ogurasanso

My host mom sent me these sweets from Ogurasanso for my birthday

My mom loved Ogurasanso's arare, which she was first introduced to by MIL

Back in 2008, Ogurasanso started making their arare and covering them with chocolate. It is called Omoisomeshi

My host mom sent us some omoisomeshi as well as some new items... 

Omoisomeshi...two types dark chocolate, matcha & white...the other one was white, strawberry and milk

New item: arare & chocolate together in one package, sweet & salty!

New item: cracker (I think it might be made from ground up arare) and a large piece of chocolate in the middle...two flavors: milk & white

I appreciate my host mom remembering my birthday 

Thank you!

kobaya honten

When we visited Naritasan, I found some "peanut brittle type" of arare (rice crackers).

I looked online to see if there was a store in Tokyo selling something similar and found Kobaya Honten.

Most of Kobaya Honten's shops are in Chiba prefecture but they do have a tiny shop near the JR Kanda station.

They sell peanuts and different arare.

And during the winter, they also sell yakiimo (roasted sweet potato).

Some of the types I bought were with green tea, bits of dried ramen noodles...At least now I know where I can find these and it is closer than going all the way to Chiba prefecture...I'll be back!

Kobaya Honten (UPDATE: 3/2026 no longer at this address)
6-2 Kanda Tomiyama-cho
Chiyoda, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5256.2708
Closed Sundays & Holidays
Hours: 9:30-18:30 Mondays-Fridays, 10:00-15:00 Saturdays

snackage

Been enjoying these snacks...

This version of arare with peanuts by Sanko Seika is flavored with ume (pickled apricot), sprinkled with coarse sugar and then there are the peanuts...sweet, salty and a little sour.

And these peanuts by Inaba.

The left side is sprinkled with Jane's Krazy Salt and the one on the right is sprinkled with aonori (green laver).

The one with aonori reminds me of hurricane popcorn.

What are you snacking on these days?

random eats (drinks)

Some things I've been eating (and drinking) since I returned to Japan...Drinks...this Tropicana boxed juice.

Last year, I tried a similar item. It had mango, pineapple, grapefruit & papaya, which I wrote about here.

This year the blend is pineapple, lychee, apple, grapefruit, lemon...I like that the lychee flavor is really prominent.

The other day Satoshi had a dentist appointment so while I waited for him, I had this...a Chocopresso at St. Marc Cafe...370 yen (about US$3.70)

Espresso topped with steamed chocolate milk and a dollop of whipped cream, this was good but I wish this place had wi-fi, I could see myself spending more time here.

A strawberry smoothie made by a popular young woman's magazine, "Hanako" and Ohayo, a beverage company.

This was good, lots of strawberry bits in there and not too sweet.

Eats...For dinner, we've been having some spicy foods. The daytime is still rather hot, but surprisingly (and I'll probably jinx myself by saying this) the nights are rather cool and comfortable.

The other night we had goma-iridofu (soy bean curd with sesame seeds) topped with okra (splash of shoyu), and veggies (eringi, corn, red bell pepper, eggplant) with a miso butter sauce.

The original recipe calls for minced pork, but whenever I want to cook it without meat, I just saute the veggies in a little oil then used the measurements for the sauce.

You can find the original recipe here.

Another spicy dish was curry. I usually don't use the roux that comes in a box because most have lard or shortening in them.

I found half a box in my pantry so I wanted to use it up.

This one was really spicy! Made by House Foods, it is called Spicy Blend and the spice level is 5, which is the hottest...talk about mouth on fire.

This photo is of the curry when we had it as leftovers, I put it over spaghetti noodles...mouth still on fire.

Corn from Hokkaido...so sweet.

Butterfinger Snackerz...whenever I go to Hawaii, I always pick up different candies, stuff I can't get in Japan.

This was good, little butterfinger pillows. Nice and crispy.

I also tried Island Princess' Choco Mochi, a chocolate covered arare made in Hawaii...these were bloomed because of the heat but still just as good.

