world of sekimachihato

goodbye~

2011-12-18T14:13:00.006+08:00

now i bet that title got you worried.
no, i'm not giving up this blog, but this post is probably gonna be my last one for 2011; hence the title.

i so didn't intend to disappear from sekimachihato's world for so long, but a few months back I went through a bit of a rough patch at work where I was chucked into the deep-end (that's putting it nicely) and was under too much pressure, enough to make me disappear from, here for a while.
every morning i would leave home early as kou-chan lay fast asleep in his futon only to get home late in the evening to see him tucked up fast asleep again in the same futon. this is so not what i had in mind when i moved to tokyo, i mean come on; no father in their right mind would want a life like this.

but since then things have picked up. i'm handling a project which i'm fairly passionate about, and making sure that i have a comfortable work-life balance.

it's never easy packing up your life, moving to a foreign country, and starting work at a new company (believe me, this is my blimmin 4th time!) but the initial settling-in/stressful period is over, or so i hope.

so with only just over a week to go until christmas we seem to have gatherings with friends just about every weekend.
today we had lunch gathering at our home with our guests bringing this delish cheesecake from "ginza no budo".

i've never tried a cheesecake like this one before, it's not baked or rare, but rather more like a mouse kinda cheesecake which comes tucked up in a zaru; a traditional japanese bamboo basket.
pretty cool. thank you t-san!

i had better get this post up and away as we're running out of time in getting kou-chan his christmas presents. last minute mad rush, but hey, it's all fun!

if i'm not back on here before this year's out, have a great christmas and new year. wanna hear lots of wine corks popping open over the next few weeks!
see you again in 2012!!

100 yen

2011-08-30T07:05:00.002+08:00

has it really been that long since my last post?!

just a quickie as I'm on the subway going to work and therefore have to keep an eye on the "lucky ones"; as in the ones who got a seat and are currently in lala-land. here's hoping the the lady in front of me wearing too many clothes in this heat will get off soon so I can take her seat. if not it will have to be the guy who's asleep with his phone in his hand which seriously any minute now looks as if it will slide out of his grip and crash to the floor.

bugger. first major interchange station and nobody who was sitting down in front of me got off.

anyway, you're probably wondering what that 100 yen coin photo is.
well, yesterday when I went to collect my dry cleaning the lady said to me that they found this 100 yen coin in my pant's pocket.
now although there are a lot of honest people back home in nz I think this coin would have some how managed to roll from my pant pocket into the pocket of the person steaming my pants.

i was quite shocked that the coin was being returned to me and that it was found in my pant's pocket (i usually never put coins in my pocket, hate the jingling!)
after saying thank you for kindly returning the coin, wrapped up in a hand made paper envelope complete with "cute" sticker, I said
"wow, I didn't realize this coin would be returned",
to which she replied,
"oh yes, we will return coins even if it's only 1 yen. you'd be surprised what we find in peoples pockets".

I left the conversation there but it left me wondering about the interesting stuff they must find in peoples pockets.
I bet those dry cleaning ladies have some stories to tell, what with the goodies in our pockets and the stains on our pants...

kosenji hanamatsuri （光泉寺花祭り）

2011-07-27T20:18:00.005+08:00

while k-chan’s parents were off buying their omiyage (souvenirs) my parents and i leisurely strolled around the little township of kusatsu.

at one end of the town was a flight of stairs leading up to a small temple called kosenji (光泉寺).
with time on our hands we clambered up the stairs and much to our surprise we were greeted to the colorful celebrations of a local festival; the kosenji hanamatsuri or kosenji flower festival (光泉寺花祭り).

the kids from the local kindergarten were all dressed up in their celebratory costumes as proud parents and grandparents went snap-happy with the cameras.
this festival is a celebration for buddah's birthday where the local kids pull a huge elephant (I think it's made out of papier-mâché) around the town's centre.

although it was a very small affair, it was nice to see kids being kids and just having fun.

note: kosenji hanamatsuri is held yearly on may 7th and 8th.

happy 60th in kusatsu （草津）

2011-07-24T21:11:00.007+08:00

earlier this week was chi-chi’s (my mum) 60th birthday.
happy birthday mum!!

guess how chi-chi wanted to spend this special day?
well, she and a group of close friends decided to climb mount mauao; a famous mountain beside the ocean at my home-town.
once at the top they cracked open a bottle or two of champagne which popa (my dad) carted up in his backpack and basically enjoy the amazing view and company.

I really hope you had a blast mum and didn’t get too tipsy on that champagne. the only way down is to walk or call for a rescue helli which you wouldn’t want as I’m sure it would make the front page headlines of the local newspaper!
hang on, isn't it illegal to drink on mount mauao?!?!
god, breaking the law at age 60 huh!

it sucks living so far away, especially at special occasions like this. it would be great if we could just pile on into the car, zip down the road to chi-chi and popa’s place and have a few glasses of champagne with them.
we knew that it would be impossible to be back in new zealand for chi-chi’s 60th so instead we decided to celebrate when mum's milestone when they were here in japan a couple of months back.

we took them for a weekend escape up to the small mountainous town of kusatsu in gunma prefecture (群馬県草津町) and k-chan's parents also made the trip from nagano prefecture for the celebrations.
kusatsu is ~~world~~ famous for its natural onsen; hot springs.
when i mentioned this to my parents I’m sure they started freaking out about having to get stark naked in front of a group of strangers and experience a real japanese onsen.

with that in mind we set out for the 4 hour drive from tokyo.

apparently there are over 100 hot springs in kusatsu with 34,000 litres of water per minute (now that’s a lot!) flowing out of the ground.
was glad to hear that this hot water is not wasted but used to heat the town’s schools in winter along with the streets, swimming pools, and many household etc.
the main attraction of the town is a huge hot spring located in the town’s center called yubatake (湯畑).
the wooden boxes you can see below are there to collect minerals which are then processed and sold as bath salts.

as we were stayed at a traditional japanese inn it didn’t take long before we were in our yukata and lounging around our spacious accommodation.
dinner was served in a private dining room and my parents were shocked at the amount of beautiful food which was served to us.
even got mum to wear the tradition red hat and cape; (akai-chanchanko) which is worn when one turns 60 and apparently starts to return to childhood.

after a few beers it was time to get naked.
seriously, onsen time.

surprisingly I wasn’t the least bit worried or embarrassed about soaking in a hot spring naked with my dad.
my dad didn’t seem too worried either but my mum on the other hand was a bit apprehensive having to go in with k-chan (she could go alone but was unfamiliar with all the ins and outs of onsen bathing).
apart from the water being a tad too hot for my parents they said that they loved it and were really glad to have experienced it.

wonder if they would do it again…?

so mum, happy 60th!
wish we could be in new zealand to celebrate with you!

ray coffee house

2011-07-14T16:00:00.006+08:00

karuizawa (軽井沢); which is a resort town in nagano prefecture, is well known as being a cool-escape from tokyo's pavement melting summer heat.
with the temperature getting close to 35C we zipped up to nagano last weekend only to be greeted with temperatures of 32C...
i tell you what, that 3-degree drop in temperature doesn't make one feel any cooler!

while driving through the beautiful tree lined narrow roads which make karuizawa so charming, I found a simple yet relaxing cafe called "ray coffee house".
not only was the interior clean and simple, the menu was simple, as in only 2 choices of food; hayashi-rice or apple pie.
being lunch time we both went for the hayashi-rice option.
it was delish.

the man running the cafe (I guess his name is ray?) lives upstairs.
if I had enough money to get by I could so see myself living like this, maybe not running a cafe (nice thought though) but living out in the wilderness but still only a hop skip and a jump away from the trendy shops in karuizwa and only an hour or so away from tokyo by bullet train.

mmm, wonder if my company would fork out for me to commute by bullet train to the office?!

cafe info:
ray coffee house
2141-431 ohaza nagakura
karuizawa
* closed thursdays

〒389-0111
軽井沢町大字長倉2141-431

last daily post

2011-07-07T20:37:00.000+08:00

no photo to end my last post for my week long daily blog challenge.

I feel sick. ate way to much delish Italian and drunk too much Italian wine.
very hard to say "no" to your boss in japan.
yes, my boss invited me out for dinner and went on a bit of a splurge at a fancy restaurant in aoyama.

my god, I seriously ate way too much.
just wanna get home and loosen my belt, actually take my pants off and change into some roomwear.

thinking to drive up to Nagano tomorrow night after work.
will still have to go home first and get kou-chan fed, bathed, and hopefully asleep before starting the 3 hour journey.
I so better not have a hangover tomorrow...

I can drive trucks

2011-07-06T20:00:00.002+08:00

feeling really tired tonight, don't know why but I guess hump day has something to do with it.

yeah, two days to go until the weekend! ooh, and tomorrow will be the last day of my daily blog challenge.

I was given this (ugly) book all about trucks book as a sample way back when kou-chan was just a bean and seriously thought about chucking it.
I mean it's about trucks, kinda like saying boys have to like blue things, and it's got no story what so ever; pretty boring if you ask me.
by what do ya know, it's kou-chan's favorite book at the moment. he flicks through the pages going "brrrrrrooom brrroooom"; talk about bursting daddy's bubble.
but hey, if he's happy I'm delighted!

bust boiler

2011-07-05T21:16:00.002+08:00

turns out our boiler went bust so today we got a new, a new (don't even know what this is called in english!?), a electronic bath wall controller?
anyway they are pretty common over here.

this new one is basically the same as our old one but there is a lady living in this one who talks to us.
kou-chan thinks this is hilarious and bursts out laughing when she says things like "the bath is now 41 degrees". he then gets a serious look on his face as he tries to figure out how a lady got into such a small contraption.

so glad he's not tall enough yet to fiddle with the buttons!

my new green-curtain

2011-07-04T19:41:00.002+08:00

thank god monday's over; I so hate mondays.
today I had to write a letter to the CEO of one of the biggest corporations (in the top 10) in the world.
how's that for a freaky start to the week!

anyway, have you heard of green curtain?
it's not a "curtain" curtain but rather a curtain made out of lush green foliage which you grow outside of your window.
apparently by growing a green curtain you can reduce the temperate inside your house by around 2 degrees.
they also look nice too and offer a bit of privacy.

after walking around my neighborhood its easy to see that they are the in thing at the moment in my little suburban tokyo neighborhood.
couldn't resist but get in one the fun so yesterday I drove to the local hardware store and purchased myself a big flower pot, some dirt, couple of stakes, a net, and some plants.
most people around here are growing goya which is a bitter gourd popular in okinawa, but I went for yorugau; moonflower, from the morning glory family only because I though the odd flower would look better than some gourd hanging outside my window.

as you can see I'm in need of some privacy so I'm looking forward to my green curtain to start winding itself up the net.

can you see kou-chan on the sofa to the right? he can now get on and off the sofa or bed by himself!

dandelion

2011-07-03T21:47:00.002+08:00

I so shouldn't have made a promise to do this daily blogging thing over a weekend. talk about no time!

so yet another quickie.
kou-chan's recently found out how fun dandelions can be.
he still doesn't know that if he blew the dandelion it would be just that much more fun. he's pretty content at this stage to wave it around and wonder why it gets smaller and smaller.

forgot how much fun dandelions can be for adults too.
when was the last time you blew one?
a dandelion that is!

kakigori (かき氷)

2011-07-02T22:25:00.002+08:00

shit, it's coming up midnight and I still haven't uploaded my promised daily post.

spent the day at a local park with a free (small) zoo and an old school kakigori ice shop.

it melted pretty fast but it was darn good.

right, diving into the bath and then it's time for the blanket show.

pretty pink

2011-07-01T16:49:00.002+08:00

this weeks been a scorcher.
has been 30 degrees plus in Tokyo (we topped the 35 degree mark the other day) and gunma prefecture got up to 39 degrees. bugger that.
our office is warm to say the least with the aircon set at 28 which basically means the aircon is spewing out thick warm air that just makes the sweat run at a slower pace.
not cool (pun intended)

a few colleagues at the office bought those USB fans so the other day after work I went on the hunt for one.
well, talk about popular. the first two stores I went into were out of stock but my luck changed in the third store, where they had five left.
the last five were all in pink color.
pink...
pretty pink...
she lady at the store went on to explain that they did have them in white, black, blue, even silver and gold but all that was left was pink, and even these are selling out fast.
I spent the next 10 minutes holding the little square box containing a pink fan wondering if I should try my luck elsewhere or just be a man and buy the god dam fan.
pink...
it was then that I remembered what the new temp lady at work told me.
we were having some after 5 drinks and she said was interested in tarot card reading etc. I'm so not into that but she said if I told her my birth dates she would give me a run down on my personality.
sounds like some primary school game but it turns out that I like the number 8 (true) and my lucky color was yup, you guessed it, pink. pretty pink.
can't say it's my favorite color although I have a few pink items stashed away.
so I though bugger it, the extra luck won't go amiss, and a few cha-chings later I'm the proud owner of a pretty pink USB desk fan.
haven't got too many funny looks at the office which I'm not sure is a good thing or not but at least I'm a tad cooler.
it has two settings, low and high; so can't figure them out as the high setting doesn't seem to give off any stronger wind but just makes my desk vibrate a bit.
no doubt will start getting sone funny looks if I set it to high.

a wos first

2011-06-30T16:59:00.002+08:00

I haven't hit the update button on my blog for ages, and it's only because I don't carry my camera around with me to take any photos nor (hate that word "nor") do I have the time to ever upload a new post.
as I've mentioned before, my only free time these days is while I'm commuting to and from the office or while I'm in the bath.

so here comes a wos first.

I've decided I'm gonna do a post a day for the next week no matter what.
even if I come down with malaria or loose a finger you are gonna see a new daily post right here.
it will most likely be updated during my commute because I don't trust myself in the bath with my iPhone.
mind outa the gutter. I don't wanna drop it into the bath.

but be warned, photos will be taken on my phone so don't expect any snazzy pics and the posts will be relatively short; I'm often not in the mood to blog while in a jammed backed subway carriage.
and don't expect any random photos of sexy people I see during my commute, we can't turn off the iPhone's camera shutter sound for Japanese iPhones. I think thats because there are too many creepy men going for the knicker shot.
yuck.

anyway, here is kou-chan waiting for his lunch at "cafe;haus" in toyosu last weekend.
cafe;haus has a very relaxing feel to it, a nice outdoor courtyard for bbqs, good hearty food and some eye-candy staff. happens to be across the road from lalaport so you can get your shopping fix too if need be.

oh yeah, I can only upload one photo from my iPhone to this blog so don't expect a daily barrage of photos.

