Cheese!
After the whirlwind that was Saturday, Sunday was back to our usual, more casual pace.
I went jogging around the neighborhood again, this time heading south. I'm not getting the same kind of exercise here I get back home. In our house, we have an exercise bike that I ride every day unless I'm sick or have a very early appointment. I did bring my running shoes along to Japan, but jogging doesn't inspire me as much as biking, so I don't get out nearly as often. On the other hand, any day that includes a train trip in Japan has well over an hour of walking, usually with my 10+ pound backpack. I'm not sure whether the walking is enough exercise, or even what "enough exercise" means. At least my pants still fit.
Anyways, we got out of the house just before lunchtime and walked towards the Kawasaki station (it's the closest major station) for the day's adventure. Along the way, we went into the underground Azalea mall I've been curious about. It had what must have been over a block-long stretch of small restaurants. Choosing a restaurant to eat in is tricky. There's usually models of what they serve up front, but it's difficult to tell the difference between a pork cutlet and a chicken cutlet from a model. In the absence of the "English menus available" sign, we tend to look at all the interesting food... and then end up at something more recognizable, like Indian food. We've eaten a lot of Indian food here. This place was also quite nice.
Then it was off to the trains. Today we took a train to a train on a loop line. It reminded me of London's loop line, with trains differentiated not by their destination, but by whether they were going clockwise or counterclockwise.
We stepped through a very crowded Harajuku station and arrived at Yoyogi park, hoping to see buskers, cosplayers, and perhaps some trees. The entrance arch was impressive. If they made it out of individual trees and not a veneer around something else, those were awfully large trees. We walked for a while on a trail that was substantially less crowded, and delightfully foresty. As the girls got tired, we headed back towards the shrine at the park's center. We found the local cafe, with vending machines at which you buy tickets to give to the people who give you your food. They served "soft gelato" cones. Soft gelato is made, apparently, by squeezing regular gelato through what looked like a solidly built orange juicer press. I was about to order a sake gelato, but was saved by Michelle misordering vanilla when she wanted chocolate.
We returned to the station, having seen no buskers of note and only a couple people dressed up in costumes. Lots of teenagers, though.
One of the things that's been lacking from our diets is cheese. At home, we usually eat a lot of cheese. Here, it's hard to find anything beyond a few small packets for takeaway. But, by using Google Maps to guide us through the floor plan of Shinagawa station, we were able to find a little shop called Fermier that sells chunks of that odd Western product. It was only two or three times more expensive than the stuff in the States, too.
Cheese is important this time of year, too, because it's the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Traditionally, this holiday commemorating the gift of the Torah is celebrating by staying up all night studying, and eating dairy products. Seriously, the idea is that there wasn't time to cook a meaty dinner at Mt. Sinai, so the Jews apparently ate blintzes. We weren't able to find any cottage cheese--and of course, we didn't find any Farmer's cheese, the ideal for blintzes--but we bought their only container of ricotta and some other more interesting bits and pieces.
Thereby provisioned, we returned to Kawasaki station for dinner at a pancake house that Chris and the girls had liked, and then headed back home.
Monday was another work day for me. I finally got to experience some of that "rainy season" I've heard so much about. The rain was fairly light, but there was enough wind that my fancy rainjacket was clearly insufficient. After my pants got soaked on the walk to the train station, I pulled out my landlord-provided pocket umbrella. That helped for a while... until a gust of wind outside my office broke one of the spars. Fortunately, there was only a trace of the rain left by the time I headed home.
My coworkers took me out to lunch (providing a loaner umbrella for the walk) at the local Ootoya, the chain restaurant that had made us wait forever back on Saturday. I was a little pensive after my previous experience, but figured that with three Japanese speakers in the party, we wouldn't get stuck in the same way. After we'd read through the menus, my coworker Bill asked if everyone was ready, and then pressed the button on the table that summons the waiter.
D'oh!
Chris and I had even been wondering Saturday what the grey plastic object on the table was for. The restaurant staff hadn't been rude to us; we just hadn't known that we were supposed to push the button for service. Possibly the waiter explained this to us at the beginning, amongst the vast pile of Japanese that we didn't understand. Now we know.
Chris went out with the girls to a reptile cafe (that's for her and the girls to tell) and some other shopping and actually found some form of cottage cheese. I plan to have some for breakfast in a bit, but last night she used much of it to make blintzes. I think it was a heroic effort, and I am both delighted and impressed by her perseverance and the yummy result. I was home for dinner before the sun set, so we had our traditional blintzes for Shavuot. Yay!
