on a walk

Been enjoying the store fronts on our walks...most are barber shops

Look how teeny the delivery car is for 7-eleven...

We've gone past this arare shop several times...I think they may be out of business since we've never seen them open...

We checked out Nichieido Bakery...we purchased their fried shrimp, yakisoba, curry pan, chocolate coronet and rock cake...everything was a little over baked....

I ate the curry pan...it was filled nicely with curry from end to end.

A little oily but still delicious.

I also ate the rock cake...it really was on the harder side luckily not as hard as rock…it was like a biscuit with raisins.

I don't know if we'll be back, but it was nice to try them.

I love the look of this chinese restaurant and hope to eat here when our number go down and our boosters kick in...

Nichieido Bakery

6-3-2 Omorinishi

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3761.5991

Closed Sundays

Hours: 6:30-19:00

this and that

It took me 3 years to figure out, but from our east balcony we can see the tip of the Tokyo Sky Tree...super super short video here.

AND if there wasn't a condo in the way, we would be able to also see Tokyo Tower.

As you know, from our west balcony, we can see Mount Fuji.

So lucky to be able to see all of these areas from this apartment.

Are you using Powerdirector? 

“Someone” wants to create a video business card or something like that, for his translator/guide work because “everyone else made one”…but guess who’ll have to learn how to use it first so that they can explain it to him?! as if I don’t have anything else to do around here…

We tried Yoshinoya’s gyudon for emergencies…it was expensive, almost 6 dollars for one can. 

Beside the beef type there is a pork, yakitori and fish (mackerel) types too.

Because this is for emergencies, you can eat it straight from the can without heating it up.

I thought it might be kind of gross that way so to heat it up submerge the can in boiling water for 10 minutes.

The tricky thing is to open the heated can without burning or cutting yourself.

In the can is brown rice, topped with a little beef.

I think they use brown, so it doesn’t get too mushy.

We ate this with spoons.

It’ll probably keep you full in an emergency…though “someone” was saying otherwise after his first bite.

I’m glad we tried this and think it would be good to have around in case of an emergency.

This meatball pasta sauce from Seiyu is part of their private brand.

The meatballs have that soft almost spongey texture and the sauce is a little sweet just like that canned meatball spaghetti that my mom would rarely let me eat.

I looked on the back of the package and it is made by Nagatanien, the same company that makes those chazuke mixes. 

Semi-success with caramel custard, cooking it longer made the custard firmer than the first try.

I still need to work on my caramel-ing. 

Satoshi says the custard tasted like I bought it…whoo!

Wednesday was a holiday, the Emperor's birthday.

we tried Chidori's taco rice...it is different from how I make it...they had nori on the rice and it wasn't too spicy, but it was still delicious (and filling!)

We wanted to pick up Inose's shumai for dinner but got there after they had sold out.

Instead, we tried their gyoza...a pack of 10 for 300 yen (tax included).

We bought two packs...It was meaty and delicious.

Gyoza snob approved…the wrappers are thin.

Tokyo's daily case numbers went as low as 8805 and as high as 16,129 this week.

Though there haven't been enough testing, so I'm pretty sure the numbers are higher...

Hope we can get everyone boosted before the "stealth" Omicron variant (a "new" one) starts to do its thing...sigh

Have a safe weekend.

biang biang men

Have you eaten biang biang men?

I have been wanting to try it after seeing it on someone’s Instagram, so I was glad to find them the other day while browsing Kaldi.

The kanji (chinese character) for biang has 57 or 58 strokes?! like art yeah?! (picture from wikipedia)

I like saying "biang biang" 

I served this for our Sunday dinner.

The only p.i.t.a. thing is that you need a tall pot to boil these l-o-n-g wide noodles in.

AND you cannot throw everything in at once when the water boils, you gotta put them in one by one and make sure they don't stick to each other...

I did this in 2 frying pans...so I was kinda going krazy trying to unstick the noodles...

I added some steamed chinese cabbage, cabbage and sugar snap peas.

It comes with a szechuan pepper and oyster sauce packet but I also added some spicy pork that I had in the freezer.

This was delicious.

The noodles are thick, chewy and hard to slurp.

Still, I enjoyed this and would get it again if I see it at Kaldi.

umeyashiki park

We just discovered Umeyashiki Park which is near the tracks of the Keikyu line.

