Disgusting...

Squid fermented in it's own guts... it smells as bad as it looks, to quote Crocodile Dundee: 'you could eat it, but it taste like shit...'

Saying goodbye to Summer...

It's officially Autumn here in Tokyo, while the weather is still rather warm (in the high 20's), it's cool and dry enough to actually enjoy a day at the park, something that is close to impossible in hot and humid Singapore.

So, this past weekend we took a drive to the Kasai Rinkai Koen Park, Tokyo's largest, of course it's man-made and built on reclaimed land, but this is Japan.

We left at 1030 in the morning, a 30 minute cruise north on the Shuto up to Edogawa-Ku. It was a lovely day, slightly overcast, breeze blowing, low humidity and the temperature hovering at 27 degrees... perfect picnic weather.

We were lucky enough to find an empty picnic pavilion, providing ample shade and a comfy setting for our picnic...

Nice breezy spot with a great view...

Someone really enjoyed her first picnic in Tokyo...

Thanks to Mei's efforts in the kitchen, we had a lovely lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs all the while enjoying Mother Nature.

It's nice to get out of the city once in a while.

Anpanman Land...

One of the most popular kid's characters in Japan is Anpanman, he's a man, with a head made of bread that is filled with bean paste jam (anpan)... his weakness is water or anything that makes his head dirty.

His support team is made up of Jam Ojisan (his uncle, who bakes another Anpanman head whenever it's damaged), Shokupanman (a slice of white bread, levelheaded but very narcissistic) and Batako (Buttergirl, she assists Jam Ojisan), together they do battle with their nemesis Baikinman... not quite the character development of X-men, but a little bit deeper then Sponge Bob.

The Japanese have a museum dedicated to Anpanman.

Welcome to Anpanman Land & Museum!

Anpanman himself...

In a rather macabre twist, you can eat Anpanman's head... for only ¥500.

I can't believe I paid for us to go to Anpanman Land & Museum.

Silver Week

This past Monday to Wednesday was a holiday here in Japan, part of a new government policy of providing more holidays for the overworked populace... I'm liking it.

It's really two holidays, Respect for the Aged day and the Autumn Equinox day, with an extra holiday sandwiched in between. Along with a flat ¥1000 charge on the tollways, it's a pretty smart move to boost domestic holiday spending. Judging by the 30-40 km long jams on the various arteries leading out of the city, fully booked Shinkansens and packed railway stations it seems to be working.

While everyone rushed out of the city on Friday evening, we prudently, waited till the next day and took a leisurely, non-congested drive down to our favorite city in Japan... Yokohama.

This time we went on board the Yokohama Nippon Maru, a floating museum built in 1930, retired in 1984 and now berthed at Minato Mirai in the shadow of Yokohama's Landmark Tower.

'Ahoy me hearties!'

A rather fine example of an old clipper ship, built for training Naval recruits, it's been estimated that the Nippon Maru has sailed close to 2 million miles in it's lifetime.

And no trip to Minato Mirai would be complete without a quick spin on one of the many kid's rides...

Whiskey Luvin' country

They sure love their whiskey here in Japan. Make sure you pick up the jumbo, 4 litre, plastic, value bottle at your local supermarket...



Lots of different brands, plenty to choose from...

AMG...

My little R32 puts out 250 bhp and accelerates from 0-100 in under 6 seconds, imagine how I felt when a TAXI blew by me on the mean streets of Tokyo. Having been severely embarrassed I gave chase, finally catching up with the Mercedes cab at the next traffic junction...

Take a closer look...

That's an AMG modified S-class with a 5.5 litre, V8 supercharged powerplant capable of doing 0-100 in 4.6 seconds...

He must have noticed me taking a picture, because when the light turned green he decided to show me just how fast 0-100 in 4.6 seconds looked from the rear...

Small space, more lots...

How do you squeeze many parking lots into a small space? Easy, use only one lane for entry and exit...

Random pic

A fat truck.

Another day, another quake... and a typhoon

5.10 am, a 6.4 temblor 170km SW of Tokyo, by the time it got to us, it was probably a 4... enough to shake the daylights out of the bed and jolt us awake, with the exception of Nicole who, not surprisingly, slept through the whole thing.

Not quite sure how long it lasted as we woke up in the middle of it, but it sure took a while falling back asleep.

And this evening we've got a typhoon that'll brush by Tokyo... what next? Godzilla?

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.