we’re in tumblr!

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Marjorie

A week with our new gadgets and I could surmise one thing – a lot of photo apps has an option for easy sharing with tumblr. Hence, we did the inevitable – create a new space in tumblr that would probably be dedicated more on photo sharing especially when we’re mobile.

One thing ironic though. A minute after setting up our new tumblr account, I discovered that there’s a quick photo option in the WordPress app that allows you to instantly post the photo you’ve just taken. Don’t you just love wordpress?

Still though, I think we might just keep our tumblr account for more documented memories. Cheers to more blogging fun!

onchocolatehill.tumblr.com

Bunko and Obon

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Marjorie

We were pretty much holed up inside our home the whole day. Hubs was pretty busy cutting up his books, scanning it and uploading in his Dropbox application so he can retrieve it in either his iPhone or iPad with the ibunko app. By scanning books, we can save up some room in the house (if a person buys an average of 10 books a week, you can pretty much imagine how his house looks like) and he can read them whenever or wherever he likes. Of course his favorite books won’t be dissected.

So since he’ll be cutting books, you can imagine how big his cutter was. Honestly though, I didn’t imagine the cutter to be as big as this! I was pretty confused with the size of the box when I was signing the delivery form.

And I was pretty impressed with the scanner Hubs ordered from Amazon. It can scan a back to back paper in just a second, without having to flip the paper to scan the other side like the one we had in the office.

Fruit of Hubs’ labor today. From iBunko App

Bunko by the way is a small sized paperback that’s pretty popular here in Japan.

Having had stayed inside the house the whole day, we were surprised that outside our the house, a festival was ongoing in the open field just a few steps from our apartment. Thankful that we had to go out for dinner, otherwise we would have missed this traditional Japanese event.

Obon Odori (お盆盆踊り) is one of the summer festivals in Japan. Obon is the Buddhist tradition of honoring the dead and it involves Odori or dancing. Most of the participants (basically our neighbors) were wearing their summer kimonos.

It’s a good time for neighbors to bond as well.

We dropped by the Obon Odori when we were on our way out. Later, laden with heavy purchases from the grocery, we were able to catch the last part of the Odori for a (very) short video.

Happy weekend everyone!

Sugamo Konaya (Landmark Tower)

Posted on August 20, 2011 by goodfoodhunt

I thought I had mapped out already all the restaurants in Landmark Tower. But when hubs suggested we eat at the curry udon shop for dinner after office, I totally had no idea as to its location. Situated just right the corner, just before Soup Stock Tokyo, this restaurant’s facade really looks quite unassuming.

But I was mighty impressed with it’s interior.

Traditionally, udon is dipped in soy sauce or 醤油 (shōyu). However, this shop offers a different kind of alternative.

I’m not big on curry; if I can avoid eating it, I’m happy. But for Konaya’s curry sauce, I wouldn’t mind having it with udon several times a week.

Oh, see that shrimp above? They have several set menus that offer this angel shrimp (yep, that’s how it was called). Now, I really love shrimps but this one is just sooooo good.

Surprisingly, it comes really affordable at only 1050yen for some set meals, including the ones we ordered.

Do try it out! 😉

Hanabi

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Marjorie

Hanabi, or the Fireworks Display is one anticipated event here in Japan. Yes sure we’ve all seen fireworks every now and then. But there’s nothing quite like the Japanese Hanabi – especially if you consider that these continuous pyrotechnic lasts an hour at the least, with some lasting for two full hours! And it’s not just the length mind you, the organizers go to lengths as to provide displays that can just make you smile real wide like a kid even when you’ve been to countless hanabi in the summer, every summer.

This year though, the hanabi has been more a treat as compared to the previous years. A lot of the usual hanabi events had been called off this year, both as sign of mourning over the March 11 disaster and as cost-cutting as well. But of course, there’s still reason to rejoice and probably it’s because of that that the major Hanabi in certain cities still pushed through.

Yokohama’s hanabi was held this evening. This actually was our (mine and hubby’s) first hanabi together as husband and wife. And so we spent it watching together at the 34th floor of our office where we currently are billeted (pretty ironic yes, that even when our building has 36 floors or so, we happen to be assigned on the same floor though maybe not for long since he’ll be moving to another floor next month for another project). And yes, we were working overtime.

Here’s some of the pictures I’ve taken. Totally unedited (still trying to get to know our new gadget).

wishing for a better taxi service in Manila

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Marjorie

It has been a very tiring day; a humid 32degC is not really the ideal weather that you’d like when you need to walk around doing some errands and going to government offices. Despite this however, there were a lot of things to be thankful for – catching the train right on time (and catching the right train for that matter), getting inside an office a minute just before they closed and really helpful taxi drivers.

