tokyo people

Really liked this woman's bag!

Udon delivery guy...

How's this guy working in front of our building...

Since we are nearby a daycare center, we often see them walking around the neighborhood

Yesterday was so humid and hot after the rain stopped....the skies looked like it was foggy but it was probably steam…blah!

vege & spice's all spice granola

Tried a new granola recipe from this book..."Vege & Spice"

It is similar to the granola recipe that I normally use except that it adds coconut oil, coconut and all spice.

All spice granola : adapted from "Vege & Spice"

1/2 cup oatmeal

handful nuts

handful pumpkin seeds

3 pinches of sweetened coconut

1 tablespoons coconut oil

1.5 tablespoons maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon all spice (powder)

Chop nuts

In a bowl add the oatmeal, pumpkin seeds and coconut

Add the nuts

Heat the oil until it liquifies and mix with the dry ingredients

Add the maple syrup and mix well

Add the all spice and mix well.

Heat the oven to 160C (325F), bake for about 25 minutes

Cool and keep in air tight container

NOTES: this was delicious, I will use this recipe a couple more times so I can use more of the coconut oil I have in my fridge

 

maybe add cacao nibs, which I like to use whenever I make granola.

The original recipe adds raisins which you can add, I didn't because it tends to get hard when baked.

songbird bakery

A new bakery, Songbird Bakery, opened up on July 1st.

Since it has been raining, we finally got to check them out on Sunday.

We tried their baguette, cinnamon cube, curry pan and chocolatne.

Everything was delicious!

I really liked the baguette, which (i think) was a sourdough base.

It was yeasty and crusty...delicous.

The cinnamon cube was brioche based with just the right amount of cinnamon. 

And the glaze was sweet but not overly sweet.

The curry pan's curry filling was spicy but not too spicy.

I also liked that this was baked and not fried like most curry pan is.

The chocolatne was super chocolatey…love!

Most of their breads are what the Japanese call the "hard" type, where it has a crusty outside.

We look forward to trying their other items.

We'll be back!

Songbird Bakery

1-2-12 Nishi Kamata

Ota, Tokyo

Hours: 10:30-18:00

check Instagram for days off

we are so bored

It's been rainy.

We've been mostly staying indoors, though we do run to the market and convenience store.

Overall though, we've been quite bored.

I noticed this the other day...

A hanger "hanging" on the edge of the roof of the apartment building across the street from us.

Not sure who we should tell this to or how long it has been there.

Hoping no one gets hurt if that hanger falls.

With all the rain, over the weekend there was a huge landslide in Izu, Shizuoka.

If you saw the footage on the news, it was pretty scary!

Sending prayers to the families of the missing. 

Have a good week.

this and that

Kasugai peaches...these were grown in Yamanashi prefecture.

So juicy and sweet!

Tokyo people...decided to put commentary with the pics…loved this guy's red shoes and printed shirt.

Meals on wheels...

A group was sketching at the botanical garden...and there was this furry one begging for food.

Another meals on wheels

Semi-good news!

We received our vaccination tickets yesterday...hopefully we can get appointments smoothly, there is talk that there are not enough vaccines…demand is greater than supply, so they are stopping reservations in some areas…

You should know that the only English was on the outside of the envelope and all the paperwork is in Japanese..boo!

On June 30th, Starbucks came out with 47 different frappuccinos for each prefecture to celebrate their 25th anniversary in Japan.

Tokyo's frappuccino is a caramel frappuccino with coffee jelly (gelatin)...682 yen (plus tax) tall size only

Not overly sweet, it has also been awhile since we have had anything from Starbucks.

Bummer you can only drink the frappuccino of your prefecture, it would have been fun to try some of  the others.

Tokyo's case numbers have gone up, Wednesday's number was over 700.

As of July 1st, many foreign teams have started to come to Japan…

Satoshi had signed up to work at the Olympics, I’m relieved he could not be scheduled.

Can you believe that the Prime Minister is keeping his decision a secret as to whether the Olympics will have  spectators or not?! 

It will depend on the outcome of the election this weekend?! gah! hoping everyone will vote the Prime Minister’s party out.

It is rainy season so the weather has been rainy, sometimes humid, sometimes cool.

Hope you are doing well, have a safe weekend.

22237

That's how many steps I had on my pedometer after we got back from an adventure yesterday.

First stop...Shinobazu Pond.

The lotus flowers were only starting to bloom.

Hopefully we'll be able to get back here when they are in full bloom.

Next we stumbled upon this tiny arare shop, Takesen.

