ready. jetset. go!

Shanghai Sensibilities

2011-11-30T23:54:00.000-08:00

28-30 November 2011

Probably the last work trip to Shanghai and my first time flying in and out of Pudong Terminal 1. Got this picture off the net cos forgot to take picture. Wanted to talk about Terminal One's super clever roof truss design. Like magic, you can hardly see any truss structure! Bottom chord of truss painted black so all you see are the white vertical members that look like interior design treatment to the ceiling. Clever right? Even the detail of how the vertical member meets the bottom chord is well-designed and even has a small light fixture tucked neatly inside.

Shanghai Streets

2011-11-16T07:47:00.000-08:00

11-14 November 2011

Hong Kong - Macau

2011-11-15T07:59:00.000-08:00

5-9 November 2011

Doing daughter duties, both Lai Yeow and I, heh... Taking both our folks to Hong Kong and Macau for a 5-day trip!

Shanghainese DimSum

2011-10-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

One of my must-haves each time we have dinner at the hotel's chinese restaurant.

Ma Qiu - i think it's approximately 10cm in diameter, it's totally empty inside and when you poke a chopstick through it, a stream of hot steam oozes out. Best eaten hot. Yum.

25-27 Oct

Shanghai Snippets

2011-10-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Corner provision store we pass by on our daily walks back to the hotel from office.

24hr fruit shop near the hotel. Too bad my favourite peaches are no longer in season.

11-20 Oct

Melbourne 27 Sep - 2 Oct

2011-10-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

It's a bit of a distant memory but i was in Melbourne way back in 1997 with a couple of first year university friends, and it's either that Melbourne has changed much since or i have a really bad memory cos i don't find many places familiar at all, not even the trams. Maybe cos i remember more of Tasmania or the outdoorsy day trips to Grampians and Great Ocean Road, or even the stopovers at vast meadows and eating lunch out of the back of the car, which i'd really enjoyed. Then again, 1997 is fricking fourteen years ago.

Still, even though we stayed soley in Melbourne City itself this time, and the weather was chilly-er and rainy-er than we had anticipated, i had a really nice time with Cheryl, my trusty regular travel buddy. We woke up any time we wanted, had long breakfasts, wandered about the streets and checked out different precincts without any pre-planned itinerary except for a map in hand, courtesy of our serviced apartment on Queen Street... oh and lots of tips of where to go from her colleague, Jonathan, who studied a couple of years in Melbourne.

Cheryl arrived on the red eye from Singapore and i met her in the apartment after a morning domestic flight from Brisbane, where i'd visited my baby niece a few days earlier.

Melbourne's city planning is awesome, compact and gridded and very easy to navigate, not to mention the free city circle tram where tourists can hop on and off easily. The city centre is bounded by (clockwise from north) La Trobe Street, Spring Street, Flinders Street and Spencer Street, where the airport express Skybus terminal was located at Southern Cross Station. Skybus is super convenient at AUD$26 for a return trip between Melbourne's main airport, Tullamarine and the City Centre, cos cabs were really expensive i heard. We stayed at City Tempo Serviced Apartments, on the junction between Queen and A.Beckett Streets, just off La Trobe and a 3 min walk to Queen Victoria Market, and 7 minutes to Bourke Street Mall.

We didn't do very much on the first day, heading down Bourke Street (or was it Little Bourke) to find lunch at this place recommended by Jon. We found ourselves in the midst of Chinatown and soon i realised that streets in Melbourne go a long way before the street name changes. In the end we were too hungry and settled for some really bad Hong Kong cuisine in a chinese BBQ diner somewhere along Chinatown on Bourke Street.

Somehow the 'little' streets inserted between the main streets, like Little Collins after Collins Street, Little Bourke after Bourke Street and so on made the walking seem less. And i hate having to say the name of Lonsdale Street, i trip over it everytime i had to say it. The perpendicular road names were royally nice, like after the main Swanston Street, it was Elizabeth, then Queen, then William, then King i recall.

On the end of Bourke Street Mall closer to our apartment was Melbourne's General Post Office, adapted and reused as restaurants and the likes.

Elaine picked us up after work and we headed to Lygon Street for the best pasta apparently, at Ti Amo. I had the penne beef ragu with red wine sauce, cheryl had the special pasta with giant pork meatballs and elaine had good old seafood marina. When i was in Melbourne in '97, we visited Elaine at her hostel in Melbourne Uni where she was then studying medicine and fast forward 14 years she's now a doctor and an ophthalmologist at that. (i had to look up that word, i hope i got it right, in layman terms, eye specialist) Oh and she's also mummy to 18 month old Erica and up until just very recently, part-time student part-time mummy when she was specialising.

Wednesday 28 Sep
City Circle Tram sights, Flinders Street, DeGraves Street, Federation Square, National Gallery of Victoria, Crown Casino

We hopped on the City Circle to take us to Flinders Street for breakfast, passing some city sights along the way.

Parliament House along Spring Street where the tram stopped for approximately 7mins.

Majestic Windsor Hotel from tram windows.

Princess Theatre, i think. I'm not sure if this strictly classifies as an example of Victorian architecture, Melbourne being one of the world's greatest Victorian cities. Famous examples we passed would be the State Library and St Paul's Cathedral.

We alighted at Flinders Street Station tram stop and walked to DeGraves Street, a somewhat bohemian cafe-lined street leading to Flinders Lane shopping street.

We picked relatively newly opened Made with Love Healthy Burgers cafe for brunch but they didn't serve coffee so i got mine from a corner stall just across the road.

At the junction of DeGraves Street and Flinders Lane.

Melbourne's laneways and alley culture. I like very much.

Australia on Collins, one of the shopping malls straddling Collins and Little Collins Street.

Flinders Street Railway Station.

St Paul's Cathedral built in the Queen Victoria era. Somehow you could recognise a St Paul's Cathedral when you see one, or maybe not.

Across the street from St Paul's and Flinders Street Railway Station was Federation Square which wasn't constructed in '97. A bit odd to see the dignified classical St Paul's and faceted Federation Square metal facades in the same frame.

Don't think we liked Federation Square very much, never mind that it was AFL finals weekend and the square was filled with cheering football fans to a large TV screen.

We walked down across the Yarra River to check out the Arts precinct, comprising the Performing Arts Centre which was under renovation and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), among other buildings i suppose.

National Gallery of Victoria

Performing Arts Centre was under renovation and what's with the rocket launcher-effiel tower steet structure?

View along St Kilda Road bridge over the Yarra River looking across Southbank towards the Crown Entertainment Complex.

Some renovation works were happening at Southbank and the alresco cafes looked closed so we walked back to Flinders Street tram stop and rode the City Circle down to the Crown Casino.

The tram stops remind me a bit of Istanbul, having to wait in the middle between 2 roads.

The City Circle Tram, our favourite mode of transport when the weather got too chilly to walk (ave temp of 10-12 deg).

Inside Crown Casino, i made AUD$11 on free AUD$5 capital at the jackpot all becos of a persistant roaming casino staff. But later because the heavy rain wouldn't let up, we had to buy a AUD$19 umbrella from the casino gift shop to make our way home as it was turning dark. Or we could technically stay and gamble the night away...

Waiting out the rain over choc-mint movenpick ice-cream but there was just so much ice-cream you could eat.

The Melbourne Aquarium across the Yarra River from Southbank.

Waiting for our tram on a very rainy evening, which eventually dropped us even further from our apartment cos it suddenly announced that Spring Street Parliament House station would be the last stop for the day. We walked the rest of the way back in the rain with one umbrella.

The Public State Library we passed on our walk home, which we'd planned on coming back to but never did.

Thursday 29 Sep
Queen Victoria Market, QV, St Kilda's Acland, Fitzroy, Carlisle, Barkly Streets, Block Arcade, Royal Arcade, Swanston Street

Bacon and eggs on toast with coffee was AUD$15 each at this corner cafe opposite Queen Victoria Market. Expensive eh?

Melbourne City Baths along Swanston Street, bordered by Victoria and Franklin Streets.

We didn't have enough coins when we boarded the tram and the kind driver let us ride 2 stops for free and we had to alight outside QV, a shopping mall near Melbourne Central Station, to get change. Then we hopped on Tram no. 16 all the way to St Kilda.

There were several quaint looking cake shops along Acland Street and the temptation was too great so we popped into one for a sampling.

Cheryl had the coconut tart and i had the florentine. They were AUD$5 a pop.

I could only glimpse at the Royal Botanic Gardens from my tram windows to and from St Kilda as it was either raining or too chilly to lie on the grass and picnic.

Back in the city centre, we chanced upon this alleyway and tucked into the yummiest pizza ever at Olio. We vowed to come back once more at the end of our trip. Turns out this alleyway is called Block Pl. and connects to the Block Arcade, at the corner of Collins and Elizabeth Streets. It was really nice to get lost in these alleyways and arcades and appear on another street altogether.

Yummiest. Pizza. Ever.

Busker singing Coldplay at the end of Block Pl. Nice vocals.

Another of Melbourne's many arcades, this was the Royal Arcade. I like the bay window-like glass showcases.

