Springtime

It's spring, and I've been hounded by a cold for the past month. Hurrah for me.

Blocked nose, slightly yellow mucus and sometimes with traces of blood - lasted for a month. Finally moved on to the next stage a few days ago but now is just equally troublesome: runny/dripping nose, puffy and itching eyes. Basically my fitness is not surprisingly at minus 200 (stairs are now pant-inducing woohoo) and sleep has been usually troubled by difficulty of breathing and the frequent need to clear my sinuses. I've also ran out of Ge Gen Tang and will be out of Clarityne soon. Which means I might actually have to go to the doctor soon, but that sucks because I don't want to spend anymore money on dentists or doctors thank you.


Ahhh spring. Thanks for your schizophrenic cold-rainy-and-sunny-days. Get over yourself already argh.

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In other news, I had reallllllllly good conveyor belt sushi the other day. The line for it was amazingly long even at 5.30pm, but because we were fine with counter seats, we only had a 15-minute wait. Yay! The seared salmon belly sushi was soooooo goood! I'd love to take my family there some time. If only...

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Just two months left to the end of this student chapter... The road ahead's still kind of obscured by desires, obligations, what ifs, and maybes. Ahh student life... I knew since 18 that I would miss you and that you'll always be a honeymoon period. But I guess I also knew I'd definitely be fine moving forward. More than fine probably - I've never really been one to look back in regret/longing.

So, with a scarce 2 months left in Japan too, I think I might start documenting things that I'll miss. Starting with cheap, but very delicious conveyor belt sushi! I can eat my fill for about 1000yen (16SGD). Yum! =)


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Also, why are tickets to California so expensive =( sigh. 

Butter vs Margarine

Just earlier tonight at 6.39pm, I'd thought to myself "It's a Friday night and I'm off to the library. Gosh." ^^

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On the way back to the dorm from the library, I made my customary rounds at the supermarkets (so I guess it's not surprising at all that most of my expenditure is at supermarkets, so much so that I think I have accumulated enough food to hypothetically last me through a world war...). To my horror, I realised that the supermarket seemed to have started selling much fewer brands of butter, and many more of the cheap affordable, claim-to-taste-like-butter margarine. I've always been some sort of purist when it comes to food and ingredients: Want it to taste like butter? Then use butter, not a replacement! Want to be healthy and ingest less oil/sodium/polysaturated fats? Then ingest in moderation, but never ever replace it with less-salt/fat/etc items that more often than not compromise a lot on taste. I tested this out recently by purchasing a low-sodium soy sauce, and can I just say it must have had a totally opposite effect. Its taste is so mild and mildly off-putting at that too, that I probably have ended up putting in salt just to try and remedy the taste. Ugh. The only reason why I'm still putting up with that low-sodium fake of a soy sauce is because I'm holding out for fish sauce, which I have yet to locate.

Anyway, back to the point of my post. It all got triggered because when I got back, I checked my mail and the daily quote that I subscribe to and received today was none other than about butter and margarine!

"As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists".

-Joan Gussow

So true, don't you think?! Hehe. =)

Wantons

Saw wanton skins on offer at the supermarket the other day - 50% off - and the obasan (auntie) in me couldn't resist buying it, so I ended up making 1) fried wanton skins last night for supper (unhealthy but yums =P) and 2) wantons today.

Maybe I'm biased towards the food I make (as usual) but it was yummy! =)

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Not sure if I've posted this but my return flight is changed and settled. 30 July Saturday is confirmed but on the waiting list for 31 July Sunday. Hope I get the date I want. Since I only have 1 week before school starts again in NUS, was hoping to even just make a short/day/1-2days trip out of Tokyo before returning.

Norwegians, Yokohama & Curry Party =)

Today was a busy but fulfilling day - spent alternatively with both internationals and Japanese.

Sissel - my norwegian friend from floorball - came back to Tokyo last Friday, and 5 more of her Norwegian teammates tagged along for a holiday! They all turned up for the recent Monday's practice, and it was seriously the best that I've ever had in floorball memory. Each may not have seemed individually dazzling, but just having their presence and inclusion in the line up, made a huge difference across the board amongst our own players!

