Ryogoku

Ryogoku is one of the old towns in east Tokyo. It is famous as a Sumo wrestling town, for Ryogoku Kokugi-kan is in here. Sumo is the Kokugi (national sport) of Japan. I have never been to see Sumo, but I often watched Sumo on TV with grand parents, when I was a child. There are 6 Sumo seasons in a year and each season has 15 days. Today is not in season. Gogatsu-basho (May season) will start soon.

Lots of colorful banners.

Edo-Tokyo Museum is next to the Kokugi-kan. Edo is old name of Tokyo. My destination today is here. We can see reconstruction models and figures of old Tokyo.

Model of Nihon-bashi (Bridge)City of Edo, maybe around early 19th century.

Real person behind the model looks like Gulliver. Each figure is well made.

They are maybe about 7cm tall.
They are doing laundry near the well.

Central Tokyo in Meji period, in late 19th century.
Western culture and technology were rapidly adopted.

Koinobori

Yane yori takai Koinobori ～♪ This is a very famous song.

Koinobori (carp banner), hung on flagpole is one of the symbols for Kodomonohi (Children's day, 5th May), which is for hoping to boy's healthy growth.

Shobu (ires) is also symbol of this season. It is tradition that putting shobu leaves in the bath on Kodomonohi. It was thought it makes the family stay healthy.

Kashiwa-mochi

Kashiwa mochi season has come. It is typical sweets for Children's day, 5th of May. Rice cake is wrapped in a Kashiwa (a kind of oak?) leaf.

Inside the leaf is like this. Green one is yomogi (a kind of herb) flavor.

It is like standard rule that green one is with tsubu-an (mashed red-bean jam),
white one is with koshi-an (smooth red-beans jam), and
pink one is with miso-an (soy-bean paste jam). I have no miso-an today, though.

Frozen Curry Udon

I found frozen prawn curry udon at a supermarket. I was so hungry that I picked up this ready food for dinner. Frozen food for 40% off today. lucky!

Open the package!

Put in boiling water in a pan, and add curry mix.
Ready to eat!

Shochu

These are Imo-jochu(shochu) made from sweet potato with good reputation.

Shochu is distilled liquor normally made from sweet potato, oats, rice or buckwheat, but can be from anything edible. It may be originally from Kyushu area, west part of Japan. Shochu is as much common as Sake.
We enjoy Shochu with ice, water, hot water and umeboshi (pickled Japanese plum).

Icho namiki with fresh green

Gaien Icho-namiki is one of the famous spots in Tokyo. It had no leaves in early April, but fresh leaves has come out vividly. I can get vital energy from fresh green.

Various ramen

Ramen is a kind of soup noodles, which is very common in Japan. There are thousands of Ramen shops in Japan. Maybe its origin is Chinese food, but it definitely has a position of typical Japanese food. Each shop is proud of its original blend soup, noodles and toppings.

We sometimes argue which flavor is good Shoyu (soy sauce soup) ramen, Miso (soy-bean paste soup) ramen, Shio (clear soup) ramen or Tonkotsu (park soup) ramen.

Shio ramen.

Shoyu ramen
Miso ramen
Tantan men (Spicy ramen)

Awa zenzai

I went to a Japanese sweet shop in Kanda. There are some famous restaurants around there from old times. The shop was established about 80 years ago. The building is traditional style wooden house and very comfortable atmosphere.

Sakura yu (cherry blossom tea)

Awa zenzai (Millet with red-bean jam):

It is hot and sweet.

The combination of sticky steamed millet and smooth zenzai (hot red-bean jam) is really good!

Takemura

Kaiseki : Japanese course meal

Kaiseki (course of Japanese food). We can feel sense of the season form the dishes.

Full of seasonable ingredients.
Sakizuke (appetiser) :

Tofu&sesame salad, baked egg, lotus pickles and sasa(bamboo leaf) sushi. Otsukuri (raw fish) :sea-bream
Yakimono (roast fish): Trout
Takiawase (Steamed food): Ganmodoki (tofu pate)
Agemono (Fried food) : Tempra
Gohan (rice), Tomewan (soup) and Kounomono(pickles)
Mizumono (desert)

Yugyoan tankuma

Toro chan

Hello! I am Toro-chan. I am a Japanese game character. I am optimistic and easy-going. People say I can make a lot of people feel comfortable. Oh... !　I am sorry...
Embarrassed...　

Sakura in a cemetery

We can see beautiful sakura (cherry blossom) in some of large cemeteries in Tokyo. Even in a cemetery, many people are coming over to the sakura spot. We know it is certainly strange spectacle that people are enjoying flower viewing and are having lunch or even beer in cemetery. But Japanese people cannot ignore sakura.

Aoyama-bochi (cemetery).

This weekend will be the last chance to enjoying sakura in this year.

Ten seiro soba

Lunch at Soba (Buckwheat noodle) restaurant. Tenseiro contains Soba and Tempra.

Dip Soba a little in the sauce and taste it. It is full of flavour! Tempura of tiger prawn, aubergine, sweet potato, green pepper...

Gorgeous lunch!

Sakura-mochi

One of my favorite wagashi (Japanese sweets), Sakura-mochi. Soy-bean jam is covered by rice cake and wrapped with salted Sakura (cherry) leaf. We can feel the taste of spring.

Lunch at cafeteria

My everyday lunch at the cafeteria. Sometimes I find it little bit strange, sometimes very unique. The standard lunch set in Japan has Gohan (rice), Miso-shiru (soy-bean soup) and Okazu (main dish) . This cafeteria brings few Miso-shiru.

Fish (sole) boiled with soy-sauce and sugar. Stir-fried pork and egg with vegetables.
Rice bowl with stir-fried beef.
Grilled chicken.
Pork cutlet.
Unique noodle: Soup is like Italian, noodle is like Chinese. Teriyaki-chicken (Grilled chicken with soy and sugar sauce) on rice.
Pudding for desert