looking back is risky. especially if you have loads to lose. i kinda feel a little swindled after seeing those polaroids. because i've been steadily climbing out of this abyss and i don't need no fibbing to hinder my progress.
anyhoos work has been great. really enjoy being around my colleagues, having a 'our usual place' at lunchtime. i guess these two weeks is really for me to catch a breather and get back on track. hearing pitbull's i-know-you-want-me on the radio whilst packing meds is really refreshing. 'you know i want chaa!'
but there's something very wrong with my legs. i'd get these horrible cramps in my thighs at night when i'm sleeping. all i did was stretch and then i'd feel this sharp pain. it happened like more than thrice in the past week. it happened last night and when i woke up this morning, i couldn't walk because it was too painful!
haha have been complaining about it to people throughout the day and i've been getting all sort of remedies. my sis says i should apply an NSAID gel, sab says i should eat seaweed, kokwan says i didn't drink enough water yesterday night after my run, niron says i should drink an isotonic drink because it's due to the lack of electrolytes, my mum says our aircon is too cold and i don't cover myself with the blanket.
now mr seaweed, do you know why i thought you were sab. haha...
and sab & mike are joining the stanchart run as well! wheee! sher! join with dan! weiqi told me at work that she's signed up for the half-marathon already. and i'm thinking whether i should join her as well! omg omg omg...should i!
oh and i haven't been talking to the croc much these days and he's a hoot whenever i talk to him haha! i was telling him bout the abundance of food we have at work that we don't have to pay for and he was like, it must be free anddd good then it'll be perfect. spoken like a true piggy! haha...cheered me up loads..
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and i've finally uploaded the photos from the family trip..blogger's been such a bitch.
we didn't have any plans since we've finished all our shopping on ginza and shibuya so we planned an impromtu trip to the tsukiji fish market the night before.
we had to wake up at 4am to catch the 5am train in order to not miss the auction of the humongous tunas. well, i woke up at 4.30am and saw a very red sun already rising from the horizon. now i know why japan's flag is so.
wore shorts to avoid any fish gut juices from splashing onto my clothes. bathing is easier than doing the laundry you see...and i'm armed with Boss Rainbow brand coffee to knock me to my senses. 4am in may was the time i fell asleep at that period of time.
group shot in the elevator!!
we got out so early, the homeless people who each took a pillar in the underground subway station for the night haven't packed up and left for the day. the homeless in japan will not accept any money you give them. mostly they left home because they've failed in their careers and are too ashamed to continue staying on with their family.
love this picture. not sure whether sleepy bee will love it as much as me though..
and we reached the fish market at 6.30am, too late to catch the tuna auction. still we ventured in to see how the land of sashimi carried out their trading. had to pass a dry market kinda area initially..where they sold rather pretty boots. er okay i just realised it doesn't look as pretty in this pic but i swear somewhere outside of this frame, there were pink boots.
next we stepped into the wet market and then the mayhem started! my dad making sure we kept clear of all these small mini motorised transport thingies that drove at high speeds throughout the narrow alleyways of the market.
blood red octopus..like really bright red!
haha throughout the entire time we were there, we had on a constant expression of horror and raised eyebrows.
and we missed the tuna auction but we caught a glismp of the fsih. it's hugee already without its head and tail..
when we had enough of all the knife hacking into live fishes who then had blood spurted out from their necks while they were still wriggling, we went in search of a sashimi place in the many shops that were surrounding the market.
this shop caught out eye because of all the writings in english the owner had displayed outside his shop. and look! an 8 days article as well...
my morning begins with a cup of green tea, killing me with strength. makes no sense to me, but it intrigued me enough to want to enter the shop.
the shops mostly sat less than ten patrons at any one time
the owner had pictures of all the famous celebs who's been to his shop. i found it really funny that he said jay chou's been to his shop but he declined taking a picture with the owner so he just found a picture of jay chou and plastered it on to his montage.
with the cheery owner who reminded me so much of david gan.
here he's teaching us the correct way of eating unagi.
he also taught us some jap phrases.
we had unagi and yakitori. haha no sashimi for us after that walk through the fish market.
the food was alright only but it was such a delight to be able to communicate and learn so much more bout the japanese culture in the time we took to have one meal.
next we headed to asakusa, the temple of the huge red lantern. it was my dad's must-go-place on the itenary because he wanted to go back there to get this really pretty road safety charm for his car. we don't practise shintoism and all, it's just something really pretty to hang on your windscreen.
and here's what happen when my mum takes photos. she takes the longest time ever to take one photo and by them, everyone's no longer smiling!
on the street of asakusa where there's lots of street food as well as souvenir shops.
had these the last time we were in tokyo....
red-bean filled pancakes! we also tried this fried sakura paste-filled bun.
and then even though it was noon time only, we were all bushed from waking up at 4am so we decided to hit starbucks for our caffeine refill.
and sitting just outside the coffee store were these three daschunds who charmed the socks off everyone who walked past.
we decided to take a bus ride back to the hotel when bee discovered a bus at the bus stop that would reach ikekuburo. don't mind my double chin yea. haha the bus ride took like close to 90 minutes. i managed to doze off and have a little afternoon nap.
back in the vicinity of our hotel, my mum told me the night before she saw a shop selling takopachi so i was really psyched to try one of those humongous japanese ones.
pointed and managed to order something. haha think the shopkeeper was as amused as i was.
loads of fish flakes!
everyone eyeing the takopachi. which tasted a little different from the ones in singapore. here, they mixed onions, cabbage and loads of other stuff into the ball so i got really sick of it after some time.
my mum buying cream puffs
this was awesome..green tea custard!
we bought some pastries as well, went back to the hotel room to remove the icky fish juices from our feet and footwear. freshened ourselves and headed back out, went to coldstone since it was our last day in tokeeyo..
triple choc with oreo!
and this was strawbeery with mango i think..
read the sign papa!
decided to explore roppongi hills that night. and the wonders of a self-timer....there was this grass patch with many nice picnic tables just beside the pavement.
we managed to find our way to the top of the office building and found this really lovely place. we could see the brightly lighted tokyo tower from here.
this place is like really nice for a romantic date. the scenary's wonderful, and it's really windy so you get to snuggle. so we didn't stay long, partly because we felt out of place anddd it was so damm frickin cold. was shivering in my shorts!
more self-timer shots!
decided to take refuge from the wind at one of the souvenir shops of an abstract art museum
haha really scandalous caricatures if you look properly...
pretty window display!
and somehow after walking round and round, we found this huge spider structure!
and my mum wanted to have dinner at this hello kitty themed hard rock cafe but we couldn't locate it so we ended up at yoshinoya. haha i wasn't too disappointed!
we aren't missing much in singapore. but i saw this guy sitting beside me cracking a raw egg into his beef bowl and mixing the entire thing up.
hit the supermarket and armed ourselves with tons of japanese snacks before returning to the hotel. haha bought haagen daaz minis for supper!
bernice usually sleeps before me, so i pretty much have plenty of me-time in the last 30 minutes before i sleep. stared out at the twinkling nightscape from the hotel windows before falling asleep. bye tokeeyo you've been awesome fun..
