14057

Have been going to Oomori whenever we need coffee beans...yesterday, I went on one of those walks...

Passed by these two who were waiting for their mom or dad to come out of the bank..

The skies were overcast and gloomy.

This type of day bothers my eyes and I usually get a migraine afterwards...

Before going to buy our coffee beans, I went to check out Jugoya Seika.

They make karinto and have been in business since 1926!

3 bags of your choice for 1000 yen (tax included)

I purchased their sweet potato, peanut and black sugar.

They are all on the "harder" side but everything was delicious and not overly sweet.

They have a couple more varieties to try, so we'll be back.

Toyoshima Bakery...which has been in business since 1939.

I tried their croquette sandwich and cheeseburger.

Love their prices.

We'll be back.

14057...it was nice to be out but wish it hadn't been overcast.

Jugoya Seika

3-4-16 Omorikita

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 0339761.5153

Hours: 10:00-18:00

*call before going, closed days are not consistent

Toyoshima Bakery

1-35-5 Omorikita

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3761.1471

Closed Saturdays & Sundays

Hours: 6:30-18:30

karinto

I've told you before that I love to munch on karinto and other things.

We recently received this matcha (green tea) karinto from MIL. (thank you!)

Satoshi told me that the round one is made from sticks of karinto then coated with a sugar glaze.

The matcha flavor was very light, but these with a cup of green tea really hit the spot.

day 3

On our last day in Tokyo, the sun was out and it was, dare I say, hot!

Satoshi went off to see his team play and I went off to check out the Dean & Deluca Cafe in Marunouchi.

The Marunouchi shop is the first D&D shop in Japan.

I wasn't really hungry but needed to kill some time until Satoshi and I were to meet up, so I just had a cereal bar and a small cappuccino...476 yen (about US$4.75)

It was a nice area for people watching and also because they also had Wi-Fi.

Inside the Tokyo station, I checked out a karinto shop, Nihonbashi Nishikihorin, I've seen them on other blogs and was interested in trying some.

What I didn't realize was that the shop was inside, after you pass the ticket turnstyles. Which means, that only if you are going to ride the train can you shop here.

Luckily, I had to catch the train to Shinagawa to meet Satoshi, so I got to shop here.

When I found them, there weren't many people standing in front of the counter, or so I thought.

A sales lady then directed me to the line, located across the way where 10 to 15 people in line were glaring at me.

They had about 8 different flavors...I bought miso negi (onion, soy bean curd), black pepper, vegetable, and black sesame...1320 yen (about US$13.20)

When I reached Shinagawa, I did some window shopping and started to get hungry so I decided to look for somewhere to eat.

I ended up trying Freshness Burger. They have shops all over Japan, but somehow with all that walking I was in the mood for a burger.

The burger was so juicy that it dripped on my beige pants. I guess I was lucky the drippings weren't red or brown, but clear (oil).

After lunch, as I walked back to the station, I noticed a crowd of people looking at something, so I went to check it out.

They were filming a soap opera and I got a chance to take a photo of actor, Takenaka Naoto, before they shooed us all away.

Inside of Arte Shinagawa, I found these Biscot Tea cookies, which are actually from the U.S., but they sounded really delicious because they have different teas in them. (I think I may have a slight addiction to tea??)

(UPDATE: these are all delicious, the same shortbread dough with lots of tea flavor. Blueberry and Earl Grey are bright while Chai is spicy, best with coffee or a tea that won't overpower these flavors)

On the other side of the station, I noticed an Anna Miller's (which we also have in Hawaii).

Their pie of the month was Chocolate Haupia, which made me a little homesick.

Still needing to kill some time, I noticed this guy with baggy pants on, I guess it was a nice thing that he was wearing underwear, otherwise it would be his butt we would be looking at...(roll your eyes)

After meeting up with Satoshi we caught the train to Tachiaikawa, where he was interested in checking out a few historical spots.

I went to see some of them, but not all.

I was tired, my feet/legs were tired. Satoshi was happy that he got to see a lot of Tokyo. Even though he went to college for 4 years in Tokyo, he said that he hadn't seen much of it up close back then.

Overall, it was a nice trip despite the weather, there was lots of eating, lots of shopping (lots of tea) and lots of walking, hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did.