The chequered floor patterns seemed to go well too.

Chinese claypot dinner at Claypot King along Swanston Street on another cold rainy evening before walking back.

Friday 30 Sep
Melbourne Central, City Centre, Bourke Street Mall, Cathedral Arcade, Block Arcade

Breakfast at Muleta's near Queen Victoria Market before shopping day in the city today.

We waited some half an hour in the cold for the City Circle this morning and finally saw a notice that said the city circle service would be disrupted today due to the AFL finals. Darn football. Heh.

Melbourne Central, which is a shopping mall built into/over a train station i think. We thought we had gotten ourselves in the middle of a flash mob when a group of people in black started mass-dancing out of the blue.

Brick-faced clock tower inside the shopping mall. Escalators and lifts lead you down to the train platforms underground.

This is the Cathedral Arcade, i forgot bounded by which streets cos we kinda randomly walked into it while taking shelter from the rain.

Hey matching outfit as the lady waiting for the lifts.

I took this picture cos i wanted to say that the trees lining the sidewalk were very nice, very european. Alas it was raining (again) and Crown's umbrella had to be blue of all colours.

Inside vintage wooden tram. I like the many assorted tram designs that came our way. We were on our way to Harbour Town at the Docklands.

Napoli prawn linguine (cheryl) and chilli prawn risotto (me) at Segonia, along our favourite Block Place just opposite Olio.

Cheryl warming her hands by the candle flame. Raining outside and a busker playing the guitar warms the cold.

Saturday 1 Oct
Fitzroy (Brunswick & Smith Streets), Toorak Rd, Chapel Street, Lygon Street

Today we headed to the edgy district of Brunswick and Smith Streets, and looking at the scale and shapes of the buildings as we got off the tram, i liked this place already.

We walked down Brunswick Street, past Johnston Street to get to Babka, a breakfast cafe recommended by Elaine earlier. Along the way we got distracted by florists, bookshops, scent shops and furniture shops in nicely furnished warehouse interior.

I love the bright spot of cherry-red umbrella against the black walls of the Deli.

Brunswick Bookstore. Cheryl's umbrella (or rather, Crown's umbrella) matches.

Alas it was another rainy morning and cold too i decided it was better putting my hands in my pockets and using my scarf around my head to shield from the rain, than to have exposed freezing fingers holding an umbrella. Cheryl bought woolly gloves from a thrift shop cos her hands were freezing.

At Babka, i had the most delicious hotcakes ever. You know how it is with pancakes, especially when they're not eaten fresh from the pan. These ones were thick and super moist on the inside. Every mouthful was a delight, coupled with the pistachios and generous strawberries and cream. It's called the Ricotti Hotcakes with strawberries if you wish to order that. It cost AUD$13 btw.

Cheryl had lean bacon and scrambled eggs on sourdough. i like the chewiness and slightly sourish taste of sourdough bread. A long line was forming for freshly baked takeaway bread. They must be pretty popular. The chatter filling the air from the morning breakfast people interspersed with the clanking of cutlery felt like a really festive start to the weekend.

We just couldn't get enough pictures of the pretty hotcakes.

Waiting along Smith Street for the tram. I'd bought a fragile vintage cup and saucer with lovely flower prints that i absolutely can't take my eyes off, a brown italian leather bag and a vintage purse from this second hand shop along Smith Street.

Pretty tiny yellow flowers against dark grey building facade.

There's something about being in quiet neighbourhoods that i like about travelling. I think it's the feeling of being a stranger in somebody's backyard, sort of. I can't quite put my finger on it but i like the mundane-ness of quiet neighbourhoods, and i'm like this foreign object gingerly treading through trying not to disrupt their peace.

Almost like winter.

I would like to be able to hop on and off trams to check out random buildings or places that catch my eye, like this church for example.

Another recommendation from Elaine, this was at Toorak Road in the Chapel Street Precinct, where we were immediately served hot double-boiled chinese pork-rib and red date soup and in the cold weather it was a real comfort food man...

We had the crab noodles that Elaine recommended but i suspect we ordered the wrong version of crab noodles.

Spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at Chapel Street, which was pretty much the usual stores you'd find along Bourke Street Mall so it wasn't terribly interesting.

Snacking on fries while waiting for our tram back to the city.

We thought of dropping by the warehouses on Bridge Road but it was already past 6pm and shops close really early even on weekends. After waiting a while for our tram we decided to head to Lygon Street instead for another pasta place and ice-cream joint recommended by Jon.

I can't believe we randomly stopped along Lygon Street and managed to find Zingarella, without the address. It was that easy.

Rocher (cheryl) and durian (me) ice-cream at Il Dolce Fredo, popularised by students from the nearby university lodging.

After a while we got used to the fact that it was safe to stand and wait for the trams without cars running over our toes despite having no pavement to the tram stop.

Sunday 2 Oct
Queen Victoria Market, St. Kilda's Pier Sunday Market, Block Arcade, Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne Central

Colourful lift lobby on the 5th floor of City Tempo, the apartment we stayed at.

Funk (?) Fish... is that how you wanna describe your fish? Really? Lol.

Fish and chips for breakfast at the food court inside Queen Victoria Market, and our last chance to buy foodstuff from here for people back home.

Latte glasses always look so pretty.

Queen Victoria Market

Ooh orange tram!

Enjoying some sunshine at the tram stop, finally.

More tram photos haha.

RMIT along the busy Swanston Street.

St Kilda Pier. I'm so happy today was bright and sunny. Never mind it was our last day in Melbourne. I liked walking down the pier in the glorious blue skies and cool winds and seeing kids, families, couples, joggers, people walking their dogs and all passing me by along the pier.

I don't remember St Kilda Pier being like this when we came in '97, it was a lot less crowded and i swear the little building at the end of the pier was made of wood.

Absolutely love this!

I like sitting on grass in nice cool weather too. A pity we don't really get to do that much in Singapore.

St Kilda Sunday Market along the Esplanade.

I think is the awesome Block Arcade. The decor is so ornately beautiful i'm looking at the intricate patterns on the floor tiles and arcaded ceilings more than anything else.

And our favourite alleyway, Block Place. It's almost like we're in a Spanish or Italian alleyway huh...

Pizza at Olio, again, as promised. Australia makes pretty good italian i must say!

New life injected to the GPO, at the start of Bourke Street Mall at the junction of Elizabeth Street.

Brisbane 24-26 Sep 2011

2011-09-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

Finally, we're on our way to Brisbane to see my little niece, Esther, some 1.5 months after she was born.

Friday 23 Sep 11

Thanks for sending us off, Uncle Kelvin!

Saturday 24 Sep 11

Arrived in Brisbane almost 3am and here's us after a couple of hours' sleep, on the way out to Toowong Village for grocery shopping.

Awww... the very reason why we're here haha... click on the following links but be prepared to overdose on cutesy baby pictures!

The Princess Diaries Part I
The Princess Diaries Part II
The Princess Diaries Part III
The Princess and the Pea(ple)

The very first thing i do when i wake up, even before washing up!

Baby clothing hanging out to dry on the balcony.

Sunday 25 Sep 11

Sunday morning service at Hope Brisbane on the University of Queensland campus.

Lunch at Myer Centre food court along Queen Street Mall.

Baby and baby's parents went home first while Dad, Mum and me hung out for a bit longer. Treasury Casino at the junction of Queen Street Mall and George Street, where the North Quay City Cat stop is, just before Victoria Bridge going across to South Bank.

Seafood dinner of cod, barramundi, snapper, salmon, baby octopus and my favourite oysters!

Monday 26 Sep 11

Joy, Dad, Mum and me take Baby Esther out to yum cha at Sunnybank Plaza, except really, it's the adults who yum the cha and sorry Esther, you can only yum your milk for now hor, guai...

Dad and Mum's favourite activity is to hunt down supermarkets and do grocery shopping, just as if they never left Singapore teehee =)

I'll leave Dad to update on the rest of their stay in Brisbane cos i'll be crossing over to Melbourne tomorrow morning! :)

Shanghainese Pot Sticklers

2011-09-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

Took the red eye flight to Shanghai for work this week and our room wasn't ready so we headed out to a nearby coffee shop to have sheng jian bao for breakfast. I started eating the moment they were served and forgot to take pictures. A plate of 4 for 6 yuan ($1.20). Really yummy until my shanghainese colleague commented that the soup inside comes about when the fats in the minced pork filling gets steamed.

15-17 Sep

Shanghai Sidewalk

2011-09-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

Chestnuts a-roasting, alongside other fruit and nut peddlers outside Xin Wang where we had lunch every day cos it was near the office building we were working at in Shanghai.

That's Xin Wang at the corner of the sidewalk, don't think it's in any way affiliated to the one back home.

And nope, this isn't my colleague in case you were wondering. He is a random passer-by who happened to get caught by my iPhone camera.

8-10 Sep

Shanghai Scenes

2011-09-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

First of a couple of upcoming worktrips in Shanghai over September and possibly October.

Casement windows along the corridor of the office building we were working in.

Love those hinges!

