MIki's Birthday 3!!

These are from Nick.




"gorillapod"


It's a flexible tripod for a digital camera that you can bend and twist in any direction and fit anywhere.

So now I can use my camera on trees, on traffic lights, on car mirrors.........

Wow, I can't pictiure myself doing that........


But certainly, it must be good for taking photos at night!

Maybe I can take better pics of the moon from now on..........

Kids plate set from "La chaise longue".

I wanted to have that for a long time!!

I'll have wonderful meals with this!!!

A book.

I could tell that it was a book from the Junku book store ribbon sticker.

But the wrapping paper surprised me, because I'd never seen this one before!!

How come??!

When I ask for wrapping at Junku, they let me choose from paper with 3 different prints,

but always always the same 3!!

For years!!!

Even when I got a book for Nick's birthday just a 2weeks ago, they showed me the same 3, and I was about to ask for something else, because I felt "Not Again!!".

Of course I didn't say anything.......

So I was shocked to see this new paper, and had to look at it for a quite long time before I opened it...

Then it was Soji Shimada's new book, "Syaraku"!!

Wow!

I normally can't afford the hardback and wait a year till it comes out in pokect size.

So this is a complete luxury for me!!

And Nick's hand made card.

Brilliant!!!!!!!

I liked it very much!!!!!!!!!

This is the present from myself.

Even I knew what was inside, it still felt exciting to open it!!

And it was "The portable Edgar Allan Poe".

This is a great book , full of his novels, poems, and lots of letters from him to his friend.

Of course, "Black Cat" is included, and so is "The Fall of the House of Usher".

I wanted to have this for a long time, but as it's the e-book era now, I was kind of hesitating.
But I made the excuse that it was my birthday, and now I am happy!!

I can't help loving paper books.

A big package from my sister and Mum.

Funny picture - it looks like a bin bag full of old paper!!

And lots of nice stuff from the bin!!

Yamanashi wine , handmade card, Napoleon cognac, and a beautiful photo book from my sister!

The wine wrapping was very interesting as it was a print of the samurai lord of Ymanashi, Takeda Shingen.

Maki's wrapping was very beautiful, pink and red. Nice!

From Yumi.

When I opend a big paper bag.........

"???"

It was full of calcium bars and energy drinks!!

I laughed so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, the thing is I broke my ribs.

She heard that from Rica and thought Miki needs calcium and energy,

So here we go.

It's sooooooooooooooo Yumi.

This one is from Tomoko!

Very autumn-like scarf by Patricia cox.

I'm sure that I'll use it a lot this autumn!!

Cute-faced pig key ring from tomoko.

More pigs in my room!!

Each pig has brought me good luck till now, so I'm sure something very nice will happen to me this year too.

T-shirt from tomoko.

It's not my style and I know that I would never buy this by myself, so I'm glad to get it.

It says, "I'm feeling wonderful, I'm waiting for my date".

Cuuuuuuuuuute!!

Card from Tomoko.

From Noriko.

She went to Guam with her family for 6 days. How nice!

And she got me a present from there, nuts chocolate, flower-scented hand cream, and coconut lip-cream . Very tropical!

Rica got me a pair of shoes!!

I've seen these in shops and wondered how it would feel to put my feet in them.

Now I know!

Can you tell what it is??

Dadaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!

It is a incense stand from "Seika do"!!!!!!!!!

When I saw this first time a couple years ago, I was amazed how beautiful it was, and how it shows everything that Kyoto is about in such a small work.

Like a pond in the garden for all seasons.

And this is another present from me, Soji Shimada's book that I badly wanted for a long time, "Ryugatei".

I don't want to read it yet, I should wait..

I waited all these years......

But it is in my hand now, and I don't know how much more patience I can have.......

Anyway, everything was so nice!

Thank you so so much!!!!!!!!!!!

MIki's Birthday!!

We went to have eel for lunch.

Eel on my birthday??!

I know.

It's Nick's favorite, not mine.

But I always wanted to go back to the eel restaurant "Kaneyo", and it was a good opportunity for me.

Of course, Nick wasn't against the idea at all!!!





This is "Kinshi Don".

Kinshi is Egg, Don means one bowl.



Look at the size of the Kinshi!!



When I was at Kaneyo last time (quite a long time ago), it was only for Nick. But when I had this, I didn't hate it and I could eat 1/3. If I wasn't full, I could have eaten more I thought.



So I wanted to try it again!!


Nick had a Big eel Don, after having a trouble deciding between Kinshi Don and Big eel Don.
It was settled with a deal in which I gave my half egg!



He looked very happy, and even happier when I asked him to eat my leftovers...

Yes, I couldn't finish mine, even starting with a half egg...



But I was happy!

And I promised myself that....

I Will Be Baaaaaaaaaaccccccck!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite some progress, isn't it?

