General list: http://www.metrography.net/cgi-local/mmg-search/html/02_03_04_01.html
Note though that Tia Mare has closed down.
Bia's homemade food, restaurant, and Izakaya (in Chiba)
Wow Sari-Sari Shop (in Kiyose City, Tokyo; website is in Japanese only)
Travel Cafe Philippines Tokyo Shop (in Iidabashi near Tokyo Dome)
Kainan (in Roppongi) - prices are generally expensive
Shakey's (probably 7 branches in central Tokyo, 1 in Yokohama, and lost more outside of greater Tokyo area!) but I just learned it's not Filipino pala!
30 September 2010
26 September 2010
Shinkansen, Osaka, and views of Mt Fuji
If you can't view the above, you can watch it directly at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja-PGnLWlGY
Description on YouTube:
A 2.5-hour trip compressed to under 15 minutes! Views of Mt Fuji, minus the snow cap, can also be seen. The camera memory card actually ran out of space before reaching Nagoya, so technically it's just the 2-hour trip compressed to 15 minutes. Please note then that while the train speed was around 200 kph, because of the video speed-up, the view feels like 1600 kph!
Background music created using GarageBand.
20 September 2010
Okonomiyaki & Groceries
If you can't see the above videos, you can view them directly at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrSutoMEFc4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5wQIKEEp3Y
19 September 2010
Natto
If you can't view the video above, you can view it directly at YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ub6_rlBkMc
B-1 Grand Prix
The above is a 2-part video. If you can't see it, you can view it directly from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/p/517B9554CFDAF34A?hl=en_US&fs=1
18 September 2010
Ten Reasons to Visit Japan
On the topic of
japan
By Grace Abella-Zata. Visit http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/pepbatch01-2010lbp/message/21
15 September 2010
Harajuku, Cos Players, Meiji Jingu Shrine, and a Japanese Wedding
If you can't view the above, you can view it directly from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qEDl5hqYsA
11 September 2010
Two gifts
If you can't view the above, you can watch the video directly on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJb0b1t3858
09 September 2010
The last week
On the topic of
pinoy food
If you can't view the above, you can view the video on YouTube directly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdQAAIwD9Js
04 September 2010
Food. Pinoy Food.
On the topic of
announcements
If you noticed, most of my posts are either about Pinoy Food, or (Other) Food. I have 55 posts about Pinoy Food, and 52 about Food.
Then I have 51 posts about being Busy. And 32 about Basketball and Problems, 29 about Weather.
Hmmm, that about sums it up for me for my first 4 months here in Japan.
Then I have 51 posts about being Busy. And 32 about Basketball and Problems, 29 about Weather.
Hmmm, that about sums it up for me for my first 4 months here in Japan.
Thanks!
On the topic of
announcements,
stats
Wow, Blogger now has a feature that lets you see statistics for your blogs. And this is what I have, since May 2010:
I'm now on at least 7 countries! Yahoo! Errr... Google! Thanks to all ye viewers. I hope you found something interesting here on my Japan Blog. :-)
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I'm now on at least 7 countries! Yahoo! Errr... Google! Thanks to all ye viewers. I hope you found something interesting here on my Japan Blog. :-)
02 September 2010
Very Weekling
It has been 10 days since my last post. I am calling Japan Blog 2.0 quits. I am just too busy nowadays I think. And I think it will be this way until the end of my 3-years here in Japan. I've been here just 4.5 months so far.
But this don't mean I ain't posting nothing no more. I'll still be here. Just not regularly anymore. Certainly not daily, but no, I can't promise weekly posts. My intention also is to post more photos. Or do a videoblog. But I can't promise anything.
And, as you can see, I've been blogging on practically a daily basis for my 1st 4 months here. That is a world record. 4 straight months of daily updates!
Unfortunately, like for most part-time bloggers, and now, the end is near, for daily blogging. I do not have anything in mind yet for Japan Blog 3.0. But I do know that I plan to gather together all my Japan posts into this one blog, which means my posts for my Japan Blog 1.0 (from 2005) will also be found here in the near future.
Anyways, just to let you know, I finished two papers the past week. I had been delaying it because I thought it would be easy enough - supposedly I have the materials to write them. But, no, it wasn't easy. I was just too busy last Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday - Microsoft Word crashed on me! Well I was doing structural analysis and other stuff in the background so that might have added to it. What happened though was that I was already 90% finished on my first paper and boom, I went back down to probably 70% finished. I just thought, 70% is better than 0%. Thank you (or not) for those Auto-Recovery functions of Word. Anyways, I was so on a roll those two days, but when that happened, I just went blank. I just didn't wanna do it anymore. I spent just two hours or less on it during the weekend.
But that is so also because we went to this eat-all-you-can/tabehodai place called "Carnival Buffet." Western food? Nope. It's "Western." (Emphasis on the quotation marks.) It is actually Japanese-style Western food. There's a salad bar, a drinks bar, your choice of ramen, udon, or soba noodles. There are 4 kinds of pizza - two are more like Indian-style pizza. There is curry. Japanese love curry. There was roast beef for a little while. There are these small hamburgers that you heat on a teppanyaki grill yourself. And hotcake mix for making hotcakes for yourself. There was fried chicken and sausages, and pizza - did I already say there was pizza? I ate mostly the fried chicken, the sausages, and the pizza. I have been craving for real pizza. Or the taste of cheese. It was good enough. The fried chicken tastes a lot better (more Western-tasting maybe?) than the fried chicken at the cafeterias here in school. Then there was a salad bar where I had me a medley of fruits and an ice cream. Then "ka-ching!" I thought, I could have a float as well. So I made a Coke (Zero) Float. Yum. I was already "wa chun la" (200% full) just before eating dessert. I was "wa chuns la" (so full, I'm almost like dead) after the float. It was a good ending to a 1500 yen meal.
And then we rode our bikes back home. It was quite a long ride, and then I checked using Google Maps how long our trip was. It was 6.4 km each way! By the time we got back to the apartment, we were back to "wa pao la" (100% full) again.
Anyways, it was probably that long bicycle ride, maybe 40 minutes each way, that got to me. I was so dead tired on Sunday. It was a no-day. I was just at home. But I did find the need to go the grocery store. But I just can't ride the bike again. No sir, not yet. So I took the bus. And then, lo and behold. The supermarket was probably nearly half empty of groceries! I saw two of my fellow students and they confirmed, we should just come back another day. Anyways, I did go back the next day, and it was still probably close to half empty. But there were a number of employees putting some stocks back on the racks. It is so weird. I noticed then that apparently the furniture outlet store right beside it is closed. Is something going on? I really don't know. I wasn't able to find some of the stuff I needed so I went to the nearby grocery store #2, "Coop." It was my first time ever to visit a Coop grocery store. My friend told me about it already but I forgot - you have to pay a hefty amount for plastic bags. Anyways, it was a good thing I had extra plastic bags.
On Wednesday night, I feasted on sweet, sweet Tacos. 12 of them. :-D And then just today, I finalized probably 3 dishes: tokwa't baboy, postek, and sinuglaw. It was my first time ever to prepare tokwa't baboy - not a problem actually. But it was my first time ever to prepare kinilaw na tuna. I wondered how come my kinilaw at first didn't look at all like the ones I order from most restaurants. I think, based on what I read, that kinilaw actually has coconut milk or something. Anyways, I bought so much pork, I converted the kinilaw into sinuglaw, a mix of sinugba and kinilaw. Sinugba of course is Bisaya for inihaw. For the tokwa, I used Japanese tofu, of course. :-)
Wait, Ronjie, you bought so much pork?????? Yes, I bought them last Sunday but because I felt so tired that day, I was able to cook them all only now. It's not that I eat pork only. The last couple of days, I've been eating beef. I had tapsilog the last two days, and Tacos (ground beef) last night. My tapsilog looked better than ever. It is because this time I was able to buy a cut of beef that was more appropriate for tapa. It tasted great as well. Recipe was from my mom. I didn't use patis though.
