Last Friday, we went to see our friends' exhibition at information gallery. I had heard about Hektor, a graffiti output device, but it was amazing to see how Hektor actually draws on the wall. He carefully drew each line, and I like that he made smooth paths in the air. At the end of the event, Hektor drew C's portrait.

Our friends went to Fukuoka and they bought us monaka: sweet red bean filling sandwiched between two thin crisp wafers. The traditional Japanese sweet shop Suzukake (in Japanese), which looks very modern although it is more than 70 years old, made this monaka into a cute bell shape. I probably use this bamboo box as a lunch box, Picnic season is just around the corner.

On 14 Apr, I remembered that the macarons festival (in Japanese) at Pierre Hermé in Aoyama would finish on 15 Apr. I really wanted to go there because this was the chance to eat macarons from past collections. I thought it might be too hard to choose from 24 different macarons at the shop, so I carefully selected eight flavours at home and made a reservation. On the next day, when I saw our macarons already wrapped at the cashier, I realised that my choice was quite pale in colour compared to the other macarons on display. I felt like I made a mistake, but it was too late.

We usually buy Yotsuba unsalted butter (in Japanese) but I finally had a chance to buy Calpis unsalted butter (in Japanese). You might know Calpis as Calpico, but this butter doesn't taste like that. This fine (and expensive) butter is made with the Calpis process of separating milk fat from milk. Apparently, many good French restaurants in Japan use this butter. The white box on the photo is a butter dish I bought from Habitat ages ago. It's very easy to use and I like it.

We went to 'combine', a nice cafe/bar in Nakameguro. We were expecting to drink with a view of cherry blossoms outside, but 'Prunus Lannesiana cv. Sekiyama', the deep pink coloured cherry trees in front of 'combine', were not in full bloom yet. I had tequila as my second drink because our friend bought a round. I used to drink tequila only when I got really drunk, so this was probably the first time to drink straight tequila when I was sober. And I like it a lot. It was much milder than vodka.

My sister brought me 'Morioka Reimen' (Morioka cold noodles) from Iwate prefecture. This dish came originally from Pyongyang in North Korea, but the noodles are made of wheat flour and starch instead of buckwheat flour. So the noodle colour is white and they're a little bit softer than Korean noodles. I had Morioka Reimen for the first time and I really enjoyed it, especially the chewy texture. The Morioka reimen on my picture is only half the portion, so it's hard to see where the noodles and soup are...

We had a 'hanami' cherry blossom viewing party in Yoyogi park on Saturday, April Fool's Day. It had been cold and rainy, but Saturday was a perfect day for a hanami party: sunny, no wind, and cherry blossoms in full bloom! A LOT of people came to see the cherry trees in the park, but we found a nice place and enjoyed the lovely day.