Spring Bucket List Update!

June 27, 2015 CaitlynLeave a comment

As of a few days ago, summer has officially arrived! I figure that means this is a good time to update you on how my Spring Bucket List went, and to get started on a new one for summer! (You can find my original list here!)

1. Start running at least 1 mile every weekday √ I’m going to give this one a check because I did it for nearly two months, and for the majority of the days I did it, I ran 1.5 miles to 5K each time. Some health stuff (nothing to worry about!) got in the way of me completing the goal all the way through, but I’m still pretty proud of what I did do!

2. Go to Studio Ghibli – We didn’t get a chance to go to the Ghibli museum yet (something to move onto my Summer Bucket List!), but we did go to another museum called the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The museum itself was pretty cool–most of it featured art deco-inspired design, and it also had a pretty garden outside. We went to see an exhibit about masks around the world, and were disappointed to find very little English, but on the bright side we were able to take a couple fun pictures at the end! 3. Find an oven and start baking again – still on the search, unfortunately!!

4. Try chocolate matcha fondue √ did it! I even made a video for the Epicurean Baristas, but I never got around to editing it. Here is some photographic evidence, though!

The set came with ice cream, puff pastry squares, mochi, a few slices of strawberry, and some unusual jello konnyaku type things. The set cost nearly 1000 yen, and honestly wasn’t that great. But, I’m still glad I tried it!!

5. Find Japanese Lessons – Everywhere I’ve looked so far for lessons has been really expensive, and I haven’t been able to find volunteer lessons that take place outside of my working hours. Don’t know if this one will be getting checked off while we’re in Tokyo!

6. Make one creative project a week (in addition to art journaling) √ Sometimes my projects tied in with #9 on my list, but sometimes they were just chance (like when we painted our pretty little totes at the Hydrangea Festival).

7. Read 3 Books √ I read Land of Love and Drowning, Yes Please, and Lucky Us. I liked Yes Please by Amy Poehler the most because it made me laugh and had a lot of quotable sections I want to remember.

8. Try 3 New Cafes – I tried Bear Pond Espresso, which was amazing (read about my experience here), and Streamer Coffee Co., which was also amazing. I was so close to checking off this one, but to be honest, the two new cafes I did visit were so fabulous I have no regrets!

9. Decorate our kitchen √ I made an easy and fun Photo Garland, as well as a little Wall Art.

10. Start Montessori Certification – This one is still in the works! We’ve had a bit of money transferring hoopaloo to get through, so I’m just trying to be a patient peach!

11. Write more – Um…to be honest…I don’t think I really did this one at all! Something to consider working on in the coming months!

12. Try new cocktails/wine – Can you believe I didn’t get around to checking this off? I guess beer is just what always seemed to be happening for me!

13. Go on at least one picnic √ We had several, including the ones at Koishikawa Botanical Garden and Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden.

14. Try at least two new recipes √ I tried several new recipes, one of which was Rice Cooker Spanish Rice, a kitchen experiment that turned out super yummy!

15. Have a Ladies Night √ One night after helping set up a new campus for our school I went out with a few girls for dinner, but I’d really like to do more in the future!

We had a lot of fun in the spring months, and I enjoyed checking things off my first ever Spring Bucket List. I’ll get hopping on my Summer Bucket List for 2015 for you soon, but in the meantime I’d love to hear about some fun things you did this past spring! Tell me in the comments below 🙂

xx Caitlyn

Misaki Port & Jogushima Island

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 CaitlynLeave a comment

It’s rainy season in Japan, so amidst being quite busy at work, we’ve had a lot of cloudy, gloomy weather that sometimes makes us feel like…well…like we need to ESCAPE!!!! Especially living in Tokyo, which often feels kind of imposing with building after building after building. So, we decided to take a day trip using the Misaki Maguro Kippu, a day pass that provides 1) Transportation to & from Shinagawa and Misaki Port, as well as around Misaki Port and Jogushima Island, 2) a free activity for the day, and 3) a free meal at one of the many restaurants that specialize in tuna. The entire area is famous for tuna, and the locals claim their tuna is better than even Tsukiji‘s! A big fish market there sold toroman, which is like nikuman but with tuna, and we decided to split one as a mid-morning snack. It was kind of weird, but that could be because we were just expecting normal nikkuman flavor.
For our meal, we decided to go to Kurobatei, a restaurant made famous by the show Bizarre Foods (click to see the episode), that mostly sells really delicious, normal food. In Bizarre Foods, the host orders the tuna head, which apparently needs to be requested 3 days in advance, and is oven cooked for at least four hours before serving. Needless to say, this is not the dish we tried.

