Keawjal (Thai Cuisine) Part III

Had to take care of somethings in the Minato Mirai area and so stopped by Keawjal for lunch. Haven't been there for ages, and I'm talking about at least half a year!

My noodles lunch set with fried rice, salad, and dessert.

Kua 'Aina Part II

It has been raining a lot recently. While I don't mind that too much (I telecommute from home), poor hubby is commuting to Tokyo everyday now and neither of us are ever in the mood to cook by the day's end. That means we order in a lot, but that too gets old after a while. So over this past weekend, all of a sudden he craved for an avocado burger and off to Kua 'Aina we went ^.^ 

I ordered a teriyaki chicken sandwich, which was good but they were a bit skimpy with the chicken - see how tiny the piece of chicken was in comparison to the huge slice of toast? ^.^ Hubby got his avocado burger and inhaled it in seconds. Those fries were heavenly!

Birthday Week, Minato Mirai, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Part II

The next day had much much better weather, so we went out in the afternoon on a long walk to the Minato Mirai area for the scenic views. Right before the foot bridge hubby spotted a cart selling candied apples. They had 2 sizes, the regular apples and the mini apples they call "hime ringo," or "princess apples" ^.^ How cute is that?

Birthday Week Part I

It rained on my bday, so we waited until the rain stops before heading out to Dessert Kingdom again because I was craving sweet ^.^ And I have my nifty rain boots!

Seikarou Sichuan Cuisine Part II

A couple of weekends ago, hubby and I went back to Chukagai to resupply our non-Japanese cooking ingredients and decided to visit Seikarou Sichuan Cuisine 精華楼 for lunch. It turned out more like linner, plus leftover for brunch the next day LOL! We just couldn't help ourselves ^.^  

Happy birthday to hubby!

This is hubby's 2nd bday in Japan and we're celebrating it more quietly this time than we did last year. Hubby was still in school then, and all our friends and his classmates knew of his bday and insisted on celebrating. But of course, that was several different groups of friends, so we ended up celebrating several different times, each with a separate group. Hubby was very flattered, but in the end he was all partied out. So now that he's done with school and we don't see our friends and classmates everyday anymore, we decided to keep it quiet just between the two of us ^.^

We went out to lunch today to hubby's favorite Korean restaurant - Saikabo. Running into our neighbor S. on our way out, she offered to help snap a picture of us and we were happy to take her up on her offer. Despite the cloudy day appearance, it was actually sunny and we were both squinting because the sun was hitting directly at our eyes. Can you believe hubby and I have been together for a decade now? We have been married for over half that time. How time flies!

Cooling down a bit (finally!)

It's been cooling down just a tiny bit around here, phew! I thought I was going to melt and shrink. It's too bad we can't burn off calories with just heat-induced (and not exercise haha) sweating...

A second typhoon is hitting Tokyo and we are finally able to turn off our AC again (the last typhoon was a few weeks ago when it cooled down for a few days too). Let's hope this time the cooler days are here to stay, though I should be careful what I wish for. I remember last year, the summer to fall change seemed to happen within a week, and one week we were sweating buckets the next week we froze our butts off. Just can't win with the weather.

And cooler weather means I can finally pull out my -tahdah- sweat sarouel pants again ^.^ I actually own a few pairs but have only worn one pair back in May, which started my debate with hubby about whether these Aladdin/harem -or according to this blog- MC Hammer pants *giggles* are pjs or pants that are appropriate to step out in. This time, to my surprise hubby didn't protest my choice of outfit much. He actually thought they didn't look so bad xD

Nabezo

Before my sister left Japan, we took her to Nabezo for a delicious fulfilling meal before heading home (and unlikely to get these kinds of food for a long time). Nabezo is an all you can eat hotpot restaurant, and not only it's delicious, it's also a ridiculously good deal - can't beat that combo, can we? I really recommend this place if you have a big party you would like to feed without breaking anyone's bank. You can bet that everyone will leave the place satisfied and stuffed silly.

Our mix hotpot with Sukiyaki (right) and Soy Milk Collagen broth (left), they literally gave us a bowl of collagen to mix in with the soy milk! It was a harmoniously delicious mix (corny, I know) :P

Nikkozan Rinnoji and Taiyuin Reibyo, Nikko

Our last stop for the day was Rinnoji and Taiyuin Reibyo, the mausoleum of Tokugawa Iemitsu. By the end of this Nikko trip, hubby declared his quota for temples and shrines full for the next several months LOL!