Sent from mr sekimachihato's iPhone

Tuesday rant

2011-06-14T07:03:00.002+08:00

it's only tuesday but I'm already having "one of those weeks"...

mornings (and evenings) have become a battle field at home.
k-chan has started back at work so now kou-chan is going to kindy during the day which thank god he seems to be loving. he's a social little butterfly that boy, so absolutely loves being around people and other kids.
apparently he's got a friend; itta-kun, who he loves so they get into all the toys and have a right wee party.
I pity the teaches who have to try to get him settled for his afternoon nap. he's not a nap-boy. I mean, come on, who would wanna nap when you have all those cupboards to explore!

anyway, two tired adults having to get ready in the morning with an energetic kou-chan running around is not an easy task.
it so doesn't help that some bright spark at my work thought it would be a good idea to bring the office working hours forward 30min to help save electricity (as you may have heard we are having a slight power crisis over here).
having to get up that much earlier just makes it that much harder. really should be going to bed earlier but hey, things don't always go that well in the evening either.

man it's warm.
I'm on the subway with very warm air conditioning, might as well call it a heater. just love how the guy's suit next to me is sticking to mine in this warmth.

can see I'm a tad negative today. shouldn't really be putting this in here but just need somewhere to vent some steam.
if you look closely I probably really do have steam coming off me. yippie, bring on summer and air cons set at 28!
shouldn't really be complaining, poor people up north have it worst than we city folks do.

yesterday I went to the automobile association to get my nz license translated as I have to reapply for a japanese one.
can't believe they charge 3000 yen to literally translate my name, country of issue and a blimmin license number!

ok, enough. enough.
nearly time for me to change lines.
would you believe that the next line (hanzomon line) is a tad warmer than this one...

hatsu zekku : 初節句

2011-05-26T20:20:00.010+08:00

celebration after celebration.

a few days before kou-chan turned one he also celebrated his first ever children’s day; an important “first” in japanese culture called “hatsu zekku” (初節句).

although children across japan and many parts of asia celebrate children’s day annually, the 1st and the 5th children’s day are considered big events in japan for boys.

kou-chan celebrated his hatsu zekku with both his grandparents and all but two of his uncle and aunties. pretty special in my book.

unfortunately uncle N from japan was away in some exotic location in east-asia on business and untie A; (my sister), was in paris on holiday.

a special dinner was out of the question as you don’t wanna be dining in some posh restaurant with a tired toddler, so instead we booked in for lunch at the top-notch shiba tofuya ukai (芝とうふ屋うかい); a beautiful japanese restaurant at the very foot of tokyo tower.

as the name suggests this fine establishment focuses on tofu.
they produce all their own tofu which is made at their own in-house workshop in the foothills of the okutama mountains. the beans (yup, tofu is made from beans) are grown in hokkaido.

the lovely ladies who were serving our private dining room didn’t seem to mind that kou-chan wanted to be the first to get his hands on every dish that they served.
in true japanese service they simply smiled, commented on what a cute little boy he was and gracefully shuffled around the tatami mat room in their modified kimono dress.

(above photos from shiba tofuya ukai website)

not only did k-chan and I have to interpret all being said between the grandparents (my parents only know “hello”, “thank you”, and how to count up to 10 in japanese, whereas k-chan’s parents, well her dad anyway, is good at mimicking phrases from hollywood movies like “oh no” and “come on baby” and “fu*k you”…), but we also had to control a wriggly kou-chan AND try to enjoy our meal.
because of such circumstances we do not have that many photos of the “big event”, but we do have some wonderful memories.

restaurant info:
shiba tofuya ukai
4-4-13
shiba-koen
minato-ku, tokyo
tel: (03) 3436-1028 (reservations recommended)
website

nearest station: akabanebashi station (oedo line) or kamiyacho station (hibiya line)

happy birthday my champ

2011-05-23T21:19:00.003+08:00

so behind on blogging….

just a quickie to spread the word that my beautiful little kou-chan turned 1 less than a week ago.
he's now got 8 teeth and walking (albeit a bit wobbly on his feet).
man, he's been experiencing so many milestones this past month, will get to these on a later post.

so now that he’s walking we purchased his first pair of shoes; some asics; not cheap considering he will apparently have grown out of them in about 3 months, but these are designed especially for toddlers who are learning to walk. pretty important time in ones life if you ask me.

guess who turned up for kou-chan’s 1st birthday?
chi-chi and pop (the grandparents) all the way from new zealand!
talk about the power of the first grandchild!

anyway, more on that later.

hanami : 花見

2011-04-13T21:38:00.008+08:00

the dark shadow which has been looming over japan for the past month is still here but now has a slight tinge of pink to it.
if sakura (cherry blossoms) don’t light up your day then I think you’re outa luck.

last weekend the sakura where in full bloom here in tokyo so we got together with a group of friends and gave kou-chan his first taste of hanami; literally cherry blossom viewing. or more appropriately, “a drunken picnic under the cherry blossom trees”.
and no, kou-chan didn’t get his first taste of alcohol! he's got at least another 10 year wait if i have anything to do with it.

our day was spent chilling out in the spring sun under the watchful eye of some crows in one of the many sakura trees in yoyogi park; a huge park in central tokyo.

we all pitched in and took along homemade goodies and of course alcohol. ended up with a pretty impressive spread if you ask me.

we even got to use our colorful mexican zarape rug for the first time too. it really did set off the scene for this gathering *wink wink*

photo: asa.co.glass

many people in japan feel slightly guilty about having some fun or taking a trip at a time when so many people have been displaced and/or experienced the horrors which mother nature threw our way, but it was great to see so many people, both young and old(ish) out and about enjoying mother nature’s more beautiful side.

photo: asa.co.glass
photo: asa.co.glass

as expected, kou-chan was more interested in the hundreds of dogs leaping around in the dog-run, bits of broken twigs and whatnot on the ground, and the other kids who could actually run around chasing balls and bubbles.

photo: asa.co.glass

don't worry kou-chan, i'm sure you will be running in no time!

giant catfish on the loose

2011-04-08T13:11:00.002+08:00

just as I was drifting off to sleep last night my iphone suddenly went ring-ring, ring-ring.
it wasn't the "nice" ring for an incoming call but that horrible pre-earthquake ring (if you live in japan) that you hear on tv followed by an announcement that says "there is gonna be a strong earthquake, take cover, strong earthquake, take cover immediately!" and then wham, the whole apartment starts creaking and swaying as if it were perched high-up on a tree top, which happens to be rotten….

naturally sleep was now out of the questions so I sat in front of the tv for the next 30 min watching the news readers warn of yet another possible tsunami and for all people in the area to take cover to high ground. turned out to be a M7.1 aftershock just north of fukushima (again) which has caused widespread power cuts up north.
i really feel for the people up there as i'm sure this jolt bought back horrible memories of the march 11 quake.

so back to my phone.
most mobile phones here in japan (pre 1998 I think) have early warning earthquake software pre-installed, which like the name suggests warns you of a possible earthquake a few seconds before it's felt; just enough time to take cover if you're lucky.
we've had some pretty strong aftershocks during the last 3 weeks here in tokyo and I was kinda disappointed that my iphone didn't warn me of any incoming earthquake while all my colleagues phones were busy going ring-ring, ring-ring in unison.

well well well, turns out there is a japanese app for iphones! yippie!
i installed it 2 days ago and as you can see it worked.
the pre-warning alarm woke me up and warned me about 5 seconds before the earthquake was actually felt in tokyo.

for those of you in japan with an iphone, just search for 「ゆれくる」(yurekuru); it's a free app with a picture of the oonamazu (大鯰); the giant catfish which is said to live deep down under the earth and cause earthquakes.
charming.

if you don't understand japanese but want this on your phone, let me know and I'll tell you how to set it up; it's easy peasy.

teething time

2011-04-06T19:43:00.003+08:00

i now have my family back with me in tokyo and our little apartment is back to the noisy way it used to be.
things have calmed down here in tokyo so i feel it's safe for them to be back but it's always good to know we have places to escape to if need be whether they be in japan or overseas.

kou-chan is teething again; he's getting his 7th tooth coming through.
our friend who has a toddler 1 month older than kou-chan still doesn't even have any teeth! i guess each toddler has their own little schedule in place.
he's also zooming around the room (and i mean zooming!) pushing his wooden chu-chu train thingy (thanks ojii-chan!). it seriously won't be long now until he can take his first step without the help of something semi-solid to hold on to.

not only is he now extremely mobile but he is also picking up little tricks.
the other night i clicked my tongue at him to make him laugh and he picked it up straight away and now laughs and laughs when he clicks his tongue. at this age they are really like a (cute) sponge, soaking up everything around them.
can't believe that he will be 1 years old next month... think we will have to hold a little party for him (this is normal right?!) with his first cake (and a few drinks for the adults too!)

tsuruya jam

2011-03-27T20:05:00.006+08:00

boy has it been good to escape tokyo these last few weekends.

we headed up to nagano for the long weekend and had three days of delicious food, long soaks in the local onsen (hot springs), no scary aftershocks, and i even learnt how to change the tires on my car (i know… i've never had to do it before; but i had to take off my winter-tires as i was probably the last person in tokyo driving with winter-tires).
good old murphy’s law; it snowed the day after I took them off…

with all the current stuff happening in tokyo at the moment i persuaded k-chan to stay up in nagano with kou-chan.
glad they are safe(r) up there.
you've probably heard, but we were advised that it's not safe for children under one to drink the tap water here in tokyo due to the high levels of radiation detected. anyway, i’m not gonnna rant about this, instead i'm gonna introduce some jam.

if you are ever in nagano you so have to buy some locally produced tsuruya jam*; it’s seriously good!
these little jars of goodness use less sugar than other varieties and the best part is that they come in a huge range of flavors.
this time i bought four jars; walnut butter, gooseberry, rhubarb, and citrus marmalade.
all are divine!

have just left my love ones up in nagano again and returned to tokyo alone.
so if you’re in tokyo; invite me out for a drink; i'm a semi-free man!

spring's around the corner; it's gotta be good.

* can be found at any tsuruya supermarket.

panic-buying

2011-03-17T08:15:00.003+08:00

the media is having a field day with this blimmin nuclear reactor news in fukushima.

i know it doesn’t look good, but radiation levels here in tokyo have yes, increased, but were not high enough to cause health concerns. the amount is said to be less than that of an x-ray. mmm.
still the number of people wearing masks has doubled, if not tripled; and no, i don’t think it’s due to the hay fever outbreak japan gets hit with every season.
call me a sheep if you want, but i wore a mask today too. if it calms your nerves, i say do it.

arriving at work this morning we were told to take off our coats and put them into plastic bags before entering the office… apparently radiation is a bit like pollen, it clings to your clothes.

even though i’m sure there is nothing to worry about (yet), i'm considering telling k-chan to take kou-chan back to her hometown for a few days until things settle down a bit. nagano is an extra 100 odd km further away from fukushima than tokyo is.

if things really do get out of control we may consider an unscheduled trip back to nz. if it’s ok to trust what the scientists are saying on tv, then this is probably not really necessary.

k-chan is, like us all, sick of these blimmin scary aftershocks we keep experiencing.
had another big jolt the other night at 10:30 which was a M6.4 in neighboring shizuoka (a skip and a jump from tokyo). no tsunami warning was issued and no damage to the nuclear power plant in shizuoka. i so didn’t realize, but there are over 50 nuclear power plants in japan. coming from nuclear-free nz you can imagine my hate of this kind of power…

and just after lunch yesterday chiba (tokyo’s other neighbor where tokyo disneyland is located) jolted us with a M6.0…

i work on the 12th floor and believe me, it’s not fun. ever since friday my body constantly feels like it’s swaying.

nuclear radiation, earthquakes and tsunami(s) are not the only thing we are dealing with.
like i mentioned in my previous post, panicky residents here in tokyo are panic-buying.
this is what my local supermarket currently looks like….

sold out of toilet paper!

in my search for some bread i strolled down to my local bakery. (i was planning on introducing this bakery on my blog at a later date because their bread is sooo good, but this odd introduction will have to do).

as you can see people will go to serious lengths to get their hands on some bread. all bread was sold out and this line of people (errm, housewives) were queuing to place orders for the following days batch.

i queued up with them and have hopefully secured a loaf of bread (yes, one per household).

no more bread today!

update

2011-03-14T16:59:00.002+08:00

I seriously feel sick to the stomach that just a day before the huge earthquake and tsunami I was complaining about not having enough electricity to power-up my electric goods.
there are thousands, millions of people in northern japan who are drying because they don't have a warm blanket, they don't have any drinking water or food, babies don't even have any formular milk to drink.

like most of the world we were glued to our tv screen over the weekend watching in awe at the total devastation caused by mother nature.
we've had some pretty strong aftershocks here in Tokyo causing our apartment to creek and sway. not a nice feeling so escaped to the park for a while; try to keep our minds off things.

the government has asked for residents in Tokyo and other parts of japan to limit our use of electricity. naturally we are doing all we can and putting on warmer clothes over switching on the heater etc.
conveneience stores and supermarkets all over Tokyo have no stock of bread, water, toilet paper, nappies, and quick easy to prepare foods.
I've never experienced such shortages and it just feels so weird for this to happen in japan which has always had such a huge range off goods to select from.

power is being cut off to parts of the city in grids with limited subway/rail services too.
it was a nightmare getting to work this morning taking an extra 40 minutes longer than usual in a jam packed subway. not the best place to spend your time with all these blimmin aftershocks.

heard people talking over lunch how they had packed their cars with blankets and food and water just in case.
with a 70% threat of another big earthquake I'm gonna pack up our car tonite. don't have any water bottles because everywhere is sold out!

not a nice blog post I know.
hopefully kou-chan's photo of him at the park yesterday will put a smile on your face.

safe & sound

2011-03-12T11:25:00.003+08:00

quick note.
thanks for the comments and emails. .
we are all fine, pretty scary though, still have many aftershocks...
k-chan and kou-chan were in shinjuku having lunch (central Tokyo) so I walked for 2 and a half hours from my office to find them. took 3 hours to find them as phones were down. we couldn't get home bcos all trains were cancelled so spent the night in a temporary shelter; naturally didn't get much sleep, kou-chan was unsettled and just wanted a clean nappy.
finally made it home on the subway this morning. our apartment is ok, few things toppled over but that's nothing for what others have experienced up north of tokyo. my heart goes out to them...
we have a bag ready to run if need be...

hope all in japan are safe; thinking of you all.

