we’re 20

so much has happened in 20 years

some bad

mostly good

lots of travels

lots of delicious 

if you’ve been with us from the beginning…thank you

or joined us mid-way…thank you

with so much uncertainty these days 

not sure how long our tiny blog will continue but we are glad you are here with us

be well 

be kind

 

25

Grateful for all the adventures, looking forward to the new ones. 

Appreciate you always putting up with me.

Love you

we’re 19

Can you believe it?

This blog is in its last year as a “teen”

Who would’ve thought this blog would still be going

Most bloggers, that are still my friends on social media have stopped blogging, miss those days!

Not sure how much longer this blog will continue, but I’m glad you are reading and coming along on our adventures.

Thanks for today!

24 years

(the sunset on Thursday night, with Mount Fuji silhouette)

thanks for always putting up with me

love you

23 years

So many things have happened over that amount of time.

Good and bad.

Thankful that Satoshi still puts up with me.

Love you.

this and that

Pierre Herme has once again teamed up with 7-eleven and came out with a chocolate eclair.

There is a thick chocolate layer almost like a chocolate bar on the bottom of the eclair and an airy whipped chocolate layer on top.

Bummer it got squished on the way home, but it was so good!

I should have taken a photo of Satoshi's thermos before doing this because it was so dirty!

I found this bubbling cleanser at the DIY store and boy! did it get super clean...I should’ve taken an after photo too...

Saw this ad on the BBC one morning urging people to stay at home...pretty straight forward, yeah?!

Today is our 21st anniversary unfortunately the pandemic is STILL around, so we are planning to celebrate at home.

Last year, I wrote that we were supposed to attend a wedding but it was cancelled due to the virus.

Well, they had planned to have it this weekend, but because of the recent state of emergency they had to cancel again...

Anyway, when this is all over, I am looking forward to travel, to meeting up with friends and to eat in a restaurant (so I don’t have to cook or wash the dishes!)

Have a safe weekend.

7 years

7 years...wondering what you would say about this pandemic.

Family friend, D, mentioned yesterday that this was the first summer I wasn't going to be in Hawaii...

I thought about it and it is the 1st time in the 19 years that I have been living in Japan that I won't be going to Hawaii...

Wear a mask, social distance and hopefully we can all meet up in person soon.

Miss you Mom.

happy anniversary

Today is our 20th! so fast...

Thankful for Satoshi always putting up with me through the good and not so good times.

Love you.

(peonies at Tsuruoka Hachimangu, Kamakura)

thank you

It's our 19th anniversary today...thankful for Satoshi always putting up with me.

Love you!

so...

we got snow!

It was off and on throughout the day.

Satoshi kept shuddering as he looked out the window.

I'm glad we bought enough groceries so we didn't have to venture outdoors.

If you'd like to see two videos I shot, click here and here.

It was also our anniversary yesterday.

17 years...seems long yet short.

I am thankful for Satoshi always putting up with me...Love you always.

Dinner was beef rolls with japanese tartar sauce, watercress daikon salad and a glass of wine.

This morning we had some flurries, and it was also off and on, even as I typed this

Have a good week everyone.

anniversary

Friday was our anniversary. We didn't do anything special, but did celebrate with some cakes from Patisserie Hare.

Marron Cognac for Satoshi (left) and espresso for me (right). Funny thing when I told Satoshi that there was cognac in there, he thought I meant konnyaku (devil's tongue jelly).

Anyway, I really enjoyed my cake..it was like tiramisu with lots of caramelized nuts on the outside.

Satoshi gave me this funky carnation as well as some tulips. (thank you!)

Saturday night, we headed back to Menu for dinner.

It started with their antipasto plate...assortment of cold items, highlighted by the tiny choux (cream puff outside) filled with camembert cheese and pumpkin purée

daikon soup

Duck pastrami pepperoncino..spicy but really flavorful.

Yuzu Kosho pasta...super creamy, cheesy with slices of yuzu and pepper.

Oomugi (barley) Pork with a red wine reduction, grainy mustard & mushroom purée. Also there was a little risotto underneath.

The pork was so tender. We enjoyed it most with the wine reduction.

