Lunch Out

Found a small restaurant on a guide book that serves macrobiotic food. Takes a little bit of drive there, but hello!? A bored-ass housewife spending her hours here! And the weather was so nice and mild, I needed that excuse to go for a ride; driving around randomly without too little purpose comes expensive nowadays in Japan, with the gas price sky-rocketing.

Fukuroh, or night owl, barely accommodates 10 people, if not fewer. At least it looks that way. Macrobiotics isn't something a lot of people in Aichi go for, where strongly-seasoned dishes and high-calorie fried items are preferred on a regular basis. I am surprised it was actually on a guide book. The place was tiny like no tomorrow, but it was as big as they needed. A very nice lady managed the whole place alone, whom I chatted with a bit. She got a certification from Le Cordon Bleu. I was impressed.

The lunch plate is their speciality. And it was good. Not the best I've had as far as macrobiotics goes, but good. It feels detoxifying and I feel cleansed after a macrobiotic meal.

The cake plate comes with a cup of barley coffee. The chestnut tart was probably my favorite.

Until next time,

Sak

Film Report -The Iron Lady

Going to see a movie solo was something I hadn't done in ages. I think it goes back to 1999, when I had the whole weekend wide-open from Friday to Sunday in southern California. I didn't have a part-time job yet, nor much of a friend, really, at that point. My life in the states had been a big fat bore. So to spend the littlest money as possible and still manage to entertain myself outside the house, I would often go to the nearmost theater, Edward Cinema, to have a cinema-rathon of 3 or 4 films. I think back of that time of my life with a bitter sweet sorrow and nostalgia from time to time. I was young and still very uncomfortable with my own self. Things seemed to be happening and I was barely catching up with them, unable to get a hold of the ride at all. It was much later on that I learned how to stay happy enough within the paradigm that's not my control.

I got off track.

Anyhow, it's my 32nd birthday and I wanted to take myself back to that period of time. What was different this time was that I was among tiny Japanese housewives of my mother's age, instead of hefty Caucasians in shorts or Latino teenagers in jeans and thongs, around myself. And instead of a bottle of Snapple and Snowcaps to sneak in, I had oo-long tea and string cheese.


I never really learned about Baroness Thatcher, and wiki-ed her before I headed off to the theater. Had I been a Brit in the years she ruled, I might not have agreed with her political view on things. But I very much liked the film. It did a good job on making me want to read more about her, though, since the film wasn't drawn on the historical and political background of the time period the way one should know to fully get the story.

Until next time,

Sak

Questions

The dongle for my laptop died yesterday. It was bent in a way that was not going to unbend, and I guess the wires in it no longer functioned.

T thought this might not be a bad timing for me to get a new laptop. I got my HP in 2006. He doesn't mean it's ancient, but "it is American." He doesn't mean American laptops suck (they probably do, though), but "it's hard", if at all possible, "to fix it here in Japan if something happens to it." Like losing the dongle, for example, I guess. I am now using T's lPanasonic, and it's freaking tiny I keep hitting the wrong keys. I miss my stupid American laptop.

I mean, we have a history together, you know? It even died of virus once, but gracefully resurrected, thanks to a very talented computer nerd that is my friend Y's husband. I don't watch porn or do illegal downloading of any sort (that no one else is doing), and my laptop is perfectly viable. I can't move onto a new one yet just because I lost the power. I am not ready to let go of it.

What is considered the best retirement age for a laptop these days, I wonder? Is a 6-year-old laptop past its prime? And while I am pondering, here are some more questions I'd like to know the answers to. Will everything be shifting to touch panels in a couple of decades, if not years? Am I the only one thinking of buying yet another cell phone, not an iPhone, if my current cell phone breaks? Am I the only one under age 40 who still likes the idea of reading news on paper, or still enjoys sending friends hand-written cards and letters? Is that pro-global-warning of me to love things in a paper form now? Am I a lame-o the way I think people who still use a paid phone are lame-os?

Until next time,

Sak

P.S. I placed an order for a new dongle on US amazon.com. My HP will live on.

Pretty in Yellow

Found yellow tulips at Ikuta Food and had to get them for the living room.

Now that's a look of spring!

Until next time,

Sak

A New Find Part II

In my previous post was a bakery that I found in the city next to mine. But I found one that's in a walking distance from my apartment today, conveniently located near the library that I love oh so much and go every other day.


Mugi-no-ie, translated "House of Wheat", is open, mysteriously, on Thursday and Saturday only. I am guessing the owner has other means of income. But from what I learned from the brochure they gave me, he or she goes out of his or her way to make good quality bread with all natural and organic ingredients and no artificial additives, strictly macrobiotic. In short, my kind of bakery.

I am trying for a starter their wheat bread, raisin & pumpkin, and brown rice roll. The smell is quite promising already. I can't wait to get hungry this evening (yes, I eat bread for dinner).

Until next time,

Sak

A New Find

Being a huge bread fan, I was in earnest search for a good bakery in perimeter of the new city I live in. And I think I just found one.

Kanon, in Handa City. A 15-min drive from my flat. Really hard to find, even with a GPS I swear, and they don't have a website for me to tag. So good luck if you ever want to find it. But it's listed in every tourist guide book there is of the area.


Forgot to take pics of the place, so I stole one from a website, which I'm sure is frowned upon. Sorry.

Inside the place, two people would barely fit more or less comfortably, but full of flavor a la grain in every bite of the baked creations is promised, I can tell you. They make every single bread hand-kneaded and bake them in a stone oven, and they use flour of superior quality from Hokkaido.

Until next time,

Sak

Kate Spade Watches

My beloved Kate Spade has come up with a watch line!!

They are not available in Japan yet. All the more reason for me to hurry up and get one before anyone else does...

Until next time,

Sak

Book Report - A Promise

Another visit to the city library brought me this book, again, by Ira Ishida that I blogged about a little while ago.


The title translates A Promise. It's a collection of various types of short stories that deal mostly with loss of beloveds.

The last time I found myself crying so much over a story was when I watched Notebook. I mean, I literally bawled my eyes out. I was never a big short-story fan, but this book really got me. I am gonna start being fair to all shorties in form of literature and give them a fair chance from here on.

Until next time,

Sak

Pop!

There is something about the brightness of yellow that I find extremely uplifting.

After the blossoms on cherry twigs pretty much died, I needed something pretty for the entrance to replace them, and here they are: canary lilies!



And, lilies are the kind of flowers that smell sugar-y. The entrance is fuming with sweetness now. Love it!

Until next time,

Sak

Getting Older Never Got Better

T got me early-birthday gifts while we were at Kate Spade New York in Aoyama aka my Mecca.

Meet my new bag ...

...and wallet.


For these, I don't mind getting older much! Thank you, T, with much love!

Until next time,

Sak

Bullet Train Me

My first time getting a ride on a shinkansen! AND my first time getting out of the city I moved into the end of last year, might I add.


Whoooo hoooooooooooo! Tokyo, here I come!

Until next time,

Sak

Much Like March

March is here! What's not to like about it? It brings spring, though still chilly in the morning and in the evening, and it's my birth month! So why shouldn't I deck the flat in the spirit of March-ness that I longed for the whole winter long?

Twigs of cherry tree, for the apartment entrance, yet to bloom in pink.


Going in and out of the apartment will be of an exciting event for a few weeks. I don't mind so much now the act of putting on shoes that are hard to put on at the entrance now.

And some gold gerberas of to let in a little sun shine, too.



Pink and cream roses for the living room. Love the colors!


Thank Ikuta Food for freshly cut flower selections like actual florists! Little luxuries in life such as these go a long way.

Until next time,

Sak