guess what?!

Back in December, after Satoshi went to his interview as part of the German interpreter's test, he was so depressed that he didn’t pass.

Then on Saturday the mailman brought him a packet and inside was his interpreter certificate.

Whoo hoo!

He says he has to register with the government and may have to take another type of test in 5 years or so, but for now, he passed...whew!

Guess five times is a charm...Thank you to everyone who sent him some mojo and good thoughts!

yesterday

Yesterday was super sunny and a little warm.

Who would have thought my trip around the sun would have been like so many others...krazy!

I am thankful to be able to celebrate it though...

And if I thought previous birthdays were low key, this year was even more low key...

We had beer, burgers & o-banzai from Kakumei for lunch.

Backstory: I had seen Kakumei's owner's S.O.S. on social media, he had purchased too many cans of a craft beer and needed help...since we ordered takeout, we had wanted to help out and buy some of the craft beer but they said that we couldn't buy it with our takeout...WT?! bummer! 

So...after picking up our lunch, we stopped in to a liquor store to buy some beer...

Facetimed with family in Hawaii.

And had a pupu party for dinner.

Since I received so many treats for my birthday, I decided not to buy cake to celebrate.

Hoping Japan can start vaccinating soon and that maybe we can travel a little later in the year.

Thank you for always being a part of my adventures.

this and that

Last Friday, my favorite supermarket reopened after their renovations...so fancy now!

Of course, everyone and then some (even I) went to check out the opening sale...

Total nightmare especially since there was no social distancing! even though they said they were limiting the amount of people in the store...not!

Bummer! not sure if I'll be shopping here too often from now on...

Narly looking lemons that I found at Sankei, lots of juice and a bag of 6 were only 100 yen!

Tuesday was Setsubun.

It was 124 years since Setsubun fell on the 2nd of February (usually it is on the 3rd).

The weather dude explained that apparently every year the Earth takes about 6 hours longer to go around the Sun, the lag makes the day that Setsubun fall on vary.

Since the weather was forecast for rain, I wasn't planning to go out.

So I made our ehomaki by mixing rice with some tsukemono instead of vinegar & sugar then added some kani kamaboko (fake crab), cucumber, egg, carrot and a little mayo.

I used an app (yes they have one! actually there are many) that tells you which way to face while eating...this year was nan-nan-to (south-south-east)

Hoping for good health, happiness and for this pandemic to end soon...

Wednesday, Satoshi had the day off so we walked to check out the Magome Cyclamen Garden.

Apparently our ward used to have lots of farm lands.

This shop started growing cyclamen in 1953 and produces over 7500 plants a year.

If we had visited last November, we would have been able to see their 3 hot houses filled with cyclamen plants!

The owners were gracious to let us see what they had.

The cyclamen plants are bigger than the type we have.

Unfortunately none were for sale.

They also had starter plants that they were preparing for this November.

We hope to be back later this year.

Our case numbers have slowly come down but the amount of severe cases and deaths have not, so our State of Emergency has been extended to March 7.

Hope you all have a safe weekend.

yamaoku hiyori chocolate

I had been seeing this ad from Yamaoku Hiyori Chocolate on Instagram and finally caved.

Apparently their parent company, Morihachi Daimyokaku has been making Japanese sweets in Fukui prefecture for 80 years.

Their main shop is located in the heart of Fukui City. 

Yamaoku Hiyori Chocolate is their new brand and is located 10 minutes from the city in the remote area of Asuwayama (Mount Asuwa).

I figured since we won't be travelling any time soon having something delivered would be the best way to try them.

I ordered their Gateau Chocolat which came in a wooden box.

The gateau was wrapped in plastic and then wrapped again in washi (Japanese paper).

So rich and good with red wine.

I'm glad we tried this and hope to visit their cafe & main shop one day.

obihiro style pork bowls

Back in 2006, when we visited Hokkaido, we stumbled upon Pancho, a shop that served buta don (pork bowl)

Sliced pork that was cooked with a sweet-salty sauce and fanned out on top of a bowl of rice.

The shop only had this on their menu with the price varying on the portion of pork you chose.

The shop has since relocated to a different address in Obihiro and still serves their pork bowls.

Since we haven't been anywhere due to the pandemic, I thought we could "travel" to Obihiro through dinner.

Pancho serves their pork bowls with green peas, I served mine with green onion.

Obihiro style pork bowl : makes 2 servings : adapted from the internet

300 grams thinly sliced pork belly, cut into about 2-inch width pieces

1/4 cup shoyu (soy sauce)

3 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)

4 tablespoons sake (rice wine)

green onion, sliced

Fan out the pieces out into a pan and cook at medium heat.

With paper towel, mop up the oil that comes out from the meat as it cooks.

Spoon out about 2 or 3 tablespoons of sauce and flip the meat to get it caramelized

Serve over rice, top with green onion

NOTES: Next time, I would use a little thicker cut of pork belly.

There was a lot of oil that came out when cooking, so have paper towels ready!

This recipe make quite a lot of sauce, so spooning out a little amount at a time while cooking was a good choice.

Once you spoon the sauce over the meat, stay close by, because the sauce can burn quickly!

I cooked the pork in two pans because I wanted to fan out the pieces, not having any of them overlapping or folding.

I've also used this sauce when cooking fried tofu, I think you could use this with chicken or beef too.

snack mix

So this is my snack mix...which was a spin off from the Dalgona Ramen idea.

A package with an assortment of arare, nut and sesame crackers, a package of honey butter mixed nuts, a tube of Marble chocolate (like plain M & Ms), a handful of pumpkin seeds and a package of baby star ramen.

They sell the baby star ramen like this, in snack size packages.

Just mix everything together and eat.

I nixed making the caramel, because I am not good at it & didn’t want to waste anymore butter & sugar.. 

Satoshi approved of this mix and I have several more packages of the baby star ramen so I'll make more of this again if I can find the same ingredients.

benny super

About a 10 minute walk from where we live is Benny Super.

Like Sankei, it doesn't have many shelves and everything is mostly kept in boxes, so you need to look at everything, BUT it is less crowded.

I like that the meat area has freshly cut meats though the fish area was mostly frozen stuff.

The fruits and veggies are mostly from around Japan...this was where I found the pretty watermelon radish.

How is their point card, pretty old skool, yeah?!

Will definitely be shopping here when I need to get some groceries.