What would a Ninja do?

After weeks of self-inflicted cabin fever, my exam was over and we were free to explore!

Saturday kicked off with a 1hr massage (I deserved it! :P)… again, there was utter bemusement on the masseuse’s face when she told me how tight my muscles were… *sigh*

After a tasty lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s café in Bay Quarter, we hit the train to Akihabara to pick up some MP3 players… several hours later and with a  few swipes of the credit card we emerged victorious! We then crossed into the centre of Tokyo to Asakasa to restaurant called… "Ninja"… guess who picked it? :)

 We were dubious when we first walked in and the hostess clapped her hands for a Ninja to appear… that was just the start of it! We were escorted by lantern through a maze of small ceilings (Marcus wouldn’t stand a chance!), staircases and a big trap door… to our table. It was in a small area with 3 other tables. Our Ninja waiter pulled out a magic menu… and we realised all the set menus had an abundance of seafood… not friendly for my Ninja. Fortunately there was a very long ala carte menu too. We resisted the “Beauty Cocktails” and opted for a bottle of French red. Our menu choices are below, as is our ninja magic show – it was amazing… or maybe there was something in the wine? Apologies for my commentary in the background – I don’t really sound like that, do I? See if you can pick up on the fake pen joke he throws in there… not cool! They also did fire tricks and the best food trick we saw was a grapefruit with a knife through it, when they removed the knife the fruit started smoking (solution: the blade must of held a piece of dry ice, when pulled out, it dropped into the liquid below)...very cool!

Forbidden Fruit

Stewed Apple with marinated duck inside!

 Tristan's entree - duck with wild rice

My main - roast lobster

Tender lamb

Dessert choices - what would you have chosen?

Ninja chose the "Merchant and Corrupt Official" - chocolate layered cake under the gold

I went the Bonze - pumpkin ice-cream and chocolate cake - yummo

The next day we hit Tokyo again, to exchange an MP3 (damn you Sony and your non-international language supported toys!), and to finally hit a baseball batting cage! It was a little walk from Shinjuku station. Our batting techniques are below… clearly one of us was a little leaguer… and the other did ballet :P My pitches were at 80km/hr and Ninja opted for 90km/hr… they came every 4 seconds, so we had 30 balls x 2 rounds each … and we have been in a world of pain every since!

We headed home via Costco. I found a 16 year old bottle of port for $60, so I was rather chuffed… until we got to the check out and the lady gave us the “no deal” sign to Mastercard (our AMEX hasn’t been replaced yet)… so with our tails between our legs we scrounged together to pay the huge bill but had to return the port – I was so ashamed… and bitter about losing it! Damn you Costco!

We returned home to Skype the newest member of the Bardill clan – Elijah – another huge cutie born last week (good job Chels) – he’s super cute and I could tell he was less impressed than I am at Uncle Frog’s (aka Kept Ninja) facial hair! This “beards at births” tradition is not all its cracked up to be!

Until next week…

Xoxo

Karate Kate

Who knows? Suuuuuumo's

Well, where do I start? Our adventures of late have left no time for blogging! Let’s go back to the very beginning, a very good place to start… (yes, The Sound of Music was on SkyPerfect recently!)

For the second time in our marriage, Kept Ninja and I were separated by sea :( He flew to China to holiday with his folks for a week. I was a little apprehensive for three reasons:

   1. Our credit cards were cancelled the day before he left as someone was spending our money at Saks in Aberdeen;

2.    We weren’t sure if his mobile would work there (it didn’t); and

3. Finally, I hadn’t cooked for myself in 6 months and survival was not a give in!

Fortunately, Kept Ninja made a big loaf of wholemeal, 2 batches of fruit muffins and 3 litre of chicken vegetable soup :)

After a week of moping and watching romance movies, Kept Ninja was due to come home… only a typhoon could stop him! ...and it did. Typhoon Roke cancelled flights for 4hrs and sent me home from work at 3pm. 

One day later, Kept Ninja’s aunt and uncle arrived. Two days later Kept Ninja and his folks made it home.

Unfortunately, Kept Ninja didn’t make it back in time for the Sumo on Friday. So I took Keiko, Sabatino and Roberto from work. It was quite an experience. 

In a nutshell:

-       The amateur’s (Jonokuchi) wrestle first – their sizes varied from little guys to 250kg jumbos. I felt sorry for these guys cos they don’t get to wear cool hairstyles, they have more cellulite than muscle, and they have to clean and cook for the higher ranked wrestlers (rikishi).