Today, woke up a tad late but made it to Yokohama's Minato Mirai to spend time with them + Yui. Had Krispy Kreme, then made it to Chinatown (Chukagai) for a lunch buffet, which turned out to be just so-so. Have to say the best I've had is still the one near dorm/school. Really really glad to have spent the time with this group of very friendly Norwegians though! Would love to visit them in Norway one day! Hopefully =)

Here are some pictures of them!:

(Ivonne, Rebecca, Yui, Bea (spelling?), Sissel)

(At lunch, L-R: Ivonne, Lotte (sp?), Rebecca, Bea (sp?), Ello/Elizabeth, Yui!)

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Time for Curry - Curry Party!

Since I still had that few packets of curry gravy that Nobu so kindly brought/bought from KL on his last business trip, I decided to whip up some curry and invite Japanese friends over to try what curries in Singapore might taste like. Japanese curry is really quite different - thick, chockful of curry-powder taste, mildly spicy and sweet.

What began with just 3 of us Singaporeans (Isabel, Rachel & me) + 4 Japanese, somehow grew to 16 people in total! Some joined in the morning, others just in the last hour of meeting, and even some just in the dorm. Included 3 Thais, 1 HKer too. So the menu was:

- normal (red) chicken curry with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onions

- beef + chicken rendang

- lemak (coconut milk) chicken curry with potatoes and carrots.

- rice

- baguettes

- simple zucchini salad

- plus roomie Rach added a chicken curry of her own as well.

Seemed like a pretty good success on the whole I think! Ate, talked, had icecream/desserts/cheesecake (thanks to Hiro!) and ended up playing Murderer game (that Isabel and I taught some of them the last time at the recent Paddy camp). Decided to move on to the more complex game of Polar Bears, and it was pretty fun! Things rounded up at 10.30pm~ish since some had to catch last train, plus Manager-san started to make an appearance/hint for us to finish up.

Such fun! Really wanted to take some photos but completely forgot amidst the rush to cook 3 curries at one go, and serve and try to be a good hostess and teach/play the games!

Really glad that everybody seemed to have enjoyed it though! First ever time for me to 1) organise a large party 2) cook most of the food 3) cooked for THIS many people 4) cook curry. =P

Happy dappy! =)

Friends, Ping Pong and Food!

Last Tuesday, went to eat a Yakiniku Buffet (焼肉食べ放題）with 4 other Singaporeans on one of their recommendations. It was 1280yen (~18sgd; seems expensive but really quite 'cheap' by Tokyo standards) for 90 mins, including drink bar! No wonder reservations are usually required wow. Honestly, everything was pretty good - but a few dishes like the thinly sliced pork, and the squid were quite outstanding. Yum! Hopefully will be visiting the place again at least once more before going back to Singapore.

Good food (and great company of course) was followed by a leisurely stroll in the cool breezy night (~17deg) around Shinjuku and we went up to the Metropolitan Government Building to check out the city view. Not bad.

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2 days ago, on Saturday, went out with Isabel and 2 Japanese friends with the idea of playing... badminton! Shock shock! Especially since I don't have my badminton rackets here. But anyhow, this plan was born from the time when we played a little bit of badminton in the small garden in one of the Japanese friend's house, and he ended up wanting to play seriously/challenging me. Of course I said bring it on heh. But yeah, turns out, unfortunately, that the courts were seriously full that day. The system in that sports centre is kind of weird - you simply buy a voucher from the machine and go up to use the courts if any are empty. So disorganised no?! I like the system back home much better.

But anyway, not much loss, we ended up finding a place to play table tennis instead! And after some leisurely play between all 4 of us, the 'badminton challenger' became the table tennis challenger and well, since I've actually had 2-3 months of training before (looooooooong time ago), I guess there's really no point in delivering the results of this match-up. Then two people had other matters on, so we called another 2 to join us for dinner - Hiroshima-okonomiyaki! I'm sure I've mentioned this dish before - it's full of cabbage and soba noodles rather than the Osaka version that is heavy on flour batter. Really so yummy!! Turns out one of the girls that joined us later - a really cute and lovable Thai! - likes the place so much she's actually been there 4 times just this week! 0.0 Talk about staunch supporter huh.

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And recently, the weather's been okay - or honestly, quite fine. Ranges from 12deg (at night) to about 22 deg in the day time. Perfect spring weather I would say. Except that... I think I miss the cold. Being so used to feeling chilly and cold during trainings, I'm now really NOT used to perspiring at all! In fact it really feels quite uncomfortable. I'm sure I'll be re-adjusting soon though, especially since it seems like the start of summer is not too far off.

Oh humidity and sunlight, for good or for worse, welcome back to my life.