Last Sunday, my engineering mentor, Doc Benny, arrived here in Tokyo for a 3-day conference and so we met up Tuesday night, together with my former thesis adviser, Prof Fer. We went to the Imperial Palace and the Asakusa area. I didn't realize that the walk to the Imperial Palace was that long. Actually, we did a lot of walking, even just for getting to/from the train stations and transferring between stations. Anyway, the Palace grounds was just so huge a place. Sunset actually caught us there.
When we got to Asakusa, most shops were closed. The good thing was, there were very few people. I didn't think the Sensoji Temple would look so much better in the evening. And then, we had dinner at this ramen and gyoza resto wherein they serve... just one kind of ramen, and gyoza! Their specialty, apparently. Not the greatest, but pretty good. Not so salty ramen. They had beer and Japanese sake (or rice wine; beer is also sake, actually because sake literally translates to alcoholic beverage.) as well; we had a cup each of sake. Pretty strong. And overall, a pretty good dinner: the ambience, the company, the food. It was a fun evening and it was nice to meet up with fellow Filipinos and chat in Tagalog. Doc Benny, who probably spent 6 or more years here in Japan for his PhD and associate professorship back in the 80s, still had very good Nihongo. But he wisely chose when to use it and when not.
So, well, that's it. Back to the books. Stay tuned for updates here and there. God bless, everyone!
But this don't mean I ain't posting nothing no more. I'll still be here. Just not regularly anymore. Certainly not daily, but no, I can't promise weekly posts. My intention also is to post more photos. Or do a videoblog. But I can't promise anything.
And, as you can see, I've been blogging on practically a daily basis for my 1st 4 months here. That is a world record. 4 straight months of daily updates!
Unfortunately, like for most part-time bloggers, and now, the end is near, for daily blogging. I do not have anything in mind yet for Japan Blog 3.0. But I do know that I plan to gather together all my Japan posts into this one blog, which means my posts for my Japan Blog 1.0 (from 2005) will also be found here in the near future.
Anyways, just to let you know, I finished two papers the past week. I had been delaying it because I thought it would be easy enough - supposedly I have the materials to write them. But, no, it wasn't easy. I was just too busy last Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday - Microsoft Word crashed on me! Well I was doing structural analysis and other stuff in the background so that might have added to it. What happened though was that I was already 90% finished on my first paper and boom, I went back down to probably 70% finished. I just thought, 70% is better than 0%. Thank you (or not) for those Auto-Recovery functions of Word. Anyways, I was so on a roll those two days, but when that happened, I just went blank. I just didn't wanna do it anymore. I spent just two hours or less on it during the weekend.
But that is so also because we went to this eat-all-you-can/tabehodai place called "Carnival Buffet." Western food? Nope. It's "Western." (Emphasis on the quotation marks.) It is actually Japanese-style Western food. There's a salad bar, a drinks bar, your choice of ramen, udon, or soba noodles. There are 4 kinds of pizza - two are more like Indian-style pizza. There is curry. Japanese love curry. There was roast beef for a little while. There are these small hamburgers that you heat on a teppanyaki grill yourself. And hotcake mix for making hotcakes for yourself. There was fried chicken and sausages, and pizza - did I already say there was pizza? I ate mostly the fried chicken, the sausages, and the pizza. I have been craving for real pizza. Or the taste of cheese. It was good enough. The fried chicken tastes a lot better (more Western-tasting maybe?) than the fried chicken at the cafeterias here in school. Then there was a salad bar where I had me a medley of fruits and an ice cream. Then "ka-ching!" I thought, I could have a float as well. So I made a Coke (Zero) Float. Yum. I was already "wa chun la" (200% full) just before eating dessert. I was "wa chuns la" (so full, I'm almost like dead) after the float. It was a good ending to a 1500 yen meal.
And then we rode our bikes back home. It was quite a long ride, and then I checked using Google Maps how long our trip was. It was 6.4 km each way! By the time we got back to the apartment, we were back to "wa pao la" (100% full) again.
Anyways, it was probably that long bicycle ride, maybe 40 minutes each way, that got to me. I was so dead tired on Sunday. It was a no-day. I was just at home. But I did find the need to go the grocery store. But I just can't ride the bike again. No sir, not yet. So I took the bus. And then, lo and behold. The supermarket was probably nearly half empty of groceries! I saw two of my fellow students and they confirmed, we should just come back another day. Anyways, I did go back the next day, and it was still probably close to half empty. But there were a number of employees putting some stocks back on the racks. It is so weird. I noticed then that apparently the furniture outlet store right beside it is closed. Is something going on? I really don't know. I wasn't able to find some of the stuff I needed so I went to the nearby grocery store #2, "Coop." It was my first time ever to visit a Coop grocery store. My friend told me about it already but I forgot - you have to pay a hefty amount for plastic bags. Anyways, it was a good thing I had extra plastic bags.
On Wednesday night, I feasted on sweet, sweet Tacos. 12 of them. :-D And then just today, I finalized probably 3 dishes: tokwa't baboy, postek, and sinuglaw. It was my first time ever to prepare tokwa't baboy - not a problem actually. But it was my first time ever to prepare kinilaw na tuna. I wondered how come my kinilaw at first didn't look at all like the ones I order from most restaurants. I think, based on what I read, that kinilaw actually has coconut milk or something. Anyways, I bought so much pork, I converted the kinilaw into sinuglaw, a mix of sinugba and kinilaw. Sinugba of course is Bisaya for inihaw. For the tokwa, I used Japanese tofu, of course. :-)
Wait, Ronjie, you bought so much pork?????? Yes, I bought them last Sunday but because I felt so tired that day, I was able to cook them all only now. It's not that I eat pork only. The last couple of days, I've been eating beef. I had tapsilog the last two days, and Tacos (ground beef) last night. My tapsilog looked better than ever. It is because this time I was able to buy a cut of beef that was more appropriate for tapa. It tasted great as well. Recipe was from my mom. I didn't use patis though.
Last Sunday, my engineering mentor, Doc Benny, arrived here in Tokyo for a 3-day conference and so we met up Tuesday night, together with my former thesis adviser, Prof Fer. We went to the Imperial Palace and the Asakusa area. I didn't realize that the walk to the Imperial Palace was that long. Actually, we did a lot of walking, even just for getting to/from the train stations and transferring between stations. Anyway, the Palace grounds was just so huge a place. Sunset actually caught us there.
When we got to Asakusa, most shops were closed. The good thing was, there were very few people. I didn't think the Sensoji Temple would look so much better in the evening. And then, we had dinner at this ramen and gyoza resto wherein they serve... just one kind of ramen, and gyoza! Their specialty, apparently. Not the greatest, but pretty good. Not so salty ramen. They had beer and Japanese sake (or rice wine; beer is also sake, actually because sake literally translates to alcoholic beverage.) as well; we had a cup each of sake. Pretty strong. And overall, a pretty good dinner: the ambience, the company, the food. It was a fun evening and it was nice to meet up with fellow Filipinos and chat in Tagalog. Doc Benny, who probably spent 6 or more years here in Japan for his PhD and associate professorship back in the 80s, still had very good Nihongo. But he wisely chose when to use it and when not.
