This is a small shop tucked in the houses of Yanaka. The insides of the shop are even more interesting! 

Besides my 500ml of water, I needed to cool down with cold drinks bought from convenience stalls. Just try to imagine walking under the hot sun with occasional shade from the houses. 

This cat was resting outside this house with no one in side and we 2 girls approached it to make friends and take photos :) 

There were some stalls set up selling stuff like books, cds. 

At Yanaka, we saw this place full of people celebrating some occasion. I saw this Chinese character "Yu" and guess that it could be a ceremony to pray or welcome rain for such hot weather :) 

kuro.shiro.neko ate this set of soup soba and I think pork don @ 550 yen. 

We had lunch in Jimbocho (book town). I had my first experience of purchasing the food coupons from the vending machine. I chose this cold slightly spicy soba with this fried veggie fritter don (rice) @ 680 yen. 

I was feeling sweaty and thirsty that I had to buy this isotonic drink from the vending machine and take a photo of it. hee. 

Perhaps it was a Sunday, so there was no caretaker around at the shrine. This looks like some charms for people to carry around. So interesting. 

kuro.shiro.neko described very well of our search for the neko (cat) shrine near Asakusa. This is a close-up view of the wooden plague where one can wish for the other half. kuro.shiro.neko spotted one that thanked the shrine in making their wish come true.

We spotted this black stray cat in some back alley of Asakusa. 

We visited this shrine in Asakusa on 6 Aug (2nd day). I scooped some water to pour onto my hands. I think it is for good luck :) 

kuro.shiro.neko brought me to the Bandai office near our hotel in Asakusa and I picked these 2 characters to take a photo with them.

We also tried these 2 appetisers. The left bowl was some long bean. The right one is interesting. It tasted like some chickpea concoction. Nice! Our Japanese friend had written the name of the ingredient in Japanese for me. I will need to find someone to translate for me in English. 

Through kuro.shiro.neko, I met a nice Japanese lady who has a dwarf hamster pet. She brought us to a restaurant in Shinjuku and we had this interesting salad. She explained to make such eggs, we have to put the egg in the cold/tap water and boil the water. I shall try that one day :)

Back to :) self

I felt a bit stressed when I saw the many emails from my past 2 weeks' absence at work. Luckily I managed to finish reading all of them in about 2 hours. My colleagues were very nice to cover for me and I only need to follow up on those with deadlines falling after my Jakarta trip.
I also personally distributed some Japanese crackers, nuts and cookies to my colleagues and friends in the office. It was a nice feeling to see them receiving them with pleasant surprise and joy.

My flight to Jakarta will be around noon and I will be back in Singapore at 4plus pm this Sat. My boss has reminded me not to venture out of the hotel alone. I am not so gung ho in doing so. I will simply rest in the hotel room to read the meeting documents or read the Kite Runner book, a birthday gift from Joan.

Now I will try to multi-task by clearing some emails, blogging whatever I can on the Japan trip and going through my meeting documents :)

Getting stressed

I shouldn't be feeling so after a 2-week holiday but I find myself running short of time. No time to blog about the Japan trip in detail with photos. I have just finished packing about 60% of the stuff I need to bring for my trip in Jakarta. Tomorrow I will find from my boss and colleagues the information needed to prepare myself for the meeting.

I may only be able to share with you all my photos only after I return to Singapore on Sat. For those of you who can't wait, kuro.shiro.neko has already started to post our experiences on her blog.

Home

After 2 weeks in Japan, we arrived in Singapore at 12.55am yesterday morning. I realise every time I go for working trips or overseas holidays, I will have similar thoughts. I am glad to have made the trips - I experience different cultures, see things I don't get to see in Singapore, meet interesting and nice people and get to know my travelling partners (friends/sister) better. As this is the first time I was away from home for so long, there are times I think of my family. When I visited pet shops and cat places (where we could pet our cats), I am glad to have 2 hamsters at home and to have made friends with the community cats near my home.

