25 C

Are you a mosquito magnet?

Apparently I am

I recently learned that the temperature that mosquitos start to look for me is 25C (77F)

Which means they apparently don't during the major heat of summer here...

good to know...

Since the temps have dropped a bit, I've started to spray myself with repellent...

Hoping I will stay bite free...

this and that

reconnected with the MOS yakiniku rice burger...so teeny! and the meat had so much stringy fat...meh!

FYI they don't sell the kinds of magazines that I like to read at the HNL airport anymore, found this out the trip before...this issue had many articles on Hawaii food culture.

Maiko's caramel nut tarte was delicious! caramel, chocolate, nuts...

fig tarte was delicious too. this one used violette de sollies variety...love the red insides!

dean and deluca's fig and kyoho (grape) muffin...there was one huge grape in the middle...meh

would be better to leave out the grape...loved the fig part, reminded me of fig newtons

zucchini carrot muffin from dean and deluca...had more nuts than either zucchini and carrots...the glaze was citrusy

tried cooking kanno's gyoza straight out of the freezer but I think my pan might have been too hot...

thought this salaryman's invention to hold his suit jacket was genius..and way better than just having to carrying it on his arm

drip coffee holder

sometimes these drip filters do not fit directly on the rim of mugs.

I've often used the plastic cone style filter to stretch the drip filter over but most times the width is too large and the "legs" of the drip filter cannot "stretch" far enough to "hang onto" the filter with the weight of the heavy saturated coffee grains

Anyway, I found this gadget at the 100 yen store that is adjustable 

You place it over the rim of your mug and then just place the drip filter on top

I think it works best on the type of mug on the left rather than the American type mug on the right.

p.s. these coffees that we got in Iwate were delicious

1st world problems

I would say that customer service in Japan is pretty good except when it comes to banking or in this case credit cards

The other day Satoshi updated his bank passbook (yup Japan still has these) and noticed a charge from a credit card that he doesn’t use

He wanted to call them to ask about the charge but their hours were only until 17:00 on weekdays! 

and they aren’t open on weekends 

of course there was a holiday the other day too

so Wednesday Satoshi came home early so he could call this company

well if you wanted to actually speak to someone the wait was over 30 minutes on hold!

you could request for them to call you back but it wouldn’t be on the same day!

Since satoshi doesn’t have much patience these days, Kat sat near the phone for 38 minutes and waited for someone to answer 

it turned out that the charge was his annual fee for the credit card 

it was discounted because he now uses online statements

whew it wasn’t a fraud charge 

but! less than a minute after hanging up with this company they sent him an online survey for feedback on their service!

I told him he should tell them that their operating hours and wait times are too inconvenient

1st world problems…

atsugari vs samugari

Some people here when the calendar changes to September, they automatically start wearing long sleeves and shoes…

me, I’m still in slippers and using my secret weapon

In Japanese they call people “atsugari” those that cannot tolerate heat…the opposite is “samugari” which is cannot tolerate cold

me I'm atsugari while Satoshi is samugari...

We're supposed to have krazy rains again today...hopefully there won't be any damage

are you atsugari or samugari?!

aloe

Yesterday was excited to notice a nub coming out at the bottom of aloe

and one from the center

will need to remember to bring aloe indoors this winter...
 

kaki

Even if the weather is saying it is still Summer, the foods that we now see in the markets are saying it is Autumn.

I had bought these kaki (persimmon) that were grown in Nara about a week ago.

Since we received grapes from my host mom we ate those first, and we finally got to eat these kaki over the weekend

They were on the smaller size but perfectly ripe and juicy.

I'm glad we tried these and look forward to getting more Autumn fruits in the coming days.

kanno seimenjo

I talked about Kanno Seimenjo before here.

We tried the gyoza recently...20 pieces for 650 yen (tax included)

They come frozen, my peeve is the l-o-n-g plastic container they are in

I cut the tray and plastic package in half then put it into a ziploc so that I could freeze the other 10 pieces

These do not come with instructions on how to fry them up so I adlibbed

I defrosted them in the refrig before cooking, but would leave them frozen until cooking so that it doesn't stick to the plastic tray

I heated some oil in a pan then put down my gyoza and then added some water for it to steam at the end...cooking it for a total of 7 minutes

The gyoza snob approved these...I think it was because the wrappers are on the thin side (most gyoza here in Kanto have thicker wrappers)

The filling has the right amount of garlic in them.

I ate mine with black vinegar and pepper.

I did see a "stamina" version in their freezer, which usually means they have more garlic in them, these looked a little larger, we will try these another time.

We also tried the nikuman...260 yen (tax included)

These are HUGE!

barely fit in my pot with my steamer basket

these are well seasoned and the ratio of bread to filling is just right

The package had instructions on how to heat these up

BUT, I didn't know if their instructions were for the frozen version or thawed out version

I had thawed out our nikuman in the refrigerator the night before

So instead of their 15-20 minutes in the steamer instructions, I just did 15 minutes since it takes the water about 5 minutes to come to a boil on my stove, I let it steam with the boiling water for about 5 minutes, then I turned off the heat and let it sit in the steam for another 5

They also had instructions if you wanted to zap them but most times these types of foods get really hard after zapping so I went the steaming route...

Satoshi had his with karashi mustard

We will get these again.

I'm glad we tried these and look forward to trying their noodles (ramen & pasta) this winter...

this and that

the temps have kinda dropped but the humidity hasn't 

found this furry one trying to keep cool...
 

have you ever seen deer pooping? when we were in Nara, it was my first time seeing this...balls of poop just coming out of its butt like water...

seeing this bread kinda reminded me of this...sorry if you were eating...ha!

toyota sport 800

morris minor

blood moon eclipse

beautiful sunrises...

we are all getting tired of this heat...