Titbits from Japan: Condensed Milk

For me, condensed milk - as long as I have known it - is something which goes in something like this:

But having been here in Tokyo for the past 7-going-on-8 months, I have hardly come into contact with this sweet sinfulness until... until my friend mentioned it to me in passing just last week. And pointed at tubes - yes you heard me, a TUBE - of condensed milk that I had actually always seen displayed near the strawberries, but never taken the time to actually look and see what they are. Turns out it's quite common for them to have strawberries with condensed milk! Sounded really yum! Up till now, I've always only dredged my strawberries in (mounds and mounds) of sugar but never thought of condensed milk. So yesterday I conceded defeat and bought a tube. Heh, did I mention that now the whole packet of strawberries and half the tube was already gone in the same day? =P

Mmmm. =)

Hiroshima Trip 23 Mar to 27 Mar 2010

There's a special kind of train ticket that's only sold 3 times a year during the school holidays: seishun 18 kippu 青春18切符 (Youth 18 Pass). It allows 5 non-consecutive and non-user-specific days of local train rides (in this sense, local means any type of train even express local trains, except Shinkansen/bullet train). So armed with this exciting pass, we (me and 2 other female friends) decided to make our way further further south to Hiroshima. By the fastest Shinkansen, it takes about 4.5 hours 1-way and 18,000yen; with local train rides, it took about 14-16 hours and 2,300yen. Thank goodness for the overnight train that runs during this special pass season, thus allowing us to use just 1 day of the pass each, instead of 2! 1 pass costs 11,500 yen so each day (5 days total) cost 2,300yen and the original journey cost about 10,000yen to 17,000yen - woohoo or what?!

So off to Hiroshima we went - and despite the tiredness of sleeping on trains and transferring on and off, there was a much more credible sense of travelling, of a journey undertaken. Many times, when I've sat in the window seat on the aeroplane looking out over the ocean and islands below, there's always been a surreal feeling. Especially when they start making the announcement "We have now arrived at XXX Airport. Thank you for flying with XXX Airlines. Please wait till the ...". Inevitably I think,"that's it?? we're here?!". Somehow there's no sense of a day passing, no feel of the geography, no idea of the cultures/people we might have flown by along the way. Now, passing by small fields of tea, and rice, cabbage, and chugging slowly by platforms that look different from the flashier city cousins, spying mountain ranges in the distance, and even passing by the sea glittering with sunlight - one could not help but feel, "yes, I'm travelling!" I'm traversing not just space, time and land; but cultures, people's lives, history and even the present." Yes, I'm travelling. I've never thought much about travelling in Europe before (except to visit Italy and Spain for food *slurp*), but now I'm starting to see the charm of taking a train across Europe.

Okay enough babbling and some pictures from the Hiroshima Trip:

1) On one of the trains to Hiroshima! Behold the fields of green and mountain ranges in the distance.

2) Himeji Castle - about midway on our journey to Hiroshima, so we stopped by to take a look. Especially since it will begin 5-year renovation work starting April 2010, so we were really lucky. Also known as the "White Heron" (due to its distinctive white walls) and is probably one of the few (or the only?) castle that has kept its interior intact. Very interesting castle - very defensive on the inside.

3) Lunch at Himeji - Anago Don. Unagi is freshwater eel, whilst Anago refers to saltwater eel or conger eel. Supposedly one of the local produce of the area. Both are equally tasty in my opinion, though anago is supposedly less fatty/oily than unagi.

4) Hiroshima-Okonomiyaki: Perhaps the most famous food dish in Hiroshima. Quite different from the Osaka version, in that it has just a thin layer of flour (the round white piece), usually includes noodles and more cabbage. This was served without mayonnaise too. We tried 2 shops: first was the very famous Mi-Chan and the other was Okonomiyaki-MuraChou (お好み焼き村長の店 = literally the Okonomiyaki Village Headchief's Shop). Funnily enough, I prefer the Hiroshima-okonomiyaki that's near my school in Tokyo instead! =P Like how I preferred the okonomiyaki I had in Tokyo compared to the one in Osaka! 0.0

5) Of course we took a walk around Peace Memorial Park - (clockwise from bottom left) Golden crane under the Children's Monument, walking the solemn path on a drizzly day, the Peace Bell, the Peace Monument, Aioi Bridge - the T-shaped bridge that apparently became the A-bomb's target, the Peace Memorial Museum from afar, and the A-bomb Dome.

