Palican Bread (パリカンのパン)

My mum's a bit of a health freak and used to say "the whiter the bread the sooner you're dead" whenever I asked for white toast bread over some multi-gran variety, but seriously the white bread and rolls from the Palican Bakery are pretty dam good. 

If you can't get into their Asakusa store early it pays to book a day in advance because they soon sell out. Closed on Sundays too by the way.  

http://www.bakerpelican.com

the big two

last week just over a week ago kou-chan turned two (i know, two already!) so to celebrate his birthday we decided to invite his friends from the same “duckling” group at kindy and have a bit of a party/picnic at the park.

had a beautiful sunny day for it and all in all it turned out to be a great idea as the kids could run around on the grass and play on their bikes while us adults chilled out in the sun sipping our drinks and supervising.
the best thing about it was at the end of the day we didn’t have to worry about cleaning up had it been a house-party.

one

first post of 2012, now that's not a good start to the year...

i'm not gonna explain myself but what I'm gonna try and do is some catching up.

spring is in the air!
everything is good!

goodbye~

now i bet that title got you worried.
no, i'm not giving up this blog, but this post is probably gonna be my last one for 2011; hence the title.

i so didn't intend to disappear from sekimachihato's world for so long, but a few months back I went through a bit of a rough patch at work where I was chucked into the deep-end (that's putting it nicely) and was under too much pressure, enough to make me disappear from, here for a while.
every morning i would leave home early as kou-chan lay fast asleep in his futon only to get home late in the evening to see him tucked up fast asleep again in the same futon. this is so not what i had in mind when i moved to tokyo, i mean come on; no father in their right mind would want a life like this.

but since then things have picked up. i'm handling a project which i'm fairly passionate about, and making sure that i have a comfortable work-life balance.

it's never easy packing up your life, moving to a foreign country, and starting work at a new company (believe me, this is my blimmin 4th time!) but the initial settling-in/stressful period is over, or so i hope.

so with only just over a week to go until christmas we seem to have gatherings with friends just about every weekend.
today we had lunch gathering at our home with our guests bringing this delish cheesecake from "ginza no budo".



i've never tried a cheesecake like this one before, it's not baked or rare, but rather more like a mouse kinda cheesecake which comes tucked up in a zaru; a traditional japanese bamboo basket.
pretty cool. thank you t-san!



i had better get this post up and away as we're running out of time in getting kou-chan his christmas presents. last minute mad rush, but hey, it's all fun!

if i'm not back on here before this year's out, have a great christmas and new year. wanna hear lots of wine corks popping open over the next few weeks!
see you again in 2012!!

100 yen

has it really been that long since my last post?!

just a quickie as I'm on the subway going to work and therefore have to keep an eye on the "lucky ones"; as in the ones who got a seat and are currently in lala-land. here's hoping the the lady in front of me wearing too many clothes in this heat will get off soon so I can take her seat. if not it will have to be the guy who's asleep with his phone in his hand which seriously any minute now looks as if it will slide out of his grip and crash to the floor.

bugger. first major interchange station and nobody who was sitting down in front of me got off.

anyway, you're probably wondering what that 100 yen coin photo is.
well, yesterday when I went to collect my dry cleaning the lady said to me that they found this 100 yen coin in my pant's pocket.
now although there are a lot of honest people back home in nz I think this coin would have some how managed to roll from my pant pocket into the pocket of the person steaming my pants.

i was quite shocked that the coin was being returned to me and that it was found in my pant's pocket (i usually never put coins in my pocket, hate the jingling!)
after saying thank you for kindly returning the coin, wrapped up in a hand made paper envelope complete with "cute" sticker, I said
"wow, I didn't realize this coin would be returned",
to which she replied,
"oh yes, we will return coins even if it's only 1 yen. you'd be surprised what we find in peoples pockets".