24-31 Aug

Work Trip Treats

2011-07-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

When the day's work is all done, and we're not having dinner with the clients...

Just like any other ordinary beach scene huh...

And then the storm came...

And the waves came furiously crashing in...

Somebody didn't seem too perturbed...

Lush landscaping at Eden Resort...

I think this should be lotus...

and this, lily, judging by the flat lily pads...

Hopped over to La Verandah, a neighbouring resort on Phu Quoc Island, for dinner and drinks

and dessert...

White french shutters and white rattan chairs...

Very french colonial style...

Love the floor tiles...

Meanwhile back in Ho Chi Minh City, we ate at my favourite 'old world charm' vietnamese restaurant, Anh Vien, where i tried Banh Xeo, a vietnamese pancake dish for the first time. I'd post a picture of it if i had a better camera.

Post-edit: It's good to travel with friends with cameras better than mine! Photo of Banh Xeo (pronounced By-ein Siauw)

My colleagues suggested dessert and drinks at The Refinery, a bistro type eating place housed in an old french colonial building with a big courtyard, a hidden gem tucked away from the hustle-bustle of Hai Ba Trung Street, just opposite Park Hyatt.

Great place, great ambience.

Having our complimentary martini at the in-house bar in Movenpick, our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

JB-Kukup

2011-05-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

One day trip to JB and Kukup on Vesak Day.

Breakfast after clearing customs in JB.

Traditional malay dance at touristy Kampung House visit.

Creepy?

Less creepy?

Batik painting at the touristy Traditional Kampung House.

I really wanted to try too but only the kids seemed to be the ones doing so i chickened out. In the end, Auntie Shirley asked me to help paint one for her daughter. I was secretly happy. Yay!

This little boy is very very cute.

Boat ride to the kelong.

Came back with lots of kampung snacks.

Malacca

2011-04-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

16-18th April

A bit unbelievable but i'd never been to Malacca before this weekend. One friend said, oh how lucky you never had to go. She'd been there several times on school field trips and Malacca seemed to be the choice place for staff retreats at her office and she's like, enuf already, there's nothing to do in Malacca! Another friend came back recently with accounts of extremely hot weather and mosquito bites everywhere. Hmmm.

Thats's Dad and Mom standing in front of our hotel, Jonker Boutique Hotel.

Hotel Lobby, pictures of the rooms and courtyard are a little bit further down the post.

A very late lunch (around 4pm) at a coffee shop we chanced upon walking in the opposite direction from everything else (accidentally). Thankfully the wantan mee and roast pork were delicious.

Made our way back in the correct direction towards Jonker Street where the pasar malam or night market was starting at 6pm. Some random pictures of Malacca along the way.

The Malacca Eye and Maritime Museum in the distance across the Malacca river.

At the start of Jonker Walk, where stalls had already started business for the night.

We were sipping coffee at San Shu Gong (i think it translates to Third Granduncle), a prominent corner building at the junction of Jonker Walk and the river selling local tidbits and coffee sachets for tourists to buy home.

The atmosphere at the night market was great. Very lively.

Fruit candies on sticks. Just wanted a photo of it.

We tried some durian fritters in spring roll, netted spring roll and dough ball forms.

Dad and Mom trying to get the best deal out of some microfibre towels.

The Geographer Cafe, featured on Lonely Planet, and frequented mostly by caucasians. I was checking out the exposed roof tiles and rafters through the second storey windows.

The other end of Jonker Walk where we had dinner at a coffee shop nearby.

The dishes were okay only. The satay looked good but didn't taste as good. Peanut gravy also tak-shiok. From where we were seated, we were treated to a super happening live stage show.

A lot of ah-pek fans drinking beer and watching the live show.

Cos got 'sexy' aunties dancing mah...

You see the grey building with neon signage on the left? That's where we stayed. The windows directly below the signage, that's my room. Uh-huh.

View of the line-dancing from our bedroom windows.

Super happening man... these aunties. They can dance number after number from 7pm through to 11pm. Earlier on I was trying to photograph one 'fashionable' auntie's black netting costume close-up when there were two tourists next to me taking turns at videoing each other's attempt to keep up with the line-dance steps. After the white guy had enuf he came out of the crowd and said, now let's see the black guy do the dance man. And proceeded to film his friend making a fool of himself.

Lilia and me chilling in our room after the show was over.

The next morning, the coast is clear. Everybody had gone home.

This is what our room looks like at the Jonker Boutique Hotel on Jalan Tokong.

Dim Sum breakfast at this coffee shop opposite the mosque, about 5 min walk from where we were staying.

The peitan chok (century egg porridge) is not very nice.

Then back to the hotel to meet up with Chin Li and Chris.

The courtyard area at Jonker Boutique Hotel.

Walk down memory lane at the morning street market, which is similar to our Sungei Road Thieves Market.

Second round of breakfast with Chin Li and Chris at Cafe 1511, which is also a guest house.

Love those peranakan tiles and green wall.

Combination of western and nyonya dishes.

Then off to do the touristy bits for today.

Yes we took the 45 minute river cruise, which i thought was quite nice actually.

The backs of the shophouses fronting the river had been painted quite artistically to form a mural of sorts.

Gross. I really didn't want this on my blog but there were 3 of them as our boat passed the river bank near our stop.

Chicken rice at one of the coffee shops where Chris wanted to try the chicken rice ball for kicks.

Otah.

Tadaa... chicken rice balls. I'd thought they were larger and came in one ball per serving haha.

The weather was too hot so we took shelter in air-con comfort at the Orang Belanda cafe, run by a Swedish guy and his chinese wife, or so he told my dad, when Dad asked if he was Dutch.

This hashers group were getting ready outside the Geographer Cafe for their run. Later on i saw a banner that welcomed them to Malacca from 16-17th April. The day before they were dressed to the likes of The Flintstones. Strangely we didn't cross paths in any of their runs.

Char Kway Kak, a night market favourite.

Hokkien mee and Asam laksa for dinner, but they don't match up to the Penang ones.

Wantan mee again for breakfast the next morning. So colourful, the bowls!

Second breakfast at a peranakan coffee shop.

The seafood pai-tee was delicious!

We went to a mall after passing the red Dutch State House (Stadhuy's) building and St Paul's Church, which i'd mistook to be the Mahkota Parade Mall shown on the map and only after we were leaving it to head back to the hotel for check-out that we saw this huge shopping mall across the road with a huge sign that said Mahkota Parade Mall that we realised we'd been in the wrong mall all this time guagua.

Parting shot of the Malacca River, before cabbing to the Melaka Sentral bus station for our 3.30pm bus back to Singapore.

Travel buddies: Dad, Mom, Lilia, Chin Li & Chris.

Japan

2011-03-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

2-13 March 2011

I thought it was a bit of a bummer that we were going to Japan just one month ahead of sakura season but walking in the snow with huge snowflakes fluttering in the wind in the Unesco World Heritage Shirakawa Mountain Village more than made up for it. Plus the clumps of snow collecting on the branches of trees kinda look somewhat like sakura.

Okay, nice try.

(We are very grateful to be able to have made this trip and returned home safely, especially when we'd originally planned to go in April but brought forward our trip to March since Ivan couldn't make it in April. Our prayers continue to be with Japan for courage and strength to recover what was lost, and serenity to accept what is no longer.)

Tokyo
Wednesday 2nd March

I was first to arrive since i was on the red-eye flight via SQ departing at 11:55pm the night before from Singapore. That put me in Tokyo Narita at 7.30am, 6 hours ahead of Cheryl on Delta and 8 hours ahead of Lai Yeow & Ivan on United. Armed with my print-outs of maps including very useful photos of landmarks, i managed to buy my Narita Express + Suica combo ticket (5500yen return) , catch the 8.13am train to Shinjuku, and walk the stepless route via the South Exit of Shinjuku Station to our hotel. All according to plan. Perfect start to my holiday. (Well, we kinda know how it ended huh. No amount of planning would've helped that one.)

After some 90 min ride on the Narita Express and a short 10 minute walk i arrived at Sunroute Plaza Hotel. Check-in was only at 2pm so i piled on more layers (it was cold!) and walked around Shinjuku. Met up with an ex-schoolmate whose hubby was working in Tokyo and she saved me from lunching alone on my first day in a foreign land.

Shinjuku Station was huge and the first thing that struck me was that everybody wears black in Japan! Or dark grey. Or medium grey. Or light grey. Some browns and navy but hardly any other colour, except for maybe the odd purple scarf. Several people donned paper mouth masks and unlike the cutesy patterned cloth ones you find in Ho Chi Minh City, everyone wore only the standard white surgical ones. I wondered if it was because the stores sold only these or it was a Japanese aesthetic preference for Muji-ism. Or zen if you prefer.

First stop Roppongi Hills and we hunted down Ippudo for our very first meal in Japan. None of us have tried the Ippudo ramen at Mandarin Gallery back in Singapore but surely no matter how good that was, the made-in-Japan one would win hands down. And indeed it was sinfully good. There were 6 types of noodle hardness to choose from and 5 levels of spiciness, if you odered the chilli flavoured soup base which Cheryl did. Such dedication to detail.

