Pounding rice, dried squid and hungry carp

M: Today we had a lovely day. We started off early and went to a community festival in downtown Tokyo. Apparently it's quite popular in Tokyo to have a festival in your local community - but we busted in on this one as it was held by a friend of a friend of a friend. Everything there was free! We had free noodles, soup, sausages, sweets (puddings but they call them sweets here) and much to Jack's delight, free beer!

As soon as we arrived, Jack was roped in to pound some rice to make these gooey sweet-rice puddings in 'tradional Japanese style'

The noodle women...

They were doing a raffle but it seemed pretty much like a free-for-all...
Jack tackling the dried squid, it was quite tough and chewy...

Jack with some other goodies - they were pretty much giant Wotsits...

After the festival, we went along to an Edo museum where they had recreated a section of a town that you could wander round...

Jack and Ryota in an Edo-era hotel...

Jack and Ryota enjoying a katatsu (a table with a heater and blanket)...

There was this weird mechanical cat on top of one of the roofs...

A mock toilet, basically a hole in the ground...

A child-size woven sandle...
After the museum we went to a Japanese garden and had tea and cake in the tea room...

We also fed the fish - check out the gobs on these carp!

This is why Jack and I have colds...

M: After two days of training (which would have been holiday otherwise), Jack and I went for a few drinks in the evening...what should have been a couple of bevs in Chiba, which is a 20 min walk from our flat, turned into a trek into Tokyo to Shibuyu and drinking through the night as there are no night buses or trains, you have to get the first one home on Sunday morning!

We were knocking back these badboys on the train...

And this is the result...

Needless to say that when we got back home on Sunday morning, we were both hanging! Sunday involved Jack only moving from his chair to go and have a bath and watching a dvd through the door. I managed to make it to the shop to get some food supplies and rustle up steak, potatoes and peas with ketchup to comfort the boy. Delicate is probably the best way to describe us that day! Happy times :)

Autumn scenes...

The local park on Thursday

Cooking part deux...

M: On Thursday, I had my second cooking lesson with Tomoko. I had requested making sushi as I wanted to know how to do it properly and here are the results...

The spread

This was my absolute favourite! Tuna with avocado, delicious. We mixed in some umezu (plum vinegar) with the avocado to give it a bit of tang - Japanese cooking tends to use this instead of lemon juice

This doesn't look so great but was lovely - aubergines and ginger cooked in home-made dashi (Japanese stock made from seaweed and dried fish)

Ebi (prawn) spring rolls and fried cobnuts. So tasty!

Anago (conger eel) and cucumber sushi. Surprisingly good - especially with wasabe and dipped in soy sauce

Tomoko bought some traditional Japanese autumn sweets for us to have afterwards. They are made from soy beans (like most things here) and sugar. They looked like plasticine and had a similar texture but were strangely delightful - not too sweet and perfectly complimented by a bowl of matcha (powdered green tea). Tomoko practices tea ceremony and prepared the matcha in the traditional way, it was quite special

Punch pilgrimage, karaoke and Chiba park at night...

J: Barlow, I know you have asked for us to lay off the bikes, but thats a non starter I'm afraid! A week of adventures started off with a trip to cycle-recycle depot in Icikawa, definitely the find of the day. The guy in the shop was a legend, they had great stuff and it was all really cheap compared to equivalent stores in London like 'blb' .This was the stores own bike tricked out with previously purple rims that had been left in the sun for too long. The frame is a crc depot own brand job, really rather nice to be honest.

We later trekked into Asakusa, which was a pain in the arse to get to, in a vain attempt to enter Punch cycles, a legendary NJS store - Japanese track bikes. Unfortunately the shop was closed, and has very strange opening hours that have defeated us so far. We did however meet a couple of really funny 'mature' people in the tourist information office who seemed more entertained by us than we were by them.

The next big adventure of the week was a birthday celebration in Tsudanuma for Mr Tom Stacey. It started in Sala - a gaijin bar near to the station and then moved onto a karaoke bar, below is a shot of a powerful rendition 'lets get physical'.

M: It should be mentioned at this point that you pay for the booth for an hour, and you can drink unlimited booze in that time and help yourself to whippy ice-cream from the machine outside!

Could explain some of the shots of Jack!

These are some pics i took on May's camera of our local park on the way home from Chiba on Sunday evening, it was quite a misty evening and the pictures came out rather well.

This is a slide that could easily feature in a horror film I think, its part of our local open air pool that has been closed for the winter, come summer time I'm going to own this.

'Cycle mode 2008' aka 'Bike Heaven'

Possibly the greatest show on earth! started by an American giving us free tickets on the way in - whoever you are, we love you!

This panasonic single speed had incredible lug work, and was a really beautiful machine - elegant, simple, expensive.

Another example of great lugging

I liked the rims on this one especially.

Possibly the most pointless bike I have ever seen, It made me feel sick inside, and like I had been touched by a member of the clergy. You could test ride most of the bikes at the show - this was left on the shelf......

Spooge rims, one way to show your virility I suppose...

A genki Masi - apparently and Italian company, made in China - thanks Seo for that slice of information!

One of the geeky pictures - coloured spokes

A curiosity - fixed gear tourer, strange and beautiful

A hat that a grandmother should make....like for xmas....This xmas.....seriously.....

I would have bought this if it was made by Poke

Bells and bar tape, all very cheap and tuneful

Sexy saddles, Mr Hadden - to save your boys from that razor blade you currently use I will buy you one of these, you can thank me by naming your first son after me.

Toe straps, all sexy and shiny

A full Pake, should have been poke, they really dropped the ball on that one.

Coloured tyres

An mp3 player for your handlebars, pretty pointless - very japanese.

To help with fisting, the knuckle light.

coloured chains are hot....

....Especially when they're reversible.....

......released in 2009....

....and only 500 are made each year...

This guy was a legend! A bicycle historian with all the right connections, spoke great English and designed a bike so short people and ladies don't mash up their down stairs while cycling!

the ride in question

Made for bike gymnastics - it looks super gay when you see it being done, like bmx tricks for sturdy russian looking women...

A rack of lovely chain rings, hubs and seat posts.

Coloured rims, and I'm not even being dirty when I write that.

This was pretty weird, those shitty muscle twitch machines are apparently pretty popular over here so these guys came to the show to sit and twitch and be watched by other visitors. I'd rather shit in public that do that nonsense.

These were fuggin awesome! toy fixed gear bikes that you can modify and build just like a real one - so tempting, and yet potentially such an awful guilty pleasure.

This was expensive and looked pretty gay to me, it was interesting in that when you pedal it propels the front wheel as well, but thats straight up voodoo in my eyes. I threw holy water on it and the guy spoke in tongues at me. Might have been Korean, definitely some effin and jeffin

Voodoo

Ugly tyres for your ugly bike, dressing up a turd has never been so easy - since the shell suit.

It seems Raleigh still make nice bikes, but not for the UK

Clamp on brakes are an interesting addition to any fixed gear.

A nice idea well executed.

An Olympians bike, shame they were so poo.