This Sanbutsudo, or Three Buddha Hall, the most famous out of the 15 buildings within the Rinnoji complex. It houses three very large gold plated statues of Amitabha (如來佛祖, Amida Nyorai, Phật Tổ Như Lai), the Thousand-Arms Senju Kannon (千手觀音, Thiên Thủ Quan Âm) and the Horse Head Bato Kannon (馬頭觀音, Mã Thủ Quan Âm). You can see more pictures of Rinnoji here, and you can read more about the Horse Head Kannon here.

If you are wondering, yes, this is just a hollow building encaging the actual temple hall. From all the sources I've seen and read, this hall used to be "free range" like all the other halls and only recently was there such an ugly roof covering it. Perhaps they meant to shelter it from the weather? There are gold plated statues inside, after all. Then again, it's been there for centuries, no? Why covering it up now? Also, photography is no longer allowed inside the enclosure, where as it seems like people were able to take pictures before.

Nikko Edomura - Edo Wonderland, Nikko (Picture Heavy!)

I'm continuing on with our Nikko trip recently. Despite the blah experience with Ayasa Hotel, our first day was not all lost with Takimibashi Suspension Bridge. The Nikko trip got much much better after that, thankfully, and our second day at Nikko Edomura - Edo Wonderland was nothing less than memorable and fun. You can read reviews of Nikko Edomura at TripAdvisor, or just click around on their English website I linked to in the previous sentence.

On a side note, while googling around for english information for Nikko Edomura I found yet a Noboribetsu Date Jidaimura, also called Edo Wonderland, very similar but is cheaper (admission is about half that of Nikko Edomura!) while seemingly much newer, larger, more detailed Edo theme park located in Hokkaido ^.^ See this website for detailed pictures of the Noboribetsu Date Jidaimura. Of course, getting to Hokkaido will cost an arm and a leg by itself, so if you're in Kanto, your best bet is Nikko Edomura.

Ticket booth at Nikko Edomura

Takimibashi Suspension Bridge, Nikko

The next several posts will be on the "pilgrimage" trip to Nikko hubby and I had promised my sister ever since we arrived in Japan. It was her lifelong dream to go there with us (yes, I'm being sarcastic) and you'll see what I'm talking about when I get to that post ^.^ Just try very hard not to giggle at her inner otaku when you're there, mmkay?

But first let's get the touristy stuff out of the way, shall we? On our very first day at Nikko, we took a train up to Kinugawa Onsen to, well, visit an onsen. Here is where things got really tricky: on the Wikipedia link I just gave, the web in general, the various brochures, maps, pamphlets and whatnot we got about "Kinugawa Onsen," even the directions from the host of the awesome hostel we stayed at, Sumica Guesthouse, it was not exactly clear to us what this "place" is. Perhaps we were all silly tourists, but it did not dawn upon us until we got off the train that this "Kinugawa Onsen" we are looking for is actually an entire town! So really, "Kinugawa Onsen" should be understood as "onsens at Kigunawa" rather than a specific onsen named "Kinugawa." I confirmed this later that night googling for "Kinugawa" and finally found this Kinugawa WikiTravel page. Anyway, in this Kinugawa Onsen town, there are numerous hotels and ryokans with their own hot spring baths and a few other hot spring bathhouses that are open to the public with just an entrance fee (rather than requiring room-booking for overnight stays).

Dinner in Shibuya

So hubby was introduced to a fellow grad student, G., who is on her way to Taiwan for the year but is stopping by Japan for the summer. She invited us and another of hubby's classmates, S. and her boyfriend M. to dinner in Shibuya with her and her friends A. and B. So despite it being sooooo hot out and I wasn't too thrill to be stuffed into a train for the ride uptown, we went out anyway because we were told G. had lived in Taiwan before and are going back next month. Since we're heading to Taiwan next, why not meet someone with experience and hear all about it?

I wore this for the night, and yes, the picture was taken right outside the door of our new apartment on the 2nd floor of the same building. Thank goodness it's twice as big as our last apartment, so we finally got some room to stretch our legs. And since we're on the 2nd floor now, we've got tons of natural light too, versus the cold, damp, and dark corner that was our last apartment. Ick. Wouldn't live there again even if the landlord paid us to!

Cloudy Saturday

Man it's been so gray and cloudy these days, though not as rainy as it was. It does rain, but it only sprinkles a bit and then stops. Hubby and I went out with his colleagues K. and E., the same people who introduced us to both Ko-cho in Chinatown and Arisan in Sakuragi-cho.

This is what I wore out ^.^

Short Weekend Trip, Shimizu, Shizuoka

Last last weekend hubby and took a short trip out to see my sister in Shizuoka, when more purikura ensued. I packed super light and was able to travel with only a tote bag ^.^

After all this time, my sister and I finally convinced hubby to come with us to karaoke. He's totally averse to it but we dragged him there kicking and screaming.

