odds & ends

Last Tuesday, I met my friend, Maui Luna for some cake. She didn't have much time, so we popped into Malebranche for tea and talk.

The main shop is in Kyoto, but they also have a cafe in the Hanshin department store in Umeda, which is where we went.

I ordered the Strawberry cake, this had condensed milk in it and boy, was it sweet.

Maui had the green tea cake, in comparison to my cake, this was not sweet and was perfect with tea.

I hadn't been to this cafe in awhile and was disappointed that they had gotten rid of their "cake set"--your choice of cake and tea.

Everything was ala carte and expensive.

Still, it was a nice time spent chatting. Afterwards, we wandered around in the food basement. Hope you had a nice time in Japan, Maui, it was surely fun meeting you!

Last Wednesday was a busy day, Satoshi and I went to get my mammogram done. Then we went down to get my visa, on the way, we stopped into this bread shop for a snack. Backerei Gen (Bakery Gen) is located near the Makiochi station.

I bought the yakisoba pan (a soft bun filled with yakisoba (fried noodles)) 126 yen (about US $1.26). It was my first time to have this and it was really good! Something that you wouldn't find in the U.S.

After getting the visa (which took like 5 minutes after our number was called), we stopped for a late lunch at Hanshin department store's H Mille-Un. This was their quick lunch--we chose the pasta which was a meat sauce. This was more upscale meat sauce with bits of chopped up steak, not the small bits of hamburger (1500 yen (about US$15).

Dessert was a custard cake, though this tasted more like buttercream frosting layered between very dry pieces of cake and a little scoop of yuzu (citron) sherbert (plus 300yen (US$3))UPDATE:2009, this restaurant is now closed after the renovation of the Hanshin Department Store.

After getting my visa, I needed to register the visa with my city office, so it was back to Makiochi last Thursday. Having loved the yakisoba pan, I bought another one for lunch.

This past Sunday, after going to Aramaki, Satoshi and I found ourselves wandering around Ashiya. This is an upscale neighborhood, not a place for jeans and tennis shoes (which is how we were dressed)! Satoshi's friend, Yanagita, called and invited us to go riding. They took us up the mountain to a terraced cafe--Cafe the Terrace. This is actually someone's house that they renovated to serve as a cafe.

When you sit out on the terrace, they bring out a paper which warns you that there may be bugs or "things" that may fly into your food/drink and that since they appreciate nature, they will not kill them nor will they replace your food/drink.

Since we were sitting under a tree and it is kemushi (fuzzy caterpiller) season, we ate very quickly....