watanabe

Tried a new (to us) sushi place/izakaya, Watanabe.

I ordered the chirashi...this was not worth 800 yen (tax included).

More wakame than anything...AND there was a piece of iwashi (sardine) that had so many bones!

The rice smelled funny too...eep!

Satoshi ordered the negitoro bowl...750 yen (tax included).

He was disappointed as well.

He said the rice was dry (maybe old?!)

We are glad we tried this place but won't be back. 

this and that

Tokyo People...was following behind these two grandmas...so cute that they were "talking story" (with their masks on).

this guy with a beret...he actually bypassed me
 

As Valentine's gets closer there is more chocolate to be found...

This doughnut covered with chocolate truffle pieces...with every bite some would fall off...too sweet but loved it had a lot of chocolate.

Bought this for Satoshi...crispy croissant filled with chocolate cream and those chocolate truffle pieces...he said it was ono!

Since last week, I think Japan now has a total of 80,000 cases...Tokyo has been increasing 10,000+ cases per day...eep!

There is panic for the close contacts trying to find a place to get tested and or to even find home tests.

As for boosters, just like vaccines, Japan has hit another bump, again there aren’t enough…sigh

Hope we can avoid getting this...

Have a safe weekend.

snackage

Found some new (to me) chocolates from Oh wow! a German maker.

Loved the design and package...these were a little sweeter than I like but I'm glad we got to try these.

Irish maker, East Coast Bakehouse's Granola cookies...so crunchy!

What kind of snacks have you been enjoying?
 

t-farm

Ordered a 5 kilo (11 pounds) box of blood oranges from T-farm through Tabechoku.

It cost a little less than $40 with tax and shipping.

This is 2 kilos more than the farm I bought from last year..total 38 orbs, some are huge while others are tiny.

Hoping these are sweet.

T-farm is located in Ehime, Shikoku.

Besides blood oranges and other citrus, they also grow avocados.

I am interested in trying avocados grown in Japan but they are pretty pricey, 1 kilo (2 pounds) is $40-ish plus tax and shipping.

Guess I’ll have to wait a couple of years until they become more plentiful so the price will come down.

In the meantime, we’ll enjoy these blood oranges.

mcgyver

I was wondering why the drawer in the kitchen would kinda sag whenever I pushed the drawer in.

Well, when I took the drawer out, I found out that the piece of wood attached to the “rail” for the drawer was not connected to anything! 

Just balancing on that piece of wood attached to the “wall”, so every time you push in the drawer it would waiver to the left or right…

AND the “wall” that the tiny piece of wood is attached to, moved when pressed upon too…sheesh

Since I am not sure what is behind the “wall”, I didn’t want to chance pounding any nails or putting screws through it…

So, instead I mcgyvered it with 2 thumbtacks, one on the left and one on the right…

At least now the “rail” doesn’t move and the drawer doesn’t feel like it is sagging.

popcorn

Saw someone online popping popcorn in their clay pot and had to try.

I only did a tablespoon of corn with 3 tablespoons of oil...

Because the lid isn't see through, you can't tell when the popcorn is done, so I had lots of burnt pieces.

But, mostly everything popped...

The burnt parts leave a residue on the bottom of your clay pot too…boo!

Tried with a frying pan upping the amount of popcorn to 2 tablespoons to 3 tablespoons of oil with a glass lid and this worked well...

Since I like popcorn, I am glad I found a way to get most of the corn to pop.

this and that

The wire connecting our mouse (right) to the computer became exposed, to the point where Satoshi said he would feel teeny electric shocks from the exposed wire whenever he used the mouse…aiyah!

We finally got around to getting a new one…it is HUGE! (left)

With points from a point card that the store allowed, we ended up paying only $1-ish for it.

I love shopping with points.

Have you started playing Wordle? I have, it is a nice way to “be still” and “think”, so far I’ve been able to guess the daily word…

Except yesterday, I wasn't able to solve the puzzle because I thought you could only use a letter once…but found out afterwards that if the letter is correct you can use it twice!..somebody put that in the rules!

Luckily they reveal the word after the 6 tries.

If you do post to social media, do not post your screenshot as others may still be trying to solve the puzzle.

Yes, the whole world is working on the same puzzle!

There are some killjoys if you happen to look at twitter...

The share version looks like the photo I have posted.

Tokyo’s case numbers this week hovered around 4000 then exploded yesterday to 8000-ish.

We’ll continue to lay low until we can get boosted.

Hope you are doing well.

Have a safe weekend!

thit kho

Have been wanting to try Kathy’s recipe for thit kho ever since I saw it on her blog, Onolicious Hawaii.

My only problem was finding coconut water.

I got lucky sometime last year when I stumbled upon a nearby food import shop and they had one serving sized boxes of coconut water!

I made half the recipe because I wasn’t too sure Satoshi would like the flavors.

Plus he doesn’t really care for pork…

This is similar to Okinawan style rafute.

Instead of hard boiled eggs, I wanted oozy, but kinda failed.

Mine came out too soft to peel to make “ajitama”, so I ended up scooping them out of the shells instead.

Still we enjoyed this.

The pork came out quite tender.

NOTES: find a pot that will keep the pork submerged while cooking.

I ended up having to turn/flip the meat throughout the cooking.

My caramel seized but I reheated it with some of the coconut water before adding it to the braising liquid.

I would also make this a day ahead so you can scrape off the fat.