4000

2011-03-10T17:07:00.003+08:00

4000.
four thousand.

sounds like a lot.
I guess it is when you are talking about $4000.
4000 isn't exactly loose change when talking in yen either. I mean I could buy a nice neck-tie with 4000 yen or even go out for a round or two of drinks after work.

but I'm not talking about dollars or yen, or how many times I've been on an airplane for that matter.
I'm talking about watts.
4000 watts.

if your like me and hate numbers and physics and all that, then you will probably have no idea if 4000 watts is enough to light a small light bulb or power-up a generator at a nuclear power plant.

well for your information, 4000 watts is shit all.

on leaving hong kong we had to chuck out lots of our electronic equipment as good old japan would have zapped most of our stuff.

although disappointing as it was to dispose of perfectly good equipment (we did sell some and give away others), the thought of purchasing brand spanking new, state of the art japanese electronics sent a shiver down my spine.
reality soon put a stop to that shiver as we didn’t really have the cash to shop like a Hilton offspring, although we did manage to buy some pretty cool stuff.

“cool" until plugged in I might add.

wham, our mansion (a japanese term for an apartment constructed of reinforced concrete) was thrust into pitch darkness.
wtf?!

turns out my breaker switch had tripped (mmm, do you say “tripped”?)
using the light from my mobile phone I found the big black switch and returned it to it’s ON position.
well whatta ya know, 5 minutes later and we are all sitting in darkness again because I had pressed the “cook” button on the blimmin rice cooker.
definitely not good for the computer to be unexpectedly cut off from it’s lifeline, or for my TV’s hard drive to suddenly be shut off.

apart from kou-chan (who will be 10 months tomorrow!) we were starting to get rather annoyed so I decided to give the tokyo power company a call.
in amazing japanese-style service, I had a charming old man at my doorstep in less than 2 hours!

he ever so kindly explained to the stupid foreigner that my mansion; like most mansions in tokyo, has a watt limit of 4000 watts.
there was absolutely no technical problem what so ever with my breaker but rather a slight issue with my selection of “cool” electronics (errr, not so cool now).
just by turning on our flash new oven I had already used up 1400 of my 4000 watt limit.

…

so with the oven on, the rice cooker cooking our rice, me watching TV while sitting in the warmth of the kotatsu (electric (!!) table warmer thingy), and the washing machine doing its spin, we were in other words trying to use enough electricity to power a small village.
one would think that the young dude at yamada-denki (electronic store) could have hinted that all of these power-hungry products that I was willy-nilly putting into my trolley may just be a bit too overpowering for the standard japanese home. but nope, he was all smiles and gave me an extra discount for my big purchase.

having lived back in tokyo for 2 months now, we have a few little rules in our home.
do not under any circumstance what so ever use the hairdryer while boiling water in the jug.
do not under any circumstance what so ever turn on the aircon while cooking muffins in the oven.
do not under any circumstance what so ever consider enjoying the features of our extensive range of household electronics.

thank god we have an unlimited flow of gas!

squid? no thanks.

2011-02-14T17:48:00.002+08:00

I so don't wanna get into a habit of uploading photos from my mobile phone. one of the reasons I started this blog was to get into photography a bit more and this is just a huge step, maybe even a leap backwards in photography.
not to mention that this is a crappy photo even for iPhone standards but there is something about this photo that I like.
I guess it's because Kou-chan was more interested in the squiggly reflections the water made on the floor rather than the swimming squids. I mean come on, squids!! to me they are one of be weirdest creatures in the sea.

so yes, we took Kou-chan to the aquarium on the weekend; his first. maybe a tad young to fully enjoy this underwater wonderland but daddy sure had a blast.

next post will be a proper one, I promise.

2011-02-09T11:21:00.001+08:00

just a test to see if I can actually blog directly from my phone.

whirl wind update

2011-02-03T17:57:00.004+08:00

shit, can't believe that it's nearly been a month since I last logged onto my blog.
it's been the craziest of months ever.
I've gone from the warm super relaxed southern hemisphere to the white-washed (ahem; snow) cold of the northern hemisphere.
I've unpacked my life possessions (all blimmin 60 or so boxes) in the space of a week.
I've moved into a new apartment in a quiet residential neighborhood of Tokyo.
and I've started a new job in a trendy spot in Tokyo too.

talk about 2011 being a year of change!
mmm, speaking of which I really should change my blog's graphic thingy. hong kong seems like a long lost dream...

I'm on the subway now and nearly at my stop so will call it quits for now.
bear (??) with me as the posts to follow are probably gonna go back and forth between new zealand and japan so you just might feel a bit jet lagged.

somerfield strawberries

2011-01-06T12:30:00.000+08:00

slightly late (being trendy and all?!), but happy new year!!
god 2011 and we still don't have flying cars.
but hey, 2011 is gonna be a great year; i can feel it in my bones! i've found an apartment in tokyo, i have a job starting in february, everything is going as planned (touch wood...)

for the first time in a loooong time i woke up on january the 1st without a hangover; that's gotta be a good start to the year (boy am i looking at that in a positive note!).
anyway, fingers crossed that 2011 is gonna be a super year for us all.

been out in the sun today picking plump red strawberries and raspberries.
talk about yum!
excuse the shot of my pink pants...

kou-chan has been eating our fresh strawberries straight from daddy's hand but for us adults we have been indulging ourselves by dipping these fresh strawberries in mascarpone cheese drizzled with runny honey (this is so divine!)
another yummy way is with a splash of balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and a healthy dollop of greek yoghurt.

thumbs up for summer!

merry christmas

2010-12-28T16:17:00.001+08:00

first things first;

merry christmas!!
i hope you all had a wonderful christmas whether it be in the sun, sand or snow.

mum told me that over here it's not p.c to say merry christmas anymore.
gotta say happy christmas as one doesn't wanna encourage drinking (wtf!?)
i think it's a great time to get slightly merry; don't you think?!

our christmas day was divine.
mum had made a beautiful spread of smoked salmon & dill pate, pink peppercorn prawns, a yummy roast turkey, a potato gratin, carrot, orange & pomegranate salad, and a devilish apricot & white chocolate trifle for dessert.
dad fired up the bbq too; a now ever so common kiwi-summer-christmas style.

and guess who got the most presents?

yup. kou-chan.

fish & chips

2010-12-24T09:27:00.005+08:00

a kiwi favorite; fish & chips on the beach.
so should have taken the gladwrap off that lemon before clicking the shutter!

we can't come all the way down here to new zealand without having fish & chips on the beach.

to tell the truth i'm not; or should i say wasn't a big fish & chip eater as the heavy batter used on the fish and the oily chips didn't do much for me.
well times have changed.
the tarakihi fish we ordered was beautiful and fresh and the batter was as light as japanese tempura. tried out their bread-crummed fish too; just as divine.
the seagulls wanted to get in on our meal and i don't blame them.

it was kou-chan's first time ever to feel the sand under his feet (and in his hands, eyes, mouth...) and he loved it!! much better than his "first feel of grass" experience...
he loved the small waves washing up over his little toes and basically couldn't get enough of it.
must be the kiwi blood in him.

out and about

2010-12-22T10:15:00.006+08:00

after my last rant about the rain, the gods have decided to bring on summer; and it's a beautie!

just been for a walk along the waterfront close to home taking in the natural sights, like the beautiful pohutukawa tree's (new zealand's native christmas tree) flowers which are in full bloom.
some things not quite so natural like the huge homes which line the streets. took a not-so-good photo of a new ginormous one being built.

for months i've been getting excited about showing kou-chan my home and all the natural beauty which makes new zealand so special.
unfortunately he absolutely loves his mountain buggy (the bestest buggy by the way; oh and naturally made in new zealand!) and falls into a peaceful sleep on our walks.

alimento

2010-12-20T17:10:00.001+08:00

sunblock, beach umbrellas, bbqs in the garden, jandals and togs = a good old kiwi summer.

well with the constant rain we have been having you would think i was visiting a blimmin rain forest in some sub-tropical land.
at least the sheila (women) on the telly is saying that we are in for a brilliant crissy (christmas).

the rain kinda held back a bit today so we grabbed at the opportunity and ducked out for a flat white at one of my dad's local cafes; alimento cafe.

i couldn't resist having a brunch of eggs benidicts; very yum.
the cake i had afterwards was way too sweet for my liking so i let dad finish it up for me. think i must be used to less-sweet japanese sweets.

the cafe culture in new zealand is great; kinda shocked at the price of a coffee now though. i remember when they were like nz$2.50, now about $4!
seriously good coffee though.

cafe info:
alimento cafe
72 first avenue
tauranga 3110

kia ora!

2010-12-18T03:55:00.003+08:00

it's early in the morning and i'm the only one awake.
man i hate time zones/jet lag.

a few days ago we made the long haul flight from japan all the way down to new zealand (via hong kong). it took us about 26 hours from leaving k-chan's home in nagano before reaching my home in new zealand. oh and two trains, two planes, and a car trip.
surprisingly kou-chan travelled well. he tried to sleep on the long flight over; when i say try it's because he kept being woken up by the screaming baby girl beside us who's parents couldn't care less...

anyway, it's so nice to be back home and i can"t believe that this time we will be staying for a month; just chilling out making the most of summer down under.

kou-chan has seen (and pulled at) his first cat and experienced what grass is; he didn't like the feel of grass on his feet (and no, there were no prickles!)
he even got what he wanted, my mum's glasses.

will try to post and check out your fabulous blogs more often if i can!

kani kani kani

2010-12-06T12:15:00.000+08:00

I'm now on the highway bus making my way back to Tokyo.
I usually take the Shinkansen (bullet train) but thought that as I'm officially a bum without a job I should really take the cheap option.
the bus is pretty much full but in typical Japanese style it's as quiet as my empty apartment in Tokyo. God, remember to put your phone to silent mode, don't wanna be the odd one out!

yesterday we drove all the way to Niigata prefecture just to eat some crab.
I'm not a big fan of crab so it kinda bewildered me why one would want to make a long trip just for these red long-legged deep sea scavengers.

my mind and stomach was elsewhere thinking about my up and coming interviews in Tokyo so I really didn't have an appetite for fresh raw crab. I had a few legs though. skipped on the kani-miso (crab brain).
instead I opted for some yummy negi-toro don; raw tuna and spring onions on a bed of rice; or should I say a bowl of rice.

and yeah to see the ocean again; Nagano ain't got no ocean.
pretty rough, but a nice sight.

feeling a bit car, bus sick...
time to look at the road.

tokyo. here i come

2010-12-01T14:50:00.001+08:00

man this last week has been a toughie.

mr sekimachihato drove k-chan and little kou-chan to tokyo in search of our new home.
the drive is around three hours so we left nagano in the dark at 5:30am (that's 5:30am as in the morning!!) giving us enough time to stop somewhere for breakfast and a few nappy changes along route.
we made good time to the outskirts of tokyo and then the inevitable happened...
we got stuck in a blimmin traffic jam on one of the many elevated expressways which wind in, out, up, down throughout the concrete jungle of tokyo.
we ended up moving a tad slower than an energetic snail for around two hours...
not nice with a 6-month old bundle of joy strapped into a car-seat.

but hey, we made it safe and sound; that's the main thing.
couple of not good shots from my phone:

now for the tough part.
searching for a place to live.
we had narrowed down our future location to three stations and left it up to the real estate agent to show us the goods. for the amount we had planned to fork out in rent i was kinda disappointed in the condition of some of the apartments.
every time we opened the door and stepped into the empty rooms i couldn't help but flash back to our apartment in hong kong; full sea views from every room, two outdoor swimming pools, indoor heated pool, tennis courts, even a six-lane bowling ally!
instead i was shown apartments which had poky little kitchens, views of "roads" or even a cemetery!, and no glamorous extras what so ever; zilch.
having lived in tokyo before i should have been a little bit more mentally prepared.

but after two full days of looking at apartment after apartment we finally signed a two year contract with a little place in a nice family-friendly environment.
looking forward now to moving into our new place and getting settled.
first things first though. we have to get all out stuff shipped over from hong kong, all 50+ boxes...

shit.
did you know it's december already!

chihiro art museum

2010-11-18T13:25:00.000+08:00

i so want hiroshi naito to design my future home.

who is this naito fella?
he's the talented architect who designed the beautiful chihiro art museum in azumino. i loved the open planned design, the use of wood and steel, and the overall relaxed feel i got when walking around the exhibits.

before visiting the chihiro art museum i wasn't really a "fan" fan of chihiro but i really enjoyed reading about her short, yet well-lived life, and having a close-up look at her art.

