Weekly Food Update

Time for another exciting food update - since you cannot eat off sakura alone!

First, some cafeteria foods.  This was some fish and some other stuff - quite tasty.

 A very red ramen that really wasn't spicy.  Can't really get a spicy ramen from the school cafeterias.

 Balanced lunch - some curry combo:

 Fish tempura set:

 Balanced lunch of some breaded chicken, fried beef and cabbage:

 This is some cream chocolate thing I got for a snack from campus convenience store:

 A bun I bought going to school at a bakery in ikeshita (池下).  The tape at the bottom said to eat it the same day.

 Very tasty:

 Here is a bento I got at BENTOMAN near campus - some really tasty yakitori:

 One day, I went to dinner with a lab member to this tempura place near campus:

 Here is the menu:

 I got some tasty saltwater eel (anago) tempura don with an addition of a tempura leaf :P

 I wanted a snack and I got these strawberry mushrooms?!!  The name kinokonoyama (きのこの山) means mushroom mountain:

 Got this morning shot coffee... hmm lets just say because some idol group advertised it on the train...

Here is some cheese/whipped cream dessert I bought on campus:

At this supermarket in ikeshita (not too far from me) was this large selection of teas in teabags - I got the assam one - delicious:

  This was rather tasty from the Chinese restaurant where I like the tan-tan-men soup.  This was some eggplant with minced beef in a tasty sauce:

Last Sunday, I scouted out the restaurants in Imaike to find something to eat.  Finally, I decided on this Chinese one:

 And had some tasty and really spicy tan-tan-men.  The waitress was really really cute - I might be back...

 On Friday, I got home for dinner so I went out looking for something to eat.  About three blocks from my apartment, I found this corner takeout store where these three old Japanese ladies (お婆ちゃん) were making okonomiyaki - naturally I can't resist Japanese お婆ちゃん so I bought some:

 And got some imagawaki as a dessert:

Finally... today for lunch I had this don at a popular fast food restaurant chain in Imaike:

 For dinner, I went for sushi since I haven't had it in a while!
Some tuna:

 .. and more tuna?

 seared tuna?

 mackerel:

 And some of those tiny transparent fishies with tiny black eyes:

Hanami 2

Today, I had a chance to see more sakura.  First of all, hanami literally means "flower viewing" - hana means flower, in this case, the sakura flower.  It is an ancient Japanese tradition of going to view flowering sakura trees (although nowadays it is has a bit different emphasis - see below).

The sakura trees are all over the place.  Here are some from a street corner near Sakae (Hisaya odori to be exact):

 Some flowering roses and magnolia across the street:

 Really full magnolia tree near Sakae:

So, being in Sakae, I decided to walk to Tsuruma park which is supposed to be a good spot for sakura.
Some large sakura trees while walking to Tsuruma park:

And I finally got to the park and noticed what all the fuss was about.  Warning for those people that complain that there are never any people on my pictures - lots of people on these pictures! ;P

 There is basically a forest of sakura trees in the park.

 And due to the occasion, lots of street vendors selling food and other stuff:

 Here is another sakura forest a bit further into the park:

 The modern Japanese sakura viewing (hanami) tradition is basically gathering under the sakura trees on blue tarps and mostly drinking, eating and socializing.

   Hence this park was filled with younger people doing just that under the trees.

 I walked through the park to see if I can find different types of trees.

 Some of them were quite pretty.

 And you could see sakura trees all over the place.

 Here is a little area with quite nice trees:

 Closeup:

Here is a short video at that location - click on the video to view in 720p:

sakura-neko (sakura-cat)?  I have to show this to one of my lab members who loves cats.

 Some trees already had quite full bloom.

 Sakura near a lake:

 This place should have water in it at some point I think.

 Two types of magnolia - the farther one is a little pinkish like the sakura.

 This was the most beautiful tree that I found in the park - and looked quite old.  Lots of people were stopping by to take a picture with it.

 Alley of sakura:

 Even around the park were sakura trees:

 Another small park area with trees.  The lack of leaves makes the contrast between the dark bark and the lightly coloured sakura quite nice.

 Not really sakura related, but I passed by the entrance to the Nagoya Institute of Technology:

 Some sakura near a school:

 Closeup of the flowers - most of them are not really pink... just white with a hint of pink:

 Here is another tree in some small park/playground I passed by:

Yesterday I bought these 2 mochi in Fujigaoka - I ate the sakura one today - was delicious!