The dinner party at my colleague’s apartment

My best friend and colleague, Alisa planned an interesting dinner party at her nice apartment.

She is really interested in joining or organizing events, especially food events.

On October 2nd, she invited all colleagues who are working in the Tokyo branch office to her apartment.

At first, she had trouble deciding the dinner menu. She wanted to impress the guests.

I helped her to think about menu.

I thought of having Tsukimi Dango, white rice dumplings which are generally eaten while viewing the moon on Tsukimi, at the party, because the day after party was Tsukimi day.

She also wanted to eat special Sushi, especially that which she had eaten in America.

Furthermore, the party would be held after work on Friday, so we didn’t have enough time to cook the food.

So, we decided to buy some things on the day before the party, and to buy some juice and beer on the day.

Also, I wanted my colleagues to listen to my shamisen music, so I brought my shamisen to the party.

One colleague who is interested in foot massage recently, also suggested by email in advance giving us massages.

The following images are of our party.

The owner of our Tokyo branch office building is an old nori company, so we bought special nori at their shop.

I was in charge of making Tsukimi dango, so Alisa helped me to drink beer.

It was very easy to make Tsukimi dango. Here is the recipe.

Step1: mix the dango powder with water and knead into dough.

Step2:roll the dango dough into small balls.

Step3:throw the balls into boiling water.

Step4:scoop them out when they float to the top and cool them down on a dish.

I also prepared soybean flour, bean paste and a tin of fruit.

The above images are not the correct way to eat Tsukimi Dango, however I just wanted to eat various style of dango, so I made my own version.

The following image is of the correct way to decorate Tsukimi Dango.

The following image is of Origami rabbits. Although I couldn’t buy Japanese pampas grass for Tsukimi, I made these with origami paper.

In advance, Alisa researched some combinations for Sushi on the Internet. I really respect her passion for food.

Some colleagues finished their work on time, and went to the apartment ahead of us.

Other colleagues arrived there gradually.

The following image is of the correct way to making temakisushi. However I couldn’t make it well.

Some colleagues cooked salad and made delicious cocktails, and a Taiwanese colleague brought Taiwanese dumplings.

In the latter half of the party I played the shamisen, and my colleagues praised me.

I think my technique is not so special, however I’m happy that they could know about the shamisen a bit.

Some colleagues wanted to hold my shamisen, so I took photos for them.

The following image is of the scene of massage.

Actually some arguments happen between some colleagues, however their personalities are not bad.

I don’t know when I need to leave my company, however I want to enjoy my life with them until that day.

Happy birthday!

August 12th was my birthday, and I became 32 years old.

Several weeks ago, I planned my birthday schedule which was to go to a delicious bakery to eat lunch and buy a special birthday cake myself.

My husband originally wanted to plan my birthday himself, but I found 2 nice shops on the Internet by accident, so I planned my birthday schedule myself.

I know I’m not a precise person, so my research is usually not perfect.

The day before my birthday, I read a printout of the cake shop again, and I noticed that the cake shop closes every Wednesday.

I had to change my schedule to only go to the bakery.

However when we reached the bakery, We saw the sign on the door on which said they were closed due to summer vacation.

Oh, my god!

We had to change our schedule again. Therefore my husband started to search for information of nice restaurants near by on his cell phone.

However I recalled Hasegawa Machiko Art Musium was located in that town. Although we were very hungry, we walked there.

Machiko Hasegawa is one of the most famous Mangaka(Comic artist) in Japan.

Her most well known work is “Sazae-san“.

Sazae is the name of the main character of the comic and Sazae-san was originally published in a local newspaper in 1947 and after several changes of newspaper, finally the series reached 6,477 episodes.

I think Sazae-san is loved by all generations in Japan, because of it’s heartwarming and sometimes modern cynical story.

When we see Sazae-san on TV, we feel relaxed and we can laugh every time.

The museum is in Sakurashinmachi, Setagaya, Tokyo.