So far I have visited the cats (White Neck, Shadow, Fat Cat, Bush and Noisy) thrice. Some of them seem to have put on a little bit of weight :) Pip and Zip the hamsters are happily sleeping the day away. I have managed to catch up with old news by reading the past 2 weeks of Straits Times' newpapers. Earlier in the afternoon, I have chatted with 2 old friends separately over the phone. Yesterday I talked almost non-stop to my parents and sister!

Come Tues, I will be flying away again. This time to Jakarta for an overseas workshop. I shall try to post some photos from the Japan trip with the time I have and continue after I return from Jakarta on Sat.

Nice cat inspired shop and more great food

kuro.shiro.neko brought me to another cat inspired shop in Koenji yesterday. We walked around the streets until the shop is opened at noon. The shop played music by ABBA and Beatles and featured postcards, paintings and jewellery, etc by Japanese artists who draw cats. There are many styles of depicting the cats in their beautiful poses and forms. When kuro.shiro.neko told the owner that we are from Singapore and we do not have such shops in Japan, and we asked for his permission to take photos of his shop, he happily agreed. He was also very nice to give us some sweet rice snacks.

Lunch was some hot plate beef patty, beef slices and bean sprouts with Japanese rice and soup. The set cost us 980 each but I think it is value for money. In the evening, our Japanese friend brought us to a Kyoto style restaurant which uses mostly soya beans as the main ingredient. It was yummy!

An enlivening force - Cultivating Inspiration

I have found the following from DailyOM a rather good reminder:

We all know inspiration when we feel it. It is a force that enlivens us and activates us to do something-we might dance, sing, paint the house, or envision a new career. We might call an old friend or plan a trip abroad. Whatever the case, doing what we do from a place of inspiration makes all things seem possible. Inspiration sometimes comes out of nowhere, landing unexpectedly in the midst of your life and lifting you out of your habitual mind and into a higher level of seeing. However, we can be more intentional with our relationship with inspiration than just waiting for it to come to us. There are many ways to cultivate its presence, from journaling to scrap booking to visiting with a particularly interesting friend. Finding what inspires you and consciously cultivating it will give you access to new ways of thinking and energy you didn't know you had.

Some people find that frequent trips into nature inspire them. Others have a box full of objects-a seashell, an old photograph, or even a collection of rocks-that does the trick. There are as many ways to find inspiration as there are people looking for it. If you already know what inspires you, find a way to incorporate it into your life on a regular basis. If you aren't sure what inspires you, or if it has changed, take some time to think about it. When was the last time you felt the spark of your imagination? When was the last time you acted on an impulse that felt totally right? When we are in the presence of what inspires us, we hear our inner guidance more clearly and we have the energy to follow its cues.

If it has been a while since you have been touched by inspiration, you may feel listless and dissatisfied. Know that you can turn things around by remembering what lights you up and bringing that into your life.

Discovering more cool places in Tokyo

This morning we woke up around 10am and went to one of the eateries at Shinjuku for a quick breakfast. I had cold soba and kuro.shiro.neko ramen. However, the ramen was horrid tasting (comparing to the delicious version we tried in Hokkaido)

We then explored Daikanyama which has some nice lifestyle shops (tiny version of Ikea with some nice animal designs) and eateries. Next we stopped at Shibuya to look for some shops with cat design items but the 2 shops are closed today :( We were a little disappointed but we did take some photos of one of the shops as a souvenir.

Besides going gaga over such cat inspired places, we have also popping into 100 yen shops, convenience shops and pharmacies to see if we can find skin care products, interesting items for daily use and snacks and drinks.

Back in Tokyo

We are in Tokyo today after spending a week in Hokkaido. A lot of time was spent on train ride and we tried to catch our sleep during that time. I also experienced rushing for our next train connection with my heavy cabin luggage this morning. In the afternoon, we were back to the Tokyo railway terminal to catch another train to the Cat Land in Chiba and we had to run as the connecting train is about 900metres away and we did not want to miss our train.

A middle age Japanese man was very kind to personally bring us to the Cat Land when we asked for directions. It seems like only a taxi is servicing the sleepy town and we could not wait any long for the taxi to appear at the train station. With the help of the kind man, we walked for about 20mins under the hot sun and paid 900 yen to pet the cats and take photos of them at this Cat Land. Kuro.shiro.neko said I was obsessed with this obese cat as I took many photos of it. Hee.

