bruh

I told you that whenever Satoshi has a tour, he focuses only on the tour and everything he does at home is krazy...

Well, “he said” he was gonna wash his bento stuff before leaving...

not, this was after he had left...
 

and he also forgot his charger stuff...

hope he was able to take the family to Mount Koya safely...

bruh

so the knobs on the closet doors in our apartment entry way are old

dunno if it is as old as the building (40+) but they are old

and because they are plastic, well, they were already cracked when we moved in

the other day, when I opened my closet door, part of the base cracked off 

so I removed it and took it to the DIY shop to find another knob

I found one, but not the same color as the door

my plan is that whenever we move, I put back the cracked knobs on the closet door, and take the knobs that I bought with us...

I wiped the door, but the ring doesn't come off...boo!

and guess what?! "someone" still hasn't noticed that I changed the knobs..ha!

busy busy

Last Friday, Satoshi had a family from Switzerland that he took around Tokyo

That evening he caught a bus to Kyoto arriving early Saturday to check on the things he wants BIL to keep for him

(Before leaving for Kyoto he asks me “Kat what you think I should I do with all my knick knacks from small kid time?”

I told him, “no ask me because I’m gonna tell you to get rid of it”)

Saturday lunchtime, he went to Hiroshima to meet up with a tour guide friend that invited Satoshi to accompany his tour to Shikoku, to see what the tour was like.

Saturday afternoon he caught a boat to Matsuyama

Sunday they were in Kagawa and Tokushima, in areas we visited before.

Monday they were making soba and crossing scary bridges

Tuesday was rainy all day but they visited areas they had scheduled

Wednesday was the last day of their tour, he made it back in time for his German language online class.

Thursday he went back to "work" work.

busy busy...

no touch

Our building has light switches on each floor for the lights in the hallways.

Since Satoshi’s job is related to energy, he says he is always trying to "conserve energy"...though he cannot remember to turn off the light in the bathroom and when he works from home the lights are on all day...sigh

Anyway, as he goes down the stairs to the lobby of our building, he turns off the hall lights on each floor.

I told him to stop doing that because the lights might be on some kind of timer.

But, he no listen to me...

Especially the lights in the lobby, I told him, it is probably on so that the security camera can see who is in the lobby.

Anyway, he is stubborn and keeps turning them off.

Well, this was the lobby light switch today...ha!

At least the lobby light will always be on...

it’s no joke

Guess who got a job?

He starts today.

It is totally different from what he used to do.

He said the company is in Kanagawa (luckily only 5 minutes by train) and has something to do with energy.

So weird because according to Satoshi, “early retirement” in Japan has the nuance that “the company “made you” quit”, which allowed him to collect unemployment benefits as long as you show proof of looking for a job.

Over the year, he had online interviews, as well as interviews in person, met with a work counselor and also went to the Hello Work (an organization that helps you find a job).

He realized how much his company had done for him over the years…paying various taxes (from his salary)..he had to pay these taxes monthly over the year.

Gonna miss my walking partner.

I’ll need to get into the groove of waking up early to make bento again.

Not looking forward to ironing.

I think he is looking forward to getting out of the house.

Pandemic case numbers going up again…

Have a safe weekend.

satoshi's videos

Here are Satoshi's videos...they are in German though.

He did these himself, impressive yeah?!

If you point the Google Translate's Camera at the video, it will translate from German to English while you watch it.

Enjoy!

this and that

Came across blood oranges and bought some but most were dried out...boo!

Satoshi's co-worker also received the early retirement package and they had lunch together the other day.

He gave Satoshi these sweets as a thank you! we hope he enjoys his retirement!

When Satoshi and I were out walking we stumbled upon a new (to us) area...Umeyashiki.

Love the store fronts.

Like this fruit stand that has been in business for over 70 years.

Oogoshi makes all sorts of okazuya, main dishes as well as side dishes and has also been in business for over 70 years.

We tried their kakiage, a fried mix of shrimp and veggies...so good and not oily.

Saito Seimen which has been in business since 1961 makes noodles.

The cute grandpa that makes the noodles also makes yakisoba (fried noodles).

So delicious!

Sakaeya Bakery is also run by a nice elderly couple.

It is a little farther away from Umeyashiki, but I am glad we got to try them.

