The Summer Days

Isn’t it a weird summer we’re having in Tokyo?
The sky is sure getting a work out going from brilliant blue skies to dark stormy clouds in a blink of an eye. Pouring rain one minute, then a gorgeous pink sunset the next. Summer weather can be unpredictable but I don’t remember it being this crazy.
But you know what? I. Am. Loving. It.
The sky keeps us guessing and there’s nothing more intriguing than that, don’t you think? So people who are complaining about how hot it is outside…it’s going to be chilly winter in a couple of months and you’ll forget about how hot you were and wish the sun would come back out. So just grab a tapioca drink and relax! 😀

PS: But drink lots of water…you want to enjoy summer, not pass out from it! x

The Forgotten Guidebook

This always happens.
I was so excited about my trip to Ogijima that I bought the official guidebook for the Setouchi Triennale 2013 a couple of weeks ago…and then I forgot to bring it with me. Sigh.
This is what happens when you don’t pack ahead of time. I always dump a whole bunch of clothes in my suitcase while getting ready for work and make a mad dash out the door. This usually leads to forgetting essentials like toothbrushes and cellphone chargers. And this time, the guidebook.
I think we did okay without it (pictures to come!) but I wanted to show you the pretty map and pictures in the guidebook anyways! 😀

The Kagurazaka Festival

Kagurazaka Festival (神楽坂まつり) is one of the summer festivals that I always go to every year.
Kagurazaka is a place in  Shinjuku that has a mixture of both Japanese and French culture. I think it’s largely due to the fact that the Institut franco-japonais de Tokyo is located in that area. If you go to the festival, you’ll see that along with the traditional Japanese festival food vendors there are vendors for wine, galette, and sausages. Sort of French, right?
Kagurazaka Festival lasts four days and over 50,000 people come every year. The first two days feature the Hozuki-ichi (Chinese lantern plant market) and the last two days feature the Awa-odori (Awa dance).
This year I went to the Hozuki-ichi and got my very own plant! Here are some pictures:
Almost every store along the Kagurazaka street had a hozuki plant decorating their doors.

Food vendors and people in yukata are a plenty at any festival.

Hozuki plants are a popular obon decoration because they represent lamps
so you’re ancestors can find their way back home easily.
Girls in yukata were selling the hozuki plant for 1,500 yen.
The Kagurazaka Festival poster…love all the dancing going on there.

It’s always a pleasure seeing people wear yukata at a festival…maybe next year for me!

You can see the green lantern seed gradually changing it’s color to orange.

It felt festive just holding a hozuki plant while walking around with everyone!
Kagurazaka also has the best cafes and restaurants, too!

Already looking forward to next year’s festival 😀

The Blueberry Kakigori

Kakigori, which is what we call shaved ice, is my favorite summer dessert. Cold and refreshing, it just hits the spot during our hot and humid summers in Tokyo. I could eat this morning, noon, and night.
Well, if the blueberry picking didn’t tempt you enough to go to the blueberry farm Myrtille Moriyama (ミルティーユ毛呂山), I’m pretty sure this will.
There was a little cafe/shop on the side of the farm called Hatofura (はとふら). They have a lovely terrace outside under a roof of grape vines. Perfect spot to enjoy the ice cream and kakigori we ordered while taking a break from blueberry picking!
The shop sold various jam, tea, and even fresh vegetables. It was one of the sweetest shops I’ve ever been inside and reminded me of the shops you see in the Anne of Green Gables movie (which, of couse, I love!).
Don’t you wish you were eating kakigori here right now? 😀
The entrance to the farm and cafe.

Handwritten menu.

Fresh vegetables for sale, too!

Couldn’t resist buying homemade jam!

Jars of herbal tea.

I love how this little shop is set up…everything looks lovely.

Blueberry Ice Cream

Blueberry Kakigori (it was delicious!!!)
Isn’t this an amazing place? 😀

The August Link Love

The month of August is here!

This is definitely my month because I love love summer and also because it’s my birthday month. I’ll be travelling home for obon with my sister in a few weeks. Can’t wait. I’m already counting down the days!

What do you have planned? Hope you all have a great month ahead! 😀

——————————————————-Link Love——————————————————-
– Got my eyes on this waffle maker.

– Interesting post about turning to Google to discover city stereotypes.

– Obento boxes too pretty to eat.
– Growing up in the midwest, this article caught my eye.
– Although I’m not sure what to think about that quote…good for Jane Austen!
– This tshirt speaks the truth.

