odds & ends

Gosh, here I was ready to fly into Autumn and the weather decides to go backwards back to Summer. The past couple of days have been so hot and miserable!

So many different things that I want to post about, so I thought I would just round up some of them into one post.

Owariya's soba-ita. Thin, crisp wafer's made from sobako (buckwheat flour). We got these from Satoshi's mom awhile back, and I remembered to take a photo of them just before we finished them off. The main shop in Kyoto serves soba, hopefully we get to try this place one day.

A quick lunch of yakitori from Toriya. Zuri (which I think is the liver of the chicken), is chewy and crunchy at the same time, momo (the thigh area) and tsukune (a meatball-like concoction with minced chicken, green onion and part of the cartilage). I also like nankotsu (cartilage).

I was surprised at the different clouds. The one in the background looks lit up, while the rest were in darkness.

A rice farmer in Okayama prefecture decided to spice up his fields and show off his love for the Hanshin Tigers (a baseball team in Osaka (Satoshi's favorite)) with the team logos made from rice plants. Apparently he started doing this the year that the Tigers took League champs in 2003. Ever since, he's continued with the help of hundreds to help him plant and harvest the rice. He uses different varieties to achieve the different colors and donates the rice that is harvested to the Hanshin Tigers' team. (when the rice is about to be harvested, the logos turn a golden yellow with black--the teams colors.)

My new strawberry plants. I found them in the shopping arcade yesterday for only a 100 yen each (about US$1)! I didn't know this until recently, but the fruit come straight from the flower (that yellow center will turn into a strawberry).