I've known this Hokkaido Gokatteya Yokan (pronounced 'yoh-kan') since I was a kid, but I've never had a chance to taste it. A few weeks ago, I was shopping at a department store in Hokkaido, and this nice old style package design caught my eye. Yokan can be too sweet to eat for me, but this one was kind of light and delicate (but still very sweet) and nice. I've just found out that I don't need to travel to Hokkaido to buy this, it is available from Shibuya Tokyu Food Show (in Japanese) too. The one I had was a small version. 8cm long and ¥160. If you want to see the bigger picture, go to my flickr.

Last month I wrote about Geisha from Finland. For Japanese it is weird to name something 'Geisha', but the other day C saw a new Geisha at our local supermarket. It is a tuna can, and surprisingly it is made by a Japanese company! So the woman looks very Japanese. I didn't know that this GEISHA brand started in the United States in 1911, and now it expanded the market to Europe, the Middle-East, Africa etc. This Geisha is old and doing good, well, I haven't tasted it though...

I heard that double fromage from LeTAO (in Japanese) is tasty, so I bought it at Shin-Chitose Airport in Hokkaido. This cheese cake was frozen, it thawed on the journey and was ready to eat when I arrived at home. The layers of baked cream cheese and mascarpone are a nice combination. It was tasty, but it could be a little bit cheaper (or bigger). When I saw the LeTAO shop at Mitsukoshi department store in Sapporo, there were lots of fresh cakes which are not available from their website. I was very tempted but I didn't buy any in the end. I'm looking forward to go to Sapporo again, it seems like LeTAO sometimes visits major department stores all over Japan, so check the schedule (in Japanese) and try some cakes if you want. BTW, LeTAO is short for 'Le Tour Amitie Otaru' (Otaru is the city name in Hokkaido where they are based). I thought it was the place name read backwards in Japanese.

Last weekend, C and I had hamburgers for lunch at Franklin Ave. in Gotanda. I can't believe that it has already been three years since the last time. I had a Beef Burger with Tomato Sauce and Mozzarella Cheese, it's called 'O sole mio'. It was very tasty, but I think the simple burger might be better to taste the meat flavour. On the way to Franklin Ave, C showed me the steak restaurant Casarowemo (in Japanese). Their Odawara Grilled Beef Steak (200g) costs from ¥31,500 to ¥157,500! What is going on?!

The 11th of January was Kagami-biraki so I opened our Kagami-mochi (New Year decoration) shaped plastic mould and I was quite shocked to find only four small rice cakes inside. It's quite difficult to cut mochi, so small pieces are easier to use. But I expected more mochi inside. I usually buy the version made out of real mochi from a rice shop, I think it's quite expensive. But I realised that this decoration was even more expensive!

I still haven't used my GR Digital much, but I'm already considering buying some accessories (as usual). I was looking for a nice camera pouch online, but in the end I ordered a leather neckstrap for GR series, made by Artisan&Artist and Map Camera. Today I received the neck strap, it's not bad but not that great. I realised that maybe I don't like wearing a neck strap, but I might use it as a hand strap...

I went home to Sapporo in Hokkaido to spend Christmas and New Year's with my family. Because of the warm winter, it didn't snow much while I was there, but there was some old snow on the ground. I brought my ear warmers, but they were not necessary. So the weather was almost the same as in Tokyo, but I relied on this gadget. Do you know what it is?

It's time to eat Nanakusa-gayu (rice porridge with seven different kinds of spring herbs) again. This year, January 7th is a Sunday, so I ate it with C. I used donabe to cook with, and I added Chinese chicken stock. We ate it with some topping: steamed chicken, shirasu fish, and umeboshi (pickled plum). It was quite nice.

Sunrise 07:06