The egg was amazingly oishi. Later on we bought the styrofoam cup noodle version of Ippudo from 7-eleven but while it had a slice of pork and the soup base did have some resemblance, there was no egg. And eating ramen without the egg is absolutely criminal.

View of Tokyo Tower from Roppongi Hills.

It was a very cold night and too dark to properly check out the surrounds of Roppongi Hills. We didn't quite fish out our cameras for the famous spider sculpture when we came to it cos it was already dark. And too cold.

Checked out the Mori Art Museum shop instead. I suspect we were in need of some respite from the cold.

Coffee and delicious iced chocolate (they didn't have hot) at a cafe across our hotel concluded our first night in Tokyo.

Tokyo
Thursday 3rd March

First stop Tsukiji Fish Market for can't-get-any-fresher-than-this sashimi. For breakfast. Uh-huh.

Um. Think we woke up late and the auctions were over. Fishmongers were packing up and driving out. Then we realised we weren't yet in the market proper.

As i was staring down at gigantic see-hums and other larger than life shellfish, i stepped into a pothole of icky water. But still, all i cared about was how fat the clams were. Those fat juicy little things. Must be delicious.

Seeing all the seafood really whetted our appetites and it's now time to feast! Fresh sashimi for breakfast yay! Good grief queues everywhere. Those must be the good ones. To queue or not to queue.

Eventually we settled on a medium length queue one.

Take order while you wait. Speeds things up. This is no conveyor belt sushi.

Peering over the shoulders of the people ahead of us in queue.

Yay our turn finally!

The starving kids.

Ooh la la. My chirashi. With lip-smacking uni (urchin) and negitoro (fatty tuna belly) accompanying the salmon. My lips were so gorgeously oily after that.

Cheryl's. The scallops look like they'll just melt in your mouth. Maybe she'll offer me one. For the record, she did. :)

As if the chefs weren't busy enough...

Next up, we walked to Ginza since it was relatively nearby. Ginza is a bit like Orchard Road i guess.

Most of the buildings in Japan have this narrow gap between them. We figured it's to allow for independant movement between buidlings during earthquake tremors.

Interesting concept, giving each label a shopfront (sort of) at street level.

What's more interesting is that each of these glass modules were showcase cum elevators that take you up to the shop itself, except that you can start browsing in the lifts! Actually i don't know if it's all that necessary.

The entire "shop" ascends and descends via hydraulic pistons. We rode it up and down for fun, although it was a bit stressful to be greeted by the salesperson when we arrived at the shop proper. I mean, it's the likes of Dior and Omega mind you.

Randomly carved diagonal slits in the stone wall created some interest in how water was channeled down to the pebble wash below.

Popped into a Shiseido cafe along the way and bought expensive cheesecake bites for tea. Japanese packaging looking ever-so effortly-pretty.

At a corner coffee joint in Ginza enjoying our cheesecake with cappuccino.

Sakura-mochi samples on the sidewalk.

We took the Ginza line to Omotesando, another upmarket shopping street in Tokyo, where we checked out various storefronts and interiors, more than anything else.

The good thing with seasons is that i imagine the streets to have a totally different feel during each season. I squint and try to imagine abundance of sakura on these branches. Then i realised these may not even have been sakura trees gua-gua.

Tods - the interior had similar faceted walls and angles but of course no pictures inside, thank you.

LV

Bvlgari

Spent some time at the Museum of Modern Art shop.

And posed for pictures with the wallpaper outside.

This was one of the perpendicular streets off the main Omotesando shopping belt. There were several quirky stand-alone shops with interesting design. One was on a tree accessed via staircase and the facades were in mirror finish all round so you kinda just see a roof floating over nothing amidst leaves and branches. Pretty neat i thought. I have a photo somewhere.

Someone's residence. Looks like it's for small people doesn't it?

Omotesando kinda forms one third of a triangle on plan, with Shibuya and Harajuku streets forming the other two. I say this because it seems from Omotesando you can either walk down towards Harajuku or take the other fork in the Shibuya direction. We did the Harajuku one and found ourselves in Takeshita Street, where we felt young again as we mingled with the extremely lively and youthful crowd.

Eating Japanese pasta while we not-so-secretly oogled Japanese schoolgirls across the alley and wondered how come their thighs weren't afraid of the cold.

Then we couldn't resist and Cheryl went up behind them to queue up and buy takopachi (what, you think she went to ask them why their skirt so short is it?)

Steaming hot takopachi. Instead of the usual 3 in a box, this one came in one huge ball. i think i prefer the 3 in a box type. Sadly whenever we next came across takopachi we were always too full from a meal to try some.

At the other end of Takeshita Street, across which was the Harajuku subway station.

Having digital fun with interactive what do you call these things on the building walls by the sidewalk. It was pretty fun. And funny.

This one came the closest to the cosplay dress-ups we were hoping to catch a glimpse or two of. Seems like they only come out on weekends.

Topping up our suica card at the ticket machines. Good thing we got the suica card, which is kinda like our ezylink stored value mrt card, so we didn't have to bother with the ticket machines in Tokyo too much.

After a bit of to-and-fro-ing to get our Japan Rail Pass validated for use for the next 7 days (cos certain stations the ticket offices were closed earlier than others so we had to head back to Shinjuku Station to get our passes validated before heading back to Ikekuburo Station where we were going to meet Meriel. She was taking us to this highly recommended wagyu beef place which needed at least 3 weeks reservation!)

Apetiser dish of raw wagyu and quail egg. The taste and texture were excellent.

Meriel ordered an assortment of cuts of wagyu and after i took the first bite of my grilled to medium-rare perfection slab of wagyu, i couldn't concentrate on the rest of the dinner conversation.

Wagyuly the best ever. I need references for where to head to for good wagyu in Singapore. Aburiya didn't cut it for me. Ao-chan was good i remember and pretty authentic too. It was two years ago when i last went, maybe it's time to make a reservation again. Thanks Meriel, and Su Lin for strongly recommending this place. It was nearly midnight when we got back, too full to sleep.

Hakone
Friday 4th March

Today was gonna be quite packed as we were going to Hakone with all our luggage and from there head directly to Kyoto on our pre-reserved Kodama Shinkansen, a 3 hour train ride to Kyoto. It is pretty straightforward to get to Hakone from Shijuku via Odawara. The first half of the journey to Odawara was covered by our JR pass and from Odawara to Hakone Yumoto Station, we took the Hakone Tozan Rail, which was covered by the Hakone Free Pass that we bought at Odawara. Even though it's called the Hakone Free Pass, don't be mistaken. It cost 3,900yen which lets you ride on all the different modes of transport necessary to cover Hakone in the classic round trip.

View of Mount Fuji from behind the windows of our shinkansen ride from Shinjuku to Odawara (35 min). If you weren't sleeping.

On board our Tozan Rail from Hakone Yumoto to Gora (35 min, train departs every 10-20 min), where we hopped off to visit the Hakone Open Air Museum.

Short walk from Gora down to the Open Air Museum where we were delighted to find snow lining the paths.

Lai Yeow ate some despite Ivan's warning not to.

This tunnel leads you from the open to the uh, open air museum.

We never found him/her?

David Blaine was here.

Random art installations, from history to wildlife to domesticated fried goodness.

More snow!

Wooden bridge and glass lift.

Took a walk inside the Picasso art collection, amongst which was a series of paintings he did of "Jacqueline as a Bride". There were altogether at least 12 pieces, each with strokes added on to the previous, and if you looked hard enough, some strokes actually disappeared while others were added on. Intriguing.

How would you fancy having naked female forms bask in sunlight in your garden?

Cheryl joins me in analysing the distribution of tummy fats on these female sculptures.

The snow had melted on the side of the lawn where the sun was shining on.

The hills are alive...

This guy wasn't.

We rode the Hakone Tozan Cable Car from Gora to Sounzan, and from Sounzan to Toggendai, making a stop at Owakudani via the Hakone Tozan Ropeway.

Eating the famous black egg at Owakudani, a crater formed by the eruption of Mount Hakone 3000 years ago. Till today you can see sulphuric fumes rising from the ground. And if you don't like viewing sulphur, you can view Mount Fuji from here too.

A sign says eating one black egg prolongs your life by 5 years. Who are they kidding.

From Toggendai, we took a cruise across Lake Ashi to Hakone-Machi where we could catch a bus back to Hakone Yumoto and Odawara for our 3hr train to Kyoto.

Let's just say it was a mad rush and we had to do a bit of running at each pitstop to just barely make it. Oh and at the last stop, Lai Yeow told the bus driver to "chottomatte" (wait) cos got "kodomo" (kids) still coming. I believe she meant "tomodachi" (friends) but said "kodomo" in her excitement. No wonder the driver frowned when we boarded. Overgrown kodomo. Pffft.

next up: click here for Kyoto

Kyoto

2011-03-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Cont'd from Hakone

Arrived at Kyoto Station close to 8pm. Quick ramen dinner where you placed your order via a vending machine and hand the ticket stub to the waitress.

