Yesterday afternoon, our friend N from London arrived in Tokyo. In the evening, we went to the opening party for Open Nature, then we went to an izakaya for more drinks, then clubbing. What a start for N! Today is the national holiday called 'greenery day', the start of Golden week holiday in Japan. We woke up late but without hangovers, so we took a bus to Komazawa Park. It was hot (28°C) and very summery. At the park, we watched a university team football match while drinking Japanese plum wine 'ume-shu', and after that we just watched people jogging and cycyling while we were drinking Diesel. Then, as we walked home, we found a Colombian ＆ South American Restaurant. It looked really good.

In Japan, Baumkuchen is the most well-known German cake, we can find it in any supermarket. But it sounds like it's not that common in Germany. The small town of Salzwedel is famous for its Baumkuchen, but it's not easy to find in other places. C came back from his trip and brought an authentic Salzwedel Baumkuchen. It seemed a bit dry - probably because it was freshly cut from a large cake, then wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon. It was in a tin, but I guess it wasn't airtight. C said that the dryness is nice when we eat the cake with (unsweetened) whipped cream. The proper way to cut the cake is to carve layers from the top, so it might take a while to reach the chocolate part.

On Saturday, our drinking mate got married. I've never seen him that happy! And it made me happy! Congratulations!

It was just after I came back to Japan to live, it was even before we found a flat, I saw bunches of fresh coriander in a supermarket and it was almost three times more expensive than London! I was very shocked and I head to a gardening shop to buy coriander seeds (¥150=74p). It has been nearly three years since then, and I thought that today is the day. I finally seed them! (I guess it's because of the recipe book from yesterday) On the packet of coriander seeds says 'rub the seeds gently against a wooden board, soak in water for a few hours'. I don't know if I did it right... The green curry I used to cook in London needs lots of fresh corianders, at least three packs of a coriander from a Japanese supermarket. I hope my coriander grows a lot!

Yesterday I found a nice recipe book in the library. It is called ’Bio Farm Matuki’ no Yasai Recipe zukan (Bio Farm Matuki’s encyclopaedia of vegetable recipes). We both love meat and fish, so I don’t think we will become vegetarians. But these days I’ve been thinking to eat lots more vegetables, and less meat. This recipe book has simple and easy recipes, and also unique recipes such as Grilled Onion with Honey and Coriander Seeds or Roasted Hakusai (Chinese Cabbage) in Anchovy Sauce. They all look good!

Our good old friend will visit us soon, and he asked me if I want anything from London. I was searching for some nice new food products, and I found the interesting news. I thought that it was a news on April Fool's day, but it was a new from 8 March. It is a real story!

I found a new flavoured natto at a local supermarket. Actually the natto itself has a usual flavour, it comes with a pickled plum flavoured kurozu (black rice vinegar) sauce. On the package, it says mizkan in quite big print, so I thought that it was a collaboration between a natto company and mizkan. But the natto was produced by mizkan! I didn't know that they produce not only the condiment products, such as vinegar. The black vinegar sauce in a natto box has a pickled plum flavour which reminded me of Ume-shiso dressing (and quite artificial), maybe nice for making cold natto pasta in Summer. It also could be much less sweetness, and I have to admit that I prefer soysauce for natto! When I was going to eat natto with avocado and some sesami seeds, C called me from Germany. He told me that he was going to eat a pastry for a breakfast (was it cherry on it?). Mmmm, I want to go to a bakery in Germany!

On Friday night, I went to see the Autumn/Winter collection at bali barret in Omotesandou, and I bought a silver chain necklace. After that, my friend and I walked to the hair salon where my friend M works. We just wanted to say hello, but I suddenly thought about getting a haircut. While I was getting a haircut, my other two friends, who also went to bali barret, came to see us, so we decided to have a dinner together in Ebisu. When we were at Izakaya, more friends joined us and the four of us became the six of us! After the dinner, we moved to the Spanish style standing bar, and three more friends arrived! Around 1am, I was wondering about the closing time, and one of my friend said 'do you think we choose the bar which closes early?'! We left the bar after 3am and I believe that some of them continued drinking in Ebisu! I love all my drinking mates!

My friend from a neighbourhood asked me if I was up for a cup of coffee. Yes, I was! So I suggested a cafe Margo (in Japanese) near the station, but it was closed! It shuts from 3-6pm everyday. There are not many choices around the area, so we ended up going to a little cake shop. Inside the shop, there were lots of dreamy pastel colours and flowery stuffs, and I could imagine that some middle aged Japanese women misunderstand that is the English style! The shop also selles lots of other things, and it makes a little bit strange atmosphere, but their hand made cake was good. It had the nice mixture of the French + Japanese sweets.

