Yesterday, my sister took me to a pottery class. I think I did pottery once during the art foundation course but I was completely a beginner. I tried not to make rubbish at least.

My sister brought some rice crackers of Niigata prefecture (Japan's no.1 rice producer). I've never seen crackers called 'Kinako Mochi (rice cakes covered in soya bean powder)' which has soyabean powder sprinkled on a rice cracker, and the powder is ultrafine. Maybe using Wasanbon (fine-quality Japanese sugar) mixing with kinako? It has delicate sweetness.

According to TV last night, in order to have a strong body which doesn't catch a cold easily, it is important to have lots of saliva in our mouth. I went to a convenience store to buy dried ume (japanese plum) . It was sweet and salty, but strange taste. I think it contains an artificial preservatives. Taking lots of salt isn't good either. Apparently, it is effective enough just looking at the photograph of a pickled ume and get lots of saliva, without eating something sour. But pickled ume doesn't make C' mouth watery. Not enough 'ume' experience yet.

It is getting cold and we started to use a heating finally. Same as last year, I am going to bake Christmas cookies with a Germany recipe soon. I did some shopping on an internet auction after a long time. It looks very American but I bought snowflakes cookie cutters. I can make different patterns with a combination of 5 cutters.

The strawberry chocolate from Rokkatei (confectionery company in Hokkaido). Chocolate coated freeze-dried strawberries. I'm not so keen on it (I prefer Butter-sand) but C is very fond of it, so mum always bring it when she comes to Tokyo. She brought a huge box of the chocolate once, but a small box is a good size to appreciate it little by little. There are white and cream (milk) chocolate coating, and the white one is far better than the cream one! By the way, we can't compare with the one from MUJI for the taste.

I saw a vending machine for Snickers on a train platform for the first time. I remembered that there were vending machines for different kind of chocolates on tube platforms in London. I think Japanese people (especially men) don't eat chocolate bars so much. I was surprised to see how often people (including me) eat those bars in London. I wonder who is going yo use this machine. Anyway Japanese people won't eat on a train platform, like people do in London. The annoying functions are very London: Exact money only and Once you put money, there is no return money function.

My mother came to see me after a long time, we asked my sister to come along and went to a russian restaurant СУНГАРИ (sunggari) in Shinjuku. It was nice and quiet restaurant. Actually I had a stomachache but we had a course meal + another dishes too!

The exhibition Treasures from the World's Cultures: The British Museum after 250 Years is held in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from last month. I found out that Kaiyodo (well known figure maker after Choco Egg which changed the name to ChocoQ) has made figures of the inheritance of ancient Egypt from British Museum. I bought one (the box is huge!) and List of the kings of Egypt from the Temple of Ramesses 2 was inside. This is the most un-popular one, I guess. It is ¥340 comes with 2 little Paddington honey cookies which matches black tea well (that is what says on a box). It sells in a museum shop in British Museum. I'm not sure if people buy it in Lodon.

Last September, I was very happy about Pret A Manger opened the first shop in Tokyo. But I haven't been there yet. I finally went to the one (13 shops in Tokyo at the moment) in Shinagawa today. The interior of a shop is exactly same as London's. It's really good to see you, Pret!

We had dinner with a friend @ a Spanish restaurant in Koenji. We had olives, Escalivada (marinated grilled veg), Jamon Serrano (ham) etc. with hand made buns. I haven't had smooth and fruity (but sometimes I think it is bit too watery) Hoegaarden (Belgian white beer) for a long time. The owner of the restaurant is very funny.

I was invited for lunch at "Meidai Tonkatsu KATSUKURA Kyoto Sanjo" in Roppongi Hills today. I had a "Yuba (soy milk skin) croquette and Fillet pork cutlet" set meal. The croquette was like a béchamel croquette and nice! It seems like that they want to appeal this restaurant is from Kyoto, they had to say "this tea is from KYOTO", "these are KYOTO style pickels". I was a bit surprised that when the waitress started to explain about the sauce etc. like a machine gun. Don't they speak more gently in the main Kyoto Sanjo restaurant?!

This might be one of those strange foods for Japanese people, but we cannot talk about British food without mentioning Branston pickle. Diced root vegetables are pickled in a kind of sour worcestershire sauce. Keep your face away from a bottle when you open it, otherwise you might be choked by the strong vineger smell. It has a strong taste of iworcestershire sauce, it is hard to say what kind of vegetables are inside. But it is nice to put a little bit on sandwiches. It also matchs well with extra mature cheddar cheese. various companies (site in J) are making it in Britain. My bottle is almost empty but I found the recipe for Branston, I might try making some.

We got these wine glasses as a wedding gift last year. We really love them. Can you see the glasses are slightly distorted? These are hand blowed by drunken craftsmen! Great idea! All of six glasses have a slightly different shape. Designed by William warren. I like his plate too!

Yesterday, two of our friends had a birthday party together @ FAVELA. The bar was on the top floor of a 7-story building, we could see the whole of Tokyo Tower in the distance. It was a nice room but I personally didn't really like the interior, especially all pictures on the wall. But It was a great party! Happy birthday!!

UPDATE: Following a request by Favela, I edited this post. See the comments for more information.

