1st to 7th March 2008

As usual, my entries were a little overdue.. Thanks for coming to check out my updates.. This entry has a few more interesting stuff.. So you wun be disappointed.. I hope..

1st March: International Social Event and Sukiyaki

There was no Jap lesson on this particular day.. But we had a social event where we saw some ladies dance Japanese traditional dances in kimonos.. Most of the internationals at the HIC (Hiroshima International Centre) were mainland Chinese with a small handful of Koreans, Philippinos, Amercian, a guy from Cuba and a guy from ITaly.. The people were split into groups and each group had an activity to play with. The group I was at was Paper Sumo wrestlers. We basically draw figurings like the one I drew, make them stand, and put them on boxes as you see in the bottom left picture. Then you would tap the box with ur index fingers. So the sumo which falls will lose while the one standing wins.. Either that, or the first sumo out of the ring will lose..

After some fun at HIC, i returned to Maison Rabelais to wrap more cakes.. IT was till six thirty, I made my way to Hashimoto-san's place and here I am at their place.. I was invited to Sukiyaki!!!

Sukiyaki at Hashimoto's place was good.. The beef tasted fantastic!! And we had so much vegetables to eat.. The tare (ta-rei: marinate) was use as a soup and we just ate it like steamboat.. It asted so good!! Dip the food taken out of the pot in raw egg.. Mamamia! And the sweet couple bought me a Hello Kitty bag of snacks for Dolls Day!! So sweet.. Dolls Day is like children's day just for gals.. Think its on the 3rd of March..

2nd March:Meeting Hiromi for shopping

I met Hiromi for abit of shopping.. Nothing special other than window shopping.. But we did receive some free tokens to play at the arcade..
There these balloons at the arcade i had to take pictures with cuz it looks so cute! A good combination of my favourite colours!!
3rd-5th March 2008: Dolls Day and Hokkaido Fair!! Doll's day:The top three pictures were gifts from dearest Akiko-san and Mido-san! AKiko bought me some a-wa-re.. Which were typical Doll's day tidbits.. And Mido-san actually gave me a box of strawberries with two oranges.. I just made him some herbal chicken soup to thank him for the dinner on Friday, but I received something in return from him.. So nice!! Makes me feel bad though..

Hokkaido Fair: I met Hiromi to grab some stuff at the Hokkaido Fair... Since there were so many goods from Hokkaido, they were of course expensive.. So I could only eat food samples.. Look at that big ham I'm holding.. But Hiromi was nice enough to buy me some Hokkaido Milk.. I expected the milk to be really special.. But it din taste that different.. Sadly..

After I parted with Hiromi at the Hokkaido Fair in Tenmaya, I headed for the bakery again.. Think I wrapped macarons that day.. But I managed to catch some shots with some of the staff I like there! The head chef, aka boss, is on the top left picture.. Only thing is his face was half cut off.. :P

7th March: Visiting MAzda museum

Hiroshima is the only place in Japan you can find more MAzdas than any other brands of cars including Toyota and Honda. Main reason is because the MAzda plant is in Hiroshima.. So the Mazda museum is a must see.. You get to see the process in car assembly and stuff.. Really cool!!

On top of that, you get to see hybrid cars which arent availabe in the market!! Can you tell which is a hybrid car? And yes! there are English speaking guides to take you around and explain stuff to you in English!
Don't I look suave?

And I had a great treat from Sakata-san!! He wanted to teach my Japanese and treat me!!! Told you Japanese are the world's most hospitable people!!

Photos on Photobucket:
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z304/iverylamemeh/Hiroshima%201st%20March-7th%20March/1stMar086.jpg

Photos on Facebook:
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25th Feb-29th Feb: Family of Pigs...

25th February 2008:

A colleague returned from England and bought tea from Harrods.. Look at this beauty.. There is ceylon and English breakfast.. The tea is kinda strong for my liking, and the absence of sugar didn;t help me enjoy the tea.. But the aroma of the tea was really fantastic..

26th February 2008: Breakfast
I've always felt food taste best when eaten right away.. So I had to eat a big good and heavy breakfast.. But I think I over ate, cuz it took me hours to relieve the satiety I had from my breakfast.. Lunch was totally unnnecessary for me.. So I had curry stew with bread and omelette..

