saturday

Back at the end of May, I visited Showa Memorial Park to see the poppies.

Saturday, I went to check out the fall foliage.

The ginkgo were pretty.

So were the sazanka (camellia).

From the entrance to the Japanese garden area was about 1 kilometer (0.62 miles)

The bonsai area of the Japanese garden was pretty.

Some bonsai trees were 300 years old!

Too bad the Japanese garden itself only had a few trees with colors.

I guess with all the weird weather a lot of leaves dried up!

There was also some susuki (pampas grass) which is popular during autumn too.

(If you would like to see a few more photos and some of Mount Fuji, check out the link here.)

I went back to Sesto for lunch...avocado and pastrami sandwich with a cranberry soda (more like a mixed berry soda)...plus I enjoyed fishing out all the frozen berries at the bottom.

After all that walking this sandwich and the fizzy soda hit the spot.

Since I was meeting up with Satoshi after his German class for dinner, I went to Jiyugaoka to have a snack and walk around.

I stopped into La Cialda.

According to Rowena, these are similar to what I know as pizzelles.

I ordered the cialda with the seasonal marron creme (chestnut cream) and a macchiato...so good!

After sitting and refueling, I walked around Jiyugaoka...I always get my directions mixed up in this area.

After walking and window shopping for a couple of hours, I met up with Satoshi and we went to dinner at Fiorata.

Fiorata is actually the Jiyugaoka Bakeshop, but in the evening, they change gears a bit and serve organic wines and Italian style food.

We started with some buri (yellowtail) carpaccio which was served with some pickled daikon.

Drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil...delicious!

sanma (saury) beccafico...this was so good!

Apparently it is usually made with iwashi (sardines) but sanma (saury) is in season now, so that is how they made it.

The fish is rolled with some bread crumbs, raisins and herbs.

It was served with some tomatoes and orange slices...mmm!

And to end we had some of their bolognese pasta.

It was Satoshi's first time here and he liked the laid back vibe of the place.

I'm sure we'll be back.

My legs were so tired after the day...my pedometer said that I had walked 29,750!...eep!

Still, I'm glad the weather has been nice to get out and about.