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Sunday, it rained for most of the day.

Luckily Monday, the rain stopped but it was still very cloudy.

I saw a sliver of sun, so I got out and about.

I went through Hakusan Shrine.

And stumbled upon Zomyoin.

Then made it down to Tamagawa.

This area is always pretty.

Because it had rained Sunday, the ground was still wet, so no one was picnic-ing.

Then made my way home.

Hoping to check out more areas later this week.

If you are interested in checking out a little more photos/videos, please look here.
 

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Met up with V and her daughter A on Friday, it was a beautiful day. We went to Boulange D316 picked up some baked items for brunch and walked along the Tamagawa...saw Mount Fuji who was a little shy.

This chestnut scone was delicious....there were bits of chestnut as well as chestnut paste mixed into the dough.

I also had a fish sandwich...

The leaves were still turning but I loved all the different colors.

While eating, we were talking about what to do next.

V mentioned that she has always wanted to eat the 8 layer soft serve at Nakano Broadway.

She looked up how to get there and we were off!

Strawberry, pistachio, vanilla, chocolate, yakiimo (roasted sweet potato), ramune (carbonated drink similar to 7up/Sprite), cafe au lait, goma...there is also a sign that say you should eat this carefully because if it topples over, they will not make re-make it again!....1000 yen (tax included)

The small was 340 yen (tax included) and you could choose 1 to 3 flavors...so of course I chose 3!

Goma (sesame), chocolate and yakiimo (roasted sweet potato)

So good and the cone super crisp!

Oh and if soft serve isn't your thing, Daily Chiko also has a stand and eat udon shop next door....

We had to stand and eat our soft serve but V said that Daily Chiko also has some chairs to the side of their shop (which were being used when we were there)

The basement also had many tiny grocery shops and knick knack stores...I could see myself spending a lot of time here and will come back to explore the upper floors...

JR Nakano Station wall art

Then we went to shop at Shinjuku...everyone in Christmas mode...Louis Vuitton's lego display

And while A shopped at Sekaido, V and I went to Oiwake Dango Honpo to get dango!

I bought the “adult” mitarashi for Satoshi which has shichimi (7 spice) and sansho (Japanese pepper) mixed into the sweet salty mitarashi sauce and I also got him the yomogi (mugwort) which was topped with tsubuan (chunky bean paste)

For myself I bought yuzu an (citron mixed into a white bean paste, so good!), and kuri (chestnut sweet bean paste topped with whole chestnuts)

I hope V and A had a nice day and got to do, see and eat everything they wanted to.

Thanks for today V and A!

Daily Chiko

5-52-15 Nakano, inside Nakano Broadway B1

Nakano, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3386.4461

Hours 10:00-20:00

p.s. if you are interested in seeing other photos from the day click here

p.p.s. V, thank you so much for all these goodies!

sakura walk

Saturday, Satoshi had an online thingy with some tour guide friends, so I went to Umeyashiki to pick up our lunch.

Been watching this house because it has a huge sakura tree in their garden!

I’m glad I got to see it bloom.

The bakery I planned to pick up lunch from was not open, and the sign said they would be closed for awhile...hope the owners are okay...

So, I went a little further to Sakaeya Bakery.

Nearby is a park which we saw wisteria at last year.

Too early for wisteria, but, they had lots of sakura.

I hadn't realized that this park is called Former Nomigawa Green Space Park.

The park is at least a mile long (I think)

Loved the look of this house especially with all the plants.

Caught this one waiting for someone to let him in.

Crossing the tracks you could see some sakura...

This is the current Nomigawa.

Then after eating lunch, Satoshi and I went towards Tamagawa.

This is the view from the Tamagawadai Park.

Next door is the Tamagawa Sengen Shrine.

Cannot touch all the power stones now...pandemic protected.

View from the Shrine.

Tamagawa had tons of people.

Little uncomfortable for me to see these crowds.

But, you should’ve seen all the food & booze! was kind of like pre-pandemic…

27055...short video here.

ps this may the last sakura walk for the year, it rained all day Sunday and is forecast to rain all day today (Monday) too.

