Christmas is coming ...

Rather than send an email out to everyone, I thought I'd just let you all know our Christmas plans from here. Easy peasy Japanesy.

Mike and I will be in Thailand from December 16 - 23, arriving back in Tokyo on the morning of Christmas Eve. We'll be spending Christmas Day here in Tokyo (fingers crossed for snow and a white Christmas, although I hear we'll be rather lucky if it happens!) and then off again on Boxing Day. We're taking the train down to Kyoto for 5 nights and will be seeing Osaka, Nara and Kobe from there too.

So what's everyone planning for their Christmas hols? Do you even get Christmas hols? I'm certainly envious of those of you in the Southern Hemisphere enjoying the weather warming up and the prospect of BBQs and cricket on the telly.

By the way, email me your addresses please so I can send you all Chrissy cards!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For those of you who don't know, last week was Thanksgiving in the States. As some of our new friends here are American we got to celebrate Thanksgiving in style at Joanna and Andrew's. With the turkey provided by moi as we are the only ones with a real oven!

After much stress (mostly unnecessary), I managed to find a turkey that would fit in our oven and attempted to cook it on Saturday morning. I even remembered to thaw it in the fridge for 3 days before I needed it! Hooray for me. By all accounts the turkey (and homemade stuffing which was something of a novelty for my American friends) was a success and I will be invited back again since there was no food poisoning involved.

Anyways it was a fantastic night and you can see a few of the photos here.

Nikko

On Sunday Mike and I took the train up to Nikko, which is supposed to be a beautiful place and perfect for viewing the koyo or autumn colours. Since we were already up early (having listened to the ABs v France game live on radiosport) we left nice and early and arrived in Nikko mid-morning.

Unusually for us we'd checked out the weather forecast before we left home which meant we had plenty of warm clothes - the temperature range for the day was 3 - 5 degrees! The train ride up started out pretty stuffy and hot (and we were cursing the personal heaters under each seat which seemed to be on maximum output) but by the time we got a little closer to Nikko you could feel the cold seeping through the windows and we were putting all our layers on again.

First thing we did was find something to eat. Both the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet recommended Happari Dako for their fried noodles and yakitori and excellent service so that's where we decided to stop off. It was a tiny wee restaurant - only 3 tables - with the walls (and ceilings) covered with notes, business cards, money, student cards, even used boarding passes with messages from foreign and japanese tourists who have visited Happari Dako. Of course we left a card too! In return the owner gave us a map with her version of "Nikko in One Day" telling us which places were Number 1 beautiful and what to miss.

We spent the next few hours doing the trail around the temples and shrines of Nikko, most of which are World Heritage sites and all were amazing. Much more ornate than most of the temples we have seen so far in Japan. The highlight though was seeing all the autumn colours in the hills, along the streets and around the temples - very very impressive!

Unfortunately though, the weather gradually grew worse as the day went on and despite there only being a 30% chance of rain it was bucketing down by the early afternoon and we even bought an umbrella (just another for our extensive collection). We finished up at the former Imperial Villa which at least gave us an hour or so indoors looking at the imperial family's old holiday home. The garden there was particularly beautiful too.

We didn't make it up to the waterfall and lake which are also highly recommended by most people. We're hoping to go back again if we have time (!) perhaps with a rental car and to stay overnight.

Click here to see more photos from Nikko.

Long Time No See!

Sorry I've been pretty slack with the old blog this month, haven't I!

Well, last weekend was the much awaited and anticipated trip back to Honkers. I was a little worried it would be a big letdown and I would realise I have spent the past three months looking at our old life in Hong Kong through rose-tinted glasses ... BUT I have to say I had a fantastic time and, yes, I really DO like Hong Kong!

For a start I managed to spend way too much money mainly because the clothes FIT ME (AND looked good) and it is so EASY to shop there compared with here. When we first arrived in Hong Kong I thought there was a language barrier ... now I live in Japan. And not even in a small town ... I admire Laura and her time here even more than I did before!

So I arrived late Friday night, having been extremely lucky on my flight and having an entire row to myself which meant I could sleep as soon as dinner was over. Ali and Tez met me at the Airport Express which was really sweet .. and I had help with my suitcase up the escalator!

Unfortunately I woke up with a snotty nose and achey bones on Saturday - that cold had finally arrived ... but nothing a spot of shopping (and a few mugs of coffee, thanks Terry) couldn't fix. I sorted out my phone, established that Mike had remembered his PIN and met up with Naomi, Nick and Daisy for coffee and brunch. Hong Kong finally has a brunch cafe that serves healthy food - including corn fritters! YUM! Anyone who had brunch with me on my trip home in July will know all about my obsession with corn fritters ... and I definitely had my fill at eat right!

