俺のフレンチ・イタリアン青山

I've been wanting to go to 俺のフレンチ・イタリアン青山 (Ore no French Italian, Aoyama) almost the entire time I've been in Japan.

I was always a bit nervous though, since I had no experience with French food and deciphering what the katakana French menu offered seemed somewhat daunting.

Thanks to the all wonderful internet and even more awesome Dairy and Cream, I managed to compile a list of everything I wanted to try when I finally managed to make a reservation at the restaurant.

The majority of the tables are standing, but because we made a reservation the second time around, we managed to get a seated table.
Definitely much easier on the legs after walking around shopping in Omotesando all day :)

On to the food though.

A must try is the トマトのムース　雲丹とキャビアのジュレ寄せ (tomato mousse, uni and caviar gelee).


My roommate isn't actually a big uni fan, but we both were avid fans of this combo. I have to admit that I had my doubts too, since caviar and uni were such strongly flavored ingredients, but the smooth tomato mousse below really brought everything together in this dish. Plus--there were gold flakes on the caviar! Talk about luxurious!

Another dish we had was the　ズワイガニのフイヤンティーヌ〜ピスタチオとフランボワーズ (Snow crab feuillantine ~ pistachio and raspberry).


The feuillantine was a very interesting combination of tastes and textures. The crab meat and feuillantine complimented each other very well. My palate wasn't sensitive enough to pick up the raspberries though.

One of Ore no French Italian's specialties is the オマールのロースト～貴腐ワインのソース～ (Roasted lobster ~ Wine sauce).


The lobster roasted to perfection. Every bite had a piece of juicy fresh lobster, and the buttery sauce made me wish I could abandon my knife and fork.

Next is another favorite, the サーモンのテリーヌ (salmon terrine).


This one literally had me oohing and aahing. It came covered with a smoke-filled glass lid. When the lid was lifted, I had a slight recoil from the sharpness of the smoke within, but once the fog lifted (quite literally), behold the glory of this beautiful joined terrine. It definitely wasn't just a showy dish though--the taste lived up to its appearance.

The only thing about the terrine is that it's only available from 8pm onwards. The first time we visited Ore no French, many of their specialties were sold out, so we ordered this blessing in disguise.

Last, but not least is one of my Ore no French Italian favorites--the 牛フィレとフォアグラのロッシーニ トリュフソース (the beef filet and foie gras rossini with truffle sauce).


We saw this dish at nearly every table, and when we tasted ours, we knew why.

The smooth foie gras with the lean steak makes a perfect combination. Add that with the earthy truffles, and you have a beautifully composed steak dish on your hands. If it weren't for all the food that we had already stuffed into ourselves, I would have loved to have some bread to finish off the sauce.

Ore no French Italian is a must visit. There are some fees (music and the mandatory cheese price), but for the price that you pay for the food, it is most definitely worth it. If possible, do try and get a reservation, which can be made on the Ore no French Italian Aoyama website. Otherwise, you will probably be looking at around an hour to a two hour wait (still worth it though!).

Has anybody else been there before? What other dishes should I try?

TABITAI finally on TV

I always knew I was going to grow up to be a TV star, and frankly, when some random guys standing in front of Shibuya's Don Quixote finally asked us for an interview, I thought, "About damn time!"

I kid, of course.

It actually went down like this:
My brother and I had just come back from Haneda from dropping our parents off. We were meeting someone at Yuurakucho Station later at night, so I figured we'd have lunch and hang out around Shibuya to see if we could maybe have something of interest to buy.

We had lunch at a tiny curry shop and I spotted a Donki, sometimes my favorite store because it's such an eclectic mish mash of both useful and absolutely useless things.

"Let's go to Donki!" I exclaimed, not particularly looking for my brother's input. My brother meandered along good naturedly when he was suddenly stopped by a man in glasses asking in somewhat broken English.

"Excuse me," he enunciated carefully. "Are you here for trip?"

"Er...yes?"

The man explained that they were doing a segment on popular souvenirs amongst foreigners, and would we be willing to let them follow us around the store as we browsed?

My brother hesitated, but I said, "Sure!" before my brother could turn them down out of perfectly sensible privacy concerns.

