Gym and udon

Did not do much today. But I had lunch with Chie again. This time we went to a Japanese style restaurant and had grilled fish (buri – one of my favorite fishes), rice, and miso soup. Chie had a soup and sashimi with rice. Then we had a coffee and tea at Starbucks to rest after eating too much.

After the lunch Chie went back to her office and I went to Ginza to check the Addidas shop. But I had closed down. At least that was what I thought when I was in Ginza but at home at night I checked the Addidas home page and found out that they moved it. Almost just across the street. I wanted to buy a new pair of shoes to use at the gym but I guess that has to wait for tomorrow.

So that is why I ended up at the gym with my old shoes. Anyway, it was great to be back at the gym again. One hour weight lifting and then 30 minutes running before taking a shower and returning home.

But before I returned home I stopped at the Naka-Meguro station to meet Chie as she was coming home from work. We went to Tokyu store to buy groceries for tonight and tomorrow.

Udon

At home Chie prepared dinner – udon with chicken and mitsuba – while I updated yesterday’s blog. As usual Chie’s food was great or you could say… Yummy.

Club Leo at Il Lupone

Tonight Chie and I went to Il Lupone in Naka-Meguro to meet with the Leo Club. At first we had salad and some antipasti. Then some dish with octopus. Pasta with tomato sauce and basil. Pizza. And dessert. Lemon sherbet, chocolate pudding, creme brule and Grappa, and panna cotta. Yummy.

Club Leo at Il Lupone

And while we were waiting for the dessert we had an exchange of Christmas/New years gifts.

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Gamarjobat

What a Christmas eve. Chie and I went to see Gamarjobat – a silent comedy pair – in Yokohama. At times we laughed so much our stomach hurt. Some things were not funny but just phenomenal, like at the start of the show they showed a few video clips with the two of them doing different things. One was throwing a baseball between each other. Doesn’t seem like much until you see that everything around them is moving backwards. So they had been throwing the baseball between each other backwards to make it look just like a pitcher throwing it when they run the film backwards. It is difficult to explain, but if you have a chance to see them… Do so! Meanwhile you can check them out at Youtube.

After the show we went back home and had a Christmas dinner. KFC 🙂

Sapporo – Day 3

Our third day in Sapporo started with a sleep in. Then we had brunch at Keyaki, another ramen-shop. It opened at 10:30 am and we arrived there just passed 11. And there was already a line outside the shop, waiting for their chance to have ramen. We waited for about 30 minutes before it was our turn. But it was worth the wait. It was great ramen, especially after waiting outside in the cold for 30 minutes it was great to get inside and get a hot meal. When we got outside again the line was even longer. Almost at the end of the line – maybe 45 minutes from getting ramen – was an American couple asking if it was worth the wait. It was.

Keyaki ramen

Now we had some time to kill before we had to fly back to Tokyo at 8:18 pm. First stop was Starbucks for some coffee and hot chocolate. And playing some Nintendo game boy and reading. After a while we got our bags from the hotel and continued to the Sapporo station and put our bags in a locker. Then we continued with some shopping. We bought a pair of training shoes for Chie (Addidas). And went to Bic Camera for me. Then we had dinner at Sushi-zen at the Daimaru department store. Compared to the other food we had in Sapporo it was only OK, but still much better than what I can find in Sweden.

By 6:10 pm we were on a train bound for the airport. And by 9:45 pm we had arrived at the Haneda airport back in Tokyo. By 11 pm we were back in the apartment waiting for the clock to turn 12. So that 23 would turn 24 and we could open some Christmas gifts.

Sapporo – Day 2

Our second day in Sapporo started by taking a taxi to the vegetable market. Here they had a good sushi restaurant (Uo-masa) with, it turned out, great prices. So we started our day with a sushi breakfast. Again it differed a little from what we are used to in Tokyo. The chef applied a kind of sticky soy sauce before handing us the sushi. Yummy.

Chie outside the vegetable market Sushi

Then we walked around the area and found a lot of fish shops. They had all kinds of fish but the most common were salted salmon and different kinds of crab. Although we were full it looked so yummy.

Fish shop Crab

We took the subway back to the Sapporo station. From there we had quite a walk to today’s ramen-shop (Sumire) where we had lunch. On our way there Chie got a bear hug. After a long walk outside it was nice to get inside again and have a hot miso ramen.

Bear hug

Then we returned to the hotel and arrived there just after 1:30 in the afternoon. We went in the the bakery shop and found that they had Yaga-pokuro there. We bought 3 boxes each, the maximum allowed. Then we went back to our room to have a nap. Too tired after a long walk and the excitement of finding Yaga-pokuro.

After the nap we got ready for dinner. Chie ahd made a reservation at a crab restaurant (kani-te). We walked there and arrived just in time for our reservation. We ordered a set meal including sashimi, two different types of crab, grilled fish, squid and potato, and pickled vegetables. We had a real difficulty getting it all down. But it was yummy.

Sashimi Crab