Friday, December 18, 2020

this and that

The Sawamura Bakery stollen was a little dry but had lots of fruits and nuts.

Tried a new (to me) variety of sweet potato called benihokkori.

I learned of a new way to roast them from Instagram.

You freeze the sweet potato then throw them into a hot oven.

They would come out "soft" after cooking but then get really dry and hard.

I found yet another way online and will try again sometime next week.

I finally tried conbini (convenience store) oden.

I've always been put off by the smell it has whenever you walk into a conbini.

Also before the pandemic, you could serve yourself, which I didn't think was too sanitary.

Nowadays, you need to tell the cashier what you want, and they put it into a container for you.

I enjoyed my choices especially the rolled cabbage and daikon.

Our station, which got a facelift this year, will finally get shops like Kaldi and Starbucks sometime in March..can't wait
Blog friend Lily, always sends us cute handmade ornaments at this time of year...Thank you!
"someone" had a zoom bonenkai with his german class the other night.

They actually had class while drinking...

Yesterday Tokyo hit 800 plus cases!

The bulk are 20 to 30 year olds but the severe cases are older age groups.

We are being asked to stay at home during the holidays and only go out when necessary.

The Japan Sea side of Japan got hit with a huge snow storm which messed up traffic.

The weather dude says it is gonna be a cold winter (hoping to see some snow!)

Love this season and will take it over summer's humidity any day!

Hope you are doing well.

One week before Christmas, please have a safe weekend.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

that little ornament is so cute!

That new way of cooking the imo wasn't that great? Does it work better with different varieties of imo? I have not been able to get my imo cooked to the texture I like, a little on the firmer side. Mine comes out either undercooked in the middle or comes out so soft, but it read that the honey" that oozes out when it is baked soft is good.

Funny about you being put off by oden smells, I love it! cooking daikon, smells great (not).

I made the mistake of looking up airfare to Japan in February, so cheap, but so not gonna happen with quarantine and US passports not allowed, among other reasons. So Sad. Don't know why I torture myself.
v


Louise said...

I clicked on your old post to find out what Bonenkai meant (I've been reading your blog since at least 2008, but I never remember the translations). I thought this part of the post was a bit ironic, and funny in a very dark way:

"Though if you ask me, no year could be so bad that you need to drink yourself into a stupor."

I'm not much of a drinker, but if I was, and if there was any year bad enough to drink oneself into a stupor, it would definitely be 2020. My worst fear right now (besides getting covid or my loved ones getting it) is that after 12/31/2020, instead of 1/1/2020, we end up with 13/1/2020.

K and S said...

V, main reason I cannot go to Hawaii now is that I would need to quarantine when I came back to Japan :(

Take care.
Kat

K and S said...

I don’t understand what you mean by 13/1/2020 Louise.

Take care.
Kat

Anonymous said...

If I may, I'd like try to answer for Louise. 2020 is such a bad year, everyone is anxiously waiting for January 2021 (I think she had a typo putting 01/01/20) as if that all these unfortunate events of 2020 will magically be over on 12/31/20 and everything will be all right. But especially with the pandemic on going it will most likely be a continuation of 2020 so it should be 13/01/20.
I have been thinking the same way as Louise, but she really summed it up using 13/01/20 LOL
v

Louise said...

I mean a 13th month of 2020, rather than changing to a new year. Seems like anything is possible this year.

jalna said...

V is so smaaaaaht!! I was like you . . . 🤔

K and S said...

Thanks for clearing that up Louise & V!

Jalna, :)

Take care everyone.
Kat

KirkK said...

It feels strangely cold here this year too Kat! Keep warm and stay safe!

K and S said...

Keep warm & safe too Kirk!
Take care.
Kat