27th February 2008: Last heavy breakfast

After my second consecutive heavy breakfast, I decided this was the last heavy breakfast I would eat.. Bread with meatballs and fried toufu.. More like tau kwa.. :)

I went over to the MAzda plant today for a talk by the company.. I had lunch with Ian, Tat-chan, Sakata-san, Choon, Choon's supervisor.. But I was reluctant for lunch since I had a breakfast.. But it seemed rude to not eat when everyone is eating. Too bad Ian insisted on taking us for Korean food since I dislike korean food, there was nothing much I could eat...
So I ordered something 'light'.. a Pig tail soup.. But it was unknowingly a set lunch which even had rice.. So the meal was kinda too heavy.. I had to give the rice to Choon.. Guess how much was my big bowl of soup and rice? 1000 yen!!! That's like $14!!!!! Roar!!!! I was simply pissed the entire day that I had to pay so much for something I din like just because someone simply wanted to eat Korean food, oblivious of what everyone else wants to eat... Oh well, This issue was two months ago.. I simply bear grudges too much...

I was sad the entire day cuz I could no longer buy the apples I wanted to eat because apples are so expensive.. :( So I simply remained in low spirits.. Tat-chan was really nice.. he offered to give me 500 yen because he could sense my sadness.. Well, I should have asked for price before ordering.. It happened to be the special of the day and the poster was blocked from my sight by Choon.. Hiromi-chan heard about my sadness that I can't buy apples anymore that she bought me four apples and brought it to my office!!!! Ain't that sweet? I was so touched.. It simply drived away my sadness for the entire incident...

ありがとうひろみちゃん。。。おリンゴくれていただきました。。。

However, there were things worth rejoicing about.. I was going to meet Sakata-san for dinner because I was supposed to pass him the cupcakes I made... :D Akiko-chan was nice to come along to join us!! Yeah!!! So she was so nice to translate for me and Sakata-san... Thank you akiko!! After a treat of okonomiyaki from Sakata-san, I headed for Maison Rabelais.. Sakata-san, his friend and Akiko-chan went to a sushi restaurant.. I promised to return to the sushi restaurant to find them after I'm done at Maison Rabelais... And for doing that, I was rewarded by Sakata-san by leftover sushi!!!! It was actually wrapped like this.. Totally doesn't look like left overs... But thanks to all the shaking and bumps from my bicycle, look at what happened to the poor sushi.. :(
Nonetheless, it was still really taty.. I'm sure I would hate the sushi in Singapore when I return.. Freshness is so importantly.. There was totally no fishy smell from the sashimi on the sushi..

28th February: Ice cream treat from Tat-chanTat-chan worked really late.. So we agreed to meet at Fresta for ice cream.. Ice cream was still kinda cheap den.. :D But communication breakdown led poor Choon and Tat-chan to go different places to look for me.. :S They went to MR which was closed by then, our apartment in Tokaichi, and finally they found me at FResta.. I found this at FResta.. It seems to be different colours of chocolate used for cake decoration.. It looks very user friendly... :P

I felt so bad.. Although I was waiting for some time, But I enjoyed groceries shopping as ususal.. Sorry Tat-chan... Wasted ur petrol looking for me.. :S

29th February: Meet my Brother Pig!! Mido-san!!!

Akiko-chan bought some mini cream puffs that was the speciality from Kyoto.. She was so nice to save two for me to try.. I was so hungry after my pathetic lunch.. Akiko-chan.. Thank you!! Akiko-chan wanted to take me out for dinner this night.. While I was talking to my Finance manager, Mido-san during our afternoon walk, we happened to run into Akiko-chan when we were reaching the office.. So we talked to Mido-san about our dinner tonight and invited him along.. Too bad he was likely to be busy.... So it wld be just be just me and Akiko-chan...
But.. In the late afternoon.. Akiko-chan and I had a super surprise from Mido-san!! He could joined us!!!! SO the three of us made our way to Kappa-Tei..

We had so much fun eating this spread of food.. Recommendationw as by dearest AKiko-chan.. She really knows where the good food was.. there was charcoal barbequed chicken... The picture on the top right is actually horse meat.. Its horse sashimi.. It tasted pretty good.. :P Sorry to horse lovers.. Please don't hate me.... Bottom right is Mido-san..

The three of us ate s o much that we felt like pigs.. So we called ourselves the family of pigs, or 豚三人家族... :D This was one of my most memorable dinners in Hiroshima.. Not because we had a $140 over dollars of treat from Mido-san, but we really got close after the dinner.. We felt like siblings after the meal.. We even gave each other names for the pig family.. So Mido-san is our Ton-kei豚兄、Akiko-chan is Ton-shi 豚姉、And I'm Ton-mai豚妹.. In case you are wondering why there are no picture of AKiko-chan, she refused to photos with us again.. :(

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19th Feb 2008-24th Feb 2008: Knowing new people...

