back to where it all started

There is no point in dwelling on the past, so if you can hold back the urge to ask what happened with this blog for the last few months, or is that years, then please do.

I even don’t know how this happened but I think living life like a Japanese “salary man” didn’t help. Or maybe it was the birth of another baby boy (oh and a gorgeous one too I might add!) which put my blog life down the drain.

Anyway, I’m back. This definitely won’t be a daily thing, but I’ll try to keep it semi-regular.

 

My very first blog post started in Hong Kong so I thought it would be fitting to re-start this blog with a post with some photos of our recent trip back to where it all started.

Although I wouldn’t recommend taking a vacation to Hong Kong with two under 5-year olds, we did, and survived but arrived back in Tokyo feeling as if we needed a well-deserved vacation to some tropical resort.

Had a great time catching up with old friends, dining on some of our favorite local delicacies, checking out new establishments and feeling sad to see some old time favorites gone.

tokyo. here i come

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!

matsutake : マツタケ

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

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

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

long black hairs...

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

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 western me met eastern 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

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

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

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!

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

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

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...

it's official

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.