Went to Takadanobaba over the weekend and decided to go to this ramen restaurant called "Ore no Sora" (俺の空). There was a bit of a wait to get into the restaurant but after about 10-15 mins we finally got in and were able to order. They seemed to be taken measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and had spaces open between seats and only half the seats were filled. I don't remember the name of the ramen that I ordered but they all seemed to be quite similar. Usually I would order a spicy ramen, but this one you had to ask for the spicy paste separately (it's free) so I just decided to try it without it. The restaurant offers free large servings and so I did that as I was quite hungry. The noodles were thinner than those of most ramen restaurants I go to, and I prefer thinner noodles so it was nice. The bowl itself was really full of noodles. It didn't look like it was that much food at first, but it turned out to be a lot. We ordered a small rice dish covered with pork (no photo) to share and while we did finish eating it, we were incredibly full afterwards. Personally it's not the flavor of ramen I would normally choose as it was almost like a fish and tonkotsu base, but even still it was quite good. I think if you like fish base ramen you'd really like this ramen. Even though it's not the flavor I really like, I would still definitely recommend this restaurant as the food itself was of good quality. Definitely check it out if you're by Takadanobaba Station or just looking for some noodles

Haebaru in Habaru, I would like to introduce the mapo luffa of Kinmen Hanten. Mapo luffa, which uses Haebaru specialty luffa instead of eggplant, is exquisite☆ There are many figurines and decorations in the store that make you feel China☆ There are many other Chinese dishes, so go eat ☆☆☆

Visited Shibamata for the first time over the weekend. I'd been meaning to go for a while because it seemed like an interesting place to visit in Tokyo, but I just hadn't had the chance until now. It was a really nice place and I was surprised at how few people were there. There was a ton of shops lined up along the main street and the wooden buildings gave it a really nice atmosphere. I haven't seen Otoko wa Tsurai yo, but there were statues and posters of Tora-san everywhere, even inside shops and stuff. I guess I'll have to watch it some time when I have the chance. We ended up eating lunch at one of the restaurants along the main road and they had some Tora Miso Ramen so we decided to try it. It was pretty good and had a decent amount of vegetables in it as well, so moderately healthy for ramen I suppose. We also got some dessert at a cafe afterwards and she got some dango while I ordered an ice cream float. We also went to the nearby temple Shibamata Taishakuten (柴又帝釈天), or Daikyoji Temple and walked around the main temple grounds and also bought tickets to see the garden and the architecture inside the temple. The garden was really pretty and the walkway around it was quite nice to walk on. I really enjoyed viewing the inside of the temple as there was a ton of hand-carved panels depicting different scenes. There were descriptions below each of the panels that described them as well, and they were interesting to read. It seemed like they were all carved by different people but they were all highly skilled. When we were leaving we found a nice little shows style candy shop and we bought some snacks and played a round of pinball on one of the pinball machines inside the shop. Haven’t played pinball since I was a kid, was pretty nostalgic. If you're in Tokyo I definitely recommend giving this place a visit on the weekend.

Visited Machiya again. I'm not sure why but I seem to really like the atmosphere there. I think the streetcar passing through gives it a different feel than other places. Anyways, I decided to grab some lunch and found this nice restaurant called Tokyo Local Base. I got this omurice and wow, it was probably the best omurice I've ever had. The sauce tasted really good and the egg was perfectly cooked. I wish I would have taken a photo of the inside of the restaurant because it was quite relaxing and, just like Machiya, had a really nice atmosphere. It was a bit crowded when I came, but I managed to enter the restaurant right when the lunch rush was starting to die down and so there wasn't many people by the time I got my meal. Definitely recommend checking it out if you're looking to grab a bite in the area.

Summer vegetables ? The vegetables and hamburger steak were delicious (๑ ́ڡ'๑)

Was back in Kanda today for the first time in a while, but I decided to go back to the same izakaya I visited a few months ago. The food is really great and again it wasn't very crowded since I went a bit early. If you're in the Kanda area I recommend checking it out. Kakuuchi Inagaki (角打 いながき). They offer extra helpings of rice for free and also free refills of miso soup!