* image: 「おふろでちゃぷちゃぷ」 1970 (ofuro de chapu chapu : i love bathing)

for those of you who don't know, chihiro iwasaki (岩崎知弘) was a talented artist who won numerous awards for her work both locally and internationally. her life was cut short by cancer at the young age of 55 back in 1974.

apart from chihiro's work, there was a collection of children's picture books from around the world which really fascinated me. each country's art had a real distinct feel to it; especially liked the picture books from iran, the czech republic, poland, turkey and korea.
i suddenly have the urge to pull out all my old picture books from my childhood. hope my mum has boxed them up and put them away somewhere.
i'm sure she has; she was an ex-librarian!

info:
chihiro art museum azumino
3358-24 nishihara
matsukawa-mura kita-azumi-gun
nagano 399-8501

ちひろ美術館・安曇野
〒399-8501
長野県北安曇郡松川村西原3358-24

check out this site for more details.
* there is also a chihiro art museum in tokyo.

maruyama coffee : 丸山珈琲

2010-11-16T20:00:00.000+08:00

it was hard to find a good cake in hong kong (unless you paid top dollar).
since moving back to japan i have realised that i've been eating way too many cakes. even the cakes from the good old conbini (convenience store) taste pretty darn good.

i didn't go without my piece of cake today too.

obaasan suggested that we go for a drive to a cafe that she often goes to with her friends; so that's what we did. we popped kou-chan into his baby car-seat and off we went.

the outside of maruyama cafe doesn't really look like a cafe at all but more like a huge new warehouse. the building is actually separated into three sections; a shop, the cafe, and the coffee bean roasting room.

so how was the coffee?
very good considering this cafe is kinda in the middle of nowhere. actually the location has nothing to do with it; one of the baristas who works here won a top prize at the japan barista championships.

as i have a sweet-tooth i couldn't resit the caramel cake; an earl grey sponge cake infused with apple compote topped off with caramel cream. yum!!

i can see why obaasan like this cafe but my only grudge is the price; it's a tad expensive...

cafe info:
maruyama coffee
1152-1 hirahara
komoro city
nagano 384-0092
open 9am to 8pm

丸山珈琲
〒384-0092
長野県小諸市平原1152-1
TEL：0267-26-5556‎
営業時間：9：00～20：00
定休日：不定休

a first

2010-11-11T18:55:00.000+08:00

today was kou-chan's 6-month old birthday (i know... i'm a new dad, but 6 months is a big milestone for little kou-chan so don't burst my bubble).

on halloween kou-chan learnt how to roll over onto his stomach so it won't be long now before he starts to crawl. naturally i'm looking forward to that moment but i'm so not looking forward to moving all the furniture around so he can't reach things he shouldn't be reaching for.

even when he was only a few months old he showed great interest in what we were eating or drinking, but we decided to not start him on solids until he turned 6 months old. so today was the big day!
k-chan made him some plain rice congee (porridge?!) and we put it to the test.

the result:

mmm.

kou-chan kinda liked the liquid but didn't really know what to do with the soft grains of rice; which he just spat out.
i think this is how it's supposed to go. no?

a few more photos of the "big event".

now just waiting for the smelly follow-through (the poo) which apparently is the unpleasant part of moving on from breast milk to solids.

...

narai-juku : 奈良井宿

2010-11-10T09:40:00.000+08:00

took ojiisan and obasan's new car for a spin on the expressway (ojiisan and obaasan were also in the car with us so i wisely set the cruise control at 100kmh...)
after a couple of nappy changes along route (for some reason kou-chan always poops when he's in his car seat) we arrived at the old town of narai-juku (奈良井宿) in shiojiri city (塩尻市).

narai-juku is basically a long-ish well preserved street which once flourished during the edo-period.
the weather was perfect for a stroll and it was a great place to pop our heads through the noren (暖簾); door-entrance curtains (??) to see what was on offer.

one shop in particular caught our eye as it had some great showa-period antiques for sale. k-chan and i fell in love with a handmade wooden bread box (the owner of the store makes them) but it was too over priced. we tried to see if they would give us a discount but nope, the price was set to stay. this is japan and not hong kong after all...
instead we bought some fairly common showa-period yunomi (湯のみ);japanese tea cups for 100 yen each.
currently unemployed this was probably a wise choice!

stopped off at another onsen deep in the mountains on the way home.
the natural spring water was great leaving our skin super smooth. shame that this onsen was so small; it felt like i was rubbing my elbows (and other body parts) with every man and his dog so to speak.
one boy (about 6 years old) pointed at me and said to his dad; "he's got strange hair". his dad turned around and looked like a deer caught in headlights when he saw me; a naked gaijin, but kindly explained to his son that yes; he has got blond hair and you have got black hair.
thank god the boy was pointed at my head and not somewhere else!

lake suwa : 諏訪湖

2010-11-07T21:35:00.000+08:00

gave the grandparents some peace and quiet while we zipped off to lake suwa (諏訪湖) for a night away.
we usually go to lake suwa in summer for the huge fireworks display (one of the top 5 in japan), but this time of year was just as beautiful time to visit.
the drive through the mountains to lake suwa was breath-taking as the autumn leaves were in full color and raining down on us all the way.

our close friend s-chan; whose wedding we attended in thailand was back home with her 8-month old baby boy. we met s-chan and baby tak-kun at our ryokan (japanese inn) purchased on the hillside looking down on lake suwa.

the day started off great; lots of catching up; eating, drinking, and playing with the kids. after a yummy meal at the inn the two mums took the two babies off for a hot spring while i chilled out in the room. the babies came back in lala-land so the mums went back for a soak while i looked after the sleeping babies.
all was going well until little tak-kun stirred in his sleep and realized that his mum was not there. oh shit...
tak-kun started crying which soon set off little kou-chan too and it wasn't long before both of them were screaming their little lungs out! oh double shit...
as tak-kun can crawl i had to hold him while kou-chan was looking at me with the most heart-wrenched eyes as if to say; "daddy, why aren't you holding me?".
talk about tough...
in the end i thought the walls were gonna crumble down around me so i called the front desk and explained my situation in which the lady said she would go running to the hot spring and get the mum's to come back.
man, i'm never gonna look after TWO babies alone again (unless i can produce milk!)

the following day we strolled around the grounds of suwa taisha (諏訪大社); a temple which is over 1200 years old.
close by were stores selling japanese confectionery which we bought to take back to the grandparents.

oh, if you are wondering what those guys are doing riding that big log; it's a famous once in 6-year event held here in suwa where ~~stupid~~ brave men ride this log down a steep hill; often resulting in death...

so yeah, apart from the screaming-baby experience, all in all it was a nice mini-trip away.
and thanks s-chan for the delicious macarons!
hope to catch up with you again; maybe next time back in thailand?!

akebi

2010-10-28T09:10:00.000+08:00

when otoosan came in from taking denko (the dog) for a walk holding a handful of these purple-ish colored pods i was kinda intrigued until i looked closer and saw the huge white slug-like bugs living inside the pods.
talk about disgusting!!

otoosan then carefully plucked out one of these bugs and then without a blink of an eye popped it into his mouth!

ok ok, i'm exaggerating a bit here.
that white-ish slug-like bug is actually the edible pulp of the akebia quinata fruit; a native plant to japan, china and korea.

k-chan's family were surprised that i had never even seen or heard of this fruit before and wanted me to give it a try.
they said it tasted sweet but the bite i took of this weird fruit just tasted kinda bitter...

in japanese this fruit is called "akebi" (アケビ) and a quick google later i found out that in english it's called a "chocolate vine" or a "five-leaf akebia".
apparently the plant's flowers which bloom in the spring smell like chocolate or even vanilla. will have to go into the garden for a bt of a sniff next year.

oh, and in new zealand this plant is prohibited for sale and on the national pest plant list because it's a invasive plant; kills off the native plants.
no wonder i've never heard of it!

anyway, that was your gardening lesson for today.
you can store this information in that part of your brain used for useless info.

by the way, it's blimmin freezing here!
japan got it's first snow fall for the year yesterday. the mountains around here have a dusting on snow on them. time to bring out the winter woollies!!

happy birthday

2010-10-26T13:47:00.001+08:00

this year has been a special one for k-chan and i; both of us got to celebrate our birthday's with our parents.
this may not seem special to some, but both of us have lived overseas for such a long time we are seldom in the same city, let alone the same country with our parents on our birthdays.

my parents were in hong kong for my birthday in august where k-chan booked a well known chinese restaurant for dinner. it turned out to be a really special night; thanks k-chan!
this past weekend was k-chan's birthday and as we are at her jikka (parent's house) she got to celebrate her special day with her parents too.
when her parent's asked her how she would like to celebrate she answered that she wanted to go to an onsen (again!) and go to her favorite ramen shop for dinner.
so that's what we did.

we drove up to the yatsugatake mountain range (八ヶ岳) near the town of koumi (小海町)stopping off for a look-see at the picturesque lake matsubara (松原湖).
we came at the right time as the leave were just stating to change color. it won't be long before this is a frozen wonderland. apparently this lake freezes over in winter and you can go ice skating. that's if you can handle the minus 20 degree temperatures!

so after our walk around (one side of) the lake we drove a bit further up the mountain to the yahho natural hot spring (八峰温泉).
after a yummy lunch of soba noodles + tempura + beer + ice cream we had a long soak in the outdoor onsen. nothing beats a long soak outside in the cool autumn air.
this onsen has a room where you can nap after a soak so while kou-chan was out to it i went for a walk around the area.

this is what i saw on my walk:

bright red japanese maple leaves

fresh veges for sale at the onsen

a bug orgy...

a slice of europe in japan?

yatsugatake mountain range

i think some kid must have done this

one of the many mountain holiday homes

a smurf village

k-chan ended her birthday with a bowl of spicy ramen noodles; a family favorite.
kちゃん、おめでとう！

onsen info:
yahho hot spring
5918-2 ooaza toyosato
koumi town, minmi saku-gun
nagano 384-1103

八峰温泉
〒384-1103
長野県南佐久郡小海町大字豊里5918-2
リンク

ooshika kabuki : 大鹿村歌舞伎

2010-10-24T11:40:00.000+08:00

while we were all up to our necks in the kotatsu watching some "variety" (game show) program on tv, otoosan suddenly perked up and said that we all had to be awake and ready to leave the house at 8am in the morning. wtf!

turns out he wanted to take me to see a traditional kabuki show some nearly 200 kilometers away in a tiny village called ooshika (大鹿村).
on hearing this i was both excited and slightly worried as it bought back memories from the last time i went to watch a kabuki show in kyoto many years ago. although a privileged experience it was also a painful one as it lasted for like six hours or so. pretty tough to sit through when you can't even understand the story line.

anyway, come the next morning and the car was packed and ready to go at 9am; 1 hour late. after we got off the express way the narrow road to ooshika village was enough to make anyone car-sick. it wound round and round the southern alps with barely enough room to let another car pass. must admit the scenery was pretty stunning and i wish i could have taken a few photos.

ooshika village has a population of only 1400 people and i guess it swelled to around 1600 for this rural event. we made it just in time to see the opening at noon.
just in case you don't know; kabuki (歌舞伎) is a traditional "play" in which all the performers are male; even those acting out the female roles. some of the guys looked really famine; they could have fooled me ~~if they wanted to~~.
i stood and watched and tried to understand the story line for about an hour while the others went off in search of some lunch.

after two hours i had had enough and lucky for me little kou-chan was feeling the cold so we decided to call it quits.
amazing setting for a kabuki show though.

we went for a bit of a ticky-tour on the way home stopping off at some antique shops where i picked up some cool glass jars, small plates and a silver tray for next to nothing.
we ended our day with a nice long soak in a hot spring (onsen : 温泉) which surprisingly kou-chan absolutely loves.
he's been about 10 times since we've been back to japan!

my secret draws

2010-10-19T20:25:00.000+08:00

k-chan's brother drove up to nagano on his new harley davidson bike (it's an awesome bike; got some real grunt to it) and as he was making some room to park his bike near my wood heap, i noticed an old chest of draws in the corner.
when i asked otoosan what they were doing outside, he said a friend gave them to him and that he was gonna chop them up for firewood.
me being me took a closer peek and nearly peed my pants!

i love antique furniture and couldn't believe it that he was gonna destroy these draws which have so much character, or should I say future potential!
i said that if he was gonna chop them up for firewood could i please have them, to which he replied that I was more than welcome. he wondered how i would get them back to tokyo though. good question.
i hope they will fit in my car...

while everyone was having a nap in the kotatsu (it's gotta be a national pastime), i pulled out a rag and a bucket and got to work giving my new find a good rub down.

check out what I found inside.
the top draw was lined with pages of an old newspaper dating back 45 years ago to 1965 (showa period; 昭和40年).
this simple find got me excited and i quickly pulled out the second draw to find this small envelope containing these black and white photos; all of them of landscapes from a trip to yamanashi prefecture.

in the bottom draw i found two boxes.
i was nearly too excited to even open them but my curiosity got the better of me.
the first box was empty... but it's kinda a cool box anyway with some hand written calligraphy on it.
inside the second one was this; an old weathered japanese chouchin; lantern, complete with a small white candle.

k-chan told me i should throw it away as the lantern has a family emblem on it; but i think it's too good of a find to just chuck away. what do you think?

in the next few days i'm gonna go to the local hardware store and buy some wood polish (oil) as the chest is pretty dry and needs some TLC (is "TLC" even used these days?!; i'm so outta touch...)
hope i can find somewhere for this find in my new apartment! (which i have yet to find...)

kei-tora debut

2010-10-16T12:12:00.000+08:00

as you probably know by now on any given weekend you can find me sitting in a cafe enjoying a strong coffee and flicking through a magazine.
yesterday i willingly (??) stepped out of my comfort zone to help otoosan with his maki tsukuri (薪づくり); cutting up logs for winter.
the winters in this part of the woods are harsh so like a bear has to prepare to hibernate, so do we.
k-chan's family need a lot; and i mean a lot of wood to burn as the heat from these logs both heat the house and the water for our nightly baths.

as otoosan is still recovering from his operation i collected all the logs and stacked them into the back of his kei-tora (軽トラ); mini-truck and then drove back home to unload and stack the logs into the shed. did around three trips of this heavy "mans" work. although i'm more than too happy to help out otoosan i've realized i'm more of an office-man than a out-doorsy-hard-labour type of guy.

oh and you should have seen some of the funny looks i got from people waiting at the traffic lights. believe me it's not a common sight to see a gaijin wearing tsunagi (overalls) driving a kei-tora piled up with logs around here!

otoosan just told me he needs my help again next week as there are still a few more loads of logs left...
just hope my aching bum and thighs have recovered by then.
and don't ask me why i have a sore butt; i have no idea!

matsutake : マツタケ

2010-10-14T13:00:00.000+08:00

ok, i've finally made it back to japan.
still can't believe that my seven years of living in hong kong have actually come to an end...

last week was a toughy.
had a mad few days of sorting out my life's possessions before the removal company came in and wrapped everything in bubble wrap.
even though i ending up selling/throwing out/giving to charity so much stuff i still had over 50 boxes to ship to japan!!

our little family of three spent our last night in hong kong at the marriott hotel near the airport where we splashed out on room service (so not worth it...) but hey, it was our last night.
had an early morning start (5am!) and finally arrived in nagano at 7pm.
why did it take us so long? well we chilled out in the breast-feeding room at ueno station for like three hours as all the blimmin shinkansen (bullet trains) were full due to a long weekend.
you should have seen the look on some of the japanese mum's faces as they opened the door to see a sleepy gaijin dude sprawled out on the sofa.

so i'm now in nagano at k-chan's jikka totally relaxed in the kotatsu eating the highly sort after matsutake mushroom.
to be honest i don't really get what all the fuss is with this mushroom. this year they are in abundance so selling much cheaper than usual but we still had to fork out close to 5000 yen for these. crazy.

off to softbank now; gonna buy a new mobile; iPhone4. yippie!

eating popcorn alone

2010-09-29T09:05:00.000+08:00

feel i ought to tell you guys that this will be my last post for a while as packing up all of my ~~worldly possessions~~ life's worth of crap is turning out to be a huge time consumer and i just don't have time to update this blog or even read your great blogs...
juggling this move with kou-chan means that we only get to sort out a draw of stuff before he's crying out for attention. it's a slooooow process.

this move from hong kong is kinda turning out to be more emotional than i thought it would be.
everyday now we are catching up with friends to say goodbye and it really feels like the end of an era in our lives.
sob sob...
can't believe that in less than 10 days i will no longer be a resident of hong kong but one of japan.

before i forget, does anyone out there go to the movies alone?
k-chan is taking kou-chan out for lunch today with some of her friends so i'm gonna be home alone. rather than tackle the task of packing i've decided to go to the movies; alone...
i've never done this before as i've always thought watching a movie should be shared with a friend/lover etc.
after kou-chan was born the cinema has been out of the question until today.
just crossing my fingers that i won't have anyone sitting next to me to steal my popcorn.
mmm, salted or sweet or both!? oh the dilemma!

anyway guys, see you in japan!

