last lovely dinner

We enjoyed a dinner for two at a beautiful restaurant, whose specialty is fugu, sashimi and otherwise....a beautiful, small, quiet place where the chef prepared all the foods in front of our eyes. He hardly spoke, the food did all the talking. He did tell us that he had been cutting fugu for 17 years. It is amazing to watch and soak up this kind of culture, it is nowhere other than this place.
His knives are on the left, one for each task, a beautiful clean and organised workspace with minimal tools....here is our dinner by course, there is no menu, you just get the days special range....carefully planned and prepared for balance of flavour, beauty of colours and foods in season....
Just to tempt us, small tasting of various pickles, fish guts, tofu, sweet beans and spinach....
Followed by a dashi flavoured jelly with the skin of fugu in the bottom...OK I did try it at least....fish skin is not my favourite texture....
Followed by beautiful, beautiful fugu sashimi, sliced in front of us by expert hands....amazing....
Followed by daikon radish boiled in broth with some small veges (carrot and greens and skin of yuzu) and no, not a brain but balls! The testicle of a cod fish!!...so f.u.n.n.y translating that with gestures, the usual Aussie hand gesture - is as if you are holding two melons, the chef simply held his thumbs and fore fingers in a ring, about as small as two marbles and put them in the place so there was no mistaking what they were....I couldn't stop giggling....yep, I tried it, yep it wasn't that good, people eat it for texture which is like thick cream......not so much flavour, my loved one ate mine, so he ate two testicles, which has been very good fun to tease him about.....he said it was rude to leave it....
Followed by kara age, fried fugu...it is such a tasty fish....
Followed by horse mackrel simmered in soy and sweet stuff with a little bit of mushrooms and sesame seeds...
Followed by nabe, or a hot pot, which first had the tofu boiled in it, the most silky and beautiful tofu I have eaten, served in a ponzu, or yuzu and soy (and other things) sauce...amazing!
I had 2 glasses of wine and since I almost never drink I was forgetting to take pictures.....I missed the photos of the nabe which was fugu and a lot of beautiful veges and mushrooms and a piece of mochi...all dipped into the ponzu before you eat it. Usually the nabe/hot pot sits in the centre of the table and you just take what you want but we were served bits and bobs last night...lovely!
The dish above is a rice and egg dish which is poured into the remainder of the hot pot liquid to soak up all the yumness from all the previously cooked foods.....it was just so nice...but gosh, FULL...I couldn't breathe very well by this stage.....oh, the pickles on the right were also very special....in fact one of my favourite dishes, so delicious
LASTLY, chef pulled out a huge and beautiful kaki or persimmon. Since they have just about finished the season here, I have had my share of skinning and eating them, and they are a hard fruit, so takes some time to get the skin off without cutting your fingers....watching him skin it was like he was cutting butter. I'm sure his knife was very sharp but gee, it was so amazing to watch his skill. I could only eat one piece......The night sums up the best of Japan for me, quiet beauty, holding onto old and beautiful traditions, transient moments and respect. The rush and gush of the city is the flip side to what I love but taking time for the quiet things was so wonderful! And to have a last moment with my darling, just us two, and soak up the last few moments in this place. Leaving on a high is just so a good thing to do!

lasy days...

Golden Autumn leaves still so pretty.....enjoying our lasts this week...foods, shops, places.....Long Long goes tomorrow....my fingers are crossed for him xxx

10 days

or thereabouts...left in this place.......love it and hate it.....like anywhere. I sold my coffee maker and scanner, two of my most used possessions.......I will inherit and iphone soon and get a new scanner made in this century (well, I may exaggerate but 2 years is a long time for gadgets).........so there is nothing bad about it ;) Life is almost in boxes....I am enjoying just a few things to choose from to wear, not so many toys to clean up and just having less around.....I am excited to go home and hear those very flat and wide Aussie accents and the very relaxed manners of summer and the coffee shops open early when its still and quiet.....

getting better

We are all recovering from the swine flu epidemic in our house and just having the left over coughs and sniffles. Being house bound at a time when you are supposed to be packing isnt so bad, unless you are 3. Bored, bored, bored.......It's the first time I have ever made mini chocolate self saucing puddings for morning tea...look at my apprentice!...He was so happy to help me, poor kiddo....he is taking longer to recover, I guess because he is a kid, but he is his usual self. We have been talking to him about going to Australia and everyone we will see what we will do and that we have to say goodbye to friends here and the usual routine of our life. He nods. We will see. Just take it daily, enjoy the space, the smell of dry air in summer, quiet, morning coffees at favourite cafe spots, beach, know that Long Long will be nearby and home after a few short weeks and that we are home.

last of autumn and last days in Tokyo...

