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Food Adventures

Nerdy Times at Brent’s House (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 16)

Brent is one of my oldest friends… we go way way back… as far back as almost 24 years ago, when Netscape Navigator was what you used to browse the web, and back when LASER TAG was THE thing to do… especially at Ultrazone in Milwaukie, Oregon!

Brent and I met at Ultrazone, a place where I met a handful of people that I am still proud to call my friends to this day! He’s from the greater Portland area, and I grew up there too. Brent has been living in Japan for 10 + years at this point, so naturally we new that we had to meet up at some point so I could meet his wife and baby boy too.

Apparently a Game Night happens once a month at Brent’s house… actually it’s more like a game day since people start arriving around 11 am and drop in when they like, stay until as late as everyone wants to continue playing. When I was first invited I wasn’t certain when we would be leaving for Kyoto, but once I knew the date I quickly accepted the invite.

Brent and his family live in the Adachi-Ku region of Tokyo – kinda far from the center of the city so the normal hustle and bustle is far removed from there… it’s definitely more neighborhood-ish and less urban and a refreshing change from throngs of people around.

They live in a three story detached house… think like a townhouse, but not attached to a row of townhouses. It’s like a tall, square house. First floor is two bedrooms, bath and laundry room combined – a separate tiny room with the toilet and plenty of storage spaces. Second floor is living space and a roomy kitchen with every inch of possible space used wisely for storage. Top floor is bedrooms also.

I settled into a comfy spot on the arm of the sofa, and we all played a round of Fibbage… then another and another. A couple more people arrived and three of them went to the grocery store to get chicken wings that David was going to cook for everyone… we all chipped in the Yen and David does all of the cooking – what a nice guy!

The whole time they were gone we played The Great Dalmuti, a card game that Richard Garfield of Magic the Gathering fame, although The Great Dalmuti is absolutely nothing like MtG!

It’s an older game, first published in 1995, and it was a staple at our weekly gaming gatherings when all of us Ultrazone peeps would hang out before our weekend laser tag sessions… several rounds were played today and we introduced a new generation of players to the game who also seemed to enjoy it as much as we did… if they weren’t peons too often lol! You can read about it in detail here: The Great Dalmuti – at Board Game Geeks

David cooked wings and we played Dalmuti, then the table was cleared and we quickly demolished the first batch of wings, then another, then another… he made some REALLY spicy ones that referred to as “Death” – aptly named as the longer it was after consuming them, the more hot my mouth and lips became – I literally had sweat beads on my face from these wings!

Thankfully batch 5 and 6 were not as spicy and thus I did not die.

I played Overcooked with Brent and Kyle-Kun his son helped – Kyle is a year and 8 mos old and is already promising to be a gamer!

Kyle-Kun is adorable!

 

Kyle wanted his own chicken wing.

After wings Magic the Gathering was played and since it’s been way too long since I’ve played and I have no idea what I am doing, I just watched and then had to leave early around 7 since I knew that I needed to finish packing up and getting to sleep early for our trip to Kyoto the next day.

It was great to meet so many new people!


Snackventures With Paulina (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 13)

The Boys wanted to have their own adventure today. Paulina wasn’t feeling great after yesterday and I did not want her to spend the day alone, so I stayed with her.

She expressed the desire to have Okonomiyaki so it was decided that we should go to Monja Street near Tsukiji  – I liked that place that Chris took me to so much the other night, so we went there… but it was closed! Turns out that it was only open during dinner hours, and we were there shortly after lunchtime.

We roamed the street to try and find a restaurant that looked good – about half of them were closed, I’m assuming because it was after lunch and mid-week. This still left a good selection of places to eat monja or okonomiyaki… however, we got distracted by two melon pan bakeries so we stopped to purchase some… one was from a place that I had previously visited with Kyle in 2015 that I knew I loved, and one was called Tokyo Melon Pan, which I had not tried before.

I tried this back in 2015 and had to have another!

 

Tokyo Melon Pan – many varieties of melon pan there.

We saved our melon pans for later, in favor of finding our late lunch. Finally we settled on a place with an enthusiastic dude who asked us to come in – we chose to share a curry monja!

Curry Monja!

It was DELICIOUS and I’d definitely come back for food again! Part of the fun is cooking your own food but it was made even better by the guy who asked us to come in – he was very friendly and ended up talking with us about where we are from respectively and music – turns out that he really likes a Swedish band called Mando Diao! He was so enthusiastic and full of personality that we had to have our photo taken with him.

