Food Fascination
Food is probably one of the most fascinating factors of Japan. Food is taken very seriously here and the amount of thought that goes into food creation and presentation is next level. It is very joyful and one can often choose and customise food to one’s liking. I love this! For example I can choose whether I want my Matcha Latte hot or cold. Or whether I want my Udon noodles hot or cold. Or with extra 63* (Celsius) cooked to temperature precision eggs. Afterwards I can add extra spices or sesame and much more. And good food can be had for little money. Today I got this Udon noodle fried tofu dish from a little shop close to the train station and it tasted amazing! It only cost ~6.50 Euro in the Center of Tokyo for all the food and drinks shown here.
These are Udon noodles with fried vegetables (especially carrots), fried tofu, 2 half-boiled eggs (an acquired taste 😅), and fried tofu.
Flavor-wise, it’s sweet, with a bit of sourness and a subtle spiciness that comes from horseradish.
Additionally, there were also two servings of fried rice (top left) – also sweet, with a hint of vinegar taste. Plus it comes with free unlimited water. Super yummy (oishii desu!) and worth it.
Intuitive Introspection
Tokyo has so many people living here but the neighbourhood, Ueno, I’m staying in feels very laidback. Almost like the Japanese version of Munich in Germany where it feels like a suburb within the big city. I’ve read also that Tokyo is the unification of many cities around it’s so that makes sense :).
There is a beautiful park around where I live the Ueno park. It has both Buddhist and Shinto temples in coexistence. In one of the Shinto temples people put up signs with their dreams and wishes. It’s so affirming how positive people think. It’s such a sharp contrast to the constant chatter of the internet. And even though it’s anonymous there is only love and well wishing. People from many countries write in many languages. Most of the messages are about people’s romantic partner, family, health and wealth and generally just wishing people very well. Also some of them deal with birth from expecting parents who wish their upcoming child to have lots of strength and others deal with the loss of their loved ones, in one case even the child of a mother. It brought tears to my eyes to read the messages, and it felt deeply meaningful. Here is a photo of it.
It’s a beautiful environment and even with Tokyo having lots of possible distractions it offers for everybody what they need. From the tranquil city park with beautiful temples to the loud and noise a slot machines where people go to gamble. It’s all what you make out of it.
Thank you for reading and I wish you a beautiful day full of love, laughter and enjoyment.
P.S.: Summertime is warm, but it doesn’t feel extreme hot somehow even though it’s 35* Celsius and I just came from Melbourne Australia winter with 1-11 degrees in a day. And it’s so nice to be able to be out and about all day long. Here is another bonus pictures of the view from my park bench where I wrote this.
Koi Koi Koi happy Koi hehe 😁
The sound of wind 😮🤩