Yoyogi park was truly stunning today, sunny, leafy and lovely...it is the last time we will see it like this, it feels a bit sad.
golden carpet of ginko leaves...
still a lot of red leaves, so pretty. We sold our car, it goes today, the movers take half our stuff today and all the little bits have been sold to various people leaving us with just the bare essentials until we go. Long Long will leave before us and the long and detailed process of his import will be over. Soon time to say good bye to the people we have met and made friends with. Of course the timing of the swine flu in our family (I managed to get only the garden variety of flu) has not meant good things for getting things done and meeting people. But luckily, our health is strong so we all have not been too badly affected and now really just taking the medicine to ensure it goes and stays away! Feels so sad to leave a place like this! But also exciting to go back to summer, old friends and family xxx

3 years today

Happy Birthday my little darling Mooch! You are such a bright, beautiful, cheerful, strong willed, happy, confident, funny and loving little boy. I am amazed how much you have changed and developed since you were the little blob of tofu below! I am sure your life will be wonderful and I hope we can provide the kind of start to your life that will help you survive and thrive in school, through adolescence and be a happy and successful adult. You are my world little one and I am so happy we can share so many wonderful days together. I love you xxx

our dinner

I don't know if it will thrill you as much as it did me but I thought I'd note our dinner, or perhaps the significance of what we ate, because I bought it...and its the first time I have bought crab and squid (my husband usually buys the sea creatures). I then proceeded to clean and prepare the squid (after a few tutorials in the past years), there it is in the background marinating in sake, soy sauce and curry powder. It was cooked with lots of garlic, ginger, onion and spring onion. The crab was already cooked and cost less than $10. Being prepared by my loved one is a beautiful dipping sauce, heavy on the fish sauce, garlic, chilli and few secrets...that's the garlic above, yes, we are schtinky today! I know I cannot have access to such fresh, cheap and high quality seafood at home, mostly, the best stuff is exported here! So, I am taking the time to buy more adventurously in the seafood section, and it is so much fun. It is also wonderful for the mooch to poke, prod, play and learn about parts of sea creatures ("look, gills Mummy") and how to make good food that is very tasty and doesn't cost much and easy to prepare.
and a simple, at home lunch, for the mooch...artwork in kewpie mayonnaise...by the mooch. I love good food!...but I am also looking forward to some hot chips at the beach in an Aussie summer....xxx

xmas lights

Xmas is here in Tokyo, without the santa's, kind of cool! When I see beautiful shops like this one Franc Franc I start to hyperventilate over the beautiful-ness of the things inside......so pretty..
Just outside is this annual showing of lights.....very blue this year...but pretty and sparkly....it wasn't too cold last night so the mooch was able to run around and get excited. Xmas is a bit more meaningful now he is right into the presents, I mean, the REAL meaning of Xmas...family, friends...yeh, right!
blue....
more blue.....
on the way home......peoples say Melbourne peoples like to wear black hmmm.....I will miss the safe, clean, reliable, affordable, convenient, efficient, public transport available in Tokyo.....

the mooch's room

I have been asked to submit some photos of the mooch's room to a magazine and thought I would post some of there here...it will be nice to look at them in the future as this lovely room will soon be packed away and put in a container on a ship bound for Melbourne.....
Most of the furniture is from IKEA, recovered from the gomi (table) or just absorbed from other people....
I made several of these pillows as I have posted about before and bought the duvet cover in a very cute shop in Stockholm...
I also made all of these mini mooch's except the little guy with the heart......

today

I will certainly miss the bento lunches, especially very cheap ones, these two less than $10 together....fish, veges, rice, eggs.....simple, convenient and very tasty.....downside is a lot of plastic so I don't get them very often and try to use my own chopsticks.....
Sun shines today!...Yoyogi park is so nice when it is quiet.....
..and Long Long can have a little off leash time and pretend to be a hunting dog....
he spotted a cat.....amongst the autumn leaves....I'm quite sure it is now winter, 7 degrees this morning, but very nice....
..even though there are still lovely leaves to be found here and there....

other things..

Our plans to celebrate my loved ones birthday, with party decorations and cake, mostly for the mooch to enjoy, even though it is 4 days after the event...loved one finally coming home after a very long business trip...
(We) I made a book for a present, one that is called "A Day" which outlines a day in the Mooch's life, so they can read it together and then to keep it so in the future when we forget all the little details, we can look back on this and enjoy the nostalgia!.....
...I'm sure favourite toys will be lost, broken and forgotten over the years....and a nice surprise is how much the mooch LOVES to look at this little book, its all about HIM, and that's what 3 year old's are ALL about!...
..a special order from my loved one was to make his jacket a bit more groovy without being too out there, he has to wear it to work after all, so I hope this does the trick!...
and last but not least a LOVELY omiyage package from the wonderful Miss Miho, from her recent trip to the Netherlands, look at the process of her book. Keep your fingers crossed for good news about a collaboration we have been planning.....

