Routine

When we were back in Kaiserslautern, we sort of established a routine. Each morning, I would wake up and make Oliver breakfast. By nine-thirty, he would be off to work. Then, I’ll go do some house duties; make the bed, water the plants, occasionally mop and vacuum the floor and prepare dinner. Come to think of it, I sound like a housemaid. If I’m not doing all that, I’ll either be on the computer or be reading a book. Oliver usually comes back at five and we’ll walk to the groceries or to town. Sometimes to grab coffee or ice cream, other times, just for the sake of walking. While most nights, it was only Oliver and me having dinner while watching Grey’s together, other nights we have friends over for dinner or potluck followed by cakes and ice creams and a game of monopoly afterwards. They are crazy about monopoly or any board games for that matters and I am saying they, because usually, I’ll stay out of the game. I find it too time and energy consuming.  We spent a lot of time in the kitchen especially when we’re baking. Yes, we. Oliver has been upgraded from a mere ‘guinea pig’ to kitchen assistant and a good one he is. We’ve been meaning to try baking coffee bun. So, following an online recipe; we tried, in fact, a couple of times. It’s not easy and it didn’t turn out as to what we expected the first few times. But one day, we had a new kitchen machine Oliver ordered and bought online, so we tried making and baking again, this time, it was pretty close to original. We have yet to establish a date night. You know how couples designate one day in a week as a date night. I think it’s important to have a date night now and even later when children come into the picture. Just to keep the intimacy and sparks between two people, away from all the distractions; work, television, computer and even kids. We do however, designate Thursday as Spaghetti day; where Oliver gets to work the kitchen and cook us spaghetti. He makes good spaghetti. Of course, the Asian me always tend to add more flavors to food; cut chili with soya sauce on any Chinese dishes, mayo/thousand islands on potatoes and salad, etc. chili garlic seasoning to Oliver’s spaghetti which always brings him to question, ‘Not enough taste, kah?’ with a slightly offended look on his face. Anyways, I’m writing these down because I miss those days, those routines. But most of all, I just miss my husband.

He's so sexy when he cooks. :P

Disneyland Tokyo

I'm not sure about you but I think one is never too old to enjoy Disneyland. I mean, how can the 'child' in you not reignite with the joyful rides, the happy tunes being played all day long everywhere in the park, the colourful parades, the walking mascots of your favourite Disney characters, one breathes air of youthfulness just being in Disneyland. For me, personally, Disneyland is a reminiscent of my childhood spent in the U.S. for a mere 2 years. The first time I went to Disneyland, it was in Florida and I was six. I was too young to recall much then. I do remember that I was sick, hence I didn't really enjoy Disneyland like other kids would or should. I also remember going into the 'It's a small world' ride and came out of it feeling more sick and since then, the song was never a favourite. Fast forward two decades, it was as if I was given another chance to enjoy Disneyland, like how I was supposed to twenty years ago and I did enjoy it. But you know what, travelling is half the fun without Oliver. So, while I am or was having the time of my life in Disney or Tokyo or anywhere for that matters, somewhere inside me wishes/wished that he was there to enjoy it with me. It felt like the whole experience was lacking of something. But this aside, a blessing is a blessing and not otherwise and it's good to know that Oliver and I had our fair share of travelling together and it ain't gonna stop there. We have plans, baby. The world is like a book that is ready to be read and we will read it page by page, city by city, country by country. Not always. But still. Together. At its best.

 Last meal before I went back home and that's a wrap for Japan.

Land of Rising Sun (Part 2)

I guess Tokyo is fantastic for shopping if it wasn't too expensive. on day three, the group were brought to several shopping districts. Asakusa, Shinjuku, Ginza etc. I don't remember buying anything worth mentioning so for me, it was basically just enjoying the sight, sound and taste of Japan. The weather however was not too pleasant. We were warned the day before that a typhoon would be hitting Japan on our third day. But, thank God it wasn't that serious. Rain and drizzles aside, it was bearable with a good ol' umbrella. The Japanese, they don't really speak much English and despite knowing that we, foreigners, do not speak Japanese, they would continue going on and on and on in Japanese expecting us to understand. When it comes to queueing up, I bet, the Japanese could win the 'best queue' if there ever was a contest. However, the rule when it comes to catching a train ride during peak hours is even when space seems impossible, so as long as the train door is still open,  just squeeze your way in. Japanese, men and women are quite fashionable and that includes keeping up with the latest fashion trends, hairstyles, gadgets etc. So, it can be quite intimidating. I confessed that the first thing I did upon arriving home from Japan was go to the saloon to get a haircut. The pressure that didnn't last long. I do miss their convenience stores. I wanted to try all their snacks, instants noodles and mini pastries. I didn't though which reminds me, we do have a store selling Japanese goods. I might drop by one of these days. Picture time.



With Omo-sans.



Rain, rain go away...



In front of Asakusa Temple



Asakusa shopping street

Japanese Mochi.

Fountain in one of the shopping mall

Beef patties with cheese, potatoes and brocolli. Yummy!

