Bit of a tremble last night...

Had a smallish but rather long earthquake last night, apparently it was a 6.9 at the epicenter, but by the time it reached Tokyo it was a 4.

Large and long enough to shake a few household appliances, but not big enough to break anything. Definitely the biggest of the year, if not the biggest since we've moved here.

Again thank goodness we live in a pretty modern, solid and squat structure; while talking with some colleagues today, one said she lived on the 11th floor of a high-rise and last night it was swaying so much, she and her husband had to lie down on the floor...

Yikes.

Giant Gundam protecting Tokyo...

Mysteriously appearing on Odaiba island a couple of months ago, a giant Gundam on a mission to protect Tokyo and all Tokyorites from an unseen and unknown foe... as he stands guard, people from all walks of life mill around him like little ants, posing and taking photos, oblivious to any impending danger.

Scanning the skies and the horizon, prepared to protect Tokyo with his life, the giant metallic guardian waits, ready to do his duty.

A policeman stands guard, incase some poor Tokyorite gets stepped on by accident...

Click on the photo for a bigger view...

Silently watching, waiting ready to strike... an imposing, giant, mechanical sentinel.

Oh, yes, 3 monkeys and a Gundam.

Dim Sum without the parking fees...

Recently we had lunch at the Chinaroom in the Grand Hyatt. An adequate à la carte dim sum buffet lunch for about ¥3000 a head...

While the dim sum was decent, the serving portions were tiny (even by Japanese standards) and the meal was served by supercilious waiters who can't seem to comprehend how anyone would have the audacity to order more then one serving, even if it is a buffet.

Thankfully the restaurant validates parking... because, for the mathematically challenged, that's S$3.00 for every 10 minutes you park at their hotel.

T'was a good break in Singapore and Bangkok...

...but alas all good things have to come to an end.

We're back in Tokyo and right in the middle of summer, the mosquitoes are out in full force and the heat is blazing, though the humidity is much more bearable then that of Singapore.

Two weeks in Singapore is just enough to see everyone and satiate one's Singapore food cravings, but it leaves little time for relaxing as the days and nights are pretty packed. Happily we managed to eat our way through the holiday and had an additional 4 days in Bangkok to recover before coming back to Tokyo and the grind of summer.

I am desperately missing my fishball noodles, especially a bowl from the ABC market off Alexandria road... damn you Lyndsey for introducing us to this stall.

Best damn handmade fishballs in the land...

Awesome 'Zher Char' dinner at Dickson Road, off Jalan Besar, it's a bit of a dive, but the food is delicious.

Hot, humid, no parking, long wait, but the food is worth it.

Singapore was fun, but hectic, we had a more relaxing time chilling out in Bangkok. Mei and Nicole clearly enjoying the free canapés and drinks at club lounge of the Intercontinental hotel...

...and dinner at the Hotel's empty Chinese restaurant. We had a rather generous voucher we had to use, incase you're wondering why we would be eating in the hotel.

And finally someone enjoying her brand new Nintendo DSi, skillfully extorted from her grandparents.

9am, Monday morning at the Doctors...

in Singapore, there would be a queue a mile long, but we're in Tokyo...

and it's completely empty. The whole trip to the doctor took less then half an hour, including examination time and getting meds from the pharmacy next door. The only downside is they don't validate parking.

By the way, since the Japanese seem to have an aversion to handling money, you pay the machine, not the nurse. It's alright, luckily it always seems to have the right change... and it thanks you too.

All quiet on the Tokyo front...

The Sashimi doesn't have much news to report. It's deathly quiet here in Tokyo, aside from the odd buzz on the street of Swine flu or a couple of minor demonstrations outside the Myanmar embassy... there's zip going on.

Must be the dog days of summer.

Oo, newsflash, one minor report, we'll be heading back to Singapore on the 24th of June, then Bangkok on the 7th of July and back to Tokyo by the 10th... and now, back to the dog days of summer.

Hello Kitty and melted death...

This past Golden Week break in Tokyo, we visited our newest flavor-of-the-month mall, Lalaport Toyosu... again.

Nicole wanted to play in Hello Kitty Land... again.

Thankfully we didn't have to eat faux Singaporean food... again.

This time we went to Bubba Gump's, for those of you who don't know, it's a themed restaurant from the movie Forest Gump. So it serves Southern styled American seafood, which means, deep-fried everything... then smothered in melted butter and other really bad but really tasty sauces, basically this shit will kill you dead in two servings.

Someone dipping her garlic bread into a pan of melted butter...

Same person eating that garlic bread, dripping with melted butter...

Someone copying her mother...

I, on the other hand, being of slightly larger girth prudently stayed away from the dripping pan of melted death.

After lunch we headed over to Hello Kitty Land, which is really a large play area for little girls to dress up as a Princess, play in a toy kitchen, meet the Kitty or jump in a pit full of small balls. For that pleasure they charge a princely sum of ¥800 for half an hour.










And after all that excitement and fun, we headed outdoors for a Yat Kun kopi-o! Surprisingly it seems to be doing well in this rather odd location.

For some reason, after all that butter, SOMEONE still had to have a kaya toast with her kopi. And finally a walk on Tokyo bay to catch some sun...



And a little tanning session to hopefully melt away some of that butter...

A little taste of home...

Always in search for a taste of home, we heard from a Singaporean neighbour that you could get pretty good Singapore fare in Toyusu, specifically the Lalaport mall (yes, it's a stupid name) in Toyusu. This past Saturday we hopped into the car, punched the coordinates into the GPS and took a 25 minute drive up the tomei towards Toyusu.

As it turned out the Food Circus foodcourt in Lalaport Toyusu had a little taste of Thailand, Singapore and India... to say the fare was mediocre would be generous. As with all foreign food, once it's catered for the Japanese palate, it just becomes wrong. Imagine buying a fake Louis Vuitton bag from Bangkok, you excitedly bring it back to your hotel room and examine it; then you realize the stitching is off, the colour is off, the pattern is skewed, it looked good at the store, but on closer inspection it's just wrong... ditto for Singapore food in Japan.

The chicken rice was edible... with lots of dark soya sauce

Laksa, close but no cigar...

Rubbery frozen prata with microwaved day-glo orange curry...

Alas the search continues, but I fear like Yamashita's Gold, our hunt for a proper taste of home may never be found...

Random pic

Alien food...

Signs of Spring...

Looks like it's the end of Winter... and Sakura season! Time to sit under a Cherry Blossom tree and drink lots and lots of Shochu, so much Shochu in fact, sitting under a Cherry Blossom tree starts making deep meaningful sense... It's probably more fun watching inebriated salarymen in their black suits, prancing around the Sakura tree shouting out Japanese Karaoke favorites then actually partaking in such activities.

Like I said before, I much prefer winter, no bugs, no sweat, did I mention no sweat? Spring just means that the dreaded heat of Summer is close by...

Obligatory Sakura photo here...


And another one, this time on the Meguro river, click for a bigger view...

La Foret Park

And proof that it's HOT... 29.5 degrees.

The End