A serene lunch

Yesterday we went for a rather serene lunch at the beautiful tofu restaurant near Tokyo Tower. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a private room upstairs overlooking the manicured Japanese garden. The decor was beautifully simple and it was an all-round lovely experience!

Potager

On Saturday evening we went to an interesting restaurant called Potager where we were served veggie sushi. It was beautifully presented and actually looked like real sushi! We even got to choose our vegetable selection from a big basket of raw vegetables and they were then prepared in front of us.

Birthday view

Mount Fuji was looking pretty damn fabulous this morning - not a bad birthday morning view!

Sunday in Yoyogi Park

Another regular sunday afternoon in Yoyogi Park with a bunch of Harajuku girls carrying a bunch of pink balloons. Any why not?!

Little girls clamour for a pink balloon

Neil bemused

The rose garden looks so perfect that the roses look like they have been stuck on

October morality poster

I'm afraid the morality posters aren't as fun as they used to be, but I still feel that I need to document them. This one still has the rather strange black furry thing in it and this time he seems to be attempting a pole dancing routine.....

Another stunning Fuji view

Sorry, I couldn't resist it! Fuji-san very rarely shows his face but whenever he does, I'm in awe of him. This photo was taken from our kitchen balcony early this evening.

Le Japon - again!

On saturday night we invited some friends to join us at our favourite local restaurant - Le Japon. We have been to it a few times now and have loved it every time. You sit at the counter and the chef prepares the food in front of you from a set menu which is chosen depending on what is in season. As the name suggests, he uses a fusion of French and Japanese food, which is quite unusual but absolutely gorgeous. Li-Lin compiled a fab photo montage of our evening.

Korean barbeque

The other day I had lunch with a friend at a local Korean barbeque restaurant. I stupidly chose the boring option of set lunch, bento-style, while she went for the proper barbeque experience. The raw marinated meat comes out on a plate, with assorted acoutrements such as pickled vegetables, and then you grill the meat at your table. I got to try some of hers and it was absolutely gorgeous!

Mud - Tokyo

When I lived in New York I would often pop into Mud Cafe for a cup of coffee. They started out as the Mud Truck and would park their bright orange truck in locations around the city. With their fab logo and delicious coffee, they were hard to pass by without ordering something. They then set up shop on my block on East 9th street where you could sip coffee in the laid back environment or take home a pack of your own Mud coffee.

It appears that they now have a Mud Cafe in Tokyo! On sunday we went and tried it out. They still have the fab logo and sell the delicious coffee, and I'll definitely be back for more.

I'm back!

Well, I'm back in Tokyo after a whirlwind trip to the UK. I was there for three and half weeks, focusing on work as well as catching up with family and friends. The highlight of my trip was a family weekend away to celebrate mum's 70th birthday. She rented a house on the beach in East Wittering and it was perfect! The weather was beautiful - sunny with blue skies - and we spent the time playing on the beach and going for bracing walks followed by fish and chips. Heaven!