Kyoto
Saturday 5th March

Read somewhere that Japanese don't make a big deal out of breakfast, opting for a simple meal of coffee and bread with butter and jam in the morning before leaving for work.

Since MacDonald's was round the corner from Citadines Kyoto, our hotel at Gojo, one subway stop from Kyoto Station, we had breakfast here. Twice. We observed that Macs was usually packed with Japanese, several of whom were dressed for work, complete with briefcases, but seemed to be napping on the tables.

Waiting at the bus stop for bus no. 80 to get to the Kiyomizudera Temple, east of our hotel. After a few rounds of taking the bus, i noticed that the horizontal streets were named Sanjo-dori, Shijo-dori, Gojo-dori, Kujo-dori, translating to 3rd Street, 4th, 5th, 9th respectively. And figured they omitted the double-syllabled numbers like roku, nana, hachi, which are 6th, 7th, 8th, for some reason. I think!

Uphill trek to the Kiyomizudera Temple, also known as The Temple of Pure Water.

We tried not to get distracted by the many souvenior shops along the way.

I pity her.

Are we there yet?

Tea-shack at the top of the slope where the base of the temple was in case you were thirsty from the morning climb.

Steps leading to the temple entrance.

And we're finally in the temple.

These kimono-clad ladies walked a few steps and stopped to take photos of themselves after every other step. Soon everyone else asked to photograph with them too. Later on we came across several "fake" kimono-clad japanese ladies. They were actually made-in-china. Luckily never malu by asking to photograph with them.

Cheryl with rose-coloured petals.

Chubby kiddo with rosy cheeks.

Pictures of this place in autumn looked really beautiful.

Apparently not a single nail was used in the construction of this temple when it was constructed in 1633.

I couldn't decide if Japanese were generally a religious lot or not. Nevertheless, these devotees seemed to be cupping the incense smoke over their heads, as if to bless themselves.

Wishes on wooden cards left behind by devotees.

The Kiyomizudera Temple is at the foothills of Mount Ottawa and got its name from a waterfall that runs off the hills to within the temple complex.

A love stone lies somewhere above this flight of steps.

I like the deep roof of the main hall and the entire route starting from the bottom of the hill with all the touristy little shops to all the sprawling buildings and paths of this temple complex.

Japanese girls doing the kawaii victory sign while posing for a photo.

We copy. Unsuccessfully.

Scoops for washing your hands with the pure water.

Path leading downhill from the temple.

Undeterred from the previous failed attempt with the victory sign photo pose, we try again, this time bringing our fingers closer to our cheeks. Better? Uh i think i overcompensated with the back-kick. Got confused with playstation anime characters when they do a victory flip.

Will be nicer with sakura backdrop you think?

Touristy souvenior and snack shops down the slope.

Almond and cinamon flavoured biscuits flattened then rolled to shape like roof shingles.

Totoro shop off one of the lanes.

Japanese schoolgirl uniform fixation continues.

Hamburger steak lunch at Bar & Grill back inside Kyoto Station.

It's not sorbet, it's a tomato.

Grilled escargots. This place is like Ma Maison in Singapore.

Kyoto subway to Fushimi Inari Fox Shrine. Think this was on the JR line so we're covered by our rail passes. I like the green of the train.

Return journey to Kyoto Station after sunset, which was around a quarter to six.

Bus interchange outside Kyoto Station, waiting for the public bus to Gion to catch some geishas. The public buses had this self-service coin-dispensing machine if you needed to break your 1,000yen bill into coins for the correct bus fare.

Ventured into the Yasaka Shrine cos we thought we saw some lanterns beyond.

Geisha-bars in Gion. It was all very hush-hush and closed door so we couldn't peek inside.

I suppose the red lantern differentiates the geisha houses from the other regular restaurants? That and the prices on the display menus.

We were quite lucky to catch one geisha close up on her way to work. Think she was running late. Looks like she successfully stopped us in our tracks, like an accomplished maiko (geisha-in-training) should.

Yakitori dinner at a random restaurant in the more modern part of Gion, where Ivan pointed out several scantily clad social escorts and labelled them the modern geishas of Gion.

Special Salad

Mm-mmm this cold tofu and avocado was melt-in-your-mouth exquisite. Very creamy. I wanted more.

Mixture of tofu, beef shanks and seaweed. I prefer the creamy tofu.

More yakitori sticks to come. We were famished.

From across the road where we were waiting for our bus back to our hotel, we watched as these 2 ladies gave out flyers to a certain class of men only.

Meanwhile back in the comforts of our hotel room, we were having our own version of a pyjama party.

Trying too hard to turn our yukata into sorry excuses for kimonos, with the pathetic hotel hand towels.

And hotel toothbrush as hairslide. The things we do to entertain ourselves before bedtime.

Lai Yeow playing the part of lovingly docile housewife.

Kyoto
Sunday 6th March

Subway ride up north to Kitayama Station for Tadao Ando's Garden of Fine Arts.

Close up, the perspective lines were all wrong, typical of Chinese landscape paintings in those era.

Loved scrutinising all the details though. There's something aesthetic about the cluster of pitched roof-forms.

The Kyoto Botanical Gardens was just next door, and we had some luck with the early bloomers of sakura, both in pink and white.

Don't be silly, i wasn't mistaking these to be sakura in my desperation to see some.

The hairy bud is quite gross-looking.

Sakura!

Several old people were painting the sakura buds. How sweet.

Children playing in the foreground and a wedding couple posed for pictures in the background.

Cute little old couple taking a rest after buying some plants from the Botanical Gardens. I don't usually perve on old people.

Lunch at one of the restaurants in Kyoto Station before heading west for a stroll in the Sagano Arashimaya Bamboo Forest and rode on the Romantic Train along the beautiful Hozu River and crossing the Togetsu Bridge.

Here comes our Sagano Romantic Train. It wasn't so romantic with all the touristy announcements of location information, concluding with live singing of a Japanese folk song by the train conductor.

The romantic couple on the not-so-romantic train along the Hozu River.

Super cute white dog presumably waiting for its owner outside the train station. He has a pink nose!

15 minute walk to transfer from the Romantic Train to our regular train back to Kyoto Station.

Shijo Shopping Street and Nishiki Food Market Street in the evening. Shijo Shopping Street wasn't terribly exciting except for the portion of time we spent giggling over the super blatant and exaggerated anime porn comic books. The illustrations were really good. I wonder if they'd make good souveniors for the guys back home. Then again, i don't really fancy getting stopped at customs.

Freshly baked oysters - my saving grace of the Nishiki Food Market Street. Mm-mmm.

Guess where we went to for dinner?

Since we had gyoza coupons for Ippudo, why not check out if Kyoto's Ippudo was any better than Tokyo's. Yes, we had Ippudo twice in Japan. It was that good.

Our suica card was valid only in Tokyo, so we constantly dropped coins into the ticket machine for single trip fares on the subways. This is what a typical subway ticketing machine looks like.

Next up: click here for Takayama & Shirakawa

Takayama-Shirakawa

2011-03-20T08:44:00.000-07:00

cont'd from Kyoto

Breakfast at the Kyoto Station before riding up the series of escalators to the Sky Terrace. Kyoto Station is pretty huge with several basement malls interconnected with one another. Our Hikari Shinkansen was departing Kyoto Station at 11am this morning for Takayama via Nagoya.

The reflective glass facades made it look like there were 3 curved structures instead of just 1.

A little bit random but this is how our Japan Rail Pass looked like. We had to flash it to the Station Controllers everytime we crossed the gantries. For the most part of the ride into Takayama i was deeply engrossed in reading Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, occasionally looking out the window to view the changing landscapes as we moved between prefectures.

Takayama
Monday 7 March

Takayama was further north from Kyoto, above Nagoya and naturally the weather got colder. Although we were debating if it felt colder in Tokyo cos of the strong winds there.

Takayama City is in the Gifu prefecture and together with 2 villages, forms Northen Hida. It kinda made sense to make Takayama the base and venture out to the villages as day trips via buses from Takayama. In the case of Shirakawa, we figured we wanted to experience an overnight farm-stay at the village, so we spent one night in Takayama and one night in Shirakawa, which i'd recommend actually.

The Miya-gawa River divides Takayama into the new town (where the train station and bus terminal were located) and the old town, Sanmachi District, which was characterised by traditional wooden houses.

I'm not sure if it's off-season while we were here but Takayama was a pretty quiet town, very low-key. The strange thing was when we got off the train, we were surprised by the majority number of tourists also getting off here but they quickly dissipated to goodness-knows-where and soon we found ourselves roaming the old town of Takayama pretty much undisturbed. It's like we had the whole town to ourselves.

Wooden shutters were, well, shut mostly. So much so we had a bit of difficulty finding a place to have our lunch. Well we'd earlier read about Takayama specialties which include Hida-gyu (Hida beef, the less famous cousin of Kobe beef), Hoba-miso (miso paste cooked on a Hoba leaf), Hida-soba (buckwheat noodles, apparently Hida ones had the best taste and texture), Sansai (assorted veg), and Iwana (trout served grilled on a skewer). And let's just say if we had a checklist, there'd be no empty boxes.

