On The Seventh Day God Created Bakeries

There are bakeries and then there are one of a kind, colorful, incredibly well crafted, wait in line for half an hour to get your morning bun fix bakeries. I’ve always been a fan of baked goods, but a year in a nearly breadless culture really has me appreciating the art of baking and eating buttermilk scones, lemon meringue cake, croissants and seasonal fruit bread pudding. Tartine has been my favorite bakery ever since we started visiting our friend Mike down in San Francisco. It's the best. And lucky me, not only did Chronicle Books just publish their first cookbook, but my sweeter than a frangipane tart husband picked it up for me a couple days ago during our trip to SF.

Crepes

Our friends Davi, Erika and their three awesome kids Miko, Luca and Alita had us over to their apartment in Ikebukuro for crepes on Saturday morning. Their apartment has the best view and the food was yuhummy. Nice way to start the weekend.

Christmas Ikebana

My brother, Mack, likes to joke around and say that his sister is “just hanging out in Japan arranging flower pots”. He thinks it’s hilarious. The truth is that I’ve always been interested in floral arrangement, but never had the time to take any classes. So while we’re here, and while I’ve got some free time on my hands I decided to take an Ikebana class once a week. I’m just now finishing the first of four textbooks. It’s been really fun getting to know the Japanese craft. It’s also been a nice way to meet people, especially my teacher, Reika. We talk a lot and laugh at cultural differences and comparisons between Japanese people and Americans.
Just the other day the Japanese girls in my class had a good giggle at my excitement when I realized we were doing Christmas style Ikebana. “Really! Christmas Ikebana? And I get to choose my ornaments? Wow.” It was a fun arrangement, Christmas decorating in the Japanese style.

More Ikebana From Class...

'Tis the Season for Cookies

In the same way that western style weddings have become popular here in Japan, Christmas is catching on. Apparently they've cleared it with Buddha and the Shinto gods. They're all cool with it. According to the Japanese people I’ve talked to, during the past couple of years Christmas has become a big deal. And while the actual day of Christmas isn’t celebrated as a typical western family Christmas would be, the holiday marketing, shopping and decorations have taken over the city. Because Thanksgiving doesn’t exist here, there was no reason to hold off. The Christmas mania has been going on since early November. So while we still have a good chunk of time between now and Christmas, I’m (embarrassed) already knee deep in Christmas cheer. Our upstairs lounge is a mess of a crafty Santa’s helper wonderland; and tired of holding off until our trip to The States (land of oven equipped homes), over the weekend I went ahead and baked a batch of these Christmas cookies in our toaster oven.

Turkey Day Tokyo

After spending a couple of hours chatting on the phone with family back in The States, we headed down to Omotesando to enjoy a proper Thanksgiving dinner at Fujimamas. There we met up with friends, a hodgepodge including a Brit, a German, two Frenchies, two long-term residents of Tokyo and two New Yorkers. The food was yuhummy – turkey, cranberry, stuffing and gravy goodness. But of course nothing beats an all-you-can-eat home cooked Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner we all made fools of ourselves at a karaoke joint in Shibuya. Inhibitions were lost to the romance of Disney ballads, and white guys pumped fists and rapped to sexed up Too Short lyrics. I’m learning that spending a couple hours with people in a private karaoke room is a quick way to become better acquainted. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Shins

We just saw The Shins play a show here in Tokyo. They sounded great. The venue was very small. The price of the tickets was not! I love going to shows here because I can actually see the musicians. I’m not the shortest person in the audience. We could even watch their fingers and tell which chords they were playing (some of the time). Good stuff. I gave Portland, Oregon a shout out. To which James Mercer replied, “Portland, Oregon? You’re a long way from home.” Don’t I know it.