this and that

Found this assorted peanut snack, some peanuts are covered with a rice cracker shell, there are also some peas in there too, love it. 

Supermarket wood oven style pizza...loved the crust! and that this quattro formaggi (4 cheese) came with a little container of honey to drizzle on the pizza after heating up.

I do think they need to note that there is that container of honey included AND they need to put instructions on how to warm up the pizza...

The fence at nearby Kumano shrine is metal! it looks like a woven cloth, yeah?!

Bummed that I had to throw out 1 blood orange...

saw this interesting objet...the title of the piece is "toraboruta"

if you look carefully at it...it is a tora (tiger) that is bolted (chained up).

"toraboruta" is also the pronunciation of travolta, as in John Travolta...ha! 
 

The sunrises have been pretty spectacular...

I found taiyaki filled with sakura filling...stashed a couple in the freezer.

There are 2 more weeks for the State of emergency, but it seems that Tokyo has plateaued at 300 cases a day...hopefully we can get our number down even lower.

Japan has finally started to vaccinate but at the pace they are going the experts say it will take a couple of years?! 

Hopefully they will be able to get things moving...

Hope you are doing well, have a safe weekend.

wednesday

Yesterday, Satoshi had the day off and we had an errand at our ward office.

Afterwards, I went to see if Torikyu had the bento I have been wanting to try.

Luckily, they had it.

Grilled chicken, tempura pumpkin and tempura shishito, a tender seasoned bamboo shoot, tsukudani, picked ginger, nori and shibazuke.

So good! The grilled chicken reminded me of the teriyaki chicken my Dad used to grill for dinners.

I'm glad I got to try this and hope to get it again in the future.

On our way home, this tree caught my eye.

It was an early blooming sakura (cherry).

The weather has been so warm that I guess a lot of trees have started to bloom.

Hope there will be some sakura to see in March as well.
 

tokachi popcorn

Recently came upon this popcorn made by Maeda Nosan which uses popcorn grown in the Tokachi area of Hokkaido.

The bags are a little smaller than the Quinn Popcorn I usually buy whenever I am in Hawaii.

This one is 56 grams, where Quinn is 66 grams.

I need to extend the popping time a little.

This was delicious and I'm glad we tried it and will definitely pick up more the next time I see it.

saturday

Saturday we got out and about early to beat the crowds so we could check out the ume (apricot) at Ikegami Baien.

Pandemic style...they check your temperature at the entrance and have you use the alcohol hand sanitizer...pay your 100 yen and then enter the park...they also have hand sanitizer at different areas of the park.

Points if you can see Mount Fuji in this photo...we discovered that you could kind of see her from the park on this visit.

One thing about Japan (for me) is that when you go to "touristy" spots or popular spots, the crowds dampen the mood.

So, it was nice to view the blossoms without the crowds.

Then we walked to an area that I had been to before, but was Satoshi's first time.

We found this origami Mount Fuji in the window of a senior daycare.

And this intricately carved art piece...

Clean clean clean...on the side of a garbage bin.

We stopped in at Sankei...this was Satoshi's first time.

We picked up some items for dinner...kurodai (black seabream) & soi (mebaru/rockfish) sashimi.

First time trying these types of fish as sashimi, but it was so fresh looking and cheap, that I couldn't resist.

For lunch, Satoshi chose their saba nori bento...he was so excited that it was only 298 yen (plus tax).

I picked up some mac salad and chicken...too much mayo on the mac salad...blah! I also added some black pepper.

The chicken thigh was pretty big, very tender & juicy.

I also found a beet (336 grams, a little over a half pound) which I roasted....only 94 yen (plus tax).

The weather was nice and it was nice to bond with nature a little and get out for a walk.

this and that

Signs that Spring is coming..the cyclamen on the lanai started blooming (early!)

A nearby pocket park has an ume tree that started blooming too.

Stumbled upon an interesting house near my dentist's office.

It had all these "pockets" filled with succulents and many other plants.

This is the Google street view of the house...before...

My fave market got a sweet potato roaster...whoo!

So sad to see all the hate against different races in the US these days.

Have a safe weekend.

hinaningyo

Hinamatsuri is coming up so I took out my collection of hinaningyo (dolls).

I recently discovered that Kansai (West Japan), namely Kyoto, has a different placement of the Obina (Emperor (male) doll).

When looking at the display, he is seated on the right because they feel "the most important person" should be seated on the right.

Kanto (East Japan) places their Obina on the left.

And in case you were wondering the Empress (female) doll is called Mebina.

(photo taken at Inatori, Shizuoka)

this and that

Sunday, with 3 blood oranges I made a small batch of marmalade.

After taking this picture, I put it back in the pot to cook down, since I thought it still had too much liquid.

Monday, it rained all day long.

We had some marmalade on toasted baguette with some butter.

Satoshi thought it was carrots...ha!

Monday dinner was marmalade chicken...this sauce was so easy and tasty!

From the Kewpie website: serves 2

2 tablespoons of marmalade

1 tablespoon of shoyu 

1 tablespoon of sake 

300 gram piece of chicken

Some olive oil

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces

Heat the oil and cook the chicken.

After the chicken is cooked, pour the sauce over the chicken and let it caramelize a little.

NOTES: I used boneless chicken thigh, cut it up and cooked it skin side down to crisp.

Then before adding the sauce, I wiped up the oil from the chicken.

I'd definitely make this again.

Back up to Monday afternoon, the rain stopped and I got to see a pretty big rainbow.

And then back up to Valentine's Day...Satoshi had to work.

I gave him these Italian chocolate hearts that I found at Flying Tiger, a knick-knack shop from Copenhagen that has shops all around Japan.

Whenever he works on Sundays, it throws me off and I get confused as to what day is what.

He's also been off on Wednesdays so that throws me off too...

Oh well...hope your week is going well.