October and November Randomness

In early October I went out to eat with someone from work and we went to Bombeiya. It was a very small restaurant that was in a rural area so I never would have found it myself. I don't have any of my own pictures from that day, so I got some from a website.

It was a curry restaurant. The food was really really good! I had some sort of eggplant curry. Yum!

It was a rainy, gross day when we were there, but on a clear day the view would be very nice!

After lunch we went to Ichino. I bought some cranberry apple jam. It's really good! I only have a little bit left. I wish I could buy more, but it was a seasonal flavor.

The next day school was canceled because of a typhoon. It was gross and nasty out when I got the email that I didn't have to go to school. But very soon after that it passed and then it was a very sunny, beautiful day. I enjoyed the time off and relaxed and drank a latte with marshmallows and sprinkles. :)

I ate the bento I had prepared to take to school (school lunch had been canceled because of the typhoon even before school was canceled) which was sesame noodles and salad. See the sunshine? :)

I went to Nandemo Kaimasu, a used store, and was amused by the sign above. It says that if you do a bad thing (like shoplifting) that this will happen, lol.

Lately I've eaten tonkatsu (the pork in the top left) a few times. I don't eat much pork usually, but that stuff is delicious.

The red bean Haagen Dazs was pretty good, but not one I would get again.

I finished up a felt ice cream cone pouch. It took a long time to make so I don't think I'll be making them for my Etsy shop. It is cute though.

Mister Donut has started selling cupcakes. They call them "New York cupcakes." I was hoping that they would actually have frosting (I've never had it in Japan) but it was a cream topping. But it was still really good. The cream is chocolate flavored and has tiny cookie bits in it. I actually ended up getting the chocolate one twice and also tried the lemon one, which was also good.

The cupcakes are advertised by one of the members of Arashi. The slogan "Otona Kawaii" means "adult cute."

One day Jonathan and I walked to Hamazushi for lunch. I took a picture of one of the many tree fields around here. In this area there are many trees grown for landscaping companies.

Such yummy food! So I don't know why Jonathan made a sad face.

On the way back to my apartment I drank that melon cream soda. I had it before and really liked it, but this time it didn't seem very fizzy.

That sign is at a store at Ito Yokado (the one here is closing soon). "Produced by PMS." That's an unfortunate acronym.

I made some peanut butter cookies. In the US I would have put Hershey Kisses on top, but they are so expensive here so I used Meiji chocolate bar squares instead. These baked really well in my toaster oven. Here is the recipe:  Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies 

I ate some gummy candy that I had bought as part of my Halloween candy.

It was kind of hard to put the gummies together, but it was still kind of fun and cute. Unfortunately they didn't taste very good. :(

Jonathan bought a little Rilakkuma kotatsu for me! It's a great size for my doll! I need a different outfit for her though. Wearing a yukata (summer clothing) at a kotatsu (used in winter) is kind of weird, lol.

Jonathan and I celebrated Thanksgiving a day late. Well, sort of. We got turkey subs at Subway. Very tasty though!

For "Thanksgiving" I made cheesy carrots, which is my favorite side dish that my grandma makes. I didn't have a recipe, but they turned out pretty well and were super cheesy. It's mostly on the bottom so that's why you can't see too much in that picture.

I also made some little apple pies. They tasted good, but the crusts got kind of soggy.

One afternoon Jonathan and I tried to go to the mall but the parking lot was full and we couldn't find anywhere to park. So we went to the grocery store and then biked to an arboretum. We did end up going to the mall later that evening though.

The arboretum is a little bit run down which is a shame because I think it could be really nice if it was kept up a bit better. The waterfall area is nice though. It's in that picture though it's hard to see. I didn't have my camera so I used my cell phone.

My Christmas tree has a sweets theme. I'll have to take some better pictures of it. I also have a Barbie chocolate advent calendar.

The last weekend of November I had planned on studying for the JLPT which was the following weekend. However, the weather was super sunny and not too cold yet. Jonthan said it was about to get cold and it was our last really nice weekend so we should go to the castle park. It wasn't too hard to convince me because I was just taking the test kind of for fun.

I think I probably failed the test (vocab/kanji and listening sections were ok but the grammar and reading was bad) and a few more days of studying wouldn't make a difference so I'm glad I went out and enjoyed the nice weather. :)

I saw that ad for gift cards from a bookstore as we walked to the park. Sooooo cute! I want a cute shiba to run through the snow and bring me a book!

We got lunch from a nearby konbini and ate it in the park.

That's an ad for a driving school, haha.

We went to Baskin Robbins and I finally got to try the brown sugar cinnamon ice cream I had been eyeing recently. They had a deal going on where it was actually cheaper to get two scoops instead of one. How could I pass that up? So I also got a scoop of jamocha coffee. Both were really good, but I actually liked the coffee one even better.

As we sat outside and ate our ice cream I was amused by that ad at Mos Burger.

October and November were really awesome months. The weather was usually nice and I went to both Tokyo and Kyoto. I'm a bit sad that I only have about three months left now. But I still have a couple fun trips coming up so they should be good too!