6) And of course we entered the Peace Memorial Museum. 2 of the several things that struck me so much: (top) a clock stops at 8.15am; and the whole city has since stopped with it. (bottom) the self-sewn uniform of a 13-year-old girl that died from radioactive poisoning. what struck me was not so much her death in itself, but the tiny size of the uniform that looked more befitting of a 8-year-old perhaps. The costs of war...

But that aside, although the museum was so strongly geared towards peace and quite objective in its exhibits, I found that it was ultimately still a Japanese museum, and it served - albeit very subtly - to still further the Japanese story of WW2: Japan is an innocent victim and one that should be pitied and sympathised with for the very fact that the A-bomb was dropped upon her. Hrm, not denying this, but it'll be nice to have the whole story please.

7) Hiroshima's also known for oysters - we often saw oyster 'bed racks' floating about in the sea/river. So here's a meal with steamed oysters on rice. Not bad. Also tried grilled oysters in the shell in Miyajima, and Oyster Fry (deep fried oysters in batter).

8) Unlike most other cities in Japan where an extensive network of subway and train system exists, the tram/streetcar is the way to go for Hiroshima - largely due to the fact that Hiroshima is a delta, making it difficult and expensive to construct such a subway system.

9) Usually, every city/area in Japan has its own distinctive design for manhole covers. Hiroshima's is - surprise surprise - one of colourful cranes.

10) We also made the trip out to Kure City, to visit the Yamato Maritime Museum, which basically documented the importance of the Kure Naval Base to the WW2 and Hiroshima then. Interesting perspective. It also had an entire area for interactive play experience mainly for kids, but we 3 had a smashing time there. And I learnt alot about the science that makes shipbuilding possible. Neat.

11) Having made our way to Hiroshima, we could not possibly miss out the day trip to one of the top 3 scenic spots in Japan - Miyajima. Famous for its beautiful scenery and the Itsukushima Shrine with the bright orange torii (or Japanese Shinto Shrine Gate) out in the water. It was a welcome change away from all the peace and war. (And look mum! I'm wearing the giraffe dress! =) ) Miyajima by day was pretty but slightly crowded; Miyajima by dusk/night was breath-taking and awe-inspiring...

12) Besides tourism, another major industry in Hiroshima is none other than Mazda!

We took a (free -yippee!) guided tour around Mazda's factories, facilities and museum. Learnt more about car-making and got to see the assembly of cars in real life! The engineers are really quite amazing. Whilst alot of the big parts were assembled with precision robotics, highly-skilled workers were still necessary to put in the small screws, bolts, attach the dashboard etc etc. Each person only had 1min 48 seconds to finish doing his specific part on the conveyor belt!

13) Also chanced upon this special exhibition in Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art. William Kentridge is a South African, and his works - especially his animated 'videos' - reflect that. Really thought-provoking exhibition. The permanent exhibition was not bad as well - focusing on the theme of "Boundary" yet somehow the curator (unsurprisingly?) managed to incorporate the idea of 8.15am once more...

14) A good trip on the whole - and I do quite like Hiroshima. Oddly enough, what I find sad about the city is not the whole 8.15am A-bomb milestone event; but the fact that everywhere, everything was about that ONE fateful day in 1945, August 6 at 8.15am. As a history student, I certainly appreciated coming to Hiroshima - if not just to learn how subtle biasness can be so skilfully delivered. But on the whole, I really did like Hiroshima. Not for any of this war and peace business, but for the spacious wide thoroughfares that criss cross the city; and the graceful bridges that arch above the water ways; the quiet buzz of her people - completely opposite to the 'loud' mass of Tokyo.

How sad that she can't seem to move past her past though. For today's Hiroshima is almost as if characterised only by that one mushroom cloud that dominated her past, haunts her present and will probably shape her future.

Dinner

My dinner tonight is...

Mountain Dew, Macdonalds Large Fries (150yen! cheap cheap) and strawberries from Seiyu.

For some reason, couldn't really focus at floorball practice just now. Mind kept wandering off.

And of late, my dinners and lunches have been very scrappy put-togethers, with the main theme of "cheap" haha. Hope this mindset manages to continue on throughout even though school starts tomorrow. I really need to get down to actually looking for part-time job. Money aside - but I really think I need some new environment, or new activity of some sort to stimulate me, get me going. I'm actually getting bored. Raaa.

