Daily coffee at St. Marc Cafe

My daily routine has changed drastically after shifting to a new job at Shinjyuku.

The coffee at St. Marc Cafe has been my favorite since their americano fits my taste.

Batista welcomes me warmly and notices that I'm a regular customer. Just like the way it was in the Philippines.

Chinese New Year at Yokohama China Town + Valentines - 横浜中華街での旧正月 + バレンタイン

Last week end, After a long rainy week, the sun showed up on a Sunday as if it was meant for this special day.

Yes, it was Valentines and Chinese New Year.



So we decided to checkout how crazy the celebration is at the China Town in Yokohama.

Apparently it was an ordinary celebration where a tiger looking dragon goes to each store to pray for prosperity and wealth. The only difference I notice was the amount of fireworks they use. Compared with Mauritius and the Philippines, it was like only an intro. It lasted for about 5 ~ 8 seconds of fireworks for each store.




Luckily on that day the tiger looking dragon came upto us and bit our head. It was totally unexpected; hope we get lucky this year!!

New York burger - ニューヨークバーガー

The awaited American burger series of Mc Donals in Japan, since Feb 5, they started with the New York burger.

It is basically the old school BLT with cheese and quarter ponder Pattie! Yum yum!!!

Modern War

Started playing this game yesterday. The graphics are just awsome but after playing for several hours, started to feel dizzy and naucious... For a person who used to play Super Mario this game was too complicated. But surely the young generation now a days plays this type of games.
It is sad to realized that you actually feel your age with modern games...

McDonalds Texas burger - マクドナルド テキサスバーガー

A new series of burger just launched this week at McDonalds in Japan. Four types of Quarter pounder based pattie with different toppings. So we walked to the closest store(just 3mins walk) and had the Texas burger that was currently available.

The burger was made up of one fat quarter pounder Pattie, lettuce, fried onions, smoked bacon and cheese separated with three buns. The sauce that was used flavored like chilli pepper and mustered.

Over all, it was another brilliant idea from McDonald :)

Excelsior Coffee

Ever since I started working at my current job, I made a habit of grabbing a cup of americano at this cafe every morning.

The reason why I'm writting about this is becuase I notice something different with the service of the cafe's in Japan compared to the Philippines.

Almost definitely when it comes to the cafe's in the Philippines, after visiting for a week the Barista would recognize me and would prepare my drink before I reach the cashier. On the other hand, the Japanese cafe's or at least the one that i've been going to, does not seem to bother recognize nor remember what I regularly order.

I don't really mind the fact that I have to mention my order each time I visited but I'm more curiouse about the reason behind it. If I was the barista, I would definetely recognize the customer if I get to see them every morning. Doesn't this make the customer feel like returning to that cafe if they recognize you? Is it wrong to be friendly with the regular customer? May be it's cultural. Or simply their marketing strategy is just different.

Just a thought...

I wonder how other cafe's in other countries are....

Avatar the movie

Watched "Avatar" this weekend. Animation was not really my thing but since there were so many good rumore about this movie, we for the first time stepped into the XpanD(like IMAX) theater to experience the 3D theatre. Suprisingly the 3D effect was astonishing and the plot was quite interesting.

Sashimi- kan buri & hon maguro

Walk at Todoroki Gulch to Tamagawa River- 散歩 - 等々力渓谷 〜多摩川

One of the thing we did during the holidays was to walk along the river at Todoroki where trees are surrounded. There were several shrines and temples also along the way.


Finally the river joins to Tamagawa river.








And the sunset was simply beautiful.

Hello 2010!

It's just about a year since I started this blog and I didn't realize that blogging was this time consuming. Well after Igot back in Japan my post has been lousy. But I will put some more effort this year with more photos from my cell and toy camera so here is the first sunrise of 2010. Turned out to be a clear weather with freezing 0 degree celciouse.

Looking back 2009, lots of things had happen. Good and bad but there are no regrets. Made lots of wonderful friends over in Mauritious and in my new work in Japan.

Lookingforward also for this year. Hope 2010 will bring lots of suprises and excitement.

Happy new year!!!!

29th cake!

My 29th cake! Thank you Eriko!!!

Its been a while since I wrote on my blog.... time just passes, and the next thing I knew it was my birthday already!

