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

tsuruya jam

boy has it been good to escape tokyo these last few weekends.

we headed up to nagano for the long weekend and had three days of delicious food, long soaks in the local onsen (hot springs), no scary aftershocks, and i even learnt how to change the tires on my car (i know… i've never had to do it before; but i had to take off my winter-tires as i was probably the last person in tokyo driving with winter-tires).
good old murphy’s law; it snowed the day after I took them off…

with all the current stuff happening in tokyo at the moment i persuaded k-chan to stay up in nagano with kou-chan.
glad they are safe(r) up there.
you've probably heard, but we were advised that it's not safe for children under one to drink the tap water here in tokyo due to the high levels of radiation detected. anyway, i’m not gonnna rant about this, instead i'm gonna introduce some jam.

if you are ever in nagano you so have to buy some locally produced tsuruya jam*; it’s seriously good!
these little jars of goodness use less sugar than other varieties and the best part is that they come in a huge range of flavors.
this time i bought four jars; walnut butter, gooseberry, rhubarb, and citrus marmalade.
all are divine!





have just left my love ones up in nagano again and returned to tokyo alone.
so if you’re in tokyo; invite me out for a drink; i'm a semi-free man!

spring's around the corner; it's gotta be good.






* can be found at any tsuruya supermarket.

kani kani kani

I'm now on the highway bus making my way back to Tokyo.
I usually take the Shinkansen (bullet train) but thought that as I'm officially a bum without a job I should really take the cheap option.
the bus is pretty much full but in typical Japanese style it's as quiet as my empty apartment in Tokyo. God, remember to put your phone to silent mode, don't wanna be the odd one out!




yesterday we drove all the way to Niigata prefecture just to eat some crab.
I'm not a big fan of crab so it kinda bewildered me why one would want to make a long trip just for these red long-legged deep sea scavengers.

my mind and stomach was elsewhere thinking about my up and coming interviews in Tokyo so I really didn't have an appetite for fresh raw crab. I had a few legs though. skipped on the kani-miso (crab brain).
instead I opted for some yummy negi-toro don; raw tuna and spring onions on a bed of rice; or should I say a bowl of rice.

and yeah to see the ocean again; Nagano ain't got no ocean.
pretty rough, but a nice sight.







feeling a bit car, bus sick...
time to look at the road.

tokyo. here i come

man this last week has been a toughie.

mr sekimachihato drove k-chan and little kou-chan to tokyo in search of our new home.
the drive is around three hours so we left nagano in the dark at 5:30am (that's 5:30am as in the morning!!) giving us enough time to stop somewhere for breakfast and a few nappy changes along route.
we made good time to the outskirts of tokyo and then the inevitable happened...
we got stuck in a blimmin traffic jam on one of the many elevated expressways which wind in, out, up, down throughout the concrete jungle of tokyo.
we ended up moving a tad slower than an energetic snail for around two hours...
not nice with a 6-month old bundle of joy strapped into a car-seat.

but hey, we made it safe and sound; that's the main thing.
couple of not good shots from my phone:




now for the tough part.
searching for a place to live.
we had narrowed down our future location to three stations and left it up to the real estate agent to show us the goods. for the amount we had planned to fork out in rent i was kinda disappointed in the condition of some of the apartments.
every time we opened the door and stepped into the empty rooms i couldn't help but flash back to our apartment in hong kong; full sea views from every room, two outdoor swimming pools, indoor heated pool, tennis courts, even a six-lane bowling ally!
instead i was shown apartments which had poky little kitchens, views of "roads" or even a cemetery!, and no glamorous extras what so ever; zilch.
having lived in tokyo before i should have been a little bit more mentally prepared.

but after two full days of looking at apartment after apartment we finally signed a two year contract with a little place in a nice family-friendly environment.
looking forward now to moving into our new place and getting settled.
first things first though. we have to get all out stuff shipped over from hong kong, all 50+ boxes...


shit.
did you know it's december already!

chihiro art museum

i so want hiroshi naito to design my future home.

who is this naito fella?
he's the talented architect who designed the beautiful chihiro art museum in azumino. i loved the open planned design, the use of wood and steel, and the overall relaxed feel i got when walking around the exhibits.







before visiting the chihiro art museum i wasn't really a "fan" fan of chihiro but i really enjoyed reading about her short, yet well-lived life, and having a close-up look at her art.


