Paris: The City of Love ♥

Our top 15 things we found surprising or interesting about Paris...

1. People walk around with baguettes. It's seriously just like the movies! Baguettes in shopping bags, baguette sandwiches, or people simply just gnawing on a baguette walking down the street. And yes, the bread was delicious!!! We particularly enjoyed the simple Parisian sandwich: ham & cheese on a buttered baguette.


2. Paris is dirty! Definitely different from Japan, that's for sure. Such a beautiful city, so it's very unfortunate that there is gum, graffiti, cigarettes, and dog poop everywhere. The subways even reeked of urine sometimes.

3. Dogs at restaurants. Actually, dogs everywhere - in purses, on leashes, without leashes, in shops, and at restaurants. We even saw a dog sitting in a chair at a table inside a restaurant.


4. It's expensive! I knew Paris would be expensive, especially since it's one of the top travel destinations in the world. But since we're coming from Japan - the most expensive country in the world, I thought things would seem cheap. But I have to say, I think Paris is more expensive than Japan. Of course, you can find some cheaper items - mainly bread and cheese ;)

5. People are friendly. Parisians get a bad rep for being so rude. But everyone we encountered was friendly and overall helpful and nice. We found that people are nicer than they're made out to be. Maybe this was because we had a "French translator" with us and never had to deal with the language barrier...?

6. Music on the subway. We encountered several people playing music on the streets of Paris, including underground on the subway, and even on the actual train. This cute little man was kind enough to play at the opposite end of the train since Elodie was sleeping, and he even posed for a picture.


7. The Eiffel Tower is brown. Who would have known? Seems like every picture I've ever seen shows it as a metal silverish tower. But it is indeed, brown.

8. Everyone smokes! No joke, everyone smokes! Men, women, young, old, you name it - they're smoking.

9. The staple of Paris: Nutella. It's everywhere, and ohhhh sooooo good! We really loved the nutella and banana crepes. And lucky for us there were crepe stands all over the city!



10. No fast food restaurants. Occasionally you would see a McDonalds, Subway, or Starbucks - but the city was not littered with fast food chains like the U.S and several other cities throughout the world. I was impressed with this, and loved all the local cafes.

11. Cafes everywhere. So cute, so unique, and so yummy! And I was surprised to see people sitting outside at cafes everyday, all day long. People sit and smoke, drink wine, drink coffee, and relax. Even if it's freezing cold out, they're still enjoying their cafes.


12. Such a diverse city. People were from all over the world, from several nationalities. We were actually surprised to see quite a few Japanese people there. Love the diversity - that's one of Japan's major downfalls for us.

13. NOT baby-friendly whatsoever. I've decided that people in Paris either don't have babies, or never leave their homes. I never saw a single changing table in any bathroom anywhere. So poor Elodie was changed on the streets and park benches sometimes, and unfortunately on the nasty bathroom floors sometimes too. There was also no place to nurse her... and since nursing isn't very popular in France anyway, it wasn't ideal or easy to do. So I'd usually just try to find a park bench, or hide away in a strip mall or anywhere indoors... since it was so cold outside!! Not an easy task. And the entire city was not stroller friendly - cobblestone isn't so easy to push a stroller on. Plus, strollers don't fit through the entrances or exits of any subway, and there aren't any elevators either! I wouldn't recommend taking a baby to Paris to anyone.

14. The Mona Lisa painting is surprisingly small! And her real name is La Gioconda or La Joconde, which is the actual name of the painting. Here you can see it behind Joe & Elodie in bullet proof glass.


15. I don't really have anything to say for this one, other than... we loved Paris!!! Everything from the food, cute cafes and shops, historic buildings, to the overall atmosphere. It really is the city of love ♥

Paris

We're home!... and I have so much to say about Paris that I don't even know where to begin. So I guess I'll start by saying THANK YOU to Mike & Mimi who welcomed us into their home in Paris. We enjoyed every single second of our trip, and that's all thanks to you guys!

They have a lovely apartment right in the heart of downtown, so it was the perfect location for sight-seeing. We woke up every morning to freshly baked croissants, pain au chocolat, & pain au raisin... and a homemade cafe latte! :)

After breakfast, we would head out for a day of sight-seeing. We feel fortunate that we had our own personal tour guides and photographers for the entire trip. Mike & Mimi were nice enough to take us all over town - constantly showing us the sights, explaining the history, and taking our pictures. And since Mimi speaks French, it was an extra bonus since we never had to deal with the language barrier!!

Mike took off a few days of work to spend with us, which we really appreciate. And Mimi also helped us out with laundry, made dinners, etc. Thank you again M&M for being such generous hosts.

It was truly an incredible trip, and we are so thankful to have such wonderful friends. Even though we miss them terribly in Japan, we now completely understand why they would rather live in Paris. :)

I'll post pictures and descriptions throughout the week of our favorite places in Paris. But I'll end this post with Elodie's 6 month picture. She was a rockstar throughout our entire trip! From take-off to landing, we really have no complaints. She adjusted to the time quickly, enjoyed all the sights of Paris with us, and was still happy at the end of the day. We really couldn't have asked for a sweeter little girl.

