sakura walk (kamakura)

Friday, the rain stopped and the sun was out!

Since I hadn't gone to physical therapy all week due to the rain, I went to PT and then headed out to Kamakura

And went to have lunch at Bergfeld, a German bakery and cafe.

They have 3 locations around Kamakura, this was their Onaricho shop.

I loved how the doors opened up, like one big window!

Also loved how they had fresh flowers around the restaurant, on the tables as well as in the bathroom 

There might have been a glass of wine with lunch

Different rye breads with liver paste, brie cheese, honey, proscuitto and ruccola.

There was also some sauerkraut, it was my first time having it warmed up.

And cornichons....1600 yen (tax included)

Nice that the wine was also included in the price...I'll be back!

Went to check out Romi-Unie.

They used to have a shop in Tokyo, but closed, so they only have their flagship store in Kamakura.

Love how they wrapped up the little jar of jam that I purchased

3 citrus Japonais: 3 different Japanese citruses (Hassaku, Natsumikan & New Summer Orange)

Up the street is a different location of Kibiya Bakery.

We've visited the one near Onaricho last year.

I purchased their sakura anpan and some scones.

The sakura anpan was heavy! the outside was sourdough and the inside was sakura flavored sweet bean paste...love!

Will try the scones with the jam on Sunday.

I also walked along the dankazura 

Dankazura is a 500 meter (0.31 mile) raised walkway to the Tsuruoka Hachimangu shrine and was built about 800 years ago by Morimoto Yoritomo.

so pretty with the blue skies

I appreciated that no one “held up traffic” here by taking photos/videos

I also found a little side path near Daigyoji that had many different varieties of camellia.

As  well as other flowers

It was nice to be out and about and I'm glad I was able to avoid a lot of the crowds

Bergfeld

1-1-29 Yuigahama

Kamakura, Kanagawa

Closed: Mondays & Tuesdays

Hours: 11:00-16:30

Romi-Unie

2-15-11 Komachi

Kamakura, Kanagawa

Open daily: 10:00-18:00

Kibiya Bakery

2-13-1 Komachi

Kamakura, Kanagawa

Closed: Wednesdays

Hours: 11:00-17:00

ps pedometer thingy on the phone was wonky so no steps recorded, sad!

this and that

1st time trying these banana chips from Seijo Ishii
 

love that they are long pieces, not the “normal” round slices that you normally see

Tokyo furry people : spotted in Bunkyo ward

Instead of mixing this with rice we’ve been eating this along with rice, since it is like tsukemono (pickles)

1st freesia from the lanai

These shiso monaka that we received from my Aunty when she visited Hida Takayama had a very fragrant shiso smell and were delicious, but it was a little too salty for me, kept having to drink lots of water after eating it

Linde’s pretzel croissant was a little dry, I think I prefer Himmel’s version

This week was rainy and fahreezing...hard to believe it is Spring.

I think the weather dude said that the temps were February's?!

Next week should be blazing! like plus 20 something degrees?!

Been toasting bread and reheating stuff in the fish grill.

The pizza crust came out super crispy when I reheated it the other day for lunch...love!

We have this coming up on Sunday, it's been 5 years since the last time they did this.

Have a safe weekend.

sakura walk (kawasaki & ikegami)

This was the photo Satoshi sent me on Wednesday.

He also noted "this one is not fake"...ha!

Been raining for the past two days now plus it has been super fahreezing, I think the weather dude said it was February temps?!

On Wednesday, the rain stopped for a bit, so I ran out to get some groceries.

I also spotted this tree, it is called Hanakaido (Hall Crabapple)

It was nice to see some color and to get out for a little bit.

 

aiyah

fake. the tree is fake...

After Satoshi showed me the photo, I told him "is it fake?" 

The reason I asked him is this courtyard has astroturf, no real grass

He didn't know, so he went to check...

it's fake...bummer! but still pretty to see

sakura walk (bunkyo & taito)

According to the weather dude, Sunday was the only chance for checking out sakura because it would only be cloudy, whereas other days would be rainy 

So we made sure to get out and about as early as we could

We started off at Kichijoji, a temple in the Bunkyo ward

The weeping cherry trees here were beautiful!

Down the street is Joshinji. 

This temple’s grounds are smaller in comparison to Kichijoji, but it seemed like they had more and larger (taller) cherry trees in the compact area

it was our first time to both of these temples and we look forward to coming here again.

We then walked to Yanaka, to have brunch at CIBI (chee-bee)

In the past, we’ve passed this place, and they are always busy, so we marked it “to try”.

On this day, we were lucky only having to wait a couple of minutes to be seated.

Apparently they are an Australian style cafe and even have a shop in Melbourne. 

Many of the staff members speak English as well.

Satoshi ordered their Japanese breakfast, which came with grilled salmon, natto, miso soup and other items...1680 yen (plus tax)

He also had a batch brewed coffee 600 yen (plus tax)

It looked like a lot of food and he said he enjoyed it

I tried their CIBI breakfast, which came with toast, avocado, an oozy egg and salad…loved their seeded bread! 1380 yen (plus tax)

I also ordered a long black coffee 530 yen (plus tax)

capers in oozy yolks is delicious!

There were foreigners as well as locals.

It was nice to sit and have breakfast while listening to others chat.

After brunch/lunch, we walked along hebimichi (Snake street) again and went to check out somewhere that Satoshi wanted to check out.

Nearby was an arare shop that I wanted to check out, Daikokuya.

A tiny shop that has been in business since 1915, they make all sorts of arare (rice crackers)

Lots of items were already sold out.

But we were able to buy things to try, shrimp, sugar, as well as a savory mix and sweet mix...2330 yen (tax included)

The one that was stale was the sweet mix...boo! (top left)

The others were super fresh, crisp and very tasty!

Up the street, we also stumbled on the Chiyonofuji statue, the last time we were here was pre-pandemic.

And then we went back around to a museum that Satoshi was interested in checking out.

While he did that I waited outside.

And then we made our way to Ueno.

Even if my photos don't show it, it was krazy with people, so we quickly went through the side of the park without many sakura trees to the JR Ueno Station and caught the train back to our area.

Mother Nature turned a forecasted cloudy day into a beautiful sunny one.

She's decided to cold snap us back though, and added rain to it too (snow in some areas!).

With the weather all wonky, not sure if I'll be able to check out many more places, if I do, I'll post about it here.

ps steps for this walk was 18885

Kichijoji

3-19 Honkomagome

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Joshinji

2-17-4 Mukogaoka

Bunkyo, Tokyo

CIBI

3-37-11 Sendagi

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Hours: 8:30-17:30

Daikokuya

1-3-4 Yanaka

Taito, Tokyo

Closed Thursdays

Hours: 10:00-17:00

sakura walk (lazona kawasaki)

Satoshi often goes walking after lunch, he sent this photo of a weeping sakura tree that is currently at Lazona Kawasaki, a huge shopping mall.

So pretty.
 

sakura walk (misono shrine)

Went to Misono Shrine to check out the sakura for friend E.

She used to live nearby and moved back to the US last year.

She asked me to check out Misono Shrine's sakura, so I did...

along the way I saw this nanking cherry (prunus tomentosa)
 

The tree on the outer edge of the shrine was blooming

Spotted one of the many furry ones that live here

The tree near the shrine had just started blooming...hope to go back before the sakura starts to fall.