cebu part I

autumn is in the air but my blog is still stranded back in summer. 

here are a few shots from our trip down to cebu island in the philippines. 
we spent the majority of our time doing absolutely nothing but swimming, taking afternoon naps and wining and dining at maribago blue water resort on mactan island; which I have to say was the perfect choice of location to chill out with an energetic 2-year old. 

whirl wind update

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.

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!

lake suwa : 諏訪湖

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?!

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...

ring a ding ding

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?

fog and le creuset

a few days ago i thought i was turning into the male version of rapunzel, living high-up in a tower shrouded by clouds.
believe me, i would say yes to clouds any day, but unfortunately no clouds were shrouding me, instead i was wrapped up in wet humid fog.
and unlike rapunzel i wasn't waking to the sound of chirpy blue forest birds. no no no, i got woken up to the noise of a long deep drowning horn from the huge cruise liner ships trying to navigate through the dense fog outside my bedroom window.




but hallelujah, we have been hit by a cold spell and the fog has vanished. last weekend the temperature was 28, yesterday it dropped down to 8.
a 20-degree drop over a matter of days is a wardrobe horror story, but at least the fog has dissolved and i can finally wake up to a view of the sun (no chirpy blue forest birds yet...).

so with this cold snap in full blast we at long last pulled out my extremely hard-earned le creuset pot and put it to use.
i know i know, talk about embarrassing. i mean, who goes to all that trouble for a pot (read here) only to put it away for the next half a year (er... mr sekimachihato)
gotta say, the creamy winter stew chockablock with organic seasonal vegetables k-chan whipped up in our le creuset pot was divine!





oh no...
there was another le creuset sale, and in the same building where i work...
i just bought another two more le creuset pots!

elements boutique resort & spa : koh samui

i'm back in hong kong now slowly wading through the huge list of unread work emails. already my vacation to the "land of smiles" feels like the perfect dream...

after bustling bangkok we took a domestic one hour flight to the chilled out island of koh samui (เกาะสมุย).
ten years ago i came to this island when it still had unpaved roads and was off the tourist map.
today it has a booming nightlife, go-go bars, the golden arches, and sunburnt fat men eying up the lady-boys.
sooo not my thing.

but the tourist infested part of town is mostly located at the northern tip and the east side of koh samui island.
head south and you will soon find yourself dotted amongst small local villages which are surrounded by coconut plantations all the while under the watchful eye of a water buffalo.
so yup, we went south to a friendly boutique resort tucked away on the virgin coast in phang ka bay.
here we literally went into full relax mode, swimming, reading, drinking chilled beers in the sand, eating and surrendering our bodies to the able hands at the on-site serenity spa.













this is definitely the place to be if you need to replenish your battery.





resort info:
elements boutique resort and spa
53/5 moo 4, phang ka,
tambon taling ngam,
koh samui,
suratthani, 84140,
thailand.
tel: +66 (0) 77914678

pullman bangkok king power

first things first; happy chinese new year!
i've escaped the dragon dancing and the forking out of cash-fulled red pockets this year and escaped to thailand.
with k-chan's belly growing as fast as jack's beanstalk, this trip looks like it could be the last one for a while. what a scary thought...
being able to forget all about crazy office politics and travel was the only think that kept me sane up until now, so watch out, mr sekimachihato may get a bit crazy as we head further into 2010.

pullman bangkok king power.
someone was extremely drunk or high when they came up with this name for a hotel.
god it's an ugly name. the words "pullman" and "bangcockok" just don't go well together...

it gets even worse when you throw in a powerful king into the equation!
but get that image out of your dirty mind because there is nothing dirty about this hotel.
i stayed here on my last trip to bangkok just over a year ago and always hoped i could come back.

i will let my photos do the talking (in other words i don't have time to give a wonderful run-down on this serene haven in bustling bangkok)

k-chan and i have smuggled our little one into thailand (his second overseas trip already!) and invited my parents over here for a belated 60th birthday celebration.
i'm such a good son.