Day 1: Vancouver - Tokyo

After the last day of school for Mr.Chan, we flew on Japan Airlines on a Saturday noon flight and on our way to an exciting 2 full days + 2 half days trip to Tokyo! JAL was pretty good. The flight attendants were hawt (well, moreso than the ones on Air Canada), the food and beverage choices was alot better, and we lucked out with good seats! On our flight to Tokyo, we were assigned seats behind the front door entrance panel so we got abit more leg room. We were hoping for the emergency exit seats but they were all taken. Oh well, we'll take anything!

Bubye, Vancouver! Bubye, work! Bubye, crazy coworkers!


Is this what Heaven looks like? I want to pounce on those fluffy, bouncy clouds!!


This is what I tried to do to entertain myself on the flight. You'd think I'd play on my own NDS... but this was too cool. Who wouldn't want to play tetris on their own personal screen at their own seat????? I also watched American Gangster for the second time.... good movie.


This is the lunch served before we arrive Tokyo, after a 9 hour flight. Not bad, Mr.Chan liked the cookie so much he stole and ate mine. >:(


So after a 9 hour flight, a 1.4 hour shuttle bus ride from the airport (which I totally recommend... abit of a splurge, but who want to haul luggages and jump from one train to another, and walk who knows how long from the subway station to the hotel when you're groggy from the plane ride and you don't really want to tackle Tokyo Metro subway station on their first day?!?!).... we arrived our hotel just before dinner time. Sunshine City Prince Hotel (the name is so azn haha!) in Ikebukuro!! It was a decent hotel. Rather old (hence the affordable price), but very very clean. We just wanted a clean place to shower and sleep after a long day, and we couldn't justify paying for an extravagant hotel. Apparently it's a very popular hotel for first time travelers and tour groups. The best part is, our hotel deal came with free breakfast buffet (western continental breakfast, and Japanese breakfast!). It was a good idea because most places in Tokyo open between 10:30 - 11:00am, and we started our days early. A good breakfast in the morning really boosted us up and prepared us for the traveling we had to do ... until lunch.

I'm not joking when I say our hotel room is small. The bathroom is about double the size of an airplane bathroom.


You also had to pay to watch any TV channels in your hotel room. MEH.

Our room might be designed for tiny people, but the view from our room wasn't so bad.
View of Ikebukuro (part of).



After we washed up and replenished fluids in our bodies, we were ready to head out. We didn't care that we were tired and jet-lagged. We wanted to make the most out of our times there!

Our hotel is connected to the Sunshine City, which is a multi-entertainment, shopping and food complex. Between the hotel and the complex is the famous Toyota Amlux. As car lovers, we had to make a pit stop there (well, it's also because of its free admission - hey, we're Chinese). We were a little bit disappointed because we were hoping to see alot more sports concept cars... but we didn't. We were abit groggy due to the fact that we were tired and hungry, and the building was to close in 15 mins so we rushed abit. Meh. The Amlux closes at 7pm, so we wanted to check it out before we find food.

The Harrier hybrid engine... nice! I'm a sports utility type of gal. How I miss my Scooby Impreza. :(


Mr.C's new school bus, the Hiace. He likes to drive it like it's stolen.


I think this was the bB.


7 floors of Toyota vroom-vroomness! The one thing I forgot to do was to take a photo of the the ultimate car from Toyota ... the Century packed with an omg V12 engine! (this is the car that's near Mr.C's face in the photo below). Toyota's F1 doesn't even have a V12 engine, you see. Apparently this car was made for the Japanese Emperor, but civilians can buy this car. However, it was rumored that when you no longer want this car you'd have to return it to Toyota, so there are no 2nd hand Century roaming around anywhere. I also didn't take a photo of the Castrol Supra JTCC that was on display there.... SUPRA, what was I thinking! I blame this on my jetlag.


