Shake My Soul (Part 12)

Getting out of bed in the morning is a bit tougher when you only got home at, say, 5 AM, but there I was, riding the train up to the middle of proverbial nowhere, heading east to a station called Oshiage. Mayuko told me to meet her there at 13:00, exit A3. Why does 13:00 feel like 7 AM? There isn’t even anyone on the train headed this way…where are we going?


I’m jealous of the bottle of wine in that ad. I could use a hammock right now.



This is the Tokyo Sky Tree. It is the latest and greatest in communications towers in Japan and it’s not even open yet, but it has already spawned a TV drama series and it has its own gift and souvenir shop. It’s huge. I went into tourist mode and started shooting.





Being the good little tourists we are, we visited the souvenir shop next.



Omg a countdown clock! I should come back to Japan for the grand opening in May.

Like every good tower in Japan, it has it’s own set of mascot characters. This one has this cutie girl with her penguin and puppy. Makes sense, doesn’t it?



I almost-almost bought a cellophane-wrapped box of cookies for ¥1,280 (~$15.00), but then I came back to my senses. Cookies. Telecommunications tower cookies.

For lunch, we hit up this surf-shack café that had literally three tables in it. I can’t see how they run a profitable business, but okay. What mattered was that I had really missed my dear Mayuko, and was so happy to see her.



She had made Valentine’s chocolate (as is custom for girls in Japan), and had brought me some. What a sweetheart.




Almost as many photos of the chocolate as Tokyo Sky Tree. Alright!


Japanese curry - one of my favourite dishes ever.

We then headed back down to a more populated area of the city, Ginza.





No visit with Mayuko is generally complete until we go to karaoke. It’s kind of a rule. So we found what I like to call a “sing-hodai” (all-you-can-sing, but we really only got an hour), but on the way there was a FIRE! ”At first, I thought someone was BBQing…”



Well, wouldn’t you know it,; we had to stand on the street with the hoardes of people gawking at the smoke billowing out of the building for a while, and then we moved along. Nothing really to see, since it seemed like it was coming from behind the building.


Mayuko always manages to get us these massive party rooms.




Mayuko always sings this one. I remember because the lyrics are “shake shake shake shake shake my soul”. Not sure how one would do that.

After working up an appetite sing-hodai-ing, I requested Nabezo, which is thankfully a chain. I really do love me some shabushabu.





After dinner, Ginza decided to leave me with a parting gift to share with my friends:

What a sicko. Yet another example of Engrish gone awry.

I managed to muster up the energy to make it yet again to Lex…this time with full blonde extensions. What a crazy night. I love that place.

Tomorrow I will venture down to Harajuku (naturally, I can’t not go) and meet up with Mayuko for dinner. Can you tell? Trip is winding down. But Tokyo is always an interesting time…

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Onto the NEXt (Part 11)

I’m going to miss cavorting around in Singapore’s taxis. Cheap, relatively fast, and so much more comfortable than public transit. I hired one to take me to the airport this morning, and it was a lovely ride. The cabbies are so friendly here, though the one on this particular morning couldn’t believe I hadn’t taken time to go to the zoo. I told him I’d come back for it. The airport itself isn’t half bad either.



And just like that, here I was, back at square one. Thank you, Brett, for being such a lovely host. I owe you…more than one.

The flight to Japan was fantastically short at only 6.5 hours. What? I’m used to 10.5, so…yeah. And I mean, really, flying that period on Singapore Airlines is equivalent to 2 hours on Air Canada and you get food. With a menu! Snazzy.

Back in my second homeland, I went through the motions of being allowed into the country once more (though I unfortunately arrived with a shipment of American military men) and before long, I was back on the NEX. Good times are ahead.





Once I had dropped off my sacks at the mansion, I went for ramen to my favourite (and much ballyhooed) spot, Ichiran. I’ve been craving a decent bowl of ramen (sorry Vancouver!) And there is no replacement on earth for the feeling I get when I see this again after a long while:



Best ramen anywhere.


Canucks represent!



I couldn’t resist a reorientating walk around the ‘Buya (or shiboots, as my sissy calls it) - reunited and it feels so good.








Visually, that’s what excitement looks like.




Alright, I can’t lie. Apparently I just had an unsteady hand that night and I hadn’t even been drinking yet.

Though travel just beats all energy out of me, I wanted to see some old friends. So, despite my body begging me not to, I gussied up and took a taxi down to New Lex in Roppongi. Gosh, I love that place. Met some awesome, super-cool people, had a ton of fun for Mutsuki’s birthday, and reconnected with the infamous Taka. Lovely Marcia captured some photographic evidence…







Always a pleasure. Let’s see if I can keep this up every night! It will be worth it.

Tomorrow I see my dearest friend Mayuko and we will head up towards the Tokyo Sky Tree. What is this? A tree? In the sky? Not quite…

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The Titanic Botanic (Part 10)

Another day, another Canucks game at 11:00 AM in Singapore. Thankfully, Brett let me use his computer with NHL Centre Ice…now we are cooking with gas! A late-morning game does not lend itself to an adventuresome spirit however, so leaving the house was a little later than it should have been. Probably. 3-1 Canucks. Today’s adventure will be at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, but first!...food and coffee. And a photographic memory of this hideous poster from Brett’s apartment.


I still don’t get it.

I also headed up to the rooftop pool on my way out. Not to swim, but for the photo ops. I want one of these at my house.











Sigh. It really was beautiful.

For lunch I had some grodie tough pork in what was supposed to be curry inside the train station at Holland Village. Two thumbs way down.



Then, of course…coffee. I’m really getting used to all these Coffee Bean and Tea Leafs everywhere.











I had high hopes for the Botanic Gardens. The question is, will I be able to stand the heat long enough to do it justice?





Oh yes…it was Valentine’s Day. How could I forget? The park was littered with couples and picnic baskets. The part I found most baffling was that all these people were not at work. They can’t possibly have taken holidays, can they have? Maybe they were all students.

























The heat was absolutely suffocating. I tried to escape into the gift shop for relief but I knew that it would just be so much harder to make the walk back to the train station. Once I got peripherally near, I told myself it was just another minute and I literally concentrated on counting down from sixty to keep my mind off the sweating. Damn, Singapore. At least the train station was gloriously cool.



The last hurrah had begun. For dinner we did do something very Singaporean - we ate at a hawker centre. BBQ and lime juice. It doesn’t get much better than that.











After dins we walked around the waterfront and made our way to Clark Quay…and the hoardes of Valentine revelers had the same idea.




A wine shack by the water? Ingenious.

And just as quickly as my trip in Singapore began, it was coming to a close. Tomorrow morning I board a flight for Japan. The epic adventure continues.

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