The sky is filled with multiple layers of puffy and streaky white clouds against a blue backdrop. Good morning!
I went jogging around the neighborhood again, this time heading south. I'm not getting the same kind of exercise here I get back home. In our house, we have an exercise bike that I ride every day unless I'm sick or have a very early appointment. I did bring my running shoes along to Japan, but jogging doesn't inspire me as much as biking, so I don't get out nearly as often. On the other hand, any day that includes a train trip in Japan has well over an hour of walking, usually with my 10+ pound backpack. I'm not sure whether the walking is enough exercise, or even what "enough exercise" means. At least my pants still fit.
Anyways, we got out of the house just before lunchtime and walked towards the Kawasaki station (it's the closest major station) for the day's adventure. Along the way, we went into the underground Azalea mall I've been curious about. It had what must have been over a block-long stretch of small restaurants. Choosing a restaurant to eat in is tricky. There's usually models of what they serve up front, but it's difficult to tell the difference between a pork cutlet and a chicken cutlet from a model. In the absence of the "English menus available" sign, we tend to look at all the interesting food... and then end up at something more recognizable, like Indian food. We've eaten a lot of Indian food here. This place was also quite nice.
Then it was off to the trains. Today we took a train to a train on a loop line. It reminded me of London's loop line, with trains differentiated not by their destination, but by whether they were going clockwise or counterclockwise.
We stepped through a very crowded Harajuku station and arrived at Yoyogi park, hoping to see buskers, cosplayers, and perhaps some trees. The entrance arch was impressive. If they made it out of individual trees and not a veneer around something else, those were awfully large trees. We walked for a while on a trail that was substantially less crowded, and delightfully foresty. As the girls got tired, we headed back towards the shrine at the park's center. We found the local cafe, with vending machines at which you buy tickets to give to the people who give you your food. They served "soft gelato" cones. Soft gelato is made, apparently, by squeezing regular gelato through what looked like a solidly built orange juicer press. I was about to order a sake gelato, but was saved by Michelle misordering vanilla when she wanted chocolate.
We returned to the station, having seen no buskers of note and only a couple people dressed up in costumes. Lots of teenagers, though.
One of the things that's been lacking from our diets is cheese. At home, we usually eat a lot of cheese. Here, it's hard to find anything beyond a few small packets for takeaway. But, by using Google Maps to guide us through the floor plan of Shinagawa station, we were able to find a little shop called Fermier that sells chunks of that odd Western product. It was only two or three times more expensive than the stuff in the States, too.
Cheese is important this time of year, too, because it's the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Traditionally, this holiday commemorating the gift of the Torah is celebrating by staying up all night studying, and eating dairy products. Seriously, the idea is that there wasn't time to cook a meaty dinner at Mt. Sinai, so the Jews apparently ate blintzes. We weren't able to find any cottage cheese--and of course, we didn't find any Farmer's cheese, the ideal for blintzes--but we bought their only container of ricotta and some other more interesting bits and pieces.
Thereby provisioned, we returned to Kawasaki station for dinner at a pancake house that Chris and the girls had liked, and then headed back home.
Monday was another work day for me. I finally got to experience some of that "rainy season" I've heard so much about. The rain was fairly light, but there was enough wind that my fancy rainjacket was clearly insufficient. After my pants got soaked on the walk to the train station, I pulled out my landlord-provided pocket umbrella. That helped for a while... until a gust of wind outside my office broke one of the spars. Fortunately, there was only a trace of the rain left by the time I headed home.
My coworkers took me out to lunch (providing a loaner umbrella for the walk) at the local Ootoya, the chain restaurant that had made us wait forever back on Saturday. I was a little pensive after my previous experience, but figured that with three Japanese speakers in the party, we wouldn't get stuck in the same way. After we'd read through the menus, my coworker Bill asked if everyone was ready, and then pressed the button on the table that summons the waiter.
D'oh!
Chris and I had even been wondering Saturday what the grey plastic object on the table was for. The restaurant staff hadn't been rude to us; we just hadn't known that we were supposed to push the button for service. Possibly the waiter explained this to us at the beginning, amongst the vast pile of Japanese that we didn't understand. Now we know.
Chris went out with the girls to a reptile cafe (that's for her and the girls to tell) and some other shopping and actually found some form of cottage cheese. I plan to have some for breakfast in a bit, but last night she used much of it to make blintzes. I think it was a heroic effort, and I am both delighted and impressed by her perseverance and the yummy result. I was home for dinner before the sun set, so we had our traditional blintzes for Shavuot. Yay!
The sky is filled with multiple layers of puffy and streaky white clouds against a blue backdrop. Good morning!