He reminded me quite a bit of Natsuki, Chris Broad’s friend and a frequent personality that appears in Chris Broad’s YouTube videos… awesome dude!

The monja was just enough to make us more hungry… but we saved our melon pan and opted to eat some cheap yakitori instead – again some food that I enjoyed with Kyle back in 2015 and wanted to try again.

Awesome Yakitori!

My memory of how good this yakitori is was spot on – very happy that we went here! Paulina seemed to enjoy it too.

We continued on our way… the ultimate destination being a place fairly nearby that serves takoyaki for a cheap price. On our way, we saw:

empty streets:


I felt the need for a selfie because my hair was sort of behaving. This is probably because the humidity was the lowest it’s been so far this trip:


The photo is blurry, and I am only just now noticing this as I’m writing this blog entry. Oops.

Police station was adorable – I’ve been meaning to snap a photo of this for the past three trips here:

Police station on Monja Street

On our way to takoyaki, we saw Tsukiji Hongwanji, a temple founded during the early Edo period in 1617. The original building burnt in the Great Fire of 1657. The current building was built by architect Chūta Itō – he was asked to build it in the style of Indian temple architecture and the results are stunning!


The temple was about to close for the day, so we only got to peek inside as they were shutting the doors to the shrine – perhaps I can fully explore the building another day.

Just up the block was the takoyaki place – Tsukiji Gindako – Gindako is actually a chain. I was hesitant to try them because I am not a fan of octopus, but Paulina talked me into trying hers… it was delicious!


Topped with a teriyaki type sauce, bonito flakes and a little mayo, it was great – the octopus was fresh, and was not chewy or super fishy tasting – it was just right! I’d eat it again.

Tummies full, we went home… I edited photos and a few hours later Paulina, Zack and I went for a walk and got CoCo Curry to go, ate at home and now I’m getting ready for bed. Paulina dubbed the day a “snackventure” and it was indeed!


Alone Time in Hamarikyu and Konatsu Lottery (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 9)

First things first… today was the day of the Halloween Konatsu lottery at FewMany in Loft, so back to Ginza I went… solo this time.

Leaving the house was delayed for a multitude of reasons, but it all turned out to be okay. There were only 20 people that had already arrived for the event and I was worried that I would not get a ticket because at that time, I didn’t realize that it was a lottery system and assumed that each number was drawn in order.

By 1pm, a quick head count told me that there were 120 of us gathered there and I was the only foreigner… I was most definitely not blending into the crowd with my tall stature and curly blonde highlighted hair. I wanted to make myself smaller and invisible because I felt very out of place at first, but after a bit I didn’t feel so odd because people were very friendly and of all ages too! People my age, seniors and even little children with their parents were there, and from all walks of life it seemed, too.

I was handed a number and was worried that I would not know what to do since I don’t read Kanji! (yet!)

My Lottery Number – it turned out that the message below simply says “Ginza Loft” HAHAHA!

Instructions were called out in Japanese – my cursory knowledge of conversational Japanese plus context helped me to mostly understand what would be happening and watching others when their numbers were called most definitely helped.

One person called, then two, three… four. There went my chances at receiving one of the limited Sugar Skull painted negora! That was sad but I still hoped that my number would be called for one of the Halloween pieces… I clutched my precious number 28 printed paper with nervous excitement… another called, then two more and suddenly the 8th number was called – “番号28” Ecstatically I waved my paper in the air and those closest to me gave a cheer and gave me shoulder pats of congratulation – I thanked them heartily and moved forward to claim my prizes, er chance to purchase things!

The amount of figures available was rather low, so I am SO thankful that my number was drawn! Out of the three available, I chose these two, which fit into my budget:

These two special Halloween edtion Negora from Konatsu – hand painted by the artist herself!

This photo was obviously not taken in Ginza Loft, but at a garden that I walked to afterward…

I needed some time to refresh myself today, and I felt that some time alone in one of my favorite spots in Tokyo would do the trick so I settled on walking to Hamarikyu Gardens which is right on the Sumida River and close to Tokyo Bay.

Tunes in my ears and happiness in my heart, my feet started toward the garden and along the way I was surprised to come upon the Nakajin Capsule Tower! I had no idea that it was so close to Hamarikyu and if I had known how close I had been so many times before on previous visits, I most certainly would have stopped there before!

The day was hazy but I still managed to get a decent photo:

Randomly found the Nakajin Capsule Tower!

