gadgets

Remember we learned a new way to cut our apples?

Well, since then, I adopted my mom's apple corer.

The core of these sanfuji apples are a little larger than the corer.

But it still makes it easier and fun.

 

knife storage

How do you store your knives?

In Japan they have these rack thingies attached to the cupboard door (probably because most of us do not have counter space for those knife blocks)...do you have these things on the cupboard door where you live?!

I've only been using it for the past couple weeks but it drives me krazy because after using my knife, I wash it and put it into this thing…

Then I realize I need to use the knife to cut something else and need to do the whole routine again...p.i.t.a.

When we were living in Osaka, I was balancing the knife on two chopstick rests on the outskirts of the sink, but for some reason on this sink, the water was leaving a calcified mark on the sink, making it hard to clean and there was also lots of mold on the chopstick rests...eww!

I'll need to think of a better way to make accessing my knife easier...

1st world problems...

saturday

Saturday we had breakfast at Columbia...it might not look like it but their portions are a bit small, dunno if we'd go back for breakfast but it was nice to check out.

Afterwards we walked towards the Tama river and stopped into Mickey, a bakery that apparently has been around for about 20 years.

We picked up some items for lunch...their ham and egg sandwich, egg sandwich, fish sandwich and keema curry pan.

The curry pan was disappointing not much filling, but the others were delicious...I'm sure we'll be back whenever we are nearby.

It was nice to be able to see Mount Fuji from the Tama river.

To cross over to Kanagawa you need to cross the Tama river, and the Keikyu and JR lines do just that.

There is a really low area underneath the Keikyu line that you can pass under, I shot a short video of it here.

From here we walked back home stopping at Zoshiki to find something for dinner.

We stumbled upon an izakaya, Miraku, selling their oden...earlier that morning I was watching an episode of "Cool Japan" and they were talking about oden.

I thought it was kismet when we stumbled upon some, so we picked up 2 servings for our dinner. (1 serving was only 300 yen (tax included))

It didn't quite match with red wine but it was definitely a change from our usual weekend pupu dinners.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Mickey

2-23-13 Tamagawa

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3758.467

Closed Mondays

Hours: 7:00-19:00

Miraku

2-16-13 Nakarokugo

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3732.0735

Open daily 17:00-21:00

this and that

Yesterday we went to Kameido to check out Kameido Gyoza which has been in business since 1958. 

We tried eating here when we first moved to Tokyo but the shop had just been featured on tv and the line was too krazy back then.

This time around, we arrived 10 minutes before their opening time and were first in line.

The gyoza wrappers are thin and crispy and meets the gyoza snob approval.

This shop only sells gyoza...each person must eat at least two plates (total 10 pieces), after the minimum they will ask you if you want to continue eating more.

We ate the minimum (Satoshi also had a beer) and left though Satoshi said he could've eaten more…we’ll be back when we are in the area.

We walked off our gyoza by walking to the Ryogoku area.

Seeing sumo wrestlers.

Stumbled upon Ganso Naniwaya Honten's taiyaki which has been in business since 1909 and is related the the Naniwaya Honten in Azabujuban…delicious! love how they fill the tail with sweet bean paste too.

Then we checked out Yokoamicho Park.

So pretty.

And the Former Yasuda Garden.

There were so many couples in kimono taking their wedding photos here that we tried not to photobomb their pictures.

And walked to Asakusabashi to have coffee and carrot cake at Bridge…Satoshi had a smoked salmon sandwich.

I love the building it is in…we’ll be back.

16963...the weather has been really nice though we did have a really torrential rain storm the other morning and there have also been several quakes.

This week Tokyo's count went as low as 8 and as high as 21.

And everyone is talking about the new variant, Omicron, hoping it won't throw a monkey wrench into  everyone's plans for the rest of the year though it is looking a little bleak.

Have a safe weekend.

Kameido Gyoza

5-3-3 Kameido

Koto, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3681.8854

Hours: 11:00-20:00 open daily *cash only

Ganso Naniwaya Honten

1-24-2 Kamezawa

Sumida, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3623.2667

Closed Sundays

Hours: 10:30-17:30

Bridge Coffee

1-13-9 Nihonbashibakurocho

Chuo, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3527.3399

Hours: 8:00-19:00

tuesday

These days whenever Satoshi has plans to eat out for dinner, I usually go holo-holo (galavanting) during the day for some "me time".