It was the most awkward moment of window shopping I'd ever done, and I suddenly felt self-conscious of everything I was picking up and looking at. At one point, I turned the corner and found myself in a decidedly adult section of the store and hurriedly backed out.

Eventually, the crew stopped us and asked us a few interview questions such as, "Was the layout of the store confusing? How did you feel wandering around the store?"

At any rate, you can check us out in the video below. We appear at the 1:17 mark, and again at the 2:25 mark.

Appeared on national TV? Check

Watched by A-list Japanese celebrities? Check.

We also asked to commit the TV crew to (digital) film just in case we never got a recording of the actual clip, but of course YouTube came in handy later on down the road, and they were nice enough to oblige.

I became a minor celebrity of my workplaces, and it was interesting to be greeted by people who I had never met before with a, "Excuse me, but have I seen you on TV before?"

And now, I can answer, "Why--why, yes, you probably have."

Also, thanks for my brother's friend, Bennett Fong, for letting us know that he saw us on Youtube. Unfortunately, the clip he found was taken down, but I found another one easily enough and did a bit of poking around to save for myself.

Anyways, till next time~!

November and Middle School Friends

Matt kindly reminded that there haven't been much updates on the blog, so here I am!

November was actually a very busy month, and one of my closest friends, Megan, from when I was 12 actually came to Japan for a vacation with her boyfriend Ivan (maybe you can try to spot his ninja self in the wallpaper of the photo below!).

Because of Megan, I had one of the busiest long weekends ever. Unfortunately, most of the weekend was spent without Ivan, who was busy with work, but it might have been better for him that way since Megan and I ended up getting nostalgic about our tween years without Twilight and a lot of manga and Dragonball, haha.

We were originally supposed to meet in Kawagoe, but due to some mistakes in logistics, I actually ended up being a tourist in Kawagoe by myself.

The last time I went to Kawagoe was actually for the Kawagoe festival in October. The atmosphere was very different though, without thousands of people pouring into Kawagoe to see "float battles."

Kawagoe was much more relaxed this time, and I took a leisurely trip while following the tourist map. While there were certainly many pretty and quaint temples and shrines, my favorite--by far--was the 500 Statues of Rakan.

The sculptures, despite being worn down by time and the weather, were clearly unique. There was not a single statue that was the same as another.

And, of course, you can't go to see the 500 Rakan without seeing the two men in conversation.

There was also a little quest amongst the 500 Rakan for visitors. Amongst the 500 statues, 12 statues were holding animals from the Chinese zodiac. Legend had it if you found the rakan that held your zodiac animal and rubbed its head, you would have good luck.

Needless to say, I set out to find my statue and, after carefully inspecting each and every statue, I finally found the one holding a snake.

The day I visited the 500 Rakan, I was also lucky to stumble upon the annual Chrysanthemum festival that was being held at the same temple.

I've always loved chrysanthemums (as long as they weren't in the herbal teas that my dad would occasionally force us to drink, haha), but I think Japan is the first time I've seen competitive chrysanthemum growing.

I noticed that many of the chrysanthemums were grown with three chrysanthemums per plant and didn't think much of it until I found out it was apparently about representations of the balance of the universe.

The chrysanthemums are apparently a representation of the universe with one flower representing humans, the earth and the heavens respectively (don't quote me on this!). Regardless of what they represented though, the chrysanthemums of Japan are definitely painstakingly cared for.

There were also several different types of chrysanthemums, and I think I must have taken hundreds of photos after switching between lens and going in at different angles just to try and get a picture that would do these flowers justice.

After Kawagoe, the next big touristy stop was Yokohama.

I had visited Yokohama before in 2007 when I first came to Japan, but this trip to Yokohama was much more in depth.

We went from the infamous Chinatown to the diplomats homes in Minatomirai.

The diplomats' houses, to be honest, weren't the most exciting architectural works ever, but I definitely appreciated the luxuries of older buildings with the old dark wooden finishes and wicker furniture.

I also hung out with Megan late enough that the sun started to go down (believe me, it's really early here--think 5pm). Luckily, this meant we got to see a bit of Yokohama's twilight skyline which was definitely beautiful at all stages of the night.

