akihabara & nezu

Satoshi went to sell some of his "treasures" at Akihabara, while we were waiting for them to figure out how much they were worth, we had lunch at Joto Curry

We've eaten at their shops in Osaka

Their curry starts off a little sweet and then the spices start to creep up on you

It was nice to reconnect with this curry chain

How cute are these coin purses?!

After Satoshi received a little pocket money for his "treasures" we walked to Nezu Shrine to check out the azaleas.

Going through Aki-Oka, which Satoshi had not been through before, but I had had lunch at one of the shops there before

When we arrived near Nezu Shrine, the line to get into see the azaleas was way, way, way, outside!

So instead we admired the azaleas from the outside 

It was still nice to see, even though there were tons of people

I had been wanting to try this cream puff by Le Coussinet

And luckily we walked past just as the batch had come out of their brick oven

Apparently it takes 90 minutes to bake up

The last 10 minutes is when the outside crisps up

The custard cream is rich, vanilla-y and not too sweet

The "best before" time limit is 1 minute! (I had thought it was 10)

So you'll see everyone enjoying their cream puff around the outside area of the shop...

They won't allow you to buy them to take home, they must be eaten right there.

I'm glad we passed by when we did and would like to try their other sweets

It was nice exploring the tiny alleyways of Nezu

Seeing all the different flowers in bloom

It was a beautiful day, though I felt a little "crispy" again, the wind is still a little chilly especially in the shade, but it is only a matter of time before the "h" word starts and all we'll be talking about is the heat and “h”

Le Coussinet

2-34-24 Nezu

Bunkyo, Tokyo

*days closed and hours, check their social media sites

credit card accepted for purchases over 3000 yen

researching

Sunday, Satoshi wanted to research some areas before his tour, so we went to Tsukiji.

I was surprised that there were quite a number of shops open and the amount of people was quite krazy!

From Tsukiji, we went to Ueno.

But first, we stopped into Mihashi. 

This shop has been in business since 1948 and is popular for their anmitsu. 

Every time we've tried to eat here there was a krazy line.

Luckily, the line wasn’t too long on this day

Love their stairs

It was so humid that I had their uji kintoki shaved ice instead.

Too bad the ice was a little too coarse, made it hard to eat.

Loved that there was a lot of azuki on the bottom...

Still, I'm glad I got to try this.

Satoshi had their hiyashi matcha cream, a matcha drink topped with soft serve...no photo

After Satoshi checked out the areas he needed to, we went in search of lunch...and went to Aun

The last time we were here was 7 years ago.

They now have a machine to buy your tickets, which means cash only!

This time I ordered their hiyashi kuro (black sesame) tan tan men...1200 yen (tax included), level 1

Satoshi had their kuro (black sesame) tan tan men (hot)  1200 yen (tax included), level 1

*I say it every time I eat something like this, but I need to carry my spoon with the holes...

I'm glad Aun survived the pandemic...we'll be back!

We walked to Akihabara to catch the train back home...I was shocked at the price for peonies...770 yen (tax included) for 1

Still so pretty though!

Hoping Satoshi’s tour goes well

Anmitsu Mihashi

4-9-7 Ueno

Taito, Tokyo

Open daily: 10:30-21:00

nezu shrine & surrounding areas

Thursday, the weather dude talked about the Nezu Shrine's azaleas on his morning weather report.

We've visited them back in 2019, AND I was already planning to go, now because of his broadcast that same morning, everyone and their uncle decided to go too....

On my way to the shrine, I stopped into Ichijoji to look at their peonies 

And their hanachozu (bowls or troughs filled with flowers)

Huge! pine! a couple of doors down the street from Ichijoji

Nezu shrine...the admission went up from 200 to 500 yen to see the azaleas...still worth it

Outside the shrine Hirata Seisakusho was selling their cat charms...it looks like stone, but is actually wood.

I bought one that looked like my furry niece...1200 yen (tax included)

(while eating dinner, I noticed the back of the charm)...so pretty!

Now what to put the charm on…

Up the street is Du Pain et Des Gateaux Les Inities, a tiny bakery that I've had on my "to try" list

Everything is behind a glass, so you need to "communicate" with the staff working...love this kind of bakery!

I purchased their tuna sandwich with olives and semi dried tomato...550 yen (tax included)

And a viennoise lemon butter cream with hazelnuts...370 yen (tax included)

Both were delicious, loved the amount of tuna in the sandwich and the amount of nuts in the lemon one, the lemon flavor was kinda weak though.

Will be back here when I am in the area.

Tokyo People: would not want the guy with the net's job...blocking the flying rocks while the weed wacker guy works...

Summer is here!