Last week I gave up buying macaroons as gifts, so I chose KIHACHI (in Japanese) to buy some kind of biscuits. At the cake shop, I asked the assistant which cake will last long, and she said 'what we have here all should be consumed within 10 days'. Well, it wasn't really true though! I was bit annoyed by her, but I couldn't resist not buying 'green tea dacquoise' , which has a really good reputation. We tasted them, and C said it was very good. I think it was nice but the butter cream was bit too heavy for me. If someone gives me this, I will be happy to eat it, but I don't know if I buy it again for myself!

Yesterday, I was invited to a cherry blossom viewing party at our friend's hair salon. It was on the second floor by the Meguro River, so it had a wonderful view from the huge glass window. Unfortunately most cherry blossoms have fallen because of the rain from the morning. This year's cherry didn't last for more than a week!

The other day, I wanted to get macaroons from Pierre Hermé in La Porte Aoyama (in Japanese) as gifts, but their macaroons have to be consumed within 4 days. It was shorter than I expected. I went to Dalloyau instead, because their macaroons last for 14 days, but they told me that the weather is getting warm these days, so I should keep them chilled. I gave up buying fragile macaroons as gifts, but I bought the colourful macaroon called frais basilic which is vailable only in April and May, pistachio, framboise and café for us. ¥150 (73p) per macaroon.

Last night around 10pm, C and I bought cans of beer and cycled to the Meguro River. There are about 800 cherry trees on both sides of the tiny river. It was a little bit chilly but many people were enjoying cherry blossom viewing parties. Lanterns made my photo very pink. We didn't bring a plastic sheet to sit on, but we found one which laid on the ground to reserve the space for the party. It said 'xxx bonesetter clinic, 9th Apr, 17:30', so we just sat on it. Thanks! C has been super busy these days and we didn't even have time to chat, but we had drinks under the beautiful cherry trees yesterday. He has left for an another business trip this morning!

This afternoon, I took the underground passage in Shinjuku and I saw huge agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) from 24 appeared in a Calorie Mate advertisement. Actually I was a little bit worried about Jack, because he devoted all his energy for his missions on the longest day of his life, but he hardly eat anything! I remember that he once ate bit of bread or something at CTU. But nothing else! Calorie Mate can keep you filled with energy very quickly, so Jack, please eat it on series four!

After yesterday's nice weather, sakura (cherry blossoms) are almost in full bloom in Tokyo (cherry blossoms blooming forecast). The blossoms arrived in Tokyo 13 days later than in 2004, but it was only three days later than in average years. The cherry blossoms by the bicycle graveyard near our place (impounded bicycle storage centre for illegally parked bicycles) are blooming beautifully. It would be nice if this was a little playground.

I finally bought a handai (also called hangiri). When I make sushi rice, it's nice to use this wooden tub, because it will absorb excess moisture. My kitchen doesn't have enough storage room for all my equipment, so I couldn't decide whether to buy it for a long time. Usually the thickness of the wooden tub is about 1cm, but this is 1.5cm thickness. There is only 0.5cm difference but it looks quite different. I was going to buy a huge tub, but I chose the size for five cups of rice (ø33cm). If the size is bigger than 33cm, the 1,5cm thickness doesn't look thick anymore. This tub is made of good sawara cypress wood, the colour is a liitle bit reddish and it smells good. I'm so happy about it. I might cook chirashi zushi for a cherry blossom viewing party.

On Saturday, our friends couple brought a Takoyaki kit. I remember that my mother bought a Takoyaki griddle when I was a kid. We used it only a few times, and never again. Our griddle was meant to be put on a cooker directly, maybe our griddle was too small for our cooker, so our arms could get hot from the flame easily. The one our friends brought was the electric one, and it's very easy to make tasty Takoyaki, using Takoyaki Mix (in Japanese). I think this is a good snack for a drinking party. It might be a little bit of work for a chef but not too much. M+K, Please visit us with a Takoyaki kit again. I'm keeping the champagne for you!

On Saturday, lots of our friends, including their two little sons came to our flat. I always wanted to cook Mexican, not Tex-Mex. So I carefully followed the recipe book called Miryoku no Mexico Ryouri (Fascinating Mexican Food) and I first made Salsa Mexicana on Friday. The vegetables on the picture are for 1kg of Salsa, but after I peeled and seeded the tomatoes it didn't look enough for 1kg of Salsa. So I decided to use seven tomatoes in total (about 1.3kg), but it turned to only 846g of Salsa! After leaving Salsa overnight, the onion flavour is not too sharp anymore and it was nice refreshing salsa.

Until recently, eating blue cheese with honey was one of my personal favourites. C and I tasted Castagno (in Japanese) (chestnut) honey at a shop called Labeille (in Japanese). I wasn't sure about it because its flavour is very strong, but C loved it so we bought a small glass. The description at the shop compared it to the slightly bitter taste of chestnut skin (between the chestnut shell and the nut). I don't disagree, but I have to admit that I got a bit sick of it. Oh well, we thought it's really nice honey so we bought a big jar for our friend. I wonder if he likes it. Apparently this honey is also good for baking cakes.