June 15 – July 15, 2020
Places we Traveled:
Tokyo (x2), Nagoya, Sendai
Peaks:
- Glitch Coffee in Tokyo. One of the first places in Japan I made the effort to explore on my own was Coffee Tonya, a coffee wholesaler that roasts beans to order in house. Since then, I’ve dragged Andrew down the rabbit hole of coffee snobbery with me and we’ve added an electric burr grinder, hario v60 cone, goose neck kettle, and zojirushi hot water dispenser with 4 temp settings to our home coffee setup. Making the trek down to Tokyo to experience Glitch Coffee was a natural progression. Coffee people in Japan go to Glitch – that’s a fact and a suggestion, 2 for 1.
- Misokatsu in Nagoya. Andrew and I still sometimes turn to each other and say, “remember when we had misokatsu in Nagoya?” I wouldn’t say it is a revolutionary dish, just regular katsu (breaded, fried pork cutlet)…but instead of the thick, brown, somewhat sweet katsu sauce that tops katsu in most of Japan, the wonderful people in Nagoya pour a warm, red miso (salty, rich, deep flavor) sauce over the katsu. Peak “crispy-gone-soggy” food innovation.
- Harvesting fresh veggies from our balcony garden. When we sprinkled a handful of seeds in some plastic planters on our balcony, we did not have high expectations. It has been a real joy to see our seeds grow into plants and are providing food. As much as I love veggies, I have never had my own garden. We’re definitely going to keep gardening when we move back to Columbus.
- Dinner at the Blind Donkey in Tokyo. Hands down one of the best meals I have experienced anywhere in the world. Not much more to say about that, just really, really good food and atmosphere.
- Exploring Sendai and Matsushima. We spent a weekend in Sendai, the largest city in Japan’s Tohoku region. Sendai doesn’t have much of a reputation for being a tourism hot spot, but even through the torrential rains we really enjoyed our weekend here. Sure, I brought home a case of (probably) poison ivy, but I would go back no question.
- Returning to kintsugi classes. After a long break during the state of emergency, it was a real joy to return to the classroom and continue working on my repair projects.
Valleys:
- A lot of this time has been marked by uncertainty. We aren’t sure if we are taking enough precautions when we travel, if we should be traveling at all, when the government will reopen the borders to foreigners, whether or not we will be able to visit or be visited by our families, if there will be another state of emergency as COVID cases rise once again in major cities.
