Aki

I adore autumn in Tokyo. It reminds me of those rare perfect days in NY when I would wake up to a sunny but cool and breezy day (so so so rare for a city whose weather jumps from suffocatingly, oppressively hot and humid to bitterly, oppressively cold and windy in a matter of weeks - or so it seems in my memory) and would be so happy I would literally skip down the streets in joy and try to spend as much time outside as possible - meals al fresco, roaming around the Village or Union Square, walking all the way to Central Park and back...

My favorite time of day is my morning walk from my apartment to my office. In the mornings the air is crisp and cool yet still comfortably warm and the very faint hint of cold weather feels amazing. I wish my walk was longer so I could prolong my enjoyment of the weather, because once I arrive at the office, I'm stuck in my drab, windowless interior office with only bored looking secretaries as my view.

Another thing you have to love about Tokyo is that there are fabulous bakeries and patisseries just about everywhere. Within a 5 minute walk circumference of my office, there are at least 5 fabulous bakeries, including a Paul outlet (the fab Parisian bakery), although whenever I have a butter/sugar/flour craving I inevitably end up getting the same thing at the same place - a pastry called a croquant from the French bakery in my office building - a caramely, crunchy, crispy confection made with toasted brioche, almonds and walnuts and lots of burnt brown sugar - like a praline-y bread pudding cookie that I'm sure is ruining my teeth and has a zillion calories but tastes oh so freaking delicious. This morning I was running late and didn't have time to have my usual cereal breakfast so the entire walk over to the office I was thinking about how I was going to have a croquant and coffee for breakfast instead...only to discover that croquants are not produced by the bakery until the afternoon. Crushing disappointment...so I had to settle for an almond brioche instead. Which normally is a fabulous breakfast, but that's before I discovered croquants...

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I am inspired after my convos with P to buy a bike. Whenever I want to go for a ride, I rent one from my building for $10/day, but my friends have told me that you can buy a decent bike for as little as $100 here and it seems like a good investment - I'm sure I'll ride at least 10 times in the next year, plus the quality of my own bike would be better than the old rusted one I borrow from my building. Tokyo is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world...I especially love riding on Sundays when the streets are absolutely empty of pedestrians and almost empty of cars as well. I'm debating whether I should do a RT bikeride to Yokohama while the weather is still pleasant.