onaga

If you click on the photo, you might be able to see the bird with a rather long blue tail. (sorry my picture is blurry)

Apparently it is called "onaga" in Japanese... (Azure winged magpie in English)...by the way, onaga in hawaiian is the word for the long tail red snapper fish

It is the first time for me to see one of these and I was surprised at how long it was hanging out on this tree while looking for bugs to eat (I went to the coin laundry and the onaga was still on the tree as I walked back home!)

random

how pretty are the colors on this tree?

p.s. over the weekend, we've sort of nose dived into winter...brr!

things I don't eat in japan anymore...

You may or may not have noticed that I don't post about certain food stuffs anymore....

like McDonald's...It was a couple of years ago that they apparently found human teeth in the chicken nuggets here...eew!

Mister Donut...a couple of years ago, whenever I had eaten here, the doughnuts were dry and oily...blah

Oreos...the ones they sell in Japan, used to be made in Japan, now they are made in China.

Are there any foods you don't eat anymore?

1st world problems

The other day, apparently Ericsson had a data malfunction of sorts.

Well, because of that malfunction, it took out 11 countries worth of cell phone carriers & users...including mine.

It is amazing how much we rely on our cell phones, yeah?!

Since I don't use my cell phone too much for phone calls, I didn't notice the outage until the news had reported it.

Things people learned without cell service...

How to use a pay phone (yup, there are generations that don't know how to use "real" land lines)...

You cannot use Apple Pay or the like...

Analog items like important phone numbers might be good to carry around...

Disaster warning apps are useless...

Asking for directions...

WiFi spots are life savers...

Were you affected by this malfunction?

okita seimai

I had gone to Hatanodai station to visit Otto Pan, to see if they were selling stollen...they weren't...boo!

So as I was walking towards Nagahara, I stumbled upon Okita Seimei.

This shop has been in business since 1921! selling rice.

Then, when the 4th generation took the business over, besides rice, they started selling bento and sweets made from rice.

Their tenmusu (short for tempura musubi) is a tempura shrimp drizzled with a little soy based sauce then wrapped with rice and nori....I should have bought more.

Namasu and sunomono were delicious as well.

I also bought millet ohagi...cooked millet covered with kinako (soy bean powder)...so good!

While I was standing in line, a lady, a few customers ahead of me received coupons for the shopping arcade...as she was leaving, she asked me if I could to use her coupons.

Since I don't live in the area, I thought it would be wasteful to accept it so I refused.

Then after I purchased my bento and was walking through the shopping arcade, another lady, who was the customer in line in front of me, stopped me to ask if I could use those similar coupons, I thanked her but told her I don't live in the area...so funny yeah?!

They had so many okazu (prepared foods) to choose from, I'll be back when I am in the area.

Okita Seimai
4-6-3 Hatanodai
Shinagawa, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3781.6557
Closed Sundays, Mondays & Holidays
Hours: 9:00-20:00

guru guru bakery

Tried Guru Guru Bakery's stollen.

Lots of spices and nuts.

Not too much dried fruits though.

The texture of this stollen was more bread than cake.

On another note, their fruit sandwich was delicious.

Chocolate bread, whipped cream, cream cheese, strawberries & bananas.

yashi pan

Tried Yashi Pan's stollen.

This version was a little more bready...but still had lots of dried fruits and nuts in it.

Hope to find more stollen to try...