Singapore Pt. 2

On the 29th the weather fined up, and we took full advantage by visiting the Singapore Zoo & Night Safari which were awesome. But first we had a great farewell lunch for Catherine at a local Indian restaurant called Samy's. It is an old style Singapore restaurant in a big old colonial building. Top marks for atmosphere, authenticity, service and food. Top place, made me change my opinion that all Indian food tastes the same. Goodbye Catherine! Keep well!

I love going to the zoo and this was one of the best one's I've been to. If you haven't been to Singapore, the whole place is basically a jungle, giant trees line the roads and there is green everywhere you look. The zoo is basically a rainforest and they have tonnes of space and animals in good habitats. The Night Safari is a seperate zoo for nocturnal animals, and instead of walking around you get driven around on a tram which is sweet because walkig around is the only downer about zoos. Being at a zoo at nighttime gives the whole experience a different atmosphere and also the animals are more natural because they are basically oblivious to the visitors. Except for a tiger that I woke up from it's deep sleep by using the bubbler which had some shoddy plumbing and the pipes started shaking loudly. The tiger woke up and came straight for the glass to see what was up, I felt bad but it was pretty sweet having it come so close.

Then yesterday (being Eri's last day) we went back to Sentosa for a swim at the beach (with imported Indonesian sand), a pink dolphin show, a luge ride (kind of go kart) and a view tower before heading to Chinatown for dinner, where we ate some street food and looked around before heading to a nice Italian restaurant. A very touristy day, but very fun. It was a nice ending for her 4 days here which were very sweet indeed. This morning we had to get up super early to get to the airport, so today I am lazing around until tonight when I hope to meet up with my Japanese boss from work Ayako for some New Year's partying. Happy New Year to everyone, I hope it's a good one.

Day Three/Day Four

Singapore Pt. 1

For the christmas holidays I booked a ticket to Singapore to visit my mum and family. She relocated here for work to head the library department for the UNSW's new Asia campus. Eri wanted to come but her parents said it was not appropriate, but after visiting them and asking for their permission in person they agreed for her to come along.

We flew in during the early hours of the 27th and caught a quick taxi to my mum's nice condominium. Her uni gave her a generous rental allowance so we are in a great position near the city in a nice condominuim. In the morning I greeted my family properly and gave them their presents. It was nice to see them after a year of absence. Then we briefly visited the new campus which is down the road to see mum in action before heading out to do some exploring, followed by a post-christmas seafood buffet extravaganza with the family that left it's mark on our waistlines, followed by a beer down at the Quays at Asia's only Hooters family restaurant.

The 28th was a bit of a mess, after letting Ishmael and his friend drop their bags off at our place we took a walk to the nearby botannical gardens which were nice, except for the tropical rain that descended upon us. Then after attempting to visit the zoo we took a cable car to the resorty Sentosa Island to visit the aquarium, which was nice but small. Then it was off to Little India for dinner, where some guy grabbed Eri's ass, before meeting Ishmael and heading to Singapore's very own Ministry of Sound. The club is huge and very impressive, but the music is pretty dismal which is standard for Asia (Japan not included).

Day One/Day Two

Ninja Christmas

On the weekend me & Eri took Risha from Sydney to Asakusa to do some sightseeing and souvenir shopping. Managed to buy all my christmas presents in one hit. Probably the best presents I've bought yet, a jinbei for dad, a yukata for Catherine and a tea set for mum, amongst other things. Afterwards we headed to Harajuku for some more shopping, stopping by the Bape & Ice Cream's store, before meeting James and heading up the government building for a night view and getting loose on nomihodai at an izakaya. Then we parted with James & Risha because he left his bag behind and missed the last train.

On Sunday we headed out to Yokohama to see a Japanese Idols exhibition at the Yokohama museum of art. The exhibition was supposed to explore peoples obsession with fame and image, but a lot of the exibits had nothing to do with the theme. It was still a pretty decent outing. Then we walked to Chinatown where we found an all-you-can-eat yum cha restaurant for 2600 yen. Now, if you know me you know I LOVE YUM CHA more than most things in life. This being the first yum cha I've had in a year, I was suitably excited and devoured an unhealthily sized meal. Nice. While not quite up to Sydney standards, the food was still very good and it felt like meeting an old friend in my belly.

