Blossom Terrace is the place to be

I love living on Blossom Terrace because I can walk outside and see Sakura everyday. I can even walk outside on the balcony and see the trees.
Our area is hopping that people come in the bus load, and not just any bus, but the big grey hound like buses.


Whenever I leave the apartment, I always see people on our street taking pictures and holding up the little traffic that comes through.








I love this time of the year and am glad that I am here to see it especially since I get to see cherry blossoms whenever I go outside. I highly suggest people to visit during this time because its beautiful.

Free Sakura Tea

Today was the 3rd annual Sakura celebration at Tokyo Midtown. They have had many event over the last week, which will continue through the rest of this week or until all the cherry blossoms fall off the trees. In honor of it being their 3rd annual festival, they were giving away FREE Sakura tea at noon today. I told the girls we should go and we did. We all met there before 12 and were some of the lucky 500 people to receive free tea. Here are the girls in kimono giving away our sakura tea!

They were nice to pose for a picture.

After our free tea, we walked around Tokyo Midtown, had lunch, and then it was time for tea hour. We decided to get some pastries and go sit out by the Sakura Cafe to enjoy them. I love the Sakura Cafe. It is a white truck that sells food inspired by sakura and has tables and chairs set up all around it for people to enjoy. To go with our desserts, we each tried the Sakurapolitan. Here is mine

I got a mini chocolate cake that had easter eggs on top of it, which is what sold me on it and paired it with my cosmo. Now, the first sip of the sakurapolitan was not good and tasted like robitussin, yes the cough syrup. However, after letting the ice melt a bit and stirring it around, the taste got much better. And, it wasn't because I was drunk...I only had 1.

It was a fun afternoon and I am looking forward to this weekend when I go to the Hanami party, which is a party for viewing flowers. You get to take your picnic, blanket, and enjoy the sun as well as flowers with your food and booze. It last like 5 hours, so let's hope I don't over do it, especially since Mike will be golfing and I will be making some new gaijin friends! Here are some more cherry blossoms

Date night

Mike and I had date night last night. We should have ordered out, but we are trying to get ready for bathing suit season and honeymoon, so only Saturday/Sunday is for bad eating. For dinner we had grilled sea bass and espinaca con garbanzos(spinach & chickpeas). I got the recipe from smittenkitchen.com, which has become a new fave recipe website for me. The recipe called for smoked paprika as a finishing touch, which I conveniently had. My love for smoked paprika has grown into an affair ever since Mike and I used it on bacon wrapped mejole dates. love, love the stuff especially since it adds something extra. I even used it to season the fish! Dinner was excellent and will definitely be making that dish again.

So after dinner we watched the movie that Mike had picked up at the movie store. He wouldn't tell which movie it was until we were ready to see it. Well...Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was playing at our house. Humor my sidetracking since it will all make sense.

So my bro-in-law, Matt, asked me a great question the other day, which was "how does one get mentioned on the blog?" I didn't have a good answer for him because no one had ever asked it and when I mention people, its because something makes me think of them or I know they would like whatever I'm doing. Here is a better answer, Matt...you get mentioned when you give good advice!

Anywho, back to the movie. I asked Mike why he picked this movie because yeah. He said why not, even though Matt had told him it wasn't a great movie. Needless to say, Matt was right and why Mike didn't listen is beyond me. After about 5 minutes in, we both agreed it was bad. And then after about 30 minutes in, we were like, this is really, really bad, but Mike was like "we have to finish it now since we don't know what happens." I said "they have fast forward for that."
We did end up finishing the movie, even though I was about half asleep. the crystal skulls reminded me of the aliens from Independence Day, so I wonder if they used the same digital graphic stuff? hmmm

Well, thanks Matt for your advice and your question has now been answered! Next time, I pick the date night movie and hope Mike will make the dinner!

It's the ha, happiest season of all...

there'll be parties for hosting, fellows for boasting, & barreling out in the mow,
there'll be merry toast mories & tales of the glories of cherry blooms long long ago...It's the most Beautiful time of the year...BECAUSE



Upclose, aren't they pretty...


