The days are getting longer, with sunup now before 6am each morning, and sunset somewhere between 6 and 7 at night. But for the past week it's been a tenuous situation with the sun battling to shine through the clouds and rain. Apparently this is normal - everyone expects April, May, and part of June to be wet and windy on and off.
We headed off to Akihabara last weekend, where maid cafes and electronics shops vie for the attention of geeks and tourists. If you're interested in some stereotypical Japanese wierdness, click here.
This weekend it was a little tamer, with a visit to CostCo to refill the freezer with bagels, cheap chicken and beef, and some sundry bits and pieces. Including a 2kg back of gummy bears!
Sonia is on her way to Bangkok now, followed by a trip to Melbourne next week.
I just realised that at the end of April I will have been here in Tokyo for 9 months. Time flies!
Monday, April 21, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Sushi for lunch & wives
Two topics today....
First, we had sushi for lunch on Sunday - mountains of it. This time we had two set meals. The first meal was a tray of nigiri sushi - the rectangular lumps of rice with pieces of fish on top. Because this was a set, there was tuna on two of them, plus a white fish that we did not recognise, a darker brown fish that looked almost like anchovy (but was not as smelly), one with salmon (we think), one with salmon eggs, one squid, one cod roe, and on ark shell (some sort of shellfish). Guess who scoffed the "normal" ones. And who had to eat the Ark Shell?
The second set meal was a rice bowl with nice red tuna strips all over the top. The thing to do with this is to put the wasabi into the small dish of soy sauce, mix it all around until the wasabi dissolves, then pour it all over the tuna and rice. Very nice!
Both sets came with miso soup (with seaweed floaters). Sonia's sushi set came with a custard (mushroom and crabmeat), and orange (yes seriously) ice cream.
The second topic for today is that Sonia is useless and despite many promptings has not put pen to paper (or rather fingers to keyboard) to document her Soba-eating experience at the local noodle restaurant. I don't know why - she just won't!
Jordan & Kyla - please send text messages to Sonia reminding her that you're waiting to hear about the slurping!
First, we had sushi for lunch on Sunday - mountains of it. This time we had two set meals. The first meal was a tray of nigiri sushi - the rectangular lumps of rice with pieces of fish on top. Because this was a set, there was tuna on two of them, plus a white fish that we did not recognise, a darker brown fish that looked almost like anchovy (but was not as smelly), one with salmon (we think), one with salmon eggs, one squid, one cod roe, and on ark shell (some sort of shellfish). Guess who scoffed the "normal" ones. And who had to eat the Ark Shell?
The second set meal was a rice bowl with nice red tuna strips all over the top. The thing to do with this is to put the wasabi into the small dish of soy sauce, mix it all around until the wasabi dissolves, then pour it all over the tuna and rice. Very nice!
Both sets came with miso soup (with seaweed floaters). Sonia's sushi set came with a custard (mushroom and crabmeat), and orange (yes seriously) ice cream.
The second topic for today is that Sonia is useless and despite many promptings has not put pen to paper (or rather fingers to keyboard) to document her Soba-eating experience at the local noodle restaurant. I don't know why - she just won't!
Jordan & Kyla - please send text messages to Sonia reminding her that you're waiting to hear about the slurping!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Spring in Tokyo
Is actually quite wet. It's become variable, with each week encompassing both gray and sunny days, wet and dry, and warm and cold. For example, this past week started dry but gray, changed to dark and wet on Wednesday and Thursday, and ended on Friday with a sunny and warm afternoon. Saturday started looking like continuing the climb back to warmth, but ended gray again. Raining overnight, then a gray and "spitty" Sunday. Apparently it's going to continue this way for the next couple of months.
Sakura (cherry blossom time) is now finished. I managed to get a few photos that begin to showcase the trees, but it is so much better in person. I've included some photos below. In the end, there is about one week where the blossoms are at their best. By the time Sonia was here for the weekend she had missed the best - the blossoms were thin and most of the petals were already on the ground. Just not the same.
Looking up one of the streets close to the apartment, where cherry blossom trees line both sides of the road, meeting over the top:
At times you can look out/up and not be able to see the sky because the flowers are so dense:
A close-up on the cherry blossom flower:
And an attempt at an artistic shot:
Sakura (cherry blossom time) is now finished. I managed to get a few photos that begin to showcase the trees, but it is so much better in person. I've included some photos below. In the end, there is about one week where the blossoms are at their best. By the time Sonia was here for the weekend she had missed the best - the blossoms were thin and most of the petals were already on the ground. Just not the same.
Looking up one of the streets close to the apartment, where cherry blossom trees line both sides of the road, meeting over the top:
At times you can look out/up and not be able to see the sky because the flowers are so dense:
A close-up on the cherry blossom flower:
And an attempt at an artistic shot:
Monday, April 07, 2008
Noodles
Please encourage Sonia to write about the Soba noodles that we had for lunch today. I took her to a local place that I go to sometimes. Very local. Very, very, very local.
Have any of you been to a Japanese restaurant where the Japanese diners are slurping their noodles?
Have any of you been to a Japanese restaurant where the Japanese diners are slurping their noodles?
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