10nineteen

Today we grabbed lunch at Tsukanoma, a little café tucked into an old building nearby. I ordered their open-faced sandwich and wow, it did not disappoint! Fresh vegetables piled high with meat, everything toasted just right. The kind of meal that makes you want to come back tomorrow. 🥪✨

Honestly, I could eat this every day and be perfectly happy about it. I was really looking forward to eating here! Yokatta.

While I’m in Japan, my work hours are 5 am to 2 pm, which means I have a nice 3-hour overlap with the team in Austin each day. ⏰ Usually it’s super busy when I start because people have been sending me work during their day. When I log in, it’s 2 pm for the Texas team (they’re a day behind me) and for those couple of hours, I’m responding to emails, Slack messages, and hopping on calls. It’s kind of intense! But from about 8 am onwards, it gets very quiet and I get a ton of work done. I think I like it! 💻✨

This schedule also means I have my afternoons free to do as I please. Today, Mariko and I went to Kurisu Chestunut café to get some dessert. She got a strawberry parfait, while I enjoyed a marron (chestnut) and cream French toast. It was yummy! 🍓🌰

After that we took care of errands before getting dinner at Matsu-ya, a fast-food gyu-don (beef bowl) restaurant. It was just okay. Very salty. 🍚 We probably won’t be returning, but it’s good to try out the options in town!

Tonight we hosted our very first party in the new house, and it could not have been a better mix of people. Our new town continues to surprise me in the best way. We had a craft beer brewer, a shrine priest, a landscape artist, a restaurant owner, a university professor, and a café and gallery owner all under one roof. Talk about an interesting dinner table 🍻

I made carnitas tacos, complete with fixings I hauled over from Texas like precious cargo. Totally worth it. Our guests showed up with an incredible spread of sashimi, sushi, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, tamagoyaki, plus plenty of beer and saké. It turned into the most delicious cultural mashup feast you can imagine 🌮🍣

What a beautiful first party in our new home. So happy! 🏡✨