tonari no shibafu

Food Miles Cafe in Jiyugaoka

It opened last year, but I'm just finding out about this cafe in Jiyugaoka. It's run by the Association to Preserve the Earth and:

serves up dishes using organic and additive-free vegetables and food ingredients, and it also indicates on the menu its food-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, in terms of "food miles," or the distance travelled by food to get to the restaurant.

Have to check it out eventually.

Tsuchione Cafe Blog

via Japan for Sustainability

Day 2 - Shopping

Before leaving Tokyo we sussed out a handful of places to do some shopping. Autostrada wounds healed from our trip to Monte San Savino from the airport, we braved a trip to The Mall. It has a lot of high level brands like Armani, Zegna and Bottega Veneta, but the shops are few and the prices unremarkable. In the end, perhaps the best part of it was the scenery.

It sits in a valley ringed by the mountains to the east and north of Florence. After circumambulating the shops to no avail, we set off for the Prada outlet in Montevarchi hoping that our desire for consumerism would find purchase.

It was a relatively simple matter to find the outlet, in spite of taking local roads. The road we traveled took us through the center of a succession of small suburban towns. In contrast to the previous day's journey past late-Medieval buildings and fortifications, we seemed now to be passing through the early 20th century. Most of the buildings are still made of brick and stone, but with a decidedly modern complexion.

At the outlet I was able to pick up an overcoat and two pairs of pants. The place is hit or miss as there's not much variety and it's luck as to whether you can find something to suit in your size. One thing to note is that citizens of non-EU countries are entitled to a rebate of tax for purchases over 160 euros. After about an hour there listening to people talk among their packs or to distant fellows on cell phones in German, French, American English -- why did those ladies seem the most obnoxious and pretentious of the bunch? -- Korean, and a host of languages I couldn't make out, it was time to slake a thirst of a different order.

We had a good meal at a cafe across the road from the outlet. The place is called, no I'm not making this up, La Dolce Vita. The meal, with which we had obligatory wine, was as advertised.

Again we used the GPS and our maps to find our way back to Gargonza. After a brief respite we went and picked up pizza at a local joint called Lo Stroncopane (two pizzas 10 euros).

Italy, Tuscany

For Nate

The Japan Times has an article today about vegan food in Japan.

The Tokyo places mentioned after the break

Technorati Tags: food, Setagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo, vegan

Leaving the primordial ooze

After a solid week of just sitting around (with exception of Saturday and Sunday), I am heading out today.

Gonna hang out with Pat and his kids this morning and then some cafe writing in Boston.  May hit a clothing store on the way out as well. 

The cold is much less oppressive than remembered.

Big city, small town

After a night of debauchery with Ramsbottom-Isherwood, I was feeling under the weather and was late for work.  By work I mean at Muriwui.  I started teaching conversational English there yesterday to supplement my income enough that I'll have some pocket cash when I head home next month.  I'm getting about $80 a week to chat with folks in the mother tongue and hope to save all of it for pizza, beer and sundries in 'ole Taxachusetts.

Anyway, even after multiple trips to the head I was feeling like death warmed over and battling through on willpower alone.  My second student was the ever-vivacious Reiko who I also taught yesterday.  She had looked familiar to me, but I assumed it was because I had seen her at the cafe before.  Turns out that she plays hoops with the Setagaya Phoenix and I had met her last summer.  She just didn't recognize me with the new 'do.

After that little bit of serendipity, another crazy thing happened.  I met The Shoe.  He and his wife were in Muriwui and he came up and introduced himself after my last lesson.  We had exchanged a couple o emails way back when about, oddly enough, playing hoops, but that had been our only contact outside of the comments sections of our blogs.

I have now met two bloggers in person that I knew only from the fabulous internet.

Wireless in Nara

There is free wireless in the Kintetsu Nara station.  Right now Misa and I are at the Starbucks planning our day and waiting for my camera battery to charge.

We're gonna hit Todaiji, Kofukuji, and Kasuga Taisha I think.

Turns out that the room that we have here is much better than we needed.  However, the service is sweet and you do tend to get what you pay for.  Actually, when Nate came to our room, someone from downstairs escorted him, and then about 5mins. later they brought him some maccha.  Gotta like that.  Still, we could have gone for something a little more moderately priced and still been happy I think. 

Anyway, more updates later, and in the meantime I will upload the photos taken so far to Flickr.  They will be comprised of some shots from Ise Jingu, and then Horyuji and Yakushiji temple complexes.

Chofu Ffireworks

It turns out that you can see the Chofu fireworks from Cafe Muriwui.  I heard the report of the first round of fireworks and called up Katsuyo.  She confirmed that they were watching and so I donned my jinbei and headed over. 

Totally worth it.

F