Kaneyo is 100 years old, and has 100-year-old eel sauce.

The eel sauce is the key for an eel restaurant, Kaneyo keeps adding to the same sauce day after day, year after year, and there is a very famous story about them, which is that, before the war, when a fire broke out, the owner took the pot of sauce and ran.

Oh, G...............!!

(That's how they have kept the sauce for 100 years.. Don't you think it's a bit yukky?!...)

Went for a full-stomach-easing walk and found this Budda on Shinkyougoku street, which I don't remember seeing before.

Deep Kyoto.........

Back to Mariage Freres!

This time, I had my favourite, Earl Grey French Blue.

Nick tried a new flavor of tea, Maharaja. It left a tiny bit of the scent of Vanila when you swallowed it, and even for me who is usually not a big fan of Vanila flavor, it was refleshing and summer-like. And above all, there was something very nostalgic about the taste...

I tried really hard to figure out what it was, but I couldn't tell why I felt that.

Well, that's what being nostalgic is all about, isn't it?!

I didn't want to have a big cake, so ordered petit gateaux.

Scone with raisin and muffin with baked coconut flakes on top.

Scones in Japan are nothing special,
And not in Mariage freres either...

But the set was served with 2 different kinds of tea jam, and they made everything tastier!!

One is Tea "Eros", the other is....... something or other.

The shop sells many kinds of tea jam and I been wondering about the taste for a while, but it cost a fortune.

So it was worth ordering the petit gateaux set!

From Shijo bridge.

Don't know why, but this year, for the first time, Kyoto is all of a sudden holding Tanabata festival, which supposed to be on the July 7th, right now.

WHY??

Not too hot, and a much better day.

This is from Shijo bridge too, but looking south.

Decorative Japanese sweets.

They show Daimonji fire festival, which coming this week.

It is said that when Daimonji comes, summer ends in Kyoto.

At Hamamura for dinner.

Nick reserved the very expensive restaurant "OLD Hong Kong", but I didn't feel like spending big money .

So I suggested Hamamura.

Because I had always thought I wanted to order many things at once there and eat little bit of everything, and this was a chance to do it.

We had,,,

Simple Ramen,

Spring roll of shrimp and bamboo shoot,

Deep fried noodle with vegetable,

Wang Tang,

Chicken with sour sweet sauce and long onion,

Steamed rice.

And desert.

Today's highlight, "Annin Tofu"!

It's made from apricot, and this one was sooooooo tasty with apricot liqueur syrup!

The restaurant's owner said he made it.

The way I look at him totally changed before and after!

RESPECT!!! (Ali-G)

Anyway, my dream came true!!

I had everything I wanted to eat there, and it cost 4550en, only!!!

Less than a quarter of what Nick had planned to spend...

Big smile...

Takatsuki festival

At summer festivals in Japan, ice is most popular thing to buy. It is shaved with syrup on it.
And at this Takatsuki summer festival, there is a real ice shop with a stall out front selling ice, which Rica and Yumi always always talk about.
Finally, I could try one of their ices!!!!!!!!!!


I had two with mango syrup.
When Yumi said she was going to have 3 of them, I thought, "hah??", but I understand now.
The ice was very tasty, maybe too tasty to put syrup on. And it didn't melt easily even in this weather, and so it was very nice to walk around the festival eating it.
Could have eaten another one, but the stall wasn't there when I went back......

Anyway, it was 150 yen each. How surprisingly cheap!
I guess because they open the stall in front of shop and don't have to pay for the space

The 41th Takatsuki festival??!

I didn't know... it has quite a history.....

We had so much fun!!

Looked around many shops, bought lots of different food, watched Japanese dancing with summer kimono. We walked a long way!

We were...

Rica, Yumi, Noriko, Hiro, Yoshi and MEEEEEEE!!

Well, even Festival-Hater Me went to this one, so you see how much I like Takatsuki!!
I looooove Takatsuki!!

And this was the OMIYAGE=souvenir for Nick.

Yoshi's recommendation.

When Nick had a bite, he made a strange face for a second, and the next moment, his face expressed nothing...

Then I had a bite.

And I knew why he was like that.

It tasted of sugar, just sugar with rice cake!!

It was the first time that we kind of realized how amazing Kyoto's Japanese sweets are...
I had a second bite, but that was it. I couldn't eat anymore...

All I was thinking as I was trying to put the piece I bit off into my tummy was to go back to one of the famous Kyoto Japanese sweet shops to buy some, and enjoy them with appreciation!

Bravo Kyoto!!!

Oh, by the way, Yoshi is originally from Kyoto...Hmmm
And do NOT worry! I had another souvenir for Nick, and that was a very fresh charcoal-grilled squid. He loved it!!

August Sky

From Nijyo Kamogawa bridge.

From Morris Cafe on the 8th floor of the BAL building.