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated

1.5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Remove umeboshi from seeds, chop into a paste. Set aside. 

Place umeboshi seeds in a small mixing bowl along with water. 

Rub seeds in water to remove any excess paste. Reserve.

In a small skillet over low heat toast sesame seeds. 

When seeds begin to pop, immediately remove from heat. 

Grind toasted sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle until a fine powder forms. 

Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Remove umeboshi seeds from water. 

Add that water and remaining ingredients into bowl and whisk vigorously to bring to desired consistency.

Optional to combine all ingredients into a food processor and puree to desired consistency

Makes approximately 1.5 cups

NOTES: been trying to use the ume that I have in my freezer from when I made umeshu

Since my ume isn't salty and probably not as sour as umeboshi, I added a pinch of salt and also used ume vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar

Instead of agave, I used honey

We enjoyed this on poached chicken salad...it was more sesame than ume but there is a little tangy-ness every so often...it might be because I didn't use umeboshi...

I'll try the other ume dressing recipe Jalna posted and re-try this one using umeboshi after we finish this batch.

Thanks for sharing Jalna!

super cheap eats

I don’t know about you but whenever I see a discount sticker on stuff, I almost always buy it...

like this bento from Origin, it had a 30% off sticker on it.

2 pieces of fried fish, 1 chikuwa tempura, a little kinpira and 16 grain rice with nori and katsuobushi

360 yen - 30% plus 8% tax...272 yen total.

I wished they had given a little more kinpira but cannot grumble too much, this was super cheap eats!

This bento would be too small for Satoshi but it was the right size for me

sasacho brewing

Finally got to try Sasacho's mentsuyu

They have been in business since 1906 in the Hanamaki area of Iwate.

 

We tried it with cold somen...

The tsuyu is a katsuo (bonito) shoyu base and has mirin and sugar in it too

For one serving, I used 1 tablespoon of tsuyu and diluted it with 1/4 cup water

Look forward to using this with soba too.

A little pricey but I like that they use ingredients from Iwate prefecture and other ingredients from Japan

Would definitely get this again