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Valentine drive in Tokyo ;)

View of Tokyo bay from the dino bridge  

After a rainy and windy morning.  The sun finally showed up, it was incredibly warm, so we decided to go for a (Valentine) drive ;). You know like they do in the Japanese drama… Ahahah! Except that ours was a little twisted, we always love to visit industrial areas!! So this time we picked a scenic route through the city that leads us to the “dinosaur” bridge, a bridge that was opened a few years ago in the bay and that we’ve never taken so far. Eventually the route we took was a (romantic) garbage and waste collection route since we’ve passed all Tokyo dumpsters that happen to all be on the newer islands in the sea front with a beautiful view all with names that try to conceal the hideousness of their finction: Yumenoshima (Dream island), Wakashu (Young land)…!! Actually Yumenoshima-夢の島 is worth a trip for itself for its little museum on nuclear tests in the Pacific and the sadly famous wreck of the Daigofukuryu-第五福竜. The route we took was passing also right next to Haneda airport, so planes were just flying over ours heads at low altitude! Kind of love that! Finally we crossed the bay arrived in Heiwajima and Shinagawa’s warehouses and containers warf, for the industrial part of the ride, passed the water sewage and recycling plant and drove to Tokyo tower, before heading to Mitsukoshi to buy ourselves some little Japanese sweets: plum jelly and sakura manju and watch the sunset from home. Happy Valentine! Hope your Sunday was a good one!!!

PS: I also prepared the classic  chocolate truffles for Valentine!

Rice – お米

In Japan finding deliciouss Japanese rice to cook is not difficult, it’s like finding bread in France or pasta in Italy. Yet finding organic rice or at least non chemical rice is not so easy. There are only few places I know in Tokyo where to find some for sure and the one usually sold in supermarkets is not chemical free. In the countryside the “Eco” label is already a guaranty of better quality in terms of production, but I’ve hardly found it in the city. Isumi is one place that grows rice in Chiba and they have a rather big production, and I was surprised the other day to find something new on the shelf at the local cooperative: a 100% chemical free rice grown locally and sold in a nicely design package. So I had to buy it. I support all initiatives for local, chemical-free, environmental-conscious production and if possible aesthetical and sustainable packaging. I think this one has it all. I believe the packaging (who buys 2kg rice vag in the country???) is really targeted at Tokyo hipsters (even if there is nothing really as such) but I think there is something good in developing it, it just has to stay sizeable and not to become a crazy business which losses all the ethics and original purpose.

An unexpected finding

Rainy Saturday calls for a drive to some antiques and old stuff shop or kottoyasan (骨董屋さん) in Japanese. There are not too many but the one from the country are usually much better than in the city and much cheaper. We usually go to one we like in Otaki and where I’ve found many treasures, this time we decided to find new ones, and drove to Kimitsu (west coast of Chiba peninsula). To find a really amazing one. Tons of outdoor stuff (finally found a little (=that fits in our trunk) lantern for the garden), music instruments, paintings and as usual potteries, plates, bowls…  As in any of such places it’s never heated nor lit and so cluttered that you need a flash light to see things. Moving around also is an art since passages are really narrow! But still I love these places and could stay hours, looking at all the pieces of life and history that has accumulated there. A perfect occupation for a rainy day.

And because today was unexpectedly sunny we could spend the day outside trimming trees and trying a setting for the lantern. 

Meisen kimonos – 銘仙

After a too long break I went to my Japanese class (which is basically drinking tea while reading articles about Japanese history, culture, craft and arts) and Takeda-san (my teacher for more than 10 years now) told me about a nice exhibition in a small museum in Roppongi: the Sen Oku museum. The exhibition features the collection of Nagano’s “classic museum” meisen (銘仙) kimonos. Meisen kimonos are some kind of cheaper kimonos made of lower quality silk, and that became super popular in Taisho period and early Showa. And as you may remember, this is one of my favorite period in Japanese history (see my earlier post on Taisho period and Taisho architecture). The meisen kimonos are very colourful, with many large patterns made with stencils with a very interesting technique of dying. I recommend you read this very nice article about meisen techniques from Anna Jackson of the Victoria and Albert Museum if you want to know more about it. Her article features many pictures of the making.

