I got a second hand ice cream maker in nearly mint condition. It was only ¥1,000. The Mint Ice Cream I made in the end of this Summer was very tasty, but whisking ice cream by hand every two hours was quite a lot of work to me. Now that my ice cream maker does it all for me! The other day I cooked Thai food for my friend, and the dessert was homemade Coconut Ice Cream. It was super easy and very popular. I guess this will be a regular dessert after my Thai food.

For a very very long time, I had been thinking about getting a Lagostina pressure cooker, now I finally bought one. I've heard some people recommend a 3 liter pressure cooker for a family of three, and a 5 liter cooker for a family of five. But I got a 7 liter one, even though there is only two of us. It's not only because we enjoy food a lot, or that it was a half price offer for the 7 liter version. There is a more important reason why I chose this size of pressure cooker.

I thought the Aalto vase, designed by Alvar Aalto, doesn't really suit our style, but recently I bought one for our flat. Last year iittala produced many new items inspired by his original ideas to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Alvar Aalto's vase. Bit by bit, I bought some of them and now I have a small Aalto collection!

I've been looking for lacquered Kaiseki-zen trays with legs. This kind of tray is only used in traditional Japanese-style restaurants nowadays. I was happy to find a good antique set on an internet auction. Usually the mass-produced lacquer products I can afford are made of plastic or molded woodchip, but the base of these trays is natural wood. It needs more care but it's nice to have real wooden lacquerware.

I finally bought some antique glasses designed by Kaj Franck for Nuutajarvi in 1958. An updated version is still sold as the iittala Kartio line, but it looks quite different from the original design. The old glasses are hand blown, so they are much thinner and each glass is slightly different. They are elegant and beautiful, especially when they are stacked. The winter sky in Tokyo is usually very clear and blue, but I imagine these beautiful smoky colours are the colours of winter in Finland. I just hope that they won't break soon.

When I visited Germany this September, I was looking forward to get a nutcracker in the shape of a Buckingham Palace guard, but we were too busy. I saw some nutcrackers at a souvenir shop in Cologne, and I thought that I saw the one I had been looking for. But I didn't even have time for checking. After I came back to Japan, C's sister kindly bought one for me and sent it to Japan! I was soo happy to get this, I thought I had missed my chance. I don't feel anything about Japanese kokeshi dolls, so C and his sister are probably not excited about nutcrackers.

I found a nice set of four plates at a recycle shop in our neighbourhood. I thought I wouldn't pay more than ¥200 for a plate, but it was ¥200 for four plates! I immediately bought them (actually I didn't have any cash with me, so my friend paid ¥200! Sorry I forgot to pay you back!).

I had been using the same BRITA nearly four years, and I bought a new BRITA Liquelli the other day. The old model I have is called Cool, which is slimmer than other BRITA jugs, but I chose even smaller model. The filtered water capacity is only 1.2L, but I really like the simple design. It is only available from BRITA Japan. I guess they know the size of our fridge.

I got a beautiful bowl (or gravy boat?) from an internet auction. This is from the Kilta series (relaunched as Teema later) by ARABIA, designed by Kaj Franck in 1952. I love the shape and position of the handle.

Since our bamix broke, C wanted to buy an Osterizer (now called Oster) blender and I found a good one on an auction.

The earthquake on Saturday was very strong, and I couldn't help screaming. A few bottles of alcohol fell down from the shelf, but they were thick glass bottles (like our tequila bottle), so they didn't break. But there is a big dent on our wooden floor. The cactus toothpick holder was broken by C last week. Even if C hadn't broken it last week, it would have broken in the earthquake yesterday. I knew that it would break sooner or later.

Yesterday, I went to Futako-Tamagawa for shopping. There were so many people and lots of babies in their buggies, fighting for Summer sales. I was scared of them and worried that I might feel like them. I went to IDÉE to see the little plates that I saw on museo wataliss. They look nice, and I chose classic Japanese pottery colours; light green, light blue and ivory. I'm looking forward to eat Wo Wen's dumpling (in Japanese) with these plates! I also bought a huge (Ø41cm) plywood tray from MUJI. It was an impulse purchase, I wouldn't buy this if my friend K hadn't been with me. It was very cheap, so it's OK...