So, well, that's it. Back to the books. Stay tuned for updates here and there. God bless, everyone!
23 August 2010
Weekling
I guess from now on I'll start posting on at least a weekly basis, instead of on a daily basis. Blogging about how your life has gone on a daily basis takes a little bit of time - precious time you could use to actually live more of that life. Maybe someone else can just blog about me. Or not. Anyways, the past week was marked by post-Fuji tiredness. "Tiredness is there."
As mentioned in past posts, TPU was closed until last Tuesday. After coming home from Fuji on Saturday and taking a little visit to Tokyo on Sunday, Monday became nothing. As in I woke up really, really late and slept relatively early; I only had one convenience-store meal at around 10pm.
Tuesday in Japanese is "kayobi;" in my case it was "aikiyayobi" - IKEA day. Left home a little past 11am, got to IKEA in time for queueing up at the IKEA restaurant for lunch. I had a quite expensive lunch - nearly US$15 worth - but worth it, I guess. I missed them swedish meatballs with the gravy and raspberry sauce. I wanted IKEA's usual salmon but instead there was only marinated salmon (more like smoked salmon) which came with a few veggie leaves, and me being a Go-Grow-Glow guy, I had to get a couple of pieces of bread to go with it. Whew, the bread was expensive. US$ 1.20 for one, and US$ 0.60 for the other. And there's a charge for the butter: 20 cents (20 yen). Dang. Well, it was all worth it, if only to experience a non-Japanese setting in Japan. After that, I probably spent at least an hour or hour and a half at the showroom and marketplace. I didn't really find much interesting. Actually at the back of my mind, I was like, I'll buy only stuff that I could actually bring home to the Philippines that the Customs wouldn't charge me so much for! After IKEA home stuff shopping, it was IKEA food shopping. I bought IKEA-brand chocolate bars - one dark, one milk, and one hazelnut. I've tried the dark one so far; I love dark chocolate the most and I liked IKEA's. I do still like Meiji's dark chocolate, though. Or Hershey's. Anyways, I also brought home some ready-to-eat meatballs, and ready-to-eat potato gratin. The potato gratin unfortunately got thawed on my way home! IKEA itself is at least 80 minutes from my apartment.
Dinner for Tuesday evening was convenience store food, I think. I also cooked Adobong Manok during the week, which I ate for dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I ate the IKEA meatballs and potato gratin for lunch on the same day. My 2nd try of Adobong Manok wasn't as great as the first, probably because I used different chicken parts this time, or maybe I just missed or over-seasoned with some ingredients. But nonetheless, it was still yummy, as well as the IKEA food. I didn't mind having the same lunch and dinner menu for three days.
On Friday we were supposed to play basketball but the basketball gym was closed, but we were able to play table tennis and so ping-ponging we did. It was fun, we won a "betting" game (guess whose idea), and it wasn't as strenuous on my yet-to-fully-recover knees as basketball is.
For Saturday lunch, I forgot what I ate for lunch, but I think I still had some of the meatballs and potato gratin. They are really yummy. Did I mention they're a bit expensive though? But I think it's not so bad. I ate them with rice by the way and that's why they lasted 4 meals. Oh yeah, I cheated by assuming potato as a Glow/veggie food. :D
Then there was our usual Saturday seminar. I went to the seminar room at 2pm only to find out that it has been moved to 2:30pm! And the presentations and discussions took quite a while this time. We finished at 6:15pm! For dinner, I had convenience store food again. Torikatsu and a really huge burger patty. A few days ago, I had a "yaki" trifecta from the convenience store: yakisoba (noodles, a Japanese-style pancit canton), okonomiyaki ("Japanese pancakes"), and takoyaki (octopus balls, a popular Japanese street/festival delicacy). "Yaki" means grilled, but here, "grilled" means on a flat pan with a little bit of oil. Think teppanyaki grill. "Soba" means noodles, of course. "Okono" means anything you want, but okonomiyaki that you did not cook by yourself usually just contains some vegetables, usually cabbage and onion. "Tako" of course means octopus.
And then Sunday. Woke up early enough and surprisingly a usual 1 hour 50 minute trip from my apartment to Meguro became a 1 hour 10 minute trip - I was too early for the 12 noon mass. So I had brunch first at a place I am very familiar with - McDonald's. Big Macs for only US$ 2.00 each!!! The set though is still around US$ 5.50. Have I told you I don't really like Big Macs? I prefer Quarter Pounders to Big Macs. Can't do without the tomato ketchup and onions. I also like the pickle. Then the mass. My Filipino friends all had to go somewhere, and so I went back to Atsugi. The first thing I did back at Atsugi was get a haircut. The lady barber cutting my hair asked me something in Japanese, pointing to my sideburns, and I replied yes. I thought she was asking if she can trim/cut it. Apparently she was asking if she should leave it as is. Oh well, this is the cheapest barbershop here. US$ 10.00 for a haircut. In 10 minutes. After the haircut, I went to the secondhand store and got me a guitar! It's a Yamaha CG-150, if I remember correctly. It's a classical guitar. This is the first time I will own a classical guitar. And the first time I'll own a "real" guitar brand - a Yamaha. But I still love my 14.5-year-old acoustic guitar. Hmmm, I forgot now what my guitar brand is. But it is made in Cebu, if I'm not mistaken. Now I chose this Yamaha because it's the best among the cheapest priced ones. It's another insurance investment for sanity while I wait for Mara to come here.
The guitar was too bulky, of course, and so I went back to the apartment first, cooled down (high was 34 degrees; cooler than Tuesday's and Wednesday's 37 and 36 degree highs - yes, and I was out during that day!), and then back to Hon-Atsugi with Ali-san to meet up with Okada-san to eat all we can shabu-shabu at Nabezo again. $19 for a dinner buffet, drinks excluded. Not a bad price for here in Japan. And for the ambiance. We again had beef, tofu, and lots of veggies and shrooms as main ingredients for our shabu-shabu.
I was "wa chuns lah" - very, very full. But I still had to do grocery shopping. I went to SATY then and bought 5kg rice, ~8 liters of fluids, around 1.5kg of meat, and some veggies and snacks. That's around 14kg I carried from SATY, to the bus terminal, and finally to my apartment. While I was carrying that heavy a bag, I thought, that must have helped me prepare for my Fuji trip - because I certainly did not feel the 12kg weight I carried then. But, with that comes bad news as well. My trusty TheNorthFace bag which I bought in Hanoi, Vietnam, has started to given in, probably because of that Fuji trip. It is still useable though. And oh I will still use it. I don't think I'll be throwing this one away. It was the only thing that was (physically) with me the whole 14 hours climb up and down Mt Fuji.
As mentioned in past posts, TPU was closed until last Tuesday. After coming home from Fuji on Saturday and taking a little visit to Tokyo on Sunday, Monday became nothing. As in I woke up really, really late and slept relatively early; I only had one convenience-store meal at around 10pm.
