Reiko and her dog Lala came over and we had a pretty relaxing weekend. On Saturday we went to Kita no maru park which is very close to the Emporer’s palace in Tokyo. I like Kita no Maru because it’s fairly open and generally doesn’t have a lot of people around.

There were a number of people there making bubbles. They used two long plastic rods with string attached to the ends. The string connected the ends of the two rods formed a loop. When you hold the rods together the string hangs together but when you move the rods away from each other the string forms a loop so you can dip the string in soap, lift the string in the air and open it. The breeze fills the loop and creates a large half bubble. If you open and close the loop properly you can create very large bubbles.

After going home I made some spicy chicken and chicken/gobou salad. Gobou is a type of root which in English is called Taproot. When boiled and eaten it has a very nutty flavor, and goes very well with sesame seeds.

On Sunday, Reiko cooked and made saba. The Japanese form is “Chub mackerel” in English. The way she cooked it is called Miso nikomi (味噌煮込み) which means boiled in miso. Miso which is a fermented paste. It’s unbelievably good and versatile and my favorite Japanese food/seasoning. You can make soup out of it, boil things in it, make noodles using it, and even just use it as dip for vegetables or crackers.

Reiko also made meatball soup from iwashi. Iwashi are a type of Sardine called South American Pilchard in English.