The June issue of Ten-nen Seikatsu featured a sesame grinder which is made at the Kumao Ohta pottery in Koishiwara village, in Fukuoka prefecture. Koishiwara village has 350 years history in the ceramic industry, there are 50 potteries and they are especially famous for sesame grinders. And I really wanted to have the same one! So I ordered it by snail mail. This sesame grinder was also in a magazine called Ajibito (published by the Licensed Cook Society of Japan) and on TV, so I imagine that the Kumao Ota pottery has tons of orders by people who were completely taken in by the media, just like me. I thought that I would have to wait for a few months, but I received it one week after I ordered it. My sesame grinder is 8 sun (sun is an old japanese unit, 1 sun = 3.03cm) and it seems quite big, but I wouldn't mind to have one size bigger, which would be 1 shaku (1 shaku = 30.3cm) size.

As I was cleaning the kitchen, I realised that I had forgotten about my Bodum chopping block. We are both taller than the Japanese Industrial Standard size, so cooking or washing dishes for a long time is quite tough. I had bought this because it makes the worktop 9cm higher, which might make it a bit more comfortable to cook. It was good to use it again after a long time. But with its size of 21x21cm it's not perfect for doing lots of chopping (cabbage for Chinese dumplings, for example).

I finally bought a handai (also called hangiri). When I make sushi rice, it's nice to use this wooden tub, because it will absorb excess moisture. My kitchen doesn't have enough storage room for all my equipment, so I couldn't decide whether to buy it for a long time. Usually the thickness of the wooden tub is about 1cm, but this is 1.5cm thickness. There is only 0.5cm difference but it looks quite different. I was going to buy a huge tub, but I chose the size for five cups of rice (ø33cm). If the size is bigger than 33cm, the 1,5cm thickness doesn't look thick anymore. This tub is made of good sawara cypress wood, the colour is a liitle bit reddish and it smells good. I'm so happy about it. I might cook chirashi zushi for a cherry blossom viewing party.

We walked past the recycling corner that I wrote about the other day, and we saw a bowling pin standing there this time. I had to laugh when I saw it and C immediately grabbed the pin. He didn't even stop walking, it was like a marathon runner at the water stop! I didn't want to keep any more junk at our flat, but C seems to like it a lot, so I couldn't say NO! to him.

I found a beef fillet in our fridge, so we had beef steak and red wine for lunch. I fried a fillet with lots of sliced garlic, and we built steak sandwiches. It reminded me of enjoying weekend pub lunch in London. After we finished the big meal, I thought that I should have used the Le Creuset square grill (24cm). When I saw it on sale for ¥5,000 (I think the original price was more than ¥10,000), I was very happy to get it. But I don't use it very often. And I didn't know that Le Creuset makes a new product called Panini Press (the US price is always much lower than the Japanese price). When I make Panini with my square grill, I just use a spatula to press the bread very hard from the top!

Two years ago, I got a Chateau Laguiole corkscrew as a Christmas present (Laguiole is a small vilage in France). This corkscrew seemed too professional to me at first, especially if I compared to a wing corkscrew I used to use. But it was actually very easy to use, and I feel good about using a beautiful sommelier corkscrew. It's nice to see how they are made. I don't know if it's true, but I heard that men have to open (and pour) wine in Germany. So C used to open all wine bottles for us, but these days I offer to do that.

One of the greatest Finnish designer Kaj Franck relaunched Kilta under the name of Teema in 1981 (Kilta is launched in 1952). Teema is very simple and it might look bit boring but its simplicity is great. There were teacups, coffee cups and mugs, and I chose the mugs because we drink lots of coffee. I love them although it would be nice if they were a little bigger. The mug has an old Arabia logo (instead of iittala logo) on the back. I have to be careful not to break them by accident!

When we were in China Town the other day, I went to Shou Hou (in Japanese) and finally bought a bamboo steamer that I always wanted. Shou Hou, a famous Chinese kitchen gadget shop, sells many bamboo steamers, so it took me a long time to decide which one to buy. Finally I got a 21cm two tier bamboo steamer with a lid. The shop has three different price ranges: the cheapest one, made by a machine and using imported wood, is ¥2,400. The middle range uses a better quality of wood and a better structure - it costs ¥3,900. The hand made one using Japanese cypress wood is ¥9,000. Shou Hou's hot iron branded logo on the side of the steamers is quite well-known. I really like the logo and I realised that it is available only on the most expensive one, other steamers have red or black ink stamps. But they've changed the design of the beautiful branding iron! At the shop there were still some steamers with the old brand, but not in the size I wanted. Without the old brand logo, I lost the half of my interest in the most expensive steamer! Anyway, the bark latch on the cheaper ranges looks cuter than the metal brackets on the most expensive one. I chose the middle range, even though C told me that I could get the most expensive one...

