this and that

"someone" went out drinking then left his bag on the dining room floor

thank goodness “someone” didn’t trip over it when he went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and Kat didn't trip over said bag when she woke up in the morning.

she did take a photo and left it there...

“someone” didn't even notice it nor did he pick up when he woke up...bruh!

Tokyo Furry People seen at Tsukiji Outer Market

so teeny

so purple

Tried some new (to me) ice cream...this itachoco (chocolate bar) filled with macadamia nut and chocolate ice cream

And the black thunder caramel flavored sundae...this one had caramel ice cream, chocolate cookie pieces and whipped cream. 

apparently caramel flavor is osaka's black thunder flavor.

Both were delicious

Tokyo people...cat ear hat & rabbit gloves

setoka, we've tried this variety before...the skin is super thin and the fruit is super sweet and juicy

glad the library had these two book, the one on the left is by an artist that draws pictures in her travel journal. 

the book is about walking around Tokyo.

the one on the right is by a person that knows everything about bread

fava beans and sakura ebi pizza from sunmerry's equals spring (for me)

nori wrapped chicken then fried...wish I had bought more

the chicken was so tender!

roger vivier display at ginza mitsukoshi

beautiful sakura in front of the seiko building (across the street from ginza mitsukoshi)

tokyo people...saw this guy with a baguette...turned out he had about 4 of them in his bag

ohagi for o-higan...sentaro actually had a black and white one for o-higan, but I  love their version with shiso mixed into the rice

It's the start of a 3 day weekend, yesterday, the weather dude saw the 5 flowers to declare the start of sakura season.

have a safe one

takeno to ohagi

The other day on Instagram, my friend told me about the double sakura (yaezakura) that bloom at Sakurashinmachi...thank you!

Since we were already out of the house, we made a special trip to check them out.

The whole street is lined with these yaezakura trees, so glad we were able to see this!

One place that I have had bookmarked in this area is Takeno to Ohagi.

It is a tiny shop that makes ohagi.

They are so popular that when they first opened they would sell out within the first half hour of opening!

I stood in line for 40 minutes to purchase these.

Apparently they have 7 flavors daily...so I purchased one of each.

Koshian (smooth sweet bean paste), sakura (pink), fava bean (green), berry (pink/mauve swirl), pumpkin & apple (yellow), tsubushian (chunky sweet bean paste), coconut & lemon peel (white).

These were delicious! not overly sweet.

The price for each varied but total for this was 1860 yen (tax included).

Definitely for special occasions, I'm glad we got to try this and will be back whenever I need a special gift for someone.

Takeno to Ohagi (2023 UPDATE: no longer at this address)

1-21-11 Sakurashinmachi

Setagaya, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6413.1227

Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

Hours: 12:00-18:00 or earlier if they sell out

mori no ohagi

I've been wanting to try Mori no Ohagi for some time now but their hours were kind of inconvenient for me.

So, I was happy to find them being sold at Hankyu Department store in Umeda.

Ohagi is rice that is covered with sweet bean paste. If you are interested in more details, I've written about this before here.

Anyway, these ohagi were tiny. 6 for 900-something yen...a bit pricey.

But, they had unique flavors.

The top row was walnut, edamame (soy bean), kinako (soy bean powder). Bottom row was hoji-cha (roasted green tea), roasted corn and sweet bean paste.

Roasted corn was interesting, but totally matched because the corn is naturally sweet.

I wouldn't mind trying their other flavors. And I notice their hours have been changed to more convenient times...I'll be back.

Mori no Ohagi
2-25-10 Naka-sakurazuka
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6845.1250
Hours: 10:00-13:00, 14:00-19:00 (or until they sell out)
Closed Sundays & Mondays

salvage

The day I came back from Hawaii, I was unpacking and getting ready to get some sleep when Satoshi says, "Kat, I tried to make rice..."

"There was a little more than 2 cups so I dumped it all in, but when it finished cooking it was super dry"

"So, I added more water and cooked it again"

"It was super junky"

So, I went over to check out the rice cooker...yup, clumpy, goopy, rice...

I told Satoshi, "I'll try to make ohagi from it"

He said, "you can do that?"

Well, the picture above is what I tried making...mini ohagi. I rolled a little scoop of rice into a ball then molded some sweet bean paste around it.

I also dusted some with green tea, some with kinako (powdered soy bean) and some were just as is.

He was impressed, I still have more "junk rice" but at least I know it can be salvaged.

To read more about ohagi, check out what I wrote here

tsukiai & crochet

What a long day today was...I had my bead crochet class.
We made this napkin holder.

And this necklace was a project that I wasn't finished with by the end of our last class.

Last night and tonight, Satoshi had "tsukiai" parties with co-workers. "Tsukiai" means association, and they do this by going drinking. Last night's "tsukiai" was a farewell party for some co-workers and tonight's "tsukiai" was a welcome party for new co-workers...why they couldn't put the two together is a bit odd to me. Ask Satoshi and he'll tell you that "tsukiai" is the MOST IMPORTANT LAW of being a company worker (salary-man as they are called here)...yeah, yeah...go drinking, but be able to wake up in the morning and don't fall asleep in the "furo" (bath)!

Anyway, since he didn't need dinner last night, I decided to make myself something simple, baked rotini with pesto cream sauce. It came out pretty good and I put together a salad to go with it.


After my class today, I popped into the Hanshin Department store. If you've ever gone shopping in a Japanese Department store, you'll know that in the basement they have their prepared foods and grocery section (for you aisle roamers out there this is the place to roam!). I went to check out the prepared area for a bento or something for dinner. I went to one of my favorite vendors, Mamehachiro. I like this vendor because they use a lot of beans in their dishes. I bought a seafood kakiage donburi. Kakiage is a kind of tempura. Tempura is usually shrimp or vegetables that are separately battered lightly and then fried crispy. Kakiage are different ingredients mixed together such as shredded carrots, sliced onions, green beans, corn which are lightly battered together then fried. Donburi means bowl. It was very filling.

I also bought myself dessert, ohagi. Ohagi is mochi rice that hasn't been pounded into mochi (rice cakes) yet, then is covered with "an" sweet red bean paste. This ohagi had a strawberry in it (sorry the picture is a bit blurred). It was very good and not too sweet.

I didn't have time to take a nap so I'm kind of hanging a bit...