Day 1 and Day 2 - Seoul

Day 1

Arrived in Seoul last night - cold, cold, cold. -2deg to -6deg I think.

Dinner with Ingle, a Dutch girl that I coincidentally met at the bus stop whilst we were both feeling lost and finding the same hostel. Dinner was good - grilled korean bbq with lettuce and kimchi, and a sweet sukiyaki-like beef stew with tanghoon.

Korean Air stewardesses are pretty - very much the idea of the Korean beauty - and their uniforms are a very smart beige formal blazer skirt type. Nice.


Day 2

Ming arrives. Nandaemun window shopping (everything is really so cheap! and nice!) and tried alot of food. Fried chewy dough balls in sugar, roadside kimchi soup noodles, meat patty with tteok in the middle, then bimbimbap for lunch and got canned sikkhae and seujeounghwa from the supermarket to try as well. Interesting!

Will be watching Nanta - a nonverbal comic performance with kitchen tools - with Ming and Ingle soon! Then probably dinner/supper. I like Seoul =)

Noodles Yum!

Today was a pretty tiring day - full day of class + make up class and a final exam. Hence the excuse to treat myself a little and I ended up eating out for both lunch and dinner - but I'm so glad!

Lunch was a great recommendation by ZQ - Japanese class classmate - to a tiny little shop selling Abura Soba (油そば). About 10-15 min walking distance from the main gates of school. And when I said tiny, I meant TINY. The shop had counter space for maybe 10? And enough standing space for 2 to cook behind the counter. The shop opens till 4am and apparently it is not uncommon to see a long queue outside at 1am. Abura Soba is actually more like ramen, with no soup and just a little bit of some kinda soy-based sauce, topped with bamboo shoots and a slice of grilled pork. On the table, there's some kinda of dried chilli paste, vinegar and (not spicy) chilli oil which you can add at your own preference. 600 yen for 1 regular-sized bowl may not seem very cheap, but the serving is SO filling. And YUMMY!

(Our shop looked pretty much like this one - though the picture is not taken by me. Too busy eating! >.<)

Dinner was a spontaneous decision to try Champon(ちゃんぽん)! There's a shop nearby the dorm that opened about 2-3 months ago by the same people at Ippudou and so finally got to try it today. Especially hooked when Jf mentioned that it's something like hokkien mee - which I loveee. And it certainly almost felt like it. It had a variety of ingredients from long cabbage to squid, egg, pork and fish cake (gosh! first time!) and was cooked in a flavourful gravy with ramen-like noodles. Again very yummy and very filling! Came back to find out that this was actually a dish that a Chinese created in Nagasaki - and apparently has Fujian origins hence the similarity to Singapore's hokkien mee huh. I like Champon! So much so that it helped me decide that I shall certainly go to Nagasaki/Kyushuu region this summer - whether on homestay or some other way.

Food =) yayyy.

Tsukiji Market 築地

Last Tuesday (5 Jan), finally went to Tsukiji Market (築地)after being in Tokyo for 4 months. JF's brother was on visit here from Singapore, so we went in a big group of 8 people. 5 Singaporeans, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Finnish, 1 American. The famous tuna auction was closed to outsiders till 23rd Jan though, so we did not make the early wee hours trip (3-4am) but instead went at about 9am. Just in time to see the last vestiges of fresh fish market transactions and feel the dying-down bustle of the place.

Of course a trip there cannot be complete without a taste of the freshest sushi of course. The apparently best 2 sushi places were Dai Sushi and Sushi Daiwa, and both had loooooooooooong queues. Dai Sushi had the longest queue - it snaked in front of the shop, paused and picked up on the other end of the row of shops. So we went into Yamazaki which was a few doors down instead, because as much as yummy food is a must-go, queueing up is not quite the best way to spend one's time though, especially since we had 8 people.

In these 4 months, I've only beared to have sushi twice, and both times at kai-ten sushi of course (discount conveyor belt sushi). And I've always heard that Tsukiji is expensive but never realised how much more until I saw the menu which listed the cheapest sushi to be 400yen EACH and going up to 700yen each for the more exotic catches. Gritting my teeth against the shock of the prices, I just ordered whichever I felt I had to try (for novelty or for comparison) and mentally told myself that I'll definitely find a tiny village somewhere one day and enjoy cheap, fresh sushi then. Maybe 2 years later. So below are the pics of most that I tried:
(The sushi chef. There were just two elderly men manning the sushi counter - one was a nigiri (hand rolled sushi) specialist, whilst the other was the maki (sushi rolled in nori seaweed and topped with the seafood) specialist.)

