odds & ends & a winner

Cleaning out some photos, so if you're only interested in finding out the winner to the giveaway, scroll all the way down.

Received this Hello Kitty (HK) from a friend of Satoshi's. He knows I like HK and since he is from Kochi, bought me this one of Sakamoto Ryoma.

Wherever you go in Japan each prefecture/city has their own "flavor" of HK, usually something that represents the area whether it be a food or person. The face will be HK's but the "costume" will be the representation of the area.

Sakamoto Ryoma, who was originally from Kochi, Shikoku, wanted to end the feudal ways in Japan. In 1867, he was assassinated at the very young age of 33 and his murder is still a mystery.

This year there is a historical soap opera on television which has sparked his popularity.

Snyder's pretzels and Meiji Chocolate teamed up to make this delicious treat. The pretzels are thick and the chocolate semi-sweet.

I participated with some of my Twitter friends in a Twitter Taco Party recently. Everyone that participated uploaded their photo of their tacos. It was delicious virtually.

I didn't have time to thaw out some tortilla, so I instead made a layered dip using homemade black bean dip, salsa, sauteed veggies (eringi, orange bell, eggplant & asparagus), cheese and some leftover flat leaf parsley.

Satoshi liked the black bean dip (I think he just likes to eat things with tortilla chips). Also I hope to participate in their Twitter food party next month.

Char siu men at Ou-Lou. It was my first time to try this, but the char siu was the sweet/salty flavor that I grew up with in Hawaii and the broth reminded me of what is served with saimin (a broth/noodle dish in Hawaii), kind of light, chicken broth.

Did you know that Minoo has the very 1st Mister Donut in Japan? Apparently, the company wanted to see if the suburbs would be receptive to their donut shop.

Who would've thought that it would spread like wildfire all over Japan and some areas overseas?

Our shop in Minoo is the only one with this number 0001, cool yeah?

A new Kit Kat. This version is "otona no amasa" which means "adult sweetness".

Whenever they bring in the word otona (adult) to food you know it will not be as sweet.

I liked the fact that they used dark chocolate to coat and in-between the wafers are crushed chocolate cookies.

Javana's Speculoos Tea from Brugge.

Received this from Tamakikat when I saw her last month, it is delicious cold and is even better served hot with some milk. (Thank you!)

There are almond slices and cinnamon in there...like drinking a cinnamon cookie, similar to chai but without the cardamom.

Cilantro on the lanai starting to actually look like it.

I have started covering some of my plants with plastic during the evenings so they won't get frost or too cold.

After seeing "Eat, Pray, Love" the other week, I just had to have pasta for lunch (with wine!) at Cappriciosa.

I loved the food scenes as well as the scenery itself in the movie.

Whenever I watch movies in English (subtitled in Japanese), I always feel like I'm the only one who catches the little "jokes" as I'm usually the only one snickering or smiling.

Can you believe the man sitting two seats from me in "EPL" was actually snoring loudly (from the beginning to the end)??

Satoshi on the other hand, didn't see this movie with me and opted for a samurai flick instead.

Caught two butterflies, doing their thing.

Black Wych was on sale at Yamaya because the expiry was close, it was like 250 yen (about US$2.50) for one!

Saw this in the window of the Mercedes Benz showroom...little cars for your kids...so this is how they grow up wanting to drive a Mercedes...

As for the giveaway, we had 41 entries. Thank you again for participating, I loved reading all of your comments.

Anyway, enough rambling, you want to know who won right? I had Satoshi pick the winner....and the winner is...Kirk K, one of our favorite reads.

Please send me your snail mail address at kat (dot) nsatoshi (at) gmail (dot) com as soon as possible so I can send out your care package.

It is Friday here, hope you have a great weekend.