Cream soda at a traveling café famous for cream soda ? The atmosphere of the shop was also retro and good ?.

Had some tasty cheesecake at a small cafe near Machiya

On the final day of our trip we were a bit tired but still wanted to see a few things and just casually enjoy our time. We ended up going to Marugame Castle as our first destination. It was really cool as it's one of the 12 castles in Japan that still has an original castle keep. The castle itself isn't very large, but the area surrounding it is. From the bottom of the castle the keep is quite small so it's hard to get a good photo of it, but we got a photo of it with one of the turrets along the moat wall which was cool. We reserved a rickshaw ride the previous night as well so when we got to the castle we did a little exploring and then we went on a guided tour around the lower area of the castle. The rickshaw guide was a really nice guy and quite funny as well. Apparently he was a comedian but he enjoyed doing this job as well. He told us a bunch of different things about the castle and it's construction while also telling some jokes occasionally. After the rickshaw tour we climbed our way up to the top of the castle and there were saw really amazing views waiting for us at the top. You could see the entire city almost. We also entered the castle keep, but it was relatively small. It was still nice to see the architecture on the inside but the stairs were a bit scary. They were incredibly steep and I was holding the handrails the entire time going up or down them. After checking out the castle we were pretty hungry and so we decided to get some lunch. Being Kagawa is the udon prefecture we went to an udon specialty restaurant. I haven't been to many udon restaurants so it was kind of a new experience for me. They had it set up kind of like a cafeteria and you go through and choose what you want and other toppings to go with your udon. I didn't see the trays for the extra toppings so I just ended up putting the karaage on top of my udon lol. I got niku udon and it tasted really good. The karaage was a nice touch as well. Not the usual tempura most people get but it went surprisingly well with the soup. After eating we headed towards Nakazu Banshoen, a garden with art exhibits as well. Before getting there we decided to stop by a Lupin-themed cafe though. It was a really tiny shop but we were able to cool off for a bit and relax which was nice since we were walking quite a bit. The garden was quite large and had a lot of different points of interest within it. The stepping stones were fun to cross and the row of torii gates was pretty cool as well. You can definitely take some nice photos with them. And that concludes our trip to Takamatsu! Overall it was a really fun trip and I definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't been to Shikoku or Kagawa before. We didn't even get to do everything we were looking at but we still had a blast!

On the second day of our trip we headed over to Shodoshima, one of the many islands in the Seto Inland Sea. The only way there is by ferry so we got some tickets for it and boarded the ship. It was a really nice ride as the weather was great on Sunday and it was warm out, but not too hot. Sitting on the upper deck was nice as well, as we got to view some of the other islands in the area and also got to see people fishing etc. Plus the breeze was really refreshing as well. When we arrived to the island we tried renting some bicycles but unfortunately they were all rented out. After that we tried to get a car, but they were all rented out too, so we decided to take the buses where we needed to go. It worked out fine though. The first spot we decided to go was Olive Park, but when we got to the bus stop where it was located there was a really nice beach so we decided to check it out and put our feet in the water to cool of. There were people swimming and wind surfing and there was a nice little snack shack with some tasty looking food. After hanging out on the beach for a bit we headed up to the park. There was a ton of people renting broomsticks to do the Kiki's Delivery Service photo and it was pretty funny to watch it. We thought about doing it but the brooms were like a 45 minute wait because there were so many people so we decided to pass on it. We also ate lunch at a restaurant inside the main building at the park. They had some really good food (photo #4) and a really tasty drink as well. I don't remember what it was, but I'm glad I got it. The view from the restaurant overlooked the area as well which was nice. After lunch we headed down towards where the windmill was and stopped at a small shrine on the way. The windmill area had a nice view as well and there were people trying to jump off rocks to get photos with it lol. After we finished up at the park we decided to head over to Angel Road. We looked at the hours when you could cross the sand bridge and we arrived early, but it seems like the hours were slightly off that day perhaps and we made it right at the perfect time. There was just a little bit of water left over the sand bridge so we were able to take our shoes off and cross. Unfortunately there were a bunch of really small rocks so it kind of hurt your feet but it wasn't too bad. We managed to make it across. Was able to take some decent photos as well. We also had some ice cream at a nearby shop. It tasted great! After we finished checking out Angel Road, we headed back to the ferry and and as we started to leave the port I said out loud "It smells like sesame oil doesn't it?" Well it turns out there was a sesame oil factory directly behind me so we had a bit of a laugh at that. Was a successful day!

