sankeien

Saturday, we planned to have lunch in Yokohama, and since we were nearby Satoshi suggested we check out Sankeien (Sankei Garden)

But first, snacks...

we were kinda hungry when we arrived and decided to get a little something to tide us over until lunch

I chose a custard filled bread...so cute

Satoshi chose a katsu sandwich...so much for "little something", yeah?!

Clair is a tiny bakery on the way to Sankeien...glad we got to try these baked items

Lots of hydrangea and beautiful houses along the way

Even an interesting looking Korean restaurant...

Sankeien (Sankei Garden) is 175,000 square meters (43.24 acres) which was built by Sankei (Tomitaro) Hara, a successful businessman who built his fortune trading silk

Sankeien is made up of an Outer Garden and Inner Garden

The Outer Garden was opened to the public in 1906 and the Inner Garden was used privately by Sankei, now everyone can enjoy the property

Scattered around the property are historical structures which Sankei gathered from Kyoto and Kamakura and moved to this garden

Yokohama feathery people...short video here

Yokohama people...the garden keeper

Huge historical buildings

Beautiful views!

Lots of stairs

Even a 3 story pagoda

Lots of flowers and foliage to enjoy throughout the year

Even people taking photos for their wedding

It was a beautiful garden, I'm glad I got to see this

I think cherry blossom season might be beautiful too

I'll write about where we had lunch tomorrow

Clair

17-23 Honmokusannotani

Naka, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Closed: Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Hours: 7:00-18:00

*cash only

Sankeien

58-1 Honmokusannotani

Naka, Yokohama, Kanagawa

Open daily: 9:00-17:00

*admission

shinjuku

Spent most of Tuesday with V and K.

Since their flight back to Hawaii wasn't until almost midnight, they had lots of time to kill after check-out.

We first walked part of Kita-Shinagawa, which Satoshi and I first explored back in May.

Then we took the Yamanote line to Shinjuku, where we had V's favorite tonkatsu at Katsukura.

The yuba wrapped veggies (cut into pieces) were delicious.

While the chestnut mushroom croquette (not cut) didn't really have much chestnut in it.

Talk about kanak attack afterwards...for those of you who don't know what that is, kanak (kah-nack) attack is when you eat way too much then feel super sleepy afterwards...(thank you again for lunch)

V and K did some shopping and then we went to check out Shinjuku Gyoen.

A huge park literally in the middle of the city.

There is a small admission fee, but it is worth it.

It was my first time here and I look forward to maybe braving the crowds for cherry blossom season (maybe).

I'm glad we got to spend more time together and got most of V's shopping done.

I hope they enjoyed their trip and had a safe trip back to Hawaii.

Katsukura
Shinjuku Takashimaya 14F
Hours: 11:00-23:00
Open when Takashimaya is

Shinjuku Gyoen
11 Naitomachi
Shinjuku, Tokyo
Hours: 09:00-16:30 (Entry until 16:00)
Closed Monday (if Monday is a national holiday, closed the next day), New Year's (Dec. 29th-Jan. 3rd)

thursday with v & k

Thursday, I spent most of the day with blog reader V and her husband K.

We started out early, "fighting" the salarymen (businessmen) "ocean" at Shinagawa Station, then finding our way to Tsukiji.

Since we moved to Tokyo in April, we have not been around here, so it was hard for me to remember what everything was like before.

It seemed to me that a lot has changed.

After going row by row in the market, I'm glad we found the furikake that V wanted to get.

We then walked to Ginza/Yurakucho to have unagi for lunch.

On a previous trip V tried the Osaka shop and wanted to have unagi again at their Tokyo shop.

I liked how "crispy" the unagi was...thank you for lunch!

We then went to Kyu-Shibarikyu Garden and walked around.

Not too much fall colors, but at least they were able to experience a Japanese garden.

V gave us lots of snacks.

I'm glad we were able to meet up and it was nice to meet K too.

It was overcast and a bit drizzly, still I hope they had fun and enjoy the rest of their trip.

Thank you V & K!

Hitsumabushi Nagoya Bincho
2-2-14 Ginza, Marronier Gate 12F
Chuo, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5159.0231
Lunch: 11:00-15:30, Dinner: 17:00-23:00
Closed when Marronier Gate is

sunday

Sunday the weather was sunny, no clouds in the sky...perfect Autumn day.

We went to check out one of the 9 metropolitan gardens...Kiyosumi Garden.

This garden is huge!

I found this matsu (pine) tied up like this...thought it was so pretty!

This garden is rather quiet (even though it is smack dab in the middle of the city)...perfect for yoga lessons, which they were having in this building.

It was definitely worth the 150 yen admission for this garden.