Tuesday in Japanese is "kayobi;" in my case it was "aikiyayobi" - IKEA day. Left home a little past 11am, got to IKEA in time for queueing up at the IKEA restaurant for lunch. I had a quite expensive lunch - nearly US$15 worth - but worth it, I guess. I missed them swedish meatballs with the gravy and raspberry sauce. I wanted IKEA's usual salmon but instead there was only marinated salmon (more like smoked salmon) which came with a few veggie leaves, and me being a Go-Grow-Glow guy, I had to get a couple of pieces of bread to go with it. Whew, the bread was expensive. US$ 1.20 for one, and US$ 0.60 for the other. And there's a charge for the butter: 20 cents (20 yen). Dang. Well, it was all worth it, if only to experience a non-Japanese setting in Japan. After that, I probably spent at least an hour or hour and a half at the showroom and marketplace. I didn't really find much interesting. Actually at the back of my mind, I was like, I'll buy only stuff that I could actually bring home to the Philippines that the Customs wouldn't charge me so much for! After IKEA home stuff shopping, it was IKEA food shopping. I bought IKEA-brand chocolate bars - one dark, one milk, and one hazelnut. I've tried the dark one so far; I love dark chocolate the most and I liked IKEA's. I do still like Meiji's dark chocolate, though. Or Hershey's. Anyways, I also brought home some ready-to-eat meatballs, and ready-to-eat potato gratin. The potato gratin unfortunately got thawed on my way home! IKEA itself is at least 80 minutes from my apartment.
Dinner for Tuesday evening was convenience store food, I think. I also cooked Adobong Manok during the week, which I ate for dinner on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I ate the IKEA meatballs and potato gratin for lunch on the same day. My 2nd try of Adobong Manok wasn't as great as the first, probably because I used different chicken parts this time, or maybe I just missed or over-seasoned with some ingredients. But nonetheless, it was still yummy, as well as the IKEA food. I didn't mind having the same lunch and dinner menu for three days.
On Friday we were supposed to play basketball but the basketball gym was closed, but we were able to play table tennis and so ping-ponging we did. It was fun, we won a "betting" game (guess whose idea), and it wasn't as strenuous on my yet-to-fully-recover knees as basketball is.
For Saturday lunch, I forgot what I ate for lunch, but I think I still had some of the meatballs and potato gratin. They are really yummy. Did I mention they're a bit expensive though? But I think it's not so bad. I ate them with rice by the way and that's why they lasted 4 meals. Oh yeah, I cheated by assuming potato as a Glow/veggie food. :D
Then there was our usual Saturday seminar. I went to the seminar room at 2pm only to find out that it has been moved to 2:30pm! And the presentations and discussions took quite a while this time. We finished at 6:15pm! For dinner, I had convenience store food again. Torikatsu and a really huge burger patty. A few days ago, I had a "yaki" trifecta from the convenience store: yakisoba (noodles, a Japanese-style pancit canton), okonomiyaki ("Japanese pancakes"), and takoyaki (octopus balls, a popular Japanese street/festival delicacy). "Yaki" means grilled, but here, "grilled" means on a flat pan with a little bit of oil. Think teppanyaki grill. "Soba" means noodles, of course. "Okono" means anything you want, but okonomiyaki that you did not cook by yourself usually just contains some vegetables, usually cabbage and onion. "Tako" of course means octopus.
And then Sunday. Woke up early enough and surprisingly a usual 1 hour 50 minute trip from my apartment to Meguro became a 1 hour 10 minute trip - I was too early for the 12 noon mass. So I had brunch first at a place I am very familiar with - McDonald's. Big Macs for only US$ 2.00 each!!! The set though is still around US$ 5.50. Have I told you I don't really like Big Macs? I prefer Quarter Pounders to Big Macs. Can't do without the tomato ketchup and onions. I also like the pickle. Then the mass. My Filipino friends all had to go somewhere, and so I went back to Atsugi. The first thing I did back at Atsugi was get a haircut. The lady barber cutting my hair asked me something in Japanese, pointing to my sideburns, and I replied yes. I thought she was asking if she can trim/cut it. Apparently she was asking if she should leave it as is. Oh well, this is the cheapest barbershop here. US$ 10.00 for a haircut. In 10 minutes. After the haircut, I went to the secondhand store and got me a guitar! It's a Yamaha CG-150, if I remember correctly. It's a classical guitar. This is the first time I will own a classical guitar. And the first time I'll own a "real" guitar brand - a Yamaha. But I still love my 14.5-year-old acoustic guitar. Hmmm, I forgot now what my guitar brand is. But it is made in Cebu, if I'm not mistaken. Now I chose this Yamaha because it's the best among the cheapest priced ones. It's another insurance investment for sanity while I wait for Mara to come here.
The guitar was too bulky, of course, and so I went back to the apartment first, cooled down (high was 34 degrees; cooler than Tuesday's and Wednesday's 37 and 36 degree highs - yes, and I was out during that day!), and then back to Hon-Atsugi with Ali-san to meet up with Okada-san to eat all we can shabu-shabu at Nabezo again. $19 for a dinner buffet, drinks excluded. Not a bad price for here in Japan. And for the ambiance. We again had beef, tofu, and lots of veggies and shrooms as main ingredients for our shabu-shabu.
I was "wa chuns lah" - very, very full. But I still had to do grocery shopping. I went to SATY then and bought 5kg rice, ~8 liters of fluids, around 1.5kg of meat, and some veggies and snacks. That's around 14kg I carried from SATY, to the bus terminal, and finally to my apartment. While I was carrying that heavy a bag, I thought, that must have helped me prepare for my Fuji trip - because I certainly did not feel the 12kg weight I carried then. But, with that comes bad news as well. My trusty TheNorthFace bag which I bought in Hanoi, Vietnam, has started to given in, probably because of that Fuji trip. It is still useable though. And oh I will still use it. I don't think I'll be throwing this one away. It was the only thing that was (physically) with me the whole 14 hours climb up and down Mt Fuji.
16 August 2010
Videos on YouTube
In case you cannot access the full videos on Multiply or Facebook, here they are, in 4 parts, on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h68W5ZiN59c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhXbnnC4tDo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoWSfQ8i1kg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A04XxGWgpE
These are each under 10 minutes; if you want to download them to your computer, you can use the free YouTube Downloader. In case you wanna view them instantly, here they are, embedded in this webpage.
Anyways, here's a cool video of the Mt Fuji climb by a more professional climber and video blogger. It was done during daytime and off-season (no people!) so you can see what the terrain and what the views are really like. No sunrise or sunset here though, but probably even cooler - you get to see Mt Fuji cast a triangular shadow over one of the adjacent cities. The website address is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5cReCc6lDU, but the video is embedded below for your convenience. It's a little over 21 minutes but it is a good overview of the 8-14 hour trip people would take.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h68W5ZiN59c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhXbnnC4tDo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoWSfQ8i1kg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A04XxGWgpE
These are each under 10 minutes; if you want to download them to your computer, you can use the free YouTube Downloader. In case you wanna view them instantly, here they are, embedded in this webpage.
Anyways, here's a cool video of the Mt Fuji climb by a more professional climber and video blogger. It was done during daytime and off-season (no people!) so you can see what the terrain and what the views are really like. No sunrise or sunset here though, but probably even cooler - you get to see Mt Fuji cast a triangular shadow over one of the adjacent cities. The website address is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5cReCc6lDU, but the video is embedded below for your convenience. It's a little over 21 minutes but it is a good overview of the 8-14 hour trip people would take.
15 August 2010
International Sunday
Last night, I slept again from 5pm to around 10pm. I had my brunch of katsu-kari (curry with deep-fried pork cutlet or "tonkatsu") and some Japanese bento meal at ~3:10pm already. Then I slept from 5pm to around 10pm. I had a 6" "instant" pizza, and ice cream for dinner. I slept at around 4am already, I think. I woke up at around 12noon, but as expected I was a little too tired. But surprisingly, I didn't have any real muscle or heel pain, not like just right after the climb.
