home delivery

Yesterday Rowena mentioned about home delivery in her comment which reminded me to post about our home delivery.

With the pandemic, I started ordering my vitamin supplements from Amazon.

Amazon changed how they deliver our orders to have less contact with their delivery dude.

They now do not require our signature and just leave the package near our door.

Of course for some, this has been a problem with their package so large and the delivery dude not being too sharp...the package BLOCKING the door and the person not being able to leave their home..WT?!

Packages being stolen or very damaged have also been problems too.

So far we have been lucky and not had problems like those I just mentioned...whew!

I still believe Japan's delivery system is more efficient than other countries.

daimatsu

Checked out a new (to me) wagashiya (Japanese confection shop), Daimatsu today.　(photo from Google Maps)

I'm not sure how long this shop has been in business but it was run by an older woman.

One thing I noticed about most wagashiya in Kanto (East Japan) is that they don't only sell sweets, but savory items like inarizushi, musubi even sekihan (red bean rice).

I purchased a couple of inarizushi for us to try as well as a salmon musubi for Satoshi and yukari (shiso) musubi for myself.

The inarizushi wasn't sweet more vinegary.

I enjoyed the yukari musubi.

The owner also asked if I would like some takuan.

We also shared this mikan (tangerine) daifuku.

A whole mikan wrapped in sweetened white bean paste and a very soft outer gyuhi (soft mochi).

I cut the daifuku horizontally with a piece of dental floss...so pretty yeah?!

This wasn't overly sweet and there were no seeds.

Total for everything was 590 yen (tax included)....I'll be back to purchase other items for us to try.

Daimatsu (UPDATE: 5/2025 out of business)

5-11-22 Nishikamata

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3738.7450

Closed Wednesdays

Hours: 6:30-18:30

ramen weekend

The weekend was forecast for rain, maybe some snow.

I made sure we didn’t have to venture out for food.

One thing I tried making was Dalgona Ramen.

At the beginning of the pandemic with the popular Dalgona Coffee trending, I thought Dalgona meant “foam”, but it apparently means caramel/toffee.

I saw this idea on an IG account and had to try.

I couldn’t get my caramel to the right consistency so it turned out kind of hard and I wasn't able to coat all of the ramen.

I also adlibbed and added some arare, pumpkin seeds and nuts...

This snack is similar to caramel popcorn or chex mix...

I have another idea for this, so when I get the ingredients together, I’ll post about it.

Another thing I tried was Curry Ramen, which I copied from “Midnight Diner” season 5, episode 8.

I diluted the shio (salt) ramen soup, then added a package of veggie  instant curry.

This was delicious!

In the end it didn't snow (boo!) and we didn’t have to go out on Saturday. 

On Sunday, Satoshi had to go to work and it again rained all day.

It is supposed to warm up over the next couple of days.

Have a good (safe) week.

this and that

Since last Thursday, my favorite supermarket is being renovated, so whenever we need groceries, I've been walking to other neighborhoods to (explore) buy groceries from their supermarkets.

Last week’s grocery run was an area I’d been to before, so this week’s grocery run was to a neighborhood I had not been to called Chuo.

They had a tiny pocket park with a Kannon (goddess of peace), 

I want to come back when the fuji (wisteria) are blooming.

So many older buildings in this area.

Like this liquor store.

This shop, Yamazaki Royal Toyoshima,  sells sandwiches, I purchased a strawberry fruit sandwich.
 

So good with coffee.

I shopped at a tiny supermarket called Sankei.

When I went in, there was also a floor upstairs too.

They don’t have many shelves, just lots of items in boxes, so you need to look carefully at everything...not very good when you want to be in and out in a matter of minutes...

Their salmon nori bento was only 298 yen, so cheap! and packed with all sorts of different foods.

I’ll be back for bento!

It's been sunny but super fahreezing, BUT no snow, not even a flurry..boo! (though we are forecast for rain tomorrow & Sunday)

On the way back, I also stumbled upon a tiny park with 3 or 4 cherry blossom trees, so hopefully we can check them out this Spring.

So happy our cable tv has CNN, even if I couldn’t watch the Inauguration live (was too late at night for me), I was able to see part of the Inauguration concert in real time.

Have a safe weekend!

honey murcott

I recently picked up a bag of these honey murcotts which were imported from Australia.

They are a type of tangerine and are super sweet.

I love that the pith is not white but orange too.

They have quite a lot of seeds and most are easy to peel.

BUT some were juicy while some were kind of dried out...boo!

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

leftover mochi

I usually buy these teeny mochi for New Years because I don't want to have any leftover.

Well, the other night after dinner, we wanted a little something extra, and I had 4 of these teeny mochi, so I pan fried them in some butter then topped with some saku saku shoyu almond (crunchy almonds soaked in shoyu and other seasonings)

The butter and nuts got a little burnt, but it was still so good!

prefab

In Japan, they have buildings called purihabu(prefabricated).

Well, I've been seeing a lot of trucks like this one in our area.

Attached to it is a prefab room.

The truck drives up to the construction site, a crane lifts the room off the truck.

And like "Lego" they building apartment buildings by stacking these "blocks" onto each other then securing them.

I've seen some “blocks” with closets, others with bathtubs....

Cool, yeah?!