After a 40 mins stay in the Amlux, we were ready to eat. We were suppose to go to this local ramen shop in a secluded alley near the Ikebukuro subway station. We got in and we were scared away by the lack of pictures and kanji on the menu. Correction, they didn't have a menu. It was a vending machine and you had to choose and press buttons according to what you want for meat/veggies/noodle thickness/soup base. You insert money according to what you pressed, and it spits out a receipt in Japanese which you then take to the chef at the counter, who will make your order. The only chinese word on the vending machine was "grill" and that wasn't very helpful. It was our first day and we didn't feel adventurous enough so we walked another block and found another famous ramen shop called Mutekiya. I read about it on several travel blogs when I was doing research before the trip, and we had to try it to find out what the hype was. The best part of this place was, the menu had pictures! Yay.

This is a tiny little shop, and seats maybe 10 people maximum at any given time. There were no tables... we all sat on bar stools in front of a long bar counter, filled with self-help goodies such as ice water, iced green tea concentrate, garlic, chili oil, and some foreign/funky/strong smelling condiments that we didn't try. You may find it claustrophobic in there, but no worries - as with any ramen shops nobody hang out there to chat and mingle. We had to line up for about 35 mins but luckily, one waitress took orders from outside to speed up the process. Apparenty, it's not uncommon to line up for a bowl of their ramen for a minimum of 30-45 mins. When we were ahead in the lineup, there were about oh, 40 some people behind us. My goodness. I was tempted to take a photo of the lineup, but I didn't want to get beaten up on the street.


I ordered their signature dish: Honmarumen consisted of Chasu, tomago (seasoned smoked egg... mmmmm), roasted seaweed/laver from Chiba, original sungan, veggies and freshly home-made ramen in a thick pork broth. The Chasu (pork slices) were so soft they literally melt in your mouth... no chewing needed. The noodle had a good, "chewy" texture and the soup was so flavorful .... we had to keep drinking it. It was worth the half hour wait. It was so good we went there again the next night... after dinner for "late night snack". Yikes.


Mr.C was excited about his ramen. He ordered the "Chasu only" ramen as he didn't want any vegetables contaminating his soup. Uhhhh.


Mutekiya was about 2-3 blocks away from Ikebukuro station. After dinner, we walked back to our hotel (about a 15 min walk from the station). Along the way, there were small shops, 100 yen shops, eateries, a Hello Kitty store (!!!), Pachinko parlours (we didn't go into those), and the Sunshine City Complex. The street was packed with people and crazy traffic 24 hours a day...

On our way back to the hotel was a busy pedestrial-only street lined with shops, karoake places, Izakayas, beer parlours, convenient stores, small shops and even a Wendy's (which was always busy... weird). The blue sparkly building behind Mr.C is the Toyota Amlux. The Sunshine City is just across from the Amlux and our hotel is behind the Amlux.


More to come ... more later.

Sleepless (revisited)

I've been up for an hour already and I can't seem to fall back asleep. I tried to read, count sheeps, play my NDS, read the bible, stare at the ceiling, stare at the wall, catch up on work emails with my crackberry.

C'mon!!! I use to be able to sleep like a pig and a fire truck wouldn't even wake me. Jet lag, you are teh sucks.

Sleepless.

I haven't been able to sleep well in the last week (wow, would you look at the time this post is written!). Work has been rather insane for the last month or so, dealing with last minute crisis-es, ridiculous provincial-wide budget cuts from the Ministry, an In-tray packed with projects and work that would almost near the ceiling (ok, abit exaggerated here), people with little common sense (or lack of) who end up creating more work for others, and general annoyance. I believe it's healthy to take a day or two (or weeks?) off work every 3-4 months, when you can. To recollect, refocus. Lack of public holidays between New Years and Spring Break sometimes make me crazy! Actually, it's work that sometimes make me go crazy.... and it often makes me hate people in general. meh.

