At the weekend, we had another cooking class with the Nippon Go! group. We prepared food for a bento box. Now, let me be honest, it was a lot of work for a bento box! I mean if you have to prepare this for your family’s lunch, you need to wake up at something like 5am! No thank you!
However, it was absolutely delicious!!! We prepare ginger flavored rice that we put in tofu pockets, mushroom and pork rolls and some other veg. It was delicious and healthy!
I was taking a walk near Asakusa with some friends when one of us spotted fish drying in a basket outside someone’s house! Now, if I were a cat …
Outside the gym near us (a females-only gym), they are advertising the arrival of a new teacher, a sexy teacher. Without any shame, they are pleased to inform their members that they hired a new good-looking man! Go Japan!
On the way to my Japanese class, I was waiting at the Harajuku metro station for my train to arrive, when I spotted that girl, in her kyudo uniform. Kyudo is Japanese archery that’s been practiced since the samurai time. I sometimes see Kyudo students on that line and I always think that it must be an amazing type of art to practice, but the bow isn’t exactly the handiest thing to carry around in the subway. As always, I was drawn by the contrast of her traditional uniform (minus the backpack) with the modern metro station.
After a great dinner in an izakaya, on Friday night, we had an hour or two before the last train and felt like doing a karaoke! As always, it was so much fun, but it’s even more fun when you have the maracas and the tambourine… and with the crazy cats… The crazy cats come from a Japanese app I downloaded. Unfortunately they weren’t at the karaoke with us
Before the vote for the Olympics 2020, there was a huge propaganda in Tokyo, as one can imagine… There were posters showing healthy happy athletes in beautiful modern sports facilities, everywhere in Tokyo, at least one year before the vote. It makes sense and it is true that when you think Olympic Games, you think brand new stadiums and other sports infrastructure.
That’s why wherever I came across an advert for the Olympics in some old part of Tokyo, it made me smile and it reminded me of the great contrasts that Japan displays. Below is an example of street light advert in the old Shinagawa area…
On my way to the Driving License Bureau in Shinagawa, I came across a few PCs with Internet access in the metro station. They were all there, working and there was no sign of an attempt to steal them. If you were to put such PCs in a metro station in Paris (or anywhere in Europe), how long before the PCs were gone or broken? Japan’s really another world…
Sadly, most people remember this date for the horrible events of 2001, but for Dave and I, it’s become our anniversary date of living in Japan! And today, it’s been one year! It’s hard to believe but we’ve done so much since we’re here that it makes sense.
Tonight, we will be celebrating!
A few months ago, I joined a Japanese cooking class taught in both Japanese and English. Classes focus on easy seasonal Japanese dishes, exactly what I was looking for! The teacher is quite famous and has a restaurant in Roppongi. She also works as a food consultant and knows a lot about traditional healthy ingredients, such as “amazake” (means sweet sake but actually does not contain alcohol) and “shiokoji” (salted rice malt).
The latest class was focusing on cooking Okinawa food, such as “taco rice” and “Goya champuru salad”.
My friend Yuka always has beautiful nails. She does it herself at home using a gel nail machine. She offered to do my toe nails after I shamefully admitted that I was still using normal nail polish and hence doing my nails once a week!
I thought I’d give it a go!