Shiraho Family café Shirahoie Cafe Shiraho While looking at the greenery in a large room Spend a relaxing time

ᑦᴬᶠᴱ ?? . ?˒˒ . . . Every year I stay here � �Today's bread sandwich with soup and deli set givingtreehome Ishigaki Island Nosoko Cafe

The Sea of Shiraho and ? ⸝⋆ Island Banana and Pine Pine is an unmanned sale in Shiraho Shima bananas are sold unmanned in the Maibara area and at the Akashi direct sales store (Akashi Ipponmatsu vegetable direct sales store) We recommend buying it above. Because it is expensive if you buy it normally. Especially the island banana

Ishigaki Island Cafe Polar Bear ?????? ????ꔛ‬♡˒˒* A stylish quiet café. The cake is also delicious. �  Baked Cheesecake Pineapple cake

?? ˚‧ ?? ◡̈?ᐝ Recommended restaurant for breakfast on Ishigaki Island Shunke Banchan Fried eggs are voluminous and popular. You'll be surprised when you see it. It's popular, so you might want to make a reservation. Green from the window seat. You can also ask for a window seat at the time of reservation.

⃞⃛୭ᐝSunayama Cafe The contents are mango juice. Shot at Sunayama Beach

I've got too many photos to post so I'm making another post today and at least 1-2 more in the next couple days. After visiting Ritsurin Park we headed towards Takamatsu Castle. The castle itself had no castle tower but it still had a really nice garden and the moat was pretty cool as well. They had a boat tour of the moat too, but we didn't think it was as extravagant as the one at Ritsurin Park and we were already tired so we decided to skip it and just tour the castle on foot. There were a variety of different stone lanterns throughout the garden that I thought were pretty cool. I always enjoy seeing the different lantern designs for some reason. Despite not having a castle tower, the turrets themselves were cool to see. After looking at the first castle tower we crossed a bridge that ran over the moat and headed up to the top. Once we got to the top, where the castle tower was previously located, we had a really awesome view of the area and I was able to get a photo of a boat passing through the moat. They were all wearing straw hats and special clothing, which I think was part of the experience. After leaving the castle and heading toward our hotel, we arrived at the second turret and it had a nicer view than from inside the castle. I thought the clouds above it looked quite nice as well. After that we headed to our hotel and rested for a bit and then headed over to a pizza place called PIZZERIA 18 for some dinner. The place had a nice atmosphere and the food was really good as well. We ordered pizza (obviously) and a variety platter as well. It all tasted great. They had Heartland as their nama-beer which I thought was nice. Don't see it very often.

[Englsih/Japanese] Nishi-Hachioji, where our school is located, is famous for its many delicious crepe shops. Among them, "Crepe Anne" opened in 1983 and has a long history and many fans. Most of the crepes are handmade. In autumn, you can enjoy eating while viewing the rows of gingko trees. Students who are tired of studying can refresh themselves with a sweet treat. Nishi Hachioji, where our school is located, is also famous for its many delicious crepe shops. Among them, "Crepeuan" is a restaurant that opened in 1983 and has a long history, and has many fans. The contents of the crepes are mostly handmade. In autumn, you can eat while looking at the ginkgo trees. Students who are obsessed with studying also seem to be refreshed by eating sweets.