Due to the rush, we did not have a proper breakfast and lunch. It was really nice of Kuro.shiro.neko`s Japanese friend to meet us for dinner. He brought us to 3 different restaurants in Roppongi Hills to try kushi-yaki-age food (deep-fried bread crumbed meat, veggie, seafood on skewers), o-den food without preservatives, fresh tuna sashimi sushi and desserts (coconut pudding, chocolate cake and cheese cake in petite portions after our heavy dinner).

I have 5 more days to explore the interesting parts of Tokyo with Kuro.shiro.neko! :)

Cat inspired!

So far Kuro.shiro.neko and I have found shops and places with handmade stuff, signs, crockery, bags, t-shirts, accessories, book inspired by cats. They are so nice that I am tempted to buy many of them but I know I would only keep them in my cupboard, not use them and only take them out occasionally to admire them. They do have hamsters sold in pet shops or corners in some departmental stores but the influence of hamsters is not as huge as cats.

I miss my hamsters and community cats but I know they are well take care of by my parents.

Yummy food in Japan

I have been eating nice Japanese food since I reached here. Ramen, soba, modern Japanese food (or should I say western food with a Japanese touch), soup curry, lavender ice cream, milk ice cream, pumpkin ice cream, home cooked Japanese food (the dinner and breakfast meals prepared by the nice lady owner of the ryokan/inn we stayed last night), Japanese snacks (such as dry cod fish with cheese), etc. We will be trying fast food one day. Kuro.shiro.neko said they taste different from those in Singapore.

The Toyoko Inn hotel that we have been staying in Tokyo, Sapporo and Asahikawa also provides breakfast and if we are not rushing for our train, we would be taking a few pieces of onigiri, miso soup, pickles and coffee. Or else we would go to one of the convenience shops to get some bread and cold yogurt drink or coffee as breakfast.

It is hot in Hokkaido!

I think I am getting tanned in Japan after walking in the sweltering heat. Although there is nice cool breeze at times, the sun is scorching. The scenery in Sounkyo and the flowers and lavender field have made the heat bearable. I will blog the photos taken after I return to Singapore on 18 Aug.

The experience in Japan has been interesting. The people have been very polite, saying Arigato gozaimasu every time. The railway system and schedule seem very complicated at first but after some time, I understand them a little.

Tonight we are staying in a ryokan (inn) that has 3 house cats. So cool. Sweet dreams!

From Tokyo to Hokkaido

6 Aug 2006 (Day 2 in Japan)

We had an interesting time exploring Asakusa/Tokyo (where we were staying for 2 nights since Sat), Jinbocho (Book Town) and Yanaka (Cat Town). We were following the maps Kuro.shiro.neko has found in a Japanese book which shows places where stray cats have been sighted. Perhaps the weather is too hot and the cats have gone into hiding, so we only found 1 cat in the alleys of Asakusa, another in Yanaka and 2 cats in a shop selling cat inspired stuff in Yanaka.

At night, Kuro.shiro.neko`s friend brought us to a restaurant in Asakusa for izakaya kind of food (which I understood to be serving a variety of traditional Jap food). On the way, we sighted 2 stray cats near the shrine temple and another cat outside the restaurant. I tried some grape juice alcoholic juice that he recommended to be a popular drink among the Japanese ladies. We amused our Japanese friend that we have spent the day looking for cats and we will be visiting Cat Land when we are back from Hokkaido 7 days later.

7 Aug 2006 (Day 3)

We woke up around 5am, so that we could freshen up, had a quick breakfast before we rushed off for our train ride on the bullet train/shinkansen @ 7plus am to Hakodate and changed to another train to Sapporo @ 5 plus pm.

We had shio ramen for dinner and will be retiring to our hotel room soon. This hotel chain which we also stayed in Asakusa/Tokyo is quite good. Free internet access and I can call back Singapore @ 100 yen for 3 mins :) Kuro.shiro.neko has asked me a few times whether I would like to learn Japanese language when I return to Singapore. I still cannot give a definite answer. I had taken a beginner`s course about 6 or 7 years ago but I didn`t practise and so I gave up in the end. Maybe after this trip, I will be able to give her an answer.