Coincidently, my favorite kimono magazine: Kimono hime (kimono姫), had its new issue on meisen.  With as usual, tons of beautiful pictures that make you want to wear kimonos every day, and some nice places to visit in the region of Chichibu, a place known for making meisen kimonos. I thought this was a sign and time to go and explore meisen. After a quick check going to Chichibu is not far from Tokyo but a rather crowded drive on week-ends in particular in autumn because of the surrounding nature. So we postponed the trip there for a day we can go during the week. Instead we headed to the museum in Roppongi and went to see the exhibition. It’s a small exhibition, so it didn’t take much time, but the kimonos exhibited were really nice and the movie explaining the making was also really interesting. It revived my love for wearing kimonos, for mo-ga fashion, and for modern Japanese paintings. It revived it so much that when out of the exhibition I had colorful patterns in my eyes and in my mind and it came naturally to us to go to Ginza to visit a few art galleries that have modern Japanese painters.

The tour was quite quick, we park in front of Tamenaga, that will have a Foujita exhibition starting Sunday, so we decided to come back on Sunday. Then we headed to an other one where didn’t find what we were looking for, finally browsing some leaflet, we found that Shihoudou may have what we are looking for and went there while stopping on our wayhere  and there in others. And yes! Shihoudou had exactly what I had in mind, a simple modern psinting of a girl in a colorful kimono. I love so much the contrast of the kimono and the european style painting, it is just the essence of this period for me. I dream of having such a painting!

Ochanomizu-Akihabara revival

The west of Tokyo with it’s big centers like Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya, Shimokitazawa… has been for long the most lively and trendy places of Tokyo, while the east was mere old areas attracting old people, sometimes falling appart or for the tourists: Asakusa, Ueno, Akihabara, Nihonbashi, Ginza… The area between Ochanomizu ad Akihabara, and the one between Asakusa and Nihonbashi (right where we live), have changed slowly in the past 5 years with a lot of cafes and craft shops opening here and there. The trend was confirmed by two big initiatives using the under-track space of the Yamanote line in Okachimachi and the Sobu line in Manseibashi: aki-oka artisan 2k540 and Maach ecute. If I knew about both for some time and have been to aki-oka quite often, I’ve never really had the chance to go to Maach which opened more recently, until yesterday. Since it is an “ecute”, the usual name for stations shopping mall I was expecting to see the same fashion and accessories brands as in every ecute, but it was a completely different thing. Under the arcades of the tracks there is a path and shop, or rather stalls continuously span, without knowing exactly what brand it is. The space is very beautiful, and since I went there around 20:30 it was extremely quiet. The majority of shops are interior and natural clothing shops, which is again the typical new image of Tokyo east side, with similar trends in Marunouchi, in Nihonbashi… There are also a number of cafes and restaurants. I went to Fukumori, because I like their food from the north of Honshu and their simple concept very much, and have been often to their other shop in Bakurocho, but there are several others cafe I’d like to try. I’ll keep you updated!

I didn’t regret paying a visit there, and I think that’d be one of my hide away for rainy days! 

The perspective in the shopping gallery
The perspective in the shopping gallery

Unpredictability

Well, well, well, Friday evening after an other long day at work and a busy week, I was really happy to get back home, finish packing for the week-end and go and pick-up the car downstairs to leave.

It was without counting on a little unexpected event: damned new car with tones of high tech sensors and the ones measuring tire pressure… OK, so let’s put some air in the damn tire, drive a bit, decide that it’s not a good idea to drive to the country in the middle of a rainy night with a defective tire, park the car back and go back home with the luggage and just a bit upset: it’s rainy, and I can sleep one more night on my dream pillows!!!

Saturday morning we went to had our tire check: flat tire due to a vis!!! And while it got repaired we walked in a nearby open house village, you know these places where they have models home you can visit. Found a nice one and decided to visit, and got plenty of ideas and hints for the reform of our bathroom in Ohara, a thing that we’ve had in mind for a few years already!!! First nice discovery of the day!

With our repaired tire and ready to drive car we finally head to the country but we decide on our way to stop at Ichihara lakeside museum to try their pizzeria with view on the lake. They serve homemade pizze prepared with local products, and really enjoyed it: fresh, simple, delicious, and local! Perfect, second nice discovery of the day!

We then decided to have fun and drive the small roads of inner Chiba: Naka Bosso (中房総) and took the long way to Ohara. We discovered the beautiful Yoro valley, its old fashioned onsen and a very mountain like landscape and atmosphere, extremely different than the one of the Pacific coast, though it’s only 30km away!  A recommendation to enjoy soon the autumn colors and a good fun drive! Third discovery!

