On Friday, I went to the Pierre Hermé Fetish Party in Shinjuku. This event was held by Shinjuku Isetan department store, they are celebrating their first anniversary of the new food floor in the basement. The great thing was that Pierre Hermé himself turned up to the party! He is the patisserie god to me, I had to ask him to sign my book: pâtissier secrets gourmands which was my birthday present from C. He seemed like a really nice gentleman, so I became greedy and asked him to take a picture together too!

Last week, my sister gave me lots of beautiful asparagus she received from Hokkaido. White asparagus is still quite uncommon in Japan, I sometimes see them in a local supermarket but they are really skinny (and expensive). When I visited Germany many years ago, it was May and I remember seeing huge white asparagus everywhere: the symbol of early summer in Germany. I was so surprised at the size of asparagus! I was wondering how to cook our white asparagus, maybe pasta and soup? Then C told me that he usually eat it simply with cooked ham in Germany. So our dinner was lots of boiled white asparagus with cooked ham and some tasty bread from Le Boulanger Dominique SAIBRON. It was so good, C was very satisfied too!

We had a late golden week and we went to Thailand for the first time. Before the trip I was really excited. I borrowed a basic phrase book, came with an audio CD from the library. I learnt some phrases in Thai and I actually enjoyed to use them in Thailand! Kop khun ka (thank you) to this phrase book and nice Thai people. Yesterday we went to a Thai restaurant in Nakameguro, had Thai food with Chang Beer and talked about how great this trip was (again and again). I want to visit Thailand again, hopefully some time this year!

Last Saturday we finally had a chance to visit a very popular burger shop Baker Bouce in Sangenjaya. It was difficult to choose one from so many choices, and I ordered 'Red Eye Bull' (extra lean meat patty, available only thirty patties a day) Cheese Burger. The chargrilled well done pate was very meaty and tasty, but probably because I've been eating like an old people these days, the melted cheddar cheese was too fatty to me. I should have ordered a simple hamburger. If this shop is around the corner (and I don't have to queue) I would love to pop in for take-out burgers. BTW I haven't came across to a Japanese burger shop which serves tasty Deep Fried Potato Wedges: less greasy, crispy outside and fluffy inside. Let me know if you know any shops.

It was really nice weather on Sunday, so we went to Komazawa Olympic Park. After walking around the park a little bit, we saw many TV trucks next to the park gymnasium. We were wondering what kind of event was going on, and it was National Women's Wrestling Championship. Hurray! We like martial arts! We had never seen live wrestling before, so we were excited and enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately Kyoko Hamaguchi didn't take part this tournament because of a wrist injury. She is a very famous (her father is also super famous) and strong fighter who won world championships five times. But she was there, watching the tournament, apologizing for her fan club members, and posing for photos. Surprisingly she looked kind of sweet in normal clothes, but as soon as she walked, she looked like a hunter...

It's been nearly a month since I started yoga, I can finally use the yoga mat which I bought a year ago. I am an easily excited person (but quick to cool down sometimes) so I take four lessons a week now. A little problem I have now is I feel extremely relaxing while I do Shava Asana (the posture of a dead body), I fell asleep a few times... I also started to eat a grain and vegetable based diet on the weekdays only. I wouldn't call it macrobiotic diet, it's just very very simple Japanese food, probably my grandparents were eating something like this. My recent favourite is Kuromame (black beans) Genmai (unpolished whole grain rice). BTW this is not an April fool's story, my friends!

Last month I had to cancel my visit to a famous Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa in Hokkaido. But I bought Shirokuma (polar bear) Sio Ramen (salt flavour ramen noodle) at Shin-Chitose airport instead. When I saw a guy carrying a few bags of this noodle at a cashier, I remember that I read the article saying 'it's a very tasty instant noodle', so I bought four bags. Unfortunately it was quite a normal instant noodle (maybe I expected too much?). The ramen noodle was Asahikawa style, middle thin (not super thin) and slightly curly. The packaging is unique, I guess it would be a nice Hokkaido souvenir.