sounds of summer

Sunday I went to check out the furin (wind chimes) at Ikegami Honmonji.

Apparently there were 500 of them hanging from different areas on the temple grounds

But first, gotta climb up the stairs...

Was surprised to see cosmos...usually we see them in the Fall

There was still some hydrangea here and there

Here's a short video of the wind chimes...

The semi (cicada) were chirping too

Usually when the cicada start it means that our rainy season is over...

That hasn't been officially declared, so we'll have to wait to see what the weather dude says in the coming days.

The other night we had a major downpour...flooding all over Tokyo

Then the temps dropped 10 degrees...that was nice...

We're back to humid and hot...

There is a typhoon approaching...#5 (Nari) hope there won't be too much damage if any

Have a good week

kanno seimenjo

In our neighborhood, we have a noodle maker, Kanno Seimenjo.

In business since 1949, they supply over 3800 restaurants in Japan

Not only do they make ramen noodles to match different types of soups, but they also make some dim sum items like gyoza, shumai, spring rolls and nikuman (pork bao), oh and pasta too.

I had no idea they were very popular.

Over the years, the factory that makes the noodles was relocated from our neighborhood to other areas of Tokyo.

What’s left in our neighborhood is their office and distribution hub.

In the mornings, you can see their tiny trucks lined up in front picking up their orders of noodles to be distributed.

Will try to see what things they sell to the public so we can try.

eggplant gyoza

Tried a new (to me) recipe yesterday, eggplant gyoza

In the past we've tried recipes like this one and this one that substitute other things for the wrappers

This recipe uses eggplant as the wrapper

Eggplant Gyoza : Lettuce club 7/2025 : 2 servings (12 gyoza)

3 eggplant

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon oil to pan fry

Filling: 150 grams minced pork

1/3 of a bunch chives, minced

3T green onion, minced

1/2 clove garlic, grated

ginger, minced

1 teaspoon miso

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Dipping sauce: 2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)

1 tablespoon vinegar

After cutting off the top of the eggplant, slice it lengthwise to about 7 millimeter thick slices

Sprinkle  the eggplant slices with salt and let sit for about 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes, squeeze out as much water as possible

Mix the ingredients for the filling

Put 1 tablespoon of filling on 1/2 of the eggplant slice, fold and fry in a pan heated to medium with oil

Fry each side for 3 minutes

Use dipping sauce and enjoy!

NOTES: I think my slices might have been a little thicker than the 7 millimeters, so I used toothpicks to hold the gyoza shut

Then took the toothpicks off when the gyoza got limp enough to stay shut

I think maybe zapping the slices in the microwave might have been better, so that they would release more water and "fold" better

Especially the "ends" of the eggplant  which had more "skin" than flesh was the toughest to "fold"

In Japan they sell chives in bunches, about 1 or 2 inches in diameter...so I used 1/3 of that

I didn't have green onion, so I left it out

I ended up cooking it longer than the 3 minutes on each side

For the dipping sauce I used black vinegar and pepper.

We enjoyed this and gyoza snob approved this too.

I'll try this again, hopefully it will be easier to do the next time.

this and that

This lychee bar used Okinawan salt and 12% lychee fruit juice...this was really refreshing.
 

Replanted the blood orange...its root were coming out of the bottom of the pot and the leaves were turning yellowish!

Need to buy a little more soil to fill up the pot...

black sesame banana soy milk smoothie from Vie de France...I should've drank it at the bakery, but walked all the way home...so I added some ice when I got home

You can choose between milk or soy milk, I chose soy milk

Loved that this was sweet only from the banana.

Would get this again.

Akita ice cream...Chigama ice...Satoshi said this was like sherbet

We had this after seeing the movie "Kokuho", sat in the balmy shade and enjoyed this

I chose the chocolate banana...eat fast, this drips!

