kimberly ah

Jul 09 2015

adventures, cocktails, Japan 2015, My Love Affair with Tokyo

Hasegawa Happy Hour at the Suzukis

During our stay in Tokyo we were lucky enough to have happy hour with Jess and her family. We drank yuzu umeshu (plum wine) cocktails and Jess made sukiyaki. Sukiyaki, made at the table in a Japanese hot pot, usually consists of meat and vegetables cooked in a broth of soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Jess sliced up the vegetables and presented them beautifully, in true Japanese fashion. We had two types of beef, tofu, cabbage, leeks, burdock, two kinds of mushrooms, and noodles in our sukiyaki. Jess browned the meat a bit first (on a pile of leeks!) And then she added the broth to finish cooking the meat. And then Jess removed the meat to make room for the pile of vegetables and noodles. Mmmm…it was delicious. The beef was perfectly seasoned by the slightly sweet broth and the vegetables’s textures were the perfect complement. Naoto and I think a nabe pot and a table-top burner is in our future. I definitely think it would be a fun cold-weather activity with friends!

And, to add a little excitement to the evening, there was a sizable earthquake (7.8) that night off the coast of Japan! It was a little bit scary because it was so much more powerful and lasted a lot longer than the other tiny earthquake I’d experienced in Japan before. I just kept looking at Jess to see if she had any panic in her eyes. (She didn’t and she calmly turned off the burner in case things did get any scarier!) We turned on the TV to see that the subways had been briefly halted, but by the time Naoto and I left, everything was up and running like nothing had happened.

Whew!

Thanks for being such great hosts, Jess, Keiichi and Ethan!

Tagged adventures, cocktails, food, I *heart* Japan, Japan

Jul 07 2015

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adventures, Japan 2015, My Love Affair with Tokyo, Office Supplies, snail mail, Spending the Yen

Spending the Yen 7: Kyukyodo

Kyukyodo, Tokyo, Ginza, stationery store Last year, Jess introduced me to Kyukyodo and I fell in love. Located in Ginza and just down the street from Itoya, Kyukyodo is filled with traditional Japanese stationery and paper gifts. The store opened in Kyoto in 1663 and moved to Tokyo in 1880 and it’s still run by the same family! The building is dark brick and very traditional looking, sandwiched between modern steel and glass towers in Ginza. Kyukyodo has only two floors dedicated to the shop: the main floor with all of the stationery and handmade washi gifts and the second floor with amazing (and expensive) calligraphy supplies and wall art.* We spent most of our time on the first floor, but I think the best part of shopping for stationery in Japan is that you can get some really fantastic stuff without spending a fortune. I bought some really lovely letter paper. On this trip, if it had a hydrangea or a cat on it, I almost always bought it… The letter papers are gorgeous. The hydrangea paper is so thin its almost translucent and the kitty paper is lovely washi and the cat and Kyukyodo are embossed. I bought a greeting card with the same cat image to send to a friend for her birthday. I also bought a few sheets of washi paper stickers. The sleepy kitty and “fist-bump” cats were obvious must-haves and the hydrangea stickers have a really pretty texture and delicate gold accents. And I bought plenty of these postcards to send to pen pals and to save in my paper collection. Wind chimes (top left) are a very big thing in Japan this time of year so I bought the cat postcard to remind me of the season. And I love that bottom right card with the pigeon and the Ginza Wako Clock Tower, which is right by Kyukyodo. I found this little video on YouTube where you can see the real clock tower:

And, of course Kyukyodo has beautiful flat paper bags and will separate your purchases into the proper omiyage packages, one of my favorite things about shopping in Japan!

*I apologize that I didn’t take any interior photos, but it was very busy that day and I wasn’t sure of the rules. Itoya doesn’t allow photography in its store, so I wanted to make sure I extended the same respect to Kyukyodo.

Tagged adventures, crafts, I *heart* Japan, Japan, office supplies, snail mail

Jul 04 2015

2 Comments

Uncategorized

Happy 4th of July!

Here in the U.S we are celebrating Independence Day! Naoto and I are going to relax and garden a bit before we head into the city later to see the Cubs game and fireworks at Wrigley Field afterwards. (Wish us luck battling the crowds!)
Happy 4th if you’re celebrating, happy weekend if you’re not. And to my letter writing friends, don’t forget there’s a Virtual Letter Social tomorrow, all day long, no matter where you’re writing from and a live video chat started at 3PM Central Time. Maybe I’ll see you there?

Jul 01 2015

2 Comments

celebrations, cocktails, thrifted, vintage

Vintage Ice Tongs

My parents came up to visit over the weekend and brought our anniversary gift. Part of the gift was these fantastic vintage ice tongs that they found in a vintage shop. Don’t my parents know how to score a vintage treasure? (And they know me so well…and Naoto, too, though he didn’t squeal like a school girl when he saw the box.)The tongs came in their original box, an added bonus. (And yes, I will totally keep the tongs in their box!)I love the Mid-Century style illustrations of cocktails on the handle. I think they are going to make a great partner with my vintage penguin ice bucket at our next Hasegawa Happy Hour!