The Mr. and I will be off for the next 10 days to the Land of the Rising Sun and my hometown, Hong Kong! We're pretty excited as this will be our first time traveling together. No, it's not our honeymoon (we never planned for one). Along with my 90+ year old Grandma, the majority of my Mom's family weren't able to make it to our wedding last summer. So, we thought it'd be nice for us to go back and visit my poh poh and the rest of the family. My poh poh was really really sad when she found out (doctor's recommendation) she couldn't travel to come to the weeding last year. :( I can't believe it's been nearly 10 years since I was back! I look forward to seeing my poh poh (she's a real smart and bright girl, still going to all these places around town on her own, yikes), and my new nephews and niece. I'm also taking this opportunity to renew my Hong Kong ID card to the new SmartID card. I already made an appointment online so they better not make me wait in line at the Immigration Department for hours like years ago. >:( We're also excited about the side trip to Nippon. We got a deal on this side trip package and thought it'd be nice to go there since we're already in that part of Asia. We may never take a big trip to Asia or anywhere again (not in the near future anyways), so we decided to add on the side trip to make the most out of it.

I'm a little nervous about the side trip, as I've never been there myself and I can't understand the language. I'm hoping my ability to read Chinese/Kanji will help in some way, if we get lost. I have the train system figured out, which isn't too bad as it's rather similiar to the HK MTR subway. Oh well, getting lost will be part of the fun. Hey, if we get lost we won't have to come back to work! Woo!

If you don't hear from me in 10 or so days, it's likely that I got kidnapped (volunatarily) by Hello Kitty or Doraemon. Or I found full-time employment at Hello Kitty Land. I promise to take lots of pictures, though!

Bubye!

Freeze!

Have you ever seen a cop pulled out his/her gun? Have you ever seen a Chinese RCMP in Richmond pulled out his gun in the middle of busy traffic in broad daylight?

I have!

I was just leaving my street and was about to pull out into Garden City heading towards Alderbridge Way, when I saw an RCMP police car on Garden City with lights and sirens on, trying to stop the car in front of it (it was obvious). Traffic was heavy but everyone steered out of its way to make room so the RCMP and the car ahead of it can pull over to the right side. Being in Richmond, of course, the suspected car stop in the middle of the road. Nobody knew what was going on so we all stopped and wait. After what seems to be 30 seconds, the officer in the car used the speakers and asked the van in front to pull over to the right side. Van did not move, so officer quickly flashed his lights, and repeated his instructions on the speaker. Man, those speakers were loud.

So when the Garden City/Westminster light turned green, traffic quickly moved and made way for the RCMP and van so they could have room to pull aside. Van decided to keep moving on the fast lane (insert OMG emoticon). RCMP quickly flipped his siren and lights on again and repeated his instructions on the speakers to the van in front of him. At this point, I was thinking, omg this van must be loaded with armed drug dealers or something! Anyways, they managed to finally pulled aside after they passed Westminster and I just happened to stop at the red light, watching them. The officer sat in his car for about a minute, getting his stuff ready when suddenly the van in front of him started moving slowly again! (insert OMG emoticon again). The officer quickly jumped back into his car, turned on his sirens and lights again (!!) and screamed over the speakers "Red Caravan license plate XXX XXX stop and pull to the right immediately!!!!". Van stopped, officer hopped out of his car and pulled out his shiny silver gun, aiming it downwards, approaching slowly to the van ahead of him and at this point, the entire world stopped to watch because well, it is some crazy stuff eh! Stupidest move yet - the driver of the van rolled down the window, slowly opened his door (!!) and tried to step out of his car.

The officer yelled at him to stay back in the car and kept pointing him to do so. Guy finally went back into his van and the RCMP still had his gun out, calmly and slowly trying to tell the driver to stay in the car.

Turned out, the driver of the van was a Chinese man who looked like he's in his 70's, with an old lady beside him.

I wonder if this is as exciting as it'll ever get in Richmond.

Did I mention the cop is Chinese (well I can't confirm that, but he looks Chinese)? He's pretty hawt, too. Not as hot as Leehom, though.