Their prices are super reasonable and look at how much custard cream is in their cream pan....filled to the gills.

Nearby Sakaeya Bakery is this pocket park...with a beautiful wisteria tree!

We also picked up Kirin Coffee's atsugiri tamago sandwich...a thick omelette sandwich with a little mayo and okonomiyaki/tonkatsu type of sauce.

We look forward to eating breakfast and lunch, actually just hanging out here when it is safer to eat in.

Satoshi went on two guide excursions last Saturday & Sunday...this is where he was on Sunday...Lake Ashi.

And the Hakone Open Museum...he says it isn't for "play"....yeah, but look how beautiful the weather is.. 

He was scheduled to go to Nikko tomorrow but it has been postponed because of our “stay at home” orders.

Last Tuesday I had a dental emergency....and after some discussion with the dentist, we pulled out one of my molars this past Tuesday because the gum was so weak and every time I would eat something it would be pretty painful with the tooth wiggling around.

There is a wisdom tooth that seems to be coming in, so hopefully it will fall into the extracted tooth's space.

There might be a little loss in translation, but did you know that Japanese in Kansai (West Japan) believe that when your upper baby tooth falls out, you throw it under the house so that the adult tooth will come in straight and strong...the lower baby tooth is thrown on the roof of the house so that the adult tooth will come "up" straight and it was also believed that it would come in strong like a rat's.

I'm sad that he had to pull it out, but glad there is no pain now...and how cute is the case that the dentist put my extracted tooth in.

Japan's case numbers have taken off due to the variants.

Unfortunately, in the past couple of weeks this non-aggressive type of state of emergencies have not been working.

On top of that Golden Week is coming up and it doesn't look too good with people all antsy to travel and get out and about.

Have a safe weekend everyone.

Oogoshi

2-4-3 Kamata

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3738.2036

Closed Sundays

Hours: 9:30-18:30

Saito Seimen (UPDATE: 2024 no longer in business)

2-1-4 Kamata

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3732.2621

Closed Sundays

Hours: 10:00-18:00

Sakaeya Bakery (UPDATE: 2024 no longer in business)

1-11-9 Omori Minami

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: n/a

Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 6:00-18:00, Saturdays 6:00-14:00

Kirin Coffee

7-7-20 Omori Higashi

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.6424.4275

Closed Mondays

Hours: Tuesdays-Fridays 7:00-20:00, Saturdays-Sundays 8:30-20:00

the start of something new

Back in December, I wrote this post, not knowing whether we would be able to stay in Tokyo or not.

If you didn’t know, Satoshi was working for a travel agency.

Over the years there have been things that have hampered travel like SARS, 9.11 just to name a few, but we were thankful that Satoshi’s company kept everyone employed.

Fast forward to this pandemic bringing business down, WAY down.

Luckily, his company was offering an early retirement package BUT only to a set number of people so even if he applied, there was a chance he might not receive the package.

We are thankful that they were even offering something, many other businesses in Japan were not.

Thankfully, he was approved and starts his “retirement” today.

Satoshi says he will study more German and eventually use his guide’s license to apply for translating/guide work.

I don’t think I can “retire” from housewife-ing though I will start to “train” him to do more around the house...

Since I don’t have to make Satoshi’s bento, I can wake up a little later...whoo!

I am also happy I don’t have to iron any more too (it's the little things!)

We are looking for somewhere to move to, but for the moment, we plan to stay where we are in Tokyo.

Hopefully this pandemic will be over soon or we can get vaccinated, so we can do things other than “stay at home”.

Just wanted to tell you what is happening and to thank you for always being a part of our adventures.

semi-rant

Proof that the other person in this house throws out the silverware...

and you know I have to take a photo because "that person" refuses to believe he is throwing it out...

And then the other day when his butt kept dialing my phone 3 or more times in a matter of seconds...

Not too bad if I was the only one he was bothering, but his butt apparently has called others too...sigh.

Hope you are having a nice week.
 

patisserie l'authentique

It's Satoshi's birthday today.

Unfortunately, he's been working late, so we celebrated a day early.

I put together some pupu (appetizers) and we had a glass of rose.

Cake from Patisserie L'Authentique, a shop in Saitama Prefecture which was being featured at Shinjuku Isetan.