Tuesday, I went to Takanawa to check out some places I've had on my list for awhile.

I stumbled upon this interesting building and found out it was the Takanawa Fire Station.

And they even have a cool vintage fire engine...which they were showing to some school children.
 

A couple doors down is Boulangerie Seiji Asakura...I purchased their baguette, a half baguette filled with ratatouille and a yuzu chocolate bread.

The yuzu chocolate bread was stuffed with chocolate but was too sweet for my liking.

I really enjoyed the ratatouille baguette and look forward to having the plain baguette with wine.

Another place on my list was A cote patisserie because the shop was on the top 100 Tokyo sweets list of Tabelog and relatively near Boulangerie Seiji Asakura...bummer the owner was such a grouch.

Dunno if it has to do with the pandemic but I couldn't believe he has this note on his door which says, "if you aren't going to purchase anything, don't come in"...WT?! 

Since I wanted to see what he was selling, I figured I had to buy something so I purchased this teeny expensive bag of cookies (4 cookies in a bag) for 850 yen (tax included)

Not even a “thank you” when I bought them either...

Afterwards, I looked at all the comments on Tabelog, some were nice, most were not…oh well all the best to him, I won’t be back.

Meiji Gakuin University campus...so pretty!

Platinum Don Quijote...not sure what makes them different from the other Don Quijote shops we have in Japan, but they did have a grocery area...(V mentioned afterwards that this store also sells high end products)

I know the red maple leaves get most of the attention during the Fall, but I really like how the yellow ginkgo leaves stand out against the blue sky.

This huge ginkgo in front of the Tokyo Garden Museum...beautiful!

A friend shared his photo on IG and the food looked delicious....I don't think I've ever had Texas barbecue, so I was interested in checking them out.

Dickey's Barbecue Pit Texas Beef Brisket Burnt Ends...so tender and meaty.

It comes with two sides...I chose mac & cheese and cole slaw.

The mac & cheese was gloopy and the cole slaw over dressed…bummer!

So expensive (2080 yen tax included) but the meat was so ono!

12332....it was nice to get out and about to see an area that I had never been to and I was happy to be able to check out some places on my “to try” list.

Boulangerie Seiji Asakura

2-6-20 Takanawa

Minato, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3446.4619

Closed Saturdays

Hours: 9:00-17:30

Dickey's Barbecue Pit

2-17-4 Kamiosaki

Shinagawa, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6417.9866

Open daily 10:00-22:00

monday

Since our building's water was going to be turned off all day on Monday, Satoshi and I planned to go out to Mount Takao.

It was our first time and since we are out of shape, we rode the lift up.

It was fahreezing! (we should have dressed warmer!) but it was a good way to social distance.

I wished there was more signage to let you know how much more you needed to go to reach the top...

If you make the photo bigger you can see a faint Mount Fuji...

The slopes were kind of steep in my opinion...at times I wished someone would carry me too..so many furry kids on the trail, a good thing.

It was nice bonding with nature.

We found a spot where hardly anyone was passing through...I shot a short video here.

And then we took the cable car down...

just to see what views they had…no social distancing but everyone was wearing masks and not many talking.

Stood in line for lunch at Takahashiya which has been in business since 1830.

There is a persimmon tree in the waiting area that is 150-ish years old and goes straight through the roof of the shop!

View from our table...

Takahashiya and many of the other soba places in the area are known for their tororo (grated chinese yam) soba but I'm not too keen on it, so I ordered their tempura seiro...so good!

Even if it was freezing, I usually don't drink the broth, so no sense wasting it which is why I ordered seiro (which is served cold)

And then since we were (kinda) near Inokashira Park, we stopped to see their foliage.

There was a man cleaning the pond.

Most of the fall foliage was past its peak here. 

Beautiful stained glass in Shibuya.

17951...lots of walking but it was nice to be able to check out Mount Takao and see some Fall foliage.

Takahashiya

2209 Takaomachi

Hachioji, Tokyo

Phone: 042.661.0010

Pandemic schedule: Closed Thursday : check before going*

Hours: 10:00-16:30

**cash only

thank you

We are so grateful for the kindness of friends.

Thank you Ryan & S.

And thank you V!

We appreciate everyone’s thoughtfulness.