golden week (first half)

How have you been?

Hope you haven't forgotten about us.

I've broken up this post into two parts...are you ready?!

Saturday, April 27, we went to visit MIL.

Before landing in Kyoto, we stopped in at Hikone, to visit the family grave, where MIL's brother was laid to rest.

We also had some coffee and sweets at Micro-Lady Coffee Stand, glad they are still in business.

Then we headed to Kyoto and had lunch at Dragon Burger.

We've been wanting to try this place every time we've gone to visit the family grave near Sennyuji.

Satoshi had the Wasabi Burger...he felt this one could've had more kick.

I had the Cacao BBQ Burger, the first bite was awesome, loved the BBQ sauce...after that, the texture of the burger seemed weird...chunky in places.

Still, I'm glad we got to try them.

After lunch, we visited the family grave and also went to visit Satoshi's Grandma's grave.

Dinner was an assortment of things, especially this impressive sashimi platter from a fish shop near MIL's called Kawaharu.

Sunday, April 28, we went to check out the fuji (wisteria) at the Toba Water Treatment Plant located in the southern part of Kyoto.

They had buses that ran from the Kyoto Station or Takeda Station to the plant for 100 yen one way.

It was great to see lots of wisteria blooming.

Monday, April 29, we got together with Hiromi and her family in Osaka.

Lunch was a buffet at Chedi Luang, a Thai restaurant which had lots to try.

There was also soft shell crab and egg curry...delicious!

It was nice to spend the afternoon with them and we were happy that they had some time to meet up. (Thank you!)

Tuesday, April 30, it was nice spending some time with MIL, we headed back to Tokyo after breakfast...everything on television was like a countdown to the new year, it was interesting to see the ceremonies that were performed for the outgoing emperor...Thank you Heisei!

Wednesday, May 1...Reiwa starts...it was neat to see the streets lined with flags congratulating the incoming emperor.

We tried the Denny's in our neighborhood for the first time.

Their cheese galette was delicious and less carbs than the original breakfast I was going to order.

After buying some groceries, we went to Nippori and had lunch at Bazoku.

They have hand pulled noodles and use handmade gyoza wrappers.

Their Sapkota curry noodles were delicious...if I remember correctly, this shop is owned by a Nepalese and this dish is named after him.

The curry wasn't too spicy and the noodles were quite thick, still I enjoyed this.

Satoshi had their tan tan men and gyoza.

He said he enjoyed this.

He is super picky about gyoza and didn't like these thick gyoza wrappers.

Me, I liked how it was crisp on the outside! and had a little chew to them.

After lunch we walked to Nezu Shrine to check out the azaleas, so pretty.

If you have time, pay the 200 yen admission to the azalea area, so worth it!

If you want to see more photos, please look here...I'll wrap up the rest of Golden Week tomorrow!

Chedi Luang
4-7-28 Kitahama
Chuo, Osaka
Phone: 06.6209.2000
Hours: 11:30-14:30 (Lunch), 17:30-23:00 (Dinner)

Bazoku
2-18-2 Nishi-Nippori
Arakawa, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3805.2430
Hours: 11:00-23:30

reconnect

Reconnected with J on Thursday.

When we first moved to Japan back in 2001 (pre-blog), J and her family also lived in the same company housing complex as we did.

Over the years, we've kept in touch through new years cards.

There was lots to catch up on since we hadn't seen each other since 2001.

Lunch was pepperoni pizza, bolognese pasta and house green salad at CPK and dessert at Eggs'n Things...my first time eating at these places in Japan.

Monster whipped cream topping on the pancakes! (and very lightly sweetened!)

The memory I have of eating at Eggs'n Things at their very first location (and at the time only location) on Kalakaua one Sunday morning has no whipped cream whatsoever...

(I think Japan has 10+ locations in various prefectures.)

Chocolate sauce on the side to drizzle and a little coconut syrup (there was also maple syrup & guava syrup that you could use too)...so good!