Dean & Deluca Cafe
1-4-5 Marunouchi, Mitsubishi UFJ Main Building
Chiyoda, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3284.7071

Nihonbashi Nishikihorin
inside ticket turnstyle, Yaesu-side
1-9-1 Marunouchi, Gran Sta
Phone: 03.3287.8010

Freshness Burger
Shinagawa Grand Passage B1F
Phone: 03.6718.2802

karinto manju

The other day I walked past Korakudo (which I've written about here, and here) and had to take another look at their sign outside.

It said "karinto manju"...Karinto is a sweet deep fried treat made from flour and sugar. Manju is a steamed bun filled with sweet bean paste.

I usually don't go walking with money (because I'll buy stuff (I don't need)), but wanting to try this I brought some money with me and picked some up. 450 yen (about US$4.50) for 5.

These are brilliant. The dough is made with kokuto (black sugar) and the inside is filled with sweet bean paste.

The instructions say that they are best on the day you buy them, but if for some reason you can't finish them and need to put them in the refridge, just heat them up in the toaster to crisp and warm them up.

The sweetness from the karinto kind of overpowers the sweet bean paste but these are crunchy and addicting....I need some tea.

On the second day, I didn't warm them up and ate them as is. They were still quite crisp though the kokuto (black sugar) flavor wasn't as strong.

On Saturday, it was sunny and it was nice to see so many people walking about and checking out the sakura. I shot this short video on a side street where there weren't too many people.

thursday

Today, Satoshi had the day off, so we went down to the Immigrations Office to re-new my visa. Three years ago, the office was in downtown Osaka. Now, it is 15 minutes from downtown Osaka, on a man-made island, which has the city of Osaka in major debt. Anyway, we got there and filled out the forms then stood in line to get my visa re-newed.

Our number was called five minutes after turning in our forms and they said that after they check through all of our paperwork, a postcard will be mailed to us and we will have to come back to go through the actual re-newal.

I guess with all the stuff we forgot in the past three years, this was one of them. So, now we'll just have to wait until the postcard comes...

Last Thursday's breakfast was a fried egg with okonomiyaki sauce, tsukudani (seasoned seaweed), chirimen sansho (whitebait seasoned with Japanese pepper), umeboshi (pickled plum), rice, an orange and green tea.

Since I had my beads class, I had lunch at Umeda--shrimp pasta, a salad and bread.

There was also a Hokkaido fair at a department store, so I picked up these chocolate covered karinto by Royce. I've written about karinto, here and about Royce, here. Fried dough and chocolate, doesn't get better than that, huh?

Since Satoshi had dinner plans, my dinner was chicken wings. Not too nutritious without veggies, but I was being lazy.

snacks & scones

I don't know about you, but while I'm sitting in front of the computer, or in front of the TV, I like to munch. Sometimes it is dried fruits, sometimes it is nuts, but most times it has to be something crunchy, like these snacks....

Karinto--a sweet, deep fried treat made from flour and sugar. Some are also made with kokuto (literally black sugar = raw sugar), matcha (green tea) and aonori (green laver). I read somewhere that this treat goes back to the Edo period (around 1830).

Senbei--a baked wafer. There are many different types but these are called shoga senbei (ginger flavored wafer), a sweet but spicy wafer with some sprinkles of matcha (green tea), kurogoma (black sesame seeds) or shiso (perilla). Both of these snacks go well with either hot or iced Japanese teas.

Changing the subject a bit, Summer brings "cool" and refreshing looking sweets. This effect is created by using kuzu (kudzu/arrowroot). For this kuzumochi (arrowroot rice cake), a ball of an (sweet bean paste) is enveloped in translucent kuzu. I hope to show you more of these "cool" sweets throughout summer, some are really pretty.

My friend Val sent me a box of Stonewall Kitchen's scone mix. After looking at the box, I realized that this called for a LOT of unsalted butter (a stick and a half!) and after calculating it into grams, I realized it would take almost a whole box of Japanese butter.

Butter is quite expensive here and unsalted butter is even more expensive. So, whenever I try baking, I always try to cut down the recipe to the smallest portion possible to use the least amount of butter.

Since I was out of things for breakfast, so I decided to make these. I followed the directions on the box and also added blueberries and lemon zest. These scones rose very nicely,were moist and kind of flaky. (Thanks Val!)

Well, we have officially gone into the rainy season here in Osaka although we were 6 days late. The way the weather was going, I was thinking (more like hoping) that maybe it wouldn't be so humid...I was wrong.

Hope you have a nice weekend.