this and that

Found this assorted peanut snack, some peanuts are covered with a rice cracker shell, there are also some peas in there too, love it. 

Supermarket wood oven style pizza...loved the crust! and that this quattro formaggi (4 cheese) came with a little container of honey to drizzle on the pizza after heating up.

I do think they need to note that there is that container of honey included AND they need to put instructions on how to warm up the pizza...

The fence at nearby Kumano shrine is metal! it looks like a woven cloth, yeah?!

Bummed that I had to throw out 1 blood orange...

saw this interesting objet...the title of the piece is "toraboruta"

if you look carefully at it...it is a tora (tiger) that is bolted (chained up).

"toraboruta" is also the pronunciation of travolta, as in John Travolta...ha! 
 

The sunrises have been pretty spectacular...

I found taiyaki filled with sakura filling...stashed a couple in the freezer.

There are 2 more weeks for the State of emergency, but it seems that Tokyo has plateaued at 300 cases a day...hopefully we can get our number down even lower.

Japan has finally started to vaccinate but at the pace they are going the experts say it will take a couple of years?! 

Hopefully they will be able to get things moving...

Hope you are doing well, have a safe weekend.

spring is coming

Spring is coming...some days slowly, some days with lightning speed.

Sakura foods are slowly coming out of hibernation.

We recently shared this sakura filled taiyaki from Naruto Taiyaki Honpo.

Sweetened white bean paste mixed with minced salted sakura flowers and leaves.

Filled all the way to the tail.

Delicious!

Like the chestnut paste filled one, I hope to get a few into the freezer before the filling flavors change...

gaienmae & azabujuban

Wednesday, Satoshi had the day off, so we went to check out the ginkgo trees near Gaienmae.

The tops are kind of dried out, but the lower part of the trees are turning yellow.

We had lunch at Shake Shack because "someone" was starving and didn't want to look for somewhere else to eat.

He had the single shack burger while I tried the shack-cago dog...this dog was disappointing...

They cut the sausage lengthwise to cook it and the bun fell apart...messy eats.

Then we walked to the National Art Center of Tokyo.

We didn't go inside but I'm sure Satoshi will when there is an exhibit he is interested in is there.

Taiyaki from Naniwaya Sohonten in Azabujuban.

They are one of the oldest in Tokyo...in business since 1909?!

The outside has a little chew but it is filled to the tail with chunky sweet bean paste.

We thought the weather was forecast for rain but it turned out to be a great day out and about.

National Art Center of Tokyo
7-22 Roppongi
Minato, Tokyo
Closed Tuesdays
Hours: 10:00-17:30

Naniwaya Sohonten
1-8-14 Azabujuban
Minato, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3583.4975
Closed Tuesdays and every 3rd Wednesday
Hours: 10:00-19:00

naruto taiyaki honpo

Near the JR Kamata station, there is a Naruto Taiyaki Honpo shop.

We had one at Ishibashi station when we lived in Osaka...they actually are all over Japan.

Recently though I've been seeing the taiyaki being filled with seasonal things like apple (this was delicious and was like eating apple pie).

This particular one though was filled with chestnut and so far my fave.

Hope to eat this again before the season filling changes.

ishinomaki-sendai

The next day, we awoke to sun, but the wind was icy.

The hotel we stayed at had a lot of construction workers, probably people helping Ishinomaki rebuild.

I was impressed with how hearty the breakfast bento was.

Ishinomaki is the second home to artist, Ishinomori Shotaro, creator of characters like Kikaida, Kamen Rider to name a few.

During the tsunami, many of the statues of his characters were washed away.

I'm glad they got this museum up and running again, even though I am not too familiar with all the characters, this was nice to see.

Not too many businesses were open, since it was a national holiday, so we headed back towards Sendai.

We were feeling a little hungry and shared this bacon, cheese taiyaki from Taiseien.

As well as one filled with sweet bean.

Since we were used to the sweet version it was nice to try a savory one.

