reminiscing

Three years ago, we were trying to figure out who's persimmon tree was in front of our apartment building as well as when we could travel to Hawaii

Four years ago, we listed up some of the eateries that had closed.

Ten years ago, we were making anno imo (a type of sweet potato) potage

Seventeen years ago, we were making a curried sweet potato soup

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Satoshi went to Jingu Stadium to watch a baseball match between Waseda & Keio, it's called Sokei-sen and has been going on for over 100 years

Since he was doing that, I went holoholo (gallavanting) around Nihonbashi.

I stopped in at Patisserie Ease, to try their baked items.

Chocolate covered cannele, chocolate financier, galette bretonne, plain financier and marron madeleine...1866 yen (tax included)

I am not too sure what canneles are supposed to be like. 

The ones I've tried in the past were firm in the middle and outsides are kind of "stick to your teeth".

This one was super soft in the middle and the outer shell was "stick to your teeth"...

I look forward to having the others with wine tonight and going back to try their cream puffs in the future.

Then I walked up the street to Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse.

The chocolate mediant bar that I wanted with dried figs, candied orange and almonds was sold out and they don't know when a new shipment will come in...boo!

So I purchased the 75% with caramelized almonds...2700 yen (tax included)

And the 75% fourree (filled) tablet filled with coconut and passion fruit...3200 yen (tax included)

These are pricey and would be nice as gifts.

Look forward to trying these in the coming weeks.

While walking, I saw an interesting thing...a restaurant & bar bus...

The weather was beautiful, warm in the sun, cool in the shade.

Patisserie Ease

9-1 Nihonbashi kabutocho

Chuo, Tokyo

Closed Wednesdays

Hours: 11:00-18:00

Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse

1-1-1 Nihonbashi honmachi

Chuo, Tokyo

Open daily: 11:00-19:00

this and that

Tokyo People: this guy's glasses...metal spider webs!

I actually saw his glasses when we passed each other on the escalator at the train station, he was coming down and I was going up.

A couple days later, he was walking alongside so I tried my best to inconspicuously take this.

this guy's suit!

this furry one waiting so patiently for its mom

Electric shop all decked out for Halloween...love how the paper lanterns are made to look like jack-o-lanterns.

Tuesday, it was still kinda blazing..

Loved this lady's sun umbrella and I noticed her zipper on the back of her blouse.

It had a rather long "string" which I think she uses to zip and unzip herself with, thought that was cool.

Just park your teeny excavator out front..

Think I may have found a way to make baked sweet potatoes, soft and not dry.

Will try it again before posting how.

Love this purple!

The pretzel I bought from Blau Berg was delicious, the right amount of salt and it was chewy...love.

The honey mustard scone I purchased from de bon coeur tasted exactly like those honey mustard pretzel pieces.

The scone was super flaky, love!

Kaldi haul...found a new (to me) Ritter Sport, with banana chips in it.

Also found a sake with crane and turtle on it, will save this for New Years.

The other night there was a sudden downpour and in some areas they had hail!

Hope you have a safe weekend.

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Got out and about early this morning to check out the roses at Yokohama.

Found the Pokemon manhole cover that they recently placed near Yamashita Park.

(there are 5, hope to check out the others around Yokohama)

Luckily there weren't too many people there yet

There were lots of butterflies though!

I stopped at O to U Bakery to pick up some baked goods to try.

Their saba tomato sandwich, the saba (mackerel) is hand shredded, a little smokey...delicious. 270 yen (tax included)

The curry pan is filled to the gills! with spicy keema curry...280 yen (tax included)

Caramel nuts was a puff pastry with caramel and lots of nuts...love! 210 yen (tax included)

The frosting for the cinnamon was too sweet....260 yen (tax inlcuded)

Everything was on the smaller side but perfect for tasting.

I'm glad I tried these.

I walked through Chinatown to look for Ten Ren Teas and purchased some Alishan Oolong and Dong Ding Oolong teas, look forward to trying these...1190 yen and 950 yen (tax included)

Loved this rainbow mosaic near Yokohama Park...couldn't find any info on the mosaic.

I realized I was near Izuhei, an inarizushi shop that has been in business since 1839

And picked up their "maze" (mah-zay), which means mix, it has 4 inarizushi and 4 kanpyomaki for us to share....1000 yen (tax included)

Bummer they use sucralose though...

Next door is Matsumura, a wagashi shop that has been in business since 1897

I purchased their yomogi daifuku (for Satoshi) and mame daifuku (for me)...380 yen (tax included) for both

And then on the way to the station, I found an underground shopping mall called Marinard

It was nice to be out and about even it is still a little blazing.

O to U Bakery

1-54 Motomachi

Nakaku, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

Hours: 9:00-17:00

Ten Ren Teas

232 Yamashitacho

Nakaku, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Hours: 10:00-19:00

Izuhei

5-62-2 Onoecho

Nakaku, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Open daily 10:00-20:00

Matsumura

5-62 Onoecho

Nakaku, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Open daily 10:00-18:00

ps If you'd like to see more photos/videos, please look here

tensui

Last night, Satoshi and I met up with family friend, D who is travelling around Japan.

We met at Tensui, a small izakaya near JR Shinagawa Station.

It's a good thing we made reservations because the place was packed!

Avocado Shrimp salad (more avocado than shrimp)

3 kinds of sashimi and katsuo tataki (seared bonito)

Maitake (hen of the wood) cooked in butter

And deep fried whale...it was D's first time trying it and I thought my second but after looking through my blog archives it was my fourth time!

D gave us all these snacks! (Thank you!)