Yesterday I had my yearly physical, I usually try to make the appointment for the morning, but when Satoshi called for me they only had afternoon times, so I was hangry by the time I finished at 13:45

if I did eat something it was supposed to be a piece of bread with nothing on it or udon without any seasoning, no milk, eggs, sugar or fats and it had to be done by 7:00...

I decided to drink a cup of almond milk, for some protein...oh and I had to stop drinking water 2 hours before my appointment, but with the heat being as brutal as it is now, I stopped an hour before my appointment instead of the 2 hours...hoping my numbers will be okay...

This was my lunch...cold brew, pastrami broccoli sandwich and a doughnut at Vie de France

This pineapple soda bar had 30% pineapple juice, was delicious and refreshing!

guess what I found on my blood orange...guess I missed this one,  I wonder if that was what the pigeon was checking out...

I think I might cut the leaf when it turns to a chrysalis so we can see what kind of butterfly/moth it will be

This morning I checked and it had already turned into a chrysalis, and is positioned pretty well between the branch and the leaves, so Satoshi suggested we just let it do its thing outside...hope to see it when it turns into a butterfly/moth

yesterday was 7.10 = natto day...for our bakudan bowls, I had purchased this maguro with avocado from the supermarket, it came with this spicy sauce and egg sauce in those genius packets that you can find in Japan...the packet squeezes out both sauces out at the same time...

The spicy sauce seemed like a kochujang type and the egg sauce was a oozy egg type

Last night we had a major thunder lightning and rain storm...luckily Satoshi came home before it really poured

Some areas of Tokyo flooded with the krazy downpour

3rd peach of the summer...way better than the last time I posted about peaches.

How's this blingy beetle?! when I passed by in the morning, I took this photo, but on my way home, I noticed it got squooshed...boo!

Oh, I forgot to mention that at the beginning of July, the property management changed the name of our apartment building...as V suggested maybe the owner changed...anyway, what p.i.t.a.

Hope you have cooler weather than we do, have a safe weekend.

semi-rant

The other day, Satoshi and I went to see this movie "Kokuho".

Nowadays, we can reserve seats in advance, pay online and then when we go to the movie theatre, we can either print out our tickets or just scan the code on our phone at the entrance to the theatres.

Anyway, I wanna rant about the movie staff...they do not show people to their seats after the movie starts...

So, there were these 2 ladies, going up and down the stairs looking for their seats! with their cell phone "flashlights"...

And at one point, one of the ladies fell and hit the lady sitting a row above us and also partly hit Satoshi...

Grr...

Luckily, no one got hurt but we all missed a good 2 to 3 minutes of the movie...

The movie was good, I'm not a total fan of Kabuki but it was interesting and entertaining.

this one

This is the 2nd time seeing this pigeon on our lanai.

The 1st time was after it had rained and when I went out to check on my plants, I surprised it.

I had thought it had slept on the lanai to wait out the rain...

But, then I saw it this 2nd time...

not sure why it was out there on some of my planters...

hopefully eating bugs and not doing anything else...

king's hawaiian

About a month ago, I saw an ad for King's Hawaiian sweet rolls on my social media.

Apparently you can already find them at COSTCO (I’m amazed at how many COSTCO there are in Japan!)

This time, they were bringing them in to the upscale markets...

I was interested because they were selling packages with 4 rolls in it.

The other day, my neighborhood market brought them in for a Hawaii Fair...so luckily, I didn't have to venture out to the upscale market.

I must say, that these seem teeny.

I made smashburger style sliders and we had them for dinner the other night.

It got a little koge (burnt) because I toasted them a little too long.

Still, I'm glad we tried these and happy that they do have smaller sized packages in Japan (4 and 12 sized packs)

yamagata no 3 jam

we tried the jam this morning and we enjoyed it.

The fruit was a little tart and the jam also sweet.

