The Dinner at Union Square Tokyo

We had a little reunion last Friday night.

D and I used to both work under Mr. T when we first started with the company. He was a great person to work with and I think we both learned a lot through his work ethics. We now no longer all work together but sometimes Mr. T takes us out, despite his busy schedule, so we can all catch up.
This Friday, he took us out to Union Square Tokyo, which apparently is a very popular restaurant at Tokyo Midtown. They had a bar near the entrance, further down a seating area with high ceilings, and a terrace outside facing the Midtown park.
We had an amazing dinner inside (yes, they will make some dishes vegetarian for you!) but since it was such a nice night out, Mr. T asked the waiter if we could have dessert outside on the terrace. I adore this man. You know I love the outdoors, even if it’s smack in the middle of the city. And having delicious wine, dessert, and coffee out on the terrace with some of my favorite people completely made my night!
Cool summer nights should always be spent outside with interesting conversation, don’t you think? x

Union Square Tokyo
Midtown Tokyo Galleria B1
9-7-4 Akasaka
Minato-ku, Tokyo
03-5413-7780

The July Link Love

I keep on repeating myself every month.
But June was definitely the busiest month for me this year. Work was beyond hectic (in a good way…although I’m hoping 30+ hours of overtime is not an every month thing) and weekends were full of fun with friends!!!
For July, I’m hoping to relax a bit more and get back to running more often. And of course, more posts! Happy July! 😀

——————————————————-Link Love——————————————————-

– I haven’t cooked or baked at all this month. Not once. But when I do, I’m making this.
– My rosemary plant is getting bigger. Want to make this cake soon.
– I sent kit-kats to my awesome friend. He made this amazing instagram video and made my day.
– Changed my morning alarm to this song.
– My fascination with British English continues. Read this and laughed out loud.
– This powerful artwork by Manabu Ikeda makes you think. 

The Lunch at J.S. Burger

A lot of people often ask me if being vegetarian in Japan is very difficult.
My answer is always, it can be but not for me. Mostly because I’m not vegetarian by choice but because I just don’t like the taste of meat or fish. So I’m okay with meat/fish broth and having meat in my dish (I just push it to the side). I’m not allergic, either. It just doesn’t taste good to me. So for me, being vegetarian is pretty much an extension of being a picky eater.
Japan seems to be known for being unfriendly towards vegetarians. And at times it is…but I think that’s just fine. I mean, being vegetarian is a luxury. But Tokyo is becoming more vegetarian friendly by the day.
Take a look at this amazing vegetarian burger! It’s so good I crave it often. They also have regular burgers (which I hear are pretty amazing as well!) so next time you’re hungry for a burger, try this yummy cafe! 😀
J.S. Burgers Cafe
6-6-2 Jingu-mae
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
03-6418-2586

The Strawberry Jam Night

What do you do when you have a pile (and when I say pile, I mean a whopping pile) of strawberries from the nicest farmers in town?
We make jam!!! 😀
First, we cut the stem off and weigh the strawberries.
All you need to add to the strawberries are sugar and lemon.
Then…you stir and stir and stir!
We all took turns stirring the pot so it wouldn’t burn…it’s harder than it looks.
Ta-daaa!!!
It ended up being a pretty big batch since we made jam in two pots. The kitchen smelled amazing. The minute we decided it was done, we tried it out on top of yogurt. And of course, we patted ourselves on our backs because it was delicious! (hehe!)
It’s really simple to make so if you ever get your hands on a bunch of strawberry, here’s the recipe:
Homemade Strawberry Jam
Ingredients:
1,400g  Strawberries
1,400g  Sugar
(or 1:1 of strawberry and sugar)
1/2  Lemon, squeezed
Directions:
1.
Cut up the strawberries.
Place in pot.
2.
Add the sugar.
Let the strawberry and sugar
sit in the pot for 15-30 minutes.
3.
Turn the heat on high and start to stir.
Smash a bit of the strawberry while stirring.
Once the juice from the strawberry starts to boil
turn the heat to medium and continue to stir.
Also, remove the foam.
4.
Once it starts to thicken
add the lemon juice and mix in.
Turn the heat on high one last time.
And it’s done!