* a recent photo of kou-chan.
god, he's just asking for trouble!

wooloomooloo

2010-09-16T21:54:00.003+08:00

i'm back (anyone miss me?!) and feeling a bit under the whether.
only have myself to blame as i went out for happy hour drinks last night which turned into a late night out.
actually come to think of it, i'm gonna blame it on the view.
sitting outside with good company and this stunning view you can imagine how easy it was to get bit carried away.

stumbling out of the bar i saw this shop.
i see shop names like this all the time here in hong kong and they don't even make me smile.
last night the vinos played with my mind and gave me and my friend the school-kid giggles.
i mean imagine a scottish guy saying he got a new job at "fuck long" in hong kong.
maybe it was one of those "had-to-be-there" moments...

thanks to that extra drink i'm in a total vege-out mood today.
starring into space a lot and thinking about all the stuff i have to do in hong kong before the big move to tokyo in a few weeks time.
god, gives me a headache just thinking about it, or maybe that's due to those few vinos...
anyway, even in my current state i've sorted out the kitchen today and managed to chucked out a whole lot of stuff i can't take with me. also got a box of stuff to give away to friends.

did you know it would have been cheaper for me to ship my stuff to the other side of the blimmin world (new zealand or australia) compared to shipping it to japan which is just a hop skip and a jump away.
how the heck does that work?!
one shipping company said to me that it's the agents on the japan side of the move that charge so much. typical...
to keep my move costs down i have to do some major thinning out of personal items.
looks like anything bulky is gonna have to stay in hong kong.

oooh, and thanks to all of you who left comments on my last post.
~~chichi~~ chicchi loved her new name and loved her new grandson even more.
more on that later.
time for me to go and see the blanket show.

bar info:
wooloomooloo
31F & rooftop
the hennessy
256 hennessy road
wan chai
tel: 2893-6960

you wanna be called what?!

2010-08-27T13:50:00.000+08:00

we have decided to make a trip back down to new zealand at the end of the year to see family and friends.
it will be kou-chan's first christmas and he will be experiencing it kiwi-style; in other words, lots of BBQs in the garden, sipping vinos outside in the sun (err, dad will be sipping those vinos; kou-chan can stick to his breast milk!), and lazy days at the beach.
even though my parents know we are coming back, they have decided that they can't wait any longer to meet their first grandson so are flying over to hong kong now as i type this.
gotta pick them up tomorrow morning at 6am... god that's early!

the other day while talking to mum on the phone i asked her what she wants kou-chan to call her. she was very direct in saying that she doesn't wanna be called "grandma" as she's not that old yet (she's late 50s). she doesn't wanna be called "nana" either as that's what i call my grandmother.
so want do you wanna be called?
to which she replied...

"chichi"

...

now it' my job to make sure that kou-chan is bilingual in both english and japanese and one day it's gonna be quite embarrassing when he asks me why he calls his grandmother chichi, which actually means "boobs/tits" in japanese.

before i even had time to explain this predicament to my mum i could hear laughter in the background.
turns out that my sister's boyfriend who is spanish was there and was explaining to my dad that "chichi" means something kinda rude in spanish too.
in español "chichi" is slang for a certain part of the female body (hint: ▼)

my poor ~~old~~ mum was horrified to think that her grandson would be one day calling her such vulgar names while out and about in the supermarket or the toy shop or wherever.
but she really wanted to be called chichi (taken from her name) so we have suggested she go for chicchi.
it's a bit hard to explain the double "c" sound in english, but instead of saying "chi-chi" as two words you kinda put a pause between the two.
anyway, in japanese it doesn't sound like the word for "tits" so fingers crossed in works.

my dad on the other hand has gone for "popa", which is safe in english and japanese.
thank god for that.

don't know if i will have time to update my blog while chicchi and popa are here, but i'll be back so don't forget about me!

long black hairs...

2010-08-25T13:05:00.000+08:00

being the good house-husband which i am i vacuum our apartment everyday. just one of the many many ~~chores~~ daily activities on my to-do list.
feeling completely satisfied after working up a sweat (i turn off the aircon and open the windows and it gets a tad warm...) long and behold a few minutes later i find a long black hair on the floor. as i pick it up i spy another one over in the corner. arrgghhh! talk about frustrating!
these long black hairs ain't from me (i'm blondish) and they definitely didn't come from kou-chan's little head (he's kinda still bald!).
the culprit is k-chan.

any women out there who have kids will probably know this but women who have given birth go through a molting period where their hair basically falls out all over the place. i think it's to do with the hormones all out of balance.
i just happen to be the guy who has to pick up all the loose ends so to speak...
just another thing to add to the ever increasing list of facts i didn't know before kou-chan was born.

speaking of kou-chan, the daily changes in him are remarkable.
he "chats" to me, laughs out loud, is grabbing his blanket and sucking his fingers.
he now loves gong for a walk in his baby bjorn carrier (which he hated a few weeks back) and also loves his bouncer.
this weekend his chicchi and popa (my parents) are coming to hong kong to see their new grandson. hopefully i can pass on the nappy changing bit to chicchi for a while and get popa to rock him to sleep so i can chill out for a few minutes.

拜拜香港

2010-08-20T11:00:00.000+08:00

seven years ago wrapped up in warm winter clothes i boarded a plane at tokyo's narita airport bound for hong kong.
my adrenalin was pumping as not only was this my first trip to the so-called "east meets west" city of hong kong, but it was gonna be new home for the next few years (errr, two years turned into seven!)

arriving in early december the very first thing i remember was "my god it's hot!" and a close second was "man, they sure know how to build them buildings high!"

hong kong is a vibrant city and i have a love hate relationship with it.
a sneak peak into my day (before i became a house-husband) might explain why.

showered and dressed, ready to start the day.
as i leave my apartment with the to-die-for view (LOVE HK!) (click here to see my view if you haven't already) i step outside into another muggy humid energy-zapping morning (HATE HK!) and my hair starts to frizz (HATE HK!).
after a short walk i'm at my local subway station which is airconed (LOVE HK!) and before i can straighten out that frizz my train has already pulled into the platform. with a clean punctual train every 1-2 minutes i don't even have to worry about timetables (LOVE HK!).
on my way to the office i stop off at a local eatery to buy my breakfast. you see, here in hong kong we eat breakfast at the office, at our desk, starting from 9am (LOVE HK!).
the lady serving the hordes of people lining up for breakfast yells at me in cantonese "what do you want?". this brash service used to freak me out but i'm now used to it and place my order with a smile. breakfast is a bargan with a coffee just about thrown in for free (LOVE HK!).
it's a shame that just about everywhere you go to in hong kong the aircon is set at a chilly sub-arctic temperature; even in winter... (HATE HK!) so it doesn't matter that it's a hot 30 odd degrees outside i'm now eating my breakfast wishing i had bought a warmer cardigan with me or even a down-jacket... (HATE HK!)
come lunch time and my colleagues and i make a mad rush to the yumcha restaurant where even though we were first out the door there are already hordes of other office ladies lined up waiting for a table (HATE HK!) after a bit of a moan and groan we are seated in an even colder room than our office (HATE HK!) but my goosebumps (or chicken skin as the locals call it) are gone as i'm soon enjoying some delicious dim sum from piping hot pork buns to noodles to rice to chicken's feet to what the heck is that? to mango puddings (LOVE HK!) and to top it all off the bill comes to a rather cheap HK$XX per person (LOVE HK!)
afternoon feels long and drawn out but i only have myself to blame for eating way to much of that yummy food during lunchtime.
after a few meetings and a bit of blogging (*hush hush*) the day has come to an end before i know it. it's now officially happy hour time (LOVE HK!).
now i'm drinking ice cold foreign beers at a crazy cheap price (LOVE HK!) while rubbing shoulders with the foreign expats and locals too (LOVE HK!). gotta love this unique mix of "east meets west"; literally.
before i call it a night my friends and i dart into a local cha-chaan-teng for some late night noodles. although this joint isn't very clean or the service that friendly (LOVE/HATE HK!) it's the best place to go when you have late night munches.
as i stumble out the door (maybe that last drink wasn't the best idea...) i jump into a taxi and in near perfect cantonese (well i like to think so) say the name of my apartment building and my driver doesn't need to check a map to find out where it is (LOVE HK!). within no time i'm home and paying for the taxi which is cheap compared to most developing countries (LOVE HK!)
as i drift off to sleep the city is still pumping; hong kong never sleeps (LOVE HK!).

so you get my drift right?

for the last seven years i have called this tiny plot of land at the southern end of the huge mother land (china) home.
hong kong even became the birth place of my son kou-chan so it will always have a special significance for our family.
in less than 2 months time i will be saying 拜拜 (goodbye) to hong kong where west~~ern me~~ met east~~ern hong kong~~.

so where am i going you ask?
back to were this adventure first started, my second home called tokyo.

how this egg bought a tear to my eye

2010-08-18T17:30:00.000+08:00

actually the title of this post should really be;

"how this egg NEARLY bought a tear to my eye".
i would be lying if i said that i actually had a wee cry.

first things first; no, this egg isn't rotten.
it's a tea egg (茶葉蛋) which is a local snack over here.
when a first saw this snack i must say that it didn't make my mouth water or make my hand search for my wallet. not the most attractive snack out there is it?
but it was k-chan who got me onto this.
there is a small stall selling these eggs at our local subway station and one day she bought a couple of these ugly eggs to try. talk about judging a book by it's cover!
this savory egg is yum!
it's actually a standard boiled egg which is then soaked in pu-erh tea tossed in with some chinese five-spice powder, which contains cinnamon, star anise, fennel seeds, cloves and szechuan peppercorns.
so the next time you see an ugly egg for sale, buy it.
for HK$2.50 it's a bargain!

oh, and i didn't shed a tear because this egg tasted so good either.
no, the reason why i nearly shed a tear is because...

because...

it's nearly time for me to leave hong kong.
the egg made me reminisce about all the amazing experiences (some not so great) that i've had during my nearly seven years here.

for those of you who have been following my blog (which i started here in hong kong) know that i had some huge life-changing decision to make a few months back, well this was one of them.
i've decided to move on, and my next destination is...

is...

you'll have to wait.
don't wanna give you too many surprises all at once *wink wink*

the varandah

2010-08-12T18:30:00.000+08:00

some close friends of ours came over from japan as it's now their summer vacation/festival of the dead (obon) (um, why don't workers in hong kong get a summer holiday!?).
we met them in stanley for a few afternoon drinks out in the sun before grabbing a taxi and heading over to repulse bay (淺水灣).
i've always wondered why would you even consider naming a bay "repulse" unless it was actually repulsive; which it's not. it's actually one of the most expensive residential areas on hong kong island.

three things spring to mind when you hear "repulse bay".
1. the beach.
which when written in chinese (淺水灣) it actually translates to "shallow water bay"; nothing about the english word "repulse".
but we weren't here for the warm sea of the soft sand.

2. the hole-in-the-building apartment (below)
the saying goes that a hole was needed bang slap in the middle of this apartment because it's the blocking the route taken by the dragon so he/she (??) could swoop down over the mountain and take a drink from the water in the bay.
nice marketing ploy if you ask me.

3. some would say the third thing that springs to mind are the scantly clad tanned bodies on the beach but really it should be "the varandah".
and this ain't no ordinary varandah!
the varandah is actually the name of the upmarket restaurant run by the peninsula (one of hong kong's most expensive hotels).
as with many historic buildings here in hong kong, the original grand repulse bay hotel was demolished during the 1970s and now a replica has been built to try to mimic some of the long lost colonial architecture.
the sunday brunch here is said to be pretty good but at HK$400 something odd dollars plus tax per person it's a bit steep so we instead went for afternoon tea and nibbled on tasty finger size sandwiches, mouth-watering cakes and french savories.

we were so engrossed in conversation that we had to be asked to settle our bill and basically leave as they needed to set the tables for dinner. oops.

and my pick out of afternoon tea at the peninsula hotel or the varandah?
definitely the varandah. although the peninsula is very grand, dining in the lobby with hordes of other people can feel a bit touristy.
and even though the varandah is a bit out of the way (hong kong island south) it has a more relaxed environment and i felt the quality of the food was better.

restaurant info:
the repulse bay
the varandah
109 repulse bay road
hong kong island
tel: (+852) 2292-2822 (reservations required)

afternoon tea:　
tuesday to saturaday & public holidays - 3pm to 5:30pm
sunday - 3:30pm to 5:30pm
monday - closed

* dress code: smart casual, no shorts/swimwear and sandals for gentlemen
(what!? no sandals for guys!? i find this kinda crazy as there are some pretty snazzy dress sandals out there for guys now days. maybe they should say no jandals? err, i think this is kiwi slang...)

four seasons

2010-08-05T11:40:00.000+08:00

here's a few photos of the view from my apartment.
the last few days have been bliss, low humidity and bright blue sky's. if the temperature was just a tad lower it would be even more divine.
one of the reasons why i chose this apartment was because of the view, and boy this view will never cease to amaze me; every day i awake to a new canvas.

this is what is has been like the past few morning when i'm woken early my my dear child.

then we have the crystal clear nights when the boats anchor under my window to fish for squid.

other days we are shrouded in thick fog and often can't even see the ground below.

one of my all time favorite views is just before a storm rolls in; can really sense the power building up in those storm clouds.

and as with any powerful storm you usually get results.
these last few photos were "lucky" shots as i just happened to click at the right time.
had to add that twister shot in again for good measure!

i've gotta enjoy this view while i can...

moral of the story; don't mix your drinks!