They've been making arare for over 60 years.

Everything made from scratch and no preservatives or artificial sweeteners.

We purchased two types...the one on the left has three flavors, sugar, matcha and plain.

The one on the right uses "white" shoyu.

We look forward to trying both soon!

Then we made our way to our next stop...journalist, Takashi Tachibana's cat building.

He was apparently a cat lover.

He recently passed away and when I saw the story on the news, they showed his building, a quick check online showed where the building is located.

I'm glad we got to check this out.

And then we stumbled upon Okano Eisen's main shop on the way to our next stop.

If you remember, we stopped in to their Toranomon shop earlier this year and felt they were quite cold, plus we weren't able to purchase their mame daifuku.

Well, this shop was nicer and we got lucky on this day.

I'm glad we tried this, it was filled with sweet bean paste and there are cooked red beans (mame) worked into the outer mochi...the sweet and salty combination is nicely balanced.

Our next stop was the Koishikawa Botanical Garden...loved these copper fences that were punched with holes made to look like leaves.

If I am not mistaken, this botanical garden is run by Tokyo University.

This botanical garden holds all sorts of plants, trees and herbs.

In September 1923, this garden was a shelter for residents during the largest earthquake in Tokyo.

 Hope you can see this short video of the krazy worm I saw in the garden.

It was iridescent green/yellow and there were ants or something eating it...eek!

And then we walked back to have lunch at Firehouse.

I had seen this shop on a Japanese drama and bookmarked it to try.

We had to wait about 30 minutes for a table.

Satoshi had the egg burger. 

The egg was oozy and he said he enjoyed this.

I had their apple burger...apples sauteed with sugar and cinnamon.

Totally different but I enjoyed the sweet and salty combination.

It was nice to eat out for a change but I was disappointed that the restaurant did not have any acrylic barriers between diners and that at the other diners were talking out loud without their masks while dining.

Hoping this was a safe meal and we plan to be more careful with our choice in eateries in the future...

After lunch, we then walked to see the Akamon (red gate) of Tokyo University.

We had often seen this on the news, but never saw it in person.

We couldn't go on to the campus, but it was nice to walk around this area.

I loved looking at the different buildings.

Like this tiny barber shop amongst the cement jungle.

 and then we were back at Shinobazu Pond...I was fascinated by the water beads on this large lotus leaves...click to see the short video.

And then before going home, we went to check out the Tsuki no matsu located at Kiyomizu Kannon-do in Ueno Park...the original was damaged in the Edo period and this one was restored in 2012.

Hiroshige Utagawa painted this scenery of the Tsuki no matsu and Kiyomizu Kannon-do in his U-kiyoe paintings.

It was quite a long day...luckily it didn't rain very hard, just some drizzles and we got to see all that we wanted to.

Takesen

3-41-16 Hongo

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3811.3268

Hours: 9:00-18:00 Mondays-Fridays, 10:00-18:00 Saturdays & Sundays

Takashi Tachibana Cat Building

2-18 Koishikawa

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Okano Eisen

1-24-4 Koishikawa

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3811.2345

Hours and days off: n/a

Koishikawa Botanical Garden

3-7 Hakusan

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3814.0138

Closed Mondays

Hours: 9:00-16:30

Admission: 500 yen 

Firehouse

4-5-10 Hongo

Bunkyo, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3815.6044

Open daily : 11:00-21:30

shigezo's soy meat

I wrote about Shigezo's inarizushi here...well, they also sell all sorts of soy products.

We recently tried their minced soy "meat"...which if I remember correctly cost 130 yen (tax included).

When we first moved to Japan, products were limited to accommodate vegan and vegetarian diets.

Nowadays, there are more products on the market.

I had to look online to see how to prepare this since the instructions on the back of the package were kind of vague.

I also didn't want to reconstitute the whole package, so I just measured out 1/2 a cup and added some warm water to cover and let it sit for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, I gently squeezed the "meat" and set it aside.

It had a slight tofu smell but the texture felt like minced meat.

I cooked some diced eggplant (for texture) with some onions and then added the soy meat, and seasoned it with some taco seasoning.

The texture of the soy after cooking was a little softer than meat, but flavorwise you could not tell that there was no meat in it.

Shigezo also sells soy meat that is similar to sliced pork and chicken nuggets, so we'll give those a try after we eat this up.

Shigezo (UPDATE: 2022 out of business)

7-49-10 Nishikamata

Ota, Tokyo

Phone: 03.3733.2380

Open daily 10:00-19:00