The idea of baking a normal size birthday cake for myself was not appealing. It’s not that I don’t like baking or that I don’t love cake. I just don’t need a whole cake sitting around here for Rick and I to eat. Awhile back I found a recipe for Gordon Ramsey’s Melting Heart Chocolate Fondant on my friend’s Urban Mums blog.  I decided that I would make two of these instead of a cake and serve them with a little Haagen Daz.
So now you may be wondering why the baking on my birthday. Rick offered to take me out, but I chose to go tomorrow instead because it is a Japanese holiday and he will be home all day. Hooray! Now the trick is deciding what kind of yummy Japanese food I want to eat then.
Today I walked in Roppongi Hills. It is a pretty posh area of Tokyo just an eight minute walk from my house. I only window shop there. Today I found the display in Giorgio Armani interesting because of the gold shoes.
Today I went back to the “Dirty Dish” Shop with a large group of friends. It is always a treat to go because the only way to get there is by car. There is not a station nearby and I have never seen a taxi in the area. It is in a residential neighborhood. They are getting ready for a sale and gave all of us the 40% off discount. I didn’t buy much, just a few items to use as gifts. We were the only shoppers this morning and there was a lot of buying going on. One thing you should know is that the real name of this shop is not “Dirty Dish” that is just the name foreigners have given it because they can’t read the the kanji. I am including the driving directions from Hiro-o and the store flier because I get a lot of comments from my previous post about this shop requesting directions.
Dishes Everywhere
Store Sign
Driving Directions to the “Dirty Dish†Store
Drive on Nakahara-kaido (Route 2) toward Yokohama. Nakahara-kaido is the street you take to the Sensoku-Ike. You go about 6.5 to 7 kilometers (from turning off of Gaien-nishi Dori) on Nakahara-kaido and then cross over the river on the bridge.
After you cross the river, a sign above shows a fork in the road. You go to the left which is the continuation of Route 2 (although, I think the name of the street changes to Tsunashima-kaido at that point.) You go 2.5 kilometers more until you reach Route 14. You will turn right onto Route 14 (there is a Rough Road shop on the right at the intersection where you turn).
You go about 1.7 kilometers on Route 14 until you see a KFC on your right. You don’t turn at that light, but you will turn right at the next light. There is a “Panasonic†building on the corner where you turn. It is a small one way street, there isn’t a turn lane and it looks as though you shouldn’t be turning “right†there. I waited with my blinker on until I could turn and others behind me were doing the same. The road was wide enough that people behind me could go around on the left while I waited.
After turning, the road is small and one-way, but it starts to widen, crosses a small canal, and then becomes a decent sized two-way street. You keep going until you see a sign on the right with a drawing of a dog (it is for a dental clinic?). After you see the sign, you pass a driveway to a house on the right and then you turn at the next right. There is a beige brick apartment building on the corner where you turn and you can see the circular stairs on the side. The dirty dish shop is next to the apartment building. It is a large warehouse type building. It doesn’t look like it is open. The day I went there were large trucks in the front and on the side. You walk to the side and there is an open door. The sign out front had the phone number on it which is 044-788-4888. There wasn’t any parking for me in the front of the building. When they are not getting ready for a sale there is usually some parking in front.  Just before you turn on to the street the store is on there is a large parking lot on the left you can park here if there isn’t parking in front.  If you cannot find parking run inside and ask. A simple “Parkingu doko desu ka? should work and they will run out and show you where the lot is.
This is the second Sunday in a row that I have baked chocolate chip cookies. After several years of making perfectly lousy chocolate chip cookies I found a subarashi (Japanese for wonderful) recipe. Everyone who tries them wants the recipe. The joy of afternoon church is having the morning to bake treats to take to people. Last week, the beneficiaries were a family we home teach and the full time missionaries. This week the Stake Youth committee and the full time Elders got cookies. I had some for the sisters but they were at a Japanese ward today so the Elders got double cookies today. If you want the recipe you can find it on my food blog  They looked like this:
If you have been reading my blog for awhile you may remember what my favorite kind of day is. Today was my favorite kind of day and that it happened on a Saturday made it even better. The sky was bright blue with a few fluffy white clouds, there was a chill in the air and some wind. This kind of day invigorates me. It was a two sweater + pea coat kind of day.