The Overalls

Today I took the morning off work to go to my monthly doctors appointment…and decided to go shopping before heading back to work!
I have been eyeing these overall shorts at Zara for a while now. They go with anything and I’ve been looking for the perfect pair of overalls. It could be my look this summer.
But when I tried them on today, it was like deja vu…I could swear I had the same pair back in grade school. Well…apparently I did!
I posted the picture above with my suspicion of having the same overalls on facebook and guess what my grade school friend T posted on my wall?
In response to your photo you just posted, you are correct.
You did have the exact one in grade school.
Please see exhibit A below.
(you are in the red if you don’t recognize yourself). 
Oh the good old 90s. Don’t you love how crazy old pictures like this can just pop up on your wall like this on facebook? The overalls, the big tshirts, the socks with Birkenstock look. I love it all because it all reminds me of how much fun we all had growing up together.
Do you sometimes walk down memory lane and get nostalgic over old photos? 😀

The Day We Jumped For Joy

This past weekend I was in Miyagi prefecture again with my friends. And if you couldn’t tell from the gif above, it was a fun fun weekend. Posting pictures from the trip real soon but had to share our jump for joy today!

Who knew jumping around in the parking lot would end up being so much fun? We were a little tired but once we started taking these pictures, our energy level spiked. Before we knew it, we were doing crazy jumps over and over again.

You should try it sometime. You’ll discover a whole new meaning to “Jump for Joy!” 😀

The Rainy Season Has Begun

Actually the rainy season in Tokyo was officially announced on May 29 this year.
And as usual, the minute they announce the start of the rainy season…it stops raining. Weird how that works. We’ve really had mostly sunny days since we hit rainy season. So sunny, in fact, that I already have quite the sun tan from just walking to and from work.
But it seems the rainy season is finally upon us. The forecast for this week is rain everyday…and as much as I love waking up to a sunny morning, I’m glad it’s raining.
Because the beautiful hydrangeas are in full bloom and nothing compliments them better than rain. And yes, this is just my opinion. But look how pretty they look with the raindrops!
Happy rainy season 😀

The Vertical Horizon in Hong Kong

Isn’t this view amazing?
These photographs are a series called Vertical Horizon by French photographer, Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze. He captures the unbelievably tall buildings in Hong Kong beautifully!
I mean, we have our share of skyscrapers in Japan…but they are nothing compared to Hong Kong, which has even less space to build on. So they grow vertically. And also, they apparently don’t have earthquakes. Which is a very good thing because I saw a lot of buildings in Hong Kong that would never even get past the building permit stage here in Japan.
But they work over there and are amazing to see!

The Afternoon at Shuri Castle

Can you believe it’s June already?
And I’ve still working on my Okinawa posts. I need to speed things up! So here is a quick post on one of the most popular tourist spots we stopped by, Shuri Castle, which we call Shuri-jyo in Japanese.
One of the reasons I’ve been putting these pictures off for so long is because I needed to look things up. But I can’t put it off any longer and still haven’t read enough to write extensively, so…I’m going to just show you some pictures here and let you look it up yourself if you want more information! 😀
Here is a quick quick history of the Shuri Castle:

So from 1429 to 1879, the Kingdom of Ryukyu reigned on the island, which is now Okinawa prefecture. Shuri Castle was the royal residence and also the administrative center of the kingdom. Records state that Shuri Castle  burned down several time and had to be rebuilt. But after the island became part of Japan, it was totaled during the war in 1945 because the Japanese army set up headquarters there (which everyone knows is just asking to be bombed).

After the war, it became the campus for the University of Ryukyus for awhile. During that time, Okinawa was actually part of the United States administration until they returned it to Japan in 1972.    Shuri Castle officially began reconstructing in 1992 to what is now the Shuri Castle Park.

And as you can see in the photo below…(drum roll please!)…Shuri Castle was one of the Ryukyu castles that was registered as a World Heritage Site in 2000!

So that’s a little history for you…and here are some of the pictures:

My family tends to read everything together out loud…I know, annoying! haha!
The first entrance to Shuri Castle, Kankaimon (歓会門).

View of the gate Kyukeimon (久慶門) from above.