I'm glad it was tasty and I'm glad I tried making this into a jam.

yamagata no 3 jam

I should have tried the apricot before turning it into jam

But, after seeing the recipe that was tucked in the package of apricots I took it as a sign that they were tart…

Here’s the recipe

500 grams of apricots

300 grams of sugar

After pitting the apricots I only had 450 grams (before pitting it was 480 grams), so I cut the sugar back by 50 grams (250 grams)

Since I had 1/2 a lemon, I squeezed it and added it to the fruit and sugar, even if the recipe didn’t call for it

The recipe had said to let it macerate overnight, but I have something to do today, so since I had started macerating the fruit early Friday morning, I made the jam in the afternoon.

I brought the mixture to a boil then turned it down to a simmer, and scraped the scum off 

I simmered the mixture for about 30 minutes.

And was left with about 300 milliliters of jam

We look forward to trying this soon.

I hope it will be tasty.

this and that

the first peach of the summer was junk...it smelled peachy but was picked too green and wasn’t sweet
 

late bloomer wisteria

shirokuma, we've had this in the past, it is like shaved ice with condensed milk and fruits

spotted one of these guys on my blood orange tree...threw it into my veggie peel garbage thingy and within seconds it was back on the counter...so I threw it into the trash bin afterwards...

more late bloomer wisteria

this frozen mousse from calva was rich and delicious

Satoshi got this tea from a new co-worker that was working in China.

The tea is an oolong base and is flavored with grape

I don't particularly care for the grape smell, it is kinda sickly sweet smelling like grape candy

guess what was inside with the apricots....this recipe for jam

I have the fruit macerating and will be making the jam later today, will keep you posted

You may or may not have heard about the manga that is predicting a major disaster in Japan on July 5th

This prediction, paired with the many earthquakes happening near the Tokara Islands, a group of twelve islands between Yakushima and Amami Oshima have given lots of tourists reason to rethink their visit to Japan during this time.

I feel so bad for those living on those islands, they have had over 1000 earthquakes since June 21st!

With so much uncertainty these days, I hope you have a safe weekend.

yamagata no 3

Was happy to find fresh apricots at the supermarket.

This particular variety is called Yamagata No (number) 3 and was grown in Nagano.

I hope these are sweet, though I did read online that they may also be sour/tart and better made into a jam rather than eating them fresh...

finally

They are finally finished building the apartment next door...

Looks like I'll get back my sunrise view.

The sun rises a little too early during this time of year but I look forward to checking out the sunrises later on this year

mosquito magnet

I don't know about you, but I'm a mosquito magnet

I was using the spray on the left and the one time I missed an area, I got bit

Another thing kinda junk about this spray is that it has powder in it, so sometimes I have this white line, going down my arm, leg...

And then I started thinking about the environment, that maybe I shouldn't use too many aerosols...

So after that can was used up, I bought the spray on the right

The junk thing about this spray though is that you have to "spread" the sprayed liquid out, to cover areas...I didn't know this and got bit in areas that the spray didn't hit...boo!

So, after this bottle gets used up, I'm either gonna go back to the one on the left, or find a different aerosol spray without powder.

game changer

Found this at the supermarket and have been using it whenever I make musubi with kombu in it.

Fujikko-ni is part of the Fujikko group.

This is their kombu for onigiri/omusubi.

Instead of the long strips of kombu tsukudani, the kombu is chopped up.

I used to buy their sesame kombu and shiso kombu but whenever I put these into musubi, a long piece of kombu would come out and I would hardly have any filling left…boo! 

If you find this where you are and try this let me know what you think

docomo hikari

So...we got new routers for wifi from the reno guys...

I thought we could return our old router to Docomo...

We made an appointment with Docomo, to tell them to cancel our Docomo wifi...which is called Docomo Hikari

I dismantled the router, put it back in its box and carried it to our appointment

The guy at Docomo, was the same condescending guy as when Satoshi bought his phone..sigh

He told us, he cannot cancel our wifi, we would need to call the Service center...and he gave us their number.