Anyways, I was too tired even to prepare or buy lunch. I just edited my videos from the Fuji trip and then whoah, it was 4:30pm already. I had to go to the 5pm mass at the Atsugi Catholic Church.
I just found out that the videos on Multiply, where I have my Mt Fuji videos hosted, play only up to the 10:00 minute mark. Yikes! If you can find a way, download the whole video to your computer and watch it offline. Alternatively, if you have a Facebook account, and I'm your friend there, you can watch it from these links:
Part 1. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=463002935927
Part 2. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=463007370927
I took the 4:50pm bus and made it in time for I think the Glory song - I wasn't sure because it was in a foreign language. This 5pm mass is actually a special International Mass, in celebration of the feast of the Assumption today, the 15th of August. Very interesting mass. The 1st reading was in Portuguese, the Responsorial Psalm in Japanese, the 2nd reading in Spanish, the Gospel in English, and the homily in both English and Japanese. The prayers of the faithful were in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Japanese, in that order. The Our Father was in English. The recessional song ("Santa Maria del Camino") was in Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, and Japanese.
Then after the mass, there was a little party. There was my lunch! God making lambing. I was looking forward to this as well as this was a chance to meet some fellow Pinoys. I approached one guy who was apparently with a rather large group of 20-something fellow Pinoys. My opener was "Pinoy kayo?" He said yes but he and his friends were too shy, the only thing I got out of him was that they are not from Atsugi itself, that they were all here on training for 1 year, but they did not arrive here all at the same time. And then just like that, he said he had to go. Okay. On to my next Pinoy. I approached a more mature group and then proceeded with my opener question to the lone man amongst the otherwise group of women. He was a little more accommodating and was encouraging me to dig into the food before it all runs out. I guess the difference between this group and the first group I approached was that the former is composed of people who are here or have been here for a long time (say 2 years or more). I guess I belonged more to this group than the first. Apparently, not many Filipino going to church here in Atsugi are from Atsugi! Yikes, I wanna meet Pinoy Atsugi-ites! Anyways, it's all good. Finally I met the choir lead singer/organist, Rinna, and then she introduced me to a slightly younger group of 2-year or longer residents. I also met and interacted with Nina, Mickey, and another lady. Mickey is a 20-something student who graduated from Don Bosco Manda and is here with a Monbusho (Japanese ministry of education, etc) scholarship but haven't found a school yet so he's currently an English teacher; he's been here for 2 years. As usual, these guys aren't from Atsugi!
Anyways, it was fun meeting them and I hope to see them again next time. I just confirmed that there is indeed an English mass here in Atsugi also on the 1st Sunday of each month! That is great news.
At the party, in addition to the sushi, pasta, fruits, and sausages, I had lechon manok, kutsinta, biko, and sopas. Yummy, Filipino food! I don't really like sopas, but serve me sopas here (once in a while) in Japan, and I can finish thehole batch you cooked. I most especially loved the lechon manok. Yum-to-the-nth-power-mee. It was a pretty good lunch. :-D
I took off at around 7pm and went to KFC to buy my dinner for the next two days (6-piece chicken and "emu-saizu koru-suro" or M-size cole slaw). I also passed by the convenience store to buy milk and juice. Then back home. I ate my dinner at around 9pm already.
Anyways, I was too tired even to prepare or buy lunch. I just edited my videos from the Fuji trip and then whoah, it was 4:30pm already. I had to go to the 5pm mass at the Atsugi Catholic Church.
I just found out that the videos on Multiply, where I have my Mt Fuji videos hosted, play only up to the 10:00 minute mark. Yikes! If you can find a way, download the whole video to your computer and watch it offline. Alternatively, if you have a Facebook account, and I'm your friend there, you can watch it from these links:
Part 1. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=463002935927
Part 2. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=463007370927
I took the 4:50pm bus and made it in time for I think the Glory song - I wasn't sure because it was in a foreign language. This 5pm mass is actually a special International Mass, in celebration of the feast of the Assumption today, the 15th of August. Very interesting mass. The 1st reading was in Portuguese, the Responsorial Psalm in Japanese, the 2nd reading in Spanish, the Gospel in English, and the homily in both English and Japanese. The prayers of the faithful were in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Japanese, in that order. The Our Father was in English. The recessional song ("Santa Maria del Camino") was in Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, and Japanese.
Then after the mass, there was a little party. There was my lunch! God making lambing. I was looking forward to this as well as this was a chance to meet some fellow Pinoys. I approached one guy who was apparently with a rather large group of 20-something fellow Pinoys. My opener was "Pinoy kayo?" He said yes but he and his friends were too shy, the only thing I got out of him was that they are not from Atsugi itself, that they were all here on training for 1 year, but they did not arrive here all at the same time. And then just like that, he said he had to go. Okay. On to my next Pinoy. I approached a more mature group and then proceeded with my opener question to the lone man amongst the otherwise group of women. He was a little more accommodating and was encouraging me to dig into the food before it all runs out. I guess the difference between this group and the first group I approached was that the former is composed of people who are here or have been here for a long time (say 2 years or more). I guess I belonged more to this group than the first. Apparently, not many Filipino going to church here in Atsugi are from Atsugi! Yikes, I wanna meet Pinoy Atsugi-ites! Anyways, it's all good. Finally I met the choir lead singer/organist, Rinna, and then she introduced me to a slightly younger group of 2-year or longer residents. I also met and interacted with Nina, Mickey, and another lady. Mickey is a 20-something student who graduated from Don Bosco Manda and is here with a Monbusho (Japanese ministry of education, etc) scholarship but haven't found a school yet so he's currently an English teacher; he's been here for 2 years. As usual, these guys aren't from Atsugi!
Anyways, it was fun meeting them and I hope to see them again next time. I just confirmed that there is indeed an English mass here in Atsugi also on the 1st Sunday of each month! That is great news.
At the party, in addition to the sushi, pasta, fruits, and sausages, I had lechon manok, kutsinta, biko, and sopas. Yummy, Filipino food! I don't really like sopas, but serve me sopas here (once in a while) in Japan, and I can finish thehole batch you cooked. I most especially loved the lechon manok. Yum-to-the-nth-power-mee. It was a pretty good lunch. :-D
I took off at around 7pm and went to KFC to buy my dinner for the next two days (6-piece chicken and "emu-saizu koru-suro" or M-size cole slaw). I also passed by the convenience store to buy milk and juice. Then back home. I ate my dinner at around 9pm already.
14 August 2010
3776
It's difficult to tell the whole story in words. At some point, we thought we had left behind one of our trip buddies. At some stretches, I was all by myself. I fell once, it hurt, and I had to bring myself back up. On my trip to the top, it was all mental; you had to push and tell yourself you can, but at the same time you had to be smart and stop and rest if your body says so.
After this trip has exhausted my physical and mental faculties, it was my emotional side that had to show. I was only very thankful to God because he brought me, an inexperienced mountain climber, to the top of one of his glorious creations, and back down and home safely and practically without a scratch. I was also thinking all the while of Mara, and how I love her. I had to climb up and be back home safely and in one piece so that I will be there with her on December 27th this year.
Well, a picture says a thousands words, they say. So a video of ~38 minutes in length, and at 30 frames per second, would then be around 35 billion words.
