If you really need to get into the Xmas mood, nothing beats a quick trip to New York City! Where you can see things like this:
Only in New Yawk!
Nothing like NYC during Xmas
Tokyo Tidbits and more Hong Kong advice
Well, this was my last day in Tokyo; just a few observations:
The Nissan Gallery in Ginza is great. Not only do you get to slam the tires and kick the doors of Nissan’s latest and greatest, there’s usually some sort of design related exhibit happening too. Today it was a small exhibit on iconography and type relating to Nissan’s logo and choice of fonts.
Tokyo is the world’s largest city. It’s public transport system WITHIN Tokyo is fantastic. You can literally get anywhere in this big sprawly city on either JR or Tokyo Metro. Trains run frequently and are clean, punctual and safe.
Ever wonder why so many people fall asleep on the train? Besides the length of the average commute (which is looong), the velour covered bench seats are heated! It’s a lot easier to fall asleep when you got a warm butt. And they still manage to wake up, Jabba the Hutt like, a minute before they get off the train. That’s a skill I don’t have yet…
This kick-ass transportation system falls apart the moment you need to get to Tokyo Narita. For a lot of travellers (and especially those of us who travel on our own thin dimes), the only way in is via rail, either by the Ne’X (for those lucky ppl with expense accounts or JR Passes) for Y3200 or the Keisei Limited Express (tokkyu) for Y1000. Here’s the annoying part: It takes OVER AN HOUR!!!
Do the words “Airport Express” come to mind? Hong Kong does it right. HKG to Central takes 23 minutes. If you choose the cheaper option, HKG to Central via A11 bus takes just about an hour. It’s cheaper (HK$40 vs. HK$100) and if you’ve got the time, take the basi. It’s a better deal. What do you get for the extra HK$60 that the Airport Express costs? Well, you get 40 odd minutes of your life back and in-town check in for your flight. That means, you go to the Airport Express station (Kowloon or Hong Kong) and check in yourself and your baggage. Get your boarding pass. That’s it. Fart around for a little bit before hopping the train to the Airport. Take a leisurely stroll around the Airport. Easy.
Anyway, Tokyo Narita could use a service like this. Actually for the amount of money people pay for the Ne’X, there ought to be a Shinkansen going out there!
One thing I do like about Tokyo Narita is that on the 5th level of the mall area, there’s an observation deck where you can go outside and watch the sun set and the planes land and take off.
Ramen out of the Loop
Or, there ARE reasons to poke outside the Yamanote (besides going to Hakone).
Today, I had a Y1450 bowl of ramen. More accurately, a bowl of chasiumen. It was a big bowl with a lot of cha siu in it.
I found my way to Harukiya, a famous old, old old (1949!) school ramen shop in Suginami-Ku. It was an adventure getting here, since all I had was the address and since this wasn’t a major part of Tokyo, my atlas was useless. I took the Chuo Rapid to JR Ogikubo station. Left the JR station and wandered around. Strange how everything on this side of the station looked new…and this is supposed to be an old place! On a hunch, I went back into the station and double checked the map for landmarks. Ah! There’s a koban on the side I should be on! Kobans have cops inside! And cops ALWAYS know where the food is their beat. Yeah, that’s it.
I walked in and spoke my best polite pidgin Nihongo. And you know what? He understood me!! Or since it was 14:00 and I probably looked hungry, he knew what I was looking for when I said “Sumisen, Harukiya, doko desu ka?”, probably with all the wrong inflections. He said it was a three minute walk. Although now I know where it is, it would take 2 minutes. Easy to get to. Here’s how to get here:
Take the JR Chuo Rapid (beeeg orange train!) to Ogikubo Station. Exit on North side.
Walk through bus/cab area to main street. You will see the Koban on your left. Turn right. Walk on sidewalk (it’s one of those covered sidewalks). You will pass a 7-11. Toward the end of the block, you will see a small ramen place, usually with a queue. It’s directly across the street from a Family Mart.
But more importantly, when you come here, get the corner seat by the door. That puts you right next to the big ass stockpots full of ramen goodness. The one in the foreground is where the noodles are cooked. The cook uses a strainer to pull the noodles out of the pot, bounces them around to drain them and plops them into the waiting bowl of broth that was just poured 20 seconds before.
The noodles were fresh made and the broth was delicious without too much of that MSG ickyness that lower quality places have. And since it was soooo big and pricey, guess what? That’s dinner!