I finally received a fondue pot which I won from an internet auction ages ago! This pot series is called Kobenstyle, made by DANSK and designed by Jens H Quistgaard in the 60's. I know that Kobenstyle has nothing to do with Kobe in Japan, but I want to know what it means... This fondue set turns up on internet auctions quite often, but usually the warmer stand is missing or the pot has wear and chips, or it's very expensive. Luckily this pot is in mint condition. I guess someone was given this pot and tried cheese fondue once and never used it again. But the iron warmer stand got rusty from a long time in a garage. Actually, the rust makes it seem more authentic to me. I'm not sure if I'll cook cheese fondue, but it might be good for keeping Oden warm on the table. ø16.5cm x H12cm (including a lid), it was $55 (¥5,735) including the shipping.

I got a pair of sake cups from an internet auction. They are meant to be a married couple. The sizes are different, so I can put the smaller one inside the other. Good for storage. There is writing inside the cups, it says 'you live to be a hundred' for the wife, and 'I want to live to be ninety-nine' for the husband. They were a bit freaky at first, but after finding these phrases, they look very nice. I hope we can enjoy drinking, even when our hair turns grey.

I borrowed a book called 'Arimoto Yoko no Dougu Erabi' (Choosing Kitchen Tools by Yoko Arimoto) from a library. The book design is very simple, printed in black and white, I liked it. Inside the book, I found too many kitchen gadgets that I want to have, especially this donabe (a Japanese earthenware pot), it's a beauty. I fell in love! We use our Le Creuset pot to cook hot pot dishes, but it doesn't give me the right atmosphere, so I wanted to buy one. The hot pot season starts soon. I checked the price on the site (Japanese only) and... I'm heartbroken! I can't spend four ¥10,000 notes for a donabe!

After reading a bread baking recipe book Pan o Tanoshimu Seikatsu by Kumiko Tokunaga, who owns a famous bakery called Bäckerei Tokutaro, I felt like baking bread. But I needed to buy a scraper first. I want to scrape the dough off the bowl, not only cutting butter or dividing the dough. So I looked for a flexible plastic one, not metal. But all plastic scrapers were white or half transparent colour, I didn't like them. I spent a bit more time on the internet, and finally found a red scraper by many many make which is produced by a celebrity chef Makiko Fujino, launched a few weeks ago. It was a good timing! I might bake croissant soon.

I use cellulose sponge cloths for my kitchen. They are superabsorbent and very quick to dry, and I like them. They are available from Tokyu Hands, ¥400 for 3 cloths. The one I bought from London was £1.15 (¥228) for 3, and €1.19 (¥159) for 5 in Germany. They are produced in Germany. The quality of the cloths from Tokyu Hands and Sainsbury's (supermarket in London) were almost the same, but the ones from Germany are the best, they are 1.5 times thicker than the others! A perfect souvenir from Germany for your Japanese friends (maybe not?). There are also illustrated cloths but they seem too thin to me.

Today, I received two kitsuné mugs I ordered online the other day. They were much smaller than I thought! I didn't check the size and believed they are quite big. Oh well, it doesn't matter! C and I are very tiny but we are on a mug!

I like Kikkoman soy sauce table bottle designed by industrial product designer Kenji Ekuan. I 'm using this soy sauce bottle, and another one from London as a vinegar bottle. If I compare them, I can see they have a slightly different shape. The Japanese one has a narrower neck. I prefer the typography on the Japanese bottle, which is almost the same as 43 years ago when it came out. It had a hexagonal logo and just 'しょうゆ' (soy sauce). Nice and simple.

Do you know what this is for? This is not for covering your head. Well, it's kind of similar but they are pot covers. I can use them instead of cling film. I bought them at a supermarket when I was in Germany last month. They are cheaply made and I could buy similar stuff at imported kitchen gadgets shops in Japan, but these are very cute and cheap. This set contains six different sizes and costs only €1.09 (¥143). I feel like I became just a little bit closer to being an Eco-friendly person.

