hattori ryokuchi park

Monday was a holiday, so we headed out to Hattori Ryokuchi Park. It was our first time here and was about a 15 minute walk from the Hankyu Sone Station. The park is 126 hectares or 311 acres.

Or as the Japanese like to say, it is 33 times the size of Koshien Stadium. I always wonder why they compare the size of things to baseball stadiums, not like I can visualize the size.

Anyway, lunch was leftover chinjaorosu, some rice and Asian pear.

I have to show you this new trick I just learned.

When you peel the skin of your Asian pear, don't peel it all the way. This will help keep it from turning brown without having to squeeze some lemon on it.

It was actually quite HOT this day, I think the temps were somewhere like 26C (78F).

And a little humid too..blah.

But, there were many out and about.

And with all the people at the park, there were also many lost children being called out over the PA system.

We checked out an area of the park where they have about 10 farm houses from around Japan.

I was kind of in awe of this because they have the actual sized houses, which means they need a LOT of land for this.

There is a small admission to go in to see these houses (500 yen), but we thought it was totally worth it to see the different types of farm houses.

Near one of the farm houses, I noticed there were a couple of chestnut trees and the "sea urchins" were all over the ground...so I sorta helped myself...(I was able to pick up 13)

This photo is for my blog friend, Jalna.

I hope to be able to share with you what I did with this chestnuts.

I also took this photo of this woman sitting in one of the farm houses, it's my favorite at the moment.

We're looking forward to checking out this park again for cherry blossom season.

foodie kind of weekend

Saturday, the sun was out but the temperatures were way down.

Since Satoshi had to work, I went for a walk.

There was a Mini that I spotted from the train and wanted to check out in person.

You should know that riding the train in our area gives pretty much a bird's eye view of things. Most of the time you get views that you would not see while walking.

This Mini was the first left-sided steering that I've seen here. It also had a nice gas flap.

On the way home, I stopped by Suigetsu Park and caught this group of grandpas chatting and having fun.

I then stopped into Family Mart and came across Muji's Banana Baum Kuchen drizzled with dark chocolate. after seeing Manju's post, this was the perfect snack.

Sunday, Satoshi had the day off and we decided to visit several temples for hatsumode (first prayers of the year).

In Sone, we stopped at Hagi-no-dera, which is known for their god of promotions & success.

Then we walked to Hattori, about 15 minutes.

On the way to Hattori, I told Satoshi that I wanted to stop to photograph another Mini that I always see from the train in a parking lot.

Unfortunately, the parking lot is manned, so I couldn't actually go into the lot to get pictures.

Instead, I stood outside the lot and took photos from under the fence.

I think these were the first photos I got of a MINI that were up close.

At Hattori Tenmangu, we prayed to the foot gods and thanked them for keeping our feet in good shape.

Then we walked from Hattori to Shonai, about 25 minutes.

Satoshi was feeling hungry so we picked up a curry croquette (80 yen about US$.80) & a wagyu (Japanese beef) (70 yen about US$.70) croquette from Niku Fuji.

These were right out of the fryer, hot and delicious, not to mention reasonably priced.

After our snack, we walked around Shonai a little more.

There is a music university and Satoshi wanted to see it.

I was impressed because they even have an opera house.

Lunch was at a tiny shop called Boss. Their specialty is curry.

On a cold day like Sunday was, hot spicy curry really hit the spot.

Satoshi couldn't decide and finally ordered the fried shrimp with curry set (950 yen about US$9.50), this came with a salad, fried shrimp and curry with rice.

Whenever you eat curry in Japan, it seems that most do not have "stuff" in it, just sauce.

This curry had bits of beef but not a lot more, t is quite spicy and you can ask them for a milder version if you like.

I chose the gyusuji nikomi (simmered beef gristle/nerf) curry set (800 yen about US$8), this came with a salad, a huge serving of curry with gyusuji pieces and a tiny lassi (yogurt drink).

Satoshi wants to go back on a weekday to try some of the other items on their menu.

The weekend flew by but there was lots of walking and eating.

Boss
2-1-23 Shonai-higashimachi
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6332.9550
Open 11:30-21:30, Days off not set, call before going

sone

Several weeks ago, we went to Sone and had a great time.

Well, it is rose season and I realized that we haven't had time to visit our favorite park this year.

As I rode the train one day, I noticed a tiny park with colorful blooms, Teshima park, located near the Hankyu Sone station.

So, on Tuesday, since it was semi-sunny, I went to check it out. Teshima Park had some roses here and there, but it seemed sparse and there were a lot of homeless guys drinking, which made it kind of creepy.

Next to the park is a baseball stadium called Toyonaka Rose Stadium (The rose is the Toyonaka city flower. By the way, the sasayuri (bamboo lily) is Minoo city's flower.)

Since I was in the area, I decided to also check out a bakery, Aix en Arles. This tiny bakery is located several streets from Vin Blanc and specializes in hard-type breads.

I bought a pizza 160 yen (about US$1.60), pain au chocolat 160 yen (about US$1.60) and a rye bread 110 yen (about US$1.10).

If you go to this bake shop and try this pizza, be careful not to break your teeth biting into this...boy, was it hard! but delicious...the sauce really tasted like a homemade ketchup, there was spicy sausage, maybe chorizo? and some cheese...simple but hard.