-       The dohyo (ring) is covered with sand, which they sweep constantly.

-       During the actual bout, a rikishi can use a number of manoeuvres, except pulling his opponent's hair, hitting his opponent with a closed fist, boxing his opponent's ears, choking his opponent (although he may push at the throat), or grabbing his opponent's mawashi in the crotch area… first to touch the ground or step out of the ring looses!

-       There are 6 referees (gyoji) – one who jumps around the ring with the wrestlers, the other five sit on mats near the ring and sometimes get hit by falling wrestlers. They only jump up if they think the main man got it wrong.

-       The Juryo were next up – they are the middle-men – the bouts last longer as do their warm up – they get to throw their weight around, AND throw salt.

-       Finally the Makuuchi battles were up – they throw salt til the cows come home, then receive a moist towel, throw some more salt and then fight! The Big Kahuna or Yokozuna, had been undefeated for several years and lost for the first time the day before… we witnessed his second loss in as many years… which lead to cushions thrown into the ring (you predicted it Kz!) It’s a round-robin tournament so he still won overall.

  - Most competitors were Japanese but there were some from Russia, Mongolia, Brazil and Estonia!...

Surface prep

Aw, the little guys wrestle

Warm-up stretch - hello boys!

The Yuryo - who feels good about their physique now?

Yuryo 'Hello Boys' is remarkably more flexible!

Nothin' like a good salt throw...

Man-love - sumo style

Legal throat attack

The Makuuchi... check out the bright blue boy... he's Russian

Yokozuna (aka "Big Kahuna")

David Vs Goliath

David won - does everyone agree?

watch out for the flying sumo wrestler...

The dummy-spit - Yokozuma crumbles under pressure!

Baystars fans - unimpressed with their performance!

We had Tris’ parents, Aunt and Uncle stay with us for 10 days so we showed them around Tokyo and Yokohama. Few pics below – highlights were:

-       Baystars game – ok they lost, but we got Baystar caps :)

-       Oktoberfest at Red Brick Warehouse – 1 litre stein’s and bratwurst

-       Going up Landmark Tower – 69 storeys’ – great view!

Landmark Tower View

Landmark Tower View

Oktoberfest - Red Brick Warehouse

PROST!

On Sunday we went to the Rakuten Tennis Open in Tokyo – it was a charity event day – we saw Bernard Tomic, Milos Raonic, and Mardy Chicken (aka Mardy Fish), each played Japanese players. Then David Ferrer played David Nalbandian, and Juan Monaco hit with Rafael Nadal. Half time entertainment was pretty interesting… see video below!

We had our 11^th Japanese lesson on Monday night – we can now say when we woke up, what activities we did during the day and what we ate – the lesson feels like confession! Even more disturbing is that we learnt how to invite another person out to do an activity together and Tanabe-sensei was winking at Kept Ninja as he accepted her Karaoke date on Friday! :P ha ha but seriously, he IS her favourite!

Long weekend coming up – which gives me just enough time to cram for my Strategic Management exam in 13 days time!

Xoxo

Karate Kate

Sweet Home Yokohama

Whilst my husband was gallivanting around China with his folks, I took a spoonful of cement and tried to embrace a boy-free weekend.

Our satellite TV here is rather ordinary – we have ~10 sports channels (mainly baseball and golf), one TV show channel and ~3 movie channels so when two romantic movies screen back-to-back, it’s a great start to a girly weekend! Sweet Home Alabama and The Legend of Bagger Vance – lovely doubleheader… add a glass or two of Rose` and you’ve got a good night in!

In an effort to improve mind, body and spirit, my Saturday started with a workout DVD, followed by a 1 hr “massage seto” at Greenwood Massage centre, under our apartment building. I had an aroma foot reflexology, body care, head massage combo – a painful version of heaven. There was limited chit-chat, but the masseuses’ parting message was “neck and legs very tight – not good”… tell me about it! I booked a follow up treatment for after my exam in October :)

Kid's clothes - I prefer the summer PJ style outfits

My motives for going shopping Saturday afternoon were twofold – I was scouting Japanese kids clothes for my sister-in-law Chelsea’s niece; and my Goop newsletter this week said I needed a striped boat neck top and a summer fedora – you can’t argue with that! Granted they don’t match, but they will both go well with the black tights and denim shorts look, which I’ve fully embraced of late. It goes without saying that I have not embraced all Japanese fashions - scrunchies are still a disaster!

