Good evening morning! I can’t believe I’m up so late – 1 in the morning is usually way past my bedtime, but I think all the napping I did today pushed back my sleep clock a bit 
It was so nice waking up this morning without the help of an alarm clock. I wasn’t feeling very hungry, so I just sliced myself up a peach to snack on.
I tidied up the apartment a bit and got ready for the day, and then Nate arrived 
I decided I was finally hungry enough for breakfast, and made myself a vegan overnight oats parfait.
I was really craving the classic combo of PB&J, so I processed a tablespoon of natural peanut butter into the banana soft serve, and layered some strawberry jam in the parfait as well.
Nate loves jam, so I was nice and shared a few spoonfuls of parfait with him, even though he had already eaten breakfast We ended up napping most of the early afternoon away, and when we woke up we decided that even though the Taste of the Danforth was happening today, we should go to Markham instead. We stopped off at J-Town first, to grab some Japanese supplies for dinner as well as some groceries I’ve been meaning to get for a while. With my red hair and blue eyes I stick out like a sore thumb, and I think it always surprises people when I bust out the Japanese
I was starving, so I grabbed a pickled plum riceball to snack on.
Nate also shared some chocolate pocky with me We then headed over to Pacific Mall just to look around for fun, and I got a great deal on a nice big bag that would be perfect for toting things around on overnight trips or to the beach. While we were shopping we got a little thirsty, so we stopped for bubble tea.
I got a medium honey milk tea with tapioca, and it was really good. I always feel sick after drinking bubble tea, though, so my stomach wasn’t happy for a little while after 
I got a good laugh at the bathrooms, though -
They had a terracotta warrior display right outside where the women’s bathroom was, so it looked like there was a huge group of “guards” overlooking the bathroom 
We headed to Yorkdale for a bit more shopping (I’m looking for a dress for the HLS cocktail party to see if I can find anything I like more than the older dress I was going to re-wear) but I didn’t end up getting anything, and then we headed home to finally cook up our dinner. One of Nate’s favourites is okonomiyaki, which is a type of savoury Japanese pancake.
It’s made with a special flour containing mountain yam, which is mixed with shredded cabbage, egg and water and then pan-fried into a pancake shape.
The pancake is topped with okonomi sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and bonito flakes, and served warm.
Other ingredients can be added to the pancake base (beef, pork, mochi, cheese, yakisoba noodles, etc) but I tend to keep mine simple.
Because dinner was so late we were starving, and I ate a whole okonomiyaki pancake to myself! Nate usually eats way slower than me, but he actually finished first today.
Dessert was a Japanese snack I love, called Kinoko no Yama, which means “Mushroom Mountain”
They’re biscuit + chocolate snacks in the shape of mushrooms – how cute! My favourite are the ones shaped like bamboo shoots, but I decided to be different today and get the mushroom ones. After all the shopping excitement and then a big dinner, I think my body is finally noticing that it’s past my bedtime now. Tomorrow our plans are going to lululemon yoga, and then relaxing the day away
Have a good night!