Not only do I bring back candy but snacks too... Island Princess' Royal Crunch...caramel corn, chocolate covered caramel corn and mac nuts...sweet but yummy!

Island Princess' Mochi-Pop...caramel corn with arare (rice crackers)...sweet salty delish!

Lunch at Chabuton because Satoshi just watched the movie "Tampopo" for the first time and needed to soothe a craving for ramen.

It was quite hot this day, so I ordered their Wafu hiyashi torisoba which didn't look like the picture on their menu but tasted oh so good.

Chicken steamed tender, cold noodles, cucumber, sliced radish, grated daikon and myoga (a type of ginger) with a shoyu-based sauce.

Dinner at Chaina...seafood and chingensai (bok choy) sauteed in XO sauce (a spicy seafood sauce)...800 yen (about US$8)

This neighborhood place always serves food that is good, only thing is that the chef cooks alone, so the food does take some time.

Satoshi's at work today, what have you been eating?!

boo!

Today is Halloween. They don't do house to house trick-or-treating here (at least not in my neighborhood anyway), but slowly there are more and more decorating of houses and stores and the assortment of candies are also improving for this time of year.

I found this malted milk candy at the gourmet supermarket recently. It made me remember something that Bourgogne wrote in the comments about adding Milk Duds to popcorn.

So, after buying a bag of the malted milk candy, I then remembered that Milk Duds weren't malted milk candies but instead were chocolate covered caramels...sigh. Overall I was disappointed with the malted milk candy, it didn't have that scratchy texture in your mouth like Whoppers have. Still, I added it and chocolate covered kakinotane (spicy rice crackers that look like persimmon seeds) to freshly popped corn...delicious! The chocolate slightly melts while touching the hot popcorn, gets kind of messy and you gotta lick your fingers while eating everything...it is yet another addicting way to jazz up popcorn. (Thanks Bourgogne!)

Last week, my student gave me these delicious Halloween-y cookies...which are now long gone, right after I took the photo...gone. (Thank you!)

I'm not sure if it just the season for pumpkins or if Halloween is the reason that there are more foods with pumpkin around, though I think the former is probably the reason, but I found this foccacia that was loaded with pumpkin, eggplant, red bell pepper, onion and a little cheese...delicious!

Hope you have a safe but fun Halloween, if you celebrate where you are.

foodie friday in kyoto

Today after my lesson, I jumped on the train to Kyoto. There are a lot of places to holo-holo (hawaiian for "go wandering")--eateries both traditional and modern, plus lots of shrines and temples. If there is one place you should visit in Japan, it is Kyoto. You can see architecture dating back to the early 1900's mixed in with modern buildings. Most buildings have a height limit --this is to protect the beauty that Kyoto holds.

My adventure started at Ichizawa Hanpu--they have been at their site for over 60 years, but I think they have been in business for longer than that. Their bags are very simple looking but very sturdy because they use sailing cloth. I'll have to save up my $$ though because they are quite expensive.

I then walked along Sanjo-dori to a store I have visited in the past, Matsuhiro Shoten. They make these gamaguchi purses (purses with these metal clasps on top). They use all kinds of different fabrics--some from old kimonos, some modern prints. Satoshi and I went there a couple of years ago and the store was so packed that it was hard to leisurely look and choose. Today, it was relatively quiet, so I had a nice time opening and closing the clasps and listening to others doing the same "pa-chin pa-chin".

Lunch was a little late at a little shopping area called Kyoen, at a restaurant called Chaimon--this restaurant specializes in foods made with sweet potato. I had their o-kayu (gruel) set. Rice cooked soft with sweet potato. There is an (a thick broth) to pour over the o-kayu.

And side dishes (from the back--forward) of kinpira (seasoned strips of burdock root and carrot), komatsuna (chinese cabbage) stir-fry, sweet potato tempura (fried) with purple sweet potato salt, an umeboshi (pickled plum) and some roasted pine nuts. The dishes and gruel were really good and tasty.

There was even imo-cha (sweet potato tea)--this didn't taste too good, almost like they made the tea from the skins of the sweet potato...kind of earthy...still, it was interesting to try.