(After you order, they place a fresh leaf on the ledge in front of you, together with pickled gingers and a pinch of freshly grated wasabi.)

(And the adventure begins! Started off with(L-R) Kanpachi (yellowtail stomach), Maguro (tuna) and Hirame (flounder). Before I came to Japan, my favourite sashimi was always hamachi (yellowtail) but now, it's Kanpachi. And I only just found out that day that it's actually the same fish, just that kanpachi was the fattier stomach part. <3 )

(That was followed by (L-R) salmon and toro (2nd grade tuna belly). Tuna has 3 grades - maguro (red colour, fillet part of tuna fish), toro (middle grade; fattier than maguro, hence pink rather than red) and Otoro (prized grade; fattiest tuna belly part, melts in your mouth). I also tried the Otoro (1st grade tuna belly) which was more expensive but I actually like the middle grade one (toro) best.)

(Amaebi - sweet shrimp. Not bad but I still think that prawns taste best when freshly cooked and in white wine for some reason. Yums.)

(And this is... abalone! Tried it for curiosity but will probably be the last time. Somewhat tasteless and still hard.)

I also tried uni (sea urchin) because I had tried it before at kaiten sushi and it wasn't all that good then. Kinda fishy and slimy. But this time was really good. I guess uni is one of those (like ika, prawns and maguro) where the freshness really makes alot of difference. This was smooth and not fishy at all - slid down the throat a real pleasure.

The whole experience was pricey yes, but really one of those that make you realise "oh, it can actually be sooo good". I still hope to do a roadtrip in Japan's less known areas and walk into a family-run sushi place with cheap but fresh sushi though!

Winter Break Trip - Osaka/Nara/Kobe Part 2

Second day in Osaka was spent at the rather famous Osaka Aquarium.
(Osaka Aquarium - Otters, dolphins, sharks, rays, penguins, jellyfish etc...and more. )

Ate 串かつ(ku-shi-ka-tsu) for lunch. Kushikatsu is apparently another Osaka specialty, where most of the food is served on skewers and you dip it in batter, then panko flour (something like bread crumbs) and deep fry the stick in a small fryer in front of you at the table. Interesting.


(The number of skewer/sticks on the girls' side of the table. Yum.)

After that was mostly spent walking around in Ame-mura (short for Amerika Mura; mura = village) which is a shopping area. Osaka fashion is somewhat louder and more colourful than Tokyo's - almost like an ahlian version, but it could be said that it's a much more individualistic and self-confident image than Tokyo's depressing sea of black coats. The people seemed more friendly and direct too, quite in contrast to Tokyo's politeness and keep-to-oneself feeling.

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Day 3 was spent at Nara - famous for its free-ranging deers and ancient Buddhist temples/shrines. Visited Todaiji, apparently the oldest and biggest wooden temple in the world maybe? Very pretty. The deers were some sort of nuisance though, especially if one was carrying a handful of the deer crackers - they'd come chasing after you.

(The beautiful Todaiji - biggest wooden Buddhist structure in Japan and maybe in the world too.)

Can't say I really liked Nara much - seemed too much like a tourist town, a town that never developed it's own modern character beyond displaying it's old glories. I had very yummy omu (shortened from omelette in katakana) rice there though. Omu rice is usually a fluffy fluffy (japanese call it fu-wa fu-wa) creamy omelette atop a mound of 'chicken rice'. Their chicken rice is basically rice with chicken meat and 'fried' in tomato sauce. The whole thing is then topped with demi-glace sauce. Somehow the whole dish just came together as a pretty delicious combination. No pictures sadly - ran out of battery and too busy eating heh.

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Day 4 was mostly spent walking around Namba/Amerika-mura area for shopping since one of my friends really liked to shop there. The 3 of us spoke to a shopperson for almost 1 hour. Osaka people really seem more curious towards foreigners - perhaps maybe because Osaka isn't really crawling with foreigners like Tokyo sometimes seem to be.

In the evening, took our backpacks/duffels and boarded the local train for Kobe! Kobe - port city with the "exotic" atmosphere - was quite a change from either Tokyo or Osaka. Dinner was at a small individually-owned (not franchise yay!) and dinner was good. =)


(The menu was written/printed in beautiful calligraphy script on what seemed like shaved wood.)