Citizen of the world - Vacations

I received the following email from http://www.dailyom.com
How apt when I'm leaving for Tokyo @ 6am later! I can leave with a peace of mind of clearing my work until 8pm last night and checking my personal emails and reading the updates on my favorite blogs. Bye, friends and you will hear from me on 19 Aug (unless I manage to make use of free internet access in Japan).

Citizen Of The World - Vacations

As the technology of travel grows ever more refined, the world grows smaller. Whereas a journey of a hundred miles once took many days, we can now travel across the globe in mere hours. The four corners of the earth are accessible by plane, train, and ship, and there are few pleasures in life as soul-stirring and transformative as travel. In a new land, the simplest of joys can be profound-meditation takes on a new quality because the energy in which we are immersed is unfamiliar. Our sensory experiences are entirely novel. Yet the relative ease with which we can step out of our own culture in order to explore another means that we are ambassadors representing not only our own way of life but also the culture of the traveler. As a conscious citizen of the world, you can add value to the locales you visit while simultaneously broadening your own perspective.

A truly aware traveler sees each new journey as an opportunity to improve international relations, spread goodness, and gain a greater understanding of humanity. To immerse yourself in foreign cultures is to open your mind to fresh ways of being. Your natural curiosity can help you navigate the subtleties that define a culture. While you may not agree with all the traditions or laws of a country, abiding by them demonstrates that you understand and respect their value. Staying centered in another culture is often simply a matter of learning about your destination, being patient with yourself and others, and accepting that people may treat you as an example of your country's attitudes. New worlds will open to you when you take part in the everyday life of a locale-the reality of a destination is in its markets, its streets, and its people.

Traveling presents a wonderful opportunity to practice being open-minded and grounded. The voyages you make help cultivate a worldwide community in which we as humans can acknowledge and appreciate our differences as much as we recognize and appreciate our similarities. Though you will eventually return home, the positive impression you leave behind will remain as a testament to the respect and amicability that marked your intercultural interactions.

My parents kept some food for my dinner last night. It will be about 2 weeks later before I eat the yummy food cooked by them because I will be off to Tokyo and Hokkaido this Sat! 

After the play, we headed for Little India for a nice vegetarian India meal. Fragrant rice with dates and mushrooms. Some mushroom sauce, etc. I had plain lassi this time and i like the sourish yogurt taste. Rebecca and I tagged along with Dawn to visit Mustafa. We bought this Milka choc biscuit recommended by Rebecca. At 11plus pm, Mustafa was still quite crowded. Amazing. 

Dawn and Michelle were manning the merchandise booth for CWS. Some of the play goers lingered around after the play to chat, provide feedback and some of us were busy taking photos :) 

I like the 2 clothes lines of photos (taken from CWS online adoption board) decoration the sides of the corridor leading to the play entrance and reception area.
 

I watched "The Silence of the Kittens" play by Ovidia Yu @ Drama Centre Black Box @ the National Library 2 nights ago.This is the best play I have seen so far out of the few plays I have watched over the past few years. Funny, entertaining and thought
provoking. I would recommend it to people who care for stray/community cats. People who dislike cats, may feel uncomfortable during the play or laugh @ themselves.

It's a satire about parents trying to create a safe environment for their children and about how the government tries to do the same for the people. The play makes a number of analogies of human character and society to behavior and presence of stray cats. For example, a character in one scene reflected that our eyebrows have no function but our face would look strange without them. Another character said "Stray cats are eyebrows of the society, Without them, it would be wrong."

 

Spinach with cottage cheese and some chicken coated with green stuff were the last few dishes we ordered for second round. 

All of us had mango lassi. So refreshing and a must for mango lovers! 

Garlic naan tastes good on its own or with curry. 

Baturi Set: The puffed up dough reminds me a little of donuts. It's nice but compared to naan, it's so much more oily. 

On Tues evening, JerL brought us girls to this restaurant near Little India MRT station. We sampled some of the curries, sauces and meats.