[Englsih/Japanese] In Hachioji City, you can eat dishes from all over the world's cuisines. The other day, I had Sri Lankan home cooking at "Milis," a Sri Lankan restaurant a 5-minute walk from Hachioji Station. It is a healthy dish that doesn't use oil, and it consists of rice topped with various curries and side dishes. It was a complex combination of "sweet", "spicy", "salty", "sour", and "bitter", which I had never tasted before, but it was very delicious. The service at the restaurant was also warm ☕️I will ask more about Sri Lankan food next time since we sometimes communicate with Sri Lankan agents at our school ?. In Hachioji City, you can eat cuisines from all over the world. The other day, a 5-minute walk from Hachioji Station, I ate Sri Lankan home-cooked food at the Sri Lankan restaurant "Miris". It is a healthy dish that does not use oil, and various curries and side dishes are placed on top of rice. "Sweet", "spicy", "salty", "sour" and "bitter" are intricately combined, and I have never eaten it, but it was ✨ very delicious. The customer service of the restaurant was also warm, and even at our school, I sometimes communicate with Sri Lankan agents, ☕️ so I will ? ask about Sri Lankan cuisine in detail next time.

[Englsih/Japanese] In Hachioji City, you can eat dishes from all over the world's cuisines. The other day, I had dal bhat at the Nepalese restaurant "Naoya", which is a five-minute walk from the school and is located alongside the Hachioji Central Library. "Daal" means bean soup and "bhaat" means rice, just like a set meal in Japan. Nepal is famous for its curry, but daalbhaat was not spicy at all, and had a gentle taste ?I was glad to finally try this dish, which was introduced to me by a student a few years ago ✨I also tried Ras Malai (cottage cheese dumplings dipped in honey) for dessert for the first time, and was surprised at how sweet it was! In Hachioji City, you can eat cuisines from all over the world. The other day, I ate dalbhat (दालभात) at the Nepalese restaurant "Naoya" next to the Hachioji Central Library, a 5-minute walk from school. Dal means bean soup and baat means rice, which is like a set meal for Japan. Nepal is famous for curry, but dalbhat is not spicy at all and has a gentle tasteIt ? was a dish introduced by a student a few years ago, so I was happy to finally eat it. ✨

Went to Karuizawa for Golden Week! We booked our shinkansen tickets well in advance so we were basically flipping a coin with the weather, but it still managed to be a really fun trip despite 2/3 days being rain. We were able to do a lot of shopping at the outlet mall near the station and other places in the area on the first and third days when it rained so it worked out perfectly. My girlfriend's friend was headed back home from Tokyo the same direction we were headed so she stayed one night with us and then we were able to all hang out and go shopping in Karuizawa for most of the day after which she hopped back on the shinkansen towards home. The second day was really nice weather, despite being just a bit chilly, but it was still nice enough that we were able to rent some bicycles and ride around the area. The place where we rented the bikes gave us a nice sightseeing route to go on and so we were able to see a bunch of different places and use our time effectively. When we were headed into town we crossed a bridge and there was a nice view of Mt. Asama with a ton of fisherman fishing along the river below the bridge. It was a pretty cool sight. We even got to see someone catch a fish as well. We obviously went to Shiraito Falls as well and it was really beautiful. There was a sign behind that described how the water took around 5 years to come out of the ground where the waterfall was or something to that effect as well. The path leading up the waterfall was quite neat as well, with the river running next to it and a giant fallen tree with more smaller waterfalls to go with it. There was also two wooden carvings of the characters from Demon Slayer (鬼滅の刃) which was interesting. The food in the area was delicious as well. We were staying at a pension and we only had breakfast with our stay, so we ended up going to another pension where they had yakiniku and we got a pretty good price for a massive platter of food. I was so full at the end I'm not sure how I made it back to where we were staying for the night lol. The third day we did some shopping up at Harunire Terrace (ハルニレテラス) and we kind of just relaxed in the area. It was a pretty trendy place surrounded by nature and there was a hot spring up the road as well. We wanted to go in the hot spring but there was a pretty long line so we decided to pass. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants at the terrace and while all of the indoor seats were taken, we were able to get some outdoor seating. It was cold out so I didn't think it would be a good idea, but they had some heaters outside and blankets and it was actually quite enjoyable. Had a lot of fun and it was a really great place. We might travel there again during the summer when it's warmer as well or maybe in autumn when the leaves change color. I definitely recommend giving it a visit!