(My dinner - The lovely udon set meal. Came with so many things - rice topped with 1 prawn and omelette shreds, abit of tempura, udon and a mix of sushi!)

(A sashimi mix that I ordered and we all shared. All was good except for the squid/ika.)

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Day 5 was for Kobe and it was a surprisingly very likeable place! Despite all the 'what are you going to Kobe for? it's boring...' responses that we got prior to the trip. Beautiful mixture of architecture, many tooth-decay inducing patisseries, restaurants of various cuisines, a quietly vibrant frequency, sake breweries, the red port tower... and last but not least, KOBE BEEF.

(The entrance of the sake brewery museum we visited. Free entry and free sake-tasting. I like!)

(Before dinner, we went walking about Kobe - saw the European houses, Kobe's signature Red Port Tower and Nankin-machi, Kobe's Chinatown. As gaudily red and exaggerated as the place was, there was a sense of familiarity and comfort. =) )

(Last dinner of the trip in Kobe - went to a steak place and despite the hefty price tag of 4,500yen, I decided I really just had to try Kobe beef because once I got back to Tokyo, I just know I would never be able to willingly spend so much on it again. Normal price of 1 piece of Kobe beef is about 10,000yen anyway, so I went ahead and tried it. The moment I bit into a piece, I immediately thought: "I am NEVER going to be happy eating any other type of beef again...". It is THAT good.I still think about it.)

Winter Trip 2009 - Osaka/Nara/Kobe Part 1

So on the night of 22 December, Isabel, Dhani, Yang Chen and I boarded the night bus at Shinjuku bound for ....-drum roll-.... Osaka! The night bus was, well, quite bearable actually, except that I probably should bring a neck pillow if I ever repeat this experience - which I probably will since this is the cheapest means of transport for domestic travel... =/ Poor Dhani was not so lucky though, as he sat next to a rather (surprisingly) big-sized Japanese who kept talking with his friend the whole night. Arrived in Osaka the next morning at about 6am, and so the trip began!

23 Dec - Sze Ping, Osaka Castle, Peace Osaka, Namba, Okonomiyaki
Our hostel (Guesthouse U-en) was such a cosy place! We managed to book the private triple room for the 4 of us and paid just 300yen more than if we were to get the dorm beds. The whole place had an almost bohemian-feel and yet traditional Japanese style to it. Our room used to be part of a family home, so it was styled in the traditional Japanese decor of tatami mats, futons, and paper sliding doors. Nice!

Managed to meet up with Sze Ping (!) at the Osaka Castle Park, which was just a 15 minute walk from our hostel. Went into the main hall of the Osaka Castle as well, which has been converted into a museum of sorts, mainly detailing the life and exploits of the founder of the Osaka Castle - Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Pretty interesting but then again probably because I'm a history student heh =P.
(The Osaka Castle Main Hall - a converted museum about Hideyoshi Toyotomi.)

(Taking a photo together at a random face-cut-out in the Osaka Castle Park!)

Next up on the outskirts of the Osaka Castle Park was the Peace Museum Osaka, which I found to be a highlight of the trip. Having been to the Yushukan (War Museum @ Yasukuni Shrine) and seeing how amazingly biased it could be, this was surprisingly refreshing, with a whole exhibit on the WW2 atrocities as committed by the Japanese. At 250yen, this was probably the cheapest admission fee of the whole trip too.
(A pamphlet from Peace Osaka, of which the logo apparently reflects the whole universe if you look carefully.)

Went back to the hostel for a bit of much-needed nap, before heading out to Namba - one of the main nightlife/shopping centre of Osaka - and had Okonomiyaki dinner with Sze Ping! Unlike the bounenkai one at Chofu, the staff made the okonomiyakis for us here. I had extra cheese topping with my order and it was heavenly. Cheese = <3! Sze Ping and I were both lamenting that cheese in Japan is so darn expensive though blah. After dinner, Sze Ping went back to pack for her trip to China the next day, whilst we 4 walked around for a bit.

(At okonomiyaki dinner - Sze Ping!)

(Hungry Isabel, Yang Chen and Dhani looking sad whilst waiting for their okonomiyakis to be done.)

Chofu Floorball Club 忘年会

Back from the short trip to Osaka/Nara/Kobe, but more importantly, Happy New Year!

Will post my winter break photos in the next post, but for now, I realised I forgot to put up photos of the 忘年会 that I went for with fellow members of the Chofu Floorball Club! This was held on the 19th December, Saturday, and we had yummy Okonomiyaki(お好み焼き)!

