Outdoor Lunch

It is Sooooooo nice to get outside and eat my lunch. Even though the wind nearly blew it off the bench, the simple pleasure of getting direct sunlight on my skin is heaven. Sure my hair is probably getting easier to style as the wind blows dirt particles into it, but easy styling is a good thing!

Sure the dust is attached to cedar pollen that will have my nose running and me sneezing all afternoon, but clearing out the nasal cavity is a good thing!

It is worth it.

I miss Fukui.

Apparently the sakura are likely to suddenly all blossom today and tomorrow so I imagine this weekend will be when everyone gets their best hanami drunk on under the trees about the city.

Tonight Im off to the gym, the bath, the katsu dinner and then I think I'll walk home instead of taking the train to my station. I did that Tusday and Wednesday and it was nice to be outside.

Enjoy YOUR spring and all the little pleasures that go with the season.

I love you!

Cam

Good Lunch

Ahhhhh... I just finished my lunch:

hamburger meat with onions
basil sausages
nanking pumpkin
okra
spinach
pickled/salted chinese cabbage
salad
natto
miso soup
camembert cheese

Mmmm mm mmmmm mmmm mmmmmmmmmm

Continually Amazed & Delighted

It never ceases to amaze and delight me...

The variety of edible fungi in Japan takes mushrooms to an entirely new level of culinary ... fungigasmic heights!

From left front, clockwise we have:

Enoki

Eringi

Bunashimeji

Maitake

Shiitake

And there are several other varieties as well that were not in the supermarket today such as:

Matsutake (quite expensive)
Regular Mushrooms (brown and white)
Shimeji

And others, whose names I cannot recall.

They are all delicious, even the variety that go all slimy and goopy when you cook them so it is a pleasure to do my weekly shopping and stock up for my meals!

A Real Burger, A Real Carbover

After arriving at Mayu's and enjoying giving/receiving those wonderful Canadian hugs we headed off to her work. The trip took about 45minutes with the traffic (it took her 15 this morning with no traffic). We set an appointment at 18:15 for her and 18:30 for me. Mayu wanted korean scrub called aka-suri and I had a balinese aroma massage. I chose the black pepper oil as the aroma. The bath was amazingly crowded with little kids running willy-nilly. That was one thing people didn't have to deal with at Relaim in Fukui as kids are not allowed. The bath was fine and the massage went well. As I only got a couple hours of sleep the massage knocked me out.

I went back to the bath and washed off the oil. No matter what carrier oil is chosen, and we have tested this with a lot of different kinds, if I leave it on as most do, I get itchy.

We went out for dinner on the way home rather than cook at home and decided to dine at a gourmet hamburger restaurant. I chose the biggest burger they had and added avocado to it. It cost about USD $20. Don't go flipping out now as this was not a McD burger... Even the bread was good stuff and I ate it. Thus the title: Carbover. Mayu and I were so dehydrated from the bread and this morning we both had cottonmouth. She even noted last night that whenever she goes out for dinner with her boyfriend she gets dehydrated dry mouth... and realized that it's because he is a reg-carber like the majority of people around the globe, and she eats the same as he when out with him. Her body has adjusted to lower-carbs so the dose of high-carb dinner once a week with him does her in. And she realized that is what it was that caused it every time they went out to eat.

We came home, unloaded the stuff, had coffee and went to bed.

Mayu works today so we got up at 6am. I put my futon etc. away and then had breakfast. Mayu boiled some eggs for her obento today and I had two along with salad, some ham, cottage cheese, natto, and boiled vegetables in a broth she had made yesterday before I got there.

We shared some more of those wonderful Canadian hugs that are famous around the Multiverse (or at least in New Jersey, New York, Miami, North Dakota, Kansas, Texas, Arizona, California, Japan, Italy, etc.) and parted ways. Mayu drove off to work and I walked to the station in the fresh, brisk morning air.

I'm at the Shinjuku Segafredo I took Paula (and Stefnee?) to when they visited me. It's my favourite one so far and I have been coming here for years. The reason why I am not rushing home is because I want to go to Zara and look again at a pair of shoes I have tried on four times now just to see if #5 is the turning point. And most retail stores do not open until 10 or 11am. But that is OK because I have my kindle and am reading a very bizarre classic (again) that many of you may have read in your schooldaze as I did: "The Trial".

Well, a group of elderly people just sat down nest to me... about 10 of them... and all of a sudden I am enveloped by "old person air"...
So I shall end this thumb typing on my keitai and I wish you a wonderful weekend.

I love you!

SaturDay in the Park

Hi

I just got on the train to visit Mayu. The gym last night was extra hard and took longer than usual. But it felt good to push my body hard. I knew I was in trouble when I was so exhausted at the finish that I was able to count to 10 during meditating without going away. I had a long shower, then a late night 693katsu and got home after 11pm.

Sometimes when I push that hard although my body is dead my brain wont stop. And last night was one of those nights. I tried to go to bed about 1:30 but my mind kept me up late. I think I finally fell asleep some time after 3am.

Of course I happily awoke with a hangover but rather than getting up I stayed in bed and drifted for a while.

Finally I got up and did a load of laundry, had a late breakfast, took the sheets off the bed and washed them all, too (second load), vacuumed the house, had coffee, cleaned the kitchen, checked the net and got ready to leave.

This past Monday I found a library card IN THE PARK but couldnt take it to the police box until just now. I filled out some forms and then finally was just able to catch this train (walking) about 14:30 so all is running smoothly.

This afternoon Mayu and I will visit the spa at which she works as she can give me a free pass to enter. She wants to try the aka-suri.
I'm going to stay at her place tonight and have dinner there. Maybe we will watch a movie.

I have to change trains at Kudanshita to get to Takadanobaba so I guess I should finish here for now.

Have a great weekend.

I love you!

Cam

Heading off to visit Mayu for the day (and night). She has a free pass to the spa where she works so we are going to go there today and enjoy a luxurious, relaxing afternoon. But first I need to finish washing my second load of laundry!

Sayonara Sapporo!

I'm back in Tokyo, safe and sound but feeling a bit ill ... a lot ill from lack of food. It always happens with flying no matter how well I try to plan it or what I bring... the timing is such that the time between big meals is simply too large and snacks dont to the trick. It's nothing new but still it is not pleasant feeling "so hungry I could puke". So I got off the bus at Ichinoe Stn which is three subway stations from home and instead of going home directly I came to Saizeriya for dinner.

Today's accomplishments were the Sapporo Clock Tower which was built 128 years ago and still keeps perfect time. Then it was off to a seafood restaurant to enjoy the famous ricebowl dish of tons of fish eggs, sea urchin, sashimi and more on a big bowl of vinegar rice (reduced to a teeny bit of rice just for me).

I went back to the hotel and when I came out of the subway there was a snow flurry going on! The train to the airport was delayed about 30 minutes to the wind (Tokyo would have been gridlocked and shut down in such flurries). The plane was also delayed and it took us some time to taxi on the runway. But we made it.

So now it is time to eat, head home, shower and go to bed. Thanks for coming along and see you next time.

I love you!