friday photo

well. here we are. it is a new year. it is the year of the ox. we have a new leader. it is a fresh clean slate for everyone. (plus it is friday, woo hoo for friday) 

this friday's picture is an adorable truck i found parked behind my hotel in tokyo. it is a garbage collection truck. it is really cute. it is immaculately clean. it has that way cool broom on board. everything is so tidy in japan. it makes me wonder why our garbage collection trucks here in america, that great land of opportunity, look, well, considerably worse. shame on you filthy american garbage trucks. clean up your act. positive change can happen. right here. 

happy weekend.

pie day

the first installment of my new friday photo feature.  one more photo from tokyo: plastic pies in a restaurant window in omotesando. (i heard through twitter) today is national pie day in the u.s. (according to the national pie council). in any case, happy pie day. and mostly happy weekend.

holiday trees of tokyo

a visual treat. tokyo is a gorgeous city. so clean. so efficient. and plenty of artistry and beauty. the holiday trees were mostly really inventive. i wish i could show them all. now that we've had our second snow, it is starting to look festive around here. heading into the city later this week. will be on the look out for festive displays there as well, it will give me something to do while i try not to spend money this year. new york is singularly effective at taking my money. thank god i don't go in every day like r does. could spell serious trouble for the family budget.

tofu cuisine

my apologies. i realize this first food photo is quite blurry. i'm not sure but i think it was that i could not contain my excitement when the food began to arrive. you see the course contained yuba, a soy milk delicacy that i adore and crave. it is a special food of kyoto and i am only able to find it every 5 years or so. anyway. this was lunch at an amazing tofu restaurant in ginza. japanese cuisine is so inventive. most of the incredibly varied and delicious dishes are predominantly bean curd.







the restaurant is umenohana and goes down as one of my favorite meals. as you can see it was a lot of food, and though we were full, we felt fabulous when the meal was done, energized even. amazing in every way. indescribably delicious. beautiful private rooms dotted along an indoor river bed made of stone with gorgeous bridges and lanterns inside the restaurant. someday i hope to return.

tokyo: french food underground

when r and i first visited Tokyo back in 1992, we were thrilled to find creme puffs on (nearly) every corner. it was the very first reason i fell madly, passionately, in love with japan. on subsequent trips, we were happy to find that the treat shopping had only gotten better. this time, creme puffs, eclairs, petit chou, even japanese apricot liqueur, creme brulee and french butter cookies, underground. Tokyo metro Ginza line. and i can tell you, with some authority, all of the highest quality. (we sampled more than a few). with underground food this good, you should not be at all surprised michelin awarded so very many stars in tokyo. it is an epic food town.

Tsukiji Fish Market

as you approach the market rather early in the morning, it is still quite dark. it is around 5:45 am. you are a bit jet-lagged and wobbly-legged. but WAKEUP because you are in for a bit of a wild ride.






it is dark, cold. there are vegetables. pickles. japanese rolled omelets, all manner of shellfish and mollusks for sale. WATCHOUT for the fast moving carts that seem to want to crush your legs...



gruff men with boots. frowns at tourists, shoulder to shoulder in the small tuna auction viewing area. cameras snapping away. men with long stick hooks to move the fish. even deeply frozen, tail-less, the large tuna manage to flop and get away as they are being moved and stacked by the men. hence the hooks. it is the genius of the tuna's extremely well-adapted shape. r and i got back to our hotel by 7 am, too sympathetic with the lovely fishes to have the traditional sushi breakfast. a nice breakfast of yogurt and exotic fruits with some nice hot green tea. more of an antidote really. i used to love sushi, until this visit to Tsukiji. not so much right now. ask me in a month.

Meiji Shrine

for some reason, i like to start every visit to Tokyo at the Meiji Shrine, after my tummy is full of tofu or onigiri or creme puffs, of course. it is a beautiful, graceful, peaceful place despite a constant stream of visitors and activites like weddings and blessings. Meiji welcomes and absorbs them all, while maintaining a kind of transcendent peacefulness. and special this time, the harvest festival. gorgeous displays of cabbages and daikon and leeks and carrots and broccoli and more all the way around the courtyard. i love this place.

muji cafe marunouchi

tokyo. where to begin? muji cafe. we were fortunate to be staying in marunouchi, a newly fashionable area with a lot of great shops, restaurants and cafes. especially exciting for us was muji cafe. we love all things muji. we fell in love with muji stores in tokyo and they expanded to new york, london, paris, and rome. we have been enjoying their wares ever since, and now a cafe. hooray muji. here is what we were eating, fried tofu patty (gonmae or gonmo or gonmodoki) and salads, hijiki romaine, and napa cabbage with slivered carrots and apple. great pastries and things also. very pleasing and comfortable in every way. always the flatterer, my youngest child said, "the food here reminds me of your food mom." what i am thinking this means is, "obsessed with vegetables." i have just now realized that nearly every post so far on this new little blog has been about vegetables and maybe some fruits. even the pie was a squash pie. i guess i am obsessed because i would love gigantic photos of vegetables on our walls.