After Yokohama, we took on the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo next. The main goal of the visit was for me to get some photos of fall foliage and not actually any specific desire of the actual tourist (Megan). After over half a year here, I'm still more of a tourist than the friend who has only been in town for less than 4 days....

But, since we met at Tokyo Station, it was a chance for me to see the newly renovated interior and exterior of the still most confusing an annoying train station known to mankind classy brick structure.

While we got some photos of autumn foliage, I was still rather disappointed by the lack of reds and golds at the Imperial Gardens, but there were still several beautiful nature shots that let me break in the new tiny lens.

Now, I've gone this far without mentioning anything about food (I know, right?! A Christmas miracle!), but here it is--THE FOOD.

For this, I must extend my heartfelt and stomach-felt thanks to Ivan, who generously covered our meals. Delicious and free? Tabia is a happy camper.

I think he saw why Megan and I were friends for so long after hanging out a few times, haha.

There's actually still some other November events to cover, but I'll leave that for another time (hopefully this week, before December bites my butt, haha).

Stay warm, stay safe, and till next time!

お花見

This past week has been insane--to say the least!

2 major events of the past week included お花見 (ohanami), the picnics and sakura (cherry blossom) viewing that take place all over Japan when the precious bloom. Japanese people--and everyone really--love sakura. Although there are other flowers that bloom beautifully all year round, people especially cherish the sakura due to the brief period they're in bloom. The other major happening was starting work at my 4 schools.

One of the most popular spots to do お花見 is in Ueno Park, in the heart of Tokyo. People typically celebrate お花見 with festival food, homemade or store-bought bentos and, of course, alcohol.

Being super excited for my first お花見, I arranged for a group get together at Ueno Park. Several people warned me that it would be much to crowded to walk in, and having a group of 20+ people would require a miracle.

And a miracle we got.

The weather was perfect for 花見 minus the fact that there was a bit of a chilly wind. We arrived at Ueno Park around 10am even though I had arranged for all of us to meet at 3pm. Arriving early was definitely a great idea as we got to snag a spot right by the entrance of the park and right in front of the rows and rows of blossoming cherry blossom trees.

Here's a picture to give you an idea of just how many people love sakura.

Sakura is really a universal treasure of nature. As we walked through this giant mass of people, we heard languages from all over the world, including several dialects of Chinese, English, German, Hindi and--of course--Japanese.

お花見 in Ueno is really a full-out festival. There were food vendors selling traditional Japanese foods and I was lucky to have 2 amazing cooks also come and join the 花見 picnic.

My favorite food would be the infamous yakitori though. This was grilled to delicious perfection and topped with shichimi, it's the best hot snack anyone could ask for. I was so excited for it that I accidentally got shichimi all over my camera in the process.

If you manage to do 花見 in Ueno Park, it's also a great chance to get some sightseeing done too. There are several museums and Shinto shrines within the park, so while it was a good way to while away the hours while waiting for others to arrive.

After fighting the crowd and visiting a few shrines, it was finally 3pm, when we were scheduled to meet up. The group was mostly friends from work training, but friends from college that were in the area also made it. The turnout was great, and it made all the snacks and drinks all the more delicious (*´ω｀*)

We were having so much fun that, at one point, a mini TV crew from 日本テレビ came to check out what was going on in the foreigners' corner.

We ended up staying so long that the lamps in the park also lit up, which gave another beautiful unique view of the sakura.

All in all, it was an incredible first 花見. Friends from hours away took the train in to join us, and I was able to see people I hadn't seen since college. Thank you to everyone who came♥

On another note, I officially started work this week, and let's just say that bingo will make any class happy. I'm always so surprised by how large the elementary schools here are. Even if I wasn't trying to bike an hour to work, I'd probably get plenty of exercise just by climbing the stairs. The staff are also all very nice, and some of them are very eager to speak in English. The older ladies like to also ply me with treats (you won't catch me complaining!). At one of my schools, one of the teachers was even learning Chinese and tried to practice with me.

Whew, that was a long post, but it covered pretty much everything that happened this week. I'll leave you with one more picture of a cherry blossom before signing off.

Till next time~!