Next on the agenda was some serious shopping. Nomes, Kate and I hit IFC Mall for a couple of hours before I headed off to Causeway Bay on my own. I was pretty excited to find my love of shopping somehow rubbed off on Naomi while I've been away and she was just as enthusiastic as me about Zara's new season gear. Bliss.

Saturday was definitely the highlight of the trip though. Ali very kindly arranged for everyone to meet at i caramba! for dinner so there were 8 of us there in the end, sucking down margaritas and indulging in mexican food. Kiki had never had mexican before (apparently) but she seemed to really enjoy it ... or perhaps it was just the company she was in (and I'm not talking about yours truly!).

After dinner Nick, Nomes, Kate and I carried on to Aqua Bar in TST. If anyone is going to Hong Kong you really have to go there even if it's just for the Two Drink Minimum, the view is amazing and their cocktails are to die for ... I had the Aqua Queen and, yes, it really did put a sparkle in my eye! Our night finished with getting a taxi home, which seemed to take forever and involved a few "is this guy ripping us off?!" moments as we waiting in the crawling snake of traffic at the Central Tunnel ... but, whatever, the entire ride (including dropping the girls off at the Ferry Pier and then on up to MidLevels) cost about 20NZD ... I really miss cheap taxis!!!

Sunday was really just packing and getting down to the station to check in but I did manage to squeeze in some last minute shopping at good old Olympian City. Checked on the apartment (J had just had the cleaner in, nice!) and picked up the mail and even managed to retrieve a jacket from the laundry which I just didn't have time to pick up the morning I left for Japan.

I arrived home absolutely wrecked just before midnight on Sunday and pretty relieved to see Mike. It was a great trip though, even if it was a bit of a whirlwind. Made me realise that yes, I do love Hong Kong but also made me appreciate a few things about Japan too.

And the char siu bau were great too!

And You Thought Step Was Hard!

Last week I finally ventured down to the Hills Spa. It's part of the Ark Towers setup and as serviced apartment residents we have full membership. Which is great because don't think I'd be paying $50 per visit if I was footing the bill myself!

The gym itself is fairly, shall we say, intimate. As is the studio where the classes take place every day except Monday (Hills Spa is closed on Mondays). There are 4 treadmills, 2 bikes, 3 steppers, a weights machine and free weights. There are TVs but they have no sound and the only "English" channel is CNN. With no sound.

Anyways, on Sunday I decided to join the Shape & Pump class. It was new in October (apparently) and the description lead me to believe it would be along similar lines as Pump back home. I wanted something that required little coordination and instruction following just in case the instructions happened to be in Japanese.

Well, despite every other staff member at Ark Towers speaking English and most of the residents appearing to be short term and foreign, the classes at Hills Spa are conducted almost exclusively in Japanese. Except for when they welcome you to the class which is conveniently named in English. So welcome to Shape ando Pumpu, everyone.

I arrived 10 minutes before the beginning of class to find 6 step platforms set up in the studio. No weights (or dumbells as they described them in the foyer) hanging around, but maybe they were waiting till we got there so it wasn't too cluttered and Dangerous. Two more punters arrived (Japanese). No weights. The class started with a wonderful welcome from Mr Perky himself, including a full on bow which was returned by the Japanese members of the class. I gave him a wee nod and a tight smile.

And then we started marching. Behind the step. Uh oh, you guessed it, Shape ando Pumpu has nothing to do with pumping weights and everything to do with STEP! And to make things even more enjoyable lets just go and do a set of squats on the other side of the room in between every track! As some of you will know, I am bad enough with left and right as it is, but when the instructions are in Japanese?! Impossible.

Imagine how hard it was to keep a straight face then, when Mr Perky Instructor tried to help me out by calling out English instructions and ended up saying "down" when we were up and "up" when we were down. At least I can count to 10 already so I knew how many times we were meant to be stepping up and down!

And the icing on the cake - when it came to push ups was I allowed to do girly, on your knees push ups? Uh uh. I happen to be bigger than even the lone male Japanese guy in the class which means I am expected to do full manly press ups thanks very much. Yeesh.

So now, 4 days later, my muscles (or the things that are trying to be muscles) are screaming in agony, particularly after I returned for round 2 yesterday. The class is twice a week and you know what? ..I think I'll make my "reservation" a regular one.