Lai Yeow scores the first point of the checklist with her order of sansai soba... oh wait, she scores two. Clever girl.

No wonder she looks so pleased here haha.

Cheryl and I have the fluffy tamago soba. I wasn't a big fan of buckwheat noodles but i totally enjoyed this one. Hida soba does taste better and have good texture.

After encountering several closed doors we really wondered if everybody had gone to some major festival and we were the only losers not invited. It was only 4pm and Yoshijima-ke, reknowned for being one of the best examples of traditional Takayama townhouse architecture, was closed. It was built in 1907 for a family of sake brewers and moneylenders.

With nothing better to do we hopped into a quaint little family run cafe for cake and coffee. I notice the crockery in Takayama were all very victorianish-pretty.

Oops not long after coffee was time for dinner. We spent a considerable amount of time scouring the map and brochures for where to have hida beef. Most places charged an exorbitant amount for the beef. It was dark when we finally set out to the shortlisted restaurants serving Hida beef. We ended up at this nondescript one which wasn't listed on the map or brochures and guess what, it wasn't expensive and very very enjoyable.

Hida beef - check. Hoba-miso - check. The best part was grilling the beef ourselves. I enjoyed this dinner very very much.

Ordered warm sake after and tried taking a group photo ourselves. Several times.

First attempt - oops Lai Yeow's face got cut.

4th attempt - alamak camera was on timer mode. Hence the giggles. Cheryl even laughed herself out of the frame!

Ahhh finally. And all this time the restaurant owner was watching and grinning to himself from behind the counter.

We had no money to pay for our hotel room that night so we doubled as cleaners and mopped the entire corridor.

After a hard day's work. Heh we were dressed to go to the onsen together, after reading all the strict rules and regulations which basically forced you to be naked with everybody else using the onsen, save for a small face towel.

Takayama
Tuesday 8 March (am)

We had a choice of which morning market to visit, the Jinya-Mae Asa-ichi or the Miyagawa Asa-ichi by the river. Don't think it would have made any difference during this season cos there wasn't much produce on sale. This was the Jinya-Mae one and we each bought a juicy fat apple for 100yen each (S$1.50).

Then breakfast at another quaint little lady-run coffee joint with pretty crockery.

Lai Yeow and her pig.

Pig wants coffee. Grace, this is for you :)

Vending machine at the bus station. We bought bus tickets to go to the Hida Folk Village (Hida-no-sato) for the rest of the morning before our one hour Nohi bus ride to Shirakawa.

Welcome to Hida-no-sato.

Lonely swan governs the entrance and welcomes visitors to the Hida Folk Village. Actually she just wants you to feed her.

The interior of a typical farm house complete with live fireplace in Hida. Lai Yeow checking out the deep exposed rafters.

Paper and wooden frame sliding partitions, just like in olden times.

Icicles forming at the thatched roof eaves.

It started snowing at the Hida Folk Village!

Rainwater is to be channeled to overflow the other trough, which will then pound whatever's inside the shed once the water reaches the brim and gets emptied.

On the bus back to the Takayama Bus Station and a last look at our hotel (Spa Alpine Takayama, which was a short 10 min walk from the train station) before we head to Shirakawa.

Oh actually not last look i realise cos we left our luggage here and packed only a day bag to Shirakawa since we had to bus back to Takayama for our train back to Tokyo.

Walking from our hotel towards the bus station.

Packet lunch as we wait for the bus.

Shirakawa
Tuesday 8 March (pm)

Our first view of Shirakawa, the Unesco World Heritage preserved mountain village, as we got off the bus. Directions to our ryokan states to cross the suspension bridge and turn left.

It was a long bridge but really what made it so long was because we stopped every few seconds to take in the scenery as well as take pictures. It was all very picturesque.

And then we arrived at our ryokan, Magoemon.

Ta-daa! I love it already!

Looking out from the entrance of our ryokan.

The matron of Magoemon was a middle-aged lady who spoke no english whatsover and explained everything to us in Japanese. She showed us where the living room was, which was also to be the dining hall, where the common bath and toilets were, our rooms where she'd prepared yukatas, neatly folded at one corner of the room. She showed us how we should sit with our legs under the table and use the blanket as cover and to keep warm as heat from a electric heater was being piped in under the table. Ahhh, so-desu-ne!

Feeling all warm and snug under the table. Mind you, it can get really hot after a while.

After confirming the strict dinner time and curfews, we ventured out in the snow and the first thing we did was to build a snowman.

3 girls and a snowman!

Nope, we didn't build the snowhouse.

And then snow fell and i was secretly pleased.

And then it snowed even more and i was even more pleased.

It was nice sitting outside just contemplating the snow as it fell. When we got back, they'd already started the dinner preparations in the dining hall.

It was very charming and i was quite excited.

Trout being grilled on skewers.

Joining us were the rest of the guests in the ryokan, namely an American couple living in Boston who love Japan very much and a Japanese couple on their way to seek his parents' blessings for marriage. Dinner and dinner conversations were equally interesting. They kept surprising us by taking out more dishes after one another and every dish had such a unique taste and texture.

"Itadakismasu!!" Let's eat!

It was too early to be holed up in our rooms so we decided to bring out our snow boots and hats and walk in the snow outside. Never mind that it was freezing.

It was raining snow!

Hands up if you got fooled with this picture.

Our poor little snowman collecting more snow.

The matron had lovingly prepared futons and blankets in all our rooms.

Midnight feast in the ryokan! Shhhh!

Shirakawa
Wednesday 9 March

Our 10,000yen for one night stay in Magoemon includes the amazing dinner and breakfast!

View of the river from the windows of Ivan & Lai Yeow's room.

How the room looks like with light filtering in through the paper partitions.

Mr Snowman survived the night!

Snowball fight! Lai Yeow running away from Ivan.

Yesterday's unsuccessful attempt at eating Hida beef pau when the last of the lot were bought by this group in front of us.

Lai Yeow satisfying her curiosity finally.

Then the snow got really heavy as we were checking out of our ryokan and heading to the bus station.

Cute little doggy sleeping with the snow falling on his nose.

Tempura udon lunch with a window view so we could contemplate more snowfall.

It is said that you should slurp your noodles noisily to show your appreciation of how good the bowl of noodles was.

Bye-bye Shirakawa! Bye-bye snowfall!

Next up: back to Tokyo

Tokyo

2011-03-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

cont'd from Takayama-Shirakawa

Arrived back in Tokyo in the evening and we'd changed hotels from Sunroute Plaza south of Shinjuku Station to Citadines Shinjuku which we just realised was at the Shinjuku Gyoenmae Subway Station, 2 stops from Shinjuku Station. Thanks to a forward-thinking Cheryl, we chucked our luggage into lockers at Shinjuku Station so that we could hang out around Shinjuku before taking 2 subway stops from Shinjuku to check-in at our hotel.

Ramen was a no-brainer when it came to dinner choices.

Shinjuku's a little bit odd in the sense that it's extremely happening and there're people everywhere; every street seems worth a visit and every building's lit in flickering neon lights but you don't actually know what the "happening" is all about. We concluded that there's just a lot of eating places to choose from and several were on the higher floors, hence touts/bouncers/waiters (ughh what do you call them?) were actively calling out for customers on the streets to their restaurants for dinner.

Tokyo
Thursday 10 March

Ivan, Lai Yeow and me went to Asakusa and Ueno (the touristy bits of Tokyo) while Cheryl went off to Shibuya for a headstart to shop for presents.

Snacking down Nakamise Street all the way to the Sensoji Temple. We were eating pumpkin and sweet potato fritters.

This is where you shake the container of wooden divinity lots until one falls out then you go to the correct drawer for the reading of the lot and bring it to someone inside the temple to decipher it for you. If it was a bad lot, you tie the piece of paper along the railings provided in the temple and leave your 'bad fortune' behind.

We didn't really have much to do here so took a couple of photos and left.

Ueno Park - We took a nice morning stroll in the park and by the lake. The park was pretty huge.

Cat in its classic laying eggs pose. The pigeons are not afraid.

An hour past noon and we were done at Ameyoko buying all the snacks and foodstuff for people back home. I dread lugging the bagfuls of snacks around the whole afternoon.

Back on Takeshita Street in Harajuku, we had pasta lunch while the girls next door decided to put makeup on each other. Then we looked around us and people on the other tables were doing the same thing.

Random sights in Harajuku. Small stand-alone buildings littered the street, each with their own interesting quirky designs.

Took pictures of several shop designs butcouldn't decide which to post and ended up not posting any!

I'd already confessed i'm obsessed with their uniforms.

Strawberry ice-cream and cheesecake crepe.

From Harajuku Station, we walked the other path (not the Omotesando way) round the Shibuya Park and Gymnasium all the way down to the shopping area of Shibuya. It was a pretty long walk with nothing much happening along the way. Unless you cared to visit the gym.

The busy Shibuya crossing. People criss-crossing everywhere.

Aargh... long queue at Midori Sushi. Seasoned Sakae Sushi queuers we were, we joined the queue. It took more than an hour. But i don't regret it one bit. It was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

I ordered the extra-large portion uni. So yummy.