After lunch I continued on Sanjo-dori and came upon a Japanese snack shop--Funahashiya. I've written about them before when Satoshi had his staff over for dinner last year.

I bought a package of arare (rice crackers) for Satoshi's omiyage (souvenir). When I told the girl at the register that I didn't want a plastic bag, she looked at me like I was crazy.

My last stop was a trip to Patisserie Kanae. This little shop was featured recently in a Japanese foodie magazine. The pastry chef/owner makes different types of cakes, has a patisserie class, and also makes macarons!

I've been trying a lot of traditional flavored macarons but what really caught my eye was her Japanese flavors.

Here's what I got: Right row: Sesame Noir (black sesame), Poivre Japonais (sansho--Japanese pepper), Sakura vert (the leaves of the cherry blossoms), Matcha (green tea) Left row: Charbon de bamboo (bamboo charcoal), Yuzu chocolat (citron chocolate), Sojavert-Epinard (soybean with spinach)

Everything was delicious and tasted exactly like the real thing--although I'm not too sure how charcoal is supposed to taste though it was a bit gritty .

Well, the weather has been great for the past couple of days--lovely for walks or just to be out and about. Too bad it is supposed to rain tomorrow.

Hope you have a great weekend.

back to the grindstone...

Today Satoshi went back to work. (Actually, he had to work on the 2nd of January! This year, he didn't really have much time off.

Most of his company was off from December 30 until January 4. But, on December 29, a flight got cancelled (it was quite a mess), so he went into work for half-a-day on the 30th. He was off on the 31st and 1st. Then he had his shift on the 2nd. Was off on the 3rd and went back to work today...)

One thing you realize when living in Japan is that when there is a big holiday like New Years, the whole place shuts down, in this case, for about a week. This can be a bit frustrating.

Recently though, a lot of stores have changed their schedules and have started opening up within 2 or 3 days of the New Year. Many large department stores have sales called "bargain". Some things are truly a bargain but you have to deal with wall-to-wall people trying to get this "bargain" of an item...for me, most of these items aren't really that cheap, so I try to stay as far away as possible.

Many stores have "fukubukuro" or lucky bags, what's in them can sometimes be like "grab bags". This can be both exciting and disappointing. For example, some stores put a standard size and color of clothing items into these bags: the downside is that if you aren't that size, or the color you receive isn't to your liking, you can't exchange it.

(I've never bought one, so maybe you can exchange it for your size?? My understanding was that you couldn't.) Some department stores have started to pre-order their fukubukuros--you can pre-order the size and color of the items that will be in the bag. The con: you already know what's in them.

On the 3rd, we were able to spend time with Satoshi's parents and his brother's family. His brother's children are almost in high school. It was a nice gathering and we spent most of the day...EATING!!

We received these rolled sponge cakes we received from Satoshi's brother's family. It is made by Le Brun, a part of Ogawa Coffee. The brown rolled cake was a sponge cake with tea in it. In the center of the cake was a really soft mochi (rice cake) the cream used to roll the cake had adzuki (red) bean in it. It was really good. The green cake was a sponge cake with matcha (green tea) in it. It had the same adzuki cream. Both were very light and not so sweet.

We received these senbei or arare or okaki(as it is called in Kansai)(rice crackers) from Satoshi's parents. It is made by Shunjuan.

It is an assortment called Sagananauta (seven songs/poems of Saga). Each one represents either a season or a quality of Sagano (an area in Kyoto). From the top: the square one with nori (seaweed) on it is called "norimaki" or wrapped in nori. It represents the beautiful nights. The one next to it, is in the shape of a leaf, it represents the leaves that fall during autumn in Sagano.

The pink one is in the shape of the cherry blossom and represents spring. To the left of it, the flower shaped one next to it has aonori or (green seaweed) on it and represent summer in Sagano. The square one under that is a golden sesame cracker represents the autumn rains. The round one with a black daizu (soy bean) in it represents the clouds that cover the moon. And the round one with a white sugary glaze on it represents winter as if snow has just fallen.