Now that they are in bloom, within the next couple of days the whole area around our place will be magical with cherry blossoms. Last year I missed the blooming by about a week, but his year I am super excited about them. As I was walking home after cooking class, just looking at them makes me giddy. I am so giddy that if someone was to show me something and ask me to buy it, I probably would. Hence, when I stopped to get milk, they had free samples of sparkling wine, so I tried them because she asked me too. And I was so happy, I bought a small bottle, indivdiual size. tehehe

this season is huge around here as various places around town are having festivities. Ark Hills, right by us, is having a festival this weekend complete with music. Tokyo Midtown (where i take cooking classes) is also celebrating complete with a Sakura (cherry blossom) Cafe and soaking your feet in sakura water! This place is so excited they even put out this huge strawberry shortcake in front of the entrance. not sure how that plays a role, but whatever


like I said, big deal. It looks like the hungry caterpillar got to it!
anywho, I will be frequenting the various places around town to look at the cherry blossoms, so be ready for some pictures! Hope you like my song!

Gnocchi at cooking school

At last I returned to cooking school, but no worries, I was still cooking at home since someone else doesn't. So today's lesson was quite easy and there were only 3 of us in total, which was great. We made gnocchi in a cream sauce with large lima beans and peas.

I have never made gnocchi before, so I was interested to see what the fuss was all about. So we boiled some potatoes until they were soft and then made sure all the water was drained off of them. Then, in a bowl we added some salt and powdered cheese (but you can use parm), flour, along with the potatoes and started mixing, as well as, breaking up the potatoes. when it was nicely mixed, we took it out and rolled it all together and then cut it into 3 pieces. Each of one of us had to roll it out like a log, about 40cm long and then cut the log into pieces. We formed the pieces into squares and then it was time to boil. The cream sauce was milk, fresh cream, salt and pepper. We added in the cooked gnocchi, lima beans, and peas and some mascarpone cheese. Wa la, it was ready.

We also made a pudding like thing that used Japanese uni (still not sure what this is, but she said it was a type of fish). Well, we mixed fresh cream, milk, water, and egg. Then we strained it and added in consumme powder, salt, tomato paste, pepper and sugar. Mixed it around and then added in the uni and mixed that around. We separated them into ramicans and cooked them in the oven for 20 minutes. After that we added some more "uni" on top of the baked pudding and baked for 5 more minutes.
The other japanese thing we made used "udo" a root vegetable that is bitter from what my teacher said. First we boiled some "huki" and its leaves (its similar to celery). Then in the same water we added some vinegar and boiled the "udo" until it was soft. The vinegar is suppose to help with bitter taste and smell. With the "huki (not hooka)" leaves, we cut them up and added them to some mayo and squeezed some lemon. Then we cut the "huki" into slices and placed this mayo stuff on it and then to the oven they went. Pretty simple meal as you can see.



So the "huki" thing wasn't bad, but too much mayo. The pudding/jello "uni" dish was ok. The "uni" texture was like mush paste and when eaten with the pudding stuff, it was ok. I didn't really like it by itself, so needless to say, I didn't finish that. We also had a salad topped with tomatos, green beans and the "huki", which I liked and finished. The gnocchi was gnocchi and very thick, which is not how I remember it from the last time I had it. Mixed with the lima beans and peas in the cream sauce, it was good, but way too much. I ate about half of it. There was suppose to be someone else in the class, but they cancelled, so each of us got more than we were suppose to. Overall, a decent menu, but not my favorite. I think I may try gnocchi again, but with another veggie like pumpkin or something. At least I know how to make it now.
Also my count continues because I tried to talk to the other cooks in Japanese and one of them didn't know much English so that didn't go so well. can't remember what the count is now, but suffice to say it this is about right including my troubles during japanese class.