This month she learned how to roll over from her back to her tummy. She also discovered her feet, which are now always in her mouth. We also started rice cereal with her, and she's an excellent eater. Speaking of which, she also ate a band-aid. Being first time parents, we were dumb enough to put a band-aid on her finger because she had a small cut on it and it looked infected. But the band-aid disappeared and was gone within minutes. We are very lucky that she didn't choke on it; and needless to say, we won't be putting a band-aid on her finger again anytime soon. Happy 6 months to our little lovey!

Recent Elodie Pics

We are about to embark on our trip to Paris. We'll be gone for 10 days, woohoo! Looking forward to spending time with our good friends Mike & Mimi in Paris, and then heading down to see "Big Elodie" and her family in Toulouse for a couple of days. And of course being complete tourists and seeing all of the sites, visiting cafes, people watching & eating French cuisine :)

Elodie will be 6 months while we are in Paris. I can't believe how quickly our little baby is growing up. So before we head out, here's a blog post of recent pictures of her.

Also, I've finally updated our shutterfly pics! http://emilyandjoepictures.shutterfly.com/


We love you Elodie Cay! And we're off to Paris....

Play Time with Shaun

Shaun came over to play with us for a little while yesterday and I was able to get a couple of cute pictures of them together. He is 3 months older than Elodie, so was crawling and rolling all over. It was fun to watch them interact - they were very interested in one another. It's the first time Elodie has really seemed to care about being around another baby.

She was talking to him, and Shaun was staring at her intently. Almost like they were having a real baby conversation.

Say CHEESE! hahaha :)

I love having a friend with a baby right next door. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch them change & grow together. It'll also be interesting to see if Elodie learns any Japanese from him when they are a bit older.

Sake Brewery Tour & Tasting

Winter = sake season. Sake breweries typically have one day a year between January and March where they hold an open-house style tour and tasting. So on Sunday, we got a group of friends together and headed over to the town of Odaka to visit Kaminoi Brewery & Yamamori Brewery for their annual tour and tasting. I read that sake brewing began here in 1688, therefore you can imagine how old the buildings are!

There are 5 critical elements involved in sake brewing: water, rice, skill, yeast, and land/weather. In general, it has a pretty high alcohol content (undiluted sake can be up to 18-20% alcohol).

Climbing up the ladder to look inside the fermentation tank.

What the active fermentation looks like inside the tank.

The upper floor of the breweries held these huge trays. Apparently malt production is the most important part of the manufacturing process.

I wish I knew what this sign said, haha!

This is the back of the brewery. Here you can kind of get a glimpse of how old the building is.

Then lots of tasting at the end! I loved the cute little glass canisters they poured the sake from. We were able to sample 3 different kinds of sake: unfiltered, filtered, and filtered + added alcohol.

I'm not a huge sake fan, but I have to say that these samples were all pretty tasty. But I more enjoyed looking at the buildings & seeing how it's made.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

As you already know, Joe and I have eaten pancakes together every single weekend since we've started dating. Mainly chocolate-chip, but occasionally we'll change it up and do blueberry or banana. Until now...

This recipe is just too fantastic not to share. Totally 100% unhealthy, but worth every single bite. I found the recipe on Pinterest, from: http://www.recipegirl.com/2011/03/01/cinnamon-roll-pancakes/

Here's what you need:

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil

CINNAMON FILLING:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, just melted (not boiling)
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
***stir together, then place in a heavy zip lock baggie and set aside.

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2-ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I'm pretty sure they'd come out just fine with a boxed pancake mix, or your favorite homemade pancake mix as well. As for the frosting, I didn't use cream cheese - just made a simple buttercream frosting and it turned out fantastic.

So here's what you do (more detailed steps are on her website)...

Poor a scoop of the pancake mix onto your pan (we make whooper sized pancakes). Then snip the corner of your zip lock baggie of the cinnamon filling and add a swirl to your pancake (which needs to be at room temperature - otherwise it's too runny and the liquid goes everywhere - so it should be about the consistency of toothpaste). The first few pancakes we made were very runny!

Cook until the pancake begins to bubble and its golden brown on the bottom. The cinnamon mixture will expand quite a bit (so don't get it too close to the edges).

Flip! And cook the other side. The pic above is what the top looks like after both sides are cooked.

We had a little leftover cinnamon filling, so we drizzled the remaining mixture on top of our stack of pancakes. I know, very unhealthy, but it made them extra delicious!

The top with as much frosting as you want. YUMMMM!!!

You should probably only eat 1 of these. We, however, ate 3. What's life without splurging every once in a while? ;) Although I think this is going to be come a monthly weekend treat in our house.