This tiny shop used to be in the temporary shopping arcade that was put up after the tsunami.

It was nice to see that they were doing business from a permanent shop now.

From Ishinomaki, it is about 40 minutes to Matsushima.

Apparently Matsushima is one of three beautiful spots to see in Japan (the other two are

Itsukushijima (Miyajima, Hiroshima) &

Amanohashidate (Kyoto)

This photo was taken back in 2001, when we first visited Matsushima.

I was sad to see that most of these trees had been knocked down by the tsunami.

Luckily, the temples, Entsuin and Zuiganji at the end of this walkway were not badly damaged.

At Entsuin, you need to pay admission, but once inside, this cute grandpa, took us on a free tour of the grounds.

His narrative was interesting and fun to listen to.

It made the temple and its grounds more interesting to look at.

And then we headed to Sendai.

I was impressed with Sendai station's vehicle rotaries and pedestrian overpasses.

After putting our things down and resting a bit, we went in search of dinner...

Ishinomori Mangakan
2-7 Nakaze
Ishinomaki, Miyagi
Phone: 0225.96.5055

Taiseien
no info online
Ishinomaki, Miyagi

Royal Mayflower Sendai
1-13-28 Honcho, Aoba-ku
Sendai, Miyagi
Phone: 022.262.5411

foodie saturday in kyoto

Saturday, Satoshi had to work, so I met up with Tamakikat for lunch.

She took me to Kani Doraku for my birthday. It was my first time here and they serve crab, lots of it...

And how neat is this wooden tool to scrape and "poke" out the crab meat?!

After lunch we did a bit of walking and came upon this tiny bakery.

Cute with the giraffe painted on the outside, yeah?!

Sidenote: Satoshi and I halved their an france (an pan) & curry france for our Sunday breakfast.

We loved the chewiness of the bread and there was a lot of filling. The an pan also had walnuts alongside the sweet bean paste.

After picking up some baked items, we then walked up towards Kiyomizu temple and stumbled upon this taiyaki shop.

They were having a special for their custard & chocolate filled taiyaki...only 100 yen!

I thought this was better than some taiyaki I've eaten before, the outside was crisp, almost like a waffle cone.

While walking past some shops we came upon Happy Bicycle.

The owner, an expat of Chile, makes these wire bicycles. This particular model is made from 1 piece of wire!

He also had one which cheered on the Tohoku area.

We ended our day at a retro coffee shop called Otafuku Coffee.

Their prices are reasonable and their coffee delicious. Downside of this place was that there weren't many seats and they allow smoking.

All in all, it was a great foodie day. Thank you Tamakikat!

Kani Doraku
525 Tenshojimae-cho, Sanjo Teramachi Nishi
Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto
Phone: 075.211.0671
Hours: 11:30-22:00

Pain Raku
458-2 Masuya-cho, Takatsuji-dori
Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto
Phone: 075.344.2378
Closed Sundays & Holidays
Hours: 10:00-20:00

Shiawase no Ougon no Taiyaki
5-126-2 Kiyomizu
Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto
Phone: 075.551.3160
Hours: 10:00-19:00

Otafuku Coffee
609 Teianmae-cho, Teramachi Shijo
Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto
Phone] 075.256.6788
Closed every 15th of the month
Hours: 10:00-21:30

amane

Wednesday, Satoshi had the day off.

It was a sunny day, so we did a lot of walking during the day then in the late afternoon I had an appointment.

After my appointment, we met for dinner.

Dinner was great and we were quite full, but upon passing the Hankyu department store, we saw a long line.

I thought it was kinda weird to see the line because they were approaching closing time.

So, we went to check out what the line was for and found this.

Amane's hane-tsuki taiyaki..168 yen (about US$1.68). Hane-tsuki literally means "with wings". This taiyaki has crunchy surroundings.

I think it is about 6 inches long. (Satoshi put his finger next to it for comparison.)