Found a nice izakaya in Kanda today. The name is Kakuuchi Inagaki (角打 いながき). I think that's the reading for the kanji at least... The place had a really nice atmosphere and some really good food at very reasonable prices. I ordered the Saba no Shioyaki (さばの塩焼き, salt grilled mackerel) and it was really tasty and only cost 750 yen as well. Definitely a nice place to drop by for some after work drinks with a friend or coworker or just for lunch like I did. It seems like they serve nikomi and oden later at night as well, so if you like that I definitely recommend it.

Was nice weather over the weekend so I did a little exploring. Found this nice little temple near the Sumida River called Hozoin Temple (寳蔵院) in Arakawa. I wasn't sure where exactly I was allowed to go inside the temple, and I didn't have much time anyways, so I just took a peak through the gates and snapped a photo. It was a really quaint place and apparently it has some landscape paintings and itabi tablets. From what I saw, it looked like there was a garden across the ground. Maybe a rock garden or something of the sort, I wasn't able to get a good look at it though. The area around the temple was the hunting grounds of the Tokugawa Shogunate as well it seems. Pretty amazing to imagine there was enough greenery in the area to hunt in the past. Also managed to stop by a nice udon/soba restaurant for lunch. It was called Sunaba (砂場) I believe. I ordered the kamo (duck) nanban udon and it tasted great. Haven't had duck in a while, but it's always a treat. The lady taking orders was really nice as well. Overall a great place!

Awaji Island Hamburger Shop on the west coast of Awaji Island is a hamburger on a warm day in Miele and a mild spring and sea.

Yakiniku Yakiniku Yakiniku Ushimiyagi@Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo YAKINIKU GYUGUJOU＠Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan Yakiniku Ushimiyagi Tokyo, Shibuya-ku, Udagawacho 12-9 Jules Shibuya 5F YAKINIKU GYUGUJOU Joule Shibuya 5F, 12-9 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan

I ate it for the first time Fruit & Chocolate Basket ? Even at such a time, everyone around I want ☺️ to do a lot of things that make me smile

Just some more photos to wrap up our trip to Nikko. I took a bunch of photos of different monuments and buildings that seemed important or had lavish decorations. I can't make out what the writing on the monument says but I can at least make out the kanji for heart (心). I also liked the golden palanquins inside the the building in the forth photo, although I'm not sure if they were used at some point or are simply for decoration. The other photos are from Futarasan Chugushi Shrine (二荒山中宮祠神社) located in front of Lake Chuzenji. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go inside the shrine but I was at least able to take some nice photos of the torii gate. Apparently it has a kagura hall as well and the entrance to Mt. Nantai is located inside the shrine as well. And finally, just an assortment of food that I haven't posted yet. All of it tasted great. It was definitely a trip I'm never going to forget!