At first, the setting of Sazae-san was in Fukuoka in which Machiko Hasegawa was used to live with her husband. After Fukuoka, she moved to Tokyo, and the setting of Sazae-san also moved to Sakurashinmachi, Setagaya, Tokyo.

The main street from Sakurashinmachi station to the museum is called “Sazae-san street”, and in that street, you can see many interesting sign.

A small summer festival was also being held there.

All the activities were very interesting for us and I really liked the atmosphere.

The most interesting activity for me was the one in which we can buy a small house and the imaginary right of land which is in the setting of Sazae-san.

I draw “Tama” which is a cat character in Sazae-san on the roof of my house. I felt very excited!

The following image shows the house of Sazae-san. Some customers at the museum bought their land in front of the house of Sazae-san.

The real estate agent is also a character in Sazae-san.

By my turn they were into the third subdivision. This image shows the first subdivision. There are many houses on the map.

I really like such an interesting activity!

After the museum, we felt very very hungry, and on the way to the station, we found a ramen shop which seemed not bad.

A TV personality had opened that ramen shop, and later I knew by accident that his birthday  is the same as mine!

The ramen shop’s name is David, and the taste was good!

After lunch we moved to Komazawa Olympic Park, which is at the next station to Sakurashinmachi. We originally planned to go walking in the park, however it was too hot, so we gave up walking and just sit down on the bench and talked.

After the park, we rode a bus to go to Sangenjaya which is a small town near Shibuya, and is sometimes broadcasted on TV. I had been thinking to go there someday soon.

The atmospere of the town was quite nice.

I had seen a small batting center in Sangenjaya on TV, which looked very nice. Especially the owner of the center looked like a friendly and kind person.

We finally found the entrance of the batting center. Wow, it was amazing!

That batting center is located in the middle of a maze of streets, and is very old and small.

Some families were enjoying batting. Of course, we also tried it.

I really think I’m not good at sports, however I really enjoyed batting.

After the batting center, we rode the street car which is called “Setagaya line“.

Wow, how cute! It had only 2 carraiges.

The small street car went through a Setagaya residential area, and within 30 minutes, it reached the last station, Shimotakaido.

The Shimotakaido shopping mall seemed quite nice.

We enjoyed window shopping there and then moved to Meidai-mae station which connects to Kichijoji station. We thought to take the train from Meidai-mae to Kichijoji, then Kichijoji to Ogikubo, which is the nearest station to our apartment.

We finally bought 2 small cakes for my birthday in Kichijoji and ate a delicious dinner which my husband cooked for me.

It was a long long day, however I really appreciate my husband for following such a unplanned schedule.

Udon party at my apartment

I planned a home party at my home last weekend.

That day’s afternoon, I accompanied my colleague who was looking for a new apartment in my residential area.

After that, I invited my friends to my apartment to eat dinner together.

One of my friends’s mother came to Japan from the US, so I also invited her to my apartment.

I originally wanted to eat Tarai-udon which is one of my hometown’s popular local foods with my guests.

But my husband wanted to express his hospitality, so he cooked some very nice dishes for us.

Most of the vegetables were grown by my father in his veggies garden, and all of them were organic vegetables.

He gives me vegetables every time I go buck home. And my husband usually cooks them for us.

All members said that the dishes were very delicious and couldn’t stop eating.

The following picture is also a local food in my hometown, Tokushima.

It is called “Fish-katsu” in Japanese.

I used to eat it as a snack when I was a child. It is a bit spicy and taste like junk food.

It is usually eaten with sauce, soy sauce, mayonnaise and spices.

One guest became to like it very much, so I gave her the rest of it.

By the way, I want to tell you about one of the Japanese customs which is that most Japanese men who are married never cook.

In Japan, for a long time, it has been normal that husbands work outside and wives do housework at home.

But now the situation is changing in that the status of women is becoming higher than in the past.