忘年会(read bou-nen-kai) is basically like a year-end gathering/party that most people in Japan seemt to have as the year-end approaches. From as early as November, started seeing signs for these at restaurants and it always struck me how it's interesting that it'd literally mean "a gathering to forget the year". That's how I saw it anyway. Nonetheless, what an interesting experience it was.

Went to an okonomiyaki place at Shibasaki (near Chofu where I usually train) for the Bounenkai. And for 1300yen (19sgd~) you get to choose an okonomiyaki or monjyayaki, yakisoba and a free flow of softdrink as well as a soft serve ice cream. Pretty good deal. But what was more interesting was that I basically learnt how to make okonomiyaki and fry yaki soba!! The teppanyaki (hotplate/stove cooking thing) was in front of you at the table and you basically made it yourself. Yutaka, one of the male floorball players was absolutely pro at this! And he taught me how to cook yakisoba too! Am gonna try doing it myself next time.

Some pictures:


After okonomiyaki, they moved across the street for part 2 - the drinking part - so the high-schoolers went on home. Basically you pay a fixed price, and get to order any alcoholic (or not) drink on the menu for 1.5 hours or 2 hours and they provided several side dishes as well. It was in the traditional Japanese setting where they sit on the tatami-matted floor. So by the end of the night my legs were in pins and needles from having to sit on the floor - so uncomfortable I dunno how they do it! No photos though - forgot to take any. Highlight of the night was when I somehow 'won' a lot-drawing game and got a long-sleeved adidas jersey as a prize! Just in time, since I don't have any long-sleeved jerseys for training! Lady Luck must have been smiling down at me =)

Last Weekend - Disneyland + Isabel's 21st

I feel so old - whilst my friend just turned 21 last weekend, I am going to be 22 in about 2 weeks! Oh well, age is but a number!

So last Saturday, we went to Disneyland for Isabel's 21st birthday celebration! 21 is big in USA and Singapore and a few other places, but in Japan, they celebrate 20 years old as the 'special' one - because it's the age when they can legally drink alcohol!

Some photos from Disneyland - went with Rachel, Isabel and Dhani from Canada!



Part of her birthday celebration 'criteria' was for everyone to wear 'ears' in Disneyland! In the 10million or so souvenir shops they have in Disneyland, they sell a variety of hairbands, clips, hairties etc with cartoon character ears on them! Like Dumbo, Shrek, Aliens, Minnie Mouse, Stitch etc etc. So Isabel got her Minnie Mouse ears, Rachel got Marie from the Aristocats and I got a huge pink, leopard-spotted Minnie Mouse ribbon hair tie. Felt like such kids lol. Didn't help that the park was full of toddlers and families.



Well, I honestly never ever ever thought I'd actually step foot into Disneyland (wasn't interested last year in LA either) but I guess since it was a special occasion, I had no objections either. Nonetheless, no offence to all the hundreds or thousands of visitors at Disneyland that day, but I doubt I would ever want to go back of my own volition. I've heard that DisneySea is better, because it is targeted at the adults after all so the rides are apparently more thrilling, but like I've said before, theme parks are never my thing. I can think of too many things to buy/do/experience with the money that's needed for the expense needed for a day trip to such theme parks. And the waiting time too. So no more Disneys and the likes - unless another special occasion comes along I guess.

Sunday, her real birthday, was a more relaxed day of karaoke in the evening - filled with songs by her favouritest favouritest artist Jay Chou - and dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant Tapas Tapas. The food was so-so, but honestly the service pissed me off for a bit. Firstly they didn't allow us to consume or bring out the cake there, unless we all bought a drink each. Ice water took a while to be served as well, and was never automatically refilled. And then, after all that initial fuss, the waiter blithely ignorantly spoiled the surprise by asking at the table if we would like the cake to be served now?! Sheesh, don't they understand the concept of service?! Coming from a nation who actually have a term coined out for this "saa-bi-su" (サービス) usually to mean that they throw in a freebie for buying alot though. Pshaw. Nevermind. Can't always have too high standards I guess, unlike at Italian restaurants in Singapore. Anyway, after the pretty birthday cake and dinner, made our way down to the Hub - an English pub where I just found out screens EPL matches!! - for a drink before calling it a night.



Certainly hope Isabel had a great time and a wonderful first few days of her 21st!