Monday, being christmas it was time for something a little special, so I met James and Risha for dinner at the ninja restaurant in Akasuka. The place was pimped out and the waiters were suited up in all the ninja gear, there were trap doors, secret passage ways and even a ninja magic show which was fun. But I was suprised by the prices, turns out the ninja restaurant actually serves gourmet food which means high prices and small servings. Granted the food was excellent, but it hurt the wallet and left me a little hungry. Usually theme restaurants are kind of cheap and tacky, but this was a serious restaurant... with waiters dressed as ninjas. Either way it was worth it being a special occasion and all. Also I'm pretty sure this is the only ninja christmas I will ever have.

Asakusa/Harajuku/Yokohama/Akasuka

Snowboarding and such

Spent the weekend in Niigata with Eri & her friends. Me & 4 Japanese girls... sounds better than it was, unfortunately I couldn't get any male support so I was the minority for the weekend. Eri's parents have a 'sports mansion' which is basically an apartment with a pool, spa & onsen. Very tidy.

Saturday I tried my hand at snowboarding for the 2nd time and found I actually enjoyed it a little. The first time I spent the whole time on my ass being laughed at. This time is was still on my ass, but people were nice enough not to laugh. The conditions were not good by Japanese standards, but still good enough to practice my turns. Eri is a bit of a snow bunny so she gave me some good advice. In the evening we had a nabe party at the mansion which was tasty, but the combination of food, alcohol and excessive heating put everyone to sleep pretty quickly. But we got up to have a soak in the private onsen.

Sunday it was raining and bad conditions for skiing so we stayed indoors and went for a swim in the indoor pool and soaked it up in the spas & onsen again. Didn't do so much, but it was exactly what I felt like, recently I've had no time to chill out, especially with the lady. Hopefully conditions will pick up soon and we can make another weekend trip out there.

Niigata

More of the same

Another solid weekend has passed. On Friday Eri's older sister had an 'otsukare' (end of year) party in Shibuya. Was hilarious seeing Japanese dudes getting loose. When they are drunk they stop being shy and love speaking broken english. I even got a chant of my name going just from walking in the door. The funniest were these two guys who tucked there things behind their legs and put on funny voices because women paid less for the party. They said it was an old Japanese joke, but everyone else said it wasn't.

Saturday me & James went out for dinner with Kumiko and her friend. We went to an all-you-can-eat (tabehodai) yaki-niku bbq place for dinner. 2 hours of eating for 2000 yen ($20) was pretty sweet. James taught us all the term 'food peaking' and I explained to the girls that maybe 5 people would understand what it meant, if that. Wandering around Kabukicho in Shinjuku is always interesting too.

Sunday it was time for a bit of culture, so we visited the infamous Yasukuni Shrine, which is very controversial in Asia because it enshrines a large number of war criminals. The museum used some interesting wording, but nothing too extreme. I really don't know enough about the war to pass judgement. Then me & Eri took James to our favourite eating place in Tokyo, the Korean town Shin-Okubo for some Nabe & Chijimi. It's the new Yum-Cha for me.

On Tuesday night after work I went out with some coworkers to a 2 hour all-you-can-drink (nomihodai) place for 1200yen ($12). Needless to say we got loose and had a lot of laughs. One of my new coworkers shared many details of his sexual escapades in Japan which were very enlightening. But the funniest thing was a Japanese guy who is frineds with my Southern buddy James, who is reffered to as 'The General' cause he orders people to drink. This dude gets loose and yells shit at everyone in broken english. "I'm customer! You want the money? You bring me the beer b**ch!!". Classic.

Yaki Niku/Yasukuni Jinja/Shibuya

Ageha Again & Nikko

Just got back from Nikko which is a popular tourist spot near Tokyo. It was nice enough, famous temples etc, but a little too quiet for me. The place is a bit of a ghost town. Me & Eri went down for the weekend and basically just went to the very famous Tosho-gu shrine, where the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" saying originates from and we also caught a famous monkey-school show, which I didn't like. A monkey-school show sounds like it couldn't be anything but entertaining, but it was more of a monkey comedy or monkey theatre with about 8 monkeys and a Japanese guy going through rehearsed sketeches. I didn't get it.

On Friday night I found myself at Ageha for the 3rd time, not because I wanted to go, but because almost everyone I know was going and it was a good opportunity for me & James to spend some more quality-drunk-time together. It was the most crowded I've seen it for dj's Deep Dish & some other guy I don't care for. Even though the music isn't my bag it was a good party all the same. It was cool to see Kumiko's otaku (geeky) brother get loose and to see my different friends get along and have a good time.

Nikko