In the Edo period, many apricot/plum trees used to grow here.

And the Emperor Meiji is said to have visited this area often.

During the late 19th and early 20th century, a large Imperial villa once stood on the grounds which apparently used to be 3000 tsubo (106,749 square feet).

I read somewhere that said there were 100 or so tree, but there weren’t that many and not a lot were in bloom yet.

There was also an flower bed area where iris (ayame) bloom in May.

At one end of the park is a small sumo ring, locked behind a gate so kids don’t play on it as it is supposed to be sacred, not sure if it is used often.

This park reminded me of Suigetsu Park in Osaka but way smaller and not as well taken cared of.

Still, I'm glad we got to check this park out.

yaguchi no watashi

Friday, we took out Cafe Akaribi's carrot cake and baked cheesecake...

The carrot cake was bland, it was a non-sweet cake/muffin with carrots in it.. not even cinnamon (bummer)....the baked cheesecake was delicious.

I want to try eating lunch there, so we'll be back when it is safer.

We also took out from Chidori...I tried their Chidori bowl...teriyaki chicken with lots of veggies and some rice.

I would get this again.

Satoshi tried their "loco moco"...the first thing Satoshi said when he opened up his bowl was "where's the gravy?"

Still, he enjoyed it, even if it wasn't local style...

Wednesdays they have taco rice, so I want to try this.

We'll be back.

Cafe Akaribi

1-32-3 Tamagawa

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6715.4955

Hours: 11:30-20:00, days off vary*check before going

Chidori

1-25-10 Tamagawa

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3756.0090

Hours: 11:00-19:30, days off vary*check before going

cusunoki

About 10 minutes walking distance from where we live, there is a small cake shop called Cusunoki.

We tried their ganache cake to celebrate Valentine’s & Kat’s birthday.

It was rich, chocolately & perfect with red wine.

We’ll be back.

Cusunoki

2-22-2 Higashiyaguchi

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6459.8355

Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Hours: 11:00-18:00

p.s. our arms are sore from the booster vaccine and Kat had chills and headaches on Sunday, but overall we are doing fine.

this and that

Our papers for our 3rd vaccine came and we have an appointment for tomorrow!

Hoping we won't be too out of it over the weekend.

Also hoping I can go get my hair colored in a couple of weeks before MIL’s 1 year service next month.

The last time I got it colored was sometime last year right before Omicron.

Huge lemons that were grown in Aichi prefecture.

Glad they have lots of juice too.

We are using one but I’m gonna cut the rest of them into wedges and freeze them.

Double yolks...first time seeing this, I think.

Hoping this is a good sign.

Tokyo's daily case count is going down but super slowly…

sadly lots of deaths too.

A friend on Instagram, Teri told me about a geography version of Wordle called Worldle...this is gonna get hard trying to guess the countries in Africa and all the smaller countries around the world...

The miles you are off from the correct answer is given when you make a guess, there is also an arrow pointing in the direction of where the country is in perspective to your guess, and you only get 6 guesses.

More things to keep me busy.

Have a safe weekend.

yesterday

Yesterday we went to buy a new computer.

The one we have was getting really slow.

I think we had it for at least 10 years.

Anyway, there was haggling…as tiring as when you buy a car.

Which meant lunch was late, which meant Kat was hangry.

This cheese saba (mackerel) burger from Rakyo saved the day.

14057

Have been going to Oomori whenever we need coffee beans...yesterday, I went on one of those walks...

Passed by these two who were waiting for their mom or dad to come out of the bank..

The skies were overcast and gloomy.

This type of day bothers my eyes and I usually get a migraine afterwards...

Before going to buy our coffee beans, I went to check out Jugoya Seika.

They make karinto and have been in business since 1926!

3 bags of your choice for 1000 yen (tax included)

I purchased their sweet potato, peanut and black sugar.

They are all on the "harder" side but everything was delicious and not overly sweet.

They have a couple more varieties to try, so we'll be back.

Toyoshima Bakery...which has been in business since 1939.

I tried their croquette sandwich and cheeseburger.

Love their prices.

We'll be back.

14057...it was nice to be out but wish it hadn't been overcast.

