I went to COMME des GARÇONS to check their new little temporary shop called PLAY BOX. The shop looked just like a kiosk box (customers can't go inside the box), but they are selling clothes. It's crazy but cool idea. I heard that they had the black PLAY (black heart) polo shirts from the colette meets COMME des GARÇONS series, but of course they were sold out. I bought a polo shirt to get a free PLAY shopping bag.

Today I went to the three day IDÉE bazaar (prices reduced by 30%-80%) at Aoyama Bell Commons. I was so excited about this massive sale, but I bought only three moleskin notebooks (which were only 30% off). I arrived there just one hour after the shop opened, but almost all the nice furniture had "sold out" tags. I didn't even see the TV cabinet and the lamp which I was hunting for. I wonder what they sell in the weekend. At lunch time, a lot of people were queueing outside the shop without knowing that there was nothing left to buy...

Last weekend, we made Kimuchi (spicy Korean fermented pickle) at our Korean friend's flat. She couldn't find the Japanese versions of jut-gal (kind of fish sauce) so there are no animal protein in this Kimuchi. It wonder if it tastes lighter and fresh than usual. Yesterday was the first day that I felt cold in Tokyo this season. I finally put my socks on at home. It means the good season for hot pot is around the corner. I can't wait for Kimuchi hot pot. If you don't know Kimuchi, check my flickr.

Turrón is very popular in Spain. It is almond based sweets, made of honey, sugar, egg white and almonds. There are soft and hard type, and I bought a hard type. It was actually super hard, impossible to break off a piece by hand, so I had to use my back teeth to chew on. Very noisy. Apparently it is a traditional Christmas treat in Spain, but I don't mind eating it in all seasons. This turrón was €7.65/300g at a department store in Barcelona.

Last night we had a dinner with friends from Spain who took a good care of us in Barcelona. I got a nice present which was in a cute and little, kind of Japanese-look paper bag. When I had it in my hand, I instantly recognized it. It was a chocolate bar!

On our last day at the Suzuka Grand Prix, we arrived at Inou station near the circuit just after 9am. There were already lots of fans with crazy/silly look, and my blue and yellow Fernando (Alonso) T shirts didn't look special at all. But Alonso won this GP, even though he started from fifth position, so it was all good in the end. Thank you Alonso! Thank you Suzuka! We enjoyed it a lot! There are more photos on flickr.

Saturday was a beautiful clear day. There was a record crowd of 146,000 for the Saturday qualifying at Suzuka. No wonder the platforms at JR Nagoya station and our trains were incredibly packed. I uploaded some photos on flickr.

We finally went to see the F1 GP in Suzuka, and it was amazing! To be honest, I don't really have a particular interest in cars, but I always enjoy a festive atmosphere, so it was so much fun. We spent three days there: Friday practise, Saturday qualification and Sunday final. It was interesting to see that each day had a different atmosphere. My big mistake was that, because of the rain on Friday, I forgot to put extra sun block on my skin, so the skin on my nose peeled off! I'm too old for that! Anyway, here are some pictures from the Friday.

We finally received the tickets for F1 Japanese grand prix in Suzuka (I ordered a week ago). It's been about ten years since we started to watch F1 on TV. We wanted to watch the race at the circuit one day, and we thought this is our chance. The amazing driver Schumacher, I don't like him though, will retire at the end of this season, and this comming grand prix seems like Suzuka's last one. Actually I'm losing my interest in F1 these days, so I want to party at Suzuka to make a nice ending. We planned everything last week, so it was very tough to find hotel but I managed to reserve a hotel room in Nagoya. Now I just need to resarch about where to eat nice Nagoya cuisine, such as Miso-katsu (deep fried pork cutlets with miso), Ebi-furai (deep fried prawns), Nagoya cochin chicken, and Kishimen (flat wheat noodle) etc.

We went to Miura in Kanagawa prefecture for the wedding party of our good friends. It was a 80's Miami theme party, held at the beach house, so we were so glad that it didn't rain! It was great to see the happy bride and groom with beautiful sunset, nice music, and lots of drinks. Congratulations! I was asked to prepare some sweets, so I chose something I wanted to try for a long time which was 'ma bonne' and 'von de mer' from Chocolatier Erica (Japanese) in Shirokane-dai. They are similar to the one I made before but they were very delicate and quite a grown up taste. Actually I prefer if it's bit more sweet.