himmel

Himmel is a tiny German bakery on the platform of Tokyu Jiyugaoka Station (Oimachi line).

I tried their soft pretzel which was delicious.

Their main shop is in Ookayama, so I hope to check them out.

Himmel (Jiyugaoka) UPDATE:this location no longer in business)
on the platform of Tokyu Jiyugaoka (Oimachi line)
Meguro, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5731.8150
Hours: weekdays 7:00-22:00, weekends 9:00-21:00

p.s. can you believe we have another 3-day weekend?!..hope you have a nice weekend!

monday

Monday was a national holiday...Keiro no hi (Respect to Elders Day).

In the past, I've said this holiday is similar with Grandparents Day, but I think calling it "respect to elders" is more fair as everyone may not be a grandparent..

Anyway, the weather was blazing and humid.

We started off at the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden.

There are 9 metropolitan gardens around Tokyo and so far, the ones we've seen are huge!

Amazing to see in the middle of the concrete jungle.

The only thing with these gardens in the middle of the concrete jungle are the noises of the city.

Lunch was at Noda Shumai.

Delicious.

Cold Tan Tan Men... wish I brought my spoon with holes.

Loved how the spiciness crept up.

A really good bowl...hope to get back to try other items.

Rikugien is a garden that used to be the Iwasaki Family's property (owners of Mitsubishi).

Another beautiful huge property.

If you are also planning to visit the Kyu-Furukawa Garden, be sure to by the ticket that gives you a discount when you purchase your admission to Rikugien.

About a 20 minute walk away is the Kyu-Furukawa Garden.

Another beautiful (huge) property, this one will be pretty when their roses are in full bloom.

The Japanese area of the garden will be pretty when the leaves change color.

Then we walked 30 minutes or so to Sugamo.

The shopping arcade is huge!

We visited the Koganji Temple.

This temple is related to the one in Manoa.

It was so humid and warm that we stopped for shave ice at Mizuno.

Shio Daifuku (salty sweet bean paste filled rice cakes) is the main item at this shop.

They put the salty sweet bean paste on the bottom of the bowl and top the shave ice with a tiny daifuku.

The sweet-salty combo was perfect for the heat and humidity.

Lots of walking and eating and we got to see more of Tokyo.

Koishikawa Korakuen Garden
1-6-6 Koraku
Bunkyo, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3811.3015
Hours: 9:00-17:00

Noda Shumai
6-24 Honkomagome
Bunkyo, Tokyo
Phone: 03.53695.9940
Hours: 11:30-24:00

Rikugien
6-16-3 Honkomagome
Bunkyo, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3941.2222
Hours: 9:00-17:00

Kyu-Furukawa Garden
1-27-39 Nishigahara
Kita, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3910.0394
Hours: 9:00-17:00

Mizuno
3-33-3 Sugamo
Toshima, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3910.4652
Hours: 9:00-18:30

sunday

Sunday, Satoshi wanted to watch his college team play baseball.

So, while he did that, I went gallavanting around the Omotesando area.

I started off at Dominique Ansel Bakery.

This bakery is known for the cronut (croissant doughnut).

Apparently there are monthly flavors and this month happened to be grape with shiso (perilla).

I wasn't too interested in that, so I ordered the DKA (Dominique's Kouign Amann).

This was served warm...so so good.

Flaky and buttery.

My only peeve with this shop was that they do not ask you to find a seat before ordering, so there were people with their sweets, standing so close to me in essence "pressuring" me to finish my food stat!

I'll be back, hopefully when it isn't too crowded.

After leaving the shop, I took my first walk down Takeshita Street in Harajuku...

Talk about sensory overload!

Everything is about rainbows these days.

Not sure we should be eating all that food coloring though...

Then I went walking around an area called Cat Street and had an iced coffee at The Roastery.

This wasn't a good cup...I think it was because the server brewed the cup of coffee first then tried to get it cold by swirling it in some ice...

Not sure I'll be back here...

After the game, Satoshi and I met up and we had lunch at Tokyo Rice.

This shop specializes in Kids Meals for Adults.

In Japanese, Kids Meals are called O-kosama Lunch.

They have 3 types here...buggy which is a hamburger meal, veggy which is a salad meal, and ebi which is a shrimp meal.

Satoshi went with the buggy while I went with the veggy (photo above this one).

I enjoyed my meal while Satoshi felt his was too small...cash only during lunch time so be prepared.

After lunch we went to the Nezu Museum.

I must say, that the garden area is a little more impressive than the exhibits itself.

We'll be back when the leaves change color.

The warm weather is back, still there was lots of walking and eating.

Dominique Ansel Bakery (UPDATE: 2/2019 no longer in business)
5-7-14 Jingumae
Shibuya, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3486.1329
Hours: 10:00-19:00

The Roastery
5-17-13 Jingumae
Shibuya, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6450.5755
Hours: 10:00-22:00

Tokyo Rice (UPDATE: no longer in business)
5-9-8 Minami Aoyama, 2F
Minato, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6427.4548
Hours: 11:30-21:00

Nezu Museum
6-5-1 Minami Aoyama
Minato, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3400.2536
Hours: 10:00-17:00
Closed Mondays

saturday

Saturday it rained for the most part of the day.