Jugoya Seika

3-4-16 Omorikita

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 0339761.5153

Hours: 10:00-18:00

*call before going, closed days are not consistent

Toyoshima Bakery

1-35-5 Omorikita

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3761.1471

Closed Saturdays & Sundays

Hours: 6:30-18:30

and then there was...

I told you about Wordle...well, my friend Sheri told me about Quordle.

You do 4 wordle type puzzles at once! you only have 9 tries to get all 4 puzzles...

What letters you use for 1 puzzle might help you solve the others...krazy!

And then my IG friend Teri, told me about the Japanese version of Wordle.

You have 80 characters to guess from to make a daily 5 character hiragana word....even krazier.

BUT, you have unlimited guesses.

This is how I'm keeping busy, I guess....
 

valentine’s

Happy Valentine’s!

We had sleet last night other areas had snow.

Melted some chocolate on our pancakes this morning. (Satoshi's is the one above)

Hope you have a sweet day.

this and that

Enlarge the photo so you can see his foot "waving"....I can't remember if the engine was on to keep him warm while he was sleeping...
 

Reconnected with honey toast...

I made this for our snack on Tuesday...toasted the bread and caramelized some apples then topped it with vanilla ice cream.

It was the first time Satoshi had this and he enjoyed it.

Love the look of this old skool barber shop in our neighborhood.

Yesterday we had sleet, rain and some snow.

We prepared so we didn’t need to go out.

I think Mother Nature was telling everyone to “stay at home”

This week, Tokyo’s daily case numbers ranged from 12,211 and 21,122.

Today is a national holiday, but we plan to stay in, we’ll need to stock up on food tomorrow because there is snow forecast for Monday.

Have a safe weekend.

another year

Monday marked another krazy year around the sun, but am thankful just to be able to celebrate it.

My host-mom in Kobe sent me these cookies from Freundlieb (thank you!)

I miss this cafe! actually miss just being able to hang out anywhere…

Host-sister, T, sent me French chocolates and biscuits (cookies)...thank you!

I went to Jiyugaoka to order something for my host-mom's birthday which is coming up next week.

Before coming home, I stopped in at Comme'N, a bakery that I've been wanting to check out.

He trained under the chef at Ça Marche, a favorite bakery of mine in Kobe.

Then opened a small bakery in Takasaki, Gunma.

In 2019, his team won the Mondial du Pain contest in France and in 2020 he opened Comme'N, near Jiyugaoka.

We tried the cream cheese cranberry raisin, proscuitto camembert (and butter), hot dog and cake brioche.

Everything was delicious.

The cream cheese cranberry raisin had a huge piece of cream cheese in the middle...yum!

The hot dog had cheese and some sauerkraut. The sausage was herby..so good!

The proscuitto camembert surprised me...I toasted it before eating and realized there was lots of butter in it when I bit into it and it started dripping profusely...love!

I couldn’t let the melted butter go to waste and used the cake brioche to mop it up…

The cake brioche was light almost fluffy and I loved the caramelized walnuts on top.

They have x-ray cash registers, so when the tray of baked goods is placed on the scanner, the prices and names of the items pop up on the register screen (so there are no mistakes!)

What was also nice is they messaged me and thanked me for posting on Instagram.

Love their business cards, it looks like those tags that they use on bread bags...I'll be back whenever I'm nearby.

Yamato Nadeshiko from Satoshi, a delicate carnation with a slightly spicy fragrance.

Dinner was meyer lemon chicken...I sprinkled some lemon garlic seasoning then cooked the chicken in a pan with some olive oil.

When the chicken was almost cooked through, I added slices of meyer lemon to caramelize in the pan...delicious!

Thanks for today.

Comme'N

7-18-5 Okusawa

Setagaya, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6432.1061

Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Hours: 7:00-18:00

p.s. Over the weekend, I found these huge meyer lemons at the market that were grown in Mie Prefecture...2 were 198 yen (plus tax)....and have been using them in cooking or as a condiment.

hiroshi

Hiroshi is made by Mishima, the same company that makes Yukari (the red shiso mix) and is short for Hiroshima-na, a green veggie similar to chinese cabbage grown in Hiroshima.

I recently stumbled upon this mix at the 100 yen store.

Just mix a teaspoon with 1 chawan bowl of rice and let the steam of your rice reconstitute the greens.

I made musubi for our breakfast with bubu arare, sesame seeds and this hiroshi.

Delicious.

I would buy this again.