this and that

Monday, it rained all.day.long.

A typhoon that was near Okinawa, boomeranged and came back towards Honshu.

It hit Tohoku and Hokkaido on Tuesday.

Can you believe that this is the 3rd or 4th (I can't remember) typhoon to hit Hokkaido this year?! They almost never get typhoons their way.

Tons of melons, pears, potatoes and onions, wasted by the storm.

I hope these farmers will be able to make ends meet.

Tuesday, the weather was cool! Like 10 degrees different from what we've been experiencing AND no humidity.

We had a notice that the gas company would be coming between 9:00-17:00 to change our meter.

Satoshi called them on Sunday to see if they could come in the morning.

The guy on the other end, said that he would put us down for the morning as a request, but wasn't sure when the guy doing the actual job would be able to come by.

9:15, the guy to change the meter came...9:30 he was finished and moved on to another resident's apartment! Whoo!

Talk about efficient.

Since the weather was so nice, I went for a walk. First time, since coming back from Hawaii.

Was nice to get out and about.

I hear that the temps will go back up later this week, so will enjoy this cooler weather while I can.

How are things where you are?

vegetti

After seeing Deb's post, using spiralized veggies.

I was intrigued in getting a spiralizer for myself.

Of course, not wanting to invest too much money into the gadget, I looked online as I was debating between the vegetti and the microplane versions.

What sold me on the vegetti was the safety cap.

It helps you spiralize the very end of the veg without having to put your fingers in danger.

After washing half a zucchini and a small carrot, I used the "thin" side and came out with a l-o-n-g piece of zucchini and a l-o-n-g piece of carrot.

Even though this was "thin" the "noodles" seemed quite thick.

Satoshi was impressed at how you can use almost all of the vegetable.

We cut the remaining parts of the vegetable and tossed it in with our "noodles".

For our first experiment, we tried making kakiage (vegetable tempura).

Besides the zucchini and carrots, we added some red onion, okra, shiso, myoga and shrimp.

The bulk of these came out limp because a) the recipe for the koromo (batter) didn't instruct needing an egg, so it didn't hold anything together and b) my "helper" was impatient while frying these up.

After adding the egg to the batter and waiting a little longer while they fried, these came out quite crisp.

I'm glad we tried this, and look forward to trying different experiments with other vegetables.

bake

A well-known Sapporo sweets shop, Kinotoya, branched out and started selling these cheese tarts, under the name BAKE.

Last August, they opened a shop at Hanshin's food floor and of course the lines were krazy!

A year later, I finally got to try them.

On their instruction sheet they said you could eat it cold, frozen, room temperature or warmed up.

I enjoyed this cold.

The cream cheese was tart and the crust more like a cookie.

I'm glad I was able to try this without having to stand in line.

I'll be back.

BAKE
Hanshin Department Store, B1
Umeda, Osaka
Phone: 06.6348.8502
Open from 10:00-20:00 (Sun, Mon, Tues), 10:00-21:00 (Wed-Sat)
Closed when Hanshin Department Store is

jizobon & gangara fire festival

Yesterday was Jizobon, where people give thanks to Ojizoson, who watches over the children.

I noticed all the tiny shrines around our shopping arcade decorated with chochin (paper lanterns) and offerings. There were also some priests sitting in front of some of the shrines saying prayers.

This was my first time seeing this and I had to look online to figure what it was. (learned something new!)

Satoshi said that when he was a child, Jizobon was celebrated at the furoya-san (public bath), dunno if they have tiny shrines, next door to MIL's. When I asked him what they did, he said they just played games and ate candy...

Last night was also the Gangara Fire Festival, which I've written about before, here.

Summer seems to be coming to a close with all these events, but the weather dude says that the heat & humidity will continue to linger awhile.

boxed water

Awhile back we received this 20 liter box of mineral water from Satoshi's friend.

Satoshi says we received one many moons ago from the same friend, but I don't remember. (sorry!)

Anyway, I was really impressed with the nozzle to pour the water.

It looks like those tabs when you open a shoyu or vinegar bottle here in Japan.

But, instead of a soft plastic, it is kinda stretchy like a rubber band.

Pull on it and the water comes out, release and the water stops.

Sorry I couldn't get a shot of the water coming out.

We opened the box at the beginning of August and are almost finished drinking the 20 liters...we really appreciated this gift (thank you!)

inagawa fireworks

I think I told you how bummed we were to see that apartment complex come up last year, here.

Well, between the two buildings (the new apartment and an older one), we could see the fireworks...whoo!

Here's a short video.

café quarirengue

Most times when we go to Kyoto, we visit MIL, so we don't do much holo-holo (galavanting).

I've had Café Quarirengue bookmarked for awhile now, so it was nice that we could check it out this past Saturday.

I ordered their coffee jelly parfait...vanilla ice cream, topped with cornflakes, some candied walnuts and coffee gelatin...delicious!

Satoshi ordered their matcha cake with a coffee...the cake was dense like cheesecake...so good!

The ceramics that they served everything in were so pretty.

Even though the heat and humidity was pretty miserable, I'm glad we got to check this place out.

I'll be back!

Café Quarirengue
74-4 Yanagihachimancho
Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto
Phone:075.213.4485
Closed Fridays
Hours: 11:30-18:00