so

The pickled grapes were delicious.

Different.

After one hour soaking in the different brines (left is bread & butter brine, right is tomato suzuke brine), it didn't really have too much "pickled" flavor.

I skewered each grape with a yakitori stick and stuck them back into the brine.

The grapes kept their "crisp" texture and sweetness and the salty brine was a little more pronounced but didn't overpower the grape flavor.

Dunno that I would do this again, but I'm glad we tried this.

this and that

Godiva is collaborating with 31 (Baskin Robbins) and they came out with a chocolate hazelnut ice cream (hazelnut ice cream, chocolate ganache ribbon and chocolate cubes)...delicious, rich

the black molding on my phone case started to fall apart, we just finished paying off our phones so we don't plan to get a new one any time soon, so I went to look for a new case.

Unfortunately, my 11 pro is considered "old", so they don't make cases for them.

I was able to find one but they only had this pink color...1st world problems... 

Apparently "my friends" will only eat citrus leaves.

I tried kale ribs but they just let them wilt.

Whenever I give "my friends" leaves, you can hear them eating, kinda loudly.

If you're interested, check here.

oh and the bigger the caterpillar the bigger the poop...ha!

19380

Yesterday, Satoshi wanted to check out Aoyama, Omotesando and other areas for a tour he has coming up.

So we got out early so that we could have breakfast at Crisscross.

I've had this place bookmarked since I saw it back in 2018 when we were walking around after lunch.

Tokyo People: there was a lady with her dog standing in front of the ropes at the entrance, another woman standing in the shade and this guy (photo above)

I asked him if he was standing in line.

He had airpods in his ears, so he answered me super loudly..."huh"

Took one airpod out of his ear and I asked him again.

He answered me in Japanese, "what else would I be standing here for?!"

What a snark!

As we were waiting for them to open, 7 "haoles" came one by one to stand in line with snarky man (at this point there were at least 10 people standing behind me)

Snarky was there to get them a table...

At least there were enough tables for everyone behind us to be seated.

How cute was this bicycle parked in front of the restaurant.

Order by QR code...Satoshi and I both ordered the classic breakfast (toast, salad, bacon and eggs)...1950 yen (tax included)

This also came with soup...with the humidity, luckily it was visshyssoise (cold potato soup)

It was a nice place for breakfast despite the snarky one (we want to check out their lunch menu next)

After breakfast, we went to check out the areas that Satoshi wanted to see.

While he was doing that, I took photos of interesting buildings in the Aoyama Omotesando area.

Le:labo (fragrance)

Prada

Loewe

Near Harajuku, Satoshi went to check out more area and I went to the United Nations University to check out the Farmers Market

Roadster in front of United Nations University

There weren't too many vendors on this day, and it was so hot that I decided to check out other areas of Shibuya instead.

I walked around Miyashita Park while I was waiting for Satoshi to finish

This tunnel that runs under the Yamanote line is painted with vibrant blues...pretty

And then I stumbled on the free interactive Hello Kitty pop up at Tsutaya

So I checked it out....2 minute video here 

Satoshi met me in front of the Hello Kitty pop up and then we went back to Miyashita Park for lunch.

They have a food court, I chose the crunch wrap supreme from Taco Bell

Satoshi chose a poke bowl from Maguro market

It was just nice to sit in air conditioning...

After lunch, I went to buy groceries and headed home.

Satoshi went back out to check out more areas.

It was blazing, super humid but we got to do a lot.

Crisscross

5-7-28 Minamiaoyama

Minato, Tokyo

Open daily: 8:00-21:00

this and that

Host family mom sent us pione grapes...thank you!
 

They are moving to the next stage (from black caterpillars to green ones)..so fast!

Tokyo People: this lady dropped her leek...I called out to her and she came back to get it.

She said, "leeks are so expensive, thank you!"

Back to blazing and humid.

Rice! found a bag...

they are only selling 5 kilo (11 pound) sizes (we used to buy 2 kilo (4.4 pound) size) and apparently the price was increased 50%...

at least now we have rice in our household and don't have to rotate only between bread or oatmeal for breakfast and only eat noodles for dinner.

Have a safe weekend.

rabbit hole

Went down a rabbit hole last night.

A guy was talking on social media about Grillo's pickled grapes.

Apparently they were having a pop up in New York and he couldn't make it there because he lived somewhere else, so he decided to make it on his own.

His first attempt he used a sugar brine and they came out too sweet.

His second attempt he used a salt brine and they came out fantastic.

Me, I wanted to try this but couldn't see myself using Japan grapes, as Satoshi said, "mottainai"

so instead I found these American grapes at the convenience store.

After rinsing them, I put one bag's amount into the tomato suzuke marinade that I had in my refridge

And the other bag's amount into the bread and butter pickle marinade that I had in my refridge.

Hope they are tasty.

Have you eaten pickled grapes before? was it more savory or sweet?

croongji

Found croongji at Seijo Ishii...538 yen (tax included) for 2

These were huge!

About 8 inches in length.

A little chewy but super buttery.

Was also surprised that the bag was not sealed and only closed with a bread clip

Glad I got to try this. 

update

Thought I’d show you the blood orange tree.

Last year 

This year

Was looking online and hope our new friends are not invasive butterflies 

I also changed their home to this flower vase because it looks like they are getting bigger.

I put the stocking thingy on top because I don't have a cover for the vase and don't want them to be crawling all over the place.