Photographing this building has been on my bucket list for many years and it was on my definite list of things to see on this trip so to find it by chance was very satisfying indeed!

A little history of the building… Nakagin Capsule Tower was designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa as a mixed-use building for both residential and office space… I’ve linked to both the architect and the page for the tower so that you can read more in-depth at your leisure.. apparently you can rent out some of the apartments to stay in but the list is long…. adding this to my long list of things that I would like to experience in life!

Close by were the gardens that I love so much… it was a haven for me on previous visits, a place for me to be near nature and recharge my spirit and today was no exception. This trip is so much more than hanging out with friends, photographing adventures and (in two weeks) attending language school. It’s finding my own self again and rediscovering what I need in life to feel whole, a task that has been in the background for far too long for me. Having days or moments of solitude are important to me, and days like today give me opportunity to turn inward and reflect in positive ways.

There are portions of the gardens that are open fields and each season they are planted with a new flowering plant… right now Cosmos are planted – the colors of Autumn are so beautiful and when the leaves begin to change I will visit again to capture that beauty as well.

Autumn Fields of Hamarikyu

This place is so special… around every corner is a new surprise and beautiful scene. There are moments that it is difficult to remember that you are in the middle of a big city because the garden plants and trees seem so dense and it’s a bit more quiet there.


The contrasts between an ancient garden and modern skyscrapers are one of my favorite things about this garden – even in the middle of the concrete jungle you can find repose.

Duck Blind on the lake – old hunting grounds

 

The Sumida river and boat lock that leads to Tokyo Bay and Odiaba.

After much strolling, photographing and long periods of sitting quietly, it was time to have a photo session with my Konatsu Halloween Shibara (Shiba/Kaiju) and Negora (Cat/Kaiju)!

Oooooo look out for that scary Negora! She’s gonna getcha!

 

Shibara looking stunning in Autumn colors!

I took quite a while to get just the right shots of these figures and then it was time to meet up with Chris for dindin!

We settled on going to Monja Street near the Tsukiji Market… not for monja though… we craved Okonomiyaki!

“Original Generation Monjayaki” is what Google translate says is the name of this restaurant is. XD

Chris had been here before on a previous visit and said that he liked it quite a bit, so I was eager to try… I was not disappointed! Every bit as good as Okonomiyaki that we had in Osaka last winter – so full of flavor and not too heavy, considering what the food was.

After our delicious dinner, Chris suggested that we get some cake dessert at a place in Ginza – he said that he had been to another location and enjoyed the desserts there… the name of that restaurant was Harbs, which tickled me quite a bit…. I suggested that instead of calling it “carbs” which would automatically imply some unhealthy food they dropped the “C” and inserted an “H” to stand for “Healthy Carbs” – sound logic yes? Of course yes! XD

Dessert was tasty but uuuugh a little too sweet on one of them. We had some sort of roasted chestnut pie which I thought was quite good and obviously made well, but way too sweet. The other selection was a Pear Tart, which was amazing and more to my taste… I might already have a bias because pears are one of my very favorite fruits.

Chestnut Pie in the foreground and Pear Tart in the background – at Harbs!

After the dessert we were a bit too full for our liking, and both of us were getting quite sleepy so we departed with happy hearts and full bellies. Here I am at home now, tired but unable to sleep and it’s almost midnight here – uh oh… I may have ingested too much sugar! (It’s going to be a long night, methinks!)


Laid Back Day (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 7)

It was just one of those mornings where I did not want to do or think about anything important… so I didn’t. Well, sort of.

Our AirBnB has been cozy but also not healthy – the entire bottom floor has a moisture problem, which I am certain is perpetuated by tennants not taking good care to ventilate the place and the owner not properly cleaning. The shower area was a disaster… mold and mildew everywhere, and I don’t mean just a little… A LOT.

Cleaning supplies were purchased… and I spent almost two hours yesterday morning just scrubbing the shower and tub area.
T W O  H O U R S. It’s a small area too but there is tile and every single tile grout surface had mold. I was really tired after that so I took a shower and rested, then tidied up in one of the living areas. For someone who doesn’t have kids, I surely get into “mom” mode a lot.