Building, people and umbrellas.

Ginza Street, 'Champs Avenue' for Japan

One of my favourite shots throughout the trip

Kobe beef, hot pot, and warm sake, perfect end to the day

To be continued....

Back-Logged: Land of Rising Sun (Part 1)

This post is terribly overdue and I am afraid that the memories I have of Japan are just some vague snippets from the trip altogether. Thank goodness for pictures to remind the ‘short-term memory’ me, of the amazing trip, never mind it was more of a duty travel and I had to lead a team of journalists to write travel articles about Japan in the effort to attract and encourage the market to travel to Japan since Japan tourism industry was badly affected due to the quake tsunami in March 2011 and the lingering fear of leaked radiation afterwards.

But more on Japan or Tokyo, specifically; land of kimonos, animes and all things ‘Kawai’ which translates to ‘cute’, modern and developed in technological and infrastructural sense yet culturally rich and preserved, where its people have wicked sense of fashion (some extremely ‘wicked’ i.e. Harajuku girls) and how can I not mention, sushi and ramen, the two cuisines that are synonymous to Japan, Land of Rising Sun.

Five nights and three full days were simply too short to fully grasp Japan and her whole essence but I am blessed enough so I won’t complain. (Duty travel equals to fully paid expenses minus shopping expenses.)

This is my brief take on Japan in pictures from the trip. Loads of them, in fact. After all, pictures do paint a thousand words.

Isn't God amazing? How He creates something so beautiful.

 

After five hours of flight, I arrived Haneda Airport



First night, stayed at Tokyo Bay Makuhari

So many tabs on toilet seat!

May I add, the land of vending machines.

Weathered through the rain to walk up 1050 m to see the hot spring

Black egg, boiled/cooked from the hot spring

Yummiest hard boiled egg!

Don, our tour guide

My first authentic Ramen

Mount Fuji, covered with snow whole year round

Second night accomodation in a traditional Japanese room. So chic!

Try to at least, look like a Japanese :)



Eat like the Japanese

Sleep like a Japanese.

 I'll continue posting up more pictures on another day. Internet is darn slow. Ta.

Bali: Part Three

To sum up, day three was a temples and monkey affair. We visited three temples as if we didn't have enough of them already for the past two days. When you read about them, each one would say, 'it is one of the most famous destinations in Bali...' or 'it is a must visit temple...' which was probably the reason why we were brought to those temples. We were tourists after all. But to be fair, each temples was kinda interesting. The first temple we went to was Taman Ayun Royal Temple. Back in the 18th century, the temple was owned by the royal family of Mengwi Empire but now it is open to the public. Like other popular temples in Bali, Taman Ayun is situated in a beautiful landscape garden, in midst of lush greens and lake.  One of the prominent sightings of the temple is its nine multi-storied roofs, sort of like a pagoda.

The next temple we visited was situated at Lake Bratan, a big lake that fills an ancient volcanic crater and its water is said to be holy. By the lake is the temple of Pura Ulun Danu which is dedicated to the Goddess of lake that provides irrigation water for rice fields. 

 

For lunch, we had it in a restaurant, perched on the hill that overlooks the beautiful rice terraces of Tegalalang. I've always wanted to see the rice terrace because it was said to be one of the nature wonders of the world and I've always thought it was in the Philippines. So, I guess now I can say that I've seen it with my own eyes in Bali. That is why I love to travel. You get to see all the wonders of the world, whether it is nature or man made. 

After lunch, we headed to Alas Kedaton Monkey Forest, my least favourite destination in Bali. While the monkeys are less aggressive and they don't snatch glasses or caps from visitors, we were told to keep our palms open to show to the monkeys that we bring no food, so 'stay away'. Lady 'Twenty Six' in pink outfit guided us around the temple. Well, at least she attempted to guide because all she did was trying to sell us stuff like 'Buy peanuts, feed monkey' or 'Take pictures with bat or snake but you pay' and towards the end of the tour, she brought us to her little shop selling shirts and handicrafts where we were totally ripped off. I got a 'I Love Bali' shirt. It was 70 thousand rupiahs at first and I bargained to 50 thousand rupiahs and bought it only to find out later, that it only costs 13 thousand rupiahs in another souvenir shop in Tanah Lot. So yes,  if you're going to Bali, heed my advice, shop at big stores that has 'Ole ole' on its signboard. It looks like one of those wholesales stores and you can get shirts as low as 10 thousand rupiahs and that's like RM 3 plus. Oh well, a lesson to be learnt.  

The last temple we visited which was also the most beautiful for me personally was Tanah Lot Temple. We managed to beat the immense traffic jam to reach Tanah Lot right before sunset. But boy were there a lot of visitors which made taking pictures for Oliver  particularly frustrating because there he was trying to capture the perfect picture of the temple on cliff overlooking the ocean to no avail because there were people everywhere. To add to that frustration, while he did manage to take some shots of the sunset, his camera ran out of battery midway. Bummer. Oh well, that happens. 

And yes, I guess that's the end of our Bali escapade. Until we visit Bali again. Ta.