I wanted to check out a shop in Ameyoko shopping arcade at Ueno, so we went to look for it.

Otsuya is a super teeny spice shop.

I picked up their chili spice blend and some dried apricots.

I'll be back when I need more spices.

Satoshi's German class is in the middle of the afternoon, so before his class we had lunch at Pyonpyonsha.

It's hard to believe we were in Iwate eating this in February.

Luckily we can get our reimen fix in Tokyo as they have a shop in Ginza.

I had their reimen with pajeon (what the Japanese call chijimi).

Jeon is a flat pancake filled with different fillings, this one had green onions (which apparently is "pa" in Korean).

Since we were in Ginza, I wanted to check out the Hiroshima antenna shop.

I picked up more nekomame (an assortment of fried beans and rice crackers), sweet miso coated peanuts (similar to honey roasted peanuts) and hassaku (type of citrus) peel.

We also stopped at the Hokkaido antenna shop.

I picked up imo mochi which is apparently made with potatoes and potato starch.

And some zangi (zahn-ghee)...which is their seasoned fried chicken.

I also got a croquette with beef and egg in it for Satoshi.

We shared the imo mochi and had these for dinner...delicious.

With all the natural disasters around Japan, we've been trying to buy many products from these areas to give something back to them.

I hope more of these areas will be able to get back to their daily routines soon.

Otsuya
4-6-13 Ueno
Taito, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3834.4077
Closed Wednesdays
Hours: 10:00-18:00

Pyonpyonsha
3-2-15 Ginza, Ginza Glasse 11F
Chuo, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3535.3020
Hours: 11:00-23:00

Hiroshima Antenna Shop
1-6-10 Ginza
Chuo, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5579.9952
Hours: 10:30-20:00

Hokkaido Antenna Shop
2-10-1 Yurakucho, Tokyo Kotsu Kaikan
Chiyoda, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5224.3800
Hours: 10:00-20:00

jiyugaoka

I needed to replace my portable sun umbrella, so I went to check out the Waterfront flagship store.

They make all sorts of umbrellas and many are super light and compact.

On top of protecting you against sun and rain, this one is supposed to be able to withstand wind too.

Hopefully this one will last me a couple of years. (UPDATE: it broke a week after I bought it...boo!)

Lunch was at Mellow Brown Coffee.

I love the space of this cafe...large windows looking out onto the street, perfect for people watching.

Ice brewed coffee, it apparently comes out of a tap (just like beer).

It looks like beer but there is no alcohol in this it was super smooth coffee.

The avocado smash plate...mashed avocado, some feta cheese, a squeeze of lemon...oozy poached egg...perfect on their toasted bread.

Will be back to try more of their menu items.

Kouign Amann from Patisserie Paris S'eveille.

Super flaky, buttery...simple goodness.

I want to go back to try their cakes.

I've roamed around Jiyugaoka on past trips to Tokyo, but this time around I think the layout of the area has changed a little (or I've probably forgotten how the layout was in the past).

I'm glad we live relatively close by now, I'll be back to explore some more.

Waterfront Flagship Store
1-9-1 Jiyugaoka
Meguro, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6421.2108
Hours: 11:00-20:00

Mellow Brown Coffee (UPDATE: 2019 closed)
2-12-10 Okusawa
Setagaya, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5726.9805
Hours: 8:00-21:00

Patisserie Paris S'eveille
2-14-5 Jiyugaoka
Meguro, Tokyo
Phone: 03.5731.3230
Hours: 10:00-20:00

tofuya gen-san

There is a small tofu shop on my way to Kamata station...Tofuya Gen-san.

Before going to Hawaii this summer, we tried their oboro tofu.

For 200 yen, this was huge!

At least 2 blocks worth and the texture seemed like firm tofu.

Then after coming back from Hawaii, we tried their yose tofu.

For 170 yen, this was smaller than the oboro, but it was creamy and almost like custard.

They don't always have the yose tofu, so I am glad we got to try this one.

Apparently there is no difference between oboro and yose tofu.

Hope to try their other items like aburaage (fried tofu) and yuba(bean curd skins).

Tofuya Gen-san (UPDATE: 2019 no longer in business)
7-14-3 Nishi-kamata
Ota, Tokyo
Closed Sundays
Hours: 7:30-19:30

fish drawer (success)

You may or may not remember that I was going to try using the fish drawer.

Well, in that time, we moved to Tokyo and I now have a totally different fish drawer.

On top of that, there are no instructions on how to use it...boo!

So, thankful for the internet, including YouTube on how to grill fish using it. (You may not be able to view the YouTube video if there are country restrictions)

Anyway, according to the video, the guy instructs you to line the bottom of the drawer with foil.

Put the rack on.

Put another layer of foil onto the rack and poke holes in the foil.

Dry the fish well and put it on top of the foil layered rack.

Cook the fish.

Get your "fish plate" ready...

I need to figure out how long to cook the sanma (saury), and how to control the heat, but I think this came out pretty good for my first try.

Also, clean up was a cinch with the foil...all I needed to wash was the rack.

Glad I got over my fear of using the fish drawer and will use it more often.