Time for another short restaurant review! We found another Spanish restaurant, La Taperia in Yotsuya-sanchome. The style of the food here is a little bit more “old style” Spanish than the previous restaurant we went to in Kagurazaka, El Pulpo. However – the quality was good, and one of the most beautiful things about Tokyo is that you can discover these “time capsule” restaurants. The food stays true to the era when the restaurant opened or the era when the chef got his training. This reminded me of early 90’s Spanish food (which is not a bad thing!). The food was good, and the service was great. They also have English speakers at La Taperia. The food was quite a bit heavier than at El Pulpo, but it was tasty and good. As in any other restaurant in Japan, the cheese plate was nothing to call home about, but compared to the price it wasn’t the worst one I had. The meat dish with a blue cheese sauce was surprisingly good. We were recommended a bottle of Spanish white wine, and it complemented most of the dishes quite well. If you are in Yotsuya-sanchome, it is worth a visit if you are in the mood for a bit of heavy Spanish food.

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I went to the Mori Art Center in Roppongi on Friday, and for once it was actually allowed to take pictures of part of the exhibition. This is Kusama Yayoi “Love is Calling”. Beautiful! I felt like I was walking in wonderland!

This is Sparta! Uhm… Ok. It isn’t. But it is Saitama! I am a Tokyo kind of gal, so I rarely ever travel outside the city borders, but I have a friend who lives in Saitama, and we met up at her place. OUTSIDE THE CITY! In the next PREFECTURE! Wawa-wi-wooo! (Adventurous!) I guess I should mention that this place is only like 50 min away from Shinjuku. (Still adventurous!) But look! They have fields of stuff growing right next to their apartment! And we saw bats! Over the river! (I was very excited about this, mind you!)

I saw plants growing in the wild for the first time in several months, and even the air felt crisper and cleaner than in Tokyo.

More plants!

A house! In the middle of a rice field! My first thought was that it would be awesome to live like this, in the middle of nature, but then it got darker and a lot of bugs came creeping out from everywhere, and I thought it must be quite the hassle to try to keep the bugs and bats out of your house in the middle of the rice patty at night. To finish up our evening walk, we went to a bamboo forest near by. Lovely!

(old pictures from 5 – 6 years ago.)

Åh, jeg husker barndommen da alle de voksne snakket om hvordan ting var bedre før i tiden, og jeg sukket og okket og kavet og tenkte at nei sånn, sånn skal jeg aldri bli. Altså en sånn person som mimrer i timesvis over barndommens enkle gleder. Likevel har jeg nå tatt meg selv i å bruke to timer av mitt liv på denne bloggen, fineminner.blogspot.com, og jeg har lest om alt fra Disneys Eventyrbånd (Tussi feirer fødselsdag!) til Nancy Drew, og har med jevne mellomrom både gryntet og laget lyder i form av små *hviiiiiin*. Hvem kan vel glemme Kræsj PINK-is med tyggis i pinnen (herregud så klissete jeg ble på fingrene), eller is med Tyrkisk Pepper. Egentlig virker komboen av salt lakris og iskrem ikke særlig forlokkende, men for den 7 år gamle versjonen av meg selv var det 7 minutes in heaven, altså. Fyttegrisen. Gi meg barndommen tilbake.

God sommer! Spis en norsk is for meg også 😉