* image: 「おふろでちゃぷちゃぷ」 1970 (ofuro de chapu chapu : i love bathing)

for those of you who don't know, chihiro iwasaki (岩崎 知弘) was a talented artist who won numerous awards for her work both locally and internationally. her life was cut short by cancer at the young age of 55 back in 1974.

apart from chihiro's work, there was a collection of children's picture books from around the world which really fascinated me. each country's art had a real distinct feel to it; especially liked the picture books from iran, the czech republic, poland, turkey and korea.
i suddenly have the urge to pull out all my old picture books from my childhood. hope my mum has boxed them up and put them away somewhere.
i'm sure she has; she was an ex-librarian!





info:
chihiro art museum azumino
3358-24 nishihara
matsukawa-mura kita-azumi-gun
nagano 399-8501

ちひろ美術館・安曇野
〒399-8501
長野県北安曇郡松川村西原3358-24

check out this site for more details.
* there is also a chihiro art museum in tokyo.

maruyama coffee : 丸山珈琲

it was hard to find a good cake in hong kong (unless you paid top dollar).
since moving back to japan i have realised that i've been eating way too many cakes. even the cakes from the good old conbini (convenience store) taste pretty darn good.

i didn't go without my piece of cake today too.

obaasan suggested that we go for a drive to a cafe that she often goes to with her friends; so that's what we did. we popped kou-chan into his baby car-seat and off we went.

the outside of maruyama cafe doesn't really look like a cafe at all but more like a huge new warehouse. the building is actually separated into three sections; a shop, the cafe, and the coffee bean roasting room.

so how was the coffee?
very good considering this cafe is kinda in the middle of nowhere. actually the location has nothing to do with it; one of the baristas who works here won a top prize at the japan barista championships.



as i have a sweet-tooth i couldn't resit the caramel cake; an earl grey sponge cake infused with apple compote topped off with caramel cream. yum!!





i can see why obaasan like this cafe but my only grudge is the price; it's a tad expensive...



cafe info:
maruyama coffee
1152-1 hirahara
komoro city
nagano 384-0092
open 9am to 8pm

丸山珈琲
〒384-0092
長野県小諸市平原1152-1
TEL：0267-26-5556‎
営業時間：9：00～20：00
定休日：不定休

narai-juku : 奈良井宿

took ojiisan and obasan's new car for a spin on the expressway (ojiisan and obaasan were also in the car with us so i wisely set the cruise control at 100kmh...)
after a couple of nappy changes along route (for some reason kou-chan always poops when he's in his car seat) we arrived at the old town of narai-juku (奈良井宿) in shiojiri city (塩尻市).

narai-juku is basically a long-ish well preserved street which once flourished during the edo-period.
the weather was perfect for a stroll and it was a great place to pop our heads through the noren (暖簾); door-entrance curtains (??) to see what was on offer.







one shop in particular caught our eye as it had some great showa-period antiques for sale. k-chan and i fell in love with a handmade wooden bread box (the owner of the store makes them) but it was too over priced. we tried to see if they would give us a discount but nope, the price was set to stay. this is japan and not hong kong after all...
instead we bought some fairly common showa-period yunomi (湯のみ);japanese tea cups for 100 yen each.
currently unemployed this was probably a wise choice!




stopped off at another onsen deep in the mountains on the way home.
the natural spring water was great leaving our skin super smooth. shame that this onsen was so small; it felt like i was rubbing my elbows (and other body parts) with every man and his dog so to speak.
one boy (about 6 years old) pointed at me and said to his dad; "he's got strange hair". his dad turned around and looked like a deer caught in headlights when he saw me; a naked gaijin, but kindly explained to his son that yes; he has got blond hair and you have got black hair.
thank god the boy was pointed at my head and not somewhere else!

lake suwa : 諏訪湖

gave the grandparents some peace and quiet while we zipped off to lake suwa (諏訪湖) for a night away.
we usually go to lake suwa in summer for the huge fireworks display (one of the top 5 in japan), but this time of year was just as beautiful time to visit.
the drive through the mountains to lake suwa was breath-taking as the autumn leaves were in full color and raining down on us all the way.

our close friend s-chan; whose wedding we attended in thailand was back home with her 8-month old baby boy. we met s-chan and baby tak-kun at our ryokan (japanese inn) purchased on the hillside looking down on lake suwa.



