Amerrrria in Tokyo

The rationale to visit Tokyo was pretty simple: my friend Nicci lived there, I love Japanese food, and it was on the way home.  Sorted!  The extra NZ$1200 it added to the cost of my flight...well, we'll just forget that shall we...

Overall impressions were of lots of shrines (Shinto) and temples (Buddhist) - I visited the Yasukuni Shrine, Meiji Shrine, Asakusa Kannon (also known as Senso-ji) Temple, Nezu Shrine, and tried, but sadly failed to find the Gyokushin Mitsuin Temple (it sounded amazing, you enter the temple, then descend to a pitch-black, 100m long stone tunnel, before emerging into a room filled with 300 candle-lit boddhisattvas...but no sign-posting at all meant I wandered the streets of Tamagawa for nearly an hour before giving up...).  And that's not to mention all the tiny shrines and temples I saw all over Tokyo - each slightly different and generally always with someone there offering up a prayer.

And then obviously the food was incredible - my favourite was probably the 'stand-up sushi bar' Nicci took me to on our first night where the chef makes the sushi up in front of you as you order it - I especially loved the salmon ngiri where they took the blow-torch to the mayonnaise on the top of it so it was all bubbling and delicious...mmmm...  I also had freshly caught tuna for breakfast at the Tsukiji Fish Market, ramen with the Tokyo salary-men during the lunch rush (I loved it, you order from a vending machine, take it to the counter, and then a steaming hot bowl of noodles arrives minutes later), an incredibly expensive prawn tempura with hand-made soba noodles (note to self, always find out the price before you order), and a very non-Japanese but delicious pizza from Costco in the 'burbs one night.

I did heaps of walking, including a walk around the imperial heart of Tokyo which includes Kitanomaru Park and the Imperial Palace East Gardens, as well as a great walking tour through a suburb of Tokyo called Yanaka, which was very relaxed and included a walk around the Yanaka Cemetery, famed for its cherry blossoms (although not when I was there - it was stinking hot and everyone was carrying around little sweat cloths to mop themselves up with...).

Other great things included the free viewing platform at the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (although it was too hazy from the heat to see Mt Fuji), the kitchen-ware district (known as 'Kitchen Town' or Kappabashi Dori) and having a traditional onsen in piping hot mineral-rich water.

Japan has experienced a 95% drop in tourism since the earthquake, so other tourists were few and far between, lending the city quite an 'undiscovered' air which was odd (I mean, come on, this is Tokyo!!).  But it was totally safe, and the wonderful hospitality from Nicci made it even more special.

Click here to see the rest of the photos!

A taste of Japan

This is at the Cold Stone Cremery, an ice cream chain which was highly recommended to me as worth a visit while I was in Japan.  This one is in Roppongi Hills where the staff were super enthusiastic!

More photos and stories of Japan to come...

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease

For our five year anniversary, I took Adrian out on a date.  But not just any old date, a trapeze lesson date!  It was part of the summer session of the Gorilla Circus down in Battersea Park, and was a two hour class learning how to do a knee-hang move.

I could explain it, but here's Adrian getting it perfectly on his first go!

Damn those naturally talented people...  I had a bit of a harder time:

But in the end I managed to get it!  I was so determined that there was no way I wasn't going to get those legs through that bar...

But because Adrian was able to demonstrate he was good enough, he got to do a move with the instructor:

Impressive non?!

Here are the rest of the photos.  I'm covered with bruises today and have incredibly achy shoulders - but it was totally worth it!

Great recipe site

Not that I normally want to promote anything Australian, being as partisan as a good NZer ought to be, but I’ve just rediscovered this website and am going to post it here for you, as well as for me to remember to use it!

This Sanitarium 'great recipes' site has a wealth of healthy, and Antipodean-cooking-style-friendly recipes.  It’s also nice and basic which is normally what you want when a) you’re trying to come up with inspiration for what to buy for the week and b) when it comes to actually making it during the week.  I also like how it’s got lots of vegetarian recipes which is how we (mostly) eat at home – saving the planet and our budget one meal at a time...

We’re making a variant of this pumpkin, feta and pea risotto tonight – I’m a big fan of risotto (good for the shoulder muscles) so hopefully it tastes good!

(P.S. Sanitarium have never heard of me - I just like their site...)

Kippers

We tried out a different farmers market last weekend (we normally go up to the one at Clapham South on a Sunday) just to see what was there and how it compared.  This one was on a Saturday by Oval tube station in the grounds of St Marks Church - it was funny to see all the stalls backed up against ancient gravestones!

It was quite a bit bigger than our usual, with cookies, a coffee stall, different vege places and lots of fancy cheese/spreads/bakery/meat etc. stalls.  I resisted trying some of Adrian's pain-au-raisin, but when he got the strawberry and white chocolate cookie all my resolve crumbled! 

The vege we've had so far has been good - especially the giant lettuce - but the new thing was the fish stall.  It had samphire which I didn't even know what it was, and coincidentally was on the menu at the pub later that night (obviously I ordered it being a sucker for interesting additions to menus) - however, it was crunchy and delicious so I'd definitely try it again!  The other thing we got were some kippers.  I'd never had kippers before, but knowing that they belong to the high omega-3 fish family, we thought we'd give them a try.

I made this River Cottage recipe, which was good, but the problem was the bones!  It took ages taking most of them out with tweezers, and then the ones I missed just looked wrong when you were trying to eat the dish (even though they were really small and light).  Apparently you can get de-boned kippers in cans?  The other thing I was surprised about was how salty they were - is that a sign of a good kipper or not I wonder...

Anyway, it's all about experimentation, and I got to use the mint I've been growing in the garden which is always good.  We'll try the fish stall again and see what else he's got to tempt us!