2010-08-02T19:30:00.001+08:00

my best friend in hong kong is leaving so i got permission from the breadwinner of our family to escape house-husband duties for one night and hit the town.
it feels like it's been years since i enjoyed a happy hour beer in a bar...
anyway, we started out the evening by sipping chilled beers out in the ~~blimmin hot~~ sun.
this bar used to be my "local"; very laid back and free peanuts!
by the end of the night the floor is ankle deep in peanut shells. crunch crunch.
it's one of the few bars in the city that has a good outdoor courtyard. nothing worse than sipping a cold beer in an even colder airconed room.
beer swiftly moved onto champagne. still don't know how that happened...

champers caused us to suddenly wanna play ball, err, pool (snooker... or is it billiards?!)
pool and beer are a good pair so it was back to the pints.

on our way out of this bar we saw a sign for another bar on the 30+ floor (can't remember the exact floor due to mixing my drinks).
and no, i'm not a high school student any more!
it was a bit swanky with live music and a minimum charge (shhh, don't tell k-chan!).
back to champers and cocktails up here.
the view was pretty swanky too but by this stage of the night my camera skills were zilch. anyway you get the gist.

ended up painting the ~~town~~ city red until the wee hours of the morning and only vaguely remember my taxi ride back home to a sleeping beauty and a frowning wife.

wish i could post a photo of my friend, he's a splitting image of nakata hidetoshi (中田英寿) the japanese soccer player; he has abs to match too...
if you don't know who he is google him, you won't be disappointed.

oh, stumbled across this awesome "tire art" by korean artist ji yong ho.
actually wouldn't mind one of these on my walls.
beats a stuffed dead animal any day.

* ji yong ho's work is currently on display at times square in causeway bay

the dam

2010-07-28T12:50:00.000+08:00

k-chan was asleep with little kou-chan in her arms on the floor, ojiichan was watching "chanbara" (old samurai movies) on tv with the volume up way to loud, and i was bored.

k-chan's family often talk about some dam located up the road where they used to go swimming when they were kids in the heat of summer. every time i ask k-chan to take me there she finds some excuse... tells me it's "just a boring dam".
but hey, a dam is a dam, and i wanna see it with my own eyes.
so i set out in search of the dam.

before i left the house though i took these two photos which for some odd reason have intrigued me ever since i first set foot in this house all those years ago.
the first one is of a sticker in the bathroom showing you how to use a "western style" toilet. well i never...
and the second one is of some wallpaper which covers one of the spare rooms.
it's like 30+ years old, just weird to think that i would find these bunnies cooking up some tasty treats in a "western" kitchen all the way over here in japan.

anyway, back to the dam.
as i made my way there i got a few funny looks from the local housewives bringing in their sun drenched washing. i guess it's not often that you see a gaijin with a camera in-hand walking around these woods.
turned off the small country road into an even narrower overgrown shingle road and i suddenly remembered what obaachan had said the other day about the dam.
"gotta be careful of the inoshishi; the wild boars"
her warning kinda got me thinking that maybe i should have bought denko along with me...

anyway, arrived at the dam and was surprised at how beautiful it was up here.
nature in all its beauty.
which got me thinking about the dangers nature hides from us (hey, i live in hong kong, jungles here are made of concrete)
i mean, does japan have poisonous snakes? spiders? dangerous creapy crawlies??
trying not to freak myself out i just took in all the beauty.

after playing with this little green frog (obviously the non-venomous kind) i heard a rusting in the bushes near by and this time i really freaked out.
i could so picture a huge hairy inoshishi with ginormous tusks stomping his feet in the soil getting ready to charge at the stupid gaijin who had wondered into his territory.
i was in the freeze position for what seemed like an hour but realised that the inoshishi's stomping was very rhythmic... too rhythmic.
on a closer look into the bushes it turns out the hairy inoshishi was nothing but some swift flowing water from the blimmin dam.
this is one story that i didn't skite about when i got back home to the in laws...

well i'll be blown! err, by a twister

2010-07-22T17:45:00.000+08:00

left blue skied sunny japan behind and now back in hong kong.
was greeted to a tropical typhoon signal no.3 when we got back; gusty winds and heavy rain.
this photo i seriously took from my living room window a couple of hours ago. what do ya know, a blimmin twister in my back yard!
i had just feed kou-chan some expressed milk (not mine...) and was trying to get him settled when i looked out the window and saw this twister coming towards ~~the boat anchored out there~~ me!
talk about fun and excitement being a house-husband! would have missed out on all this excitement if i had been sitting at my old desk in the office.

so before nearly being wiped out by a twister i had itchy feet from being couped up inside all day. decided to brave the big outdoors and venture out to buy some hand soap.
got the ~~mother's~~ father's bag ready with a handful of nappies, wet wipes, a change of clothes (for kou-chan, not me), some cash and set off.
the shopping complex is only like 5 minutes walk away but 2 minutes into my stroll i got a panic attack as i realized this was my first time out with kou-chan minus my milk-making wife.
big pat on the back though as apart from getting whipped by the wind, kou-chan and i returned home fairly unscathed. just a full nappy on kou-chan's part (i think the bumpy cobble stoned walkway gets his bowels moving...)

i tell you what though, it's so much easier being a white collared office-husband as apposed to a shopping bag wielding house-husband!

arrgghh, time to put the rice on...

atelier de fromage : アトリエ・ド・フロマージュ

2010-07-20T12:25:00.002+08:00

halfway up a hill not far from k-chan's home is a small factory which was the first place in japan to produce fresh cheese.
although this area is more famous for it's grapes and walnuts
the owner of atelier de fromage says that it is also the ideal location to produce cheese.

we were stupid enough to come up here too soon after a big japanese breakfast (grilled salmon, rice, pickles, miso soup and natto for k-chan) so were not feeling that peckish.
instead of having lunch at the restaurant we decided on sharing a pizza at the cafe.
the pizza was simple; how pizzas should be, a thin crispy base topped off with japanese mushrooms, bacon, and cheese. atelier de fromage's selling point is obviously their cheese, and boy, they know how to make a good cheese!
i opted for a glass of freshly squeezed apple juice using local apples (i was driving so no beer for me...) and k-chan choose atelier de fromage's award winning rich yogurt drink (she's breastfeeding).

couldn't resit tasting their blueberry ice cream on the way out and also ending up buying some more of the yummy yogurt drink and their award winning camembert cheese apple pie.

this apple pie apparently won the silver award at this years international monde selection ceremony held in brussels. i'm a sucker for things like this.
the verdect: i can't say it was the best apple pie i have ever tasted but it was pretty outstanding. the pie itself was heavy (in a good way) jammed pack with local shinshuu apples and handmade camembert cheese. such fine qualities obviously reflected in the price at 2,520 yen a pop.

all in all pretty satisfied.
if you are in the area it's a nice place to chill out; the air up here is so fresh and the location is great with panoramic views overlooking the southern alps and nearby grape vines.

next time i'm gonna save some room for their cream puff! mmm

shop info:
atelier de fromage
504-6 mihari
tomi city, nagano 389-0501

cafe hours:　
10am to 5:30pm
open all year

formaggio restaurant hours:
11am to 2:30pm (lunch)
5pm to 9pm (dinner)
closed: tuesdays (except in august)
access: 9 minutes by taxi from shigeno station on the shinano rail line

アトリエ・ド・フロマージュ
〒389-0501
長野県東御市新張504-6
tel: 0268-64-2767

shinshuu soba : 信州そば

2010-07-14T11:30:00.000+08:00

nagano is famous for many things, one of them being soba noodles.
soba noodles from nagano are called shinshuu soba (信州そば); shinshuu being the old name for nagano prefecture.
soba noodles which are made from buckwheat flour are definitely my choice of noodle when in japan and i always try to order this healthy meal at least once when i come back to japan.

today i had a zaru soba (笊そば) which are chilled soba noodles served on a flat basket topped off with shredded nori (seaweed).
divine!

feeling totally satisfied i went for a walk around the neighborhood with denko, k-chan's cute (yet huge!!) great dane dog.

on my walk i saw...

a frog in a tree

a heppuri-mushi (a stink bug)

some momo (peaches) delicately wrapped up in paper bags

mountain flowers

the local otera (temple)

some cool retro signs (i want these!)

some playful shougakusei (primary school) kids

lots of tambo (rice fields)

a field of tanpopo (dandelions)

my reflection

a small waterfall

and some funky japanese trees

never a dull moment out here in the inaka (counrtyside)!

gion matsuri : 祇園祭り

2010-07-11T19:17:00.006+08:00

this weekend was the local gion (祇園) festival in k-chan's hometown.
i guess most people think of kyoto when they hear the word gion, but even k-chan's small mountainous town has it's own version of this summer festival.
as the narrow road outside k-chan's home is being closed off to vehicles, young girls are getting dressed up in brightly colored yukata and small stalls selling takoyaki (octopus balls), candyfloss, kakigori (shaved ice) and kingyou-sukui (a scooping up goldfish game) begin to line the street.
further down the mountain you can hear the men shouting "wasshoi! wasshoi! wasshoi!" as they carry the heavy omikoshi (a portable shrine) on their shoulders.

when k-chan was a kid the men of her local town would parade their omikoshi up and down the streets until they met with the men of the neighboring town who were carrying their own local omikoshi. when both towns men met they would crash into each other trying to ruin the others omikoshi. every year a brawl would breakout with fists flying this way and that; naturally all was forgotten the following day but sadly this tradition of kenka-mikoshi is now no longer allowed in this part of the woods.

even without the fist-fights this summer festival is still a local favorite especially for the kids.
the adults also have their fair share of fun enjoying a beer or two outside in the cool summer night.

fingers crossed we can join in on the gion festivities next year too!

levain : ルヴァン

2010-07-09T10:35:00.001+08:00

i'm now back in the mountainous prefecture of nagano (長野) which is not only k-chan's hometown but also happens to be the furthest point from the ocean anywhere in japan.

but enough ranting on about the geography...

as you can see kou-chan loves his car seat so the three of us went for a drive to ueda city (上田市) to check out an old town (basically a street) called yanagi-machi (柳町).
on this quaint street we found levain bakery/cafe in one of the charming edo period (1603 to 1868) homes which line the street.

levain bakes all their own breads on site in a stone oven using only natural yeast.
we opted for their "plate of the day" which turned out to be a healthy mix of seasonal vegetables, freshly baked bread and a delicious vegetarian miso based soup.
unlike our recent tokyo cafe experience kou-chan slept in his pram throughout our lunch allowing us to relax and soak in the atmosphere.

with bellies full we walked along the historic street in search of another find but most of the preserved buildings turned out to be houses hidden behind wooden sliding doors.

cafe info:
levain ueda city branch (japanese only)
4-7-31 chuo
ueda city, nagano
open:　
9am to 6pm (bakery)
10am to 5pm (cafe)
11:30am to 5pm (8pm on fri & sat) (restaurant)
closed: wednesday and third thursday of the month
access: 15 minutes walk from JR ueda station

ルヴァン信州上田店
〒386-0012
長野県上田市中央4-7-31
tel: 0268-26-3866

itonowa cafe & shitaya shrine

2010-07-07T11:45:00.000+08:00

ok, the flight to narita wasn't as bad as i had expected. kou-chan was an angel!
we had a bottle of milk in one hand and a pacifier (a dummy?) in the other expecting kou-chan to start putting those little lungs of his into action on take off.
as our plane started to back out from the gate our nerves got the better of us and we decided to give him some milk.
15 minutes later with an empty bottle of milk we are still on the runway in hong kong. the plane in front of us apparently blew a tire. lovely.
5 minutes later and i can smell a dirty nappy and the seat belt sign is still on. double lovely.
as soon as that seat belt sign was switched off k-chan took kou-chan (too many "k"s and "chan"s??) to the toilet and came back with poop down the front of her jeans.
we now know to not hand out the milk until the plane is really about to take off!

the rest of the trip was a breeze, kou-chan slept most of the way and even slept on the train into tokyo where we stayed one night in a hotel.

the following day we strolled around the area close to our hotel checking out a cafe which i had wanted to go to for a while now; itonowa cafe.
itonowa cafe is hidden down a little side street and easy to miss if you don't know where you are going.
we had hoped to enjoy a relaxing brunch here but kou-chan didn't like the aircon being set at 28 degrees as he is obviously used to hong kong's chilly aircon settings.
japan is big on eco and "going green" so most aircons are set at a warm 28 degrees; great for the environment but no so good for hot squirming baby.
ended up having to scoff down our brunch and escape to a local park where at least there was a cool breeze.
hope to come back to this cafe when kou-chan is a bit older as they have a nice selection of homemade jams for sale and ceramics by the designer iihoshi yumiko.
you can check out her website here.

after cooling off in the park we went to shitaya shrine (下谷神社) to buy a omamori (お守り)or amulet for k-chan's dad as he has just had some major surgery; the reason we flew back to japan...
shitaya shrine was the perfect place to chill out in the shade before getting a taxi to ueno station to catch the shinkansen (bullet train) up to nagano.