Yesterday, got my jasmine lemon tea fix from Tokyo Doujiang

And fan tuan fix

and peanut bun fix...their prices have gone up and they are more popular than ever, but they are under staffed so be prepared to wait

At about 15:00-ish we had a "guerilla" storm...was rainy with thunder and lightning for an hour non-stop

Since we live between Kawasaki (Kanagawa) and Ikegami (Tokyo) we get both alerts...so loud! scared me twice!

Luckily Satoshi was able to get home without having to wait for the trains, many had stopped service due to flooding!

It's the start of a 3-day weekend, have a safe one!

ootoya

I really like the black vinegar sauce that is on the fried fish and fried chicken at Ootoya

It's been awhile since we've eaten there and so the other day we went for lunch and they had a pork and tsukune combination with the black vinegar sauce.

I've never "counted" how many pieces of "meat" were in my serving until this visit...

There were only 2 pieces of pork and 2 pieces of tsukune (oh and if you are interested, there are also 2 of each veggie)

I was disappointed because one piece of pork was really teeny and the other piece was really fatty and hard.as.rock.

Will go back to ordering the fried fish version...hopefully I'll receive 4 normal sized pieces...

chikin mu

Had bought half a daikon and noticed one end turning brown so I tried making chikin mu

Found a recipe on this blog and it seemed really easy, so I cut up the daikon and mixed the brine.

We tried it with dinner the other night and Satoshi said he liked it.

I think it could be a tad sweeter, but will taste it again because it hasn't soaked overnight.

Chikin Mu from Stellan Spice

1/2 pound daikon

1.5 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1/3 cup water

Peel the daikon

Cut into discs that are between 1/2 inch to 1 inch depending on your preference. I usually cut them about 3/4 of an inch

Cut the discs into cubes

Combine sugar, salt, white vinegar and water until dissolved then add daikon and shake or mix until fully submerged in the pickling liquid

Store in the refrigerator for 1 day before eating

This will stay good for up to 2 weeks

NOTES:  easy and tasty

I didn't have white sugar nor white vinegar and used what I had in my pantry (brown sugar and rice vinegar)

It's a good way to use up daikon and is easy to put together

I would definitely make this again.

thank you

We received a boxful of grapes from my host mom.

Pione (dark purple) and Shine Muscat (light green)

Thankful for her kindness.

We'll be enjoying this in the coming days.
 

this and that

Sorry it’s been quiet here I caught some kind of bug

I had an off and on fever, a cough, runny nose

I figure it was going from hot to cold places, and staying in wet perspiry clothing over and over

And it didn’t help that the "other person" in the apartment started coughing before I did…ahem

here's a hodge podge of stuff not blogged about from August-ish

castella ice cream sandwiches which I had seen on Matsuko’s show...delicious! 

they also have a matcha version that I saw at the market and when I looked online they had many other flavors too

citrus coffee from Family Mart reminded me of espresso tonic but without the fizz...love!

when you have jet lag (early August), you can see beautiful sunrises...

origami hydrangea...so pretty!

sad my yangnyeom chicken & chickin mu fix place went out of business (photo from a previous visit)

Latch bolt is fixed! the guy that fixed it wasn't too sure if it was because the bolt was dirty or because when they put this new lock into our door it didn't really fit...anyway it is fixed and he said he will tell our building management that if it happens again, that they should replace our locks. 

Tokyo furry people...love seeing the furry ones riding around in the baskets of bicycles...

Got this gadget to open up the back of my teeny clocks so that I can change the batteries

Not sure what the big yellow one is for, but I did use the teeny screwdriver and the mallet (which I already had)...

I'm pretty sure the teeny screwdriver is similar if not the same as the one I have for eye glasses...

The new batteries were "special" so they don't sell them at convenience stores or at the 100 yen shops, luckily I found them at a DIY shop and they cost about 600 yen plus tax each!...at least now I know I can change these.

Tried this new (to me) ice cream from Godiva...so ono!

Hard chocolate top, pistachio and chocolate ice cream underneath.

Would get this one again.

Last Thursday, we had our ward's fireworks show.

This year it was held a little later because our ward had a hard time getting security guards during O-bon.

I have a short video here if you are interested

Broken English spoken perfectly here...

the sky the other night

typhoon 15 (peipah) is approaching today, stay safe

hope you are all doing well

suehiro

Been wanting to try Suehiro's ice manju after seeing it on several television shows

This shop is teeny and these ice manju are made by a couple

Most of the locals in Mie prefecture know of these and when it was shown on a television show they had to try to keep up with orders

There was even talk about closing up shop because they just couldn't keep up with the orders

These are made from scratch, the azuki is boiled and sweetened 

Then they make the milk layer and put these together to freeze

Since 1950 they've been making this version...unique shape too!

Nowadays they have other flavors...matcha, dainagon (a type of premium azuki), ichigo (strawberry) and kokuto (black sugar)

The set I purchased had 4 of the 5 flavors x 2...1800 yen (tax included) plus shipping

The website said that the earliest I would be able to receive my order was September 1st.

Knowing that we wouldn't be home on Friday and Saturday, I thought it would be okay to order this...

Well, guess when the delivery guy showed up?! on Friday (August 29) and tried again on Saturday (August 30)

There was even a phone call from the shop saying that he had sent out my order...and a phone call from the delivery people 

When we got back late Saturday night, I scheduled re-delivery for Sunday

Take them out 10 minutes before eating and enjoy!

The original is delicious, not too sweet and that whole milk layer has azuki in it!

I'm glad we tried this and look forward to trying the other flavors.