Thanks, Mom & Dad! xo

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, homemaking, parents, thrifting, vintage

Jun 25 2015

5 Comments

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, gardening

Plot #6: The Growing I’ve Missed

We came home from Japan and it was more than a week before we made it to see the garden! I know that sounds crazy, but I was deep in the fog of jet lag and any time I was awake, it seemed to be raining. When we finally made it over, we were amazed at how big our plants had grown. We even had a few things to harvest! Pictured above is the plot (looking north). You can see that I never did fill those four square feet I had left. But the good news is, I have two tomato seedlings on my balcony that have grown like gangbusters and will be transplanted this weekend. We finally thinned our daikon enough for them to grow into respectably-sized vegetables! I was only able to harvest two, but the others are growing nicely in their square. None of the beets were ready though, much to my disappointment. Our Juliet has some nice green tomatoes and the Sweet 100 has some, too! On the north end of the garden, the peas are going crazy and I have four edamame plants, a crazy square of cucumber plants (too many for one square!), and two volunteer tomatoes (to be transplanted soon). I reserved one square for a loofah plant that I started on the balcony. It’s looking good, but I’ve read that loofah aren’t good as transplants. I’m going to try it anyway and hope for the best.

One of my goals this growing season is to weigh our harvests so at the end of the season we can get an idea of how many pounds of produce we are eating from our garden. This was our first harvest: lots of komatsuna lettuce and some radishes.

It feels good to be back in the garden again!

Tagged adventures, food, forest park, garden, gardening, summer

Jun 24 2015

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adventures, Japan 2015, My Love Affair with Tokyo, Office Supplies, snail mail, Spending the Yen

Spending the Yen 6: Fish Stamp

I picked up this kanji fish stamp in Itoya during our trip and I’m so excited about it. I’ve seen these stamps in previous trips and I’ve always loved the artistry and meanings. I wish I’d written down the artist’s name. He has a whole collection of these stamps, with simple drawings mixed with kanji. This one in particular means (roughly translated) “a feeling that you are face to face even though you are far apart”. Isn’t that a perfect description of letter writing? Naoto, who isn’t often impressed with rubber stamps, convinced me that I needed this stamp in my collection. I’m glad I let him talk me into buying it!Yesterday was a most beautiful day and I spent some time on the balcony writing letters and using my new stamp. I stamped it on some sticker paper and cut out a bunch of stickers to send to pen pals. I’m very happy to share these sentiments with my letter writing friends!

Tagged adventures, crafts, diy, I *heart* Japan, Japan, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, summer

Jun 23 2015

4 Comments

cocktails, Simple Summer Suppers

Hasegawa Happy Hour: Summer Solstice Edition

Naoto and I had a little party for two to celebrate the summer solstice on Sunday. It was a good chance to eat on the balcony together for the first time this season and to recreate one of my favorite new drinks from Japan, the Spumoni Cocktail. I ordered a Spumoni during our anniversary dinner and fell in love, ordering it at almost every izakaya after that. Campari, grapefruit juice and tonic are the only three ingredients, so it’s nicely bitter and really refreshing for summer. For dinner, we made steak salads (and sadly had to move to wine because we finished off the Campari!) We grilled a steak on our stove and added it to a bed of lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, eggs, avocado, and goat cheese. It was so delicious and a great way to make an expensive steak feed both of us.

Spumoni Cocktail

1.5 oz Campari

2 oz freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (Bottled wouldn’t be horrible here, especially if you like a sweeter cocktail.)

2 oz tonic water (I’m not a huge fan of tonic, but I like it in this. If you hate tonic, club soda could be substituted for a slightly less bitter flavor.)

orange wedge for garnish

Add Campari and grapefruit juice to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until fully chilled. Pour in rocks glass with fresh ice. Top with tonic and garnish with an orange wedge. Enjoy on the balcony as you toast the summer season.

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, food, forest park

Jun 22 2015

4 Comments

adventures, cocktails, Japan 2015, My Love Affair with Tokyo, Naoberly's Noodle Tour, Uncategorized

