Houseman

After much hesitation and mandatory self-doubt about my culinary skills, I decided to heed the advice of what many had been giving me all this while: that cooking is cheap and healthy and is essential for a foreigner to survive in any country. Except his own country that is. He can't be a foreigner in his own country therefore that statement is flawed and can't be applied to himself, so the conclusion is that he can survive in his own country even if he doesn't know how to tell salt from sugar. Ok enough talking cock. Pictures....

The very cramped cooking area. No where to put my onions and potatos and stuffs!

Washing and cutting the ingredients.. Quite a hassle.. but old man still can take it... Think must buy a peeler already... peel the potato until damn shag.

Some 'chong' to add flavor to the soup...

My favorite - Daikon, the japanese equivalant of a radish. Very delicious.

To start, just add in an entire bottle of oil as you see on the right of the picture. Neh just kidding. Boil some water, put in potato and daikon, cook awhile, add in onions, put in pork slices, miso paste, japanese consomme, and let the happy ingredients simmer in the overcrowded pot.

Cook rice before doing anything though, it takes longer to cook than the soup. But i must admit the ricecooker that i got free from a Japanese colleague is damn good. It will auto detect how much rice there is in the cooker, and has some sort of timer which will calculate how long to cook the rice.

The finished product! Pro or what sia! Got goreng egg some more!








Time to eat at long last!! Wack ah!

Nomikai

What do you get when you put japaneses, koreans and a singaporean who's well known back home as being a really really really bad drinker who gets really really really red very very very fast after only 1 really really really small sip of beer?
A VERY FUN EVENING!

Decided to brave what no singaporean should ever venture on his own - Go to a nomikai (drinking session, no.. should be HARDCORE drinking session) with the locals and alcohol-seasoned koreans at a local Izakaya (bar).

However, one should never turn down an invitation by someone who happens to be his supervisor at work, furthermore by a local. So, without having drank a single drop of beer, let alone sake, in weeks, I found myself sitting in the bar with 2 Japanese, sipping away my first mug of Asahi super dry beer cautiously while they had already downed their 3rd mug in 40 minutes. Madness. Just notice Yamada's smile below as we take a picture as we gambai. To the left is Iwasa, my supervisor who looks as if she never had a single ray of sunlight illuminate her face. Oops she had better not read this. Haha.


Some food to get away the taste of the beer.

After 1 hour of boozing (I had 2 mugs!), some koreans from work,3 to be exact, swaggered into the bar. Choi below with Iwasa. Poor bloke's unsuspecting of the horrible fate awaiting him later that night...

A very red me with a happy Japanese and a not-so-high yet Korean, Oku. Shit cannot... high liao can't take it...

We decided to stop eating at this jap bar and headed down to a korean restaurant further down the road and join up with some more koreans. Man do they sure know how to party.

A bowl of water kimchi which I had at first. Very refreshing to drink after many rounds of oily meat.

More meat! A gigantic hot plate with pork slices. Similar to those I ate at Evon's aunt's house last time - Cook them, wrap with lettuces, some sauces, sesame leaves and you are good to go.

This is what impressed me the most. A big pot of chicken simmered in some sort of kimchi sauce. Absolutely delicious.

Some koreans.

A plate of wriggling octupus. They are apparantly very fresh, still moving about like worms while we pick them out with chopsticks, tentacles still hanging on dear life on the plate. Next, just dip them in soy sauce, and dump them into our mouths. And CHEW AS HARD AS POSSIBLE. Well at least i did. I had to kill the moving bastard.

KOREANS!!!

A group picture.

A shot glass. They drink 25% sake like water... and mix it with alot of beer... Scary.. What are their livers made of man?

Still not drunk yet...

AHA! A drunk korean, Choi. I was still holding my ground and yet he's gone earlier than me. Useless!!! HAHA!!!! Actually I only drank 2 beers and 1 shot.

After that, 2 more jap and some koreans (again from the office) walked in and took another table next to us. Time to cheers again!

Choi still dead.

Fake Bae yong jun showing the fellow self-called "erotic" guys a magic trick. Look at how happy alcohol make these guys. The guy in the middle sits behind me during work, and the number of sentences I hear him spout during work is so minimal I always forgot how his voice sounded like. Same with the fake BYJ. People sitting behind him told me how quiet and anti-social he is during work, how he can spend the entire day without speaking to anyone, and yet during nomikai, he totally transforms into another person. Amazing, the effects alcohol and a cosy cushion can do to someone.

