ii fufu no hi

For some reason Satoshi thought Ii fufu was on 11/11, so he gave me this box of cookies.

Cute packaging.

Apparently you are supposed to break off the cookie where the dotted lines are.

Only problem is that the dotted line doesn't go all the way through the cookie, so it makes a mess instead...

Still, it was cute and thankful that he remembered even if it was two weeks too early.
 

ii fufu no hi

Yesterday was Ii fufu no hi...(literally good couple day), which I've written up in the past here.

Satoshi went out for drinks and came home with these unusual carnations.

Today is a national holiday...Kinro Kansha no hi...a combination of Labor Day and Thanksgiving.

Hope you are having a good week.

menu

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.

It isn't a holiday here, but Black Friday is slowly catching on here.

Since Satoshi went out on a drinking thingy on Tuesday, which was Ii Fufu no Hi (literally good couple day), we went out for dinner at Menu the next day which was a national holiday (Kinro Kansha no Hi, like a combination of Labor Day and Thanksgiving).

Dinner started out with a plate each of their appetizers...salad, proscuitto, dragon fruit, purple sweet potato terrine, sweet potato frittata, clam rice croquette (arancino), tako (octopus) with a broccoli puree.

Soup: Daikon potage topped with cacao nibs

Pasta: mushroom pepperoncino and gingko nut ras el hanout chicken cream pasta (both to share)

Main: sea bream stuffed with mushroom puree wrapped with bacon, cooked saltimbocca style and chicken piccata

Dessert: dark cherry brownie

Coffee or Tea

Satoshi also had a glass of wine with dinner.

We love this place because their servings are just right, their food is delicious too, they serve reasonable servings of wine and their prices are quite reasonable too.

7050 yen for our dinner.

We'll definitely be back.

ii fufu

(photo taken on Sunday in Osaka)

Today is Ii Fufu (good couple) day in Japan.

I've written about this before here.

Sadly, the Tohoku area had another big one (earthquake) this morning.

They were told to evacuate and are on tsunami watch.

Hoping there won't be too much damage this time.

Sending hugs to Tohoku and the surrounding areas.

fall foliage

One day the leaves were almost turning and then the next they were at their peak.

Autumn is pretty short and quick this year. The days to check out the leaves are kinda numbered.

Luckily, on Wednesday, Satoshi had the day off.

We headed to Kyuanji to check out the leaves.

There were fewer trees that had changed colors, but at least we were able to see some.

Yesterday, I met up with Fiona to check out Sanshikisaido.

The leaves actually looked like they were curling...still they were pretty spectacular.

At the moment, this photo is my fave.

It's Friday here, it is also "Ii Fufu" day...hug the one you love and have a nice weekend!

foodie couple of days

Tuesday was Ii fufu no hi, Satoshi brought home some sweets from Jouvencelle.

A matcha daifuku (matcha cake with matcha cream, whipped cream wrapped with a thin mochi) and a persimmon cake (fluffy cake with cinnamony cream, whipped cream then covered with kaki (persimmon)

Both were delicious, thank you Satoshi!

Wednesday was a national holiday, Kinro Kansha no hi (Labor Thanksgiving Day)

The weather was forecasted for rain, but the autumn leaves were apparently at its peak...what to do?!

Since we woke to a rather sunny morning, we got out and about early and walked to Saikoji.

It was a mixed bag, some trees were bright red, others were still green.

Kinda weird this year probably because the weather has been weird.

Some of the trees around the Kanon at Benzaiten, had turned red, but for the most part everything was still green.

We walked to the falls but were very disappointed because all the trees around the falls were still green if not brown...boo!

To "cheer" ourselves up, we decided to have some coffee and something sweet and popped in at Hashimoto-tei.

I tried their buttercream cake. I didn't see the small print in the showcase which said "rum raisin"...the cake was filled with rum soaked raisins...which totally over-powered the whole cake, you couldn't even taste the buttercream...blah.

Satoshi still hungry after his cheesecake and coffee, decided to try the yuzu croquette.

It was good, there were bits of yuzu peel here and there, but the majority of the croquette was potato...130 yen.

For dinner, I made some kinpira gobo and spinach goma-ae.

I also used some leftover boneless fried chicken sticks to make some "sushi".

Just nori, freshly cooked rice, lettuce and chicken...no other seasonings.

We dipped these into a tonkatsu-mayo sauce.

Again, Satoshi, who doesn't care for chicken, gave it a thumbs-up!

Thursday the weather turned wintry...the wind was icy.

Thank goodness the sun came out for the most part of the day.

Dinner was a repeat of savory mille feuille...this time I added eringi, gobo and eggplant to the pork and chinese cabbage. As well as kim chee.

What have you been enjoying?

ii fufu no hi

Today is November 22nd, written as 11/22 the Japanese call this day "ii fufu no hi" it is a kind of play on words using homonyms for the pronunciation of the numbers 1-1-2-2 to mean "good couple day". A lot of Japanese get married on this day in hopes of becoming "a good couple". It is a good day for couples to be nice to each other and show appreciation for one another.

I was in Umeda for a lesson and stopped by one of my favorite sweets counter, Tsumagari, this confectioner is actually located in Nishinomiya, about 30 minutes by train, but has a counter in Daimaru Umeda--a department store in Umeda. It is the time of year for their macarons called Kabutoyama Omoide no koishi (a pebble as a reminder of Mt. Kabuto) Mt. Kabuto is a mountain surrounding Nishinomiya. I first tasted these macarons about 2 years ago, they were giving them out as samples.

Bite-sized and so cute, it is hard just to eat one--although the chocolate ganache in the middle is quite sweet and rich.

So, tell your sweetie how much you care for them or if there is someone out there who you have your eye on, this would be a good chance to tell them!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the U.S.