The pain au chocolat was more bready than flaky, I think I prefer flaky over bready though.

I sliced the rye bread, toasted it with pizza sauce, some leftover kefta meatballs and cheese and we had it for breakfast the next morning. This bread tasted more like sour dough and was chewy on the inside.

Tuesday was a great chance to get out and about, the weather here has been really overcast, raining here and there, kind of iffy. I think the rainy season will start soon here...maybe it already has?

Aix en Arles (UPDATE: this shop is no longer in business)
3-1-3 Chokojiminami, Sunshine Chokoji 1F
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6864.3920
Closed Wednesdays, Open from 7:30-19:00

Have a nice weekend!

foodie saturday

This past Saturday, Satoshi had the day off. After taking care of some appointments, we headed to Sone (so-nay) for lunch. (Sone is a couple of train stops from where we live.)

I had been looking through a foodie guide and they featured a little restaurant that served some enticing curry.

Bull's Kitchen is about 10 minutes from the Hankyu Sone station. They serve lunch and dinner and everything on their menu is meat! no seafood or chicken...just beef or pork.

Satoshi ordered the hamburger simmered in a clay pot--1200 yen (about US$12). This came out sizzling with a demi-glace sauce and some veggies. The hamburger was huge too (though it is hard to see under all those veggies). There was also an easy over egg (under the renkon). He said the hamburger was tasty and liked the sauce.

I ordered the beef curry--1000 (about US$10). This came in a l-o-n-g dish, with green beans, an eggplant, mushroom, carrot and renkon.

From the photo it looks like there was no meat, but there was ONE big tender piece. The curry was spicy and came with a cup of consomme.

I think we may go back to try their cutlet.

Up the street was Patisserie Vin Blanc, a cake shop I had read about before. They don't have a place to eat-in so we took out.

Satoshi got their caramel cocoa 330 yen (about US$3.30), this had a caramel mousse, almond cake, cream and coffee flavored cake. I got to taste a bit and it was really light with a light coffee flavor.

I chose the strawberry charlotte 330 yen (about US$3.30). This had a strawberry mousse layered between yellow sponge cake. The strawberry mousse was light and a little tart. The only bad part of this dessert was trying not to crunch on the seeds from the grapes.

A couple of doors down from Patisserie Vin Blanc was Butter Flake, which was also noted in the foodie guide. This tiny bakery had all kinds of breads and really cheap. Satoshi picked up their mixed sandwich 262 yen (about US$2.62), which was filled with egg salad and ham. He said that it was tasty.

I chose the tea melon pan, a soft milk bread flavored with Earl Grey topped with a sugary coating 116 yen (about US$1.16).

Whenever I go to the bakeries I usually don't get melon pan (the calories are kind of high, I've heard it to be around 340 calories)--because the top is made by putting puff pastry and then sprinkle sugar on the top of the milk bread). But I couldn't resist trying something flavored with Earl Grey. I am glad I tried it. Though it was sweet, the tea flavor really shined.

The weather is getting warmer, I think over the past couple of days the temps were 28C (82.4F) and 29C (84.2F)...yikes!

I am glad we were able to try some new places.

Bull's Kitchen
2-12-5 Sonehigashinocho
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6864.5537
Closed Tuesdays
Lunch: 11:30-14:00, Dinner: 18:00-22:00 (UPDATE: 10/2012 this shop no longer in business)

Patisserie Vin Blanc
1-3-5-101B Chokojiminami
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6866.6901
Closed Wednesdays
Open 10:00-20:00 (take out only)

Butter Flake
1-2-6 Chokojiminami
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6866.1936
Closed Sundays
Open 7:00-19:00

foodie kind of weekend

Saturday, Satoshi and I ran some errands in Umeda. The place we intended to eat at for lunch was unfortunately closed due to the New Year, so we walked around trying to find some place that was open for lunch. We walked past the Marubiru and stopped in at Cante for lunch. I tried this place but a different location with Tamakikat.

This time, I had the tandoori chapati and a marsala chai. Both were delicious and hit the spot.

Satoshi had a dish called dry curry and jasmine tea. The curry had no liquidy sauce. It was a bit sweet but still spicy.

His jasmine tea came with this teeny glass. I think he filled this about 10 times before emptying the pot.

Sunday, we did Hatsumode (visited the shrines and temples to ask for good wishes and thank the gods for everything for the past year).

We stopped at Sone for lunch. This little restaurant only seats 12. I had the Italian omurice. Omurice is a ketchup based fried rice covered or enveloped with a fluffly omelette. This version was good, though the tomato sauce was a bit sweet.

Satoshi had the Japanese style spaghetti with tuna, grated daikon(long white radish) and a shoyu (soy sauce) based sauce. The only thing we didn't like about this dish was that there was LOTS of mayo squirted on top.

For our tea time, we tried these Chamorro Gold Macadamia Nut cookies, which Satoshi brought home from Saipan. Chamorro are the people of the Marianas Islands. These cookies are made in Guam and are very light, buttery and crisp. These cookies have a serving size of 18 cookies. According to Satoshi, he ate his 18 (he actually checked them off as he ate each one)....

Hope your week is going well.

Cante Grande
Marubiru B2
Osaka
Phone: 06.6341.7377

Papa Angelo
3-3-22 Sonehigashino-cho, Viking Building 1F
Toyonaka, Osaka
Phone: 06.6867.1117