There is a local park called “Arakawa-yuen” near my house. After the class, I sometimes go there with my son and we enjoy watching scenery of Tokyo from their ferris wheel. This is one of our favorite activity!
In April, you can also enjoy seeing full-bloomed sakura cherry blossoms all around the park. This year, we visited this park almost everyday because they bloom for only a week! How precious they are!!
Champagne at lunch time.🍾 Because it’s spring! 🌸
The main reason was…It was a belated anniversary for my hubby and me. ㊗️ He proposed me at this Hibiya park 7 years ago. Wow, time flies so fast!!!
I feel grateful that he is always being helpful and the best supporter in both private and business life. I enjoy the journey with him (and my son 👦🏻, Mario 🐶and Luigi🐶). Happy anniversary. 😘🎉
This French restaurant called Hibiya Matsumotoro had nice and quiche interior. I loved it!
Sakura cherry blossoms are about to bloomed here in Tokyo. 🌸🌸🌸 One of the best season has come!!!
The other day, talented and influential journalist Piti came to my cooking class and we cooked home-style vegetarian ramen together. Piti has her own website “Piti no japao“. We chatted and laughed a lot while filming the video. As she works with famous travel site “Japan travel“, she introduces this video on their site as well. I hope you enjoy the video!!
Happy Girls’ Festival Day!
To know more about this seasonal Japanese event, please click here!
My husband works at the premium sake company but I didn’t know a lot about sake. (I even believed that hot sake is ALWAYS for bad and cheap sake!)
I’ve been felt that I’m missing something so I joined sake tasting session and sake seminar intensively in January. Now, I got the certificate of the Sake Navigator.
I think it’s very useful certificate for both my business and my private life as well! Yay!!!
For more about the tasting session and the sake seminar, please check my Instagram!
On the 3rd of February, we have the day of “Setsubun” (seasonal division) in Japan.
Setsubun has been an important time-honored rite to welcome the New Year by banishing evils and keep the house from calamity.
On the day, people threw beans to banish demons who cause various evil things and plagues. The beans used in “Mame-maki” (bean throwing) are parched and edible. It is believed that one can maintain good health throughout the year by eating the sam e number of thrown beans as one’s age. And they shout, in principle, “In with good fortune! Out with the demon!”
At the same time, we eat “Eho-maki”, sushi roll containing 7 ingredients associated with the Seven Deities of Good Fortune “Shichi-fukujin”, facing the direction of Eho that is most lucky for the year as determined by the Way of Yin and Yang. (I use more than 7 ingredients! :-D)
It is also customary to eat Eho-maki while making a wish in the mind with the eyes closed and without uttering a single word. You will eat the whole roll at a stroke in order not to lose ties. In 2018, the direction of Eho is south-southeast!
It’s already the end of the year but I visited the Gyoza town in October. I am sure you are wondering “Is there a Gyoza town in Japan? Where is it?” Don’t worry! There are several Gyoza town in Japan but Utsunomiya, which is a city name is the most popular gyoza town in Japan. Utsunomiya-city is the capital of Tochigi prefecture and is located north west from Tokyo. It takes about 2 hours to go there by express train. Since it was a quick trip so my family and I tasted 12 different plates of Gyoza in 2 days!
These are sneak peak photos. For more detail, please check our YouTube channel. It’s coming soon!
My family and I visited Kochi prefecture last week.
Kochi is located in the south western from Tokyo and belongs to shikoku, which means four islands/prefectures.
Thanks to the warm weather and rich atmosphere with plenty of mountain and sea side, Kochi offers various local cuisines including tuna steak, Sarabachi-ryori (a course of small dishes in a big plate), Hat-shape bread, Sweet potato chips, Yuzu and more!
The highlight of our trip was “YUZU Hunting”!
We visited local YUZU farm in kitagawa village which is about 2 hours drive from Kochi-city.
On weekend, I make homemade pizza for dinner. My son Kengo is interested in cooking (or tasting) recently so I put small chair next to me so that we can cook together.
We usually make four kinds of pizza. Recently, we tried those four.
1. Tomato sauce, Cherry tomato, Garlic, Basil, Cheese, Olive oil
2. Natto (fermented soybeans), Nori seaweed, Salted kelp, Lotus root, Sesame oil
3. Cheese, Sweet corn, Mayonnaise, Bacon
4. Basil sauce, Avocado, Kale, Potato, Asparagus
It’s always fun to do the experiment to find the best combination.
I think Kengo eats more vegetables than before.
Next time, what ingredients shall we put? If you have a recommendation, please tell us!