My purchases :)

My spirits improved with a fabulous game of rugby played by the mighty Boks! Unfortunately the Wallabies were less impressive and went down to the Irish (ouch).

Sunday – the 3 month heat wave continues in Yokohama – 32 degrees with humidity – when will it be winter!?!?!? I spent the morning copying my Strategic Mgmt textbook to study cards in prep for my exam in 4 weeks time… a good job to clear my conscience… whilst being able to watch tv shows simultaneously … women can multitask you know.

At lunch I jumped on my Mammachari and cycled the 1km to the Yokohama Museum of Art. I was expecting small crowds and a 500 Yen ($6) entry fee… silly me. The Yokohama Triennale was on so the ticket queue was 100 people long and entry was 1600 Yen ($20). I was hoping for some traditional Japanese art but this was limited and the most popular pieces were the interactive, visual arts pieces… bit fruit for my taste… but I only use one side of my brain… and it’s not the right hand side :) Few pics below.

Yokohama Museum of Art - Triennale Exhibition

The ticket queue - great

My favourite piece

Interactive piece - the coloured circles are rolled up fabric...hmmm

There were heaps of video pieces - I didn't get them

This one was cool - it's a pipe organ - so it played whistling notes through the scaffold

Someone lost his marbles...

Wooden carved dragon

People queued up to go in the glass maze

Art museum gum ball machines - bit different

I had my second hair cut down at Glam – United Works downstairs from our apartment – I meant to ask for the lady to straighten my hair at the end to avoid the wet poodle look I came out with last time, but alas I sat quietly and nodded as it was easier… thus came out a wet poodle… I don’t think curls are prevalent here! As I’d planned to spend the rest of the day admiring my sleek, straight hair, I now had no excuse not to go for a run so I waited til 6pm and went on my usual route down along the port front. There were lots of people about – Red Brick Warehouse had a performance stage with a group of guys skipping to hiphop music… each to their own :) It really is a magically area along the water front – I’ll do it again tonight and take some photos.

Today is a Japanese holiday, “Respect for the Aged” – I’ll be respecting the aged by studying their theories on Strategic Management :P followed by some house cleaning in preparation for our 4 visitors arriving on Wednesday – can’t wait!

Xoxoxo

Karate Kate

Slow Couple of Weeks!

Shameful blogging of late – apologies.

Locals at the Fireworks

Ventures of note of late:

Everyone dressed in their Summer
Kimono's for the Fireworks

Kanagawa Shimbun Fireworks – oddly enough they were on a Wednesday night, so this was a perfect example of how useful it is to have a Shufu or Kept Ninja home all day. I got home 15mins before kick off to have a quick shower whilst Ninja had prepared… bruchetta on homemade bread, lasagne, green salad, and of course, car shaped white chocolate mud cakes. We had Rod and Mihoko over and we dressed up in our summer kimono’s along with the crowds below. From Yokohama train station there were crowds everywhere – I’ve never seen anything like it – we live in such a spread out, quiet area… which was invaded by ten of thousands of people to watch the sky show. Ninja got some nice snaps with his camera on the tripod… as you can see we were 500m from the barge.

Kill Bill and Cold Rock Creamery:

Ninja and I took Stef from work to the restaurant (Gonpachi), which the Kill Bill restaurant was based on. We had great Japanese tapas and followed it up with some Cold Rock Creamery ice-cream. I went with a mint choc chip fudge brownie mix – I think Stef picked the winner, which was a triple German chocolate flavour.

Gonpachi

Gonpachi

Cold Rock Creamery

Cold Rock Creamery

How I Met Your Mother Marathon:

Our trek up Mt Fuji was cancelled the day before we were due to leave (damn typhoon!) so we spent the weekend moping and had a HIMYM marathon. This had a funny affect on us… Season 4 Episode 2 – ‘The Best Hamburgers in New York’ led to us getting hamburgers for dinner… and after watching the next episode – ‘I heart NJ’ – where Ted and Marshall go to Price Co, we went to CostCo and bought jumbo size products :) Here’s hoping they go to a museum or do something more interesting in Season 5.

Xoxo

Karate Kate

Tips for a Tourist in Tokyo

We recently had a visit from our dear friend Louise. She was our first official visitor. We had prepared a “what to do in Tokyo” list which was about to be tested!

Day 1: jetlag recovery consisted of a shopping trip to Queens Tower, Landmark Tower, Sky Building and SOGO. After a brief nap we popped some Moet and cheese and headed to the Red Brick Warehouse for dinner.