Let this (two-part) video just speak for itself:
Part 1. http://wwwronjiecom.multiply.com/video/item/10/3776
Part 2. http://wwwronjiecom.multiply.com/video/item/11/3776_22
After this trip has exhausted my physical and mental faculties, it was my emotional side that had to show. I was only very thankful to God because he brought me, an inexperienced mountain climber, to the top of one of his glorious creations, and back down and home safely and practically without a scratch. I was also thinking all the while of Mara, and how I love her. I had to climb up and be back home safely and in one piece so that I will be there with her on December 27th this year.
Well, a picture says a thousands words, they say. So a video of ~38 minutes in length, and at 30 frames per second, would then be around 35 billion words.
Let this (two-part) video just speak for itself:
Part 1. http://wwwronjiecom.multiply.com/video/item/10/3776
Part 2. http://wwwronjiecom.multiply.com/video/item/11/3776_22
13 August 2010
Friday the 13th!
So what? I don't believe in superstitions, because I believe only in God. I hadn't actually realized it was Friday the 13th until I wrote this blog post (which is actually two days later).
Anyways, last night before going to sleep, I watched another movie online and... 5am came and I still can't sleep. I fell asleep at 7am already! Yikes! And then I woke up (because I had to) by 11am to prepare. But actually, I got up at 12pm already. Oh by the way, yesterday, I packed everything already for today's trip. So, a cold shower first. Then, my supposedly spaghetti-and-gratin lunch turned into a salty chow mein dish and not as yummy doria. It wasn't a very pleasant eating experience. Nonetheless, it was still carbohydrates - my source of energy - and so I had to finish it all up. Thankfully I had banana which was the best dish of my 3-dish lunch. Then, final preps, and 2pm came and I was ready to go. Save for the lack of sleep.
Gratin, by the way, is like baked ziti but it doesn't resemble the baked-mac-looking baked ziti I have tried at some "Italian" places in the Philippines.
2pm came and my two trip buddies slash next-door neighbours were not yet so ready-to-go just yet, and so I double checked the bus schedule at the bus stop. Per my "research" online, we could take the 2:15pm bus, so that we could be at the train station by ~2:35pm to meet up with our two other trip buddies, and then we could take the 3:03pm train to get to Shinjuku by 4pm. Guess what. The next bus was not until 2:37pm. Uh-oh, we're going to be late! And we didn't have oxygen cans yet - we still had to buy them in Shinjuku!
Anyways, so we can't do anything about it except inform our two trip buddies who might be early to arrive at Hon-Atsugi. It was so hot today by the way. And I was already wearing one thermal. My mountain climbing bag was already 12kg, with 4L of fluids (2L of water, 2L of sports drink) and 7 additional layers of clothes. I haven't ever been in less than 10 degree weather for more than 30 minutes before - usually if I'm in 10 degree weather or worse, I would go indoors already after no more than 30 minutes. So anyways, I took all necessary precautions. Like the fluids. The cost of these 4L of fluids is just under 200 yen. If I buy them at Mt Fuji it might cost me 4000 yen! I also brought knee and ankle braces. A walking stick. Some Biogesic (paracetamol
) medicine. A low stool (because it's difficult for me to stand up from a squat or sit-on-the-floor position). An umbrella in case it rains on the way between home and the starting point of the Mt Fuji climb. A scarf, a pair of gloves, two knit headgear (bonnets/beanies), and a cap. Two hankies for covering my ears and sunglasses for my eyes in case it becomes sunny. A face towel to wipe away sweat. 6 packs of granola bars. 12 chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. 9 macadamia nut choco cookies. An extra pair of shoes - because my Nike running shoes was "smiling" already. I glued it up but who knows, what if it gives in! Better to carry an extra half kilo of insurance than walk up and/or down a 1.4km climb without any shoes at all! I also brought my wallet, of course. And my two cellphones (Japan and Philippine numbers). And my Palm TX - which functions as my English-Japanese dictionary, and my movie player. And maybe a couple other things.
Anyways, better to be safe than sorry. Better to carry all that weight and make it to the top, than having to go down because I am not prepared to complete the whole trip.
So, we got to Hon-Atsugi at around 3:05pm already, two minutes too late for the 3:03pm train. Surprisingly, the train was late and so we were still able to get on the train. We got to Shinjuku just around 4pm. We met up with Kim-san, the trip organizer, and we met his girlfriend and also his cousin, both for the first time. Then a little later Dr. Kim arrived. Then there we were, 9 of us, trip buddies for this Fuji climb. We hurried first to find oxygen cans for bringing up to Fuji. But we didn't have enough time anymore and we weren't able to buy our dinner! So we had to buy dinner at the 5th station of Mt Fuji, where our climb starts. Off to the bus station we went and then somebody shouted "Ronj!"
It was Coy, my friend from the Philippine, who is about to graduate from her masteral degree this August/September. This is only the 2nd time I've seen her during my Japan trip, and whoah, this was a big coincidence. I found out she was going to Mt Fuji as well. I told her we were late for our bus already and that we should just catch each other at Mt Fuji.
On the bus, I planned to either sleep the whole time, or watch a movie. I attempted both but didn't really get to finish either one of them. Oh well, I hope my staggered sleep last night (6pm to 10pm and 7am to 11am) was enough. On the bus we checked the hour-by-hour weather forecast, and it said sunny! Great!
Our bus left at 4:50pm. We arrived at the 5th station at around 7pm. And so we split up to look for, buy, and eat dinner. We ended up eating at the restaurant where they have hot meals. Two guys got kare-raisu (curry rice) which was 950 yen but was probably just 1/3 of that, 2.3km below. I had tempura-udon which was only around 650 yen. It was yummy. But actually, it wasn't enough. But, ah, we were in a hurry. We must be at the summit by 4 or 4:30am to catch the sunrise, and back here before 11am to catch our bus trip back to Shinjuku.
After some group photos, minus one (the person taking the photos), we started our climb at 7:45pm. After about two hours we were already past the 7th station. I thought that was fast. After the 7th station, there's the 8th and 9th station. So supposedly we were 1/4 of our way up. Then, the climb became harder and harder as we got closer and closer. Ah, one of life's many lessons.
Anyways, last night before going to sleep, I watched another movie online and... 5am came and I still can't sleep. I fell asleep at 7am already! Yikes! And then I woke up (because I had to) by 11am to prepare. But actually, I got up at 12pm already. Oh by the way, yesterday, I packed everything already for today's trip. So, a cold shower first. Then, my supposedly spaghetti-and-gratin lunch turned into a salty chow mein dish and not as yummy doria. It wasn't a very pleasant eating experience. Nonetheless, it was still carbohydrates - my source of energy - and so I had to finish it all up. Thankfully I had banana which was the best dish of my 3-dish lunch. Then, final preps, and 2pm came and I was ready to go. Save for the lack of sleep.
Gratin, by the way, is like baked ziti but it doesn't resemble the baked-mac-looking baked ziti I have tried at some "Italian" places in the Philippines.
2pm came and my two trip buddies slash next-door neighbours were not yet so ready-to-go just yet, and so I double checked the bus schedule at the bus stop. Per my "research" online, we could take the 2:15pm bus, so that we could be at the train station by ~2:35pm to meet up with our two other trip buddies, and then we could take the 3:03pm train to get to Shinjuku by 4pm. Guess what. The next bus was not until 2:37pm. Uh-oh, we're going to be late! And we didn't have oxygen cans yet - we still had to buy them in Shinjuku!