the day started off great; lots of catching up; eating, drinking, and playing with the kids. after a yummy meal at the inn the two mums took the two babies off for a hot spring while i chilled out in the room. the babies came back in lala-land so the mums went back for a soak while i looked after the sleeping babies.
all was going well until little tak-kun stirred in his sleep and realized that his mum was not there. oh shit...
tak-kun started crying which soon set off little kou-chan too and it wasn't long before both of them were screaming their little lungs out! oh double shit...
as tak-kun can crawl i had to hold him while kou-chan was looking at me with the most heart-wrenched eyes as if to say; "daddy, why aren't you holding me?".
talk about tough...
in the end i thought the walls were gonna crumble down around me so i called the front desk and explained my situation in which the lady said she would go running to the hot spring and get the mum's to come back.
man, i'm never gonna look after TWO babies alone again (unless i can produce milk!)


the following day we strolled around the grounds of suwa taisha (諏訪大社); a temple which is over 1200 years old.
close by were stores selling japanese confectionery which we bought to take back to the grandparents.









oh, if you are wondering what those guys are doing riding that big log; it's a famous once in 6-year event held here in suwa where stupid brave men ride this log down a steep hill; often resulting in death...

so yeah, apart from the screaming-baby experience, all in all it was a nice mini-trip away.
and thanks s-chan for the delicious macarons!
hope to catch up with you again; maybe next time back in thailand?!

akebi

when otoosan came in from taking denko (the dog) for a walk holding a handful of these purple-ish colored pods i was kinda intrigued until i looked closer and saw the huge white slug-like bugs living inside the pods.
talk about disgusting!!

otoosan then carefully plucked out one of these bugs and then without a blink of an eye popped it into his mouth!

ok ok, i'm exaggerating a bit here.
that white-ish slug-like bug is actually the edible pulp of the akebia quinata fruit; a native plant to japan, china and korea.

k-chan's family were surprised that i had never even seen or heard of this fruit before and wanted me to give it a try.
they said it tasted sweet but the bite i took of this weird fruit just tasted kinda bitter...



in japanese this fruit is called "akebi" (アケビ) and a quick google later i found out that in english it's called a "chocolate vine" or a "five-leaf akebia".
apparently the plant's flowers which bloom in the spring smell like chocolate or even vanilla. will have to go into the garden for a bt of a sniff next year.

oh, and in new zealand this plant is prohibited for sale and on the national pest plant list because it's a invasive plant; kills off the native plants.
no wonder i've never heard of it!


anyway, that was your gardening lesson for today.
you can store this information in that part of your brain used for useless info.



by the way, it's blimmin freezing here!
japan got it's first snow fall for the year yesterday. the mountains around here have a dusting on snow on them. time to bring out the winter woollies!!

happy birthday

this year has been a special one for k-chan and i; both of us got to celebrate our birthday's with our parents.
this may not seem special to some, but both of us have lived overseas for such a long time we are seldom in the same city, let alone the same country with our parents on our birthdays.

my parents were in hong kong for my birthday in august where k-chan booked a well known chinese restaurant for dinner. it turned out to be a really special night; thanks k-chan!
this past weekend was k-chan's birthday and as we are at her jikka (parent's house) she got to celebrate her special day with her parents too.
when her parent's asked her how she would like to celebrate she answered that she wanted to go to an onsen (again!) and go to her favorite ramen shop for dinner.
so that's what we did.

we drove up to the yatsugatake mountain range (八ヶ岳) near the town of koumi (小海町)stopping off for a look-see at the picturesque lake matsubara (松原湖).
we came at the right time as the leave were just stating to change color. it won't be long before this is a frozen wonderland. apparently this lake freezes over in winter and you can go ice skating. that's if you can handle the minus 20 degree temperatures!





so after our walk around (one side of) the lake we drove a bit further up the mountain to the yahho natural hot spring (八峰温泉).
after a yummy lunch of soba noodles + tempura + beer + ice cream we had a long soak in the outdoor onsen. nothing beats a long soak outside in the cool autumn air.
this onsen has a room where you can nap after a soak so while kou-chan was out to it i went for a walk around the area.



this is what i saw on my walk:

bright red japanese maple leaves

fresh veges for sale at the onsen

a bug orgy...

a slice of europe in japan?

yatsugatake mountain range

i think some kid must have done this

one of the many mountain holiday homes

a smurf village

k-chan ended her birthday with a bowl of spicy ramen noodles; a family favorite.
kちゃん、おめでとう！





onsen info:
yahho hot spring
5918-2 ooaza toyosato
koumi town, minmi saku-gun
nagano 384-1103

八峰温泉
〒384-1103
長野県南佐久郡小海町大字豊里5918-2
リンク