It was nice catching up and reconnecting, I hope we can do it again soon.

CPK (California Pizza Kitchen)
Lazona Kawasaki 4F
Kawasaki, Kanagawa

Eggs'n Things
Lazona Kawasaki 4F
Kawasaki, Kanagawa

p.s. Golden Week (GW) starts today, we'll be off the grid for the most part (though I may update on Instagram)...I'll update here after GW ends on May 7...be well everyone!

ume takikomi gohan

Tried an easy recipe the other day, Ume Takikomi Gohan.

Takikomi Gohan is a style of cooking rice (gohan) with dashi (stock), soy sauce, veggies, and sometimes proteins.

Since I had leftover dashi after making oyakodon, I wanted to use some of it and found this recipe...on Sirogohan.

Serves about 4
2 cups rice, washed
2 or 3 umeboshi (with seed)
300 mililiters dashi (stock) (about 2.5 cups)
2 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon shoyu (soy sauce)

After the rice is washed, let the rice soak in water for about 30 minutes.
Drain the water and add the rest of the ingredients.
Cook your rice using the "takikomi" mode (sorry I'm not sure what it is called on rice cookers in other countries)
After the rice is done cooking, remove the ume seeds and mix the rice gently, breaking up the ume flesh.
Serve and enjoy!

NOTES: this was so good! I didn't add the salt, if you are watching your salt, you might want to omit it too depending how salty your ume is.

I also served the ume seeds so we could "suck" on the flesh that was stuck on the seeds.

Definitely making this again.

oyakodon

The other night for dinner I made some oyakodon (literally parent-child bowl because it uses chicken and egg) to use up some rice that I had in the freezer.

I adapated a recipe from sirogohan...makes 2 servings

160 grams chicken thigh, deboned and cut into bite sized pieces.
sliced onion
4 tablespoons dashi (liquid stock)
4 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
2.5 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
2 teaspoons sugar
2 eggs
milk

In a non-stick pan, put the chicken and onions
Add the liquid ingredient and sugar and turn the heat on to medium
Cover and cook for about 3 minutes
Scramble the eggs with a little milk and pour half over the chicken and onions
Cover and cook for about a minute
Then add the other half of the scrambled egg
Cover and cook for about a minute
When the egg is cooked to your liking, spoon over rice
Serve with your favorite greens.

NOTES: this was super easy and delicious.

I served this with some sugar snap peas and a salad.

It was a nice way to use up rice that I had in freezer...I'd make this again.

kameido tenjinsha

Back in March, we visited Kameido Tenjinsha.

I bookmarked this area and waited for the fuji (wisteria) to bloom.

Tuesday was forecast for the last sunny day for the week, so I went to check it out.

Unfortunately with all the temperature ups and downs they haven't bloomed fully (the first photo is of one of the longest wisteria vines when I went)

We have other things planned for GW (Golden Week), so I'm not sure if I'll be able to go back and check it out again.

Still it was nice to see.

If you'd like to see some of the other photos I took, please look here.

tofu poke

If you don't eat raw fish or can't get your hands on fresh raw fish, using tofu in poke is a nice substitution.

I used 150 grams of firm tofu, half a packet of the NOH poke mix (a teaspoon of the Hawaiian salt and chili peppers), a teaspoon of sesame oil and added some green onions.

Mix well.

Make this ahead of time, so that the Hawaiian salt will melt.

NOTES: super easy and tasty. I plan to make this more often this summer.

pizza olive

A new kiosk opened up in the JR Kamata Station recently called Pizza Olive.

Since Satoshi didn't need dinner on Friday, I tried their seafood pizza...750 yen (tax included)

I like that they sell their pizzas in half sizes.

The thin crust was a little too hard for my liking.

But, there was various seafood (squid, shrimp, clams) and some veggies (bell pepper, mushroom) on the pizza.

I want to try their regular crust to compare...I'll be back.

Pizza Olive
JR Kamata Station, 2F
Ota, Tokyo