Meeting in the Real World

Wow, I can't believe it was a week ago that I was in Tokyo. This last week just flew by and other than marking tests and teaching, I can't even remember what I did. Oh, that's right, slept, trying to get some energy back after the big weekend.

One exciting thing I did while in the big city (Tokyo still blows me away with the number of people and the size of everything), was to meet my first blogger in the real world, La Fuji Mama! I was excited and really nervous at the same time. It was a bit like meeting an internet date. Will she like me? Will we have stuff to talk about?

I had nothing to worry about. She was such a delight, and my only regrets were that I only had a couple of hours to spend with her and that she doesn't live closer so we could do it more often. I also immediately fell in love with her little girl. As if the ever-so-blonde hair, the bright blue eyes and the gorgeous little smile weren't enough, this little one can talk more than me! And that's really saying something! The whole time, she happily chatted away to herself, joining in our conversation in her own way.

La Fuji Mama is a real foodie. So often, when reading her blog, I get really hungry and want to reach through the screen to taste her latest delights. This girl loves to cook and it looks like she's great at it. She's even made my all-time favourite Japanese sweet, ichi-go daifuku, rice cakes with strawberries. Yummm.. see here I go again, hungry now...

Trying to figure out where to go for a late lunch was a little hard, with so many great options. We ended up at a place she'd had recommended to her, Café-Creperie Le Bretagne. I went for the smoked salmon, sour cream and chives crepe, and it was delicious.

Just look at these girls, just how gorgeous are they!

The rest of the post is in honour of La Fuji Mama. I was telling her of a book, The Japanese Kitchen by Kimiko Barber. I bought hoping it would inspire me to cook Japanese food. Or actually, to cook at all. It goes through, often with a double-page spread on each Japanese ingredient. It explains how it's grown, its appearance and taste, its health benefits, how to buy and store it and how it is used. It then usually gives a recipe or two.

I have to confess, I haven't cooked much from it, but love to flick through it and dream of things that I will cook one day.