Japanese language - 20
Amanda - 9

Sunday...Toals last day/night in Tokyo

Today was another day full of adventures. We had breakfast courtsey of Amanda's kitchen in which I made bacon, egg, & cheese muffin (similar to McD) with fruit and juice or coffe or tea. Breakfast was good and then we headed out to go see the Tokyo Giants play the Yokohama ____ (i don't remember)

We got to the Tokyo Dome, which looks alot like the Astrodome in Houston. We saw that everyone was carrying food and drinks into the park, which is something that never happens back home. Apparently, it is ok if you bring in your own food and drinks as long as you throw away the trash when you are done. While the boys searched for tickets, Claudia and I were off to find some food and guess what they wanted.... McDonald's because all the Japanses were carrying Mc.D bags full of cheeseburgers. So we found one and it was ridiculous and very hot, but we managed to get our food. I wanted a cheeseburger, but had to order filet-o-fish, even Claudia felt sorry for me. We walked into the stadium and it was full, FULL. This was only a pre-season game, but I could have sworn all the Japanese were there.
The game started and the Yokohama fans were definitely outnumbered. The first 4-5 innings were great and then the game got boring because the 2nd and 3rd string players came in as well as 50million pitcher changes. I lost interest.



After the game we walked around the area and tried to get on the roller coaster, but the line was super long, so we said forget about it. We came home and got ready for dinner. As a last dinner in Tokyo, we took the Toals to Gonpachi, the restaurant that inspired the scene in Kill bill, vol. 1, where Uma and Lucy Lui were fighting. Surprisingly enough, there were options for me to order and eat; however, my dear husband ordered all the delicious meat skewers that I wanted to have and he enjoyed them.

The next set of meat skewers came and I had to smell the aroma before Mike devoured them...they did smell really good.

As you can see, we were all enjoying dinner, though I think Claudia was enjoying it more than Jimmy since she looks excited

I definitely enjoyed dinner and have determined that Mike needs more sweaters. This grey sweater is in quite a few pictures lately. Don't get me wrong, I like it and picked it, but definitely needs more sweaters. He says he likes it alot b/c its super comfortable and I tell him its b/c its made from cotton and cashmere.


After dinner, we came back home and watched a movie. The Toals left on Monday midday and we saw them off on the bus. We hope they had a good time since we did and we hope that the huge bottle of sake that Jimmy took back with him, made it safely and didn't break!

Skiing in Hakuba

Jimmy really wanted to ski, like super bad, so we went to ski on Friday in Hakuba. We woke up super early and were at the train station by 6am to buy our tickets. Then it was 1.5 hours to Nagano, where we then got on a bus for another hour or so that took us to Hakuba. By the time we settled in the lodge, changed, rented skis and made it to the slopes, it was 11am. Mike and Jimmy bought all day tickets and Claudia and I just got the half day ticket, which started at noon. SO we had lunch while the boys went off to ski.

Now we are all off to go ski and we definitely had some fun. The sun was out and it wasn't that cold until the late afternoon.

After the boys skied with us (only 2 runs) they went off again to ski the mighty black runs and the Olympic courses. Here is one of them with some views from the top.




At about 3:45, when claudia and I were about to get on the lift again, we saw Mike laying on the snow. He said he was done for the day, but did come back up to take these pictures of us at the top of the mountain. After that, he headed to the lodge while we waited for Jimmy and came back down the mountain.
Here is Claudia waving from below...she couldn't hear when I told her to wait.

I really wanted this background in my picture


Here we are coming down the mountain....make that "S"

Yay, for Claudia

YAY, for me...


After skiing, we returned our skis and decided we were going to go to the "onsen." We called to see if they had any private ones available, but nope. So it was to the gender divided onsen for us. Definitely an experience and the japanese women did not use the small towel to cover up the private areas and just walked around naked. not what I expected. The hot spring spas were amazing and better than hot tubs in the states, but yeah, definitely different!

St. Patty's Day

So I have been MIA, simply because the Toals were here last week and the end of the week was quite busy, but lots of fun. Good ole St Patty's day came and went, literally that quickly. During the day, I took Claudia over to Odaiba to shop, while Jimmy went off to Asakusa to look at more shrines and old Tokyo. As we walked around, no one was wearing green and in the spirit of this day, it would have been a pinching fest, but no, none of us did that.

