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! =)

Golden Week Happenings

Am now in the middle of Golden Week - Japan's most expensive and most crowded travel period. Seeing how much more prices are in this week, you wouldn't be blamed if you thought this might be Japan's only holiday period. It's that bad. Prices jump by 2.5 to 3 times - and travel in Japan was never cheap to begin with. That aside, what is Golden Week anyway?

It's actually a few national holidays grouped together - namely 29th Apr, 3rd, 4th and 5th May. As to what each of the days actually are, have gone through several changes since day of inception, but as of this year, 29th Apr is the Showa Day, 3rd May is Constitution Memorial Day, 4th May is Greenery Day, whilst 5th May is Children's Day or Boy's Day. Of these few, I think Children's Day is quite an interesting one, because even though Singapore also celebrates a Children's Day, the actual practices and notions are quite different. In Singapore, Children's Day is literally a day that celebrates being a child - so the best thing is to give you a holiday of course! =P But here in Japan, Children's Day is actually more like Boy's Day, and koi-shaped banner flags are flown. The equivalent for girls, Hinamatsuri, is actually on a separate day - March 3 - and ornamental dolls in the Heian period style are displayed in the house.

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Aside from all these, some updates on recent events.

Thursday was spent with the floorball members - jointly in a celebration of our girls' team getting Champions for this league season as well as a farewell gathering for Jon, who will be moving back to Norway (with his lovely Japanese wife!) for good this coming Saturday. Sad but this is not the end and I'm sure we'll meet again some day soon! Since being so fortunate as to have met him and Sissel at floorball, I now have a reason to go visit Norway! =D So I'm sure I'll meet him again someday! He's really been a great player, mentor and most importantly, friend.

Friday was a visit to Masa's house! Because Bel and I were saying that we were really curious about how a Japanese person's house is like and so Masa very very generously invited us (and a few others) over! One of the most fun I've had in Japan! We basically chilled out at his house - played badminton, guitar, card games, Uno, Jenga, and even ate yummy curry rice that his mother kindly cooked! And met his cute sister too! =)

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And recently, I've been watching Xing Guang Da Dao (5th season) on Youtube, since chancing upon one of the episodes recently. And I've realised that I like 咪咪小眼睛的男生！^.^ Haha Lin Jie Yu and Luo Zi You are both very cute! Because of their eyes haha =P