Amane is the name of a shop in Kichijoji, Tokyo. They are apparently in Osaka for a week to introduce their taiyaki to Osaka.

We bought one to share and ate it right outside of the store.

I think the "wings" were a bit too overdone for my liking, probably because it was the end of the day??

When you bite into it the sweet bean paste oozes out, no skimping here.

Hot off the presses this was a great treat.

Amane
1-1-9 Kichijoji hon-cho
Musashino, Tokyo
Phone: 0422.22.3986
Open 11:00-19:00

the past couple of days

After seeing Kirk's post on Chicago style hot dogs on Tuesday morning, I went out to find something close to it for lunch, but came up empty.

I did find a Hiroshima style okonomiyaki (550 yen about US$5.50), though. This was filling, lots of cabbage and yakisoba in the middle, but I was disappointed with the outside. Usually, Hiroshima style okonomiyaki has a thin crepe-like outside, this one was really eggy and thick. (Osaka style okonomiyaki has cabbage and other goodies mixed into the batter, so it usually turns out to be a thick fritter of sorts.)

Next to the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki were these taiyaki (120 yen about US$1.20). Taiyaki are baked in these tai (sea bream) molds and filled with an (sweet bean paste). This was disappointing too, the outside was really thick...more outside than bean filling.

Oh well...

On Tuesday night, I made the pancakes from the set that Satoshi received, for our breakfast on Wednesday. I also added a couple of handfuls of fresh blueberries into the batter.

I don't think the maple syrup in the set was 100%, it had a coffee flavor and was kind of watery, not the thick syrup that I was thinking of.

I also wanted to make candied bacon, but couldn't find the brand of bacon I liked at the store, so I just served it with some ham and the Darjeeling tea that came in the set...delish!

Thursday's breakfast was the leftover pancakes (from the mix I made 6, the bag said 4), ham, asian pear, leftover succotash & herb tea. This was the other tea that was in the set. The most outstanding flavor was mint, though the label said blue mallow, citrus peel and hibiscus (I think the label was wrong). It was still a good tea and breakfast.

After breakfast, Satoshi left for Tokyo and I had a lesson. After my lesson, I wandered around Takarazuka's Hankyu Department store. This store isn't as big as the main one in Umeda but they do have a food area.

I picked up this bento for my dinner at Yonehachi--750 yen (about US$7.50). I like this place because their rice is okowa and you can choose which ones you want. Just pick out the bento and tell them what okowa to fill the empty areas with. Some bento have 3 empty spaces, some 2. They had 4 choices of okowa and I chose the chestnut okowa and the shiso chirimen (perilla & whitebait) okowa. The main dish was a tofu "hamburger" (though it had no meat in it)...very filling.

Friday morning, I had another lesson, so I had my breakfast at Starbucks. Cranberry pancakes (the last time Starbucks had blueberry).

Lunch was at my favorite cafe, Per Caffe Bianco, as I was interested in seeing what kind of art would come with the iced cappuccino. There was no art, but they still make you feel special by putting it into this champagne glass.

Satoshi came home late last night and brought home these ningyoyaki (literally baked dolls) Like the taiyaki, it is baked in tiny molds the difference is that the outside is castella (an eggy sponge cake) and filled with an (sweet bean paste), the taiyaki outside is more like a waffle...delicious.I liked the packaging very festive. I think this is a picture of a matsuri (festival) in Asakusa. The house like thing that the people are carrying are called mikoshi. Mikoshi are tiny shrines. Different parts of Japan have different types of mikoshi. If I'm not mistaken, carrying the mikoshi gives you good luck and helps your wishes come true. Many men do this to wish for their wives health and households safety and children do this to wish for good grades and good health.

Remember the tomato that I threw into a pot?....looks like we'll have tomatoes soon! (hopefully before autumn rolls around)

It is Saturday, the candidates for our city council and mayoral election are out in full force, it is raining and gloomy and Satoshi is off to work.