Most Japanese women who graduate from university want to continue their careers even if they get married, but most Japanese husbands don’t help their wives.

As a result, most wives need to work outside and inside very hard every day.

Some of my female friends sometimes complaine that their husbands never help them since they got married.

In my case, at first, my husband could not cook very well and also could not do housework, because his mother and his ex-girl friend did everything for him.

We started to live together 2 years before our marriage, and at that time, I was very busy with my previous job, so I couldn’t cook for him very much, therefore he started to try cooking for us by himself.

He soon became to like cooking, because he really likes to eat delicious food.

Also he was lucky, since he was working for a printing company, he got some cook books free of charge.

After several years, he became a good cook. Whenever he cooked for our guests, all of the guests said his dishes were very delicious, and some of them said that my husband could open a restaurant if he wanted to.

Some of my male friends say to me that they don’t have enough time to cook themselves, but I disagree with them.

I think the most important thing is whether they like to cook or not, and if they are married, whether they want to help their wives of not.

In my case, I used to think, I had a opportunity to learn English overseas.

But now I’m thinking that we can make our own chances if we truly hope so.

Dinner party at my friend’s new house.

One of my close friends who is also my colleague, invited me to her new apartment.

She is a Japanese-American and her parents bought the new apartment in Tokyo, however her parents still live in America.

At first we were planning to have a small dinner party with just our common close friends, but she changed our plan.

She invited many friends, 17 people, to her new apartment.

I like such dinner parties, because I can get new friends, whose backgrounds are different from mine.

I bought special bread named “Melon-pan” in Nishiogikubo, and in Kichijoji, I bought one kind of Fish-cake and also some snacks.

It was about 3pm when I reached her house.

Both my friends were in the middle of cooking.

The view was very very nice from her house!

I helped with the cooking and writing the welcome board.

Other members came there around 5-6pm, and the dishes which they brought were interesting.

Some dishes were very special, so I was ashamed that I didn’t bring a homemade dish.

One person at the party was my friend’s friend’s friend, and he was a lawyer.

His background was very impressive.

He became a lawyer after working as a office worker for 7 years. Before passing the lawyer exam, he’d tried 6 times.

And after passing it, he traveled around Asia and the Middle East for 1 and half year.

Not only this story impressed me, but also the fact that he selected “Saga prefecture” as the place where he has been working.

He told me that he was not interested in working in big cities, and  he likes to connect with local people deeply and do everything by himself which he couldn’t do when he was working as “a office worker”.

I can understand his thinking, because I had been studying law at University, and gave up my dream to become a lawyer.

I thought about my future in a new light, because I want to continue working even if I have a baby.

Unfortunately it’s difficult for woman to have a full time job, if we have children in Japan.

So our skills are very important. umm, I need to think more..

The 17th St.Patrick’s Day Parade in Tokyo

I went to The 17th St.Patrick’s Day Parade in Tokyo with my friend.

We met at Omotesando station, and went to FUJIMAMAS to eat a special buffet.

I didn’t know about St.Patrick’s Day until yesterday.

So, I didn’t wear anything green which I regretted at once.

Many people were wearing something green, and they looked very happy.

I enjoyed the special lunch and talked with my friend for about 2 hours.

A band played Irish music during lunch.

When we finished lunch and left, there were many people in the street.

Since there was only a little time until the parade started, we went to an event stage at Omotesando-hilｌs.

There were many people there too.

I said to my friend that I didn’t know there were so many Irish in Tokyo!

She said to me there are many people whose ancestors are from Ireland.

The 17th St.Patrick’s Day Parade Tokyo started at 2:00p.m.

Various groups took part in the parade, and many audience took pictures.

I was given a shamrock seal by a woman who was taking part in the parade,and I pasted it on my cheek.

I thought that he who enjoys everything enjoys life!

After the parade, fortunately we could see ”Riverdance“ at Omotesando-hilｌs.

I loved it!!

I enjoyed this event very much!