this and that

Been watching this Taiwanese drama, "Gourmet Affairs", I don't understand Taiwanese and the Japanese subtitles are a little too fast for me, so I am just watching by "feel", this is a foodie drama so the food shots are ono looking.
 

Tokyo People: the pet trimmer, love how she puts the dryer in her apron, so she has one hand to hold the furry one and one hand to use the brush

Pizzutello Bianco season...these were from Yamanashi prefecture from a farm called Midorien, sweet, delicious and crisp!

Koshi no Shizuku, figs from Niigata, these ripened quickly so we ate them over the weekend with proscuitto.

Harvest Moon

Beautiful sunrises.

Satoshi's been taking tours around and since most of his European clients do not eat lunch, he hasn't been able to. 

I’ll probably start sending him with a musubi or two so he won’t have to go without eating.

Hope you have a safe weekend, we have another 3 day weekend, hoping it gets cooler soon.

ease

Still blazing, the days are getting shorter and stollen have started appearing...

I ordered this one from Ease, they had this chestnut version last year and I had missed getting one.

Though we tried their chocolate stollen earlier this year. 

This was delicious with lots of chestnuts in it.

I'm glad we got to try this one.

fyi

My Google Photo space is reaching its max, I think it said I only have 12% left...

If you’ve been reading this blog for some time you’ll know I'm not willing to put any money into this blog, so I've decided not to link albums to my travel posts from here on out (and will go back to delete other travel albums to free up more space)

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know.

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Sunday, we wanted to check out the basement arcades of Shinjuku that we learned about from a television show.

Godzilla Road

Kabukicho sign

New Kabukicho Tower

Underground area near Lumine. 

The show said these areas were cooler…not!

Lunch was at Curry House 11 Imasa

mini curry for Kat...360 yen (tax included) comes with hard boiled egg & sausage

Katsu curry for Satoshi 740 yen (tax included)

so cheap and delicious...in business for 60 years...we'll be back
 

Stood in line at Oiwake Dango for shaved ice...Uji Matcha Kintoki...1595 yen (tax included)

So good and so much azuki!

Daruma gatcha...500 yen

Daruma from the 47 prefectures of Japan

You aren't allowed to keep the daruma that rolls out, but receive a prize instead...the daruma that rolled out was Hyogo, we received this yuzu cider from Hyogo

We also bought some dango from Oiwake Dango...I tried their shoga (ginger) with nori...savory!

And I've tried the ume myoga in the past, this didn't disappoint.

The humidity and heat have been brutal, hopefully it will start to cool down soon.

Curry House 11 Imasa

Keio Mall B1F

Open daily 7:00-22:00

Cash only

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Satoshi had another tour coming up so he wanted to check out some areas, we started out at Nippori/Yanaka.

I've been wanting to try Nakanoya's tsukudani, so we purchased some.
 

100 grams of maguro (tuna) and 100 grams of asari (clams)..these are seasoned well, a little saltier than I am used to, still very tasty.

Love the packaging.

super huge bag in front of a bag shop in Yanaka.

cute cars near Hebimichi (snake street)

Matsuri items near Nezu Shrine

Tokyo People: matsuri preparations

Lunch was at a yakitori shop, Matsui

salad was included

yakitori don...the liver was a bit raw, but the other pieces, thigh, negima and tsukune were cooked well.

Satoshi chose their oyakodon

Portions seemed on the smaller side, still we're glad we got to try this place

Tokyo People: festival participants

Nezu Shrine

Back to Kagurazaka Saryo...mont blanc tart with sencha ice cream

Tried Fukuka, a sencha from Kyoto...the waitress didn't hear me say "iced" so I was served this "hot"...oh well...just waited for it to cool before drinking.

it was another blazing day and Satoshi got to see all that he wanted to.

Matsui

2-29-3 Nezu

Bunkyo, Tokyo

No hours or days closed given

this and that

Tokyo People: this guy whizzed past me on this motorized scooter thingy

found white rice but now need to find brown, 1st world problems
 

Tokyo People : be the energy you want to attract

“Kodoku no gourmet”(“Solitary Gourmet”) : season 1 episode 1, tsukune (chicken meatball) with piman (bell pepper).