Thank you Pinterest and Recipegirl.com for introducing me to this delicious pancake recipe.

Wednesdays

I always look forward to Wednesdays. This is the day that I meet my girlfriends for our weekly lunch & Starbucks date; followed by ikebana class and lots of chatting. Elodie has been pretty cooperative there too, probably because she gets to spend time with her boyfriend, Ethan. ;)

Ethan & Elodie at ikebana class

Kazumi Sensei correcting one of our arrangements

My arrangement this week: Shoka free-style

Reorganization & Used Items in Japan...

Joe's senior manager recently just moved back to Seattle. Lucky for us he lived only a couple of floors above us, and since it's really difficult to get rid of items in Japan, we acquired a few new things. We have discovered that in general, people here like brand new and really nice things. They are extremely fashionable and appearance matters greatly. Therefore, for the most part, they all want the biggest, and best, and newest items on the market - whether its clothes, accessories, household items, food, cars... or whatever! So basically, there's no market for used items, and when someone wants to get rid of something here - it goes into the trash. Seriously! Occasionally, if it's a fairly new item and in descent condition you can find a recycle shop and try to sell it. For example, when we moved into our new apartment we had to get rid of one of our air conditioners. It was less than a year old, and we bought it brand new for about $1500... and we sold it to a recycle shop for $50. Enough said. But what's even more crazy is that for most of your items, you actually have to PAY someone to get rid of them. Like a couch - you can't exactly throw it onto the streets downtown... so you have to first of all find someone to come and dispose of it, and then secondly you have to pay them to do it. Ridiculous! So it actually makes more sense to give your items away to other expats who want them, rather than to deal with the hassle of trying to sell them for essentially nothing or paying someone to come and dispose of it. You would think that a person would be able to donate their nice items to a homeless shelter or similar organization, or a Goodwill type of establishment - but apparently that doesn't exist here. We're already dreading having to try and get rid of all of our furniture when we leave here.

Anyway, as I was originally saying, we acquired a few new items from Joe's coworker - including a couple furniture pieces and about 20 plants! I've been wanting plants for a while, but Joe didn't seem to think they were necessary since we're only here temporarily. So now I finally got my plants, including a beautiful little orchid plant, yay! ;)

Here is a before picture...


And after...

New buffet style piece on the wall, filled with Japanese knick-knacks, and little plants displayed on top. Not sure if I've shown a picture yet of our wall of pics...? Since we're not allowed to nail anything into the walls - Joe created this design and hung everything by string. Each picture is of us from a different place in the world. It's a daily reminder of why we're living here, and how much we've been able to see and do through this amazing opportunity to live abroad! :) And then you can see in the back corner that I used my old bookcase to hold a variety of plants.

New TV stand and plants. And yes, Elodie is laying on the floor watching a Baby Einstein DVD (she loves them!). The only downfall to this new arrangement is that we don't have a good place to hang our antique scroll anymore.

New bookshelf and plants. We have too many books to do anything cute with this unit. Oh well.

The longer we live here, the more we stuff we seem to accumulate - especially because of Elodie! We originally showed up in suitcases, bought the essentials, and decided to keep it to the bare minimum. But we continue to acquire more and more stuff, which makes it cute & cozy and more "homey," but will ultimately come back to haunt us when we finally move back to the U.S.

I ♥ Japan - Earthquake Video

A video about the earthquake in Japan. People from the Tohoku area express their thanks to all of the international aid that has helped them. It's an amazing video, please take the time to watch it.

Aloha Table

Hawaiian food in Japan?... YES please! Despite the lack of diversity in Japan, there certainly is quite a huge range of restaurant choices. Last week my girlfriends and I headed out to try a new Hawaiian restaurant called Aloha Table. The place is known for their malasada donuts, pancakes, and "loco" breakfast (bowl of rice, hamburger on top, covered in gravy, and topped with a fried egg). In addition to breakfast foods, you can order pretty much anything - rice bowls, curry, chicken/steak/fish grilled dishes, and a variety of appetizers, salads & pastas.

Lunch with the girls! I ordered the daily pasta special, which was spaghetti carbonara, and it was fantastic. But with a full page of pancakes on the menu to choose from, I knew I'd have to go back...

And I did! I took Joe back the following weekend to try the pancakes. Unfortunately we went at the peak of lunch hour, so we had to wait about 30 minutes to get a table. But it was well worth the wait!

YAY for finally finding a place in Nagoya that has yummy pancakes! woohoo! The only downfall is that they don't serve them with maple syrup. My mango pancakes were topped with a cream sauce as well as chunks of mango & mango sherbet; while Joe's chocolate pancakes were topped with whipped cream, ice cream, brownie pieces & chocolate sauce. But they were still good, so we really can't complain.

The Hawaiian coffee was good too. And I thought the mug was very cute... Make Your Mouth Dance! And I should also add that the malasada donuts were also fantastic!... fresh out of the fryer and they melt in your mouth.