Life Digest. February 2025.
SNOW! Plus wandering quiet corners of Kanagawa.
A belated self-guilty attempt to start journalling of my life whilst trying to avoid genre specific egotism and making it a practical guide for the readers.
JAPAN. LIFE.
Hokkaido in the snow. The theme of the month is SNOW. I worked during Snow Festival in Sapporo this month, have not seen so much of a white substance in a while.
But if you go further north-east - for example to Kami-Furano, in the middle of Hokkaido, a good place for back country skiing, by the way - all you see around will be only the snow.
There is a very good onsen near Kami-Furano, it is called Ryounkaku. Words? Unbelievable. Highly recommend.
Focus on Sugita. Sugita is a small station in Kanagawa Prefecture on the main Keikyu Line. There is a small commercial strip between Keikyu Line Sugita station and Shin-Sugita station on Negishi Line. Although the town belongs to the municipality of Yokohama it is a far cry from its busy neighbor. Offering calm and homy feel of a sleepy suburb, Sugita gets lively after 5 pm with people returning home from work and study, shopping on the way and enjoying local modest, but cozy food scene.
This is still a place where you can pay for an apple less than 100 yen and get bargain price lunch boxes below 500 yen. Sugita also offers a mix of different cuisines. The owner of kebab stall moved to Japan 6 months ago to reunite with his Japanese girlfriend and already has a stable stream of customers. We both lamented on the absence of ayran in Japan.
Another migrant-run outlet is Vietnamese Mama. Bánh Mis are great here.
However, if I need to choose between the two of them, I will vote for a juicier kebab.
Bakery, couple of cafes, steak restaurant, cheap groceries, fried xiao long bao joint, Izakaya Kamon with extensive menu, - the neighborhood of Sugita is definitely worth a visit if you are after more local and relaxing vibe.
Continuing to explore Kanagawa. Hayama Sunday seaside market is back. It is held behind La Maree, a French food restaurant not far from Zushi JR station. Yes, this is Fujisan clearly seen behind the restaurant.
Mount Fuji sporting a new white hat. Aji fry (deep fried horse mackerel) is cooked in front of you. Saba sandwiches are nice also with a coffee scene still weak but available.
Nearby Zushi Beach is popular with water sports and beach games’ enthusiasts.
Zushi Beach gets busy in summer.
Walking further along the water towards Kamakura and after a short climb you will find a spacious and calm Osaki Park. Good reading spot here.
Seems like the third Sunday of each month is a market day in Zushi-Kamakura area. Near cafe 10R (see below) inside Surfers, a popular bar in summer facing the bay I spotted a busy flea market with food stalls.
A lot to do and see in Kanagawa!
GOOD READS
Good approach. Don’t “fix” yourself, but the things around you. “Three broken things”.
A story of anti-war Russian living in Japan. Japan and Ukraine war. A bit about the stance of Orthodox church was surprising to me, although it should not be.
Reflecting vs ruminating and removing the foam of emotions from the sea of thoughts. The Right Side of Thought. This concept is linked to “what you think affects what you do and how you live”. Which in turn is very well explained in the “Mental Bandwidth”.
This book by N. Nikulin (1923 - 2009) describing the truth about WWII through the eyes of a private soldier (and later the keeper of State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg) is very topical these days. I am listening to the audio version now. Here is pdf.
GOOD WATCH
GOOD BITES AND SIPS.
Good coffee place in Tokyo. Five minutes’ walk from Iriya entrance of Ueno JR station. It is called Murasaki. They speak “coffee language” - “extra shot”, “long black”, etc. which is not yet common in Tokyo.
If you are driving around Furano and Higashikawa area in Hokkaido, there is a nice restaurant offering beautiful views of Furano Valley and nearby mountains. Furano Grill is located on the second floor of Goto Sumio Museum of Art.
Food has a European touch as is often with museums doubling as cafes in Japan. But most of all I liked the open space and the views.
Cafe 10R near Zushi Beach is popular with bikers.
Cafe 10R. You can enjoy panorama of Sagami Bay dotted with chalk marks of catboats.
Zushi Beach nearby. Next door is traditional Japanese luncher “Maruwa” if you are after something more substantial.
EXERCISE AND HEALTH
Turkish get-up is a nice multi-muscle exercise. I like “The Windshield Wiper” variation the most. Can be done at the beach, home , almost anywhere with a bottle of water or a stone for a weight.
If you know any unusual exercise routine not requiring space and equipment, please share in Comments.
So much snow, looks great on photos but I'm not sure I could cope with it these days after spending a lot of time in Hong Kong !
Thanks Igor. Always something worth checking out.