In the episode he eats the bell pepper raw with the tsukune, but we ate it warmed up.

I like the crunch from the bell pepper and the tsukune had a shoyu based sauce.

The weather is still blazing and humid and the weather dude says Tokyo’s fall leaves should happen in December?! WT?!

Have a safe weekend

update

one pupa and two caterpillars.

I don't think caterpillars can "see" because they keep bothering the pupa

Looks like one caterpillar bit the pupa?

Black "blood"?!

Hoping the other two will change to pupae soon and the one that is already a pupa will be okay.

so

The pickled grapes were delicious.

Different.

After one hour soaking in the different brines (left is bread & butter brine, right is tomato suzuke brine), it didn't really have too much "pickled" flavor.

I skewered each grape with a yakitori stick and stuck them back into the brine.

The grapes kept their "crisp" texture and sweetness and the salty brine was a little more pronounced but didn't overpower the grape flavor.

Dunno that I would do this again, but I'm glad we tried this.

this and that

Godiva is collaborating with 31 (Baskin Robbins) and they came out with a chocolate hazelnut ice cream (hazelnut ice cream, chocolate ganache ribbon and chocolate cubes)...delicious, rich

the black molding on my phone case started to fall apart, we just finished paying off our phones so we don't plan to get a new one any time soon, so I went to look for a new case.

Unfortunately, my 11 pro is considered "old", so they don't make cases for them.

I was able to find one but they only had this pink color...1st world problems... 

Apparently "my friends" will only eat citrus leaves.

I tried kale ribs but they just let them wilt.

Whenever I give "my friends" leaves, you can hear them eating, kinda loudly.

If you're interested, check here.

oh and the bigger the caterpillar the bigger the poop...ha!

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Yesterday, Satoshi wanted to check out Aoyama, Omotesando and other areas for a tour he has coming up.

So we got out early so that we could have breakfast at Crisscross.

I've had this place bookmarked since I saw it back in 2018 when we were walking around after lunch.

Tokyo People: there was a lady with her dog standing in front of the ropes at the entrance, another woman standing in the shade and this guy (photo above)

I asked him if he was standing in line.

He had airpods in his ears, so he answered me super loudly..."huh"

Took one airpod out of his ear and I asked him again.

He answered me in Japanese, "what else would I be standing here for?!"

What a snark!

As we were waiting for them to open, 7 "haoles" came one by one to stand in line with snarky man (at this point there were at least 10 people standing behind me)

Snarky was there to get them a table...

At least there were enough tables for everyone behind us to be seated.

How cute was this bicycle parked in front of the restaurant.

Order by QR code...Satoshi and I both ordered the classic breakfast (toast, salad, bacon and eggs)...1950 yen (tax included)

This also came with soup...with the humidity, luckily it was visshyssoise (cold potato soup)

It was a nice place for breakfast despite the snarky one (we want to check out their lunch menu next)

After breakfast, we went to check out the areas that Satoshi wanted to see.

While he was doing that, I took photos of interesting buildings in the Aoyama Omotesando area.

Le:labo (fragrance)

Prada

Loewe

Near Harajuku, Satoshi went to check out more area and I went to the United Nations University to check out the Farmers Market

Roadster in front of United Nations University

There weren't too many vendors on this day, and it was so hot that I decided to check out other areas of Shibuya instead.

I walked around Miyashita Park while I was waiting for Satoshi to finish

This tunnel that runs under the Yamanote line is painted with vibrant blues...pretty

And then I stumbled on the free interactive Hello Kitty pop up at Tsutaya

So I checked it out....2 minute video here 

Satoshi met me in front of the Hello Kitty pop up and then we went back to Miyashita Park for lunch.

They have a food court, I chose the crunch wrap supreme from Taco Bell

Satoshi chose a poke bowl from Maguro market

It was just nice to sit in air conditioning...

After lunch, I went to buy groceries and headed home.

Satoshi went back out to check out more areas.

It was blazing, super humid but we got to do a lot.

Crisscross

5-7-28 Minamiaoyama

Minato, Tokyo

Open daily: 8:00-21:00