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This beauty arrived from Williams-Sonoma today: a Le Creuset cast iron gratin dish, my online Black Friday purchase. I generally do the bakes, so I’ll be making good use of this. The dish is made in France, so I will have missed the more extreme tariff placed on China. Our household rules dictate that an old kitchen item must now go to Goodwill.

Waiting for friends at a light rail station, I pushed a timer button to run this ceiling-mounted infrared heater. I used to view these as wasteful, but given this cold snap, I’ve come to appreciate anything that takes the chill off my bones.

Walking near the Downtown library, I stopped in and picked up a limited-edition Prince library card on impulse. As I continued my walk, I quickly realized it’s destined to lie in a drawer—I’ll never actually use it. I primarily check out eBooks to read on my phone, tablet, or Kindle, and even when I borrow physical books, my phone serves as my digital card.

Who knew? Our washing machine’s door gasket has hidden drain holes. We noticed water accumulating and causing mold growth, but Dwight found the solution on YouTube: remove the gunk from the hidden drain holes. Unblocking them motivated me to clean the air and water filters in the TOTOs, which I do periodically, having read the manual. Such is our pursuit of excitement this quiet Sunday.

Our Christmas cactus suddenly appeared in a nook in our home today. Now that it’s starting to flower, Dwight decided to give it this more prominent spot. We reckon the plant is over 60 years old.

In Japan, we buy packs of these pourover single-serve coffee filters prefilled with coffee to use in hotel rooms. On Amazon, I buy boxes of empty single-serve filters to bring when traveling, filling them with locally bought ground coffee. Here, I’m using one left over from our recent trip. Just one example of how travel changes behavior. A more significant example is the ubiquitous washlets in Japan. We liked them so much, we installed TOTO washlets in our home.

We’re quietly celebrating this Thanksgiving, and the centerpiece of our meal is Dwight’s stuffed turkey thigh (minus the bone), finished with a rich gravy. The stuffing is equally rich, with about a dozen ingredients, including meaty porcini mushrooms. And we have plenty left over for another meal.

The season’s first winter storm hit overnight, leaving three inches of snow. The hard wind brought windchill temperatures into the teens. Took this photo at Gold Medal Park, then back home I retreated under my blankie and asked AI to turn the G into a C.

It’s Tuesday evening in Tokyo, but it’s going to be a long Tuesday, 39 hours to be exact. We arrive Minneapolis Tuesday afternoon.

Hiked the hills above the town of Kamakura. Descended into a busy town (today is a public holiday) where we checked out this bronze attraction, the Great Buddha of Kamakura (Daibutsu), cast in 1252. This Buddha resides in the pure land of perfect bliss, presumably unfazed by the constant flood of Instagram posts by earthly influencers.

​Rented bicycles and cycled along Toyama Bay on the Sea of Japan, enjoying views of the snow-covered Japan Alps. Stopped at a picnic table in the grounds of this shrine for a picnic lunch. *NHK (Japan’s public broadcaster) series we enjoy.

After a day of sightseeing, we returned to this Izakaya from last night. With just 14 seats, we were the only tourists among a bar full of friendly, local characters. Sumo wrestling played on the television, while the walls displayed sumo-themed photos and memorabilia. At one point the barman held up his phone so we could all sing Happy Birthday to an absent customer.

We put together a day of exploring Japanese design and architecture. We traveled by bullet train from Kobe to Himeji (15 minutes) to wander through Himeji Castle’s grounds and Nishinomara Gardens. Back in Kobe, we visited the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum, which showcases Japan’s excellence in wooden structures. Finally, at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, a building by Tadao Ando, we saw a special exhibition: “Living Modernity: Experiments in Housing 1920s-1970s.”

To break up our journey, we’re making an overnight stop in Kobe. Just behind the bullet train station we rode a ropeway up the Rokko Mountain chain, which abruptly halts the city’s sprawl.

Spent the day exploring Hagi’s feudal past, including wandering quiet streets of well-preserved houses in the merchant and samurai districts. Very few other tourists were in evidence; most visitors to Japan stick to the “Golden Route” (mainly Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, and Osaka via bullet trains), drawn by its popularity and the expectations set by social media. Hagi can only be accessed via slow routes, which guaranteed our quiet explorations today.

​We were reminded of that classic scene in Spirited Away as we boarded this rural train bound for Hagi. Unlike the Sea Train in the movie, we didn’t cross a flooded landscape, but the journey was magical nonetheless as we passed lovely views of the Sea of Japan dotted with tiny islands beyond the crenellated coastline. In Hagi, we’ll stay for two nights, sleeping in a traditional tatami room and being served multi-course dinners and breakfasts.