We were happy to be able to spend some time with D, we hope he had enough to eat and hope he enjoys the rest of his trip.

Not sure if we'll be back to Tensui, but it was a nice izakaya that doesn't allow smoking!

Tensui

4-11-16 Takanawa, Keikyu #11 Building 3F

Minato, Tokyo

Closed Saturdays, Sundays & Holidays 

sigh

So the Hanshin Tigers won the Climax Series (CS).

They were “already” League champions...

I really don't care for this part of the season because CS allows the 3rd place team to play the 2nd place team, the winner goes up against the 1st place team and whoever wins goes on to play in the Nihon Series (NS) (like the World Series).

You outright win your league and there could be a chance you don't advance to the Nihon Series due to these CS play offs...

NPB says these play offs are supposed to be similar to MLB's division play offs, well, there are WAY more teams in MLB, which is why MLB needs play offs...

Both leagues (Central and Pacific) have finished their CS but now we need to wait a whole week before the Nihon Series even starts?!

Let's go....

my domino (again)

Saturday we got our flu shots.

Afterwards, I laid low unlike "the other person" in the house, who met up with a friend afterwards.

Didn’t feel like cooking, so I ordered us the My Domino pasta bowls to try

Satoshi had the Garlic Master, cheese sticks (extra 30 yen) & steak fries (no photo)

He ate his way later than I did, but said it had lots of garlic and the garlic was kind of bitter/burnt.

I ordered the kalbi pasta, with grilled chicken (extra 50 yen) & steak fries as my sides…the kalbi was sweet salty, love!

I am glad we checked out the more "extravagant" sides, the chicken was kinda teeny and really salty...if I do order this the next time I would try to order steak fries twice and the pizza.

These pasta bowls while tasty, all the cheese kinda gets "baked"/stuck into the foil pan's grooves...boo!

(the advertisement for these are in paper bowls, which would've been better I think)

Anyway, I'm still glad we got to try these.

musashi koyama

Been awhile since I was in this area so I decided to hit a lot of bakeries in one go

Nemo Bakery & Cafe, was thinking this shop was named after Nemo (knee-moh) the fish, but it is named after the the owner who is Nemoto-san (nay-moh-toe) 

The sausage & cheese was delicious....320 yen (tax included)

fig dacquoise...fig puff pastry, different from dacquoise I’ve had in the past....440 yen (tax included)

the piece of banana along with the custard in there also surprised me!

I wouldn't mind having lunch here. 

Sel eau blé...baked curry pan (put this one in the freezer)...210 yen (tax included)

*it had japanese style curry in it

Naan curry pan (put this on in the freezer too)...230 yen (tax included)

*it had spicy keema curry in it

Kinoko (mushroom) cheese...burnt cheese, lots of mushrooms, a little béchamel and onions...ono! 300 yen (tax included)

I wouldn't mind trying other items

de bon cœur...sables (coconut & chocolat, crisp & delicious)280 yen (tax included), fig pound cake (super moist) 400 yen (tax included) & honey mustard nuts scone (put this one in the freezer) 390 yen (tax included)

mont blanc, this didn't have too much chestnut flavor...not worth 820 yen (tax included)

2 cheese cheesecake (camembert & mascarpone)...cinnamon overpowered this, not too much cheese flavor...800 yen (tax included)

Not sure I would come back here, everything was really pricey.

A little more places I have bookmarked to try, hopefully I'll be back soon.

Nemo Bakery & Cafe

4-3-12 Koyama

Shinagawa, Tokyo

Closed: Wednesdays

Hours: 9:00-18:00

Sel Eau Blé

3-22-21 Koyama

Shinagawa, Tokyo

Closed: Sundays & Mondays

Hours: 10:00-19:00

De Bon Coeur

3-11-2 Koyama

Shinagawa, Tokyo

Open daily 11:00-18:00

this and that

Pre-ordered 4 kilos of blood oranges to be delivered in February from the same farm as last year..whoo

(photo from this year's order)

snackage: Kaldi's kakinotane and 3 types of nuts (cashews, walnuts & almonds) (curry flavor) love!

St Germain's burnt cheese, gobo (burdock roo) & renkon (lotus root) bread...doesn't cheese makes everything ono?!

Crocus! seen on a walk

Been waking up a little earlier to put Satoshi's bento together.

During the summer, it was so hot so instead of making the foods for his bento from the early morning and letting it cool before packing like everyone says you should, I would instead make it the night before and just take it out from the refrig, especially since he finally told me he has a microwave oven at work! Dude!

Nowadays I just pack his bento and have been making hot tea for him to bring in a thermos.

Have been able to catch the sunrises because of this...

Finally cool enough to making kiriboshi daikon which I received from friend Mayumi back in January

I would cut the liquid in half next time, so that I would not end up with so much "soup" leftover.

Wanted to get some sake made in Tokyo to give a friend, and remembered we tried Sawanoi sake when we went to Okutama.

Thought I might have to order some online, but Sawanoi had a list of shops that sell their products and luckily, a neighborhood liquor store, Marutoku Aoki was listed.

I called them and they had some, so I walked over to purchase these.

It was my first time shopping here and the grandpa running the shop was so nice.

I'll be back.

Ordered this Ippudo nabe (hot pot) broth from Daisho.

Love Ippudo's Karakamen and Daisho apparently recreated the broth.

Not exactly nabe weather just yet but wanted to get this to try for when it does get colder.

We’re getting our flu shots tomorrow.

Have a safe weekend.

Marutoku Aoki Store

5-10-8 Nishikamata

Ota, Tokyo

Closed Tuesday

Hours: 9:00-20:00