this and that

things done/eaten in 2025, that missed being blogged about

we tried kanno seimen's jumbo shumai is no joke, they are huge!

about the size of a golf ball...5 for 330 yen (tax included)

The filling is seasoned well, so no need to add shoyu when eating

we ate ours with black vinegar and satoshi also added karashi (mustard) to his 

we checked out the marugame seimen under the keikyu kamata station...super teeny in comparison to the one we go to in Kawasaki, but the line moves rather quickly

I had the bukkake udon with toriten (chicken tempura), chikuwa with nori and their chocolate udonuts..

I thought I took a photo of this when I was eating one of the udonuts, but sadly I did not...these were super chocolatey...love!

we still need to try the shop near our shopping arcade, hope to do that soon

tried the dubai style chocolate pistachio ice cream from 7-eleven

it was good, the crispy part was smooshed wafers...would get it again

love this tree, always so pretty with all its blooming camellia

we received these dried kaki from V, love the brand name noto kakinosuke

thank you V

the saltiest & toughest kalbi and brisket from matsuya…it made the stuff in the miso soup seem like it had no flavor!

there was ozoni on New Year's morning

and osechi that evening...everything is so krazy expensive at this time of year...next year I'm gonna look for bento with osechi stuff instead

kalbi don done relatively right at yoshinoya...the meat still had lots of tendons, but at least the salt was way lower than the one at matsuya

and proof that global warming is real...ume is already starting to bloom

Hope 2026 got off to a nice start for you