While the cake was delicious, my only peeve was their overboard use of tape!

Taping the cake down to the box, as well as taping the ice packs in...

It was pretty frustrating getting the pieces of cake out (I cut the box so that I could gingerly get the pieces off the tape without it flying around!)...still, I'm glad we tried them.

I wish Satoshi a year of good health and happiness.

For always putting up with me.

Happy Birthday!

a-ha moment

I think every once in awhile, we all have an a-ha moment.

Recently while Satoshi and I were talking about ika (squid), he was saying that there were activists against the way that squid was killed the minute it was caught so that it could maintain the freshness of the squid.

Which got us to talking about how veggies may even have "life", so would it be wrong to "kill" them too?

And then I mentioned how when we say "itadakimasu" before eating, it is to let the food know that we are receiving their lives.

That is when the a-ha moment hit Satoshi, you should've seen his face light up.

All his life he thought that "itadakimasu" just meant, "thank you for the meal", and "thank you to the person who made it".

Afterwards, I let him read my post about itadakimasu & gochisoosama.

He was quite impressed that I knew this, and now I'm glad he knows this too...

made it...and a funny story

Made it back. We were actually scheduled to arrive early but had to wait for some kind of clearance so we ended up landing at the original arrival time.

The plane was filled with lots of families with little ones, so it was quite noisy. I was seated in between of two men, one who kept dozing off on my shoulder...geez!

I got to see "Mamma Mia" which was a nice musical and "Inside Out".

Immigration was krazy with all the visiting foreigners, I'm glad they re-vamped the way foreigners living in Japan go through, so we don't have to wait in the krazy lines!

The weather has gotten significantly cooler, and there was a slight drizzle yesterday.

Since I was arriving on a weekday, I asked Satoshi to pick up some things over the weekend, so that we could have breakfast the day after I came back.

Well, this is what happens when you ask your husband who grew up in the city to buy bananas...he sticks them in the fridge.

He then was shocked that they turned black.

After rolling on the floor with laughter...I told him "when have you ever seen bananas in the refridge? they are tropical fruits and need the "warmth" of the outside"

Of course, afterwards, Satoshi says, "Kat, you don't need to blog about this"

Oh, but I must!

Needless to say, most of the bananas were inedible this morning.

On the up side, we tried blog reader, Ryan's mom's ohelo (oh-hello) berry jam. So good! If you are not familiar with ohelo berries they are similar to cranberries.

Thanks again Ryan!

I need to re-train my sleep pattern so as not to wake up at 4:30 when my "niece" used to wake the household to be fed her breakfast.

I hope my bags will be delivered on time today, am interested to see if TSA touched the insides or not.

Have a good week everyone.

a year older & hopefully wiser

Last Monday night, Satoshi came home all depressed.

He dropped his phone in a stream close to our place.

Imagine, 10-something at night, I am shining a teeny flashlight and he is in that stream (the photo above) looking for his phone.

Luckily we found it.

We put it into a container with those silica gel packets hoping for it to absorb all the water...

The next day we went to the cell phone shop to see if they could retrieve his data...nope.

Among the things that were deleted were all his photos.

You might be saying, "how come you don't use the iCloud?" well, for some reason, it doesn't work with our computer.

They let him use a loaner phone until they could get a replacement for the one that got soaked.

And luckily with his phone insurance the replacement would cost a little less.

Moral of the story: don't text or even try to pull it out of your pocket while walking

Actually, this isn't the first time his cell phone has gone into water...still, I hope he learned his lesson.

Today is his birthday, hopefully with becoming a year older, he's become a little wiser too.

Happy Birthday Satoshi!

funny

I know Satoshi tries his best when it comes to pronunciation of words in English, but sometimes it is just so funny what he hears and what he says.

Once we were talking about Victoria's Secret and he said they sell "blahs" yeah?! I said, "bras", he said, yeah, "blahs".

And then another time we were talking about "pride" and he says, "plied"...

The funniest was when I was talking about "baguette", you should know that most Japanese call "baguette", "france pain (pahn)" and don't call or know it is called "baguette".

So, when I was talking about "baguette", Satoshi motions with two pointer fingers and motions out a square "bucket"...

Poor guy, hope he does well on the TOEIC test he's taking today...

nostalgia

The other time we visited MIL, she brought out some old baseball shoes...they were Satoshi's.