4th Anniversary 2nd Round - 4年記念日パート２

After the 23rd of August, it is my turn now to make the celebration so what I did was to make dinner for her. Although it was summer what I thought of was to make hot pot.

２３日の後に２４日は私の番でした。夏だけど野菜たっぷりの鍋を作ってやりました！先日食べた冷たいコーンスープを作ったんですが、同じ味はだせませんでした　：ｂ

4th Anniversary with Eriko! - えりタンと４年記念日！

This year, I thought our anniversary will be celebrated apart from each other. But fortunately, by the unknown force and coincidence, I was back in Japan before our 4th anniversary!

So on the 23rd of August Eriko brought me to this French Restaurant in Tsukimino Kanagawa. The place was also memorable for Eriko since has celebrated her birthday when she was little.

The lunch was absolutely brilliant and the place was beautiful! The food was very interesting I was full with happiness while eating every each dish that came in front of me.

今年、初めて記念日を離れ離れで祝うと思ったところ何らかのフォースで日本に帰国することになり無事一緒に祝うことができました。神がお互い離れ離れになったらいけないというものなのでしょうか？この偶然がとても考えると面白い。

とりあえず２３日はえりが大和市つきみ野のフレンチ料理うかい亭に連れてくれました。ここはえりが幼い頃に誕生日を祝ったことがあることで１５年ぶりのうかい亭でした。

今回のランチは今までトップ５に入るぐらい旨い料理でした。場所はとてもユニークなインテリアでこじんまりとしている。しかも定員さんたちがとてもフレンドリーでアットホームな感じさせられまた。料理は半端なくおいしくとても興味を持ちました。

Cold tomato salad where every thing is made of tomato even the cream on top.It consist of Tomato jellies and sorbet inside. No sugar was used but it was so sweet and delicious.

はじめに冷たいトマトのサラダだった。白いムースまでトマトでできてあり、中にトマトのゼリーとシャーベットまではいってる。

Sea bass and Zucchini with Saffron and Basil sauce

焼きスズキとズッキーニにサフランとバジルソース

Cold corn soup

冷たいコーンスープ

Our chef of the day

今回の料理人

Long bell pepper.

しし唐の焼き、かなりシンプルだけどこれがうまい！

Japanese beef! How gorgeous!!!

なんと美しいんだろう！

Even looking from a far it looks good

遠くからみても美しい！

After cooking it looks beautiful

焼きあがっても美しい

Our room during our lunch

Desert Eriko: Peach with jelly

Dessert Mike : Mango Pudding with Passion fruit sauce

Thank you Eriko!!!! love you!!!!!!

ありがとうえり子タン！！！愛してるよー！！！！

Doushi River Kanagawa - 道志川

Eriko brought me to a river this weekend. It was a camp area also and there were some people barbecuing. The water was very cold for summer, but then we still took a dip.

I'm basically a beach lover but mountain river is also not bad at all.

久しぶりに山の川へ行きました。横浜線の橋本駅からバスで１時間ぐらいで道志川に付きました。大分o落ち着いた川で鮎釣りには有名なスポットらしい。キャンプ場でもあり、今度ここでキャンプやバーベキューも楽しそうだなーと思いました。とりあえず水が冷たいのにかかわらずちょっと泳いで見ました。

海も好きだけどやっぱり山の川もいいなー

Kouku Park in Tokorozawa - 航空公園 所沢

Went to one of the beautiful parks in Japan last week end.

The place was quite big where Japanese planes were seen. Surrounded with trees and flowers, nature was giving cool air to the visitors. Me and Eriko enjoyed walking around the park seeing people enjoying their own time. People who was practicing their flute, drum, dancing, cheering, singing, joging, eating, reading, sunbathing and etc... It is nice to know that in a big city like Japan, they keep a nice Park where people respect and enjoy nature.

週末に所沢の航空公園に行きました。

結構大きな公園で高い木に覆われてるこの公園は夏の熱気も忘れられます。

みんな公園が好きだなーって思う人があっちこっちにいました。

日本に住んでいる人には当たり前のような風景かも知れないがフィリピンで育った僕にとってはとても清々しい風景でした。大都市なのに自然に少しでも触れたい人たちの思いやりが伝わります。