I left the conversation there but it left me wondering about the interesting stuff they must find in peoples pockets.
I bet those dry cleaning ladies have some stories to tell, what with the goodies in our pockets and the stains on our pants...

kosenji hanamatsuri （光泉寺花祭り）

while k-chan’s parents were off buying their omiyage (souvenirs) my parents and i leisurely strolled around the little township of kusatsu.

at one end of the town was a flight of stairs leading up to a small temple called kosenji (光泉寺).
with time on our hands we clambered up the stairs and much to our surprise we were greeted to the colorful celebrations of a local festival; the kosenji hanamatsuri or kosenji flower festival (光泉寺花祭り).

the kids from the local kindergarten were all dressed up in their celebratory costumes as proud parents and grandparents went snap-happy with the cameras.
this festival is a celebration for buddah's birthday where the local kids pull a huge elephant (I think it's made out of papier-mâché) around the town's centre.

although it was a very small affair, it was nice to see kids being kids and just having fun.












note: kosenji hanamatsuri is held yearly on may 7th and 8th.

happy 60th in kusatsu （草津）

earlier this week was chi-chi’s (my mum) 60th birthday.
happy birthday mum!!

guess how chi-chi wanted to spend this special day?
well, she and a group of close friends decided to climb mount mauao; a famous mountain beside the ocean at my home-town.
once at the top they cracked open a bottle or two of champagne which popa (my dad) carted up in his backpack and basically enjoy the amazing view and company.

I really hope you had a blast mum and didn’t get too tipsy on that champagne. the only way down is to walk or call for a rescue helli which you wouldn’t want as I’m sure it would make the front page headlines of the local newspaper!
hang on, isn't it illegal to drink on mount mauao?!?!
god, breaking the law at age 60 huh!

it sucks living so far away, especially at special occasions like this. it would be great if we could just pile on into the car, zip down the road to chi-chi and popa’s place and have a few glasses of champagne with them.
we knew that it would be impossible to be back in new zealand for chi-chi’s 60th so instead we decided to celebrate when mum's milestone when they were here in japan a couple of months back.

we took them for a weekend escape up to the small mountainous town of kusatsu in gunma prefecture (群馬県草津町) and k-chan's parents also made the trip from nagano prefecture for the celebrations.
kusatsu is world famous for its natural onsen; hot springs.
when i mentioned this to my parents I’m sure they started freaking out about having to get stark naked in front of a group of strangers and experience a real japanese onsen.

with that in mind we set out for the 4 hour drive from tokyo.

apparently there are over 100 hot springs in kusatsu with 34,000 litres of water per minute (now that’s a lot!) flowing out of the ground.
was glad to hear that this hot water is not wasted but used to heat the town’s schools in winter along with the streets, swimming pools, and many household etc.
the main attraction of the town is a huge hot spring located in the town’s center called yubatake (湯畑).
the wooden boxes you can see below are there to collect minerals which are then processed and sold as bath salts.





as we were stayed at a traditional japanese inn it didn’t take long before we were in our yukata and lounging around our spacious accommodation.
dinner was served in a private dining room and my parents were shocked at the amount of beautiful food which was served to us.
even got mum to wear the tradition red hat and cape; (akai-chanchanko) which is worn when one turns 60 and apparently starts to return to childhood.

after a few beers it was time to get naked.
seriously, onsen time.

surprisingly I wasn’t the least bit worried or embarrassed about soaking in a hot spring naked with my dad.
my dad didn’t seem too worried either but my mum on the other hand was a bit apprehensive having to go in with k-chan (she could go alone but was unfamiliar with all the ins and outs of onsen bathing).
apart from the water being a tad too hot for my parents they said that they loved it and were really glad to have experienced it.

wonder if they would do it again…?







so mum, happy 60th!
wish we could be in new zealand to celebrate with you!

ray coffee house

karuizawa (軽井沢); which is a resort town in nagano prefecture, is well known as being a cool-escape from tokyo's pavement melting summer heat.
with the temperature getting close to 35C we zipped up to nagano last weekend only to be greeted with temperatures of 32C...
i tell you what, that 3-degree drop in temperature doesn't make one feel any cooler!

