Following on from our first pick from the Japanese Film Festival last week, this week brought two more.

And Japanese movies put you in mind of Japanese food. So we tried out two Japanese restaurants as well.

The first of the latter was Sushi Tei at Pavilion.

To eat: Special unagi roll (omelette and cucumber sushi topped with the most fabulous eel; "who doesn't love these caramelised sweet tasting eels?" asks our reviewer above, and I have to say I don't know the answer); kaki mentai mayo roll (deep-fried oyster with cod roe and mayonnaise, incredibly flavourful); and a "tosa" mixed sushi plate (with yellow-tail, tuna, crab-meat, prawn, scallop, and tofu skin with salmon salad).



The second was Sushi Zanmai.

As we'd had sushi the first time round, we plumped (an appropriate word) for some other Japanese staples: sashimi salad; salmon shioyaki; vegetable tempura; and a yakiniku don (grilled beef on rice). All delicious. No complaints at all.

Our movies brimmed with beautifully captured Japanese-ness.

One was After the Storm. As a perceptive reviewer puts it, this is an "achingly beautiful ode to the quiet complexities of family life".

It's the story of a family such as most of us have known at some point: hopes unfulfilled, pride unexpressed, faults unconquered, but still somehow there, its members both criticizing and accepting each other. That same reviewer continues: "No filmmaker today is watching ordinary human life more closely than Kore-eda, or is more unfailingly generous with what they find." And I love those qualities.

Our other movie was An (which translates as Sweet Bean). It didn't go down that well in Cannes, apparently. But I really liked it. The elderly Tokue is a former leprosy sufferer. Like many of her contemporaries, she was forced to live a secluded life, and is still to some degree institutionalized. Her talent for red-bean jam-making brings her into contact with a reclusive ex-con and an under-privileged teenager, in whose company she plays an uplifting role, until Mrs Mean (the shop-owner) says she has to go.

It's a melancholy movie, but the overall message is positive. It's about not giving up, about seeing the beautiful things around us and letting them speak, about noticing people and coaxing out their unique stories.

As dorayaki are a central theme (little pancakes sandwiched with the crucial red-bean jam), I set out to track some down. And sure enough Minamoto Kitchoan came up with the goods. They are ludicrously yummy.



We also acquired significant quantities of Oishi green tea during the course of the movies, as they had obviously done a generous sponsorship deal.



And the not Japanese bit of the week?

Well, Monday was Hari Raya Haji. A public holiday. As we did our morning lap, knots of young men in white hats and colourful kurthas were heading towards the nearest prayer place, which for some meant the street just outside the Maple Leaf. We never see these quantities of people out and about, so presumably this is a rare holiday for some. They certainly seemed to be in holiday mode. Selfies were being taken. Aftershave had been liberally sprinkled. Nice to watch. That day we also saw a kingfisher by the river. Our first in that area. A Hari Raya Haji-celebrating kingfisher.