The guys had been out at Karaoke the night before and all had hangovers… Paulina and I made plans to meet up with Chris for lunch at  A Happy Pancake – a restaurant that serves soufflé pancakes! I have been seeing videos for a couple of years about them… Simon and Martina’s video on YouTube stands out as the one that REALLY made me want to try these pancakes. You can watch that here:

Paulina and I took a train to Omotesando…

I snuck a photo of sleepy commuters on the way to Omotesando.

we had some time to kill before meeting up with Chris so we decided to walk around the winding backstreets of the area to look at the trendy shops where you can find all manner of things… from used clothing to high end fashion and every item in between.

When in Omotesando, do what the Omotesandians do.

One of our destinations was B-Side Label, a store that I always make a point to visit when I am in Tokyo… their stickers are all made right there, and the artists that provide designs are all local as well so this makes me feel good about purchasing items there.

Every trip into this store is a sensory bombardment, from the colorful stickers and products to the employees filled with personality and friendly conversation… once again I forgot to actually take photos IN the store but here is a photo of the outside!

Here I am with two of my furry friends outside of B-Side Label.

As per usual, I had a difficult time choosing exactly what labels would be coming home with me and to make the choice an even more difficult one, they had limited run Halloween editions of some of their favorite designs as well as new Halloween designs – that’s mostly what I purchased, since one they’re gone… they’re gone.

The stickers that I picked up today at B-Side Label… these were a very small selection of the ones that I wanted most!

After spending a long while at B-Side, we wandered toward the main street toward Kiddeland and found some… unusual stickers on the pedestrian overpasses – this is one of the things that I enjoy about Omotesando & Harajuku… random stickers and grafitti.

Looks like some random couple wanted to leave a more personalized mark on the sticker colelction!

 

“look at all of these stickers!…. oh.”

We browsed Kiddeland and then heard from Chris that he had arrived near the location of the soufflé pancakes, so we met him there.

My soufflé pancake at A Happy Pancake had a beautiful berry compote – a little too sweet but definitely complex in flavor.

 

Foreground: Pumpkin Raisin – Left Berry Compote – Right – Hot Chocolate – Photo courtesy of Chris Danford

A Happy Pancake did not disappoint! The atmosphere was bright and refreshing – despite being on the basement level of a building, the green theming and large wall displaying photos and videos of outdoor scenes and plants set the mood for happy interaction – the three of us had a lovely time talking and consuming delicious foods.

I have never tasted a pancake quite like this – it’s texture is indeed similar to a soufflé but a bit more heavy… it has inspired me to try this out when I return to Vancouver in December… having never made a soufflé of any sort I cannot predict if my outcome will be a pleasant one or not but I have eaten enough soufflé to know if it’s actually good or not!

After pancakes I was craving some good coffee. Chris did a quick search online and found a trendy pour over place nearby. We walked to our destination and waited a half hour before we realized that this was more of an experience than anything… one person to guide you through the process of choosing your coffee and educating you on it’s origins… one person to make the coffee. There were six people ahead of us and it took 3 a half hour to get their coffee so we decided to look elsewhere and possibly come back to this place another day.

This was the entrance… literally a short square door to a teeny staging area.

A new place for coffee was found fairly quickly… and just up the street a few blocks. It turned out to be a blessing because both the coffee and the chai that we tried were amazing – neither needed sugar added, a sign to me that this is superior coffee indeed.

Coffee and Chai for us… the doughnuts looked delicious but we had just eaten sweet things so perhaps next time we will try them too. – Photo courtesy of Chris Danford

Drinks at Higuma Doughnuts x Coffee Wrights were excellent! I definitely want to come back here and try the other drinks that they offer.

Chris departed after the consumption of coffee and chai, Paulina and I continued on to Harajuku in search of a store that Paulina wanted to visit called Alice on Wednesday.

As the name suggests, it was indeed an Alice in Wonderland themed shop, very cleverly decorated… lots of cute things here but nothing that particularly spoke to me. I’d like to have this table though:

Such an adorable table! I think my apartment needs this in it. 😀

Browsing done, we went to Takashita Dori, the main street in Harajuku. It was getting late and as it was a weekday, many shops were closed so it was not too crowded with people, which is a pleasant change from the usual.

I don’t remember the name of this store that these stairs lead down to, but I do remember from three years ago that this is a second hand clothing store that was pretty awesome.

Sparsely populated night street of Harajuku.

Since businesses were starting to close, we decided to call it a night and took our tired feet home.


Know Your National Holidays… (Japan – Autumn 2018 Day 5)

Once again I woke before every one else in the house – around 6:30 am. I was not feeling well, and I noticed that my limbs had swollen even worse and my face was very puffy… I assumed it was due to some digestion issues of a rather uncomfortable nature  – things have… not been moving for a few days. Walking has been very uncomfortable due to all of this swelling and it has me quite concerned. 

