thank you

(photo taken in october)

What a year!

Thankful for everything (good and bad)

Hoping 2026 will be healthy, happy with more travels, new connections and reconnections for everyone

Be well, be kind

10 photos

tokushima shine muscat jam/compote

1st time making jam/compote with shine muscat it was a nice way to use some of the shine muscat we received from M!

inari eggplant

was a delicious experience once I could get the aburaage open to stuff

chikin mu

super easy recipe and good way to use daikon

eggplant gyoza

nice way to make "gyoza" without wrappers

Yamagata no3 Jam

1st time using fresh apricots

Adapted Dd's dressing

still need to try the other ume dressing recipe Jalna posted :)

Bird Bar

finally found a recipe similar to down to earth's bird bar!

Stuffed Tomato

not really a recipe but tasty

Saborecipe

nice way to kinda "play hooky" from cooking

Ashikaga Flower Park

bucket list item checked! what a great adventure.

I only had 9 kitchen experiences, so I added one of our favorite travel adventures.

We started 10 photos back in 2008 as part of a meme, nowadays I use this as a way to look back at the year

books 2025

Read 3 books this year 

"Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials" by Ovidia Yu

"Geisha, a Life" by Mineko Iwasaki

"Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge" by Ovidia Yu

I have a couple more books on my shelf but they are huge books, so not very transportable

Still, hope to read more in 2026

this and that

Lanikai Juice is opening up in the shopping mall that we have nearby.

Not too sure January 7th will be "balmy" enough for smoothies...hope they'll survive until the weather warms up.
 

so orange

earlier I thought that Marugame Udon would open in Januray or February in our shopping arcade, but they opened the other week.

this was the line on the 2nd day AND they just gave us some coupons in the mail, so hope to check them out soon

snacks found at daiso...chocolate covered sunflower seeds and covered peanuts

japanese style fish & chips...wakasagi karaage (fried smelt) and fried potato with salt and aonori

literally "potato chips that want to become cheese"...ono!

biang biang noodle flavored chips...mouth.on.fire. but I would get this one again

some of the apples we received from A, had these unusual "bumps"

not too sure what they were but I cut them off before eating

Hope Santa brought all that you wished for.

Have a safe weekend.

stollen-ing

Tried the different stollen this morning

Romi-Unie lots of butter, marzipan, some fruits, spices are super light almost non-existent

Roca Bake cinnamon kinda overpowers everything, but there is a large chestnut in the middle, more bread like 

Think lots of nuts, dried fruits and spices

I'm glad we got to try these.

Each are different, each are delicious

takaya marche

Takaya Marche is a shop in Ashiya, Hyogo

My host sister recently sent us their salt sable (cookies), financiers and caneles for Christmas

She said the salt sables are really popular.

We appreciate her kindness and look forward to enjoying these during the nenmatsu nenshi (year end and beginning of the new year)

Thank you T!

Takaya Marche

5-26 Funato-cho

Ashiya, Hyogo

Closed: Sundays & Mondays

Hours: 10:00-18:00

this and that

lately my oatmeal has 1/4 apple, dried cherries, chocolate chips, kinako and cinnamon
 

Himmel’s krapfen. I think this is my first time trying it. The doughnut is supposed to be hollow so that you can fill it with jam or chocolate

Himmel has a plain version and I tried their cinnamon version but there is no filling in either one. 

There are some raisins in the dough, so airy! love!

Satoshi saw Dr Yellow, I did too but never got a photo of it

Satoshi said the train was leaving the station so everyone was trying to get a photo, which is why he had someone’s elbow in his shot

yangnyeom chicken from origin bento...538 yen (tax included)

I like this version better than omma's.  

The chicken is fried and is still quite crisp even with the spicy sauce on it.

We finally saw "Perfect Days" and loved this movie

If you remember we went to check out all the public toilets that were in the movie...here, here & here

After seeing the movie, I realized that not all the toilets were in the movie.

tried the honey, nut and butter streusel kuchen from Himmel.  