cafe info:
itonowa cafe (japanese only)
1F, adachi building
1-13-10 matsugaya
taito-ku, tokyo
open:　11am to 7pm
closed: thursday
nearest station:
7 minutes walk from inaricho station on the tokyo metro ginza line
10 minutes walk from tawaramachi station on the tokyo metro ginza line
15 minutes walk from TX tsukuba express asakusa station

〒111-0036
東京都台東区松が谷1-13-10安達ビル1階

shrine info:
shitaya shrine
3-29-8 higashi ueno
taito-ku, tokyo 110-0015

〒110-0015
東京都台東区東上野3-29-8
下谷神社

it's official

2010-06-28T06:36:00.007+08:00

it's 6:30 in the morning, i mean, 6:30am on a sunday morning!
only a few months back i would have been fast asleep in lala-land but nooooo, not anymore! it's sleep early rise early in sekimachihato's world.

so much as been going on in my life the past few weeks. and oh yes, it's now official, i'm a house-husband. i left the corporate world last week... such a weird feeling..., no more clients, no more fax machines, no more looong meetings, no more breakfasts at work.

my first weekend as ~~unemployed~~ full-time house-husband has been smooth sailing (maybe because k-chan is still at home?).
we invited over some friends whos second son; little l-chan was born three days after kou-chan. i guess you could say he is kou-chan's first playmate.

l-chan and kou-chan checking out the dragonfly

l-chan's mum kiyoko does amazing desserts and made us a yummy pear tart for the occasion. she also bought over some delicious monaka (最中) which is a japanese sweet made from an azuki (小豆); red bean paste sandwiched between two thin crisp wafers made from mochi (餅); rice cake. this one happened to be from the famous fukusaya (副砂屋) store in nagasaki.

not only does kiyoko whip up yummy treats she is also an illustrator!
we gladly accepted some of her prints which i will have to show you once i take some photos of them.

in between doing the washing, cleaning, ~~breastfeeding~~, and nappy changing, i would say it has been a very house-husbandy weekend.

after some breaky i then have the daunting task of packing our bags as we are off to japan this afternoon.
normally i would be excited and rip-roaring ready to go, but i'm kinda freaking out this time as it's our first time to take on board a crying baby onto a full flight. omg...
can you please cross all your fingers and toes and whatnots for me so that we have a pleasant uneventful flight and train ride into tokyo.

tuen ng festival : 端午節

2010-06-17T12:15:00.000+08:00

yesterday was the fifth day of the fifth moon.
on this day way back a few thousand years ago a man named qu yuan committed suicide at a local river apparently due to political reasons (!!!)
the legend has it that that when his followers found out what he had done they flocked to the river on their dragon boats and began beating their drums to scare away the fish nibbling on qu. they then threw cooked rice into the water so qu wouldn't go hungry into the after-life. unfortunately the fish ate the rice so the locals decided to wrap the balls of rice in bamboo leaves.

this day of remembrance is known in hong kong as the tuen ng festival (端午節) or the dragon boat festival.
huge dragon boat races are held throughout hong kong at various beaches and rivers with locals and tourists alike sampling handmade rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves.
i ummed and ahhed (spelling) about heading down to stanley beach where there is a real carnival atmosphere. realized it was not the best idea with a newborn in my arms, let alone the thought that we would be out in the 32 degree heat jostling for a view with the other 100,000 or so "spectators".
instead we chilled out at home drinking coffee and eating pound cake.

hope you don't mind me sharing some photos i took back in 2008.
looking back at these i see my photography skills are a bit shady but at least this will give you some idea of what i'm going on about.

new kid on the block

2010-06-14T14:15:00.000+08:00

when i was a poor student my dad kindly found me a job on a kiwifruit orchard picking you guessed it, kiwifruit.
as my first day on the job neared i was getting more and more excited, i mean, i would be earning good cash and at the same time could work on my summer tan. who knows, i might even get some nice biceps in the process!
my mind was buzzing with images of sexy tanned guys in shorts, tank tops and wearing straw hats. after a season of picking i was gonna graduate looking just like one of these dudes.
well so i thought! boy was a wrong!
kiwifruit pickers need to wake up super early in the morning so everyone looked half asleep. oooh, and guess what, there were zero sexy guys/girls for that matter.
most were middle-aged standard run-of-the-mill kind. dad had obviously picked the wrong blimmin orchard!

once i got into the hang of picking the kiwifruit i plugged in my ~~ipod~~ walkman (remember i was a student, this is going back a bit) and tried to stay in the sun. i was determined to be as golden as the kiwifruit i was picking.
but whacha know, it wasn't long before my eyes started itching and my nose started running... yup, i was having a bout of hey-fever.
the boss of the joint was a real man's-man and didn't show the slightest bit of pity towards ~~this city-slicker~~ me.
luckily his wife took me under her wing and suggested i work in the packing shed.
so my summer break was spent it a sweltering shed with all the grannies while the "men" worked outside.
goodbye summer tan!

my job was to separate the beautiful kiwifruit from the slightly deformed. the deformed ones were destined for the local new zealand market while the beautiful perfectly rounded ones were to be shipped off to japan.
this is how i came to hate kiwifruit...
everyday i fondled this furry fruit and the smell of over-ripe kiwis put me off for life.

that is until the so called golden kiwifruit was introduced; you know, the less hairy yellow variety (now that's more my thing!)
although slightly more expensive than it's original green variety the tropical flavor does it for me.
and what's the purpose of this rant?
well, i just saw that a new red kiwifruit, yup, red, is being released later this week (in new zealand that is, don't know about the rest of the world)

ok, it's not really red though is it, it's just got a red sunburst center.
anyways it's said to have an "exotic flavor and a creamy texture".
mmm, sounds good to me.
anyone tried this yet?

one month old

2010-06-11T06:00:00.000+08:00

it's 4am and i'm pacing up and down our apartment with a wailing kou-chan in my arms. he's been fed, changed and hugged like you wouldn't believe yet he is still crying...
the books seem to have left out this part in the "what to do now?" section.
mmm, funny that...
and oh my god, in a few hours i have to be up ~~refreshed~~ and ready for a day in the office. right about now my head starts to spin.
but glancing at the calendar and i realize that kou-chan is one month old today. talk about time flies!
the changes i've seen in kou-chan during this past month have been pretty amazing.
the last few days he's just figured out that if he puts his tiny fingers into his mouth it feels kinda good. it's a bit of a stab in the dark at the moment as he often ends up poking himself in the face. awww, the joys of trial and error!
he really is growing in leaps and bounds (no, he can't leap or bound just yet) and even though he won't let us get in more than a few hours sleep he brings me so much joy.

this photo is of me holding kou-chan a few days ago.
by the way, that look on his face means "no daddy, i'm not ready to sleep just yet, keep rocking!"

taco rice : タコライス

2010-06-08T11:00:00.000+08:00

obaachan has now gone home to the land of the rising sun.
with a very limited english vocabulary i was pretty proud of obaachan helping us out with some basic errands while she was here.
i taught her how to take the subway to and from our apartment to the local japanese supermarket.
the other day she trotted off to the supermarket with a mission.
her mission: to buy some plain natural yoghurt.
sounds pretty easy-peasy but when you are used to seeing the word for "yoghurt" looking like this: "ヨーグルト", it does make matters a little more challenging.

a few nappy changes later and obaachan returns home with a bag full of goodies.
as i helped her unpack i noticed a pot of sour cream.
what's this? i asked.
natural plain yoghurt right?

...

must say, if you can't read english i could so see how a pot of yoghurt and a pot of sour cream looks so similar!
as sour cream is not a common ingredient in japanese cuisine i said not to worry, i'll find some way to use it.

decided to make a popular dish in okinawa; taco rice (タコライス).
basically it's like the mexican taco dish but the filling is served on a bed of rice rather than wrapped up in a tortilla.
and only a dollop of sour cream is needed mind you (what am i gonna do with all the left over sour cream!?)

so i scored brownie points for making dinner (and washing up!) but the next morning k-chan woke up with stomach cramps...
sh*t (no pun intended), i'm fine so it couldn't really have been my taco rice which caused her to visit the ladies room so often, could it?

i turned left

2010-06-05T17:45:00.001+08:00

not really another baby post, but remember when i talked about that huge fork in the road back in april? well, i took the advise from an old friend of mine (yes, that's you gaijin wife) and went "left".
the ball is now officially rolling.

my sleepless nights of worrying what path i should take are not really over as i'm still not exactly getting much sleep (hello, baby in the house). but boy am i glad that i have finally made a decision.

and what decision is that you ask?

well, it's actually two life-changing decisions, but you'll have to wait for part two of this saga.
i really should stop rambling and just spit it out huh?

here we go...

from next month i'm gonna be a house~~wife~~husband!
~~OMG, what th heck have i gotten myself into!?!?~~
i'm gonna be waking up throughout the night breastfeeding (extracted milk by the way) making breakfast and blowing the kisses to k-chan as she goes out the door to work.
between rocking kou-chan to sleep, i will be doing the washing, vacuuming, dusting, basically keeping the apartment in tiptop shape. (thank gog i have a slight cleaning fetish!)
but hang on... i thought japanese housewives kissed hubby goodbye, put on some makeup, pulled out that carefully hidden LV bag (payed with hubby's money) and met her other housewife friends at some swanky ginza cafe for lunch.
mmm, i gotta find me some local house-husbands who don't mind a bit of shopping at prada.

but before you start offering to jet-set over to hong kong and give me a helping hand (anyone?), let me just point out that this is not long term. i will only be wearing that frilly apron for a few months before part two of our plan kicks into action.

stay tuned.

oh, and check out this.
that DHL guy turned up again with ~~his~~ a nice package from japan.
turned out to be this cool diaper cake first made famous on sex in the city

seriously too beautiful to ~~cut into~~ pull apart.

hesono o : 臍の緒

2010-05-28T09:35:00.001+08:00

i know this is now the third baby-post in a row... but please bear with me. my life has suddenly gone all baby baby poo poo baby. currently everything else has kinda been put on hold.
i will try to dish up something different to keep you on your toes for next time. (can't promise, but we'll see)

i used to think that those little black stumps of dried-up skin on a babies belly button were kinda freaky and "untouchable". if it was any old babies stump i would probably shudder at the thought of having to touch it and clean it, but as it's kou-chan's beau~tiful stump i was surprisingly good as gold.
so everyday since that life-changing day on may 11th i have been applying a 70% alcohol solution to his tiny belly button waiting for his little umbilical cord stump to fall off.
well it's happened.

as i was changing his nappy for the umpteenth time i noticed that his delightful little stump had fallen off, but it was no-where to be seen!
after a wee bit of frantic searching i found it stuck to the inside of his baby pajamas. what a relief. for a moment there i thought i had chucked it out with his poop or washed it down the drain.
now if i was from haiti i would bury the umbilical cord along with part of the placenta under a tree. actually this is what the native people in my home country (the maori) also do.
i really like this idea (not that i have the placenta on hand), but i don't see it going down too well in hong kong...
native american indians on the other hand sew something called a lakota pouch in the shape of a lizard for a boy or a turtle for a girl. this pouch contains the dried umbilical cord, some tobacco and herbs. mmm.
the japanese however keep the hesono o (臍の緒) or the cord in a little wooden box to ensure a close relationship between mother and child for the years ahead.
k-chan's dad hand-crafted the little box above especially for kou-chan's hesono o; and no, that is not a raisin!

for those mum's (or dads) out there, what did you do with your little ones dried-up hesono o once it had fallen off?
anyone out there got any umbilical cord traditions from your part of the world?

thank you obaachan!

2010-05-25T14:20:00.001+08:00

i'm very sleep deprived but otherwise thoroughly enjoying my new role in life as a dad.
gotta say though, looking after a new born baby is much more demanding than i imagined.
little kou-chan sleeps most of the time, but when he wakes up for a feed his tiny lungs go into overdrive and he cries and thrashes his pale little arms and legs about. amazing that such a wee thing can make that much noise!
but once he gets that first gulp of breast-milk his eyes light-up and he suddenly becomes one of those model babies on tv; all cute and cuddly.

i also didn't realize that babies like to poop soon after you have changed their soiled nappy...
nappy manufactures must be raking in the cash with the amount of nappies we get through.
can't imagine how my mum got on using cotton nappies back in the day.

oh and last night was a bit of a milestone for me.
i finally got the courage to trim kou-chan's finger nails.
with all that calcium he's getting his nails grow about as fast as jack's beanstalk. and we all know that long nails and babies don't go hand in hand. god, why is it that babies like to scratch themselves in the face?!
the little mittens we bought him didn't do much good... kou-chan had them off in no time.
so i waited until he was fast asleep and held his slender fingers between my huge adult ones and went snip snip. believe me, it was a real hold-your-breath moment!
i was on a roll. so with all finger tips intact i even gave him a bath.
he loves his bath and basically just lies back soaking in the warm water. he's obviously very relaxed as he often creates a little fountain in the bath (yup, he piddled in the bath...)
no number 2s as of yet!

not that obaachan (k-chan's mum) will or can read this, but i wanna say a big arigatou! (thank you) to her for all her help. amazing what a difference a pair of experienced hands can make.
not only is she great at helping out with kou-chan, she is also an amazing cook.
since she arrived on our shores from japan last week she had whipped up delicious meals one after the other using only ingredients found hiding in our fridge.
who would have guessed our fridge contained ingredients to make nikujyaga, tempura, or even tandoori chicken!

so arigatou obaachan! これからも宜しくお願いしますね！

welcome to my world

2010-05-18T22:00:00.002+08:00

exactly one week ago today, on the morning of may the 11th, kou-chan was born.
it's official! i'm now a dad to a beautiful boy!

to tell the truth, i'm exhausted and about to crash.
i will do an update again soon, but in the meantime here is kou-chan taken on the day he was born.

wong chi kei & fungus workshop

2010-05-08T15:25:00.001+08:00

my cold had just about cleared up now but i'm left with one of those yucky tickly coughs. you know those ones which make you cough at all the wrong times; like during an important meeting at work, or when inside a full yet super quiet elevator, or the worst situation is when riding the mtr (subway) to and from work. if looks could kill i would so be dead by now with all the how dare you cough near me!! looks i've been getting during the past few days. even wearing one of those horrible stuffy masks it seems that hong kong-ese are a bit paranoid when it comes to a cough. can't blame them though as many have experienced the horrors from the sars outbreak.

