Shopping day

Yesterday April 29th was a public holiday in Japan. It is called 'Showa Day'. Japanese friend explained to me is previous emperor's birthday.I went to Namba at around 12 for eating and shopping. I bought some skincares and a few items below :

A 'UV Cut' hat and 2 hair bands

hehe Guess what is this ? Shu Uemura eye lash curler. I bought one for my friend before as she said is good , so I bought another one as a purezento for myself in Takashimaya. This curler suppose to be good because it suits Asian's eye shape.

This bag got summer feel ? I used to have an orange bag but it was used for sometimes. I saw my friend Gigi got a Orange GAP bag. Then when I was in the bag shop, I think this colour striked by attention too. It is a Japan (Kobe) design but manufactured in China therefore it is not so expensive bag. I like the design and colour !!

Umbrealla again ! This is the 6th umbrealla I bought in Japan. Japan has nice umbrealla design ! Classic look with lace. In fact, they have branded umbreallas like Burberry, Celine, etc. The burberry umbrealla cost around 400 RM. Dare not buy, if use it in Malaysia sure will be MIA ( "Mission in Action" ) haha sure will be stolen .

Authentic Sushi Dinner

Last Friday 25 April, my boss brought our guest (colleague from Melbourne who has been supporting us in the project) , colleague in Osaka and myself for a sushi dinner.This restaurant in Kita-Shinci area serves authentic sushi with high quality sashimi. We sat in front of the sushi bar and the chef was making sushi in front of us. He made the sushi according to our order and presented the sushi on top of leaves. Not sure what leaf it is , too small to be a banana leaf. hehe...Suppose to eat with hand and once you finish eating one, the chef will present to you another sushi. I like this serving concept !

All the sashimi are displayed so you can choose what you would like to have.


The first dish we had was the scallop sushi

This is Tuna ? forgot what fish it is..

Got the white fish and red fish, I like the red one with spring onions

Here comes the Fish maki sushi with my favourite Tamago sushi !

Definately cannot miss the Unagi sushi !!!! My favourite sushi !!!! This unagi sushi is also nice , slightly different taste from my favourite sushi shop in Higobashi.

This fat juicy prawn is from Hokkaido ! Something unusual which I never had before, boss recommened me to try ! Later , they served the deep fried prawn head. I forgot to take picture :P

Seafood soup

Our guest ordered the sake ! Sake in bamboo , looks interesting and should taste good !

It was a wonderful dinner with real nice sushi and we had great time chatting while enjoying the food.

Purezento from Japanese friend

2 weeks ago after a full day meeting, I got back to my desk. I was surprised to see a present on my desk. A'purezento' (present in Japanese) from Chiaki. She is the friend who has gave me the bath salt and introduced Japanese bath salt to me.

Let me show you what is inside my present.
I am so happy to get this present ! It's amazing right ? They are Japanese traditional sweet!!! Looks so delicate and with fine painting on the sweet. hehehe... I find it too precious to eat. I brought back to Malaysia to show my family too. My brother asked me 'Are you sure this is to be eaten ?" haha yeah it does look more like a decoration item or a piece of art work :) Once again , thanks to Hasegawa san ( chiaki) !! I think Chiaki always have good sense of giving the right present ! Talking about purezento, I have 2 other interesting presents to show you later.

Sakura Sightseeing in NinanjiTemple

I visited Kyoto with mum on Sunday( 13April) . We had a great trip seeing beautiful sakura. I was wondering if I can still see sakura in Kyoto and which is the best place to see. I phoned Kyoto tourist information centre before my departure to check which place should I go and see sakura. I was advised to go Ninajin Temple. We then headed to Osaka station to take JR line train to Kyoto. Took the 'Super Rapid' Train at platform 8, Kyoto line. Super rapid only stops at 2 stations so it is faster.
When we arrived in Kyoto station, it was already lunch time. So we got to treat the stomach first ! Mum was not so into Japanese food so she suggested to try the Chinese restaurant we saw in the underground shopping place which is just right in front of Kyoto station.

In Chinese we called it ' Shi Chuan' but in Japanese is 'Shi Shen' suppose to be spicy Chinese food.

I had this 'Tan Tan Mee' with minced pork above the noodles.


Mum had the seafood and bamboo fried noodles.

I took picture of this as I find the sauce bottles are interesting. Like Traffic light colours !

After lunch, we continued with our journey to Ninanji Temple.

This is the front entrance of Kyoto station. In front there is a bus terminal with various stops heading to different places.

We went to the tourist information centre in Kyoto station to inquire about the direction and also bought 2 daily bus ticket . It costs 500 yen and it is a day pass.
Once we bought the bus ticket and got the instruction for the directions.We walked to bus stop B 4, taking bus number 26 to go Ninanji temple.After an hour bus, I think it was nearly an hour journey which I almost felt asleep because the bus stopped at every 3-5 minutes. In between may be around 15 stops. Finally I reached Ninajin temple. This is the entrance.

Ninanji temple is one of the world heritage site. At present, this temple still having full bloom sakura.

Got 2 entrace tickets to view the sakura garden.

Sharing with you series of Sakura pictures, different types of Sakura flowers. Haha mum said don't post her pictures online. Therefore only sakura and me. Mum reads my blog too so follow her wish :P

See the big benches around like a table top ? Meant for picnic , cost 500 yen per person

People gathered around to have green tea while enjoying the sakura.

Took a picture with a 'kawaii' Japanese Kimono Girl. I told the Japanese girl that she is very kawaii (cute) in the kimono and would like to take picture with her.