Many of the bars around town were having celebrations, so we met Mike right near the Dubliner and headed over to have some green beer and food. We finally found all the people wearing green, and what better place to be in than the Irish bar. We had to stand for about 10-15 minutes because there were no tables, but then the men at the table right next to us left, so we were good to go. Claudia and I had green beer, while Jimmy had Guinness and Mike, gin and tonic (his stable drink now since his no beer for lent). We hadn't had dinner, so we all ordered fish and chips for each of us. When we told the waiter we wanted 4 of them, you should have seen his face. It was funny and he was quite surprised and probably thinking "ugh, fat americans." Well we each got our plates and we each ate them, ALL. They only give you 2 pieces of fish and some fries, which is enough, but most japanese share plates.

Anywho, we enjoyed the evening and even had some Irish dancing going on for us. there was a 3 person band playing Irish tunes and their friends would get up and dance. it was good.



We did end the night early simply because by 10 we all looked like we were going to fall asleep. Like I said, it was busy. Here is a group shot of us and yes, Mike is not wearing any green and you can't see the tiny bit of green that Jimmy is wearing.
Hope you all had a good st. patty's day

BC Smuggler

These things seem to only happen to me and unfortunately Mike has to deal with it. I apologized to him perfusely, but it still makes me laugh because it would happen to me. So back in the states I had my birth control (BC; sorry if that's TMI for some of you) mailed to me directly from Medco especially since it was cheaper to pay for 3 months at a time than picking it up monthly at the drug store. Well, before we left, I got some samples from my doctor and had a packet shipped before I left so I would be good to go for a couple of months.

Well about 2 weeks ago, I got the email stating it was time to re-order, which I did and had it sent to Mike's work. Its all concealed, so no one would know what it is. Well I told Mike to look out for it and today I got the call that started with "You're killing me Amanda." He proceeded to tell me that my BC is being held in customs because they think I am trying to smuggle in drugs or prescriptions. This is where i said "i'm sorry Mike" like 50 times. They need a prescription stating my name, but I don't have the prescription. Apparently you are only allowed to ship 1 packet at a time...who knew???

So Mike told his secretary to have them open it up and just take one packet and have proceed to the mail room at this work. If they have to, they can throw the rest of it away. So now Mike, I, his secretary, and the customs people all think I am a BC smuggler, which I promise I am not.

After this incident, I think I better lay low before they may start watching me more carefully. But it is kind of funny, just a little bit.

Monday in Kamakura

Today I took Jimmy and Claudia to Kamakura to see the largest outdoor Buddha in Japan followed by some shrines and temples. Here is a picture of the Buddha from when Mike and I went to visit last year...its huge

On our way to see the Hase Temple, we stopped in for lunch at this place that serves okonomiaki. Here are the directions to make it, in Japanese, as well as our lunch starting to cook.


Group shot followed by eating our lunch and then on to the Hase Temple


The garden at the beginning of the temple followed by the Temple


The view from the top.

Another pond area

In one area they had caves, which were really cool. We went through them and it was an area to light candles and place mini buddhas for deceased souls. I only took a picture of the cave and not the other area. This was a really great place.


After the temple we took the train back to the main station and then got on our train, which brought us back to Tokyo. It was a good day!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Even in Japan, we celebrate St. Pattys Day with parades and the party starts early, as in today. It's Sunday and there are parades going on all over Tokyo and other cities. We took Jimmy and Claudia to Harajuku park and to see the shrine. It was very fun and we also got to see a wedding processional. There is the bride.

The shrine is adjacent to this huge park called Yoyogi park, which is beautiful and has lots of room for anything you want to do. They even had a dog park! While at the park, we got to see the dancing Elvises! They are a group of people that dress up in 50s attire and dance right as you enter the park. Mike had told me about it, but I had never seen them. Here are some of their moves.



Even the girls got down!

On our way out, we saw a monkey on a leash!


Next we went to the St. Patty's day parade, which was really cool. We had drinks in hand and saw all the Irish people in Japan. There were some random things in the parade, but all in all, it was fun. Here is the start of the parade

And St. Patick, himself

The Tokyo Irish Setters Group also came along

And then these huge dogs

And no parade is complete without a leprechaun, whose hat is too big

And they couldn't forget the Guinness

Mike and Jimmy with Guinness

And the Knights, followed by...

When the jester sang for the king and queen...Oh, and while the king was looking down, The jester stole his thorny crown


After the parade, we had sushi and then went to the bar to celebrate some more!