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Yesterday we went to Horikiri Iris Garden which is a little over an hour away by train in the Northern part of Tokyo called Katsushika.

We visited an area called Shibamata which in Katsushika back in 2008.

This garden had 200 varieties of iris and they try not to plant the same variety next to another so you can enjoy different varieties at one time.

There were some water lilies.

A little down the road is the Horikiri Waterside Park.

You can see the Tokyo Sky Tree from here and they also have some iris plants here as well.

Near the Horikiri Tenso Shrine, you can see these huge shikifukujin statues (7 lucky gods).

Across the river in an area called Yanagihara, is where the opening scene of J-drama "Kinpachi Sensei" ("Mr Kinpachi") was filmed.

Lunch was at Taishiosoba Toka in Ueno, which uses the broth from tai (red snapper)

I had their hiyashi tai shio soba...980 yen (tax included)

The noodles were super refreshing though the broth was kind of oily.

It had pieces of tai (red snapper) sashimi and some char siu as well, the menma (seasoned bamboo shoots) could have been cooked longer.

Satoshi had their chukasoba 860 yen (tax included)

He said this was delicious.

It was blazing and humid but we were glad that the weather cleared up from the gloom and rain of Saturday.

We missed the info that there was another larger park in Kanamachi (about 20 minutes by bus from Horikiri) with even more irises to see (boo!), so we'll save that park for next year.

We hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did.

Horikiri Iris Garden

2-19-1 Horikiri

Katsushika, Tokyo

Hours: 9:00-17:00

*no admission, but it is gated

Taishiosoba Toka

Atre Ueno 1F

Ueno, Tokyo

Open when Atre Ueno is

le weekend

We started the rainy season here, though there have been more sunny days than rainy ones.

How was your weekend?

According to my archives it's been ages since we've eaten at Felice.

We re-connected with them on Saturday.

I had their chicken. Super crispy skin. The meat really tender. The sauce was a shoyu base, caramelized onion, so good.

Satoshi had their omurice & fried shrimp combo.

Their food is still good.

After dinner, we walked towards Minoo Falls to check out the hotaru (fireflies).

There weren't as many as last year, but we were still excited to see some.

Sunday the weather was hot and humid.

We walked to Ikeda and checked out Suigetsu park.

The hanashobu (irises) still pretty.

There was also a sign for white lilies at the Ikeda castle ruins, so we checked it out but it needs another week or so, so we'll try again.

Hope you have a nice week.

suigetsu park

Well, today the Kansai area has offically started their rainy season.

Today, Satoshi had the day off. We planned to go to a park called Suigetsu Park (before the rain!), which is about a 15 minute walk from our place.

I got up early to make us some sandwiches for breakfast in the park. This peppered ham is made by a company called Kyoto Pork. I saw this brand recently while roaming the aisles of a neighborhood gourmet supermarket and decided to try this local brand. It is really good, not too salty. I made one sandwich on a walnut roll with pesto, the ham, tomatoes and lettuce and another sandwich on a wheat roll with olive tapenade, the ham, tomatoes and lettuce.

We stopped at 7-eleven to buy some canned coffee to have with breakfast. I got a new one made by Ogawa Coffee, a well-known brand in Kyoto. Both the coffee and sandwich were really delicious!


After breakfast, we roamed around the park and enjoyed the hanashobu.

Hanashobu is a type of iris. This park will hold an iris festival this coming weekend, but since we don't want to deal with the crowds and since Satoshi has to work on Sunday, we decided to check them out before everyone else had a chance to.

I tried to link Flickr to Blogger, but something makes the whole computer freeze, so, here are some photos from the park.

By the way, hydrangea in Japan is called ajisai and is also associated with the rainy season. The part that looks like "petals" are actually leaves of the plant (or so I was told once). I really like the colors of ajisai, kind of reminds me of candy!

After walking around the park, we went to Umeda, I had a bead class. I have graduated from Bead Crochet and have moved onto Bead Stitch and will receive my "diploma" later. Bead stitching is very popular in the U.S., but only started up here in Japan recently. I'll post something about my project after I've finished it!

Hang in there, one more day until the weekend!