ichiran

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Marjorie

It’s very rare that Hubs suggests we eat ramen whenever I ask him where we’ll have our late night dinner. Hence whenever he suggests so, I almost always say yes.

My favourite ramen place is Yoshimuraya in Yokohama but that is still a station and a 10min walk away, hence we decided to go for Ichiran, the closest one and my second favourite, at least within Yokohama and Sakuragicho.

Ichiran, which serves tonkotsu ramen (pork bone broth), is quite unique from other ramen places however. For a number of reasons.

Back when we’ve just discovered the place, we were laughing on how it felt like we were having an exam. After ordering on the machine right at the entrance, once seated, you have to fill up a sheet for the kind of ramen specs you want to have.

Once you’re done answering your sheet, you can then “submit” it to the staff so they will cook your ramen the way you want it too.

Almost always, I have the firm noodles, half-clove garlic, no scallions, only half serving of their secret sauce and with pork of course. Would have wanted eggs but theirs is only half cooked so me and baby can’t eat it. I was also a nori monster before but I found myself not liking its smell now that I’m preggers. 😀

Once your ramen is done, they’ll leave you be as they close the bamboo curtain for your privacy. And indeed you can’t get any more private what with the cubicle for each customer. It’s really like taking an exam!

いただきます‼

From their poster, Ichiran also have a branch in Manhattan, New York. But after having ramen in Manila and Singapore and it being far from the real Japanese thing, I’m not sure if the Ichiran in NY tastes the same as the Sakuragicho Ichiran. 🙂 Even the ramen in the Ippudo in Kyushu, where the original Ippudo resto is, is different from Yokohama Ippudo!

turning 32

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Marjorie

And the leaf has just turned. I’m now 32!!! Albeit nowadays when I’m asked of my age, my instant (innocent) reply is that I’m 29. And then a pause. And then I say “wait”. And then I think about my real age. Haha. It’s not that I dislike having birthdays, reminding me that I’m getting older. In fact, quite the contrary. I’ve never really outgrown that childlike attitude of looking forward to my birthday, all giddy and excited. It’s just that at some point, I stopped counting the age, it’s just a number!

But what I would count though are the blessings. There’s been lots for the last year! Let’s count shall we? 🙂

• March 5 of last year, I officially became an immigrant. The process was tedious! And the CFO (Center for Filipinos Overseas) experience was both humiliating and utterly infuriating. But am still truly thankful that I was able to travel to Japan and be with my husband on my birthday without any hassles

• because I was able to fly to Japan for my birthday, I was with hubby during one of Japan’s most difficult time – the March 11 debacle. I couldn’t imagine how lonely and depressed hubby could have been had he been home alone. And I couldn’t imagine how paranoid I would have been had I been in Manila at that time, far from knowing the real situation Hubs is in! Of course I’m not thankful it happened! But I am thankful that we were together during that very trying time and that we survived it.

• we had a very beautiful wedding. Civil marriage here in Japan is totally devoid of any ceremony or emotion. And so we’re truly thankful for our beautiful Church ceremony. And we’re thankful as well that we’ve given our families a memory that they’d always cherish. Even now, almost a year after, when I recently heard our Ninang tell her friend that ours was a very beautiful wedding, my heart warmed and I feel jelly-like all over. 😀

• thankful for the gift of friendship. Our wedding wouldn’t have been that beautiful if not for the help of friends. For old friends albeit far and rare to see, still we’re able to foster a friendship that would (hopefully) last a lifetime. Thankful for new friends as well! 🙂

• Thankful that I was able to work. Thankful that I was able to keep my position and career and work in the main company. Thankful that I’m now working on a very interesting project, with my work scope being one of the plant’s core, both a challenging yet very interesting experience. Thankful.

• thankful that this last year, we were able to travel to very beautiful places! – El Nido, Vienna, Cesky Krumlov, Prague.

• thankful that we were able to spend the New year with Atsushi’s family and where I experienced for the first time the true and very interesting Japanese New Year festivities. But most of all, I am thankful for the kindness Hubs’ family had shown to me. I’ve heard “horror stories” from other people about other people’s experiences. Hence I am truly thankful of the kindness Atsushi’s family has shown to me

• thankful for my family’s good health back home!! 🙂

• thankful for that lovely surprise request although we are yet to know of its outcome

• thankful, thankful, for this little wonderful person growing inside me. Thankful for this miracle of life. My morning sickness is truly bad, yes, and it can sometimes last till midnight. But what’s surprising is that whenever I’m in a meeting and couldn’t get to the toilet for hours, I don’t feel the urge to vomit at all. Even when still inside the womb, I’ve an ace baby already 🙂

• of course, thankful for my husband. Our blogsite has been witness to how great a husband Atsushi is. Of course he’s not perfect, I’m not blind with his faults. But he’s “perfect for his imperfections” and perfect for the imperfect me.