Curry in a hurry.

Hello kids! It's been awhile since I blogged. The Mr. and I have been working some late hours the last few weeks and after dinners and clean up and such, we just wanna sleep and pass out. I haven't been in the mood to blog and I never really have anything interesting to say. But, I do like reading food/recipe blogs and I enjoy sharing my tried recipes with friends. I figured, if I at least take pictures of food, it should make the blog a tad bit more interesting, right? I have no idea who reads my blog... but my blog has got to be the blah-est blog ever. I need some drama in my life. No wait, I see enough drama at work already. Scratch that.

Anyways, did I ever tell you I lub curry. Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai. Give me some good curry sauce and I can probably eat a pot of rice. Have I mentioned I'm a huge fan of rice? Meat and veggies aren't necessary. Give me some good sauce and rice and I'll clean them up for you! I've been really enjoying Thai curry lately (I love Thai food!), so I eventually picked up this simple Thai curry recipe. I lost the oiriginal recipe, which I've only used when I first tried it. So below is the recipe from recollection (after cooking this a few times, you don't really need the recipe anyways, and you can always change up the recipe to your liking, which I do!). But if you insist looking for an actual Thai curry recipe, do not panic - there are alot of good ones out there! Google is your friend, yo.

This recipe is awesome because it has very good curry flavor, and so easy to make - dinner in less than 30 mins!!!

Thai Red Curry in a Hurry (I made this name up, how original!)

Ingredients

• 4-5 boneless & skinless chicken breasts, sliced -or- a pound of peeled prawns (can be frozen)
• 1-2 cups of frozen peas / vegetables (depends on your liking)
  
• fish sauce
• thai red curry paste
• 1 can of coconut milk
• few cloves of chopped garlic
  
• half a chopped onion
  
• marinating: salt and pepper, sesame oil, rice wine, soy sauce, cornstarch
  

Directions

• Marinate chicken breasts or prawns with salt and pepper, few drops of sesame oil, a splash of chinese rice wine, splashes of soy sauce, and a few sprinkles of cornstarch. Let marinate overnight (or even 15-30 mins before you start to cook!)
• Drizzle oil in a heated pan/wok over medium high heat, cook garlic and onion until clear.
• Cook and stirfry chicken/prawns until browned, for 6-8 mins. Add frozen peas/vegetables (I also added fresh sliced mushrooms this time, because I happen to have them and I'm trying to clean up the fridge). Cook for another 3-5 mins.

• Stir in a can of coconut milk and turn down to medium heat. Stir. Cover and let simmer for a few minutes until coconut milk bubbles.

• Add a spoonful or two of the red thai curry paste. Stir and mix well. Cover and let simmer for another 3 mins or so. (Time depends on your stove... I have a gas range so it tends to cook fast for me). For the paste that I have, I find that a big spoonful and a half is enough. If unsure, you may want to add the paste abit at at time to get to the flavour you want.
  

• Add a splash or two of fish sauce. Stir and let the sauce become bubbly. Taste test at this point. It may need abit of salt or soy sauce (your preference).
  

• Serve over steamed rice!

Note:

• If you get the red thai curry paste from Save On, you're likely to use double the amount I used in this recipe, and some soy sauce at the end to "diu may". I find that brand of paste is not as flavorful.
• I purchased my jar of red thai curry paste at T&T. It's the best I've had so far. Very strong and bold flavor and with this brand, you don't need to add alot of paste to the coconut milk. It says it's made in Thailand, it has Thai characters on the label, so I assume it's the good stuff. And it is good!
• Aroy-D coconut milk: cheapest I found was at that loonie store on Alexandra/Hazelbridge (Adjacent to McD's on Alderbridge Way).... I've seen it for as low as $0.59 a can! Do not worry, they never expire (ok I lied, but they often expire after 10 years or something).
  

omg I suck at the photography. Sorry for the shaky hands :(