Then we went back to Kyu-Furukawa Garden to see their roses which were "supposed" to be in full bloom.

We were totally disappointed.

There were only a few in bloom.

I guess we were totally spoiled with our visits to Aramaki Rose Park.

I did find a dragonfly willing to pose for me.

Lunch was at Ohashiya.

Apparently they have been in business since Taisho 11 (1922).

Satoshi had their cold Okame Soba which had all sorts of veggies in it.

I had their Jizo Soba...this wasn't anything special except there were different toppings on the cold soba (nori, sesame seeds and shiso (perilla)).

At least the tsuyu (sauce) was what we were used to and not thick like that other place...

We then walked Sugamo Shopping Arcade and came across this butterfly.

First time trying a Russian Tale, gelatin like outside filled with mousse and a little cake...sweet-sour with raspberry and dark cherry...delicious.

Apparently I had tried Patissier Yoshinori Asami's confections when he was with Patisserie Kubler back in 2009.

I want to go back to try his parfaits and baked items.

We ended the weekend with another look at Mount Fuji as the sun set...with humidity at bay, it makes seeing Mount Fuji easier.

We also noticed that Mount Fuji had snow on top...oh and that apartment complex is coming up, and we are still crossing our fingers that it won't block our view...

Kiyosumi Garden
3-3-9 Kiyosumi
Koto, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3641.5892
Hours: 9:00-17:00

Ohashiya
3-34-3 Sugamo
Toshima, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3918.3434
Hours: 10:30-18:00

Patisserie Yoshinori Asami
3-23-3 Sugamo
Toshima, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5980.7674
Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays
Hours: 10:30-19:30

yard man

In Hawaii, my parents have a yard man. He uses a blower to blow all the leaves together to pick them up when he is done.

It's noisy, leaves fly everywhere...

He's gotten yelled at by neighbors because the leaves blow over to their side of the fence...well, when these neighbor's yard man comes over, guess who gets their leaves...ahem!

Anyway, I noticed this guy the other day. And thought, "oh no, they have leaf blowers here too"...and then I saw him "vacuuming" the leaves up!

Brilliant!

Now this is something I wouldn't mind seeing or hearing more of in Hawaii.

in the garden...

My brother started a planter box and put in some Manoa lettuce, taro, roma tomatoes and this husky cherry red.

For cherry tomatoes, these are pretty huge.

What's growing in your garden these days?

ume pork

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a foodie party we had and a dish that one of the wives brought.

She didn't have a recipe, so I tried re-creating the dish for dinner.

You need thinly sliced pork. I bought the kind for shabu-shabu (the hot pot where you wave your slices of meat in hot broth a couple of times then eat it). Try to buy meat that is a little bigger than the width of your shiso leaf.

Try to buy the same amount of shiso (perilla leaves/beefsteak leaves) as slices of meat. Luckily, in Japan, they sell it in packages of 10.

You need some ume paste, if you don't have any, just de-seed the ume and chop it up. I didn't have any, but did have a paste made with chopped up shibazuke (veggies that are pickled with red shiso), shiso, black sesame and ume.

Lay your piece of pork flat, put a leaf of shiso, then put some ume paste, then roll tightly.

Put a half tablespoon of oil in a pan and heat.

Cook until the pork is browned and cooked through. Some ume paste may leak and the red from it may be hard to tell if your meat is cooked through, just try to cook it for at least until the outside is dark brown in color.

This dish is easy and tasty. I think you could use thinly sliced beef or even flattened out chicken too.


With the leftovers, I put some into our breakfast bento on Sunday.
With breakfast and some coffee in tow, we went to our favorite park during this time of year--Aramaki Rose Garden. The roses are in full bloom.

There were many people there and the soft fragrance of the different roses was so nice and relaxing.

aramaki (part 2)

In May, we went to the Aramaki Rose garden, which I posted about (here). Well, since the weather has been so nice, we decided to check out their autumn roses.

I packed us a bento (boxed) breakfast. Shiitake mushrooms with butter, tonkatsu (pork cutlet) sauce and okra.

Tamagoyaki (rolled egg) and asparagus wrapped with thinly sliced pork, multi-grain rice, tsukemono (pickles) and sliced apple.

I also brought some coffee.

There weren't as many roses as in the Spring, but it was still nice to sit and eat our breakfast in the garden.

In the community center next door to the garden, they were making taketonbo (bamboo dragonflies), it is a T-shaped toy which is shaved to form a propeller, you hold the thin rod between your hands and by rubbing your hands against each other in one swift motion, watch the toy take off!

There was also a little parade on the way to this rose garden, it was the area's Autumn Festival. The mikoshi (float) was pulled by many people and since the "wheels" are made of wood, these men had to pull at the mikoshi to make it turn.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend!