Snow in November, 18 degrees Celsius in December

This year Tokyo had its first snow on November 24; the first November snow since 1962! The temperature was lowest at around 2 degC. On the contrary, on the December 4, my friends and I went to climb Myojougatake near Gora and Miyagino. The temperature was as high as 18 degC - big swing in temperature.

If you like hiking with a lesser crowd than that in Takao san, I would recommend Myojougatake. The trainfrom Tokyo to Gora via Hakone Yumoto is approximately 2 hours. On the August 18 of every year, a bonfire of 大文字, can be seen flaming as part of sending away the spirits of the deceased during お盆.

The entrance to the mountain is about15 minutes walk from the Gora train station. You can see the large 大文字 character from afar.

 The normal paced hike up to ~900m takes about 70 minutes. Glimpses of Fujisan.

 My friends brought Bunsen burners and pots to make udon, kimichi soup and houtou for lunch.

 On a good weather day like this, lunch can be accompanied by the view of Fujisan. It was splendid indeed!

 One can view Gora and Miyagino from the lunch spot.

 Ichimanbei Buddhisht temple on the way down from Tonomine. I was told that there are only three of such temples in Japan. Would need to verify that. 

70 minutes hike up and another 95 + 30  minutes hike to Tonomine and to Hakone Yumoto Station. My leg muscles ached for 4 days after the hike. I must remember to constantly go for long hikes like this..

Showa Kinen Park

Showa Kinen Park is not too far from Tokyo. If you take the Chuo Rapid train from Shinjuku, it takes only 33 minutes. There is an entry fee of 410 Yen, slightly more expensive than the entry fee for Shinjuku Gyoen,

Today is a public holiday in Japan, which coincides with the Culture Day. I was lucky to catch the last day of the Cosmos Flower Festival. Beautiful magenta, yellow and white cosmos at the park. There were also some dahlias. It was a sunny day day and the blue sky made a good backdrop for photos.

Near the Tachikawa Entrance of the park are rows of beautiful ginko trees that turn golden in colour as the sunset rays shine on the leaves. Autumn has begun!

Yellow Skin Apple - トキ

The sweetest apple I have ever eaten! Grown in Aomori. Eaten in Tokyo.
トキ is a hybrid of Ourin and Fuji apples.

My favourite fruit in summer - peach!

There are many fruits that I enjoy in Japan. My favourite in summer is definitely 桃 (Japanese peach). This fruit can be red or light yellow and has fine hairs on its skin. The flesh is extremely juicy and sweet when it is ripe. I have been advised not to refrigerate the fruit for too long as the taste will change. Best to eat it at room temperature.

These 白糖桃 are from Okayama Prefecture. It costs about 1600 yen for a box of three. Peaches from Yamanashi Prefecture are also famous in Japan.　

Fruit agar is also a popular dessert in summer. I made momo, blueberries and apple juice agar. It was quite easy to make and the agar (vegan) can be bought from supermarkets.

I also tried the melons from Furano in Hokkaido, recently. The texture of the melon's skin is different from the one's I usually have back home. The colour of its flesh is orange. The taste is definitely sweet and the fruit is juicy. I bought this at Farm Tomita, Furano for 300 Yen per slice.

さくらんぼ (sakuranbo) are also available in summer. Oh, how I love Japanese fruits!

Simple Arrabbiata Spaghetti and Stir-Fry Taugeh

My kitchen space is so small that I can only cook one-dish meals conveniently. I have been thinking about how to cook for a party in that small space. After making dinner, I thought that this could be one of the choices for main dish - organic Arrabbiata spaghetti. In order to remember the steps, I am writing this down.

Stir-fry chop garlic and dried 小エビ。Then add in cut yellow pepper and shiitake mushrooms. Pour in the Arrabbiata sauce and add black pepper at the end. I used whole-wheat spaghetti and it tastes really good!

Japan has a fascination with fish- or squid-cakes. Today, I stir-fried 'taugeh' (Hokkien for bean sprouts), ねぎ、carrots, cabbage, mushrooms and the eda-mame fish cake, with chopped garlic and oyster sauce. Pretty good too! Simple dishes makes a happy stomach and person.

Next up, I will try to make 'sambal' (Malay for chili paste) without the 'belacan' (Malay for dried shrimp paste) and apple-fruit juice jelly. Apparently, in summer, Japanese people likes to make transparent fruit jellies. I saw a grandma making the kiwi, peach, and apple fruit jelly on the television today - inspired.

Excellent Japanese Course Dinner near to Ookayama Station

I have been to Satou a Japanese Restaurant near to Ookayama Station in 2013. I had a 10-course Japanese dinner there, which was excellent! I went there again tonight. I am delighted to find out that the restaurant is now featured in the Michelin Guide for 2016. Tonight the course started with a cold appetiser (summer season), an assorted dist of salad and boiled fish, sashimi, pumpkin soup with spring onions, grilled fish, boiled prawns with wakame and young pumpkin, vegetable tempura, Niigata chicken and ginger、 and rice with miso soup. The dessert was melon (Hokkaido) and matcha cream. I have Hakaisan Sake (Niigata) and Umeshu. Happy stomach makes a happy person :)

I did not take any pictures tonight as I wanted to concentrate speaking in Japanese with my hosts. But I took some photos of the food in Spring 2013. Enjoy!