Du Pain et Des Gateaux Les Inities

2-32-5 Nezu

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Closed: Mondays

Hours: 10:30-18:00

sakura walk (bunkyo & taito)

According to the weather dude, Sunday was the only chance for checking out sakura because it would only be cloudy, whereas other days would be rainy 

So we made sure to get out and about as early as we could

We started off at Kichijoji, a temple in the Bunkyo ward

The weeping cherry trees here were beautiful!

Down the street is Joshinji. 

This temple’s grounds are smaller in comparison to Kichijoji, but it seemed like they had more and larger (taller) cherry trees in the compact area

it was our first time to both of these temples and we look forward to coming here again.

We then walked to Yanaka, to have brunch at CIBI (chee-bee)

In the past, we’ve passed this place, and they are always busy, so we marked it “to try”.

On this day, we were lucky only having to wait a couple of minutes to be seated.

Apparently they are an Australian style cafe and even have a shop in Melbourne. 

Many of the staff members speak English as well.

Satoshi ordered their Japanese breakfast, which came with grilled salmon, natto, miso soup and other items...1680 yen (plus tax)

He also had a batch brewed coffee 600 yen (plus tax)

It looked like a lot of food and he said he enjoyed it

I tried their CIBI breakfast, which came with toast, avocado, an oozy egg and salad…loved their seeded bread! 1380 yen (plus tax)

I also ordered a long black coffee 530 yen (plus tax)

capers in oozy yolks is delicious!

There were foreigners as well as locals.

It was nice to sit and have breakfast while listening to others chat.

After brunch/lunch, we walked along hebimichi (Snake street) again and went to check out somewhere that Satoshi wanted to check out.

Nearby was an arare shop that I wanted to check out, Daikokuya.

A tiny shop that has been in business since 1915, they make all sorts of arare (rice crackers)

Lots of items were already sold out.

But we were able to buy things to try, shrimp, sugar, as well as a savory mix and sweet mix...2330 yen (tax included)

The one that was stale was the sweet mix...boo! (top left)

The others were super fresh, crisp and very tasty!

Up the street, we also stumbled on the Chiyonofuji statue, the last time we were here was pre-pandemic.

And then we went back around to a museum that Satoshi was interested in checking out.

While he did that I waited outside.

And then we made our way to Ueno.

Even if my photos don't show it, it was krazy with people, so we quickly went through the side of the park without many sakura trees to the JR Ueno Station and caught the train back to our area.

Mother Nature turned a forecasted cloudy day into a beautiful sunny one.

She's decided to cold snap us back though, and added rain to it too (snow in some areas!).

With the weather all wonky, not sure if I'll be able to check out many more places, if I do, I'll post about it here.

ps steps for this walk was 18885

Kichijoji

3-19 Honkomagome

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Joshinji

2-17-4 Mukogaoka

Bunkyo, Tokyo

CIBI

3-37-11 Sendagi

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Hours: 8:30-17:30

Daikokuya

1-3-4 Yanaka

Taito, Tokyo

Closed Thursdays

Hours: 10:00-17:00

10615

Satoshi had a study thingy with his tour guide friends, so I went to Akihabara.

I had forgotten that they were holding the Tokyo Marathon...which means, no can cross the large street near JR Akihabara station!
 

they did have these free shuttles to take you "around" the marathon...so they took me from Akihabara, up to Ueno, across the large street and then down to the other side from where we caught the shuttle

It took about 20 minutes to do that, but at least I didn't have to wait 2 hours for the marathon to finish...

I had wanted to check out a cafe near Yushima that I had been to before, but ever since they became popular for hotcakes plus the pandemic, I've never been able to go back there

Again, on this day, the line for the cafe was long, so instead I went in the other direction to Yushima Tenmangu.

They were having their Ume Matsuri

Many ume trees were in bloom

Lots of ema (amulets) praying for good grades and passing tests

There was even a wedding

Then I took the route that the shuttle took to get back to Akihabara

And on the way, stopped at Tsuruse, a Japanese confection shop that has been in business since 1930

I tried their fukuume, a sweet filled with white bean and ume paste and covered with uirou (a thick paste that looks like yokan but is actually a little "chewy" like mochi)...love this!

And their long time seller, mame daifuku, this is filled with chunky sweet bean paste and red peas...loved this also!

As I was heading back to Akihabara, I could see a turn area for the marathon near Ueno.

I revisted the shops I had wanted to check out the last time I went to Akihabara

But because I was there when the shops were open, it was a little too crowded for my liking, so I was in and out...fast!

And picked up a ebi ten musubi for lunch from Momochi at JR Shinagawa station before going home.

I'll try to check out the cafe I've been wanting to go to sometime on a weekday.

I'm glad I learned about the free shuttles for the marathon and got to revisit the shops in Akihabara that I had wanted to check out.