• all of the blessings above only came from One, Who has been generous to me. Thank you Lord, for all I’ve just mentioned, for the gift of life, for the year to come, for the blessings we’re about to receive, for taking care of all our loved ones, for your patience with me. Thank you for empowering me 🙂

Have a blessed day everyone!

Hinamatsuri!

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Marjorie

It’s Hinamatsuri! Otherwise known as the Japanese Doll Festival or Girls’ Day, this March 3 festivity involves displaying dolls arrayed in traditional costume typical of the Heian Period. I was reminded of the Hinamatsuri because of Google’s doodle for the day.

Cute right?

As we weren’t able to go around sightseeing this time, i dug up old photos to show hubby, and share here; photos of my trip with friends in Katsuura City, Chiba back in 2008.

The first thing that greeted us from the station was this.

Even hubby was truly impressed and estimated this must have cost millions. And yep, it was just on display with nary a guard around to look after the display.

The community also displayed the dolls on one of the stairs leading to a temple in the area.

Even a doll collector like me see these numbers of dolls gathered together as quite scary. But look up close and you’d just be amazed at the detail.

An Emperor and his Empress.

Can you count the layers of the doll’s kimono?

A court official.

Court musicians.

Usually, the hina-ningyos of the emperor, empress and courtiers are arrayed like this.

But in Katsuura, we found some displays with elaborate houses.

And some other very interesting displays as well. In bamboos! but oopps, one bamboo window is empty! Could someone have…? (gasp!)

Aren’t they cute?

This manner of displaying the dolls is probably the least of my favorites.

Funny, there’s Anpanman series as well!

This dolls are usually on display from around February up to March 4. Read in Wikipedia that having these dolls on display in the house beyond March 4 would result to the daughter of the house marrying late. I wonder if come next year, we’d be celebrating the Hinamatsuri (for the girls) or the Kodomo no hi (mainly for little boys). Hopefully. Excited! 🙂

he gave it just because

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Marjorie

I have been feeling the fatigue this week much hence I’ve been going home earlier than usual and so earlier than hubby. Since today was a Friday and I can afford to stay late because I can wake up late, I thought of waiting up for hubby so we can enjoy the walk home together.

To wait for him, I decided to have dinner somewhere. But it took me an hour to select which place to eat in thanks to my morning sickness (or more technically all-day sickness). I wasn’t in a particular hurry anyway since I know hubby is working late. By 9:00pm however, dinner almost done, hubs sent me a message that he’d still be working late so I’d better go back home ahead. I can understand how busy he is as we are working in the same company and I know how demanding the job is so I didn’t complain and just agreed with his suggestion. A few minutes after though, I was already feeling lonely because it’s a Friday and yet i was dining alone.

Not really relishing the fact of being home alone on a late Friday night, I dillydallied in finishing my meal and in walking home so much so that when I was just waiting for the train an hour after, hubby sent me a message that he was already about to leave the office. I then decided to wait some more for hubby.

A quarter of an hour later, Atsushi was a sight to behold. He was hurrying down the escalator, a huge pink bouquet of flowers in one hand and his laptop bag in the other hand, ever hurrying to meet me. Reminiscing how he looked back then brought tears to my eyes just now just as it did earlier when I was meeting up with him, overwhelmed and surprised of his thoughtfulness.

I instantly assumed the flowers were his advance birthday gift for my birthday this Tuesday and posted so in Facebook. He knows how flowers really makes me happier on my birthdays although I’m happy already with the birthday per se. But upon asking him why he decided to give the flowers five days in advance, I learned the flowers were really not for my birthday in itself.

But just because. Because recently, every morning, I chirp on how the branches of the sakura/cherry blossoms are getting thicker with the growing buds and how soon there’d be flowers abloom. Because recently, even when it’s raining, I always happily point out how the flowers are blooming on our magic umbrella as it gets wet. All the chirping had him convinced how flowers make me happy.