A building which houses the Bridge of Nations Bell.
“Inscriptions on the bell describe the Ryukyus
as a beautiful nation in the southern seas, using its ships to serve
as a bridge between China, Japan and Korea, and with a flourishing trade.
The words proudly express the spirit of the ocean-faring kingdom.”
You need a ticket to enter the main area.
The main building, Seiden (正殿), standing majestically on the Una Courtyard.
Most of the buildings around the courtyard have buildings which are fascinating!
Below were the actually walls of the Shuri Castle that were preserved.

The inside was simple, yet gorgeous. I love the bright colors used in the design.
The roofs were all traditional Ryukyu Aka-gawara (Ryukyu Red Roof Tiles).
One of the miniature replicas on display…my ancestors were sitting in the Uekata (親方) rank. 

The outer wall shows which rocks are original and which rocks were replaced when rebuilt.
We only had about 2 hours to go through the castle grounds and at first we thought that would be plenty of time…but actually we had to rush through it all because there was just so much to see. Especially when you want to read through the information. It was just really interesting for me because this is all part of my history.
Funny story. I had no idea that Shuri Castle was rebuilt so recently. I remember talking with my mom before this trip and mentioning I wanted to stop by Shuri Castle. And my mom says, “Oh I’ve always wanted to go see Shuri Castle, too!” Which was really odd for me because I was thinking my mom was born and raised in Okinawa and why wouldn’t she have seen it already? I thought maybe it was one of those things when locals don’t go to touristy spots because they’re always there?
So it was quite a surprise to me when I learned that Shuri Castle was only rebuilt in 1992. Since we were state side until 1996, this all made sense. And it was just really fun learning about our history together!
I hope you have a chance to go see Shuri Castle someday, too 😀

The Okinawan Dishes by Grandma

My mom is an amazing cook.
I think she gets it from her mother because my grandma is also an amazing cook. She spoils us with our favorite Okinawan dishes every time we come…and so I thought I’d share some with you.
Fresh Aosa Soup (above) is delicious. We had this in the mornings instead of miso soup. Aosa is a type of seaweed and fresh Aosa can be found in Okinawa, although you can find dried Aosa even on the mainland. But it’s really good. And it’s also good for your body as well because it includes lots of fiber and vitamin C!
My absolute favorite dish is made from a type of potato called Tahnm (ターンム/田芋). I think the closest type of potato may be Sato-imo (里芋), which is called Taro in English. It’s only produced in a couple of places even within Okinawa, so you can only find them in stores around certain holidays, like New Years or other Buddhist holidays. What I think is interesting is that the Tahnm are sold in stores already steamed (below). So cooking it is really simple.
Tahnm can be used in a variety of ways. The two popular ways to cook it in our family is Dingaku (ディンガク), which is a sweet paste-like dish, and my absolute favorite, Kara-age (above). It’s basically deep fried Tahnm but you pour sweet soy sauce over it to add flavor!
This time we actually found Tahnm being sold in supermarkets so I bought a whole bunch, froze them in my grandma’s fridge, and actually brought them back to Tokyo with me. My grandma also taught me how to make the two dishes so I’m really happy I get to eat them in Tokyo, too 😀

Nanto-mochi (ナントウ餅) is a type of mochi (above) made from kokuto (dark sugar), miso, and peanuts. It’s not too sweet as it has a little kick of long pepper (called pipa-tsu (ピパーツ) in Okinawa) and ginger, too. It used to be a special dish for New Years but it’s become popular enough that you can find it all year long in Okinawa now.
And last but not least, is possibly the most famous Okinawan snack, Sah-tah-andagee (サーターアンダギー)! (below)
In Okinawan (they used to be the Kingdom of Ryukyu so they had/have their own language), Sah-tah means sugar, anda means oil, and agee means fried. So it’s pretty much a doughnut! My grandma always makes the Beni-Imo (紅芋/purple yam) flavor. I love how purple the doughnut gets on the inside. Isn’t it pretty?

Well, we ate much much more but that was all that I was able to take pictures of.
The others? We scarfed it all down before I could even reach for my camera. haha. Okinawan food is so simple yet so delicious. And even more so when you’re in the company of family you love!
So now you know what to look for when you go to Okinawa! Happy eating! 😀