We also asked to bring these herrings from Germany. Bismarckhering and Rollmops. Bismarck-hering are unskinned herring fillets that have been cured in a mixture of vinegar, sugar, salt and onions. Rollmops are herring fillets wrapped around a piece of pickle, preserved in spiced vinegar. It is as sour as my mouth waters just by watching it. It's nice to eat on a fresh bread with butter. Bismarck hering in potato salad is one of the Christmas dishes from C' family, so we are going to save it till Christmas.

I always wanted a teapot of Nanbu tetsu (iron made in Iwate). About a year ago, all teapots were at half the price in a shop, I did impulse buying. I couldn't decide between a classic flat + round shaped Arare (hailstone) patterned pot and a mordarn rectangular shaped pot, I chose this pot in the end. But, it was a wrong choice! Because of the height of a teapot, I have to pour at least 0.4L of hot water to reach a tea strainer inside a pot. I bought a tallest (7cm) strainer though. I can't serve green tea only for myself.

Our friend brought us a tin of maple syrup from Canada. It is about a business card size and looks like some oil inside! The orange and gold color is very lovery. On the back side happy kids are in a horse-sledge with a snowy mountain. Christmas version? Or always with this design even in summer?

Finally I made up my mind to use OSX, went to Akihabara area to buy PowerBook G4. I got a new Mac! I was very excited when I opened the box which was very neat. The aluminum alloy body, a backlit keyboard (keyboard is illuminated in the dark), they are NICE.

Finally the day has come. I had to say good-bye to my lovely PowerBook G3 333. The screen color turned to blue-ish a month ago, and the screen has been distorted and strange pattern appeared since last week. I had to hit the mac to fix it, just like an old TV. But... it hasn't worked since yesterday. It doesn't show the original desktop image anymore. It had a 4years and 3months life. Is this very old in computer age? (It is quite short actually!)

We are watching all Japanese games of world cup 2003 volleyball for women on TV for this one week. I get very excited! The uniform of the Japanese team is so cool (gothic?). There are 3 differents colors; navy, black and white. I like the black one best, it looks strong. I want to play volleyball!

We need glühwein in winter time. It is called mulled wine in UK and hot wine in Japan. We had the first glühwein of this season (not winter yet in Tokyo though). I usually use GLÜHfix（glühwein spice mix in tea bags) which I bought from Germany but they have run out finally. So we bought glühwein in a bottle @ an off-license yesterday. It was only ¥1,000 for 1L. I was bit worried about the wine which might be cheap and bad quality (probably ¥600 in Germany?). But It was nice (good job for the spice and sweetness), I'm looking forward to a real winter!

Reading a book in bed cause arm ache. Lots of inventions are available but this Gorone "Lie-Dozing" Scope looks very handy. An improved version is good for people with glasses already. Does anybody want to use it? I want a television which tilts to the side. I can lie on my side and watch TV!

Are you good at calling your office to notice of absence because of illness? Maybe my voice doesn't sound I'm sick enough, even I have a fever? If I have a cough on the phone, they think I'm acting? Oh, dear! I don't need to worry about this anymore. These days people probably just emails instead of making phone call. But still trying hard to write a sick-mail? Then you can try this mail generator-I'm off because of sick (Japanese Only).

I caught a cold. My throat + ears hurt, and I got a runny nose. It had been so warm and I was wearing only T shirts. But it's definitely getting colder everyday especially at night time. Yes, it is surely November now. It's better to drink hot tea with honey rather than coffee for my throat. I found an un-opened box of apple tea. I bought this from a ¥99 shop and didn't expect the quality (even the name is qualitea...) but it was quite nice actually. It said pure ceylon tea from Sri lanka.

Rubis is the precision tool maker who has more than 50 years of history in Switzerland. And I recommend the tweezers. I like the design and red color but also its performance. Never miss the target! A few years ago, I asked my friend who visited Switzerland to get one for me. It is on Pica ichi Jiten (dictionary of the best for everything) or used to be sold @ A.P.C magasin too (they have one with white cross on red body. Cute!). My tweezers said only "rubis switzerland" but recent tweesers have MEHAZ name too. Rubis and Mehaz were merged? Only such a dull story is everywhere...

Today is Culture Day (and bank holiday). The conferment of medals recipients in the autumn were announced. 4068 persons were awarded. Quite a number! From this time, the criticism to ranking people numerically abolished the grade in numbers, such as "the first order of merit", and the women were also contained in the candidate of Orders of the Rising Sun which was awarded to the men only. Well, I probably won't get it anyway. 38 people from other countries including Mstislav Rostropovich, a conductor and a cellist, were awarded too. The image shows Mr. Tanaka (who became very famous by receiving the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2002)' medal of culture awards from last year.

We had Imonikai by Futako Tama river. I've never heard about Imonikai before but it seems like it is quite well known in Tokyo too. Our neighbour was having Imonikai with a massive pot. It was warm enough to wear only T-shirt today, and there were many people eating + drinking by the river.

I received a packet of apples from home. These apple are called HacNine which is a cross breed of Fuji apples and Tsugaru apples. My parents became a owner of an apple tree in a fruit farm a few years ago, they go to pick apples every year in this time. Because of this year' bad weather, apples are so sour! But somehow the taste made me nostalgic feeling.