This week, 10 prefectures have entered まん延防止等重点措置 (Manen boushi tou jyuten sochi), shortened to "manen"⚠️ . This is slightly different from state of emergency where instead of an entire prefecture restriction, the restriction is focused on specific city or cities with high infection number. Started in Osaka, Hyogo and Miyagi on April 5, it has … Continue reading Tokyo suburb highlight: Yoyogi Uehara
2021 Hanami 🌸 Last year around about now, covid-19 was slowly spreading infections and fear around the world. We decided not to go to 花見 (hanami, cherry blossom viewing) as I killed my longing to enjoy the traditional Japanese event so that we and people around us can live. This year, covid-19 is still spreading … Continue reading Sakura 2 ways: view at hanami and taste with wagashi
teamLab is a multidisciplinary art collectives that offers an immersive art experience. They have many exhibitions in Japan with some in overseas including Singapore, Shanghai, New York and Macau to name a few. One of their exhibitions in Odaiba has been well featured and I have been meaning to go since I moved to Japan … Continue reading Only in Tokyo: Body detox and art appreciation at teamLab Reconnect
One of the benefits of the pandemic has been that I've been challenging myself with new recipes. I would have dismissed recipes that will take more than 2-3 hours in total. Recently, I made 夏みかん (natsumikan) citrus peel. Depending on which recipe you follow, it takes somewhere between 2- 11hours 😳. 11 hours sound like … Continue reading How to make a citrus peel using natsumikan
Since Wednesday April 29, Japan is in what used to be one of the biggest holiday period of the year, Golden Week, where multiple public holidays are lined up to be enjoyed for a spring vacation. As Japan is in the midst of State of Emergency now, compared to last year's Golden Week, shinkansen or … Continue reading Is fabric “Abenomask” a fabrication? and how Japan is handling coronavirus
State of Emergency continues in Japan and last Saturday was nature enforcing it on Japanese citizens, where it rained heavily all morning and afternoon 🌧🌧. Luckily, Sunday's weather forecast was sunny all day so we decided to get on our bikes to get some fresh air while we practice social distancing. Tokyo is very densely … Continue reading Tokyo cycling trip 🚴🏻♀️
Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe has announced on Monday that 'state of emergency will be declared in Japan as early as April 7' 🚨. Nervously we continued to work from home and at 7pm on April 7, Prime Minister Abe declared 🚨State of Emergency 🚨for a month for 7 prefectures (out of 47) that were … Continue reading State of Emergency* (*conditions apply)
A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went on a beautiful nature getaway in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo at a glamping site called Private Garden the West. The owner kindly gave us two massive 筍(takenoko or bamboo shoot)🎍. 2 very proud bamboo shoot freshly harvested in Chiba Bamboo shoot isn't a common ingredient … Continue reading Back to basics: How to cook Bamboo shoot in a Japanese style
Last Wednesday (March 25), Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike strongly urged people to work from home, stay at home at night and during this weekend as Tokyo's coronavirus infection rate continue to rise. Similar to many other cities around the world, panic food shopping happened in Tokyo as well that night... All the essentials stocked out … Continue reading Glamping near Tokyo
Today, March 14th is White Day in Japan. It is a celebration that started in Japan and not many non-Japanese are familiar with this celebration. Although I have heard of it, I never knew people who actually partaken in it. So I've researched about the history and asked my husband to share his experience. Before … Continue reading Hidden Japanese meanings behind candies, marshmallow and cookies
Native Expat 