A little truck outside the restaurant
Parts of the tunaChad ordered a sashimi boat that came with rice and miso soup. There was a crazy fish head looking at him throughout the meal… I ordered the tempura set, which also came with some sashimi in the bowl (and of course, miso soup!). Everything was really delicious, and the staff were incredibly friendly. We were so glad we tried Kurobatei, a place we never would have gone if it weren’t for our Misaki Maguro Kippu!
After lunch I chose to go to a glass shop to use my activity ticket. I made a little jar with a kitty cat and Mount Fuji resting on some layered sand (picture on instagram soon!). Then we grabbed a couple donuts from Misaki Donuts and took the bus to the very beautiful Jogashima.
The donuts had a really nice mochi mochi texture. This was a berry donut.On Jogashima, everywhere you walked you saw beautiful nature. The entire little island is just so refreshing and relaxing. *sighs*
Can you see the old, broken down shrine in the cave back there? We hiked all over the island. (Pardon my crazy hair–there was a nice breeze all day!)
The water was so clear! From the picture it may look like just a bunch of shells, but actually, the whole area was bustling with hermit crabs and other crabs alike! They were really fun to watch (until Chad starting chasing a crab toward me and I thought I might break my ankle running away 😉 ).
Our trip ended with Chad using his activity ticket to go to an onsen (hot spring) while I soaked my feet in a little foot bath and watched the sunset. We had such a nice day trip, and plan to try and go on more little weekend adventures in the future!

Where is a place you’ve gone on a day trip recently, or a place you’d like to go? Our trip was quite spontaneous, so perhaps you’ll be on your next day trip sooner than you think, too!

xx Caitlyn

P.S. If you’re living in the Tokyo area and you’re wondering about the Misaki Maguro Kippu, it can be purchased at most Keikyu stations (we got ours when we transferred at Shinagawa) for around 3000 yen. This turns out to be quite a good deal, saving you about 2000 yen on average.

Around Town

Hydrangea Festival in Bunkyo

June 7, 2015 Caitlyn2 Comments

Almost seven years ago, we chose to have blue hydrangea at our wedding. The bridesmaids held bouquets that were so pretty! Many memories from our wedding came back today as we walked around the annual Hydrangea Festival in Bunkyo.

One really fun event at the festival was canvas bag painting. For 200 yen, you could sit at a table and paint for as long as you liked, and then take your creation home!

A lot of children were making the bags, but we figured there was no reason we shouldn’t give it a go, so we sat right down and went for it. Painting was quite peaceful; we were surrounded by beautiful flowers, a temple, the smell of incense, and quiet chatter among the others who were also painting.

I love how Chad’s turned out!

And here’s mine. I wanted to paint blue ones for our wedding colors 🙂 After we finished painting, we walked around looking at more pretty hydrangea.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a festival without several food stands.
This couple decided to get shaved ice! Yum!
These traditional Japanese candies were packaged to look like hydrangea.

I decided to try a little egg pastry. It sort of reminded me of a soft macaron dusted with powdered sugar and filled with a light cream.

Chad chose beer as his treat at the festival.
We had such a lovely Sunday afternoon in the sun. Does the weekend have to end?

What were you up to this weekend?
xx Caitlyn

Around Town

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

June 6, 2015 Caitlyn1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to post this since last weekend, but, forgive me…I’ve been exhausted. I mean, EXHAUSTED. I couldn’t figure out why and then I checked under my eyelids and realized they are super white. DUH! Get more iron Ms. Caitlyn! Phew. Anyway, here’s hoping to a more productive week now that we’ve got that business figured out. And here’s to the pretty garden we visited last weekend! We had a super random but yummy picnic of sausage, mandarin orange jello, canned salmon, cheese and olives, and cheese bagels. I tried some banana milk and Chad had coconut milk. Not necessarily the healthiest, but it got us through the walk ahead!
The banana milk tasted like banana Laffy Taffy’s. Not bad, but Chad helped me finish it.
After relaxing for a bit, we headed to the Greenhouse. There were some pretty neat things growing inside, including banana trees, cacao trees, and coffee trees (none of which I got a good photo of, unfortunately!).
After we finished our little tour of the greenhouse, we headed out to explore the garden.
Have you ever heard of aerial roots? We were really excited to see some for the first time in person!
We had relaxing time exploring this highly rated garden. Hope you enjoyed a glimpse through this post!