Kua 'Aina, Yokohama

A couple of weekends ago, my sister dropped by for a brief visit after having attended an Arashiconcert in Tokyo. Having recently discovered Kua 'Aina, I promised to take her there for a little taste of home so her visit was a good occasion for all of us.

Kua Aina is a chain serving burgers and sandwiches like it's nobody's business. Mos Burger? Ha! Though technically it's not really fair to compare this chain to Mos Burger since Kua 'Aina is an American chain started in Hawaii :P Anyway, the place was an small discovery. On my way home from work one day, I complained to hubby I'm craving for a sandwich, a *real* American sandwich and not a Japanese double-whammy-quasi-carb-sandwich in the form of a glob of potato salad in between 2 slices of super processed white bread. I didn't even feel like a teriyaki shrimp burger ala Mos Burger. Mind you, I have nothing against Mos, and I love their creative and delicious their "burgers." In fact, Mos is Japan's proud and esteemed answer to McDonald's solely because those burgers have a little bit of a Japanese flavor thrown in and are clearly not American.

Miho no Matsubara, Shimizu, Shizuoka (Picture Heavy!)

Miho no Matsubara (Miho Pine Grove) is a famous scenic beach in Shimizu, Shizuoka city, Shizuoka. You can't go take a dip there, because the beach is littered with sharp rocks, but you will be in awe all the same by the view of Mount Fuji, Izu Peninsula, as well as the Suruga Bay all in the same turn! That's not all, behind you is a whole other scenic view, that of a beautiful pine grove and the sight of Hagoromo no Matsu (the Feather Mantle's Pine).

View of the Miho Shrine, from wooden path's entry point across the street.

Come Rain or Shine

So the Japanese rainy season is coming, and I know this because it rained the entire last week! I was not happy. I hate rainy days, and the thought of having to slosh around in rubber fishermen boots that weigh a ton really put a damper in my spirit. Fine, those rubber wellies aren't that bad, but they are bulky and big and heavy and not exactly something I look forward to wearing.

Braving the rain to hang out with my gal pal H. last weekend, we stopped by an ABC Mart to check out the rain shoes offerings. Aside from the common wellies, they had this pair of rain boots by More x Nuovo on display. And the moment I saw them, lo-and-behold my mind was opened to a whole new world of rain shoes I didn't think exist! Fast forward to later that night, I went home and googled rain boots on Amazon Japan and Rakuten (the...erh...Amazon of Japan) and found the most amazing assortments of rain shoes ever!

My favorite of the bunch are these 2-way boots from Relaxis Aqua Shut (what a funny brand name...). They are super stylish, versatile, waterproof, have non-slip soles with treads, and best of all, they are feather light! These boots look nothing like the rain boots I pictured in my head, and I can still splish splash around in them all I want! I can wear these 2-way boots up or folded down, and there are 2 styles available. Both styles are round-toe, ruche below-the-calf booties with about 2-2.5 inch heels.

- Style #1 is synthetic waterproof patent (PVC really...) inside and outside, available in the colors Beige, Charcoal Gray, Dark Brown, and Black.

- Style #2 has synthetic waterproof patent outside and feminine flowery print laminate inside, complete with mary jane buckle details, and available in White, Silver Gray, Dark Brown, and Black.

***Pictures from Rakuten.co.jp.

Arisan Taiwanese Restaurant Part II

Went back to Arisan this weekend for my bday bash ^.^ I really wanted to give Arisan another try, and plus when more people are going, chances are they'll order things hubby and I normally wouldn't order and we'd benefit from the variety and, perhaps, discover something we love in the process.

Ha, I was right! All 6 of us ended up ordering a bunch of different stuff that hubby and I haven't tried, and holy crap they all were absolutely fantastic!

Water spinach sauteed with garlic was such a hit we ordered it twice because the first round disappeared in one bite. Hubby and I loved it last time, and to our relief it tasted even better this time.

Rainy Days and Sundays...

...Always get me down...

So what do I do but go out for dinner? Hubby hated what I wore, so I just had to share LOL xD No makeup either.

First Day of Work in Tokyo :)

Now that I'm working, I'm even further behind on my posts... :(

But here's a picture of my first day of work in Tokyo ^.^ It's a long commute for me, almost 2 hours by train, not all of it actually on the train of course, there's lot of walking between transfers too. Damn, I still can't believe some of the women commute in stilettos! My heels were 1-inch kitten heels and by the end of the day, I wanted to kill them because my feet were in so much pain!!!

Anyway, I haven't shared what my outfits with you guys for a long time, so here's one I wore to work :P Boring, but whatever.

And yes, I was wearing makeup, with some new things I haven't reviewed too! Will get to those later...I hope.