recent makes

Preparing papers to make party garlands...
stamping to make wrapping paper....just cut out a shape from a styrofoam meat tray and attach with glue or strong double sided tape to a cork....

and a recent sew...using the beautiful echino fabric...I wanted to preserve the design as it is just sooo cute...so I just made a simple elastic waited skirt that has an uneven hemline...very comfy and good for layering with leggins/spats underneath...
for anyone in Tokyo looking for YUZAWAYA, its now in Shinjuku at 11fl Takashimaya...but you may have known it...I just realised it opened on 1st Nov...so easy to get to now and BIG and open aisles, and a very big echino section....there is supposed to be a closing down sale in the old store in Ikebukuro....better check it out too....

I know the carving rubber stamp thing has pretty much had its day in blogland... thats fine for me to be a bit delayed then it feels like I'm at the start of something new! Anyway, carving, printing, stamping, it isn't new but it sure is fun! We (the mooch and I) are making a collaborative project, magnets.....the mooch's job is to prime the wooden disks, put the rosy cheeks on and with a bit of help, stamp the stamp.......so far so good. Fun, cute and happy! In other news.....teeth news....gosh, I think I have spent 50% at my life at the dentist....had 2 general anesthetics for different reasons, many, many teeth removed, crowned, posted, recreated, snapped, capped goes on and on.....for a weird reason, one of my molars has been giving me grief.....I was just putting off going to another dentist and find out the problem but, after 3 weeks I was imagining ANOTHER root canal.....so...off I went......we have no dental insurance to cover any visits here, (far various reasons) so I was also worried which part of my body they would need to amputate to pay for whatever was the problem.....anyway.....as it turns out, I'm simply grinding my teeth at night (when I can sleep) which in turn is breaking off small pieces of tooth making it sensitive...so there, I should arrive home, back in Oz totally toothless and that diagnosis cost only $50! PHEW!!......will deal with the lack of teeth at a later date....

long long

The whippet lunge.......I have been waking up at night...and cannot get back to sleep when I think about the process of moving...not the physical...I've moved about 1 million times in my life so that part is the easy bit...its the people and animals side that worries me............this dog has to travel apart from us and then spend 30 days in quarantine so my thoughts go all crazy about, travel duration and the stresses associated with being in a cage in the cargo of the plane....all the tooing and froing in different vehicles to here and there and various the peoples handling him, then the 30 days in another cage where it might be getting very hot in Oz by the end of the year....I guess I should be thanking someone that these days make it easy to actually take your dog with you when you go overseas!...and then bring it home again.....you don't think about these things when you first buy a dog!...well, we didn't anyways.....
...poor darlin' dog!...such a wonderful companion as a family member and so gentle with the mooch....lovely animal, I will keep worrying about you until we are together again xxx

cuteness

I don't often blog about other peoples things because I feel there are just so many other peoples blogs that talk about and promote other peoples works, ideas and products...so I just rabbit on about what I'm doing, of course.......but, I do it every now and again because some things are just so cute and such a great idea, its worth sharing! This is small sheet of stickers or seals, each one is a month of the year for 2010. You can use them as a quick reference or simply for decoration, which is the option I chose because the illustrations are gorgeous. I'd love to do some illo's for this place. Look at this lovely site for the artist who did the illo's for the seal calendar. Ok, back to me now :)

flowers blooming....

It's not just the season for lots of red, yellow and orange leaves, in fact, in this park, its still a little early.....which is great because it gives us a reason to go back, if we have some time of course...only approx 6 weekends to go.....of course, the first stop was the parked budgie (buggy)...
and many pretty dahlia....huge ones and beautiful colours....
and the most beautiful displays of chrysanthemums, the ones that Japanese designers have used for centuries. In fact, when I look at the care and devotion needed to raise such flowers, it almost feels like a step back in time. It seems like almost nowhere and no one in our modern life would have the time or patience to grow such things of beauty, just for looking at and for display......I guess this makes them even more special, and the fact that soon they will wither and die....
..to indicate the size of some of these flowers...
...incredible, like soldiers (or students) in rows, uniform and steady....
...with amazing variations of bonsai, topiary and these beauties, like a waterfall of flowers.....all on a bamboo frame....

such prettiness, so many people with cameras soaking up the day and even a school of grey haired photography students focused on catching shots of a beautiful kingfisher who was busy catching little silver fish from a big pond....we took the last time out from the day to sit by the koi carp pond and watch them silently swimming and the crows interacting in the matsu pine trees, singing and dancing, being silly and jumping down to splash in the pond..... unlike the really angry squarking ones we see around our house fighting over the garbage.....