Giving us their most erotic look. Shikishima (middle) looks totally off.

Who can resist a funny face at this state?

A very happy store owner. The koreans love this place as it reminds them of their homeland, and make it a must to come here all the time. They call her Oma, which is mother in korean, which the store owner will return with calls of 'son'. Tonight she's especially happy as her grandson is in town visiting, so we got freebies and drinks on the house! Also think that I'm very scary coz after this picture was taken, he cried. Ah... don't think he likes singaporeans.

Choi's belly..


After that was snowboarding wear shopping (at long last) on Saturday at Ochanomizu with the Sing Jam people. Think saturdays are reserved for them, sorry Clarence, wilson, ivan and toohan! Haha.
Reached!

Having lunch at some western restaurant. Very nice decor. I think my room will be decorated like this with monochrome pictures on the walls.

Muhtar (is your name spelled correct now) and Brendan. Think that might be the Meiji University campus behind us.

Jun and Soffiah with me.

After a shag day, went home and found these strangers in Ivan's room. Another nomikai, albeit in a small confined space. It's Yajima's birthday celebration as I learnt that day (the guy in front of me). Other new faces include (from my left) Mori, Holga, a Ukrainian, Tiiru, Singaporean, and Ken. Yeah more people to get acquainted to. Another good week ahead I hope!

Oh no.

To anybody who says Tokyo doesn't snow, please do not read on further or else you might get the shock of your life. I bear no responsibilities or whatsoever if due to your reading of this post you should suffer any injuries, bodily harm, a dent to your pride, or leave a trauma so deep in you that you scream in horror everytime you see ice or order ice kacang.

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You should be able to guess what I'm reveal in a short moment, even if you only have the IQ of an ape.
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Disclaimer posted, so I'm safe. Read on.



IT.

SNOWED.

DAMN.

HEAVILY.

IN.

TOKYO!!!!!!

There goes the urban myth that only seemed to be regurgigated in whispers at dark alleys amongst Singaporeans - Tokyo does, in fact and as a matter of fact, snow. Myth debunked. Do not listen to Singaporeans who only go holidaying in Japan during the "hot" winter season. It gets finger-numbingly cold during the end of January and Febuary and to the locals, snow is a common sight. Think i need an umbrella from now on.

WHITE GLORIOUS WHITE!!!!!!!!!!!

The slightly different scene from what I had seen everyday till today.

Cold............................................ But that can't stop me from posing together with the frozen lamppost.

Feeling good. Not frozen yet. Still alive and warm. Thumbs still functioning well.

These 2 seem a little annoyed that I keep stopping and taking photographs. Stop and enjoy the snow man!


Remember Lisa Ono? The bossa-nova singer brazilian native who also happens to be Japanese, with a funky jazzy silky voice? In Singapore she might not be that famous, though there are some of her albums available at cd shops, but in Japan I guess she's the most well known in this genre.


Was having lunch on Monday when I overheard Kimmy mentioning she's going to some concert of Lisa Ono and I nearly puked out the strands of Udon still travelling down my food pipe. Lisa Ono?! Better yet, performing at Tachikawa?! Even better yet, costs around 6000 yen only?! Count me in ladies and gentlemen.

So after work on Wed, me and Clarence, Ivan, Brendan, Kimmy, Kobayashi-san and Kenji went to the Tachikawa concert hall which is just a 10 minute walk from the train station for some jazzy chill out session from a world-renowned musician. Oh boy, my palms were sweating in anticipation out in the cold. Girl from Ipanema bompeepee!

Sat down snugly with Clarence. In fact, overly snugly - Legs had cramps the entire time I sat there. Think the average concert-going japanese has very very short legs.


The other blokes - Brendan, Kimmy and Kobayashi-san. Kannasai Ivan has premium "eye-level-with-Lisa" seats somewhere below. No fair.

After taking this picture, a staff briskly reminded me that pictures are forbidden. Damn should have turned off the flash.

Despite that warning, I managed to take some photos of the concert behind the safe confines of my coat. There she is! Looking resplendent, and pregnant, in the green floral dress and sitting down with a guitar.

Say encore!!! Wonderful concert!

Yay. Next month going Jay Chou concert.