And we finally arrived home at tea-time, for which I quickly baked an apple tart with a thin sable dough and one apple thinly sliced on top, nothing else. This unpredictable flat tire just led us into a beautiful day!

The perfect pillows

I can fell asleep and nap pretty much anywhere, even at the dentist during a consultation, or during my pilates sole work out! Yet I’m very sensitive to sleeping quality, and it’s gotten worst in the past tears with a constant lack of sleep. So finding the perfect sleeping gears has been quite difficult but I think that now I have finally it!!! Several years ago when we settled in Japan I bought a big duvet at Muji and I must say that I’ve never expected it to be so nice, and fluffy and warm after all these years. For the bed we once decided to get rid of our futon and got a wonderful Simons  bed. Never regretted that investment! I even often miss it when we are traveling!!! But for the pillows it’s been more difficult. We’ve had plenty but never satisfied until we stayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Paris and I tried their pillows. The first time I thought it was just by chance that I slept so well, but after a few nights I was just in love with these pillows, super voluminous, yet like giant marshmallows, with super support and softness. 

So finally I undressed one pillow to check out where they came from and discovered Ploh (http://www.ploh.com). Ploh is Singapore based company making luxury down bedding. Once back in Tokyo I started to hate my pillows and finally ordered Ploh pillows. After one week they were delivered via Fedex. And no disappointment! They are just as great as I hope they would be!!!

Sweet dreams! 

Maison Plisson

While in Paris last month I was curious about going to Maison Plisson since I read so many fantastic reviews about it in magazines, blogs etc… Maison Plisson http://www.lamaisonplisson.com, for those who don’t know, this is a Parisian grocery select store that has opened last May. It offers selected products from a variety of places mainly French but also from Europe.

As they also have a cafe and a restaurant we first went for lunch there before checking the adjacent shop.  It was an awfully rainy day so eating outside was not an option, so we had a tiny table squeezed between other tables and it felt quite exiguous. Like the whole place was designed as a cafetaria for 10 year old kids. Luckily the food was really nice, simple, home-made like.

My main disappoinment was the grocery shop. I was expecting a huge store but it’s rather ridiculously tiny supermarket on the ground floor, with low ceiling, and a basement that is even tinier and lower. Passed the disappointment of the entire space, what about the products? The cheeses and charcuterie looked nice but it was not an option for us since we couldn’t cook or bring back any to Japan. The fruits and veggies were scarse and not too appaling, bad timing maybe. And I was hopping a treasure trove grocery shop, but it didn’t impressed me at all, in the basement it is super tiny, a few shelves only, mainly foreign products and processed bins and sweets, it looked rather like a gift shop… I was hoping to find some delicious lentil from Auvergne, big white kidney beans from Toulouse, buckwheat flour from Brittany, and other wonderful things… But I didn’t. The wine shop is also a small corner in the basement…

So unless you can bring back fresh products home or live in Paris, for me Maison Plisson’s shop = Non!

The pictures of this post come from Maison Plisson Instagram account. 

Ingredients for bread

Multi grain and whole wheat little bread made for breakfast
Multi grain and whole wheat little bread made for breakfast

At first when I started to bake my own bread I didn’t know much about it and I didn’t know how to chose the ingredients. As in any preparation the quality of the ingredient is crucial and it is not easy to understand what is a good flour and what is not, and also there are so many types of flours and bread that it took me some time. More over as I access information about bread mainly from French sources adapting to the Japanese available products was a hard task!

After using a lot of French organic products and random flours I could find in Japan, I think I have found a good set of resources locally. My main source of ingredients and in particular raw yeast is Cuoca. They have a wide selection of products, you can order on-line, but for me the best is that they have a shop that covers half a floor at Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi. My favorite flour there is the “Tradition Francaise” by Viron, perfect for every white bread, and in particular baguette.
For most of the bread now I use the organic flour I can find in the supermarket. It is not a local product but the whole wheat flour and the hard flour are really perfect for my breads.
For the seeds, I haven’t find yet something that satisfies me fully in Japan. A lot of the seeds are not organic or comes from China, which I must say worries me because of pollution problems. Right now I use seeds that I buy in France in any organic shop such as Bio C Bon, Naturalia etc… but I hope I’ll find something suitable soon in Japan!

Happy week-end, for me it’s going to be a lot of baking I know!!!

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