On Saturdays when we don’t have something to keep us in the city, Rick and I like to hop on a train or three and get out. Last night Rick asked me if I wanted to go to the John Lennon Museum. A John Lennon Museum in Tokyo???? Well not exactly, it’s in Saitama to be exact. Saitama is a city outside of Tokyo that is probably still considered part of the Tokyo Metropolitan area (population 25,000,000 approximately). We took three trains to get there. We didn’t get far enough outside the city to see open fields but far enough that it felt colder because there aren’t as many tall buildings.
The museum, located in the Saitama Super Dome, is the only one in the world of its kind and after a ten year run it will be closing later this year. It was interesting and well done. I enjoyed looking at the handwritten lyrics to his songs and listening to the music. I was a huge Beatles fan growing up in Utah. Most of my friends were not allowed to like the Beatles and mostly favored the Beach Boys. I really never understood the screaming girls. I remember going to a theater in downtown Salt Lake to the movie, A Hard Day’s Night and being so annoyed that all the girls in the audience screamed at the top of their lungs and I couldn’t hear the movie. It was a great day out and now we are off to TGIF to chaperone a stake youth activity.
If there is a gene for loving to polish shoes I got it from my dad. (Hmmm…I wonder if any of my children got it from me? I hope so!) Although my dad was a mechanic and came home from work quite dirty, he was immaculate off the job. His clothes and shoes always looked perfect. I remember watching my him shine his shoes often. I learned to shine shoes from him. He never told me how to do it or how often, I learned by observing. I really enjoy polishing shoes and for many years tried to make it a weekly project, usually on Saturday night. I love seeing a row of freshly shined shoes.
Now, it doesn’t seem like Rick’s shoes need to be shined as often. I woke up quite early today (3:30am) and after reading for awhile and folding a load of clothes I thought I’d shine shoes. I love chores where I can see the fruits of my labors. For example, unloading the dishwasher = lame (I can’t see what I’ve accomplished the dishes and hidden by cupboard doors), loading the dishwasher = fabulous (Clean kitchen) and shining shoes = fabulous (shiny clean shoes on everyone’s feet)! Do you shine shoes?
In Japan there are beverage vending machines every 100 meters. If you are out exercising you don’t have to carry water with you unless you want to. Just take enough 100 yen coins with you to stop for water at a vending machine along the way. Many machines have both hot and cold drinks. I don’t drink coffee, but I cannot imagine coffee in a can from a machine would actually be worth drinking. People do drink it, though. One of my newly discovered hot beverages is the hot lemonade sweetened with honey. Most of the vending machines I see are for drinks or cigarettes. However, this handy umbrella vending machine is located in a parking lot not to far from my home. Due to my lack of preparedness and the frequent cloud bursts we experience in Tokyo I have no less than 15 umbrellas gracing my entry way. Fifteen umbrellas is a bit excessive for two people. You must understand that not owning a car puts me out in the elements more often. When I don’t have an umbrella and my option is being soaked I buy a new one. You can find them everywhere on a rainy day even in a vending machine.
Today was an interesting day. Well…maybe interesting isn’t the right word because actually most of it was boring. I headed out this morning to visit the Indian Visa Office. We are going to India at the end of February and need visas. I had everything I needed including a map. I found the office and discovered that while the number I had just pulled was 79 they were only on 35 and there was only an hour and a half until they closed for lunch. Number 79 was not called before lunch and at 11:50 they told us in Japanese that we would have to come back at 1:30. I am so glad that I understand more Japanese than I can speak! I ran some errands during lunch and got in line about 1:20. I was finished at 2:30 and now all I have to do is go back on February 16 to pickup our passports and visas. As I was walking home from the station I realized that I had forgotten about my photo for today and then I saw the coolest garage in my neighborhood. Parking space is definitely a premium in this crowded city. You have to provide a document confirming that you have access to a parking spot before you are allowed to buy a car! Two car families are definitely unusual, but this family figured out how to have 2 cars with only one parking spot. In case you didn’t know, we don’t even own a car here.
Japan is a land of interesting things. I often walk past a bath shop near my house. I believe they try to sell bath products. I have never seen the shop open. The window display has been the same for over 3 1/2 years. Next to Super Barbie is a pyramid of Kirkland Toilet paper from Costco. I just don’t get it!