Took a trip out to Nikko, Tochigi over the three day weekend and had an incredible time. The purpose of the trip was to celebrate my girlfriend's sister's college graduation so we wanted to make it as memorable as possible. I don't have enough room to fit this into one post so I'll post the rest throughout the week. We started out from Tokyo and had lunch somewhere Nikko Toshogu Shrine. I'm not sure if Yuba is a local specialty but it seemed like literally every single restaurant in the area was selling it so I'm assuming that was the case. It was my first time trying it and it was pretty interesting I guess you could say. It tasted alright with the soy sauce and radish but I think I prefer normal tofu instead. Either way it was a nice experience. After eating we headed out to Nikko Toshogu Shrine nearby and man was it amazing. Everything was so lavishly decorated that I couldn't stop taking photos. The pagoda was incredibly beautiful as well and the snow covering the Nikko area made everything even more beautiful. I was lucky enough to get a really nice shot of the corridor full of lanterns while no one was walking through the area as well. I also took a photo of the torii gate at the top of the steps as it had a very strong presence and signaled the end of the long journey up the steps to reach the inner shrine. Unfortunately the main gate was undergoing repairs so it was completely covered in tarp and surrounded by staging so I wasn't able to get a photo of it, but I did get some really cool shots of the main shrine. I tried as hard as I could to get some good photos of the grave of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and while I think the photo of the gate isn't bad, I think I'd need a better camera to get a good shot of the crane and his tomb. That being said it was still really awesome to see. After checking out the shrine we headed out to Kegon Falls and I managed to get some really nice videos and some decent photos as well. I can't post the videos or I would. It was really awesome seeing the icicles surrounding the waterfall and all of the frozen scenery as well. Even just taking the lift down to the waterfall was an experience. After we left the waterfall observation deck and went back up the elevator we got some suiton (水団, flour dumplings in soup) and shared it between the three of us as a light snack before dinner later that evening. We also visited Lake Chuzenji and admired the scenery there for a bit as well. We didn't spend a ton of time here so this photo was the best I could do. I like that I was able to get the sign in the shot though so I can't complain. After enjoying the view of the lake we headed to our hotel and ate dinner and had some wine. The place we stayed at was called "Lamb Chop" (ペンション・ラムチャップ日光). The food was great and service provided by the the owners was top notch, so I definitely recommend checking it out if you're looking for a place to stay in the area. After dinner we headed back to our room and I was so exhausted I fell asleep almost instantly. And that was the end of day 1! I'll post day two tomorrow since this post is getting quite long now!

Forgot to include this in my post yesterday so I'm posting it today. When I was walking to Minami-Senju I stopped in for lunch at a place called "Hikari Ramen" (中華そば 光) and enjoyed a really interesting bowl of ramen... I got the special shoyu ramen (特製醬油らーめん) I believe it was, and I think it cost about ~1000 yen but it had some unique characteristics as you can probably tell by the photo. I'm pretty sure out of all the bowls of ramen I've eaten I've never had one with a pink egg. I was surprised at first but just thought it was kind of something funny that gave the ramen shop its own sort of identity. Also, while I have had meatballs in some of the ramen I've eaten before, it's quite rare in my experience (or maybe I'm just not ordering the right ramen lol) so I thought that was kind of interesting as well. The ramen tasted great though, the pink didn't add any extra unique flavor to the egg as far as I could tell but it was all really good. Interestingly enough, the seats downstairs were all taken and one of the people said that they had extra seating upstairs where I was shown into a sort of like storage room with no one else in it lol. It was an interesting experience but it was nice since I got to eat all by myself and I could even see out of the window a bit. All in all it was a good experience and I recommend it if you're in the area! It's really close to Minowabashi Station

I didn't have enough space to write it the other day, but after visiting Fukuda Inari Shrine the other day in Nishi-Omiya, Saitama we stopped by a café called Mango Tree Cafe, a small Thai restaurant on the way back to the station. We'd already eaten, so we just wanted to sit down and relax from all the walking and to catch a break from the cold. We ordered some frozen drinks and a mango ice cream which all tasted quite good. I think the ice cream was the best but I didn't get a picture of it. I ordered the watermelon frozen juice and it was pretty nice, but they had something called "manaonade" (アンチャンマナオネード) which I guess means "blue tea" or "butterfly pea flower tea-ade" (lol). It's a type of herbal tea I guess but it seemed interesting. I was considering getting it, but I'd never heard of it before so decided to stay on the safe side and just get the watermelon. I'll probably try it next time as I know this place is a chain restaurant with other locations in Tokyo. Plus I never really eat Thai food, so it'd be something nice to try for a change