We bought some specialJapanese beans before leaving Ninanji temple.

We had ice creams for tea time after leaving Ninanji temple in a small shop opposite the temp

Must have my favourite green tea ice cream in Kyoto !

Mum had the Sakura favourite ice cream ! hehe see sakura and must eat sakura too !

Flight Vegetarian meal

Something to share about Vegetarian Meal ! I get to fly once every month so I was a bit bored of the flight meal. For a change, I told the travel agent, please book a vegetarian meal for me.

I board the plane at 11:45 pm, they served me a snack for supper. They always served a bun with a big fat cheese stick that why I asked for vegetarian meal for a change. This time, they served me a bun with some potato/vegetables ( like curry puff taste).

Then for the breakfast, they served me indian food. Don't know some potato thing with curry and some curry sauce. I asked the air steward , is vegetarian food means indian food ???

Lesson learnt is that Vegetarian meals consists of a few types :

Western Vegetarian ( Loco Ohyo)

Asian Vegetarian ( Indian)

Oriental Vegetarian ( Chinese)

Raw Vegetables ( I think is salad)

Jain Vegetarians ( not sure what is this)

So please note this down , if you want to order vegetarian meal, need to be specific !

Back to Osaka

I have been very busy in my work lately so not much time catching up with new posts. I have many things to tell but they are all work in process. I was busy in work as my colleague in Sydney was on holidays the week before so I am trying to help more while he was away to drive meeting and so on. Mum was also in Osaka , so we had a good weekend shopping and sight seeing in Kyoto. On weekday, I was busy in work and I brought mum for dinner after work. Mum was independent enough to shop around with my instruction as I gave her an instruction booklet on the directions. She also bought a new 3G phone so that she could roam in Japan, therefore not too worry as we are in contact through phone. Like mother like daugther , we are independent modern ladies and independent travellers !!

hehehe imagine shopped for 5 days and she bought many things too.

Then we both went back to Malaysia on the same day , last Friday. Same day but different flight because her tour gave her Cathay pacific. I was also busy doing many things back home, as usual... hehe got to ' repair myself' like go facial, hair cut , paint nail ( but I realised I got no time to paint this time, also no need coz I wear boot in Japan, let my nails take a rest too !!)

oh ya, then got to do the tax submission and go to my gym !!! I miss my combat class so much ! And not forgetting I was actually working from home too , attending to emails and conference calls, so busy days for me too.

I joined the gym in Japan but their combat class is different, I am not so into it. I tried a bit of the Body combat release 35 because the instructor mixed it with old tracks but still cool !

I miss the high impact energetic combat class !

Then I ate the nasi lemak, lemak laksa, pan cake and one meal of mum cooking !! all the food I miss !

Now back to Osaka again , a bit sleepy as I only slept 3 hours on flight. I am waiting for a late dinner with my boss and a guest from Melbourne . To Keep myself awake, I started to blog again !!

Ladies Night

On April 10th ,Thursday, I had dinner with 3 other Japanese lady friends in the office. They are Omori san, Matsumura san and Nanako san with me 'Li Mei-san'. After a busy preparation for Executive meeting on Wednesday, I got to enjoy a nice dinner with friends. Life in Japan is getting more interesting by knowing more friends.

This dinner was long planned before but it was postphoned till our schedule can fit in. I was asked about my favourite food, I told my friends I like Japanese food, or anything western or Chinese , except I don't eat Indian food. I don't take spicy food so not so into Indian curry. I only eat roti canai with sugar once in a while in Penang.

My new friend proposed that we go for this Japanese buffet. It serves all daily Japanese food. The restaurant name is 'Potato and White carrot'. They thought I will get to try all types of Japanese cuisines but I am afraid might be a bit boring for them as the food is their usual meals. It was raining after work and we walked a long way to reach that restaurant. It is inside a new shopping mall. The restaurant restrict people from taking photos. Therefore no food pictures :P

We had fun time eating and chatting ! It's our ladies night !

Japanese curry rice sold at roadside van

I saw this small red van on my way to get my lunch. The van looks cute and cool! Like an 'enlarged version' of a toy car !


Guess why is it parking by the road ? haha Japanese curry rice mobile store. Menu is disaplayed at the back of the van. The packing also looks quite interesting in a nice bowl. I saw a colleague eating the curry rice in office before.

Organic Restaurant in Higobashi

After so much delicious food, I wanted to try some healthy plain food. I am aware that there are two organic restaurants near my place but have yet to try. I wanted to try twice but I was told it was their closing time. I finally made it to have an organic dinner on last Friday ,11 April in ' Organice Tomato'.
The restaurant decoration is quite simple and gives you the sense of Nature.

This was the healthy meal set I had. It was delicious too !

The set meal comes with 7 types of spring vegetables like an appertiser.

Tried the organice soy milk pudding !, Just can't resist myself from interesting dessert!

Flu medicine

I was down with fever, flu, running nose and cough last week. Now still a bit of coughing. I tried to find medicine in the pharmacy here. First shop I went to , I have communication problem with the person in the shop. Okay, so I tried the next shop, there was a younger girl who can speak a little English. She recommended me a medicine , saying is fast and effective medicine. This is a good medicine, after taking 2 times, my sorethroat was much better. It is suppose to cure sore throat, fever, running nose, cough ! wah 5 in 1 !! Wonderful flu medcine ! Later , a Japanese friend told me to get medicine from the medicine box in office. I did have a look, saw same brand was there too, so I believe this is a popular flu medicine !