Dessert was a soy milk fruit gratin. The top was brûléed and there was bananas, blueberries and a little orange in there.

Another great meal here and under 8000 yen (tax included) with drinks.

Another great anniversary...thank you Satoshi for putting up with me everyday...love you!

15 years

(photo taken at Keukenhof Gardens on our honeymoon) 15 years together...

Thank you for always being there during the good times and the not-so good times.

Looking forward to many more adventures together.

Love you!

happy anniversary

I only know 1 other couple in my family that celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and that was my maternal grandparents (many moons ago)...

Here's to my Mom and Dad celebrating their 50th today.

Thanks for bringing me into this world and shaping me into who I am today.

Love you guys!

belated anniversary

Our wedding anniversary was on Sunday, but the places that Satoshi had chosen to have dinner at weren't in operation on that day.

So we just had a pupu party at home.

Then, I had an appointment in Umeda on Wednesday, so we met afterwards at Daimaru for dinner.

Satoshi chose Grill & Bar Sun, a restaurant run by Suntory, the beverage maker.

We started with some salmon tartar, the taste really reminded me of lomi-lomi salmon.

If you look carefully at the dish, that "chip" looking thing on top is actually a fried piece of salmon skin.

We also tried the stuffed cabbage made with chirimen cabbage. From the looks of it, I think chirimen cabbage is savoy cabbage.

This was delicious. The broth was a consomme type.

Next up, a whole tomato, some mozzarella and basil roasted in a tiny pot then served with an anchovy cream sauce.

Mash up the tomato and pour the sauce over the whole thing, then eat it with these tomato cheese toasts. So good!

A little rant: Japan serves these "mopping-up" type of dishes with several slices of toast. Most times when you ask for more, they charge you...

So, we asked for more toasts, we got it but had to pay more for it, sigh!

The dish we had been looking forward to trying...a whole onion beef stew.

In Japan, beef stew is demi-glace based. (In Hawaii, it is tomato based.)

Inside of a whole onion, is beef, tender beef.

When you cut the onion open, you'll see just how much beef is in there.

Very impressive dish, no wonder the chef won some kind of award for it.

Satoshi was still hungry so he ordered the vegetable sushi: (back row) asparagus, eringi, tomato, (front row) pickled ginger, zucchini and avocado. He enjoyed these.

I liked the dish it was served in. The top plate can be removed and ice can be placed underneath, this is to keep the food cool while not getting it wet.

To finish, we shared this special eclair. A l-o-n-g eclair filled with rich custard and a slice of strawberry. Delicious.

With 3 beers and a glass of red wine our bill came out to 8380 yen. A little pricey, but the food was delicious and it was a nice way to celebrate our anniversary.

Grill & Bar Sun
Daimaru Umeda 14F
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.4796.7330
Hours: 11:00-23:00, Closed when Daimaru is

p.s. It's Friday, I hope you have a great weekend!

icy foodie anniversary

Saturday was our 11th wedding anniversary. The weekend was forecasted for snow.

We decided to spend it in Kyoto then go to visit MIL on Sunday.

For dinner, we tried to get into Moritaya, a great place for sukiyaki, but they had a long waiting list.

So, instead we went a couple of doors down to Tsukiji Sushi Kiyo. It wasn't like actually being at Tsukiji, but delicious all the same.

After dinner we got some Japanese sweets from Sentaro located on the food floor in Isetan.

The hotel we stayed at, Dormy Inn, offers a "midnight snack" (actually from 20:30-22:30)...ramen, and Satoshi had a bowl.

The hotel also offers a natural hot spring bath, the areas are separated for men and women, it was a nice way to unwind after all that food.

The next morning, we woke to the snow coming down and the streets all white.

The breakfast buffet at Dormy Inn was mostly Japanese foods, though they did have some Western types of foods.

Though if you are staying in Kyoto, I would recommend Japanese food because they have some of the best locally grown veggies.

The top left photo is my tray and the bottom right is Satoshi's (he also went back 3 times!...I think his wife doesn't feed him enough at home...)

They also served zenzai...though it was toward the end of the buffet time and there was mostly shiratama(rice flour dumplings) left.

After checking out, we went to visit MIL, she caught us up with her week and had her lunch.