Again I was ready to upload my blog to the website, but discovered that my photos were not uploading… finally I received a message that the server was taking too long to respond and it seems that the wifi included with our AirBnB has been throttled. I’m assuming that the 4 others have been using it as well because I’m certain that although I use my own fair amount of data it’s not enough to cause a throttle! 

I tidied my closet, straightened some things in the living room and caught up on messages…. at noon I was still waiting for the gang to get going and out of here and it was, quite frankly, making me very tense and upset. 

We decided to meet Chris in the afternoon but the group decided to first stop for Yakiniku for lunch – we went to a place called Kuidon, which I believe is a chain. We had a private booth with our Korean style bbq table and for just over 1,200 yen I had a feast!

 

Grillin’ dat meat!

We had a private room at Kuidon Yakiniku – a very nice experience and a very nice value.

Bellies satisfied, we moved on to our train and headed to Shinjuku, with the intent to go the the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden… we enjoyed walking the streets and found some beautiful street murals and funny signs.

 

Part of a mural in Shinjuku – I need to go back and get a panorama of this because it was awesome.

 

We even found a pop up cafe for FIKA! (Fika is a large part of Swedish life… basically it means to have a coffee and a pastry, often a cinnamon bun… but it’s much more than that as it’s a relaxing social time to reconnect with people and relaxation) We wanted to stop for fika but the shop was closed. 

We soon arrived at one of the gates to the garden – only to find that it was CLOSED! As it turns out if there is a national holiday that falls on a monday, then the next day the park is closed. Needless to say we were all quite disappointed… I messaged Chris to let him know that our next plan was to visit the Artnia store at the Square Enix headquarters.

There are SO MANY THINGS that I would have loved to purchase from that store… so much temptation. It’s a special place… sadly, all of the special figures in the museum portion of the building were all empty as the figures were on loan to another exhibit elsewhere in the city.

 

Artnia building at the Square Enix headquarters – a must visit for me each time I visit Tokyo.


After Artnia, we went to downtown Shinjuku and the Monster Hunter Cafe! They charged a 500 yen cover charge per person… despite the cute theming of the cafe I still feel like it was overpriced and we could have enjoyed a peek and a few photos from the doorway just as well without spending that plus the cost of drinks. Gotta say though, Capcom is being smart with all of this promotion and cashing in on the popularity of this game series – well done, Capcom… well done.

 

This Palico was big – a little over a third of my height. Monster Hunter Cafe.

 

After Monster Hunter Cafe, Paulina split off to go home and rest, Joy went back to Akiba for DDR. Chris, Zach, Fredrik and I wanted honey toast, but the restaurant was closed for the night… we did find out that a Tex-Mex bar upstairs also served the honey toast (apparently the building was one large hotel resort thing so the menu was universal to all eating spaces)

Honey Toast is a big loaf of bread, hollowed out, toasted and drizzled with honey… then filled with ice cream and fruit and other sweet toppings. These absolutely cannot be consumed by your self, or even two people… two honey toasts for 4 people was even too much – I think that in retrospect I could have been satisfied with just one shared amongst 4 of us as it was so sweet and filling. It was delicious but I think that now that I’ve tried it, I probably will never have it again. Also of note: It’s tasty, but nothing worthy of your palette… simply novel and interesting.

 

Honey Toast – I’ve got this out of my system now. Never again. (too sweet)

 

Chris was very tired so he said goodnight… Zach and Fredrik and I roamed around Shinjuku a bit longer to see all of the beautiful lights and then we headed home. There were good moments in the day but overall I was rather unhappy and decided that when I want to be active I will just split off on my own and not worry about the group – we can always join up again later. I discussed this with a few of them and they weren’t upset at all and in fact encouraged me to do so.

 

Shinjuku is beautiful at night – I was definitely feeling the Lost in Translation feelings today.

 

I love the detail on the street gates? posts?

 

I am a very active person, and I do believe that my style of enjoying a vacation most likely differs from the average person… I don’t sit still much so taking the day in such a slow manner drives me a bit crazy. 

Many personal things also bubbled to the surface of my mind as well, and I was finding difficulty to keep a happy attitude, all things considered. I think that tomorrow I will get some “me time” and visit a shrine to cleanse my restless spirit.