There is a recycle shop near our flat. They sell lots of junk (maybe some antiques too?) and quite interesting. Our friends from London enjoyed to shop there, and they bought glasses for us. It is a set of 5 Pierre Cardin glasses made by Japanese company called Sasaki Glass (with an original box). It seems like they are from 70's. The colour combinations are very nice. I've seen high ball glasses (tall one) with the same design before.

I just received a packet. I bought a plate with lots of holes from an Internet Auction. I can wash and serve strawberries with this plate, well I don't buy strawberries often though... I remember this kind of plate was on Japanese TV program for a few seconds about 10 years ago. Since then, I haven't came across plates like this, even in London or Frankfurt. The other day, I suddenly thought about this plate and searched for it. I found one which is made by French company called Degoin (never heard of it) and I bought it. It was very low priced but also super poor quality. The glazing is not even! Maybe French people are not picky? or is this from €1 shop?! Oh well, I still like it.

When we got married I was looking for nice lacquered soup bowls. And after a long research I finally found a bowl which I kind of liked it. I went to the shop to see the actual bowl but they didn't have stock! I couldn't wait any longer and I ordered 6 bowls online without seeing them. The bowls I received looked nice, good shape. But it stank! The new lacquered tableware usually have peculiar smell but it wasn't like that. It smelled like soap or something. Anyway, I tried traditional ways of get rid of lacquered smell, soaking the bowls in the weak vinegered water for a while (don't do this for expensive lacquered ware!) or leaving them in a rice storage box. But it still smells bad when I pour something hot. I mean soup. Sadly my husband refused to use it! I also don't like about their stupid dark wood grain on all bowls. I guess it's too late to return them for a refund now. I enjoy internet shopping but it doesn't go well sometimes. Very disappointed.

I baked German red wine cake (rotweinkuchen) for Valentine's Day. I used a Bundt Pan called Bavarian which is made by Nordicware an American company (Bavaria, Nordic and America... interesting naming). I always wanted to get it since I saw it online, and I got it last year because I found it on an internet auction. I chose a normal recipe but it wasn't enough to fill a mould. It is huge! American size!

This is a washing up liquid bottle. It is probably early 70's, since then it had been used for a long time in my husband' home, until I saw it! Maybe I was clamouring too much, and his mum kindly gave it to me (I was just his girlfriend at that time)! HAKAWERK, the maker of this bottle still have a product called travallor. But it looks different. It seems like all-purpose household cleaner was inside. The colour, shape and the feeling of a material, everything is just perfect, it is a great plastic product from the good old time. I want to use this in our kitchen for a long time.

When we visited our friends in Germany, I fell in love with this bread cut machine in their kitchen. What a low-tech! 6 months later, they brought it for our wedding! It was very difficult to find one in a flea market, and gave us the one they were using! Thank you so much!! I will take good care of it. We don't use it everyday, but when we have guests, I use it to show off its beauty and the function. I can adjust the thickness of slice, and also make it smaller for storage.

Tomorrow is Daikan. Daikan meant be the coldest period in the year. Yes, it is very cold these days indeed. It would be nice to eat Nabe. We should use our wedding present which is a portable cooking stove at a dinner table AMORFO 2N. What a Beauty! (normal cooking stove is like this)! It reflects senders' good taste! I have to cook well not to be defeated by this stove.

We did a good shopping at open by trico. It was worth walking along Harajuku on a nice sunny Saturday afternooon being annoyed by many people! Nicely recycled wine bottle (using the bottom half) to a glass. It might be difficult to hold for small hands but they are good on our hands! We bought 6 glasses for us as a Xmas present. Designed by Green Glass.

I haven't had this strong feeling for ages. I want a paella pan! Of course, I also want to cook and eat paella. But there are lots of things to think about ...

This is my first Le Creuset. All pots were 30% off at Selfridges' summer sale, but it was still expensive (and very heavy!) for me and I was wondering around in a shop about an hour. It was hard to make a decision between white and orange, and I chose this one in the end. The non-stick lid for frying, the base as a saucepan and the two together as a casserole, 3 products in 1! I thought it was a great deal but I realised it looked a little bit stupid after I came back home. Maybe that's why this is not available in Japan? But I use this for cooking rice very often. Great performance! I can't use other pot for cooking rice anymore. Click here for my cooking page.