19th Feb 2008
This box of cute strawberries found its way to my table.. It happens to be another box of sweet memories from my Japanese best friend, AKIKO!!!! :D

This day is special cuz its my two years anniversary with Dave... but yet we're spending it apart...

20th Feb 2008
I finally met Sakata-san, the man Elvin has been bugging me to meet... After meeting Sakata-san, I finally knew why I had to meet him.. He's a really nice man.. Believe me.. If i told you this man's age, you wouldn't believe.. Hint: Sakata has five grand children.. We went for an expensive dinner at a restaurant near Hiroshima station.. Thanks to Ian, our tall and handsome sports car driving senior from ntu and Sakata-san, we had a nice meal...
Left to right: Jackie, Choon, Me, Ian, Sakata-san and Hiromi-chan

After our meal, we went for karaoke.. You would be surprised by the range of chinese and english songs on top of the japanese songs they provided.. shock**

Japanese Karaokes are different because they have tamborines and that shaky thingy.. what is it called? Maracas? ITs quite some fun making a whole of of noises.. Here's me and Hiromi-chan! This is the wireless tap machine for you to search and select the songs...




Say Chex!! Oooops.. Looks like someone got fat... Time to lose weight!!!

Here's Sakata-san and Claire who got mad... Lol... You wun believe this man's age manx....

22nd Feb 08: 大久保さんのアパート(OOkubo's apartment)

If there was one thing that Japan can sell cheaper than Singapore, it would be strawberries.. I was lucky to grab a punnet from pro-mart for 198 yen which is just $2.80? They're sweet, pretty and tasty!!!

Work is tough, but worth it.. cuz I could look forward to going to visit Ookubo's house.. Hearsay news is he has the biggest TV and homiest apartment.. Looks like I will fin out the truth for myself.. :D

I met Hiromi-san at Tenmaya.. And we agreed to meet back at my beloved suncourt while ookubo aka oh!kun aka tatchan drove hiromi-chan to his place.. After picking me from suncourt, we made our way to Fresta where Hiromi bought ingredients to cook for us...

And as expected, Ookubo-san does have a very nice house!!! It has a nice toilet, which has the lavatory separated from the bath.. And ookubo's house smells as good as his car.. I love the smell cuz it makes me feel like i'm on the aircraft.. Lol... Look the the two rabbit looking things on the right, second from the bottom... Those are slt and pepper grinders.. Aren't they cute? :D And we had cakes from Maison Rabelais which tasted absolutely fantastic!!!



23rd Feb 08: Snow Snow Snow



Its a sat, and i spent an entire day at Maison Rabelais.. Well, afternoon jap lessons in Hiroshima gokusai centre... One of my fave teachers here..



Amazing thing is i saw Mirai senpai doing something... Looks like another chocolate drawing masterpiece... Voila!!! She drew this with chocolate on chocolate!!! Ain't it amazing?
Spot the difference!!!
And by the time I headed home, it was snowing really heavily.. It was so cold... and torturous to cycle...

Look at what snow did to me... :(

24th Feb 2008: Maison Rabelais..

I woke up to make chocolate coated strawberries for some special people like Akiko, Hiromi, Ookubo, Chef, Hashimoto-san and wife.. believe me.. All wrapping materials in the picture below is recycled

Nothing special after that.. Just wrapped cakes at Maison Rabelais.. But our head chef received some presents from a desert stall named mikuni... Its a pack of macarons and corn cake..
Never expect corn to go with cake, but this somehow blended perfectly...

17th February 2008 Part 3: Daimon City

After the trip at Sogo, Choon and I returned for a little rest before we met Jackie, Ian and Ookubo for dinner at Daimon City.. Daimon City is pretty big.. Its a smaller version of our Vivo city though... :P

Ian bought us for this dinner at a Chinese style restaurant.. Choon ordered some Chinese set.. Think its some fried chicken set.. I din order since i was still full from my food samplings at sogo.. So, I ordered an almond tofu!!! Yummy!!!!
Ian and Jackie (the pretty gal in the picture below) had a Shabu Shabu buffet dinner.. Coincidently, Jackie stays two blocks away from me and Choon.. :P
And here's us after dinner.. This is the young Ford gang.. Hahhaa.. Everyone here is below thirty!! Hahahaha.. From left to right: Choon, Me, Ookubo and Ian.. Ookubo lives pretty near us, so we get to hitch a ride in his car sometimes.. Lol.. lucky us..
We went to this shoe shop.. And i spotted this Adidas shoe which I think Dave might like..I had some intentions to buy it though.. But just decide to keep my options open.. :D