The sushi chef on the left prepared our sushi. He was quite funny.

Over here, the slab of sashimi (or amaebi in the above pic) overflows and covers the entire sushi rice below. It was ultra-yummy. Too bad we didn't know about the flame-grilled sushi beforehand to order those, apparently it was their specialty.

I liked watching the sushi chefs at work.

Dessert and drinks with Meriel at a Izakaya which is kinda like a drinking place that also serves food. The ume-soda was really refreshing and nice. It's basically plum wine with soda. We talked about earthquakes in Japan.

Tokyo
Friday 11 March

On an otherwise rather ordinary last day of any trip, Cheryl and I went shopping in the morning for last-minute presents for family and friends back home.

So, on this last day of our Japan trip, while i was waiting at Platform 5 of Shinjuku Station for my 3.10pm Narita Express train to the airport, the platform started shaking and i thought, gosh the arriving train must be really heavy but after some 5 minutes of continuous rumbling and shaking no train pulled up on the tracks. The two japanese girls with suitcases nearest to me gave each other frightened looks (but managed to look kawaii doing so) and approached the nearest pillar for support. Instinctively i did the same (doubt i succeeded in the kawaii part). As did two other cantonese-speaking guys who looked like brothers. So the five of us shared the same pillar for support as we waited for the tremors to subside. The good-looking cantonese-speaking guys talked to each other and ignored me. The pair of kawaii frightened jap girls indulged in each other's company, occasionally giving me "we're scared we don't want to die" smiles of reassurance. i smiled back and stared at the pillar wishing i had someone to talk to.

(Cheryl had gone off on the earlier train half an hour ago and later it worried me that she'd be stuck in the train on some underground track in darkness with nothing to drink. Ivan and Lai Yeow were, if i estimate correctly, just about done talking with Totoro at the Ghibli Museum some distance away from Shinjuku where their hotel was. I was supposed to be on the same train as Cheryl cos my flight was just one hour after hers but i foolished refunded my suica card before retrieving my luggage stored in the lockers at the train station. Turns out locker attendant was stationed at the opposite end of shinjuku station and for him to run over to open the lockers i had to change my reservation to the later train)

Thankfully the tremors subsided, not after leaving behind a burst overhead pipe from which water was spurting onto the tracks. Men in hard hats and various luminous coloured uniforms appeared on the platform and looked busy taking pictures of the burst water pipe while making notes. Then they hurriedly ran off and i was like, what is going on? I concluded we'd just felt a tremor from a distant quake, which from a dinner conversation the night before with a friend working in Japan, really is nothing to panic about. So I was more worried that my train was late and i might miss my flight.

Moments later i found myself nervously watching the hanging fluroscent lights threaten to sway and they did, picking up speed and then rocked furiously to the rhythm of the second tremor that broke, along with the steel columns and just about everything else. Kawaii girls shriek and cling to each other. Nearby a grandpa carried his grandson and crouched on the floor. i held on to the pillar and looked around for a triangle of safety but decided to remain plastered to the pillar. The by now predictably no-longer-accurate annoucement regarding the arrival time of our train in various languages played over and over futilely. Half an hour later came a fresh announcement entirely in japanese and before it even ended, everyone started lugging their luggage hurriedly towards the escalators. They were leaving the platform. Gasp. What is happening? Aren't these tremors a regular thing in Japan? Is my train still coming?

Once outside, near the entrance of the train station where a huge huge crowd had gathered, most keeping their eyes glued to the overhead plasma screens showing devastation by water everywhere and a fire in Odaiba, i eventually realised the severity of what just happened. The worst earthquake in a hundred and forty years just struck Japan. Breathe. Call someone. Don't call dad yet. Don't want to worry him unless absolutely necessary. Dialled some numbers. Crap, phone lines down, can't call. Check with station master what next. "No train, no bus, no airport, no taxi, airport close." came the halting reply. i find a spot against the walls and wait, like everyone else. i look around at their faces and everyone looks kinda grim, some were bored, some you really can't tell cos they're donning paper masks (a common sight in tokyo). Once in a while i see someone on the phone and with renewed hope of being able to finally call someone, i fish out my iPhone and dial. Still nothing. This happens several times more. Without success.

I venture from the walls of the train station across to the opposite fence for a change of scenery. There is a helicopter circling above and on the streets beyond the temporary construction hoarding outside Shinjuku Station, i hear sirens in the distance, sometimes getting louder, can't tell if they belong to an ambulance or fire engine though. I feel my surroundings rock gently and i am not sure if it's because i'm trembling. A few more times this happens and you could really get somewhat giddy from it. I didn't. There is no commotion despite the crowd and people are silently waiting around. I am not particularly panicking but just wished there was someone to talk with to discuss immediate plans. Someone who spoke english.

Then, i saw him. The caucasian. Surely speak english one. So i wheeled my luggage over and said, hi do you speak english? And as if he could read my mind, he gave me a knowing smile and said yes and went on to say it was his 38th time in tokyo and he's experienced tremors several times before but nothing as bad as this. To think when i was on the tracks i casually brushed the tremors i felt as minor. I recall now wondering why the kawaii japanese girls had the "omg we're going to die" faces and even postulated that maybe they weren't from Japan, hence their unfamiliarity with the tremor experience. He pats my shoulders and suggested we wait this out together cos it definitely helps to have someone wait with you. Calms the nerves, he said. I'm not sure if he was referring to mine or his.

... to be continued...

Tokyo
Saturday 12 March (post-earthquake Day 1)

This morning, we'd all somehow reunited with one another back at Citadines Shinjuku, the place we'd said our goodbyes only yesterday. We made several attempts to contact our respective airlines to book ourselves on rescheduled flights out of Tokyo. SQ informed that today's flight out of Narita was cancelled again and re-timed to Sunday at 4.55pm. Meanwhile, we've been receiving several text messages from family and friends back home, so thank you all for your concern and prayers. We've been very blessed.

Treated ourselves to a meal of strawberry shortcake and pizza after all the logistics were settled. Walked on the streets outside and almost everything was closed despite it being a saturday. No shops were open for business and although there were people on the streets, the mood was quiet.

Later on, tempura dinner at Shinjuku.

Tokyo
Sunday 13 March (post earthquake Day 2)

Click here to return to the beginning.

Penang with the parents

2010-11-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

Barely 12 hours from getting off the plane from Shanghai, I'm back at Changi Airport to board another plane but i'm so not complaining. I mean, who wouldn't want a holiday after another holiday after anoth...? Even if it's just Penang. And with the parents in tow.

Penang kuay teow, here i come!

Since i stayed at Feringhi the last time (Tanjong Bunga, the quieter stretch actually), i booked us right where the food is, at Gurney Drive. Also cos its nearer to Lai Yeow's place in Pulau Tikus and i didn't think my parents cared very much to sun-tan on the beach.

Mummy blending in with the colour theme of G Hotel's lobby.

I like that the hotel lobby is a large-volume through-space open at both ends, almost like an air-conditioned thoroughfare. Kinda also like the hanging glass corridor right above the entrance.

You can see all the way through to the other end which opens out to alfresco eateries of Gurney Plaza next door. The first night we were here, there was a halloween fancy dress party outside. Very festive.

Kuay Teow Tng for breakfast at the Pulau Tikus market. One of Lai Yeow's must-eats whenever she goes back to Penang.

Lai Yeow and her mom having curry mee, which is kinda like our Singapore laksa, with yellow noodles instead.

E&O Hotel. Nope, we didn't stay here. We stayed at G Hotel mah.

E&O felt like a cross between our Raffles Hotel and Hotel Intercontinental at Bugis.

Plush sofas and carpeted hallways. Feels like i'm in one of the rooms in a Cluedo game.

I forgot what i wanted to say about the toilets. Maybe it was something about the floor pattern.

Lai Yeow's old school - Convent Light Street Penang. Too bad school was in session and we couldn't get past the security guard post.

Continued on our little Penang heritage walking tour of Georgetown, with our local guide Miss Leong. The waves were so strong they splashed over the parapet sometimes.

Queen Victoria memorial clock tower, just after Fort Cornwallis.

We spent at least an hour amusing ourselves silly at the Peranakan Mansion, Dad and Mum included.

Dad to Mummy: "Put your hands on your lap. That's how the patriach and matriach sit."
Me: "... ..."

"See... i wasn't bluffing."

The play-acting was all Dad's idea. Cross my heart ;P

Look at mummy. She looks like she's contemplating her cards.

My dad is quite funny huh...

Nice lantern. I suck at captioning.

I was trying to think of circumstances when you and your partner had to sit like such.

Spying on the bride and bridegroom taking wedding photos in the courtyard.

I like the picture frames and wooden cupboard. Reminds me of Pension Theresa in Crete.

Gorgeous porcelain plates.

Absolutely love the tiles. My shoes, not so much.

Penang hawker food is that good.

Who's the tourist now huh...

Church Street Pier. My parents are eating apples they just bought off a street hawker.