Tip 1: Red Brick Warehouse restaurants do not have good A/C… not conducive to summer dinners!

Day 2: Mammoth 11hr Mt Fuji bus trip. We got on the bus only to hear that the usual 1.5hr ride was going to take +3hrs due to serious traffic… great.

Tip 2: don’t do tours on the weekends

We were also unlucky enough to have a little American kid on our bus that was high on coloured cereal and chocolate his mum was feeding him…bless. We had a pit-stop half way for lunch, and finally reached the 5^th Station of Mt Fuji… only to be surrounded by a cloud! The relief was it was 10 degrees cooler up there! 

The evil 4 year old...

There were hundreds of hikers prepping to climb to the top… too bad that 5mins after we got back in the bus it poured with rain :P Apparently 300,000 people climb Mt Fuji every summer.

Duey, Huey and Louie

After more bad traffic we reached Lake Ashi in time for the final “Pleasure cruise” – definitely the highlight of our day! We then descended to the town of Hakone to catch the Shinkansen home… being the weary traveller that I am, I was wearing my travel bands… unfortunately the guy at the back of the bus wasn’t… and his lunch came up.

Lake Ashi

Tip 3: you never know who will be on your tour bus with you – take an ipod or earplugs!

20mins on the Shinkansen and we were back to Shin-Yokohama… much more pleasant than a 3hr bus trip!

Day 3: Ninja was in charge of Louie midweek during the day. They ventured to Akihabara, Shinjuku and Ginza. That night we were treated to udon noodle beef stir-fry from Chef Louise with some Veuve and South African red.

Tip 4: Don’t drink on Monday nights, it sets a bad precedent no matter where you are in the world!

Day 4: Ninja and Lou took the bikes out for a hot ride around Yokohama to Motomachi and back past the Red Brick Warehouse. They headed in to Tokyo and hit the kitchen district – Kappabashi and a few other spot before getting the dreaded call from me that I was working late – fortunately they were flexible and met me at Yokohama station for some … Japanese!

Day 5: Ninja and Lou tried out the Kill Bill restaurant with the other WEL WHAGs (wives, husband and girlfriends) – apparently it was a huge hit… whilst I was in workshops all day… humpf! The good part of the day was getting a pair of ninja shoes from my Ninja… alas his feet are too high-arched to fit them!

We hit Yokohama Stadium that night for the Baystars Vs Giant game – the Baystar’s gave away an early lead but made a big comeback towards the end… sadly they suffered a 7-8 loss, but we had fun.

Tip 5: The 4,000 Yen tickets are soooo much better than the 3,500 Yen bleacher seats… hoorah for not sitting next to a trumpet! :)

Day 6: BIG DAY! A Disney day! We were very excited to visit Disney Sea midweek and breeze through the lines and rides… epic fail!

Tip 6: Disneyland or Sea can only be visited midweek AND during school terms!

We waited 1.5hrs to get in, in the stinking heat and then got our first Fast Pass… for 5:50pm! Disaster! We licked our wounds and went on the Storm Rider, which was a big simulator that squirts water on you – nice and refreshing! We then wandered the park and took pics whilst looking for a place to eat that didn't have lines 50 people long. 

After lunch Louie had a “eureka” moment where she read that “single riders” can pass even the Fast Passer's and fill in gaps on 4 of the main rides. We hit the Indiana Jones ride – queue for the plebs… 2hrs… queue for Huey, Duey and Louie – 10mins! Booyah! We planned our poses for the ride picture, but alas Louie came up short… she hasn’t had the practice that Ninja and I have :)

We then hit the water show in the centre of the park in the hopes that the Genie’s squirt gun would reach us… it didn’t. The other rides had closed off their “single riders” lines – prejudice I say! So we stumbled home for a glorious shower and some Veuve (are you sensing a pattern here?).

see no evil

Speak no evil

Hear no evil

Indiana Jones - Disney Sea

We then hit Grandciar downstairs for their 7 course set with a great bottle of  French wine.

Day 7: Sadly Louie declined our offer to stay with us and be our full-time translator (she’s awesome at Japanese) and she headed to Singapore. Tristan and I were rather looking forward to a bit of liver cleansing but that would have to wait one more day – work drinks at Kirin Brewery! All you can eat and drink for 4,200 Yen…

Tough life I tell you!

Xoxo

Karate Kate