My first impression was not good. It appeared white and anaemic and I am partial to crusty breads where the Maillard reaction has had a full effect.
But MrLapLap’s eyes were full of enthusiasm when he went in to the store and came out with what looked like a warm soufflé.
This year I can celebrate my 20th anniversary of appreciation for this style of baking.
[MENTION=7521]Pickles[/MENTION] might be the longest serving related veteran on this forum.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/japa...hop-tokyo.html

I think the credit goes to [MENTION=535]mjm[/MENTION]. It was from [MENTION=535]mjm[/MENTION] that I first learned about Mont Thabor. They list (or at least used to) the times they would be baking, so show up shortly after and you're guaranteed milk pan fresh out of the oven. Eating that, I imagine, is like a baby trying its first fresh peach. And I say imagine, because I don't remember, but my mom said I was ecstatic.

Waaaaay overdue for a visit to Juban. Yum!

I didn't see such a thing at the door or in the store. I would love to eat one fresh out of the oven.

I believe it is usually a flimsy sign on a stand near the front presentation table.

Since this is the first time visitors thread, I'll just point out that the "times of release" sign is totally a thing I've seen in some bakeries and fresh desserts shops. There can be queues for release timings but I kind of think Japanese will sometimes queue for the sake of queueing, more based on the hotness/ranking regardless of the quality or actual desirability of the item. So don't solely go by the "it's full/there's a line, it must be good" rule of thumb which can work elsewhere without checking what you're queueing for.

Perhaps you went to Japan for a visit and put a few of those kelp based powder sachets from your lodging’s tea making assortment into your suitcase thinking you might like to try it at a later date.

Now that you are back home and have concluded that it isn’t one of your favourite hot drinks, you might be deliberating whether to throw it away as you can’t for the life of you figure out someone suitable to pass them on to.

Before you do, I would like to encourage you to try cooking with them.

Easiest might be pickles. Here is how to use the “ume kombucha” powders: Cut up some cucumber and put it in a jar or ziplock bag, add the sachet, massage into the cucumber and refrigerate for a few hours. You might want to squeeze and drain the pieces a bit before serving, but that’s it.

Lots of inspiration from this well known producer of kelp tea powders:
https://www-gyokuroen-co-jp.translat..._x_tr_pto=wapp

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...05a81241b1.jpg

As part of my next trip to Japan this October/November, I'm planning to book a JR train journey from Takayama to Nagasaki online on the JR West website. My intention is to pick up the tickets at Nagoya when I pass through earlier in the trip.

Dummy bookings indicate that Takayama to Nagasaki can be purchased from the JR West site (despite not being JR West stations).
But I'm not totally convinced that I'll be able to pick up the tickets at Nagoya (as its also not a JR West station). I don't want to reserve the journey online, only to discover that I can't pick up the tickets.

Can anyone confirm whether it will be possible to pick up these tickets in Nagoya?

That should be ok I think but here is a detailed page : https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/h...ation/receive/

We just got home today from Kyushu to Tokyo - tomorrow may go to 35 in Tokyo according to local forecasts -- I hope your forecast is right that this heat will end soon as I'm so tired of sweating! At least in Kyushu we had decent winds that made the heat almost tolerable -- back home in Tokyo, not so much....

My brother is in Tokyo on business for a few weeks and said he packed for New York fall not Tokyo end of summer. Big shock for him.

Reserving seats together when using JR Pass and smartEx purchased tickets
 

I will be traveling from the US with 2 kids, meeting my mom in Tokyo (Japanese resident) and doing a bit of sight seeing with her around Dec 20th-27th-ish. The 3 of us will be using a JR Pass (before the 10/1 price increase), but she will be buying her own tickets.

For our JR Passes:
1. I was going to purchase our JR Passes through Klook (for the discounts, and didn't think I needed to reserve any seats ahead of time), but since we will be traveling with her, I think it makes sense for us to try and reserve our seats in advance where we can to ensure we will all be seated together. Thoughts? Would this not be necessary?
2. If it is recommended that we should get seat reservations together in advance, my understanding is that if purchasing our JR passes through the main website, we can reserve seats online from our phones as we travel, is that correct (as opposed to having to reserve at kiosk or at midori no madoguchi)? We just have to pick up the paper ticket at the station before we get on the train?

For my mom's purchased tickets:
1. It looks like 90% of our trip would be covered by the smartEX mobile app. (Tokyo > Kyoto > Osaka > Hiroshima). Do these tickets/seat reservations also need to pick up at the station before we get on the train?
2. Has anyone tried using this app (to purchase and reserve) along with the JR website to reserve seats together? Is there something I am missing/should be considering?

Thanks in advance!

There is no way to buy from the official website and still get the pre-October price for a trip in December. Official website only sells one month in advance not three.

This summer has been hotter in Tokyo than I remembered. I've been to Japan four times this year; three times this summer. It was pretty hot. Not Singapore-level hot, but hot nonetheless.

Actually, Tokyo has always (for decades, at least) been as hot as Singapore in August, and probably hotter in recent years.