I cannot forget adding this to my favorite kitchen gadgets list. I had been telling my friend that I want Le Creuset, so our friends gave us a cocotte oval 4.2L and a non-stick skillet 20cm as a wedding present last year. They made sure which color I wanted, but now I feel like I should have chosen white one. Or maybe it's a hassle to keep it white? I made beef stew with a cocotte yesterday. I don't know if this pot makes stew tastier (like everyone says) but I think it looks better at least. Tonight we will enjoy the 2nd day stew.

It is getting cold and we started to use a heating finally. Same as last year, I am going to bake Christmas cookies with a Germany recipe soon. I did some shopping on an internet auction after a long time. It looks very American but I bought snowflakes cookie cutters. I can make different patterns with a combination of 5 cutters.

We got these wine glasses as a wedding gift last year. We really love them. Can you see the glasses are slightly distorted? These are hand blowed by drunken craftsmen! Great idea! All of six glasses have a slightly different shape. Designed by William warren. I like his plate too!

I always wanted a teapot of Nanbu tetsu (iron made in Iwate). About a year ago, all teapots were at half the price in a shop, I did impulse buying. I couldn't decide between a classic flat + round shaped Arare (hailstone) patterned pot and a mordarn rectangular shaped pot, I chose this pot in the end. But, it was a wrong choice! Because of the height of a teapot, I have to pour at least 0.4L of hot water to reach a tea strainer inside a pot. I bought a tallest (7cm) strainer though. I can't serve green tea only for myself.

This Hackman' cutlery set was a wedding present from our friends. Matt brushed stainless steel is very cool and I love it. But there are many tiny scratches! Noo! I want this cheese knife from the same Cittalio （name of the designer）98 series, too!

A cool sesame grinder from a nice little shop. It carries out the ultimate sesame flavor. I want iiiiiit!

I received pair of vintage enamelware bowls from 60/70's by Finel (was a division of Arabia) in Finland. I won them on the auction the other day. All different kinds of stylized mushrooms are very kawaii. There are a few of the typical tiny flakes to the enamel along the rims and a few scratches. But nothing deep. The bowl measures about 5.5" tall and 8.25" round at the top. It's a nice tall shape (apparently, Kaj Franck designed the bowl).

I love those german containers WECK which is made of recycling glass. I realised that I have quite a lot after buying bit by bit from online shopping. The strawberry' logo is too sweet but I love it. Everyone who noticed my plum wine in WECK said "nice bottle" instead of "looks tasty"!

I realised that this mixing bowl was my first Studio m' as well. While I was taking a photograph with eggs I felt quite a strong earthquake. But a tremor was only level 2. Did I scare because I was holding a egg?

My first Studio m' was a cup called bechamel. I don't drink cafe 'o lait with this but using for yoghult, cereals and soup etc... I want plates for stew next time. (I can't believe that I mention about stew in a summer.) These earthenware' surface isn't very smooth so I prefer to use a wooden spoon not a metal one. Am I too sensitive?

Again! I was easily completely taken in a corporate strategy. In a store, I happened to see Torys whisky which comes with a free glass by Ryohei Yanagihara. When it filled with a cold liquid, uncle torys' face turned into red. I talked to C and decided to get 2 bottoles (at the moment?). I have to find a good recipe to get rid of these whisky (then think about getting more?). I got a tooth-pick container from an old campaign as well. I want his book too!

I've been dreaming about this Bamix. I finally bought it last month. I chose a blue handle Bamix which is produced by Tupperware. It has double logos (Bamix and Tupperware) on it and nicer than the original one in gray. (the older version from Tupperware had a yellow handle which was even nicer!) I got a new Bamix on an internet auction and payed so much less than the original price. Yesterday, we made improvised smoothie just mixing of some frozen melon + pineapple, yogult and fresh juice. It's great for hot summer.

The wenger' bread knife was always on top of my wishlist. Finaly, I decided to own one! Nnn?... did I find a fake wenger knife? The logo is different. Is this just an old logo?

I couldn't win this set of containers for seasoning by Hankusan Touki. It's hard to find good designed containers for vineger and japanese chill (a mixture of red pepper and other spices) so I wanted it. I was bidding from my mobile in a izakaya bar but become bothering... somebody else won it in the end. This was a beautiful deadstock product designed by Masahiro Mori and produced in 1959-63. Sigh!