Now, for someone who has been a victim with a lot of opportunity-nabbing taxi drivers, the drivers I met earlier were really quite a blessing for me.

Name it, I experienced it, with Metro Manila taxi drivers – dropping me and my humongous luggage off in the middle of the highway because my destination has too much traffic along its route (he couldn’t refuse me while I was in the airport cause then they’ll be ticketed by the airport guard; charging me with a fee that’s almost close to extortion; going around in circles just so I’ll have a bigger tab; Fixing their meters in such a way that you’ll be charged much higher than the legal rate; keeping your change and assuming your change is your tip to them (which sometimes is actually 30% or more than the bill); and if you try to haggle with their excessive proposed fee, you’ll get an earful of his woes and laments with how hard life is; und so weiter.

In fairness not all Metro Manila drivers do that. We went to San Juan before and both to and fro our destinations, we had no complaints whatsoever with the taxi drivers. So naturally we give them a tip. And the smile on their faces was just so genuine and beaming with unexpected treat that your instinct would be to want to give him more tip.

My experiences with Manila taxi drivers were more than enough for me to be wary of them. However, albeit I’ve complained a lot about them to friends, I never really had the heart to report them to the authorities, especially those who cheat on the meter. I know I am not fulfilling my duty as a responsible citizen but if you think about the possible consequences it’ll bring them, the most extreme of which is for them to loose their jobs, you would just prefer to fume in the corner and let your anger subside after an hour or so. So, what happened today then that made me go wishing for better service in Manila?

Back in Manila, I rode a taxi once wherein the driver had to make a stopover by the side of the road ( I was really stressed at that time because I was on my way to the airport and I didn’t have much free time anymore) so that he can pee. I also road a taxi once wherein we had to make a stopover in the gasoline station for the driver to refuel. On both times, the driver had the meter running. I didn’t mind really. Even when they were charging me on something that I shouldn’t shoulder anymore.

But what happened this morning then? The taxi driver wasn’t sure of the address I gave him. So what he did was park the car on the side of the road, stop the meter, and checked his navi for directions. Technically, he was still doing the job since he was really searching for the destination’s address yet he still didn’t charge me for it.

Second taxi then. I was in Makati once and I wasn’t really familiar with the place so I asked a group of taxi drivers for directions. One of them said it’s really far and I had to take the taxi. I was really fuming mad when I discovered later that my destination was just a block away from my initial location. To the curious, there were no phones with GPS then.

Fast forward to this afternoon. When I got out of the train station, I asked the guard for directions. He told me my destination was two blocks away. It was only six minutes to my destination’s closing time and what with the heat, I really was too weak already to run. So I haled a cab. The driver almost didn’t allow me to get in because, he reasons, my destination is just less than two blocks away. But in my kindergarten Japanese I explained to him that the office was about to close so I was in hurry and it was only then that he relented.

A world of difference right? Ahhh, if only the smattering of good taxi drivers in Manila can multiply and influence their fellow drivers Manila then would be much much tourist friendly.

a boy or a girl?

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Marjorie

Statistics from the United Nations Stats Division shows that worldwide, the number of men top the number of women by just a mere 1.75%. I can’t make some trend though on what gender has more number in a particular country depending on how rich the country is. Perhaps we need to refer to Hans Rosling’s GAP Minder to relate the gender with the country’s per capita. 😀

In Japan however, there are 5.3% more women over men. This statistics is not obvious in our office though; there’s roughly 5 women out of 30 men in the office, I think. Albeit it’s just inside the office. Outside, there’s definitely more women.

If you’re a newly married couple and you’re in a country where one gender has more number over the other, and IF it’s really true that one can plan the gender of their babies, would you consider planning your baby’s gender so as to help “even” things out?

I came across this “planner” about a year ago I think, source unknown already at this time (memory gap!).

I’ll be 32 next March. Based on the above chart, we have higher chances of having a girl over a boy hence adding up to the 5.3% more women over men here in Japan.

But then again, like what any parent would pray for, what’s really important is to have healthy and normal-birth babies. For all we know our baby may one day be among the LGBT community, so planning for whether they be boy or girl really doesn’t make sense.

Yet, if I may so boldly wish for it, I hope our babies would look like Atsushi. However, I may have to wish harder since Atsushi, for his part, also wishes our babies to look like me. haha!

And oh, to the curious, no, i’m not pregnant yet.

On Chocolate Hill

A chocolatey journey, with Yui!

Monthly Archives: August 2011