Friday, March 29, 2024

still waiting

As of this post, Tokyo is still waiting for the weather dude to announce the start of cherry blossom season.

If you ever wondered how the weather dude determines this, I've written about it before, please look here.

Have a safe weekend. 

Thursday, March 28, 2024

back to blue poppy

Went back to Blue Poppy Bakery
because they had hot cross buns for Easter.

To tell you the truth, growing up my mom used to make these, but I wasn't a fan of those neon candied fruits she used to put in them.

Blue Poppy's...these had lots of raisins, orange peel and spices like cinnamon and cardamom...love!

Savory Brioche...creme fraiche, bacon, fried onion and parmigiano...delicious!
Chocolate chip cookie...buttery with lots of chocolate! love.

I also purchased their buttermilk scone and moroccan foccacia, but put these into the freezer, will blog about these (hopefully I remember to)

 

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

random things

Starting April, Satoshi said he’ll be in the same department, but he’ll be assigned to do a different job

Cyclamen in full bloom, we think this is probably the most flowers it has ever had.

Unfortunately, sakura have not starting blooming in Tokyo, yet.

One day of sun today and back to rain tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

this and that

Lots of stuff not blogged about, so let’s do a "this and that"

Tokyo People: delivery guy
Tokyo People: I would definitely need to stand on a milk case to use the big hand mixer too.
Unorthodox nikujaga...tomato, lotus root and beef
Frou Frou's pot au feu...fall off the bone chicken! 500 yen (tax included)
Tamari marinated cheese, which we bought in Nikko...so ono!

A little sweet a little salty
Akuma no onigiri (literally devil's onigiri) which I think should be translated more like "sinful onigiri" because there are so many "sinful" ingredients like tenkasu (tempura bits), okaka (katsuo bushi), goma, aonori (green laver), shoyu..from Momochi inside JR Shinagawa...260 yen (tax included)

The handful of shops on the level of the Tokyu Ikegami train station in our area all went out of business...hopefully Muji will survive...
I wanna know how the crows, the pidgeons or whatever bird did this (pretty sure it was crows though), can aim their poop to hit both the screen and the glass?!

So gross, especially how it dripped all the way down the glass!...hoping the rain will wash this off (soon!)
The construction area in front of Tokyo Station has art.

Last fall, the art was fall-like...dunno where I posted them, but if I find them, I'll link it here.
Spring version, you can kinda see the fall version which was covered up...

the fall version, I guess I didn't blog about it...

 

This cream cheese spread from Seijo Ishii...four types of dried fruits (raisin, cranberry, apricot and strawberry), cream cheese, and honey...so ono!
And this chocolate bread from Seijo Ishii...buttery and chocolatey!

Sunday? We had snow in our forecast! WT?! turned out to only be rain though...

Sakura should be blooming in Tokyo soon, they’ve changed their forecast a couple of times already

Hope you are having a great week, we're on day 3 of rain...

Monday, March 25, 2024

yasukata sekishi

Yasukata Shopping Street has a sekishi (evening market) on the last friday of every month between 16:00-18:00

Like I've mentioned before, I like to get all my errands done in the morning.

This past Friday though, I was able to get to their evening market and pick up some foods.
 
Musashiya's inarizushi, tamagoyaki, tosani (bamboo shoots simmered in shoyu, katsuobushi and mirin), onion and pork katsu...1300 yen (tax included)

Super reasonable and delicious.

During the pandemic, we've taken out from Musashiya 

I'm glad I got to check this out and will be back the next time my schedule coordinates with this market.

Saturday, March 23, 2024

isobe

Every time we pass Isobe, there is a line

On Wednesday, it was a national holiday and google maps said that they were closed.

But, when we walked passed, there was no line and the sign said "open"

There are only 10 seats at the counter

Buy your meal from the ticket machine 

Besides wonton men (noodles), they also have tsuke soba

For the tsuke soba, you can choose the weight of your noodles and which soup you want to have (shiro uma or kuro uma) 

Shiro uma is a white shoyu based soup

Kuro uma is a koikuchi (darker color mor pronounced flavor shoyu) shoyu base soup

You can also choose which type of wonton you want, meat or shrimp or both
I chose the Shiro uma half meat wonton men...950 yen (tax included)

White shoyu based soup, 3 meat wonton

The char siu was super tender...soup was super flavorful
Satoshi had the Shiro uma 3 x 3...1150 yen (tax included)

White shoyu based soup, 3 meat wonton, 3 shrimp wonton

The soup was so ono that he drank all the soup...eep!

We now know why there is always a line here, we'll be back.

Chuuka soba Isobe
1-20-14 Tamagawa
Ota, Tokyo
Closed Wednesdays
Hours: 11:30-14:30 (lunch), 18:00-21:00 (dinner)
Dinner served: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays & Sundays
*cash only

Friday, March 22, 2024

this and that

Sunday and Monday it was so blustery!

Like a typhoon!

One neighbor on one side of us has lots of stuff on their lanai

So whenever it is blustery, we get "presents"

Like these empty plastic bottles 

These "presents" usually "fly" under the space of the partitions that are between our apartments

I was gonna complain, but decided not to.

Our plants make rubbish and I'm sure they have to deal with it.

Instead, since we rarely buy bottled beverages of this size, I decided to fill these plastic bottles with water for us to keep in case of an earthquake, so we can flush our toilet.

So teeny
I noticed this tree on someone's lanai...it was so tall that the people on the floor above are the only ones that can enjoy it.

Yesterday we had quite a large earthquake, it was actually in Ibaraki but we felt it! (even Satoshi felt it, and he usually doesn't)

Wednesday, was watching the game between the Padres and the Dodgers and thought, "wow, Korea has a lot of good looking people", and took a photo of the tv.

Apparently he is Korean singer/actor,  Cha Eun-woo.


This month, Satoshi has been working on the weekends, taking tours here and there.

The other weekend he took a tour to the Shimizu and Fujinomiya area.

They have to make their own props, so he's been taking copies of things and making them larger.

Amazed what you can find at the 100 yen stores too!

I found one of those retractable pointer sticks, clipboard, map of Japan, and a magnetic white board for him.

This weekend he is off to Toba

The cherry blossoms should be blooming soon.

Have a safe weekend, everyone.