Tokyo has been really cold for about two weeks. I couldn't stand sleeping in a cold futon anymore, so I bought a 'futon kansouki' (futon dryer). I place an air mat on the futon and put the duvet on top of it, then I switch on the machine and the warm air dries the futon and duvet and warms them up. It feels so good and helps us to sleep well. I told mom that I bought a futon kansouki and she said that I could have taken the one at home which she bought more than twenty years ago. But I'm glad that I couldn't take hers. The one I bought from an online shop was a good offer: ¥5,410 including tax and shipping. Even though I'm not very happy about the design, it is quite light and smaller than the one from 20 years ago! It also has more features: apart from drying the futon, we can use it to dry boots too. In the springtime I suffer from hay fever, so I can't put the futon outside to air it (which I'm meant to do regularly). But they added a summer mode so I can air the futon with this dryer. I should have bought it earlier.

Yesterday was Kagami-biraki, I took the Kagami-mochi (rice cake decoration for Japanese New Year's) down. I was very dissapointed about last year's plastic mould kagamimochi, and the year before that I was also quite shocked to see lots of mold on kagamimochi, so this year's kagamimochi is a real rice cake, made of only mochi rice and salt no additives, and nicely vacuum-packed! I made mochi-pizza as usual, it was tasty.

I started to blogging without saying Happy New Year this year, but I hope that everyone had a good new year. Last year I was looking through the Oseibo (the end of the year gifts in Japan) catalogue from Mitsukoshi department store, and I saw a nice set of small bag and a book cover etc, using Japanese dyeing textile. They had a nice mouse and Japanese traditional family logo design. The catalogue didn't say the name of the maker but I found out that those were made by Ponpindo owned by an old Japanese dyeing factory established in 1867. Their designs are very simple and quite modern.

The first cooking I did this year was Spicy Apple and Walnut Chutney. In Japan people know Chutney as a very sweet topping for curry, but I learnt to eat it with meat or cheese, or just in a sandwich, when I lived in London. The main ingredients for this Chutney are not very sweet apples (we don't have cooking apples in Japan), onion and malt vinegar. I used 10% less sugar than the recipe, so it's not very sweet, rather sour. I didn't really know about the difference between Chutney and Relish but Crosse & Blackwell, the company that makes Branston Pickle, defines it: chutney is typically made with fruit, while relish is normally made with vegetables. I see!

In France people traditionally celebrate Epiphanie on 6 January by eating a 'galette des rois' king's cake. There is a fève, usually a small ceramic figure (used to be a dry broad bean) hidden in the galette, and whoever finds the fève in their serving becomes the King for the day. Two of us is not enough to enjoy this Galette Ispahan from Pierre Hermé, we invited our friends to join us. In Japan putting a ceramic fève to food is illegal under the Food Hygiene Act, so Hermé put one almond instead a figure, and our friend C got the almond. He became a king but actually he has to host the next party. I'm looking forward to the king's party!