Photobucket album:

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Facebook album:

Part 1

Part 2

17th February 2008 Part 2: Sogo

Excuse me for another late entry.. Too busy to blog.. Plus I've gotten so lazy i need to eat a lazy-free pill.. Always sleeping more than 8 hours everyday.. As you saw in the previous entry, I went to Science Centre in the morning.. And now, I shall introduce you the nearest shopping centre from my apartment.. Just a 8 mins cycle..

SOGO is pretty much well known for their basement of food samples.. As usual, the display of food was bedazzling me.. Except its too expensive.. Look at the mochi creams!! ITs $2 plus for one of it!!! But its realy tasty.. The boss at Maison Rabelais treated me to it before.... On the 8th floor or whatever floor it is, I see a cute display of dawgs!!!!!!!!!! So cute!!!!!

17th February 2008 Part 1: Children's science centre

Chong and I woke up for another day of fun. Well, Choon Fei didn't exactly enjoy himself.. Cuz he thinks Singapore's Science Centre is better. I can't deny that, but the entry fee was free! And there is a planetarium like our omni-theatre, except that its not so action pack. It did picture a very nice stary sky though.. But Singapore Science Centre is indeed better in every way.. But I shall not complain because its free.. Haha..

The centre picture in the first row is actually me in a playground.. The playground stated its for kids under 8.. So big fat Claire had to squeeze in.. The top row right picture and centre row left picture is the planetrium.. The centre picture of the bottom row is the sports centre.. :D

15th-16th February 08 Ear doctor..

15th February TGIF!!

Well, as you notice in an entry previously, I had a ear injury. Since my poor eay refuse to stop bleeding, I had to see the doctor. It was a pretty comfortable ear cleaning session. The doctor gave me some medication and I recovered quickly within 2 days.

Uniforms are really pretty here. Look at the pretty nurses I caught photo with!!

After my clinic visit, I cycled back to office to meet my best friend, Akiko-chan. Akiko-chan brought me for okonomiyaki at Yokogawa. The surprising things was that I could actually cycle faster than the street train akiko-chan was taking. The okonomiyaki shop is called Lopez and its open by a man from guatemala. The okonomiyaki had a few special points to note. Firstly, the egg, as you see in the top right corner has two egg yolks. Secondly, the cheese used for the topping is mozarella (I didn't want it cuz it cost 200 yen ($2.80) for my extra cheese topping. But akiko-chan was so sweet to treat me to my favourite topping.. CHEESE!!!) The other special ingredient is Jalepeno Peppers(Hel-lo-pi-no not Je-le-pi-no)

After my fantastic dinner with Akiko-chan, I headed for Maison Rabelais. There was nothing much to do. But the Chef asked me to take a look at this. Its this special chocolate in a metal pan accompanied with a golden spoon. The words in Japanese says 'karuma Claire'... Isn't that nice??

Too bad, its not named becuz of me. Its name as indicated by the chocolate they used to make the world's best milk chocolate. Although its chocolate, its soft enough for you to eat with a spoon, but not soft enough for you to just eat it as though its ganache.
Its really cool the way so many things in Japan are named Claire. Remember the accessory shop? Well, this chocolate is from Swiss though. Too bad, I didn't have a chance to try it.

16th February 2008 Saturday

Well, I woke up as usual, and I headed for Mamachen to buy my usual cheap groceries. The only problem is I can't remember what I did after that(All thanks to my slow blogging)

I do remember I joined Choon Fei for his usual Soka Gakkai meeting. These girls are from the　女子部。 Which means they are the girls category. Its a pleasure to take photos with Japanese becasue they never give me the "What's with the twist/victory sign post" look. And its nice when everyone have hand signals with me!

And after that, we had a nice dinner with Hashimoto-san at 八剣伝 as usual. Hashimoto-san was again really nice to give us a really nice treat you see in the photo below:
Chong and I would be going to the Science Centre tomorrow. So, I prepared some food to consume there... I'll upload photos for Science centre soon!!

Meanwhile, please enjoy this weeks photos at photobucket and facebook:

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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102557&id=651105233

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