while driving through the beautiful tree lined narrow roads which make karuizawa so charming, I found a simple yet relaxing cafe called "ray coffee house".
not only was the interior clean and simple, the menu was simple, as in only 2 choices of food; hayashi-rice or apple pie.
being lunch time we both went for the hayashi-rice option.
it was delish.





the man running the cafe (I guess his name is ray?) lives upstairs.
if I had enough money to get by I could so see myself living like this, maybe not running a cafe (nice thought though) but living out in the wilderness but still only a hop skip and a jump away from the trendy shops in karuizwa and only an hour or so away from tokyo by bullet train.






mmm, wonder if my company would fork out for me to commute by bullet train to the office?!




cafe info:
ray coffee house
2141-431 ohaza nagakura
karuizawa
* closed thursdays

〒389-0111
軽井沢町大字長倉2141-431

bust boiler

turns out our boiler went bust so today we got a new, a new (don't even know what this is called in english!?), a electronic bath wall controller?
anyway they are pretty common over here.

this new one is basically the same as our old one but there is a lady living in this one who talks to us.
kou-chan thinks this is hilarious and bursts out laughing when she says things like "the bath is now 41 degrees". he then gets a serious look on his face as he tries to figure out how a lady got into such a small contraption.

so glad he's not tall enough yet to fiddle with the buttons!

my new green-curtain

thank god monday's over; I so hate mondays.
today I had to write a letter to the CEO of one of the biggest corporations (in the top 10) in the world.
how's that for a freaky start to the week!

anyway, have you heard of green curtain?
it's not a "curtain" curtain but rather a curtain made out of lush green foliage which you grow outside of your window.
apparently by growing a green curtain you can reduce the temperate inside your house by around 2 degrees.
they also look nice too and offer a bit of privacy.

after walking around my neighborhood its easy to see that they are the in thing at the moment in my little suburban tokyo neighborhood.
couldn't resist but get in one the fun so yesterday I drove to the local hardware store and purchased myself a big flower pot, some dirt, couple of stakes, a net, and some plants.
most people around here are growing goya which is a bitter gourd popular in okinawa, but I went for yorugau; moonflower, from the morning glory family only because I though the odd flower would look better than some gourd hanging outside my window.

as you can see I'm in need of some privacy so I'm looking forward to my green curtain to start winding itself up the net.

can you see kou-chan on the sofa to the right? he can now get on and off the sofa or bed by himself!

dandelion

I so shouldn't have made a promise to do this daily blogging thing over a weekend. talk about no time!

so yet another quickie.
kou-chan's recently found out how fun dandelions can be.
he still doesn't know that if he blew the dandelion it would be just that much more fun. he's pretty content at this stage to wave it around and wonder why it gets smaller and smaller.

forgot how much fun dandelions can be for adults too.
when was the last time you blew one?
a dandelion that is!

kakigori (かき氷)

shit, it's coming up midnight and I still haven't uploaded my promised daily post.

spent the day at a local park with a free (small) zoo and an old school kakigori ice shop.

it melted pretty fast but it was darn good.

right, diving into the bath and then it's time for the blanket show.

pretty pink

this weeks been a scorcher.
has been 30 degrees plus in Tokyo (we topped the 35 degree mark the other day) and gunma prefecture got up to 39 degrees. bugger that.
our office is warm to say the least with the aircon set at 28 which basically means the aircon is spewing out thick warm air that just makes the sweat run at a slower pace.
not cool (pun intended)

a few colleagues at the office bought those USB fans so the other day after work I went on the hunt for one.
well, talk about popular. the first two stores I went into were out of stock but my luck changed in the third store, where they had five left.
the last five were all in pink color.
pink...
pretty pink...
she lady at the store went on to explain that they did have them in white, black, blue, even silver and gold but all that was left was pink, and even these are selling out fast.
I spent the next 10 minutes holding the little square box containing a pink fan wondering if I should try my luck elsewhere or just be a man and buy the god dam fan.
pink...
it was then that I remembered what the new temp lady at work told me.
we were having some after 5 drinks and she said was interested in tarot card reading etc. I'm so not into that but she said if I told her my birth dates she would give me a run down on my personality.
sounds like some primary school game but it turns out that I like the number 8 (true) and my lucky color was yup, you guessed it, pink. pretty pink.
can't say it's my favorite color although I have a few pink items stashed away.
so I though bugger it, the extra luck won't go amiss, and a few cha-chings later I'm the proud owner of a pretty pink USB desk fan.
haven't got too many funny looks at the office which I'm not sure is a good thing or not but at least I'm a tad cooler.
it has two settings, low and high; so can't figure them out as the high setting doesn't seem to give off any stronger wind but just makes my desk vibrate a bit.
no doubt will start getting sone funny looks if I set it to high.