Since I didn’t eat it right away, I froze it then reheated it, the texture wasn't too good after doing that

Will try it again without freezing...hoping it will be tasty 

It was the memorial day of my Grandma's passing yesterday...bought her some chrysanthemums...miss you Gma!

Tokyo has been cold, though the next couple of days are supposed to be warm...we need rain, it’s so dry here

Have a safe weekend!

romi-unie

When I learned that Romi-Unie would be selling stollen, I reserved one for us to try

Unlike most stollen we have had in the past, this one is kugelhopf style (looks like bundt shape)

This one is quite heavy!

We look forward to trying this one too in the coming days.

roca bake

When I saw Roca Bake’s stollen box, I thought it was a place in Osaka that I had been wanting to try, so I ordered it...

Well, it wasn’t, it turned out to be a tiny bakery in Hakodate Hokkaido that has been around for 19 years...boy was I surprised!

The box was supposed to arrive on Monday, but because of the snow in Hokkaido, it arrived today

Love the packaging!

"when it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile"

mini chocolate chestnut stollen (top left),  orange tea cookies (top right), slices of lemon poundcake and caramel nuts poundcake (bottom right), financier (bottom left)

close up of lemon poundcake and caramel nuts poundcake

cute magnet

"bread is better than the songs of birds"

I'm glad I ordered this and look forward sharing these with Satoshi in the coming days.

Roca 

3-6-20 Tomioka-cho

Hakodate, Hokkaido

*online sales only

reconnect

Reconnected with Omma Foods’ yangnyeom chicken

This bento was 580 yen (tax included) 

The price has gone up a little since the last time I posted about it on the blog

I think this time the chicken was just cooked instead of deep frying then coated with the sauce

I prefer K-sozai’s version but since they are no longer in business, this version will have to do

The sides of the bento were hijiki & I think spinach

I'll try to walk out this way more often while the weather is cooler

this and that

Sunday, Satoshi went to the 100th anniversary of the Tokyo Big 6's baseball clubs (Keio, Meiji, Hosei, Tokyo, Waseda and Rikkyo).

Waseda, Meiji and Keio started back in 1914.

I think 1925 was the year that Tokyo University joined in.

He said there were so many people even people from the NPB, Japan's pro baseball.

He sent me some photos of their cute desserts, I thought this one was the cutest. 

You may have heard that on Monday, Aomori had a big earthquake that triggered a tsunami watch.

The alarm on my phone counts down until the earthquake is about to affect the area you are at, it was kinda scary to see the area widen out from Hokkaido

Some people in Tokyo actually felt it but I didn't.

Hoping everyone can get back to their normal routines soon. 

Tokyo People: parking patrol

This granola that V's friend, M gave me...so ono! love that it has lots of nuts & coconut in it

all cinnamon rolls should have puff pastry around it...

There is talk that there might be sleet this weekend...brr

Have a safe weekend.

grateful

Sometime during the ending part of November, friend Mayumi sent me several photos of her persimmon drying project.

She said she was drying 200 of them!

Today, she sent me 25 of them!

I put most of these into the freezer...and will eat some in the the coming days!

Thank you Mayumi! 

this and that

belated Thanksgiving...poached chicken brest with cranberry chutney, wilted spinach with lemon dressing, roasted kabocha, maitake sauteed in butter and takoyaki sauce and really old purple cabbage pickles

dubai style chocolate pie from Vie de France...chocolate puff pastry filled with pistachio cream and crunchies...too sweet

who knew Toyota made sewing machines?! (seen near Think) if I understood the article correctly, they were apparently selling them until 2019?!

Tokyo University of Art...I think it might be a graduating student's project.

There were two other objet next to this one, but this one had the biggest impact on me

got the girls mammo'd....our city pays for the screening on even numbered birthdays (I think), so I had to pay 500 yen (very cheap)

recently been seeing this tuk tuk around our area

been following overall arts for some time now and noticed that they did a mural in a shopping arcade near the Keikyu Kamata station

when you don't lable the stuff you throw into the freezer, you reheat a chicken meatball instead of what you thought was a little ball of rice...ha!

hope you have a good week!