anyway i took friday off work and braved the heat and humidity, and along with my tickly throat ventured out to do a few errands here and there. k-chan tagged along too as exercise = a smooth delivery.

drenched in sweat we found solace in the air conditioned interior of wong chi kei for a bowl of sui gao mein: 水餃麺 (shrimp dumplings with egg noodles); a hong kong favorite.

to put my cough at ease i ordered another local favorite; hot ribena with lemon. i remember having ribena when i was a kid, but until coming to hong kong i thought ribena had faded out of production. obviously not as this blackcurrant drink is sold all over hong kong; iced or hot.

feeling very satisfied we ventured back into the heat to check out a newly opened leather/workshop-shop located up in soho.
k-chan seriously couldn't have gone there in her current state if it wasn't for the central-mid-levels escalator; the world's longest outdoor covered escalator which carries hot and bothered people from central up into soho and beyond.

found fungus workshop (not so keen on that name...), cute little set-up they have going on though. definitely need more of this here in hong kong!
from my photos it looks like they have a lot on offer but in actual fact they didn't have too many items for sale, but i guess that will come as time goes by.

restaurant info:
wong chi kei : 黃枝記粥麵
GF, 15B wellington street
central
中環蘭桂坊威靈頓街15號B地下

shop info:
fungus workshop
GF, 17 wa in fong east
central
中環華賢坊東17號地下

fuel espresso

2010-05-05T10:00:00.000+08:00

last weekend the smog disappeared and the sun finally came out.
mmm, summer.

k-chan and i considered popping down to one of our favorite beaches for the day, but in the end gave it a miss. it could so be a nightmare trying to catch a cab from an isolated beach if (a big IF) k-chan decided to go into labour.
so instead we opted to go shopping (that's what you do in hong kong if you have nothing better to do...)
not a good idea as i always end up spending money that i hadn't planned to spend.
so yeah, after a few purchases (t-shirts, shirt, underwear, sandals...) we plonked our tired feet down in our new favorite cafe; fuel espresso.
now this is what i call a nice cafe (although it's in a shopping mall again...).
prices are a tad steep, but they really know how to pour a good coffee. and what do ya know, this cafe is all the way from good old new zealand! (wellington to be exact)
they even roast their coffee beans in new zealand too!
my flat white was perfect, just like i would get back in new zealand. now i only hope other cafe owners in hong kong will up the ante a bit.

i was buzzing with caffeine and had the sudden urge to sit out in the sun and sip some vino.
poor old k-chan (no, she's not old) was hanging out for a vino too but had to sip on a juice instead.
at least we got some late afternoon rays at red and did plenty of people watching too.

woke up on sunday to a pounding headache and an extremely sore throat...
great, summer arrives and i get a cold.
k-chan said it's my fault as i don't have enough tairyoku (stamina). she won't accept my ~~excuse~~ reasoning that someone obviously gave me the cold germs while i was enjoying my vino!.
at least i'm not a baka (idiot). there is a saying in japan that idiots don't catch colds!　（バカは風邪をひかない）

so yeah, on a sunny sunday i was miserable on the couch sipping back hot lemon honey and ginger tea.
and a yummy serving of baumkuchen!

cafe info:
fuel espresso
shop 3023
IFC mall
1 harbour view street
central
中環港景街1號國際金融中心3023號舖

give me pan!

2010-04-28T11:20:00.001+08:00

not knowing when our small family of two will suddenly become three, k-chan and i are trying to make the most out of our days off before we have a crying pooping bundle of joy in our arms.
obviously we can't do anything too extraneous or travel too far afield, so instead we are doing lots of chilling out at cafes and going for short walks before summer kicks in and it becomes to blimmin hot to even go outside.

you know how you often hear pregnant women have weird cravings? (like the lady i read about who suddenly found herself licking an ashtray...) well thank my lucky stars as k-chan has a fairly "normal" craving, a craving for bread.
rice has gone out of fashion in our place; as anytime of the day it's "i want some pan" (pan = bread in japanese).
k-chan's cravings often lead us to simplylife bakery cafe.
i'm so not fond of shopping mall cafes (yes, it's located in a mall...), but with hong kong's lack of space sometimes you just have to grin and bear it.

but hey, i was all smiles as i finally found somewhere in this concrete jungle who can pull off a pretty good eggs benedict! finally!!!
god knows why they don't call it eggs benedict on the menu though?! it's just called something boring like eggs with bacon on toast.

inside festival walk shopping mall

bought some whole grain bread for breakfast

and another danish...

cafe info:
simplylife bakery cafe
shop 42, L2, festival walk
80 tat chee avenue
kowloon tong
tel: 2265-7418

* simplylife also have a branch in tai koo city plaza and a simplylife bread & wine store in ifc central

petit enjel

2010-04-27T09:00:00.002+08:00

i never thought i would be so excited to see the DHL guy.
no... not that kind of excitement, although he did have a nice package.

errm, a package that is all the way from tokyo from my lovely friend pascale.

pascale sent k-chan and i these gorgeous baby clothes from her very own petit enjel collection.
wow, aren't we spoilt!
these petit outfits, socks and bib are so super soft and oh-so cute.
if you have a new born yourself or know of anyone having a baby then you really ought to check out her website; lots of goodies for little ones.
(www.petitenjel.com/)

thank you so much pascale!

yup, my baby is brewing in there!

on the baby front it looks like our little one is now upside-down (that's the correct position by the way) and obviously doesn't have as much space to move around like he used it. although his living quarters are a bit cramped he still manages to twist around and throw the odd punch or kick much to daddy's delight.
mummy on the other hand is freaking out now imagining her waters breaking while on the subway or in the supermarket.
i told her that only happens in the movies. please tell me i am right!

family heirlooms, new knits & a zarape

2010-04-23T15:15:00.001+08:00

while in thailand my mum presented k-chan and i with some family heirlooms; which i didn't even know existed, along with some other new goodies for our little baby.

i'm not into dresses but it seems i once wore one.
not quite sure what these are called, maybe ceremonial dresses?
but back in the day new born babies wore delicate white dresses (maybe they are called gowns?) to celebrate their birth.

my mum gave us this gown which apparently i wore when i was born.
it was handmade complete with smocking by my nana.
the tiny bonnet was the same bonnet which my dad wore when he was a baby! now hows that for special!
for a 61-year old bonnet it's in great condition don't you think?

i still can't believe that in a few weeks time i'm going to be dressing my own baby in these treasured heirlooms.

my nana who is now in her 80s knitted us some cute sweaters.
even though she says her eyes aren't like they used to be, judging from the quality of these sweaters there is nothing wrong with her eyesight!
gotta love those nana-colors too.

god, my photoshop cutting is shocking...

my mum even pulled out the knitting needles and knitted her first ever sweater in a soft brown merino wool with natural wooden buttons.
looks like mum's first grandchild is going to be a spoilt ~~warm~~ one!

and my sister spotted these cute hand-crafted leather sandals while on holiday in mexico along with this huge colorful zarape rug.
auntie A has officially scored brownie points with her big brother.

i think we have just about bought everything we will need for "the big day" and those first few weeks.
i'm feeling less anxious now about becoming a dad and more excited as the days tick by.

simple exercise books

2010-04-21T21:45:00.001+08:00

when i was a kid i never had a ~~rubber~~ erasor collection or a glitzy sticker album, but i tell you what, through age i've developed a thing for plain (some might say "boring") simple stationary.
gotta have clean lines and monotone colors.

much to k-chan's disapproval, when ever i get the chance i peek into local stationary shops (have to be old-school style ones, the new ones stock all the same boring mass produced stuff) for a bit of a rummage.

yesterday i went looking for a squared notebook for some kanji study (yes, i've decided to brush-up on my kanji) and found these neat "local" exercise books. i'm so gonna enjoy studying kanji again by using these beauties.

even might brush-up on my handwriting too.
my nana would be proud. she has the most beautiful flowie handwriting, very old-school calligraphy style.

looking at this exercise book brings back memories of my nana teaching me how to write (not print) my abc's in the sand at the beach.
ahh, those were the days...

ring a ding ding

2010-04-19T11:15:00.000+08:00

as i mentioned in my last post i have been having sleepless nights.
so just when i thought my panda eyes couldn't get any worse i have a new issue to threaten my desperately needed ~~beauty~~ sleep.

a blimmin dysfunctional fire alarm.
living in a 50 + story highrise with a dysfunctional fire alarm is enough to give anyone panda eyes, let alone the heeby-jeebies, but our fire alarm hasn't stopped working, it's decided to go off and do a few rings every now and then.
oh, did i mention the bell goes off at around 4am?

it happened a few days ago, and then the other night it did it's thing around 5 times!
the first ring gives you a hell of a fright as one minute you're hanging up the washing in burger king (hey, i can't control my dreams) and then the next minute you're lying on your bed in pitch darkness with the most annoying alarm sounding throughout the whole apartment.
my immediate reaction is "*@"(#"!!
i then think what to wear (i know, i should just run to the stairwell (walk! don't run!)) but the thought of standing outside with 954 people in only my boxer pants and a haramaki (i have a weak stomach) honestly freaks me out.
right when i've done a quick fashion coordinate in my head and ready to dash the alarm stops.
great, so it wasn't some raging inferno after all (not that i would ever wish for that!)

and double great, i'm over-tied, my heart's pounding, my eyes look like a possum caught in headlights and i can't get back to sleep.
meanwhile k-chan and our adorable soon to be born son have slipped peacefully back into a deep sleep.

decided to ask our security guard in the morning what all the fuss was about.
unfortunately the usual guy was busy helping out someone with more urgent issues so he waved over some other guy to deal with me. this is what he told me:

"sorry ah~. last night too wet. dim gon ah... humidity too much lar~. i ask fix sin"

...

wtf? humidity caused all that commotion??!
i'm not having any of that nonsense.
but alas... look what i found on the net:

"steam or high humidity can lead to condensation on the circuit board and sensor, causing the alarm to sound"

well i'll be buggered.

someone had better do something about hong kong's hair frizzing, mold causing weather or invest in some top of the range fire alarms which work properly for countries with high humidity.

and just how humid is it?

lots of food & a huge fork

2010-04-13T09:45:00.000+08:00

the past few weeks have been tough...

i'm slap-bang right in the middle of a huge fork in the road. the consequences of my decision will not only effect my life, but also the life of k-chan and my soon to be born son.
how's that for heavy!
should i take the road to the left?
mmm, the one to the right looks pretty good though.

for the time being my motor has stalled and i'm parked on the center-line.
parked on this center line is giving me gray hairs, sleepless nights and panda eyes.
i kinda need to make a decision asap before i wilt into nothing, but i can't yet come to a solid conclusion. i'm nearly there...

anyway, the last few days have been slightly more bearable as i've had my sister and her spanish boyfriend over to stay.
i'm sure i've put back on all the lost weight with the amount of dining and wining we have done.
we even escaped hong kong and shot over to macau for some portuguese comida (food)

a petisqueira's octopus salad

yummy grilled sardines with portuguese tomato rice

macanese sawdust cake (serradura cake : 木糠布甸)

din tai fung's famous steamed xiaolongbao : 小籠包

hong kong's famous foggy view

mango, pomelo and sago dessert

afternoon tea at the peninsula

hot coke with lemon & ginger from tsui wah

sheung wan : 上環

2010-03-24T10:00:00.002+08:00

i was in desperate need of a ~~good~~ great coffee so did a good old google to see what my options were.
the results were pages and pages of expats whining why it is so hard to find a decent coffee in a city like hong kong. i gotta say, i agree.

but not all was lost.
quite a few expats and locals jotted down that they had found a perfect cup in a little cafe called coco espresso.

so off we ventured for a stroll and a coffee (a decaf for my pregnant k-chan!) around sheung wan (上環), an old district on hong kong island where the british first landed back in the early 18th century.

i seriously could have walked right past coco espresso had i blinked.
the cafe is tiny! but for a tiny store that can sit less than 10 they did a pretty dam good coffee!
feeling slightly peckish we also opted to share the club sandwich. another good choice.

now that we are counting down our weekends before we have a crying baby in our arms, we made the most of the day by strolling around this old part of town which is a haven for traditional chinese medicine stores and odd bits and pieces.

yet again ending up spending more money than i would have liked to...
with the coins rolling out of my pocket (well wallet, i hate coins in my pocket) we ended the day with an ice cold beer (and a mocktail for k-chan).

cafe info:
coco espresso
G/F 197 queens road central
sheung wan
上環皇后大道中197號地舖

open monday to friday: 08:00-17:00
saturday: 08:00-16:00
sunday: closed

wishing you a good morning

2010-03-18T09:50:00.000+08:00

this week i'm killing two birds with one stone.
oh you all know mr sekimachihato would never actually kill a bird, i'm actually doing my little thing to protect hong kong's ~~fu*ked up~~ environment and save money at the same time.

up until last week i used to buy a coffee and breakfast every morning from a horrible chain-store cafe near my office. (in hong kong it's the norm to eat your breakfast at the office)
not going into too much deep thought on this one, with that single purchase, wham-bam, i had used a paper cup, a paper sleeve for my cup, a plastic knife & fork and a paper bag to put it all into.
shocking.

but from this week on i've decided to wake up a few minutes earlier (i get to see the sunrise from my kitchen window ↑) and grind my favorite coffee beans from mr ho at olympic graeco egyptian coffee.
my home brew then goes into the prefect sized flask for my man-bag and stays piping hot until i arrive at the office.
to top it all off k-chan spoils me yet again and makes me a delicious toasted sandwich to enjoy with my coffee.
chuck in a banana and i have the perfect on-the-run breakfast.
oh, and i only used a small square piece of glad-wrap and a coffee filter (which was already made from recycled material) in the making.

hey, and check out my good morning towels.
these soft (thin) towels can be found all over hong kong and i have had my eye on them for a while. i finally picked some up at my local market. god knows what i'm gonna use them for but i think they look kinda nice in that old-kitsch chinese way.
these gems have a long history too, originating from a company established in china way back in 1912!
the words "祝君早安" (read from right to left on the towel) mean "wishing you a good morning".

awww.

(and don't ask me why they have "96" stamped on them. could it mean these particular towels were made in 2008; 96 years after being established. mmm)