Naoberly’s Noodle Tour: The Shinyokohama Ramen Museum

Naoto had one wish for our trip–to go to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, a “food amusement park” in Yokohama. Since we’ve been on our Naoberly’s Noodle Tour, I was almost as excited as he was to try different varieties of ramen. These three pictures pretty much represent the “museum” part of the Ramen Museum. Actually, the museum part is smaller than the gift shop! But the real purpose of going to the museum is to treat yourself to different varieties of ramen. Two floors below street level, there is an old fashioned “neighborhood” featuring the best ramen shops from all across Japan. (Shown in the top picture.) Outside each shop, there’s a ticket machine where you choose your ramen, any extra toppings, and drinks. You pay at the ticket machine and when you sit down, the servers take the tickets and serve up your order. Museum rules dictate that each adult must order one bowl of ramen at each place he dines. Thankfully, the shops all offer a “smaller” bowl of ramen (in addition to a regular-sized bowl), so you can try a few different types. Sadly, though, even that small bowl of ramen was too much for me. We started at Komurasaki, which serves Kumamoto-style ramen. Naoto had a traditional tonkotsu ramen with added pork and eggs (pictured first) and I had the King’s Ramen with fire roasted garlic with added pork and corn. It really was delicious! Aaaaaand that was the only bowl I ate! After the first ramen shop, we sat at a table in the bar area and had drinks. Naoto had an Orion beer on tap (which is apparently a big deal since you can’t find Orion on tap around here) and I had a Okinawan citrus cocktail, which may have been the best thing I drank during this vacation. While Naoto moved onto another ramen shop, I stayed at the bar and wrote some postcards. Naoto went to Shina Soba-ya (where I could see him eating from my postcard-writing station!) and had not only another bowl of ramen, but spare ribs, too! After walking back upstairs and spending some time (and money) in the gift shop, we went back down to try one last bowl of ramen. We went to an izakaya and had Okinawan-style ramen (and another Orion beer and another citrus cocktail!). It was really simple but tasty and it had the thickest noodles of any ramen I’d had before.

I highly recommend the Ramen Museum for an afternoon full of noodle fun! I have a few more Naoberly’s Noodle Adventures to share with you soon!

Tagged adventures, cocktails, food, I *heart* Japan, Japan

Jun 17 2015

3 Comments

adventures, Japan 2015, My Love Affair with Tokyo

Baseball In Tokyo With The Yomiuri Giants

One of the main things on my wishlist for this trip to Japan was to see a Japanese baseball game. I’d been watching them on TV while we had TV Japan a couple months ago and it seemed like it would be a really fun and different experience compared to games here in the U.S. Thanks to some help from Naoto’s sister, Naoko, we were able to go to the Tokyo Dome to see the Yomiuri Giants play the SoftBank Hawks! The Japanese baseball teams are named by their corporate sponsors (lame, right?), so Yomiuri is not the name of the town the Giants play for, but it is the name of the corporation that owns them. (The Yomiuri Group owns a bunch of newspapers and a TV network in Japan.) It was pouring the day of the game, so we followed the umbrellas from the train station to the dome, which is referred to as “The Big Egg” by the locals. The pace of the game felt a lot slower than it is here in the States…which, if you’ve ever watched a baseball game, they’re pretty slow already. When I go to Cubs games, I always get a scorecard and keep score. (Fun fact: When I was in junior high, I watched a LOT of baseball and I kept score at home.) Keeping score helps me stay into the game and helps time pass steadily, especially during those middle innings, pitching changes, and long at-bats. With the Giants, I was more interested in the crowds. Japanese baseball fans really get into the game and there are “super-fan” stands in the outfield where everyone wears orange, sings songs, and there is a band! Here’s a little video of the super-fans singing a Giants rallying cry song. The video is a little grainy (sorry!) but the super-fans are sitting to the left of the right field foul post (that yellow post).

And here’s what happened during the 7th inning stretch:

OH! And the weirdest part…the opposing team has a dedicated fan section that gets a whole half-inning of uninterrupted cheering, singing, and band playing. Isn’t that crazy? (And isn’t that just what you’d expect from a country so steeped in respect?)I have to say, the Tokyo Dome hot dog was kind of disappointing…it was a little cold and the bun was not as amazing as the other hot dog buns I’ve had in Japan. And, I had to eat ketchup on my hot dog because the condiments both came out at once and I had no choice! (Ew!) But I had an amazing ice cream cone, melon and vanilla swirl soft serve (shown above next to Naoto’s beer.) Other food offered included Giants player designed bento boxes, chicken nuggets, curry rice, hamburgers, sushi, pretzels…plenty of ballpark favorites.

Sadly, the Giants lost the game, but it was a fun night at the ballpark just the same.

Tagged adventures, I *heart* Japan, Japan

Jun 16 2015

3 Comments

adventures, celebrations, gardening, Japan 2015, My Love Affair with Tokyo

Heavenly Hydrangeas

Seriously…if you can go to Japan in late May/early June, GO! Like I mentioned yesterday, hydrangea season has stolen my heart. Those gorgeous shades of blue and pink and purple, the different varieties and shapes of the blooms…breathtaking.

Our friend Jess, who lives in Tokyo with her husband and son (you may remember her from our Tokyo Cook Out), gave us so many ideas of places to see and things to do. I really think she missed her calling as a tour guide/travel agent. It was her idea to see a few gardens while we were in Japan this year…and none of them disappointed! We met up with Jess last Monday at the Bunkyo Hydrangea Festival at the Hakusan Jinja Shrine. Bunkyo hosts five flower festivals throughout the year and now it is my personal goal to see each one. The Hakusan Shrine is the home of over 3000 hydrangea plants! I am not sure I captured each one, but I sure tried. Have you ever seen so many varieties all in one place? I’ve been dreaming of a hydrangea garden of my own ever since…maybe someday!