From like when he played little league...many, MANY moons ago.

Why she still has these things? Don't ask, I think there are some pack-rat issues...sigh.

These were made by Mitsuwa Tiger in Osaka. I don't think they make baseball shoes anymore but still do make some sports items.

Satoshi's favorite part of these shoes were these flip over tongues to protect your laces.

Another thing that was really old was his Spalding shoe bag, it had a nice zipper pull.

I wish my MIL and Satoshi would get rid of more things, and yet I'm glad we were able to take some photos of his things. (but I still want them to get rid of more things...)

"breakfast"

During the week, Satoshi usually comes home from work really late.

Like 23:00 or 24:00 (sometimes even later and it isn't because he is out drinking with clients or friends, like most "salarymen" (business men) are).

To feed him a "regular sized" meal at that late hour would be asking for trouble.

Most nights I feed him veggies or soup. Or if it is really late, like after midnight, just a glass of milk.

Kinda sad, since I know he is starving, but unless he comes home earlier, I don't want to risk him getting indigestion or other illnesses from eating so late.

Plus, feeding him a regular meal at that late hour, he wouldn't be hungry the next morning.

So most mornings, I feed him "dinner".

This could be loco moco with a side of chili.

Loco moco is one of Satoshi's favorites from Hawaii.

I cheat with package gravy but he is still happy with it.

Now that spring onions are in season, sauteed, they go nicely with the loco moco.

One morning was taco rice. A favorite of ours from Okinawa.

I think he likes the combination of chips and salsa, but I like it because it tastes "mexican".

Sometimes I serve him mentaiko (spicy pollack roe) or fish. Paired with rice and some tsukemono (pickled veggies).

Sometimes natto (fermented soy beans).

I try to feed him rice rather than bread because that is what he grew up on.

I also try to give him fresh fruit and some yogurt. I know it doesn't match with Japanese foods, but it is probably the only meal for him to get some fruit and calcium in.

Keeping late hours during the week, I try to squeeze in as many zzs as I can and usually wake up a half hour before Satoshi's alarm goes off.

This usually means I only have half an hour to prepare breakfast, though it usually takes him longer to pull himself out of bed. (He is definitely not a morning person! And who could blame him with his inconsistent sleeping habits.)

Because of the limited time in the morning, I usually cook what I will serve him the day before, then heat it up for his breakfast, especially if it is something complicated or takes some time to prepare.

In the morning, I also make a musubi for him to take with him to work which he usually eats at about 19:00 or 20:00 to tide him over until he comes home for "dinner".

Before we met, Satoshi's breakfast was a cup of coffee. Now that we are married, and he eats "breakfast", he says he can't live without it.

By the way, my breakfast is usually oatmeal, toast or granola, fruit & yogurt and my dinner is usually what Satoshi had for "breakfast".

I think I've asked you before, but what do you eat in the morning?

satoshi's tokyo adventure

Saturday, the weather was perfect...sunny! The day before seemed like an awful nightmare.

We got ready to go to visit the ballpark that Satoshi had played on and practiced at during his college days.

When we got there, we were surprised to find out that they were having a closing ceremony for the field! Satoshi was surprised, but very happy that we were able to see the field before the bulldozers tore it up.

After the ceremony, we walked around the neighborhood to visit a dry cleaner that Satoshi often visited during college. We were surprised to find out that they were no longer in business because the man passed away. Luckily we were able to visit with his wife for a bit.

We then took a taxi to an area near Satoshi's old apartment. It had been almost 20 years since the last time he had been in the area and a lot had changed. Luckily, we were able to find the barber shop that he frequented. The woman running the place knew Satoshi as soon as he walked in. They hugged and chatted about this and that. He had a nice visit with her.

Our last stop was to a coffee shop in Asagaya. Again, it had been almost 20 years since he visited and the area had a changed a lot. We finally found the place and the owners were just about to lock up for their dinner break. Luckily we were able to visit with them and Satoshi had a nice time reminiscing.

I'm glad we were able to visit the field before it was dug up and that we were able to meet all the people that he wanted to re-connect with. We send them New Years cards (like Christmas cards) every year, but it was nice to be able to see them face to face.

Have nice week.