The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel buffet there were some items served that were foods of Niigata, in particular, Yasuda yogurt, thick aburaage and koshihikari (variety of rice), so I made sure to try them After checking out, we caught the train and headed to Kamo.It was after this photo that I "gracefully" fell while crossing the street, luckily I was wearing long sleeves...why ..read more

From where we live it took us about 2 hours to get to Niigata(The last time we were in Niigata was in 2003, pre-blog and we only went to Sado Island.)Arriving at 10:30-ish, our first stop was hereBandai City Bus Center...to try their curryApparently this is a local favorite, stand and eat style in the bus terminalThe yellow curry was on the thick side and had a little kick to itI had the mini ..read more

fuji (wisteria) blooming in our neighborhoodbun nem ran & thit nuong (fried spring roll & bbq pork) from banh mi xin chao, so ono! 950 yen (tax included)loved how tender the pork wasthe dipping sauce wasn't sweet, delicious.would get this againdean and deluca's kale quinoa salad with lemon yogurt dressing and matsunosuke's carrot cake (super moist)didn't know they sold matsunosuke's baked ..read more

Love these shortbread cookies (sable) made by Seijo Ishii.All butter and no artificial sweeteners Glad we got to try these and will definitely buy these again.&nbsp ..read more

The Noto Pennisula earthquake that happened on New Years Day was so tragic.One of the stories that was featured on the news here was of Hiramiyuki Farms' blueberries.The farm experienced a landslideWanting to help some how, I was happy to see her selling what blueberries she had at TabechokuWe've ordered from Tabechoku numerous times since the pandemic800 grams, with taxes and shipping (special ..read more

From Ebisu, we took the Hibiya line to HirooThis one is located in Hiroo East Park and designed by Tomohito UshiroLoved the huge rhododendron trees at the edge of University of Sacred Heart property, which is next to the parkBack at Ebisu station, at the West exit is this one designed by Kashiwa SatoEbisu East Park designed by Fumihiko MakiLoved that there was a cherry tree right above, all the ..read more

Yoyogi Hachiman, by Toyo Ito looked like mushroomswe then went up to visit Yoyogi Hachiman Shrine Down the hill is Haru no Ogawa Park, by Shigeru BanThe walls are supposed to be transparent and then when you are going to use them the walls turn opaque, but according the the memo on the toilet, the cold weather slows the walls from turning the walls opaque, so for “winter” they had the walls ..read more

The other day, Tamakikat (she no longer has a blog), asked me if I had visited the Tokyo ToiletsI knew about them, and about the film, "Perfect Days", but hadn't gone out to see them.I don't know about you, but I usually freak out if I have to use a public toilet especially in Hawaii, because they are usually dirty and I always worry about my safety in them.Japan toilets, especially the ones in ..read more

freesia explosion, photo taken awhile back so not many leftthough there is a pot with “late bloomers” in it, hopefully they will bloom in a couple of weeksso teenybob bagel's chocolate chip cookie, this had lots of chocolate in it!sun merry's rolled croissant...meh, this had a weird smell, like the oil was rancid…eek m.3546's bleu cheese honey and walnut, which I had stuck in the freezer ..read more

Last Monday, was forecast for rain, I had some things I needed to do, so instead of getting on a train to see some sakura, I went to check out the sakura in our neighborhood.Nomi Riverpark nearbyThe cherry blossoms have started to fallsomeone is stealing this house's flowers (the paper posted in the background, says, "flower thief reported, let's all enjoy the flowers")...so pretty wish ..read more