Anyways, so we can't do anything about it except inform our two trip buddies who might be early to arrive at Hon-Atsugi. It was so hot today by the way. And I was already wearing one thermal. My mountain climbing bag was already 12kg, with 4L of fluids (2L of water, 2L of sports drink) and 7 additional layers of clothes. I haven't ever been in less than 10 degree weather for more than 30 minutes before - usually if I'm in 10 degree weather or worse, I would go indoors already after no more than 30 minutes. So anyways, I took all necessary precautions. Like the fluids. The cost of these 4L of fluids is just under 200 yen. If I buy them at Mt Fuji it might cost me 4000 yen! I also brought knee and ankle braces. A walking stick. Some Biogesic (paracetamol
) medicine. A low stool (because it's difficult for me to stand up from a squat or sit-on-the-floor position). An umbrella in case it rains on the way between home and the starting point of the Mt Fuji climb. A scarf, a pair of gloves, two knit headgear (bonnets/beanies), and a cap. Two hankies for covering my ears and sunglasses for my eyes in case it becomes sunny. A face towel to wipe away sweat. 6 packs of granola bars. 12 chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. 9 macadamia nut choco cookies. An extra pair of shoes - because my Nike running shoes was "smiling" already. I glued it up but who knows, what if it gives in! Better to carry an extra half kilo of insurance than walk up and/or down a 1.4km climb without any shoes at all! I also brought my wallet, of course. And my two cellphones (Japan and Philippine numbers). And my Palm TX - which functions as my English-Japanese dictionary, and my movie player. And maybe a couple other things.Anyways, better to be safe than sorry. Better to carry all that weight and make it to the top, than having to go down because I am not prepared to complete the whole trip.
So, we got to Hon-Atsugi at around 3:05pm already, two minutes too late for the 3:03pm train. Surprisingly, the train was late and so we were still able to get on the train. We got to Shinjuku just around 4pm. We met up with Kim-san, the trip organizer, and we met his girlfriend and also his cousin, both for the first time. Then a little later Dr. Kim arrived. Then there we were, 9 of us, trip buddies for this Fuji climb. We hurried first to find oxygen cans for bringing up to Fuji. But we didn't have enough time anymore and we weren't able to buy our dinner! So we had to buy dinner at the 5th station of Mt Fuji, where our climb starts. Off to the bus station we went and then somebody shouted "Ronj!"
It was Coy, my friend from the Philippine, who is about to graduate from her masteral degree this August/September. This is only the 2nd time I've seen her during my Japan trip, and whoah, this was a big coincidence. I found out she was going to Mt Fuji as well. I told her we were late for our bus already and that we should just catch each other at Mt Fuji.
On the bus, I planned to either sleep the whole time, or watch a movie. I attempted both but didn't really get to finish either one of them. Oh well, I hope my staggered sleep last night (6pm to 10pm and 7am to 11am) was enough. On the bus we checked the hour-by-hour weather forecast, and it said sunny! Great!
Our bus left at 4:50pm. We arrived at the 5th station at around 7pm. And so we split up to look for, buy, and eat dinner. We ended up eating at the restaurant where they have hot meals. Two guys got kare-raisu (curry rice) which was 950 yen but was probably just 1/3 of that, 2.3km below. I had tempura-udon which was only around 650 yen. It was yummy. But actually, it wasn't enough. But, ah, we were in a hurry. We must be at the summit by 4 or 4:30am to catch the sunrise, and back here before 11am to catch our bus trip back to Shinjuku.
After some group photos, minus one (the person taking the photos), we started our climb at 7:45pm. After about two hours we were already past the 7th station. I thought that was fast. After the 7th station, there's the 8th and 9th station. So supposedly we were 1/4 of our way up. Then, the climb became harder and harder as we got closer and closer. Ah, one of life's many lessons.
12 August 2010
The Calm Before The Storm
On the topic of
food,
pinoy food,
problems
Last night, I stayed up really late - until around 5:30am - to prepare my body clock for the Fuji climb. Woke up really late today. 2pm. I have practically nothing to do today. Of course I had my brunch first, which was the last of my frankfurters, together with the last of my leftover fried chicken from last week, and the last of my pechay (steamed) for the week. Then, bam! My knee and leg muscles hurt, after all that running (and running during basketball) last Tuesday and cycling to downtown Atsugi yesterday. Uh-oh, I hope I'll be fine for our climb tomorrow!
Anyways, indeed it was quite a wet day today and it was well and good that we did not push through with the Fuji climb today.
And with bed weather comes... More sleep. Because I have nothing much to do, I watched something online and fell asleep for about four hours from 6pm to 10pm. And then I was hungry and so I bought food from the convenience store. I had that salad with a yummy sesame-tasting dressing and half an egg, and a pack of burgers, chicken nuggets, fried chicken bits, and potato poppers that I ate with ketchup. I also bought my carbohydrate-laden lunch for tomorrow, just before our Mt Fuji trip starts. Unfortunately, I was really hoping to buy red/meat sauce spaghetti and creamy gratin (pronounced gruh-tun) like I did a few weeks back, but they didn't have it. So I settled for this chow mein looking dish and this doria, which is like rice/risotto with some creamy topping. Not exactly my ideal meal before a climb up a 3776m high mountain.
Anyways, I intended to sleep really late again today, to prepare my body clock for the Fuji climb.
Anyways, indeed it was quite a wet day today and it was well and good that we did not push through with the Fuji climb today.
And with bed weather comes... More sleep. Because I have nothing much to do, I watched something online and fell asleep for about four hours from 6pm to 10pm. And then I was hungry and so I bought food from the convenience store. I had that salad with a yummy sesame-tasting dressing and half an egg, and a pack of burgers, chicken nuggets, fried chicken bits, and potato poppers that I ate with ketchup. I also bought my carbohydrate-laden lunch for tomorrow, just before our Mt Fuji trip starts. Unfortunately, I was really hoping to buy red/meat sauce spaghetti and creamy gratin (pronounced gruh-tun) like I did a few weeks back, but they didn't have it. So I settled for this chow mein looking dish and this doria, which is like rice/risotto with some creamy topping. Not exactly my ideal meal before a climb up a 3776m high mountain.
Anyways, I intended to sleep really late again today, to prepare my body clock for the Fuji climb.
11 August 2010
One Day till Mt Fuji???
On the topic of
bicycle,
busy,
groceries,
international students,
pinoy food,
school
I woke up really late today because I stayed really late last night at the office, to finish as much as I can before TPU closes tomorrow! And today, we'll be doing some shopping for gear and necessities for our Mt Fuji climb. Supposedly I should be at the office already by 10:30am to help Kim-san move to his new desk - because he's graduating already! He'll be Dr. Kim soon. Anyways, Kim-san's current area is an ideal position and so one of the next senior students, Jiang-san, had already "reservate" the area so he was moving there. Meanwhile, I "reserved" Jiang-san's seat. So when I got to the office I moved my stuff first. I knew I was going to be busy today and so I ate my 2nd batch of franksilog (frankfurters, sinaing/rice, and itlog/egg) at the office. I also started copying files to my hard drive so that I have the option of doing some school work during the summer break while TPU is closed and the electricity is down (hence I cannot access my school PC even remotely).
But wait, when I arrived at the office, there was "bad" news. The last couple of days we were weary of this typhoon that started from around north of the Philippines and which has made its way to Korea and forecasted to hit Japan from the west. There was a chance it could make the weather really bad on Thursday and so Kim-san, our Mt Fuji trip organizer and 2-time Mt Fuji climber, postponed our bus reservations a day later. Yay! One more day of rest before Mt Fuji.