a wos first

I haven't hit the update button on my blog for ages, and it's only because I don't carry my camera around with me to take any photos nor (hate that word "nor") do I have the time to ever upload a new post.
as I've mentioned before, my only free time these days is while I'm commuting to and from the office or while I'm in the bath.

so here comes a wos first.

I've decided I'm gonna do a post a day for the next week no matter what.
even if I come down with malaria or loose a finger you are gonna see a new daily post right here.
it will most likely be updated during my commute because I don't trust myself in the bath with my iPhone.
mind outa the gutter. I don't wanna drop it into the bath.

but be warned, photos will be taken on my phone so don't expect any snazzy pics and the posts will be relatively short; I'm often not in the mood to blog while in a jammed backed subway carriage.
and don't expect any random photos of sexy people I see during my commute, we can't turn off the iPhone's camera shutter sound for Japanese iPhones. I think thats because there are too many creepy men going for the knicker shot.
yuck.

anyway, here is kou-chan waiting for his lunch at "cafe;haus" in toyosu last weekend.
cafe;haus has a very relaxing feel to it, a nice outdoor courtyard for bbqs, good hearty food and some eye-candy staff. happens to be across the road from lalaport so you can get your shopping fix too if need be.

oh yeah, I can only upload one photo from my iPhone to this blog so don't expect a daily barrage of photos.

Sent from mr sekimachihato's iPhone

hatsu zekku : 初節句

celebration after celebration.

a few days before kou-chan turned one he also celebrated his first ever children’s day; an important “first” in japanese culture called “hatsu zekku” (初節句).

although children across japan and many parts of asia celebrate children’s day annually, the 1st and the 5th children’s day are considered big events in japan for boys.

kou-chan celebrated his hatsu zekku with both his grandparents and all but two of his uncle and aunties. pretty special in my book.

unfortunately uncle N from japan was away in some exotic location in east-asia on business and untie A; (my sister), was in paris on holiday.

a special dinner was out of the question as you don’t wanna be dining in some posh restaurant with a tired toddler, so instead we booked in for lunch at the top-notch shiba tofuya ukai (芝とうふ屋うかい); a beautiful japanese restaurant at the very foot of tokyo tower.







as the name suggests this fine establishment focuses on tofu.
they produce all their own tofu which is made at their own in-house workshop in the foothills of the okutama mountains. the beans (yup, tofu is made from beans) are grown in hokkaido.

the lovely ladies who were serving our private dining room didn’t seem to mind that kou-chan wanted to be the first to get his hands on every dish that they served.
in true japanese service they simply smiled, commented on what a cute little boy he was and gracefully shuffled around the tatami mat room in their modified kimono dress.




(above photos from shiba tofuya ukai website)

not only did k-chan and I have to interpret all being said between the grandparents (my parents only know “hello”, “thank you”, and how to count up to 10 in japanese, whereas k-chan’s parents, well her dad anyway, is good at mimicking phrases from hollywood movies like “oh no” and “come on baby” and “fu*k you”…), but we also had to control a wriggly kou-chan AND try to enjoy our meal.
because of such circumstances we do not have that many photos of the “big event”, but we do have some wonderful memories.






restaurant info:
shiba tofuya ukai
4-4-13
shiba-koen
minato-ku, tokyo
tel: (03) 3436-1028 (reservations recommended)
website

nearest station: akabanebashi station (oedo line) or kamiyacho station (hibiya line)