Table Heater

Tables with heating units are sold during this season. They are called kotatsu. The most common has the heater attached underneath the top of the table. Baba's heating unit is built into the floor under the table. There is also a hollow space under her table where we can put our feet. That means we don't have to sit on our shins!!!! Our house is about 7 years old. I am glad Baba and Jiji wanted this feature because it is hard to sit Japanese-style for long periods of time! It is really cosy to sit at (or under?) a kotatsu.

As you can see there is a rug with a big space cut out of the middle. There is a blanket that is placed on top of the table frame. The wooden table top is placed on top. The blanket drapes down around the laps of people siting there. In this picture it is pulled up onto the table. Baba was vacuuming when I walked into the room. I'll try to get a picture with someone sitting here.

This is the heating unit.

This is another view of the heating unit.

You can set the temperature with this.

Eating Burdock

Packaged ingredients. The top package is filled with beans sprouts. Shredded carrots and burdock are sometimes packaged together. The fried tofu is in a plastic tray in a plastic wrap.

This is a close-up. Burdock, gobou is on the right. You may be able to find it in an Asian market.

I don't know where I got this recipe. Most likely I saw it and adapted it. Most dishes use soy sauce, fish broth and mirin. For this one I only use soy sauce and sesame oil.

You need:
1 T sesame oil
1/4 c soy sauce
1 1/2 c shredded carrots
1 1/2 c shredded burdock (can be omitted or substituted)
2 c bean sprouts
2 blocks fried tofu

The tofu needs to be placed in boiling water for a few minutes to get rid of excess oil. Then cut it into cubes. The vegetables need to be rinsed. Heat 1 T of sesame oil in a pan. Put all of the vegetables in the pan. Stir. Then add the tofu. Then add 1/4 cup of soy sauce. If the taste is too strong add a little water to weaken it. If you need more, add more. Don't stir the tofu too much or it will break. Try to move it around where it is in the sauce so it will soak it up. Serve on rice.

Pulling Daikon At School

Little Brother planted these daikon with his fifth grade class back in the summer semester. The field was near their school.

They had to take newspaper and two plastic shopping bags to school. They pulled the daikon up last Friday. Everyone took two home. They were delicious.

Tony Roma's Aoyama, Tokyo

Since we were in the neighborhood yesterday, we decided to go to Tony Roma's.


This is a detail of the light outside the restaurant. We thought it looked cool.


A coaster with the restaurant's slogan. Their food is good.


We washed our hands at the table before and after this meal. This was a nice service. After eating with your hands, you need to wash your hands well. They gave each of us a small metal bowl with water and a slice of lemon floating in it. Also a wet towelette. Do you get the same service at Tony Roma's in America? Wet towelettes are given before a meal in Japan. Nowadays most of them are paper. Some restaurants still have wet cloth towels. In the winter they are hot. In the other seasons they are cool. These wet towels are called oshibori.



This is an American-style restaurant so paper napkins are provided as well. Some Japanese restaurants provide them, too.

Christmas Decorations at Avex Building, Aoyama Tokyo

This is a view of the huge Christmas tree outside the Avex Building in Aoyama, Tokyo. Avex is a music company. Tony Roma's is in a building next to this one. There are stairs that go down to the restaurant on the left. I took this picture from the car as we passed to go park the car.


Avex actually provided "the best photo spot." So if you wanted a picture of yourself with the tree behind you, you would stand here. Your friend or parent would then snap the photo.


This is a shot from that spot. I stood on the spot and took this picture. (This was confusing to some people.) I took this picture after we had eaten, so it was dark. There were stars and bells in the windows.



This was at the foot of the tree. This big black box shone different colors of light onto the tree.



When we came up the stairs from the restaurant, we saw many people with these Santa pigs in front of their faces. They looked like they were wearing masks. They were all looking toward the tree. It was funny. A man handed us some of these "glasses". He told us to look through them at the tree and the lights. We saw many stars! I guess they are like 3-D glasses. For every light there was at least two stars that popped out. It even worked when looking at the moon! We had fun looking at lights on the way home in the car. Of course, Papa didn't. He was driving. But he enjoyed all of our ooo's and ahs.

This is a picture of the front and back of the "glasses".

Gingko Festival in Aoyama, Tokyo

Papa saw my posts of gingko trees and wanted to go to the Ichou (Gingko tree) Festival in Aoyama, Tokyo today. My first thought was, "I don't need any more pictures of Gingko trees." But I couldn't resist. I suggest clicking on the photos to enlarge them.

We walked along the yellow leaf sidewalk in a crowd of people.



We all stopped from time to time to take pictures. When the wind blew and leaves fell, everyone went "ooooo" like the green faced aliens in the movie Toy Story. It was magnificent!



There were many good pictures taken along the way. This one was taken at the end of the street.

Before, During and After Crossing the Street

At the end of the street we ate yaki imo, roasted potatoes.


The man was also selling imo (potato) ice cream, but no one was buying it. It was getting colder as the sun was going down.



When we were eating our yaki imo, I noticed this man. He had climbed this embankment to take a picture.



I also noticed this bird sitting on top of one of the trees.


As people crossed the street, they stopped and took pictures of the building at the other end of the street.


I stopped, too. Here is the picture I took as I crossed the street. See the man way down there almost in the middle of the street? Dangerous!



Unfortunately on the other side of the street, most of the trees were female. Lots of stinky fruit were under foot. No one lingered very long.


Leaves had blown into the middle of the road. This picture was taken in front of the government building.

Ichou Festival Vendors

Besides beautiful gingko trees, there were many food vendors at the festival.


This is yaki soba, grilled noodles.


Another vendor.


More food. I am shocked that the chopsticks were stuck in the food like that. At a wake, chopsticks are placed upright in a bowl of rice that is set out for the person who died. My Japanese students were shocked when I did it years ago at a restaurant in Texas. I had rested them there to take a sip of tea. It was a big no-no.



And speaking of chopsticks. This little guy had cotton candy on a wooden chopstick. He was moving pretty fast so the picture was blurry.

Gingko Trees

Gingko trees are planted along streets.



Along highways.



In school yards.

And in parks. This is one part of Nogawa Koen.

Gingko Trees in Nogawa Koen (Park)

A golden carpet under the gingko trees or maiden hair trees in Nogawa Koen. The trees are called ichou in Japanese. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

If you enlarge this picture, you may be able to see the falling leaves.

Gingko Leaves and Trunk

Do these leaves look like a maiden's hair?

These leaves started turning brown on the edges.

Spider

This spider was hanging in mid-air. It has been cold lately, but today was a warm sunny day. I wonder where spiders go when it's cold.

Drying Persimmons

These persimmons were dryng in someone's garden.

These persimmons were hanging outside someone's door next to their laundry.

This is a close-up of the persimmons in the picture above.

I bought this dried persimmon at the grocery store. They are usually sold by the box, but they had divided a box so I was able to buy just one. We haven't tried it yet.