Oyakodon: my second-favorite food!

Source

Japanese beef curry on rice with a boiled egg is the absolute best! I added a bit of cheese on top (not pictured), and it made it even better.

Source

I had instant ramen for dinner tonight. It looked pretty simple at first, but it turned out to have a surprisingly fancy scallop-flavored broth that tasted wonderful. It made for a very nice change of pace from my usual spicy ramyun!

Source

Tonight we had two kinds of dumplings: Har Gow and Gyoza. And to go with that, yummy fried rice! This a truly a comfort meal for Asian families.

Source

One of my small goals for this year was to make tamagoyaki. Surprisingly, I’d never actually made it on my own before, even though it’s a pretty simple way to cook eggs. Mariko gave it a thumbs-up, so I’m counting that as a win.

Source

I’ve been slowly working my way through the candy and snacks we picked up at Ohmachi Shop. The actual candy inside is pretty basic, just sweet pressed sugar powder, and not particularly good. But I feel a sense of obligation to finish every one. The packaging though is really fun, very retro Japanese, and each wrapper is getting glued into the daily pages of my Hobonichi.

Source

Tonight we had oden for dinner. We normally save this dish for the winter months when it’s cold outside and we want something warm and comforting, but Mariko had the craving, so she ordered an oden set from Weee! and added egg and tofu to round it out. It was delicious!

Source

Our friend brought us the most delicious temaki sushi to help out while Mariko recovers from her hip surgery. And as a total surprise, she showed up with taiyaki too! Everything was so yummy, we felt so taken care of.

Source

For our last dinner in Japan, we went to Sushiro. This was my third time going this trip, though Mariko insists it was four (I still disagree ). Either way, it was satisfying and cheap, exactly what we wanted. Bonus points for spotting a cute Dokinchan in a car in the parking lot.

Source

Today we went to Himeji for lunch, shopping, and a light dinner. We started at a small izakaya for drinks and kushiage, and it was all so yummy. The place was full of people enjoying lunch and drinking quite a bit! There was only one guy running the whole restaurant, and he was busy pouring bubbly for everyone. Amazing.

After that we did some shopping at Loft, Hands, and Junkudo bookstore. I picked up a couple of books, including volume 2 of Hirayasumi. I really love that manga.

Later we had a special Himeji style white miso oden before catching the train back home. What a fun day in the city! We really like visiting Himeji. It’s a medium sized city with lots of the same stores as Tokyo or Osaka, but without the overwhelming crowds. And the food is cheap with fresh seafood. Love it!

Source