Was so surprised, happy and touched with hubby’s thoughtfulness in that I wasn’t able to keep myself from crying – in the subway platform. Haha.

Atsushi, thank you for making me happy, always. God really blesses me a lot. Thankful.

And so, for the flowers’ photos! Trust me, the bouquet was as big as my arm. 😀

a snowy last day of feb

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Marjorie

It was lovely to wake up and see everything in white and still snowing at that!

Yahoo was right on with the current weather (but not before. Yahoo forecasted only rain last night)

But when I saw the walkway, I balked and was daunted. I was scared of slipping in the snow again, given my condition.

Thankfully this kind of fresh snow is not slippery so I made it to office without any mishaps. よかった！⛄⛄⛄
——
It’s still snowing heavily after 8 hours!! 🙂 A memorable leap day indeed!

and so we’re ready to share our great news

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Marjorie

Absurd as it may seem to some, I’ve known I was pregnant since week 1. When I suffered from gikkori goshi back in first week of January, I told the physical therapist to take care as I was pregnant. By week 3, I was starting to get nauseous and I was thinking at that time that if I’m not pregnant, I can’t imagine how difficult it can get since I was already uncomfortable with the nausea. Little did I know that my nausea at that time was really just the tip of the iceberg. It-can-get-really-worse especially when the vomiting kicks in.

Come week 4, it was just a matter of waiting for my monthly as I am pretty regular. When the day passed by and I didn’t get a visit, I was already looking forward for the weekend to have the test. But in that week 4, the sleepiness and tiredness has already kicked in. Imagine having fatigue associated with pregnancy and yet having had to be mentally alert during a series of difficult HAZOP meetings!! I remember whenever we have breaks and my tummy would hurt, I talk to baby in the toilet and say “baby, please be with mommy on this. Let’s answer their questions even when the going gets tough already”. Imagine talking to your baby even before taking the pregnancy test! Haha. That’s how confident I am that our little one is growing inside me already.

When Saturday rolled in, first thing I did was take the test. Of course the line was there, albeit really faint still.

But the next few days, there were a series of mishaps that got me really fearful for baby – I had some spotting (read a lot about this being normal but still it’s worrying), we fell down a flight of stairs because of the snow, we met a witch ob/gyn who coldly hinted, with her back facing me, that I might have ectopic pregnancy. All of these prompted me to test almost twice a day, morning and night. I think I had at least 10 tests in that my hubby was already laughing on how addicted I was with the testing. Haha. I finally stopped the tests when I had consistent result like this.

And of course I was praying unceasingly as well whilst taking the tests.

Looking for an ob/gyn was quite tough though. I’ve read a lot of gaijin blogs complaining how there is a world of difference between ob/gyns here in Japan and on the West/Philippines. Honestly, it took me a long time to accept that things are really different and that I just have to try and make up for what’s lacking. The moment I did this, things certainly got better – which was what happened last Saturday.

Now, much as we wanted to share our happiness the moment we knew about our latest great blessing, we had to have some restraint. It’s a big oxymoron, we wanted to share our great news but we need to keep it to ourselves for the mean time because even the doctors cannot confirm yet if my pregnancy is healthy. And I realised why things are so. Apparently, we went to the doctor way too early, just when I was only 4 weeks and barely 6 weeks when usually pregnant women have their first check at 7 or 8 weeks. Since my baby is still very small, doctor couldn’t measure yet and since they don’t have a record of my basal body temperature, they couldn’t give us any assurances. And what we can only do is pray.

Lat Saturday though, after measuring baby and showing me baby’s heartbeat, the doctor looked really happy to tell me baby is normal. He even looked really happy to show hubby baby’s photo.

Doctor must have seen the worry in our faces. He looked really happy he himself inserted our baby’s photo into the birth album that their hospital gives to pregnant women.

Even when we’ve visited their hospital twice before already with ultrasounds on each visit, it was only this time that they really considered my check as an official one, noting it so in the birth album record.

They also instructed us to go to the ward office to ask for the boshitetcho (母子手帳) so we can get some benefits and also register my pregnancy.

And so because of how the doctor’s visit went, we decided it’s time to share our joyful news.

With this sharing is also a prayer that this is a harbinger of more blessings to count as we witness the growth of this miracle inside my womb. 🙂

On Chocolate Hill

A chocolatey journey, with Yui!