La voici la voilà, la recette de grand-mère, au sens littéral du terme ! Je vous présente les gobinettes de Binas, réalisées à Tokyo par la fille aînée de la fille aînée. Comme prévu, les gobinettes sont bien rustiques, pas extrêmement goutues et un peu étouffe-chrétien, mais très amusantes à réaliser, toutes jolies et réconfortantes avec une tasse de thé. Et avec des petites madeleines à la cerise, l'hommage est complet.

Mon colocataire a suggéré de coiffer les gobinettes de crème fouettée. A tenter la prochaine fois...

Let me introduce you this strange fruit coming from the mountains of Tohoku, the Northern part of Honshu island : Akebi.

Akebi is amazingly purple, it really looks like and alien fruit. When you open it, the flesh is sweet and milky; you can eat it raw, like passion fruit. But the skin is fresh and bitter, and you can cook it like vegetable. I mixed it with beef, onion, miso, sesam oil, soy sauce and sugar to prepare my hiking obento. Love the taste!

Bon appétit !

After the sea, the mountain! Mount Mitake is a 929 meters high mountain located 90 minutes away by train from Tokyo, and a great playground for the city rats. The perfect week-end deal when you are looking for fresh air and green landscape. Take your bento, grab your friends and let's climb it all!

The royal way

Totoro is hidden in these pictures. Can you find it?

View from the top

Down in the valley

No more 3-days week-ends for September, but October will come soon! Follow me!

Mid-September : the deadline for a sea-bath in Honshu, the main island of Japan. There is still a chance to fly to Okinawa in autumn to get the final touch on your tan, but it's far away, and quite expensive. But the Tokyo sunflowers are lucky : 3 hours away from Shinagawa station by local train (change at Atami; around 4000yen in total), Izu peninsula is waiting, with its white sand beaches, its beautiful coast, its waterfalls and its fresh sea-food... All you need is a three-days week-end as there are so many in september-October, and to make your way between the seasonal typhoons. So if you're the lucky type of girl like me... jump into your swimsuit, baby!

The great thing with the region of Izu is that the shore is not made of dark sand like most of the Japanese beaches. Here the coast is bright, sun-catching, and miraculously clean. For some reason, the tourists seem to respect a bit more their white shores than the dark ones. Look at this transparent waters!

 Nabeta beach

Enjoyyyying

Shimoda city is a small town with a deep historic background because this is the place Perry came in with his black ships in 1853 to force Japan to open their ports (and their economy) to the Western trade. His famous quote "I came here as a peace-maker" is written everywhere, though you could replace "peace" by "pressure". Some see this event as the end of pure, honor-driven and traditionnal Japanese spirit; others as the first step of Japan towards modernity. Anyway : this is Perry Road, a very cute street along the canal with nice jazz bars and small restaurants.

Perry Road

Shimoda, it's also big Western-style mansions along the coast...

... and old-fashion coffee and tea places.

Now, the hotel! We booked at Tokyu Hotel, for we could go by foot from Shimoda-Izukyu station. The hotel also has onsen, and it was a delight to stand in the outdoor bath, totally naked, with the sweet sun beams falling on me...

The view from my room!

Spotted between the palm-trees : our hotel private pool!

Very close, Shimoda Park offers refreshing shadow, stunning sculptures lost between the trees and a great view on the port.

And now, THE major reason to come and spend time in Shimoda... Shirahama beach. Pure, soft, shining ivory sand; transparent waves, green cliffs and SPACE, my friend. Is it Japan for real??

By the way, what should you eat and drink around Shimoda ?

Summer hits : fresh lemon juice and green tea kakigori

Grilled fish and my favourite ikura-don

Greatest sashimi ever

Local cola : Shizuoka cola (green tea flavor) and Fuji-san cola

Hey, next week is a three-days week-end too. Where do you plan to go ?

Under the bridge just un front Meguro kumin center, there's a bunch of girls painted on the wall. I thought you should know.

Two friends of mine are always celebrating their double birthday in insanely chic places in Tokyo, and this year, the theme was "Be like Stars"... And for a blond girl like me, who's more a star that Marilyn Monroe, THE Marilyn Monroe ?

Poupoupidou

And it's not Halloween yet...