We were relieved to hear that her rehab is going well.

After visiting with her, we headed back to Shijo and had lunch at Tohkasaikan.

We've passed this building many many times and often wondered what kind of food they offer.

The building was built in 1921 and since Kyoto wasn't bombed during WWII, the restaurant started their business in 1946.

We ordered lettuce wraps, sweet sour pork, and shrimp in tomato sauce.

Everything was delicious.

We also ordered their fried gyoza. This was bad.

The skins were so gummy and thick, it was hard to finish 8 of them.

We also ordered their fried rice.

We actually had wanted some noodles in soup, but we were surprised they didn't have any noodles on their menu and wondered if maybe Beijing-style Chinese restaurants do not serve noodles??

Anyway, we are glad we tried them, for the most part, their food was good and the atmosphere is like stepping back in time, though we probably won't be back.

We are interested in trying some of the other Dormy Inns located around Japan to see if their breakfast and bath are just as spectacular.

It was a nice weekend, I got my snow, we visited with MIL and were able to celebrate our anniversary.

I hope your weekend was just as nice.

Tsukiji Sushi Kiyo
JR Isetan Kyoto 11F
Phone: 075.352.6223

Dormy Inn Kyoto Station
558-8 Higashi-shiokoji-cho
Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto
Phone: 075.371.5489

Tohkasaikan
140-2 Saito-cho
Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto
Phone: 075.221.1147

3650 days +

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary...3650 days plus together...

Actually, if you consider the time we spent dating, you could add on another 2 years (730 days) or so.

Seems like a long time, yet it is actually so short.

Thank you for the past 10 years Satoshi. I'm enjoying our adventures and look forward to sharing many more with you.

Love you.

happy 50th!

Today is the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood, I'm sure there will be lots of celebrating...wish I was there. Here is a photo collage I put together from some of the many photos I have of things Hawaiian.

Happy 50th Hawaii! here's to another 50!

p.s. our new a/c has been installed (it took 2 hours!) at least we didn't have to pay for it because it was the unit that comes with the apartment (whew!)

anniversary

Last Thursday was our 9th anniversary. We didn't do anything special. In fact, Satoshi had to work late.

I didn't really feel much like cooking either. So, I made some pasta with zucchini, roasted garlic, pancetta and pesto. Really quick and easy. (I think the hardest part was putting the garlic into the oven to roast)

I bought a stinky cheese plate. It came with (a slice of Fourme d'Ambert (a blue cheese from the Auvergne area, lots of blue-grey mold), some Boursin Pepper cheese spread & Welcome cheese (a creamy processed cheese from France)) which I ate with toasted bread. I actually wanted crackers, but could only find Ritz and didn't think it would match.

I had thought that I may be allergic to blue cheese when I was in Hawaii, because I am allergic to penicillin and the mold in blue cheese is from penicillin (my mom told me about the mold in blue cheese), but since I didn't have a reaction to eating this blue cheese, maybe I just had too much blue cheese when I was in Hawaii??

I bought a Fair Trade wine from South Africa called Moonlight Organics. The 2006 Shiraz was kind of on the dry side, but delicious.

For dessert, I dipped some dried mango and strawberries in 70% chocolate.

It was a nice dinner even though we couldn't enjoy it together.

Today is my first day for the next round of French lessons, only 5 classes, but I think the topics for this round are more on food! Hope I can keep up in class.

anniversary

Tuesday was our anniversary. Though we plan to celebrate this weekend, I wanted to make something special for dinner, even though we probably wouldn't be able to eat dinner together (because of Satoshi's work hours).

There were beautiful local strawberries in the market. I picked them up and made chocolate dipped strawberries.

I also had some for my mid-afternoon snack as chocolate fondue.

When I was through dipping, I heated some milk and added it to the chocolate, like the matcha fondue place did and had a nice, little chocolat chaud.


So what did I make for dinner? Sweet sour spareribs. The market had a great sale. You could buy two packages of different meats for 1000 yen (about US $10). So, I picked up one package of spareribs and one package of chicken.

These ribs were very meaty and tender.

Happy Anniversary, Satoshi. Thanks for 8 great years, I'm looking forward to the adventures that 2008 will bring us.