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

Random pics

Really, really, really old salt... still, it's cheaper then salt from the Triassic period.

Don't like old salt? Try going crazy!


Recently Tokyo retook the top spot for most expensive city in the world, here's why, TWO whole limes for almost US$3...

Another silly English sign for an Italian restaurant chain...

All I want for Christmas is...

...my two front teeth.


Followed by a visit from the Japanese tooth fairy, who generously bought each tooth for the princely sum of ¥500.

Finally Snow... alright sleet.

Well it's almost the end of winter here in Japan and finally we get a spot of snow, it's really nice to see the white stuff falling from the sky.

Not the best picture, but you get the idea that it's a seriously overcast day and it's wet...

Unfortunately, it's too warm for the snow to stick and it's just becoming a slushy mess on the ground, but nice to see it at least once this winter... it's also the coldest day of the year, with a high hovering between 2-3 degrees.

Big Steak... big view

The view from the 51st floor of the Sumitomo Building in Shinjuku...

click on the picture for a bigger view...

This was the view from Misono an awesome Teppanyaki restaurant. They claim to be the originators of Teppanyaki and from the look and smell it's clear the restaurant has been around for rather a long time... I won't dispute their claim because they serve a pretty mean steak, unfortunately at a pretty mean price.

Too bad the three of us were enjoying our red meat so much, we forgot to take photos...


Thanks to a couple of Singaporeans (Linda and her boytoy, Kok Weng) for introducing us to Misono...

Nicole gets a new Hairdo...

It took a lot of convincing from her parents that 'trimming' does not equate to 'chopping off' her hair, while realizing that she wants to grow it out, it was beginning to look more like a strangled mop then a Disney Princess' mane... Much better now.


Hmmm, after Adrian commented that she looked more like Mei, maybe there's a little truth in that, maybe mother wants daughter to look like her, I did a little research...

Last year...


and now...

Hmmmmm...

A beautiful Saturday afternoon in Yokohama

This past Saturday was a gloriously beautiful winter's day. While a little chilly the sun was out and the sky was a deep blue.

We zipped down to Yokohama for a spot of ice skating... well, the girls did, I just watched.

A beautiful setting, an ice rink by the old red brick warehouses.



Trying very hard not to fall... with the sun out, the ice was a little slushy.

Perhaps a smaller helmet next time.

After skating, we had a spot of lunch at the Red Brick Warehouse on the bay in Minato Mirai, 100 year old warehouses completely refurbished from top to bottom, all-in-all a picture perfect day.