At around 3pm, it was time to go for our Mt Fuji shopping already. 5 of us went by bicycle. We first went to the 100-yen store at AT. My Fuji trip buddies bought flashlights, gloves, sunglasses, and hats/caps. Next stop was downtown Atsugi where we wanted to buy Oxygen supply cans. The store which sells them was closed! So we went to SATY, a mall / department store, hoping to find those O2 cans there instead. No luck. Instead, there were some jackets selling for only 500 yen. Wow, that is extremely cheap! 3 of us bought jackets. I didn't bring the jacket up to Fuji though because it is not water-proof. The other 2 did. My trip buddies also bought sunscreen lotion. So anyway, next stop was the shoe store. As expected, I didn't have any shoe size so I had to make do with my Nike running shoes. 3 of my trip buddies were able to buy hiking shoes at relatively cheap, sale prices at around 4000 yen. Wow. I have this difficulty of finding shoe sizes in Singapore and in Japan. I had this problem years ago in the Philippines but thankfully now, there are more people with big feet like me and so they do sell the larger sizes but mostly only for non-formal footwear like sports shoes and sandals.
Anyways, after that we went back to AT to buy food and drinks for our climb. Actually earlier today I received my online order of Nature Valley granola bars
from Amazon.co.jp. Plus last Sunday when I did my grocery shopping, I already bought 4L of this Gatorade-like Aquarius sports drink by Coca-Cola, but more similar and more in competition to Pocari Sweat. So, I only needed to buy another carton of juice and milk which I didn't buy last Sunday because I thought my week is only until Wednesday and that Thursday and Friday will be devoted to the Fuji climb. Anyways, I saw one pack of Dried Green Mangoes for sale and I bought it. :-D
Actually, whenever I do get a chance, I buy these Philippine-made products (like these dried mangoes and Magic Flakes) so that hopefully they would think there is a market here and so they would continue to import from the Philippines.
And so, that was the shopping we did. We all went back home of course, and then I had my last batch of BBQ ribs. Ate it together with steamed pechay. Then back to the office, to do my last minute work before TPU closes tomorrow. I stayed quite late at TPU, along with probably 4 other guys. Literally there was no tomorrow, not until 6 days from now.
But wait, when I arrived at the office, there was "bad" news. The last couple of days we were weary of this typhoon that started from around north of the Philippines and which has made its way to Korea and forecasted to hit Japan from the west. There was a chance it could make the weather really bad on Thursday and so Kim-san, our Mt Fuji trip organizer and 2-time Mt Fuji climber, postponed our bus reservations a day later. Yay! One more day of rest before Mt Fuji.
At around 3pm, it was time to go for our Mt Fuji shopping already. 5 of us went by bicycle. We first went to the 100-yen store at AT. My Fuji trip buddies bought flashlights, gloves, sunglasses, and hats/caps. Next stop was downtown Atsugi where we wanted to buy Oxygen supply cans. The store which sells them was closed! So we went to SATY, a mall / department store, hoping to find those O2 cans there instead. No luck. Instead, there were some jackets selling for only 500 yen. Wow, that is extremely cheap! 3 of us bought jackets. I didn't bring the jacket up to Fuji though because it is not water-proof. The other 2 did. My trip buddies also bought sunscreen lotion. So anyway, next stop was the shoe store. As expected, I didn't have any shoe size so I had to make do with my Nike running shoes. 3 of my trip buddies were able to buy hiking shoes at relatively cheap, sale prices at around 4000 yen. Wow. I have this difficulty of finding shoe sizes in Singapore and in Japan. I had this problem years ago in the Philippines but thankfully now, there are more people with big feet like me and so they do sell the larger sizes but mostly only for non-formal footwear like sports shoes and sandals.
from Amazon.co.jp. Plus last Sunday when I did my grocery shopping, I already bought 4L of this Gatorade-like Aquarius sports drink by Coca-Cola, but more similar and more in competition to Pocari Sweat. So, I only needed to buy another carton of juice and milk which I didn't buy last Sunday because I thought my week is only until Wednesday and that Thursday and Friday will be devoted to the Fuji climb. Anyways, I saw one pack of Dried Green Mangoes for sale and I bought it. :-DActually, whenever I do get a chance, I buy these Philippine-made products (like these dried mangoes and Magic Flakes) so that hopefully they would think there is a market here and so they would continue to import from the Philippines.
And so, that was the shopping we did. We all went back home of course, and then I had my last batch of BBQ ribs. Ate it together with steamed pechay. Then back to the office, to do my last minute work before TPU closes tomorrow. I stayed quite late at TPU, along with probably 4 other guys. Literally there was no tomorrow, not until 6 days from now.
10 August 2010
Early!
On the topic of
basketball,
busy,
food,
pinoy food,
problems
Woke up relatively early today, and went to school relatively early. As usual I was busy, considering that I wanted to finish a lot of stuff before TPU closes on Thursday, the 12th of August.
I went home for lunch and stove-grilled/fried the frankfurters and made a couple of perfect-looking sunny-side-up eggs. I really wanted to eat frankfurters because I regretted not having to eat some during the Hanabi festival last Saturday. I have forgotten what frankfurters taste exactly but these to me tasted like Japanese-style frankfurters. Nonetheless, they are just what I needed. Or rather, wanted. :-D
And last night I heard that Mara enjoyed Rodic's tapsilog, and wow, I want some too! I had to have some silog of my own.
Anyways, the secret to my perfect-looking sunny-side-up eggs was an egg shaper. But, actually I wasn't able to find one for use when frying eggs. Instead I got me a microwave egg shaper. Pretty convenient. Two minutes in the microwave and voila, I have me two perfect sunny-side-ups. Wasn't uniformly cooked though. The outer part resembled more like soft-boiled egg while the inside was cooked egg just right. Anyways, the one thing I like about this is - no cooking oil! :-)
And then a busy afternoon yet again. Tuesday is usually basketball day but I thought, no more basketball - I have to be well rested for our Mt Fuji trip on Thursday. But, the boys wanted to play. So, I thought, what the heck. I <3 basketball.
When we got to the gym, Kim-san, the Korean basketball superstar, wasn't there yet. And when he arrived he said that he can't play anymore because his girlfriend was at his apartment and he had to attend to her. So, Okada-san joined us instead. A little bit thankfully though that because there was no Kim-san, there was no "betting," and so it was a relatively light and easy casual game of basketball. It was China vs the World (i.e. Japan and the Philippines). And then suddenly, the women's basketball club using the gym approached us and said "We are closing the gym now." Yikes! So off we went to the 4th floor to do some running instead. The whole time running, we were all thinking of how we can go down by rope from the 4th floor to the gym floor (2nd floor) just to be able to play basketball. I probably ran already about 500+ meters when one of the guys checked the gym door if it was "accidentally" left open by the women's basketball club members. It was. So back to basketball it was. Yahoo! It was a really fun, relaxing game of basketball. For some reason, I just did so much running though even during the basketball game supposedly to "confuse" the opponents. But, that was too much running for a day. But actually it was good endurance training for our Mt Fuji climb.
For dinner I ate the BBQ ribs again. I also prepared a Ceasar salad again, with lettuce, tomatoes, and bacon bits as usual. The ribs tasted a little better than yesterday. I think some were just better marinated than others. Or maybe better cooked than others. Maybe the basting had something to do with the taste. I don't know if I just over- or under-basted some which didn't taste as good as the others. Anyways, it was my first time to "baste." It was probably also my first time to marinate and "grill" BBQ ribs. Nonetheless, I loved it. Like yesterday, I went back to do some more work at the office right after dinner.
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