Hoping next year we all can travel.

saturday

Saturday we had breakfast at Columbia...it might not look like it but their portions are a bit small, dunno if we'd go back for breakfast but it was nice to check out.

Afterwards we walked towards the Tama river and stopped into Mickey, a bakery that apparently has been around for about 20 years.

We picked up some items for lunch...their ham and egg sandwich, egg sandwich, fish sandwich and keema curry pan.

The curry pan was disappointing not much filling, but the others were delicious...I'm sure we'll be back whenever we are nearby.

It was nice to be able to see Mount Fuji from the Tama river.

To cross over to Kanagawa you need to cross the Tama river, and the Keikyu and JR lines do just that.

There is a really low area underneath the Keikyu line that you can pass under, I shot a short video of it here.

From here we walked back home stopping at Zoshiki to find something for dinner.

We stumbled upon an izakaya, Miraku, selling their oden...earlier that morning I was watching an episode of "Cool Japan" and they were talking about oden.

I thought it was kismet when we stumbled upon some, so we picked up 2 servings for our dinner. (1 serving was only 300 yen (tax included))

It didn't quite match with red wine but it was definitely a change from our usual weekend pupu dinners.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Mickey

2-23-13 Tamagawa

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3758.467

Closed Mondays

Hours: 7:00-19:00

Miraku

2-16-13 Nakarokugo

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3732.0735

Open daily 17:00-21:00

tamagawadai park

I've known about this park since we moved here, but it was my first time to check it out.

This park is about 15 minutes by train from where we live and is next to the Tamagawa Sengen Shrine

There are many kofun (historical burial mounds) throughout the park and some cherry trees, and if I am not mistaken there are about 3000 hydrangea plants.

There were many families out and about especially with their dogs.

In the park is a little pond with water lilies...so pretty!

This little guy had a net so big, not sure what he intended on catching with it, but I'm pretty sure he would fit in it!

It was a beautiful area to walk around and hard to believe this was in Tokyo.

I'm glad we checked out this place and it was nice to bond with nature for a little bit...we'll be back.

Tamagawadai Park

1-63-1 Denenchofu

Ota, Tokyo

Open daily

sakura walk (tamagawa)

 I went back to the Tamagawa area last Wednesday.

Here is a short video that I made with the Reels mode of Instagram.

There was music on it when I uploaded it to IG, but lost the music when I uploaded it to youtube.

Enjoy!

tamagawa to kawasaki

Yesterday, the weather was nice.

I wanted to check out a bulk foods shop, so I headed to Kawasaki, which is in Kanagawa prefecture.

Actually, it is close to where we live, only across the Tamagawa (Tama River).

I caught the train to Tamagawa station where I needed to transfer to another train line.

Since I was early and the shop wasn't open yet, I stopped into a bakery that caught my eye from the train...Nora Bakery.

Apparently they recently opened in mid-January...I had their bacon epi and a cafe au lait.

They heated up the epi for me...delicious!

I'll be back when I am in the area.

After lunch, I walked across the bridge to Kanagawa prefecture...

And found Bulk Foods.

You need to bring your own containers, or buy containers from them.

I was interested in buying some almond butter (maybe some peanut butter) and trail mix...

They need to weigh your container before filling, so make sure you tell their staff before filling up.

They didn't have almond butter so I just got some crunchy peanut butter and some trail mix.

The small plastic package of nuts was a freebie I received because the guy at the register couldn't figure out how to sign in to charge my charge card and I had to pay cash.

They are a bit pricey but I'm glad you can just buy the amount you want.

I'll be back.

Before catching the train home, I went shopping for dinner groceries...I noticed this chicken.

I guess they are trying to wean us off of styrofoam because they are packaging the chicken like this...plastic is not ecological either, but I guess until they think of another way to "package" things...

Oh and starting April, you will need to pay for bags at many shops.

Nora Bakery
1-55-10 Denenchofu
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6459.7037
Closed Mondays & Wednesdays
Hours: 9:00-18:00 (Saturdays & Sundays), 9:00-19:00 (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays)

Bulk Foods
769 Shinmaruko, Nakahara-ku
Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Phone: 044.322.9033
Closed every 3rd Thursday
Hours: 11:00-19:00