Kay-pohing at other people's hotels along Batu Feringhi. This one is Lone Pine, right where we got off the half an hour bus ride from Komtar bus terminal.

It's a little bit weird to see horses on the beach in Penang. I had the very same thought 13 years ago when i was here.

Hahaha. The shed and tiny horse in the background makes it seem like my parents are honeymooning on some idyllic faraway island.

Golden Sands Resort.

Crispy peanut pancake!

I'm gonna leave you now with more pics of G Hotel as we wait for Lai Yeow and her dad to give us a ride to the airport.

Shanghai Day 1

2010-11-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 26 October 2010

By a stroke of good luck (and a bit of hard work) i find myself on a company trip with some colleagues to Shanghai once again, barely two months since i was last there!

Found this lovely hotel, Gallery Suites in the charming French Concession area. It's a refurbished 1933 art deco building along Heng Shan Lu and approximately 10 minutes walk to Xu Jia Hui metro stop. I love it!

Did the touristy thing this time and headed to Yu Yuan/ Cheng Huang Miao area for the famous Nan Xiang xiaolongbao, even though every Singaporean who's tried it says they prefer the ones to the likes of Crystal Jade or Din Tai Fung back home.

Then walked along Nanjing Lu, just about what every tourist does in Shanghai too.

The refurbished Peace Hotel (He Ping Fan Dian). We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but anyway I thought i preferred the old interior.

View of the Pearl of the Orient TV tower outside Peace Hotel at the end of Nanjing Lu towards the Bund.

Crossing over from Nanjing Lu to the Bund (外滩) on Puxi side of the Huangpu river in Shanghai. It was freezing! Us, not the river.

Impressive collection of art deco styled buildings housing mostly banks it seems. I love how wikipedia has a complete street elevation drawing that names each of the building along the bund.

Night view of the Lujiazui Financial District in Pudong across the Huangpu River. And yes, that IS the real moon.

I don't know what the boys were up to while on our way to dinner.

Me, i was just pretending to see how it feels like to come home to a super posh mansion on the bund.

Fusion dinner at M on the Bund on the 7th Storey at 20 Guangdong Lu.

Since it got dark pretty early, we were continuously surprised by how early the time on our watches showed. Decided it was too nice a night to head back even though it was past 10pm, so we cabbed to Xin Tian Di for coffee, while waiting for Chris to arrive.

I have no idea why Aristo is offering me 10 yuan for taking his picture.

"Children, off to bed now, children!" Trying out Aristo's spectacles.

Next: Shanghai Day 2

Shanghai Day 2

2010-11-06T22:02:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 27 October

I can't believe i'm at the Shanghai World Expo again!!!

My colleagues were kind enough to make the German Pavilion our first stop, despite the 3.5 hours queue, since i regrettably missed it during my last trip. Thanks guys! Lots to see inside so i guess it was worth the wait huh!

Um the queue kinda drove us nuts... sort of, ha ha.

Oops no photos of the exterior since i'd already posted them in the previous Shanghai World Expo entry.

Little girl feeding carrots to a virtual rabbit. Kinda creepy if you ask me.

I don't know if you remember the Cabbage Patch Kids? Uh-huh?

I thought it was a pity my colleagues didn't make it to the Spanish Pavilion. Well at least they made it to the Spanish restaurant. The tapas didn't quite make it though... as in the tapas was not good.

We kinda split up after lunch and i went off on my own to check out other pavilions i didn't visit the first time around.

Sweden Pavilion

I kinda like the porosity of the facade from inside looking out as i rode the up-escalator.

Ikea's dandelion lamps!

Thought this exhibit was pretty clever. Viewed from one side you see an image of Stockholm's shame (picture A), industrial pollution and waters around Stockholm that were heavily polluted household wastewater and view from the other side you see an image of Stockholm's pride (Picture B), where water sanitation and strict environmental policies have made Stockholm's waters clean enough to swim in.

Picture A

Picture B

Then i popped over to the Turkish Pavilion, since i'd just been to Turkey earlier this year and totally loved the country. The interior was dark and showcased the ancient archaelogical sites of Turkey like the Ephesus bibliotek where i posed for a picture not too long ago.

I wondered if the queue was already so long, did buying a turkish ice-cream here include the show of fancypants trickery by the ice-cream seller like it would in Istanbul.

Not sure what made me walk into the Polish Pavilion but i didn't regret it one bit.

The multi-media projections of rain falling on the white cut-out rainforest backdrop accompanied by rainforest sounds were delightful. This is kinda like the sort of experiential exhibition i was talking about in my earlier post that the French Pavilion had and the Singapore one didn't.

I kinda like how the amorphous 2D rainforest morphed into a plan view of a grid-like lattice network of a city.

After that i hopped into the Belgium-EU Pavilion cos i fancied some belgian waffle, fries and chocolates. Except the queues for the food were longer than the queue to get in so i copped out.

I just can't get enough of ultra large moving multimedia projections that surround me and transport me immediately to that country. I'd stand in the middle just to be surrounded by the projections of the different cityscapes and vicariously soak up the atmosphere.

Heh i've seen the real thing. Uh... as in the real Manneken Pis statue in Brussels earlier in March this year. It's tiny. Uh, I mean, he's tiny.

Finland Pavilion

Interesting how once inside, you're engulfed by the inner walls of the huge bowl. Then you kinda walk up this ramp that's sandwiched inside the thickness of the facade walls of the bowl.

We left the Expo when it got dark around 6pm and went to 田子坊 on Tai Kang Lu, where we contemplated between Balinese and Thai for dinner, amongst other choices like New York pizza, Vietnamese pho and something else i can't remember. Oddly enough none of the eating places featured Shanghainese or Chinese food. Settled for Thai and it was a good choice.

Dessert and drinks and Consumme where Howe Choon took us the last time we were here. The menu kinda looked different and neither the chocolate nor cheese cake was any good. We were also amused by the huge cup, or rather bowl that contained our hot chocolate.

Next: Shanghai Day 3

Shanghai Day 3

2010-11-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

Thursday 28 October

Today we decided we'd cover the national pavilions of the countries native to my colleagues.

First up, Australia, which i'd visited the previous time, so no photos except maybe just one of Chris standing outside.

Then Singapore, where i finally made it to Stages 2 and 3 of the Urban Symphony. A multimedia video showing MM Lee's speech on ensuring water supply to Singapore and how to prevent people from peeing in public lifts. And a rooftop garden which was pretty nice. People were taking 'couple' photos with the flowering shrubs as backdrop.

Next up, Indonesian Pavilion for Aristo and i must say i was very impressed with the interior of the Indonesian Pavilion (p.s. Naga, are you listening?) Firstly, i thought the lofty entrance space held up by bamboo poles evoked a nice high volume tropical architecture feel. I liked the proportions. Then going up the ramp you notice the fairly intricate ceiling pattern also constructed out of bamboo i think. There was this band performing folk songs in 3 languages that for some reason transported me for a minute to Hawaii, good or bad. Different exhibits grab your attention constantly going up the ramp, unlike the Singapore Pavilion where you kinda view the metal backside of the facade as you waited to move up the ramp. Then at one point, you get a nicely framed view of Indonesia's neighbours, the Singapore Pavilion and Malaysia Pavilion. Good job!

The Theme Pavilion, which i liked the asymetrical prismatic roof/facade so i photographed it again. But for some reason we didn't quite think of going in.

I thought i'd go to the China Pavilion this time around but it turns out you need to queue for entry tickets in the morning to get in in the afternoon.

And last but not least, the Vietnamese Pavilion for Long. The structures for the interior was pretty reminscent of the interior of an old church, with the arches and all.

Headed to Xin Tian Di after we each declared we were done with the Expo. The place looks the same on each of my 3 Shanghai trips but something tells me i'd still visit if i were to come back to Shanghai for a fourth time.

The interior of Ye Shanghai where we wanted to have lunch at but we arrived only at 4pm and they were closed.

Had dim sum in Zen Dim Sum Restaurant instead.

Crossed over to H&M at Huai Hai Lu where i finally found replacement shoes. Then took a long walk along Mao Ming Nan Lu, stopping to check out the Jin Jiang Hotel, continued on along Chang Le Lu to the intersection of Ju Lu Lu and Fu Min Lu where Shintori was located. It's been 5 years but i still remember the feel of the hidden away entrance and bamboo lined path to the restaurant. And the confusing toilet signage.

My deliciously succulent cod with miso! i never knew miso other than the soup!

Caught up with Wei Loong who literally just got off the train from Hangzhou cos he came to meet us with his luggage and all. Brought us to this cosy chocolate place called HoF back along Huai Hai Lu where i believe one or two of my colleagues got high on can you believe it chocolate. Thanks for the treat!

Next: Shanghai Day 4

Shanghai Day 4

2010-11-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

Friday 29 October

1933 老场坊
Old Slaughterhouse in Shanghai,
intersection of Hai Ning Lu and Li Yang Lu.

As with 田子坊 on Tai Kang Lu, I was fascinated by the resurrection of this place so didn't mind revisiting.

Plus we ate at the yummy beef place this time around.

For more on the Shanghai Expo, click here.