this and that

Tuesday, we ate lunch at Biwako.

We've often passed this coffee shop during the pandemic and said we would eat there when it was "safer".

The shop was pretty empty when we went, which was nice.

Satoshi had their napolitan...it looked delicious.

His lunch came with a salad and drink (he chose hot coffee)...900 yen (tax included)

Satoshi also enjoyed listening in on a conversation about baseball between the owner and what we thought was a regular customer.

I had their B set...it came with half a sandwich, salad, mini dessert (I chose chocolate ice cream) and drink (I chose iced coffee).

Not bad for 770 yen (tax included), though I wish they had toasted the bread.

There are other items on their menu that we want to try, we'll be back.

The kinmokusei (sweet olive) is blooming for the 2nd time this season.

I guess the cool nights have stimulated the "late blooming" plants.

It is nice having the fragrance waft in when I open the windows in the morning.

This week, Mother Nature has been throwing us back and forth between Autumn (in the early mornings and evenings) and Summer (during the day)

  There is a different yakiimo man in our neighborhood, with a different "song" to draw people out to buy.

When he passed by our apartment, you could smell the sweet potatoes roasting, a smokey caramel smell...hopefully one day I will be able to "run down" to try to buy some. (turn your sound down if you are watching this at work).

The first part of the video is only the "song" and the last part of the video is when he passed below our apartment.

Yesterday on the train platform, I heard Satoshi yelling, "Kat, Kat!"

I turned around and he was looking at this butterfly.

He said he just saw a guy step on it!

Apparently, the guy had gotten off the train ahead of us was focused on his phone and stepped on this butterfly! poor thing!

When we lived in Osaka I would see this type of butterfly often but not so much since we moved to Tokyo.

I'm glad I didn't step on it.

Last year we tried this Marron (chestnut) stollen, I am glad they brought it back and that I was able to get one for us.

This year seems a bit early but we look forward to enjoying this after our physical check-ups in a couple of weeks.

So, since we are getting our physical check-ups done in a couple of weeks, I tell Satoshi, "so we aren't doing pupu parties until then?"

He says, "no Kat, pupu parties are mandatory"...ha!

It is kaki season but I've been noticing that most kaki are partly green at the markets.

Will wait a bit before we eat this.

Tokyo's case numbers as well as the rest of Japan have gone down quite a bit.

Hopefully we will be able to travel to Hawaii soon.

I have been keeping my eye out on the driver license website and they have (again) extended the period for renewal...whoo!

Last night there was a huge earthquake in Chiba prefecture. 

Our phones were going krazy warning us and you could hear the rumbling coming up the street. 

We shook for what felt like a long time and it almost felt like seasick type swaying afterwards…blah 

Thankful we are okay, no damage or injuries.

It was the “biggest” earthquake that we’ve experienced since moving to Japan.

Luckily this was a “deep” earthquake so the experts think there won’t be many aftershocks, if any.

These natural disasters just show us that we are connected to one another. 

Thank you to everyone who reached out to us. 

Be kind to one another.

Have a safe weekend.