Birthday Party at Chrissy!

The festive season saw lots of important peeps being born and celebrating in Tokyo for 2009! Masao turned 30! Melissa, Ace n Soness all turned 21 i think it was!! The house was full, the cocktails were flowing, a man and his guitar and a man and his accordian, and of course some rupaul tunes helped us get our groove on! dd and kristen got busy in the kitchen making yummy yummy cakes made to order! tohatos and all yum!! laughed with old friends and made some new ones sharing (or fighting over) our secret santa gifts! a great night, still finding cups around house, but no cops so all in all a wonderful time! - check out the pics on the right (click to see slideshow)

Spicy Ramen - The Bomb Shop, Akasaka

So this is one of our favourites. Miso spicy ramen for 900 yen. The wonderful thing about the ramen shops here is that you can request your level of spicy - most shops have from 1-10 (going off the scale up to 15) but the bomb shop goes as high as you want. On the graph it goes up to 20 with the little picture of the person looking pretty sweaty and sore, so of course going higher is always the challenge. There is a wall of fame (or stupidity) with your score on a little wooden plaque that you get to decorate and so far the highest up there is 401! Ouch! Ace has tried up to 130 spicy which well i think made the afternoon in the office not so fun!! I have only done up to 20 and that was enough. The results are sore mouth and lips, grumbly crampy tummy and paper defo in the freezer! Today we both had 10 spicy and it was nice, you can still taste the miso soup flavour without burning your mouth and lips off. It always fun to watch those trying a higher spicy rating to see them sweat and squirm and only just finish their bowl. Of course the boys from the office try and beat each other with the highest being 130 so far. The soup is a bright red colour and reasonable thick from the miso too! not too much other stuff in it just noodles, egg and some green shallots. Often has a line out the door but not long to wait of course. A regular haunt for us, defo gets high on the spicy ramen hunt for yumminess and uber hotness.

Taste It... every burger

Name ... EveryBurger Reminds me of ... a doll's burger Colour ... burger colour! Smells like ... like the top of cakes Mouthfeel ... crunchy and strangely small Tastes better than ... no burger at all Would rather eat ... real burger Passing ... make your teeth feel crunchy, but made you feel like a giant so thats cool! NB: every burger bought from the candy section

Gone Coconuts

Celebration times for our first year of marriage (and my birthday) in the Philippines. What a wacky place! coming from the utter cleanliness of tokyo cebu is quite a change - noisy, smelly, busy, and not as clean but oh so beautiful and wonderful all at the same time! Some beautiful churches and forts still stand from the spanish times, the fresh food markets and strange shops selling all types of baby jesus and mary paraphanalia will just keep you smiling and wanting to spend your many pesos. From cebu we took a 3 hr bus ride (yay for aircon) down the island of cebu to dumaguete and crazy ride in a trike (tourists obviously and paid way too much for our short trip). A (cargo)boat ride took us to little siquijor, a small island just south of cebu. Hired a motorbike and hooned and dodged our way around the island a few days, going two up with me on the back was well fun. The maps are so basic and the roads more so, therefore one of the days we spent getting lost up in the jungle and mountains - all the while young kids kept asking us "where are you going?" and in response i gave a smile and a wave! The question was obviously related to the fact that the road we took became a goat trail with mud and holes all over it and then funnily enough finished at the front of someone's tiny little shack at the top of the hill! Had to backtrack but it was just so pretty and well worth the detour. Birthday was wonderful, a suprise cake that was brought from town about half an hour away on the back of the bike and amazingly still intact! Coconut cocktials and karaoke on the beachfront at JJ's cafe was cool with some fun new friends from Aus and Finland! and then off the local nightclub to dance the night away! door charge 15pesos or 30cents, jugs of local rum n coke 150pesos woohoo Our anniversary was so lovely, the little resort, with a beachside hut, that we stayed at on siquijor was pretty quiet and Ace n i were the only ones having dinner on the beach! Amazing! Yummy fish, mango salad and aussie wine, all with a wonderful sunset and just me n ace! Lots of swimming of course to enchanted waterfalls, blue ocean, and a nice pool. The people are friendly and pretty crazy, and carefree. Our last few nights back at a nice place in cebu with a lagoon at our doorstep, wonderful filipino massages, more good food n cocktails and laying about! Perfect relaxing time so hard to drag ourselves away... we will return

World Hoop Day 09 - Day 1 Sunday in Yoyogi

Well actually on 09/09/09 its World Hoop Day for this year! As part of the Tokyo celebrations there was an amazing get together of hoopers young and old, pro and newbies! What a cool day! Ace n I hooped for about 8 hours that day as it is truly addictive! My legs are still achy but it was sooooo worth it! Pix are on FB see link!! http://www.facebook.com/joxanne?=&new_box_added_id=187649450044#/album.php?aid=120709&id=590897096&ref=mf More celebrations this Wednesday, same place at 6pm! Can't wait to hoop it up!!

Taste it

Name ... ? yoghurt sandwich pocket? Reminds me of ... an undercooked toastie made by a 3 year old Colour ... white on the outisde, creamy white and purple inside Smells like ... yeasty jam Mouthfeel ... like eating PVA glue in primary school Tastes better than ... a cream and jam filled meat pie Would rather eat ... it toasted! Passing ... just don't know when your supposed to eat it!

The Pinkies...

Stumbled across serious baseball action one evening wandering through azabu-juban....pale pink pants, patent pink belts and cute pink shirts with PINKEES emblazoned across it! they have more pink in their wardrobes than i! not bad players too.

Taste it?

Name ... ? squid jerky Reminds me of ... davey jones' beard in Pirates of Carribean Colour ... flourescent artery Smells like ... kind of like a johnny (clarify) sweet smelling fish scented latex product Mouthfeel ... biting bits off an eraser Tastes better than ... lettuce Would rather eat ... with more sake Passing ... awesome with sake in the dark