I finally went to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in Shinjuku. My plan was to have a cup of coffee and a doughnut, but when I got closer to the shop, I realised that it was impossible. There was a huge queue in front of the shop, even though it has been more than two months since the opening of the first Krispy Kreme in Japan. But the guard who was taking care of the queue told me that it didn't look too bad today, so I joined the queue.

These days I eat lots of seaweed; mekabu, hijiki, mozuku,iwa-nori, konbu etc. When I went to Otaru in Hokkaido the other day, I bought Bijin-Konbu ("beautiful woman Konbu") at Rishiriya Minoya (in Japanese), a shop specialized in konbu products. It is thin cut, soft konbu with a slightly vinegary soy saucy flavour. It's not exactly delicious, but it's a nice nibble. Seaweed is very good for health, so it's OK to eat a lot. This shop has a copyrighted slogan: "After eating [konbu] for seven days, look at yourself in the mirror!". I have four more days to turn myself into the beautiful woman with the kombu belt on the shopping bag. If you go to Otaru and are interested in konbu, visit the shop. They are very nice people and their other products were tasty (healthy) too.

Last week, I went parents home and I had lots of food which I don't usually eat myself, because my mother is a Kenkou Otaku (health geek). It was tough to eat Pickled Banana (apparently it is/was very popular in Japan) and Pickled Prune. But I learnt that mekabu (wakame root) is quite tasty. Actually I'm hooked now and I eat mekabu every day!

I bought a box of Serge Alexandre (in Japanese) chocolate. Serge Alexandre is Callebaut (chocolate?) Ambassador in Belgium and winner of the 2003 International Belgian Chocolate Award. At the moment, his only shop in Japan is at Daimaru department store in Fukuoka city. But because of Valentine's day, his chocolates were available at other Daimaru branches in Japan too. I bought this at Sapporo Daimaru and it was ¥1,260.

On February 3rd, we celebrated Setsubun. This year I bought soybeans from Kyoto Mametomi which came in cute packages (different from the past years). I also got a bunch of holly tree twigs at the supermarket as a special decoration for the house.