Tadaima!

Back in Tokyo for the next nine months. Arrived on the first of July. I have stayed for almost two weeks. Time flies. This time I notice the temperature and humidity and shall note them here. Feels dryer than in KL and the wind is slightly cool. Most of the evenings, I can sleep just with the windows opened. If I need to turn on the air conditioner, the temperature would be set at 28 degrees Celsius.

The trees are all green in summer.  The street right in front of the EEI  building covered by ginko trees.




Hydreangeas a.k.a ajisai.

Sakura has come and gone.

Sakura festival at Naka Meguro.

Fall in Tokyo

Its December! I cannot believe how time flies. So much more to learn with regards to my research and so many more tasks to complete. And this Sunday (6th) is my JLPT 2 exam. Wish me luck! :)

Despite not having enough time to study and finish my work, I took a morning off to go for autumn leaves viewing at Todoroki. I am glad I did that, the colours were awesome! One of my favourite pictures :D

Seasonal Flu or Not?

Hmm... the last time I caught a cold was when I went jogging in winter with thin layer clothes.

I have been down with sore throat, stuffed nose and fever for the past 3 days and still counting! I would say its the longest I ever suffered from seasonal flu. I must have got the bug from other colleagues in my lab :(

I must have had a high fever last night (I don't know cause I don't have a thermometer). I kept waking up and kept thinking about the paper I am suppose to write. LOL..nope, I didn't get any creative ideas. Just jumbled thoughts that just kept coming even though I tried to sleep. I managed to fall asleep after taking 2 panadol.

A friend suggested that I checked the symptoms for H1N1. It seems that H1N1 starts with a fever and is followed by sore throat, runny nose, cough and one might even suffer from vomiting and diarrhoea. Well, mine started with a sore throat. So the sequence is different.

Well, I will wait and see it the flu persists and go see a doctor next Monday if it does. *Bleh*

ママチャリ

This kind of bicycle is known as "ママチャリ" in Japan. Perhaps its because most ladies ride it here.
I got mine handed down from a Thai friend, whos friend handed it down to him.

Its a great bike! Old and the tyres are a kind of worned out but it gets me from my home in Higashi Tamagawa to university in Ookayama in less than 15minutes, home to the train station, university to Tokyu Store for groceries and sometimes to friend's at Hatanodai :D

I have always wanted to ride the bicycle in Japan. They have lanes, although sometimes narrow, for bicycles and pedestrians. There are not too many cars on the roads, so its pretty safe.

Now that its autumn, its feel even better as I don't sweat as much as in the summer. However, I cannot yet imagine riding it in winter. 寒いかな。

Living my Japanese dream :D

'Kabocha' Pudding

My appreciation to Matthias and Tae for throwing me a birthday party last weekend :)

Delicious 'kabocha' (pumpkin) pudding on my 29th year!

Birthday Windfall

I won the essay contest!

September 30th

I am 29 today!!

And what sort of crazy things do you do when you are 29? I went and registered myself for JLPT 2. CRAZY!!

Food I Missed While in Tokyo

Finally had them in Malaysia during my 2009 summer break.

1) Best egg-tart in town!



2) Durian. I love the slightly bitter and sweet taste of it.



3) Goreng pisang and cempedak goreng from Bangsar. My aunt's favourite too!



4) Hong Kong Dim Sum which is so outrageously expensive if I was to have it in Yokohama.



This prawn chee-cheong-fun was fantastic!



5) Sister's fried 'kuey teow' from McAllistar Road in Penang. It is special for it is garnished with crab meat. Yummy!



I had many more, like sweet-sour-spicy crab from Fatty Crab in Taman Megah, kon loh mee, nasi lemak, nasi briyani from Bangsar and etc. but I was too busy eating to take pictures of them :D

Malaysia food boleh!

The Most Expensive Mocha

Be warned, if you enter this shop in Shibuya, you must buy a cup of coffee at a minimum price of 800 Yen.















The shop sells cakes at a price of 500Yen but you cannot just have a cake without coffee. Price list is as shown:














Alas, my most expensive cup of mocha. Nice porcelain but still...

Chocolate Marble Cheesecake!

I have tried baking carrot cakes, chocolate brownies, chocolate cakes, blueberry cupcakes etc in Tokyo. Recently, I found this recipe on the internet and tried baking it too. Its really yummy!

Happy 2009 New Year!

I haven't been updating this blog eversince it became much easier to upload photos in FB. But I am back in this new year with new determination to keep this blog thriving.

A walk in the park (Yoyogikoen) when it was still autumn in 2008.















Then we stumbled on some wild roses.















At the end of the evening, we saw some Japanese teenagers hanging out near Meiji Jinggu wearing their flamboyant costumes.