On Sunday night, our drinking mates gathered at a dining bar in Hiroo to celebrate our friend's birthday, one day late. I like this bar, but there is one thing I'm not sure about. They have a dish called Taraimo salad. Yes, it sounds like the Greek dish Taramosalata (a creamy, pink cod roe paste), but it's not the same! It's boiled potato (called IMO in Japanese) dressed with cod roe (TARA) - even the basic ingredients are the same! It's very confusing, but at least they don't use exactly the same name. I shouldn't be mad.

While we were watching Season Three of 24 on DVD, C spilt his glass of red wine over a white wooly blanket! The first thing I would do is getting a cleaning cloth, I think this is what almost all Japanese people would do, but people in England or Germany (probably other countries in Europe too?) grab salt. On several occasions I have heard people say 'you should have put some salt on it'. I've never actually seen anyone do it so I didn't really believe it, to be honest. But it worked! Great!

I bought Talby, a Marc Newson-designed au mobile phone this afternoon. The Hornet green colour looked nice at the shop, but I had made up my mind that I will get 'hole black' (the name comes from black hole). I've been using Sony Ericsson's phone for long long time, so it might take a while to get used to this new phone. The interface doesn't seem as good as Sony Ericsson's though. The phone came in a shiny silver carrier bag. I like it when companies make an effort to think about their packaging.

We went to a classical concert at SUNTORY HALL. C's cousin plays double bass in the orchestra and he invited us to his concert. He prepared tickets for us, they were platinum tickets, ¥21,000 each! Thanks! The conductor was Sir Roger Norrington who is famous for dramatic performances. I don't know anything about classical music but I enjoyed it a lot. The audience was very enthusiastic, the conductor and the orchestra received a big applause.

I found Kit Kat flavoured with Uji-matcha (green tea from Uji). It is only available this season. The green tea flavour is quite nice, considering that it's a cheap confectionary. The other day we enjoyed green tea flavoured Häagen-Dazs ice cream. And C liked green tea flavoured Hi-SOFT but we can't find them anymore.

Our friends from London left Tokyo for Kyoto today. Kyoto is a great place, I want to go there too. Last night, we went to a sushi restaurant in Nakameguro again, enjoyed our last dinner in Tokyo. C's cousin from Germany is here for his business, and he joined us. salmon is my favourite sushi these days.

Yesterday, we were invited to our friends' wedding at Meiji Jingu. We can't normally go inside the shrine where the ceremony was held. (I couldn't take photos in the shirne.) It was very moving! Congratulations!

On Sunday, we had dinner at Matsugen in Ebisu. It was a modern soba restaurant. I guess our friend T and Y chose this very stylish place! We had 'Soba no Yakimiso', a grilled mixture of miso paste, buckwheat grain and vegetables. We had it with cucumber. Very nice.

Yesterday, I went to Kappabashi; the kitchen equipment street with our friends from London. I usually walk from Tawaramachi station, but we used Iriya station this time. We saw a strange kappa golden statue! I wanted to check a bamboo steamer, a yattoko nabe, a donabe (Japanese earthenware pot), paper bags/boxes for sweets, but I just bought a gratin baking dish and bamboo chopsticks. We walked on the Nakamise shopping street, and we had a dinner at a sushi restaurant in Nakameguro.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Asakusa Torinoichi with a family from London and our friend I, who used to be one of my flat mates in London. It was a surprisingly cold day but I enjoyed the Japanese traditional festive mood. The amazing thing is that this is a 24 hour festival!

Long time no update! We had a busy weekend. Our friends from London are visiting us with their baby! On Friday night, we went to a tofu restaurant called Kyo-tofu Fujino in Maru buil. Thanks K to organize this dinner! We had lots of tiny tofu dishes. The soy milk soft ice cream was a dessert, it was quite nice. Actually now I remember that I had the same soft cream and okara (tofu lees) cookies at TO-FU CAFE FUJINO in Roppongi Hills. I didn't realise that they are owned by the same company. We can buy tofu products from their tofu shop (Japanese).

I ordered two different kinds of udon noodles from a website: 'Kyu-kyoku no Sanuki Udon' (Ultimate Sanuki Udon Noodles) and 'Sanuki no Yume 2000' (Dream of Sanuki 2000). They are made and sold by a noodle factory called Hinode Seimenjo (in Japanese), in Kagawa prefecture. Sanuki Udon factories usually use Australian wheat, but 'Sanuki no Yume 2000' is made from 100% locally produced wheat flour. We had both at the same time to compare the taste, but we couldn't tell the difference. They were both too delicious! The Hinode noodle factory opens their little udon shop every lunch time, only for an hour. I wish I lived in Kagawa!

When I received some change today, I felt that there was something wrong. I realised that it was a new bank note, available from November 1st. The design of bank notes hasn't been changed for 20 years. This new ¥5,000 note features the novelist Ichiyo Higuchi. She died when she was only 24, so her face doesn't have much wrinkles or distinctive character. Apparently, they even tried to feature her for the ¥5,000 note 20 years ago, but her face was very difficult to portrait and they chose educator Inazo Nitobe instead. Anyway, here she is! It seems like they improved their skills. The security features of the new bank notes look amazing.

I borrowed a book called 'Arimoto Yoko no Dougu Erabi' (Choosing Kitchen Tools by Yoko Arimoto) from a library. The book design is very simple, printed in black and white, I liked it. Inside the book, I found too many kitchen gadgets that I want to have, especially this donabe (a Japanese earthenware pot), it's a beauty. I fell in love! We use our Le Creuset pot to cook hot pot dishes, but it doesn't give me the right atmosphere, so I wanted to buy one. The hot pot season starts soon. I checked the price on the site (Japanese only) and... I'm heartbroken! I can't spend four ¥10,000 notes for a donabe!

We had very bad weather in October. It was like rainy season (rainy season in Japan is in June). But finally, the great akibare 'fine autumn' days are here from November. I guess the highest temperature was something like 25 °C in Tokyo today. It was very warm! It's been about four months since I planted sage. Only 5 seeds have survived out of 30 seeds, they don't look very healthy but doing OK. I was recommended to make sage tea and sage pasta, I guess I don't have enough for pasta yet. Should I wait longer, or eat them before they die?

Yesterday, we went to the reception for Maywa Denki The Nonsense Machines which starts from today at ICC in Shinjuku (today is National Culture Day, a bank holiday!). There were lots of great products by Maywa Denki. I had fun to play some of their instruments. If you've never seen their products, it's time to check out! There will be some events, so check the schedule before you go. You might want to see it but also you might want to avoid it. I'm sure that it will be super busy! After that, we went to Seco bar in Shibuya to meet up our friend Y from London for a week. Thank you for a nice 'matcha' green tea!