So we went home and tried to call the Service center with our landline...but our phone was dead

(After dismantling the router, I had plugged the phone into that dark beige area in the photo)

Panicking.. I put the router back together, plugging the phone into that tiny slot to the bottom left that is marked with the kanji "hikari"

Doing all of this, we were able to call using our landline...whew!

When we finally got in touch with the Service Center, the woman on the other side kindly explained that Docomo Hikari is not only wifi but also telephone lines

Our landline and wifi was a fiber optic type...

She then explained that if we cancelled and only wanted phone line, we would have to have them come in to set up an "analog" style phone line (the dark beige area) and our phone number would change...sigh

Since we didn't want to have to change our phone number, we decided to just keep the fiber optic line...though if and when we need to move, we'll definitely get rid of it.

We learned a lot from this experience...small kine stressful, but grateful it all worked out. 

this and that

1st time trying spray on sunscreen, love it!

Remember the crow's nest? and that I called the electric company to tell them about it?

Well, there was a sign on the pole that the nest is on...it says that the electric company will take care of the nest after the crows leave and since they make their nests from hangers, to watch out for falling objects

neko no mimi...in Japanese the crust of bread is called "pan no mimi" (literally ears of bread)...found this at the shop that sells the neko shokupan...150 yen (plus tax)

Apparently was only supposed to have 4 slices but my package had 5...whoo!

Only the top slice was "fancy" the others were plain flavored

Still, even if it was a thin slice it was just enough for toast in the morning.

1st time trying the acai smoothie at 7-eleven...delicious

Between Thursday and next Thursday, the reno guys will go to everyone's apartment to install wifi routers.

Apparently it will be included in our rent/maintenance fees...both will go up a little when we renew our contracts...

We were lucky they installed our router on Thursday, the first day.

no rain no rainbow...so so humid though

our dehumidifier has been on all day and all night...

They are saying that rainy season may be over for Tokyo soon?! so fast! which only leaves us with the krazy heat for the coming months...sigh

Hope you are keeping cool where you are.

adapted

Since I had most of the ingredients, I rried Jalna's sister, Dd's Ume Sesame Seed Dressing.

Dd's Ume Sesame Seed Dressing

1-2 Tablespoons umeboshi paste, 4 umeboshi seeds, removed** and chopped into a paste

1 Tablespoon water**

6 tablespoons white sesame seeds

6 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon agave nectar

2 teaspoons sesame seed oil

2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated

1.5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Remove umeboshi from seeds, chop into a paste. Set aside. 

Place umeboshi seeds in a small mixing bowl along with water. 

Rub seeds in water to remove any excess paste. Reserve.

In a small skillet over low heat toast sesame seeds. 

When seeds begin to pop, immediately remove from heat. 

Grind toasted sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle until a fine powder forms. 

Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Remove umeboshi seeds from water. 

Add that water and remaining ingredients into bowl and whisk vigorously to bring to desired consistency.

Optional to combine all ingredients into a food processor and puree to desired consistency

Makes approximately 1.5 cups

NOTES: been trying to use the ume that I have in my freezer from when I made umeshu

Since my ume isn't salty and probably not as sour as umeboshi, I added a pinch of salt and also used ume vinegar instead of rice wine vinegar

Instead of agave, I used honey

We enjoyed this on poached chicken salad...it was more sesame than ume but there is a little tangy-ness every so often...it might be because I didn't use umeboshi...

I'll try the other ume dressing recipe Jalna posted and re-try this one using umeboshi after we finish this batch.

Thanks for sharing Jalna!

super cheap eats

I don’t know about you but whenever I see a discount sticker on stuff, I almost always buy it...

like this bento from Origin, it had a 30% off sticker on it.

2 pieces of fried fish, 1 chikuwa tempura, a little kinpira and 16 grain rice with nori and katsuobushi

360 yen - 30% plus 8% tax...272 yen total.

I wished they had given a little more kinpira but cannot grumble too much, this was super cheap eats!

This bento would be too small for Satoshi but it was the right size for me