Belated baking post - sugar cookies with strawberry icing

Sugar cookies with strawberry icing, made end of April

Recipes: sugar cookies here and strawberry icing here

When it says "sifted powdered sugar", sift the damn powdered sugar. The icing came out too sugary and lost the strawberry freshness, tho most people didn't mind

Day 7 - Sayonara Tokyo

Half day in Tokyo to unwind before flying home, and technically my 8th day there.
Overall awesome trip. I will definitely be back again.

Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park

Akihabara

Chicken Nabe

Souvenirs galore

Day 6 - Tokyo

Ran from Tsukiji to Odaiba to Asakusa back to Odaiba. The onsen was a perfect way to cap off my trip

Tsukiji dried fish stand

Life-sized Gundam

Markets

Senso-ji gate

Tokyo sunset

Outdoor foot bath area

Oedo Onsen Monogatari

Day 5 - Ghibli Museum and Tokyo

Ghibli Museum put a smile on my face, and various Tokyo districts were fun to peruse. I am also spending way too much on useless souvenirs.

Robot 

Museum is open!

View of Tokyo

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building

Omelet rice curry

Shibuya crossing

Day 4 - Nara and Fushimi-Inari Shrine

Kyoto has some nice side trips - Nara is a good for Todaiji and the deer. Fushimi-Inari Shrine has impressive shrine gate paths. Both are south of Kyoto.

Friendly deer, usually

Giant Buddha statue at Todaiji

Tying away bad fortunes

Five storied pagoda

Shrine gates at Fushimi-Inari

Day 3 - Kyoto and cherry blossoms

Today's theme was cherry blossoms. That and an actual full day of exploring until my feet died

Japanese style breakfast

Cherry blossoms in full bloom

Kiyomizu-dera

Chioin gate

Okazaki canal

Philosopher's path

Day 2 - Kyoto

Travel to Kyoto via Shinkansen, went to Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion), walked around Arashiyama area namely the path of bamboo, and enjoyed a Japanese style ryokan inn stay

My fortune is excellent!

Yukata

I could get used to a Japanese style room...

Day 1 - Tokyo

Tokyo Tower and surrounding Imperial Palace

Weekly baking - (deflated) grapefruit macarons

This week's baking - failed and deflated grapefruit macarons

Recipes: almond macaron with grapefruit zest and grapefruit buttercream
I call them deflated because I messed up the step where the egg whites should peak. Apparently, any trace of oil (including zest) makes egg whites impossible to stiffen up. Flavors were all there despite the cookies being chewy. Good lesson learned!

Highlights from UW campus

Cherry blossoms are blooming at the UW Quad

UW Quad

Line of cherry blossom trees

Closeup

Subtle beauty...

Also finally visited the Suzzallo Library building

Suzzallo Library exterior

The Suzzallo Reading Room