I’m glad I got to try this and if I come across coconut water again , I will make this again.

13961

Since we needed coffee (beans), we walked to Yamaya which is near Oomori station.

The last time I did this walk was back in December.

I loved the looks of this old photo shop.

It's the year of the Tiger.

My name is Kero...did you know that frogs in Japan say "kero" not "ribbit"?

What does your sanitizers look like? the ones we have here are dispensed with your feet.

Last time I passed by there was only one dog...now he has a friend.

Fancy entrance to a supermarket

Thought of V when I saw this gacha gacha

It's been quite sunny but still very cold.

Hope you enjoyed our walk.

shichifukujin meguri

Yesterday we went on a pilgrimage (meguri)  to look for the 7 lucky gods (Shichifukujin) Benzaiten (goddess of beauty), Hoteison (guardian of children), Ebisuten (god of prosperity for business), Daikokuten (god of commerce), Jurojin (god of long life), Fukurokujin (god of happiness) and Bishamonten (god of fortune)

At the beginning of the year, these 7 gods get onto the lucky boat (Takarabune) and descend to earth bringing luck and good fortune.

By visiting each god, you can pray for “good” from each for the year.

There are areas around Tokyo that have similar courses, the area we visited was in walking distance in our neighborhood.

It took about an hour and a half to find them all.

Past the police station..

At one temple we saw some wild parrots.

Krazy clouds.

It’s robai (waxy apricot) season, love the fragrance!

We saw these clusters of fish in the Nomigawa, it was kinda creepy seeing them here and there...short video here.

There is a lookout area atop the Ikegami Hall, where we spotted Mount Fuji 

Here is the enlarged photo

We did some grocery shopping where we bought this huge broccoli!

11038…trying to keep safe yet entertained.

sunday morning

Was everyone affected by the tsunami warning?

Thankful for the warning even though my phone was going krazy from the wee hours on Sunday morning.

After several “loud” alerts, I finally figured out how to silence it, but could still hear it vibrating every so many minutes.

Hoping there wasn’t too much damage anywhere.

Breakfast was oatmeal pancakes, it was my first time trying these from Sunmerry, a bakery near our station.

We heated them up with some of David Leibovitz’s salted butter chocolate sauce…so good!

Afterwards, we went out in search for lunch and dinner.

A house down the street had an ume tree in bloom, guess Spring is coming…

For dinner, we picked up some oden from Miraku, this time around there was also konbu, carrots and potato…still a bargain at 300 yen per serving.

Hope you have a good week.

this and that

Sorry it has been quiet here.

There hasn't been much going on.

We laid low over the weekend and Monday was a holiday and then on Tuesday it rained, so I stayed in.

Satoshi has had some errands to run, so he has been in and out.

Wednesday was the first time I was out since last Friday, it was nice to get some sun, even though the winds are icy.

The case numbers have taken off unfortunately…Thursday’s count for Tokyo was 3100-ish

The government wants the economy to keep moving so it doesn’t look like they will declare a state of emergency.

A lot of work places and hospitals are running into staff deficiencies due to close contacts having to quarantine.

For now I guess we'll go back to taking food out instead of eating in and food shopping during the week. 

Avoiding crowds during the weekends.

Our wedding anniversary is tomorrow but we'll be celebrating at home.

We are thankful that we can at least celebrate it.

Hope you all are doing well.

Have a safe weekend.

daily stuff

 
The snow Tokyo got on Thursday took its time melting, (there was still some on Sunday!)…creating slippery roadways & sidewalks.

So many people got hurt on Friday that at one point you couldn’t get hold of an ambulance!

Not to mention all the vehicles that got into accidents.

Any “hill” or slope even the slightest one was something you could slip on.

It took me longer to make my way to the bakery and market on Friday because I had to choose walkways that were not in the shadows.

Though it was fun seeing the snowmen around the neighborhood 

and the cats keeping warm...

I definitely don’t envy the people who live in areas where there is way more snow and they have to shovel the stuff.

Every year many elderly die in Japan because they have to shovel the snow off of their roof tops to keep it from collapsing.

Today is a national holiday, the Coming-of-age day...when 20 year olds are considered adults.

Bummer that a lot of ceremonies have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

Have a good week.

this and that

"someone" has been cold...why he totally does not have any warm clothing is puzzling?!

I had to lend him scarves and wool sweaters...

I personally love this time of year 'cause there is no humidity!

Yesterday...it was forecast for rain or snow, the weather dude couldn't exactly say?!

So we prepared and stayed indoors...

Listening to jazz, drinking coffee, eating chocolate doughnuts...we had snow! apparently it was the first time in 4 years for Tokyo to have so much…only 4 inches (10 cm) but enough to create havoc for Tokyo…

Lunch was a ramen hack...I had bought some mabo tofu and put it onto Sapporo Ichiban shoyu ramen...mouth.on.fire…mabo men.

Today is nanakusagayu...hoping we all can stay healthy this year.

Boom! Japan's case numbers exploded over the week (still not as krazy as other countries but krazy enough for Japan)…apparently we can “thank” the US military bases for apparently bringing in more cases, for apparently not wearing masks even if they are vaccinated and for apparently not PCR checking anyone arriving on military flights…grrr!

The Japan government does not have jurisdiction for what happens on base but it is troubling & disappointing when the bases do not cooperate with what happens off base.

They won’t even tell Japan how many are living off base…

Anyway…Please keep your spirits up.

Have a safe weekend.