C brought posters for learning for kids from New Delhi, the hand drawing pictures are very nice. It is very interesting that the Indian red signal light says 'relax'. It sounds like everyone drives aggressively in New Delhi, so it is such a good advice!

Yesterday, C came back from India. His face has tanned! On the airplane, on the way back from Delhi, he got SAUNF SUPARI (it says AFTER MINT on the back side of the sachet) after the meal. SAUNF is fennel seeds, and SUPARI is betel nuts, the seed of the betel palm. Apparently fennel and betel nuts are good for digestion, not only fresh breath. I've never heard of betel nuts before, but betel nuts are chewed by over 200 million people world wide! Even kids chew nuts and it sounds like the habit has several damaging effects on oral and general health.

The Monchichi (in Japanese) was created in 1974. It had the 30th anniversary last year, and it seems popular again after a long time. The monchichis in these days have colourful hairs, or dress in animal mascot costumes just like some teenagers we used to see in Shibuya last year. It reflects the style of young people today! When I was a kid, my sister and I both had monchichis, and mine was a bear version. My bear had the same face as my sister's normal monchichi, except it didn't have freckles. I had no doubt that it was not the official monchichi family (how could my parents give a fake one, only to me!), but none of my friends don't believe me! But I finally found evidence by accident the other day. The bear monchichi was sold in a shop. It does exist! But I have to say that my bear monchichi had curly hair and much cuter than the one in a shop!

Häagen-dazs launched Maccha Kuromitsu Crispy Sand (in Japanese) on 7 March. This 'brown sugar syrup chocolate' coated 'green tea flavoured ice cream' between crispy wafers was out of stock everywhere until last week. Maybe this was their market strategy? This is my second one this week, and I might buy another one today! C said that the colour of chocolate is not very appetizing. Does it? It doesn't really matter to me, because it's tasty!

Yesterday was my good friend's birthday. I wish her the best of luck! BTW, it's difficult to blow out the fireworks. We love you!

My friends and I went for shopping in Harajuku and Aoyama area. The day started with nice springy warm weather (with lots of pollen!), but it suddenly became very windy and rainy in the afternoon. Cold. It reminded me of London's weather! My lunch was nice Pumpkin Croquet Sandwiches (¥750/£3.72) at Caffè@Idée (in Japanese). I also had Caffe Mocha.

I went to a restaurant with my old friends. The restaurant is called 'Suzume no Oyado', set in a love hotel area in Dogenzaka, Shibuya. It used to be a geisha house, so it has a unique atmosphere. They serve Okonomi-yaki, Monja-yaki and some other grilled dishes. Their menu was a little bit unusual, like Camembert Cheese Monja! We had Curry Monja, Natto Okonomiyaki, Beef Muscle Okonomiyaki, Pork Kimuchi Okonomiyaki etc. Every dish was great!

Our good old friends from London came to Tokyo, so we went for drinks last night. They told us that they attend a wedding ceremony in the next morning, but we kept drinking until quite late. I wonder if they are OK! We went to Murakami Seisakusho ☞ Sankichi Bar ☞ Kushiwakamaru ☞ The Lobby at Claska. Some things I want again about last nights were: Sankichi Bar when Mr. I is working there, Tanuki (Stuffed Shiitake Mushrooms on skewers) at Kushiwakamaru, and a huge square ice cube in my drink at The Lobby.

Yesterday was White Day. C brought Marusei Cheese & Biscuits by Rokkatei, I really wanted to try these after I read the entry on Shin Nichijo Henteko-dou Catalogue (in Japanese). They came in a special wrapping for White Day, but I think the original one is much more beautiful! I keep them cool in a fridge, and I'm looking forward to eat them later. He also gave me Manjari from Esprit de Paris (in Japanese). It was moist and rich chocolate cake with some walnuts. Very good! Valrhona Manjari bitter chocolate (64% cocoa - A blend of Criollos and Trinitarios cocoa beans from Madagascar) is used for this cake.

Our friend got a driver's license very recently, and he offered us a ride. It was nice to drive around Tokyo, where I usually take a train or a subway. I have a driver's license but I haven't driven a car in almost 10 years. When I renewed my driver's license about three years ago, I was very surprised that the officer told me 'I can't give you a gold card (for a good driver) because you were caught speeding last year'! It was very easy to prove my innocence with my driver licence card number, and the officer found there is someone who has the same name and the same birthday as me! I kind of want to see her.

Finally my hayfever season started. I felt better today because of the rain, but my eyes and nose have problems from three days ago. C told me that he can't believe there are many Japanese people who don't place their hand in front of their mouth when they sneeze. Yes, I really hate them too! In Japan, many people wear masks when they have a cold or flu, so that they don't spread germs. We have such a "considerate culture" but many people don't care about spreading germs when they sneeze. I don't understand!

We walked past the recycling corner that I wrote about the other day, and we saw a bowling pin standing there this time. I had to laugh when I saw it and C immediately grabbed the pin. He didn't even stop walking, it was like a marathon runner at the water stop! I didn't want to keep any more junk at our flat, but C seems to like it a lot, so I couldn't say NO! to him.

I found a beef fillet in our fridge, so we had beef steak and red wine for lunch. I fried a fillet with lots of sliced garlic, and we built steak sandwiches. It reminded me of enjoying weekend pub lunch in London. After we finished the big meal, I thought that I should have used the Le Creuset square grill (24cm). When I saw it on sale for ¥5,000 (I think the original price was more than ¥10,000), I was very happy to get it. But I don't use it very often. And I didn't know that Le Creuset makes a new product called Panini Press (the US price is always much lower than the Japanese price). When I make Panini with my square grill, I just use a spatula to press the bread very hard from the top!

Yesterday, I saw an abandoned cat on the street near my flat. Well, it was a toy cat. I thought it had been completely wet from last night's snow, but it's gone. There is an empty corner on the street and recently someone started to leave old clothes there, on hangers. Usually only one or two pieces at once, and after they are gone, other clothes appear. I enjoy seeing how unfashionable they are. The sign said "I can give you a health equipment: Powerhealth". A phone number was written underneath. I found out that it is an electronic equipment which gives us 4500V - 13000V electricity. It improves the circulation of the blood, and it's really expensive, something like ¥500.000! Shall we get it?

Two years ago, I got a Chateau Laguiole corkscrew as a Christmas present (Laguiole is a small vilage in France). This corkscrew seemed too professional to me at first, especially if I compared to a wing corkscrew I used to use. But it was actually very easy to use, and I feel good about using a beautiful sommelier corkscrew. It's nice to see how they are made. I don't know if it's true, but I heard that men have to open (and pour) wine in Germany. So C used to open all wine bottles for us, but these days I offer to do that.

We got an email from our friends in London. It said that they went to Sweden and thought about us. How nice. I saw the attached photo and it made me laugh so much. It's great! Absolutely fantastic!! No wonder they thought of us. We love you M.