The Gold’s Gym

I never thought this day would come…but I’ve joined a gym!!!
That’s right, a gym. And not only any old regular gym but the scariest and most unappealing gym in the world, Gold’s Gym (unless your into body building, of course).
I don’t even know how this happened but technically this was the most convenient gym for me. So after weighing myself and nearly falling off the chair from how high my percentage of body fat has climbed, I’ve started their beginners program.
Putting aside the fact that there are just too many men pumping ridiculous amounts of iron in every corner, it’s actually a pretty good gym. And by good, I mean they have TV’s on all their running and biking machines. Seeing as I don’t have a TV at home, this is amazing. It actually motivates me to run/bike for a longer period of time because I want to see how the program ends!
Good deal, right? 😀

The Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee

Did you ever watch the American sitcom called Seinfeld?
I know it was huge and a lot of people still make references from the show. But I’ve actually never seen an episode. Probably because when I was in grade school, my daddy had full power over the remote control and his English probably still wasn’t good enough to fully enjoy the sitcom back then. And I grew up in the Friends generations so our family pretty much missed the whole Seinfeld era.
But now Jerry Seinfeld is back with his new web series called Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee and I’ve been watching them!
It’s just him and a comedian talking about things while he drives the car and then while they drink coffee. It’s pretty funny, some more than others. My favorites are the ones with Sarah Silverman and Seth Meyers. It’s become a ritual to watch an episode during my lunch break when a new one is on the website.
PS: A random Seinfeld fact…in Japan the dubbing for Seinfeld’s voice is the same person who did the voice for Uncle Jesse from Full House! 😀

The Old Photos: After Church

When was the last time you took a family photo?

I found these old pictures from our family photo sessions we often had after church. One of the reasons I think I take so many pictures now is because my daddy was a big camera person. This was before we even knew what digital was, so he had a Fuji film camera that he would take everywhere with him.

He took tons of photos. Everything from our family trips to just normal evenings at home. But one of the things he liked to do is take family pictures after church. Probably because we tend to look nice when we go to church. And probably also because the church is such a nice backdrop for a photo session!

Nowadays, all us kids live in different prefectures of Japan and we only get to take a family photo once or twice a year. I guess that’s normal. But seeing these pictures made me nostalgic for family photos!

The Afternoon at the Blueberry Farm

Have I ever mentioned how much I love blueberries?
I really do. I actually love any type of berry. But blueberries are my favorite. Which is why I always long for summers back in Michigan (where I grew up) because we had every kind of berry sold in farms and supermarkets for unbelievably low prices. The joys of living on the agricultural side of Michigan.
If you live in Tokyo, you know how expensive berries are. My eyeballs nearly fell out when I first saw the price. This teeny tiny plastic package filled with 15 or so blueberries can cost almost 600 yen. Isn’t that the craziest thing?
Anyways, I’d heard that there were blueberry farms around the Greater Tokyo Area so I looked into it and found a lot of farms. Some were even as close as the next ward over for me. But my friend wanted to take the car somewhere so a couple of us headed out to the further side of Saitama to go blueberry picking last weekend.
And let me tell you…it has heaven! 😀

The farm was called Myrtille Moroyama (Japanese website here).
The farmer said that the blueberry season this year was just starting.
We were all pretty serious about finding the best blueberry bush…so many to choose from!
I cannot tell you how excited I was to see so many blueberries within reach!
The first half hour I only had this much in my basket because I kept on eating it all!
So interesting how even on the same branch, some are already ripe and others still young.

There were 3 types of blueberries on this farm; Tifblue, Brightwell, and Powderblue.

I specifically tried to pick bigger blueberries to take home with me.

Found out that this farm has been growing blueberries organically since 1998…how awesome.
I love how they gave us these little baskets to put the blueberries in!
It was so much fun! Definitely going to try to come back again this summer!

Myrtille Moroyama
258-2 Takinoiri
Moroyama-cho, Iruma-gun
Saitama 350-0456
JAPAN
Blueberry Picking Hours:
(Open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays)
8:00am-12:00pm
1:00pm-5:30pm
Entrance Fee: 300 yen (includes all the blueberries you eat)
Blueberry Fee: 130 yen/100g (the ones you take home)

The Rosemary and Parmesan Popcorn

Sometimes I have a craving for popcorn. Especially when I know I’m having a movie night. It just seems like the thing to do.
So, since I hadn’t made much use of my rosemary plant lately, I decided to make something along the lines of the rosemary and parmesan popcorn introduced on A Cup of Jo. I didn’t have parmesan cheese so I just used Kraft’s parmesan grated cheese. I also didn’t have time to make rosemary oil, so I just cut them up in tiny pieces and let them sit for a bit in the oil. And since I had a lemon laying around, I added the lemon zest, too.
It turned out really delicious and made my movie night all the more fun! And how can you not have fun when you’re watching Burlesque (I’m a sucker for musicals)! 😀
What is your movie night snack?
Rosemary and Parmesan Popcorn
Ingredients:
1 tsp  lemon zest
2 tbs  extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs  parmesan cheese, grated
2 tsp  rosemary, finely chopped
pinch of black pepper
pinch of salt
Directions:
1.
Add chopped rosemary in to the olive oil.
Let it sit while you pop the popcorn.
2.
Once the popcorn is done
pour the oil all over the popcorn.
Also add the parmesan cheese,
black pepper, and salt.
Mix in the bowl.
And enjoy!
*Black pepper and salt is optional.