My Christmas decoration

20 years ago, this tree came to my house. I kept begging my mother to buy it for me for a few days. Very end of Chiritsmas night, it was on sale at a store, and then my mother finally said "OK" :). My current apt is so small...so I could not bring it to Tokyo here. It is in my parents house, and I enjoy decorating it every year when the time comes.

There are about 50 branches and it starts to assemble them to the shaft. I guess the height is about 2.3m(7.5ft).

I bought the lights and the tree skirt(left) while I was living LA, and the other tree skirt( right) was made by my mother.

Paper ribons for the decoration. I'm also using these ribons for 20 years.

These are the ornaments I collected for 20 years, and I have a memory for each of them. Some are the present from my friends.

Nesting dolls

 I collected them while I was living in Seattle. I rarely see them at a store in Tokyo, but the price is sort of expensive. Now I stopped collecting them because of the price here...

Birds Chritsmas tree
I can't keep a big tree in my tiny apt, and this is the one I can keep it here instead.

Glass trees

Since I moved to Tokyo, I started collecting the glass trees. Every year I buy one,but this year I haven't seen the one I like yet.

The Christamas is no religous meaning to me, but I really like the decorations. It's just lovely, and it makes me happy. :)

First time knitting

My mother loved knitting, and she used to knit sweathers, gloves, hats and etc. for my family and herself. Once she have started knittting, she couldn't stop knitting and even she forgot to sleep...  Since my mother died, nobody touched many knitting yarns she left. I probably learned only one type of stich from her when I was 10 or 11 years old, but I haven't knitted any since then. Everytime I see the knitting yarns, I think about how I can use them. I don't think I can knit sweaters and gloves, but I thought I might knit something easy. Then I decided to knit the baby hat for my friend's baby.


Here are my first time knitting "Hat" for my friend's baby "SARA" :) I know it doesn't looks nice...but my friend said "love it" and I was so relieved she said so. Happy!

 Hat 1

The size is a little bit tight, but it looks good on her? :P

Hat 2

The flowers are on the front side

and

the butterfly is on the back side.

Again, I didn't know my friend like them or not while I was knitting, but I am glad she likes them a lot. I am also happy I really felt I am absolutely my mother's daughter while I was knitting them.

I got the present "Snoman's assorted sweets bag" from her. Thank you, Minako!

Atami

Last Thursday and Friday, my team(company) and I had the meeting at Atami, Shizuoka. Atami is the one of the famous hot spring resort in Japan. This was the first time to visit there for me.

 We supposed to see the nice view from the meeting room, but the weather was not nice the day...

The meeting started from 9:30AM and finished 6:30PM. It made me exhausted, but the dinner was really gorgeous! It could be more fun if I visit there with my friend, not the company meeting.

 The hotel we stayed is a kind of Japanese style hotel "Ryokan(旅館)." I don't think I haven't stayed this style hotel for a long time, so I was a bit surprised when I saw the table setting like above. The Nakai-san(I can't think about the best word for them. It may be I can call them as Servant or waitress) is always attentive and aware of the pace at which the guests are dining, so that she can serve dishes at the perfect timing.

Aappetizer

 Sashimi and soup

Mozuku seaweed in vinegar soup and broiled fish

 Awabi(Abalone in butter sause)

 Takiawase(Vegitable,mear, fried tofu and etc. are cooked separately.)

Nabe(Hot pot dish)

Rice and Miso soup

Dessert

 While we were eating the dinner, the "Nakai-san(servant)" prepared our Futon. We don't need to do anything, Nakai-san does everything we need. I love this Japanese spirit of hospitality! I stayed with two of my co-workers, and we drank a bit of alcohols and chatted until 1:00AM.

The breakfast was really nice.

 The meeting was over around 15:00PM, and I got off the meeting... TIRED.

I stopped the souvenir shops near the Atami station after the meeting. I didn't have much time for shopping, so I got some souvenirs for my father, friend.

Washington D.C & NYC

My first time visit to Wahington D.C. & NYC was posted on my "travel" tab. Please check it out!

Joël Durand, again

It was raining from the morning and cold yesterday, but my friend and I made the plan to eat parfait at Joël Durand since a month ago. Raining? We don't care. Cold? We don't care. We just kept thinking about parfait, not thinking about anything else from the morning. :)

My choice was "Jasmin" this time.

It looks like flower, isn't it? Just lovely!

 My fiiend had the black chocolate.

Their pafait is always good! I want to try another flavor next time.

Reached the end of my JOURNEY

Finally, I found Brioche which is exactly the same I ate in NYC last Saturday. You will see the one end of today's blog, but I want to introduce the Brioches I ate for the past two weeks until I found the one until last Saturday.

Fortnum & Mason
The texture was simillar, but it was still not the one I was looking for.

Fortnum & Mason
The shape was unique, and it was very moist. It was more like cake, not bread

             

Fauchon
Typical type of Brioche.

LES DEUX MAGOTS

My friend got two types of brioches for me. "Bean paste" was inside one of them(right one).

Hotel Okura

Cake Brioche. It's more like cake. It was so good, but it's different from the one I was looking for. 

 AUX BACCHANALES

Typical type of Brioche. Texture was a bit different from other typical type of brioche. It's soft and smells more butter.

Dean & Deluca

When I saw this Brioche, I thought it might just be what I'm looking for.

I got two pieaces. Soon I came back home, I ate one.

YES! This was exactly the same I ate in NYC couple weeks ago!

Happy :)

Brioche

To me, Brioche is hard and dry ...so, it's hard to say I like it. I was in NYC two weeks ago, I found the very nice and tasty Brioche there. " Balducci's" was very close to my hotel I stayed. I usually don't buy Brioche, because of my image. But the one they sell looked different, and I bought one as my breakfast... The taste, texture and appearance looked different that I know. Soon I ate it, I became like it a lot. I went to the store to get a cup of coffee and the Brioche most of the morning while I was there. Since I came back to Japan, I kept thinking about it:)  Unfortunately, NYC is very far from Tokyo, I can't go there to get only Brioche. I decided to find the similar one in Tokyo!!!

Two days ago, I went to 5 or 6 bakery shops to find a Brioche after work. Only three bakeries were selling it. 

I got one at "dominique saibron". The shop is in Ginza Mitsukoshi. A plain Brioche was sold out, so I got the Brioche with black truffle. The size was similar to the one at Balducci's, but the texture and the taste was different. Mmm...next!

This is the one I got at "DALLOYAU." The size is so small, but it costs a lot :( I knew this is different from Balducci's when I holded it with the tongs. Anyway, I tasted it, and my guess was right. The taste is different, and the bread is pretty hard and dry. Next!

Last one was from Johan.  The size is small. The texture is a bit similar to Balducci's, but the taste is not the one I expected.

 I could not find the similar one this time. But I will not give up to find the good one in Tokyo. My journey will go on!