Alexander's Patisserie, Mountain View

Upon exiting Maison Alyzee, I promptly crossed the street for Alexander's Patisserie. Talk about a literal patisserie face-off--they're staring each other down from across the street. Fine with me though. More patisseries means more sweets for me to enjoy ^.^

Maison Alyzee, Mountain View

As hubby and I grabbed a quick snack at the Hong Kong Bakery & Cafe, I couldn't help but notice Maison Alyzee right next door. After he left to do work stuff, I went in to check it out despite having had a snack. I could never pass up a patisserie. There's always room for desserts in this tummy ^.^

Mountain View, California

Last year, hubby had to make a few short work trips out to California, once to SF in late July and twice to Mountain View in the fall (beginning of September and end of November). I tagged along each time and took some photos while wandering about (and yes, I'm still perpetually behind on posts...).

Both of the trips were super short. Each time, I had just a couple of hours in the afternoon to explore and get myself some snacks while hubby got some work stuff done, then we met up with old friends for dinner and went home the next day. So I ended up just wandering up and down Moffett Boulevard/Castro Street (downtown Mountain View) and took pictures of the shops that caught my eyes (mostly food :P).

Crown & Crumpet Tea Room, San Francisco, Part III

While hubby was busy with work conference, I roamed around Japantown and visited familiar stores and shops until I got tired. Plus, having a few days away from our little one (he stayed with my parents) meant precious writing time for me.

That said, writing meant I needed a place to camp and staying all cooped up in the hotel room was not an option. This was in SF, after all! Thank goodness for Crown & Crumpet Tea Room on Post Street.

Only in Japan... Part V

I've caught up with my Japan food photos but there are still several Japan-related posts lining up in draft form, like this one in the Only in Japan series for example. I didn't do a post in this series throughout our time in Tokyo but it's better late than never.

Spotted this cool-dude-who-gives-zero-f*ck outside the Marunouchi Cafe Kai on the ground floor of the Kitte Building, across the street from Tokyo Station. Let's just say when you were minding your own business and then looked out the door to see guy sporting samurai hair, outfit, and hiking shoes, you just couldn't help but sneak a photo or two. I do wonder if there were a theater or film studio of some sorts nearby. Then again, he didn't look like he had any stage or film makeup on.

Tokyo Eats - Shibuya Area

Shibuya was another under-explored area for me and hubby. Believe it or not, we went to Shibuya more often while living in Yokohama than we did while living in Tokyo. I blame the same big, dense city exhaustion, because being a suburb Yokohama was nowhere as crowded as Tokyo.

Tokyo Eats - Ebisu Area

Another area hubby and I occasionally strolled through was Ebisu, most of the time for coffee from this Sarutahiko Coffee shop. The place was always busy, so we often get ours to go. It was only every once in a while that we actually found ourselves a seat. We liked the place enough to have bought 3 mugs from them and proceeded to lug all home as souvenirs ^.^

Tokyo Eats - Nakameguro Area

From our time living in Yokohama, aside from Nabezo our neighbor S. also introduced me and hubby to Junkadelic in Nakameguro. Interestingly enough, when we arrived in Tokyo, we realized our then-new home wasn't too far from Nakameguro at all, just several subway stops away on the same Metro line! How convenient was that? We could go eat Tex-Mex anytime we wanted without having to dread the 2hrs. train ride there and back!

And what do you know, a couple of weeks into opening the new office, hubby's boss wondered out loud, "Does anyone know a good Mexican place around here?" Hubby and I looked at each other and he replied, "We do know of a decent one." And off the whole office went.

On the way to Junkadelic from Nakameguro Station.

Tokyo Eats - Akasaka area

Landing in Tokyo in August of 2015, we got ourselves a major craving for some okonomiyaki. This was before we found Kinu in our neighborhood, you see, so upon some googling we decided to go with what we knew, a Botejyu branch in Akasaka that was closest to us. Little did we know we'd be coming back to Akasaka again and again throughout our time in Tokyo, though mostly for Shichirin Yakiniku AnAn below.

Anyway, I didn't like our first visit to Botejyu years ago but in our desperation we gave it another chance just to relive our previous Japan experience. We ended up having a great meal there and went on to bring friends and family back, until the smoking in the restaurant became unbearable and stopped us from coming back. It seemed the restaurant had grown and the food vastly improved since we ate there last.

These were the seasonal offerings for the fall of 2015.

Tokyo Eats - Omotesando area

Hubby and I, and our friends too for that matter, only went to Omotesando a few times when we were in Tokyo. It wasn't because we didn't like it. We felt--for lack of better words--out of place there. Why? From our view Omotesando is really poshy, the all-grown-up-and-super-successful big sister of Harajuku. Ginza? Pffft, too touristy, which was why we spent a lot of time there because we could blend into the crowds of tourists. But there at Omotesando, our decidedly "un-hip" appearance stuck out like a sore thumb.

The Prada Aoyama branch.

Tokyo Eats - Roppongi area Part VII

The last of the Roppongi food posts :(

Hubby and colleagues were super excited when Blue Bottle Coffee opened yet another branch in Roppongi (they're up to 6 branches in Tokyo now!), in the spanking new Tri-Seven Building across the street from Midtown. It made their daily coffee run much easier than, say, Omotesando (will post soon!). Hubby loved going there, and he loved to drag me along. I was more, umm, indifferent. Sure, I like coffee, but more so the flavor than the actual beverage, which can sometimes be too strong and bitter for my unsophisticated taste buds.

Tokyo Eats - Ginza area Part III

Wow, has it really been more than a year since my last Ginza post?! Anyway, here's the last of the Ginza series and a long post ahead. I'm almost through with the rest of the Tokyo food photos too. I guess I should be happy to finally be done with the gigantic photo backlog, but coming to the end of the Japan pictures makes me so sad and nostalgic :(

Mum-in-law visited us back in early April 2016 with her older sister, aunt D. Aunt D. was the one who took this pic, with me photo-bombing hubby and his mum ^.^

An Afternoon in Asakusa, Tokyo

My brother was visiting us in Tokyo around late September, and during one weekday he and I took a stroll around Asakusa after lunch. No, we didn't go to Senso-ji again. Been there a million times. Instead, we started out at the famous and crowded Asakusa Nakamise and made our way through all the surrounding shotengais.

An Afternoon in Akihabara, Tokyo

Before hubby and I moved home from Japan last October, my brother flew out to hang with us for about 10 days around late September. Free place to crash in Tokyo, so why not, right? When he was there for the holidays season 2015, he got the explore the city a little bit. The second time around he was a lot more comfortable venturing out by himself, knowing how the subway system works, how much things cost, etc.

One Sunday he convinced us to go with him to Akihabara, or Akiba for short. We both have been once, though only briefly a long time ago, back in 2010-2012 when we were living in Yokohama. So hubby and my brother went out there after breakfast, and I joined them after lunch.

Taipei Eats - Ximending area Part III (西門町)

After a failed attempt to visit the National Palace Museum, we took J. to Ximending (西門町) for her to try Yu's Almond Tofu (于記杏仁豆腐). Yup, even a typhoon couldn't stop us from getting some delicious almond shaved ice and as you can see, we weren't the only ones there.