Dominic went off to see some Ricoh rugby and I decided to luxuriate at home with some new material, my sewing machine and a packet of chocolate chip cookies!

Dominic had a couple of very busy weeks and was out for five days on the trot with Friday evening or should I say Saturday morning causing some damage! Unfortunately he incorrectly set his alarm for a meeting on Friday afternoon which went off at 4:30 AM on Saturday morning. Needless to say he didn't hear it!

Had been trying to book a holiday for May and got in touch with a travel agent I said I wanted mid to low range hotels but at £500 a night I don't think her definition of mid-range quite matches mine!  


For Christmas I got Dominic a Japanese cookery lesson. We headed off to Mayuko's Little kitchen. It turned out to be just us two. Mayuko was very welcoming and started off with the basics of what ingredients were and then we got chopping and cooking. Her sister joined us. She makes clothes and had lived in the London. We swapped stories of the various courses we had done at Morley College!

Cooked by the man himself!

That evening Leslie was on her way back to London and was booked into chez nous for 4 nights. Sunday we went to lunch at a photographer's home. He cooked up a storm and was full of chat of the amazing people he had photographed and met and his home was full of stuff.(Note to Saskia - it looked as though the burglars had been!)

We went to Harajuku where women dress up as schoolgirls and popped into McDonald's to have their new fries with chocolate sauce.  A different kind of culture!  

Fries with milk chocolate and white chocolate sauce!

Went to Mori art museum to see Marakame and have a look at the view before going to find some wagyu beef. 



Dominic had Monday off work to be the tour guide doing bonsai and dolls.

I had Tuesday off... Leslie and Dominic discovered a fabulous pen shop the night before which is about 500 metres from home. Leslie and I spent over an hour in the shop before heading to do the plan for the day. First up origami centre next electric town. 

Bad timing - most of the time the guy was not looking at what he was doing!

We went to a place called honey and toast - a 12 cm loaf of bread. It's been toasted so it's crispy. The inside has been taken out and chopped into big crispy croutons these are then put back into the loaf and then a variety of ice cream and sauce is put on top; in our case banana ice cream chocolate sauce and bananas. OMG it was delicious. How do the Japanese women stay so slim?  

Tricky to resist!

On the way home we went to see some illuminations - most finish 14 Feb. 

Next week shrine central……to add some culture rather than just food!