A plea for icecrin on a Monday (Uwajimaya, Seattle)

Sometimes you just end up somewhere for a reason. Did you have a weekend like this too?

I found the most awesome elliptical trainer the other day because I use Classpass and it led me to Emerald City Athletics where I tried a Life Fitness elliptical that had an awesome ‘course’ mode that let me pick hikes around the world like one in New Zealand or one through some Californian mountains and I actually was a little more motivated to work out because I wanted to see what came next on the hike. I also loved that this elliptical had a hybrid mode that allowed me to use less energy while I worked out.  I never knew this was a feature on elliptical bikes but I am excited that even at the gym there are ways to green up how we exercise too.

And because I exercised, I decided I could try a Japanese restaurant I heard about from following Lovelylanvin (an amazing Seattle blogger who teaches Japanese food classes that I’ve taken and loved) and I had such delicious food from Modern Japanese Cuisine that I’ll definitely go again.  I ordered a spectacular avocado wrapped vegetarian roll and ume shiso (my favorite plum and shiso leaf) roll and a few pastries and strawberry mochi to eat with my mom.

Because I was waiting for take out food I also stopped into Frock Shop (a gorgeous Seattle-based vintage clothing inspired line I first heard about from Mod Cloth) and a vegan sweet called Violet Sweet Shoppe that I’d never been to and deserve to be revisited

And all this magic of finding lovely things that I want to revisit carried over past the epic Sounders game on Sunday when my family and I walked through Uwajimaya and saw this sign:

Icecrin is a dessert that comes from my mom’s hometown in Japan.  It’s something I’ve had only a handful of times but even merely thinking of it conjures so many memories that when I saw the sign I squealed out loud.

Sadly, there was no Ice Crin left in the case, just some ponkan (a Japanese orange) flavored ice which I ended up buying because I know I’ve tried it in Kochi too and some kind of delicious ice dessert from Kochi is better than none at all.

So I would love it if Uwajimaya could bring back more Ice Crin because it is GONE.  And this Ice Crin must mean something to more people than just me if it’s GONE!!!  it can’t be gone forever in Seattle can it?

(And I totally didn’t know I was craving this until I saw the sign!  Isn’t life just like that?  I totally didn’t know I was missing Ice Crin and now I do!)

So what are you craving this Monday?  And if you are a Seattlelite who bought the Ice Crin at Uwajimaya or someone who has been lucky enough to find it in your city, I’d love to hear what you thought so I can live vicariously.  Happy Monday!

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)