Harukiya
1 Chome-4-6 Kamiogi,
Suginami City, Tokyo 167-0043
Dine and Dish: Asian Persuasion
Sarah from The Delicious Life has arranged a Dine and Dish with an Asian theme.
What it means that on Tuesday, 6 December, bloggers should eat somewhere Asian and blog about it. Which means that on my blog, it’s Tuesday, 6 December A LOT!
So this evening, after my noise-reduction headphones died on the airplane (filling my left ear with the kind of static that makes things fall out of one’s ear) and my subsequent arrival into Tokyo, I needed some food at a reasonable time.
I’m staying at the Juyoh Hotel again, in the Taito-Ku ward of Tokyo. This is “cheap lodging” central for Tokyo, and though it’s a bit off the beaten track, kanna beat Y2990 a night with free broadband! However, they have competition that’s a block closer to the JR/Metro stations. I may check them out next visit here. They also have free broadband allegedly. I’m holding my breath for an English version of their website…
Anyhoo, there’s a commercial block nearby with the usual bakeries, coffee shops and booze shops. And this soba shop.
When you walk inside, there’s the usual table and chairs. And to the right is a tatami platform with the short tables for you to eat at. Being the masochist I’ve been accused of being, I chose the tatami.
Singapore was 32 degrees. HKG was 11. Tokyo is 5 degrees at 2310 hours. Yeah, it’s cold. And it’s time for one of my favourite dishes in this kind of weather, tempura soba! The other dish I like in cold weather is ma-bo tofu over rice. Both of these dishes are great and hits the comfort food spot if done right. Done wrong, it makes my stomach like a brick and leaves me craving for a McDonald’s double cheeseburger.
The soba was good; it was springy and not soggy. The tempura was dark (an ebi and an jalapeno pepper) which usually means it was fried in old oil. But the soup went overboard with the MSG. But not too much that I got sick because of it. I liked the big side of scallions that came with it. Mmmm. Bad breath!
Dressing up in Tokyo
Why is it every time I’m in Tokyo, I feel underdressed?
It’s similar to the feeling I had when I was in Paris.
See, that’s why I pack so much lah!!
Yes, I’m here at the Juyoh again after 1.5 hours on assorted trains and walking…
HK Tidbits
Coming to you live from the Silver Kris Lounge in beeeeyoutiful Hong Kong International Airport…
Some random pieces of advice.
There is no affordable (nee, reasonable) lodging near the airport. None. Zilch. There’s an extorbitantly expensive hotel attached to the airport. No transit hotel like Singapore Changi’s. So if you fly in late and then have to fly out early next AM, you’re pretty much stuck in Kowloon. I stayed at the Star Guesthouse. It’s only a HK$30 ride to the Kowloon AeX station and it’s close to TST and the MTR. Small clean rooms. And no, I don’t have a picture. Too tired last night and too early this AM. But it gets my stamp o’approval as a cheap clean place to crash.
If you have an early AM flight to catch and are jonesing for a Sausage McMuffin with egg (in my humble opinion, the best travel food EVER), there’s a McD’s in the airport arrival hall. Most of us see it when we arrive into HKG. But the best part is that the prices are the SAME as in town. No ripoff markup here.
And the UA ground staff here know the score. As I was checking in for today’s flight to Tokyo, even THEY acknowledged that UA service sucks. And the food sucks. And the “flight attendants” were a bunch of baat poh. Although I had to say that first before heads nodded.
ha ha ha! But the Red Carpet Lounge here ain’t that bad. It’s pretty nice with big ass windows so you can see the gates and the airplanes. Also, they have FREE wi-fi here. Unlike SFO’s Red Carpet Club. Thanks SFO Airport Authority!
Being on UA is going to take some getting used to as I flew SQ from HKG-SIN-HKG. We got good food, beeyoutiful service and ice cream after dinner! Not to mention seat-back entertainment with on demand movies, yadda yadda yadda. Which we dun get none of these on UA. Period.
Like I said, this is going to take some getting used to…
Tiger Time @ the Inn Crowd
Sunday afternoon, hanging out at The inn-Crowd. This is where I stay at when I’m in Singapore. Fun place, neat people in charge. This place gets my approval as a “fun, clean, safe place to crash in SG”. And they have Tiger Beer on tap…
They also have a couple of silly cats that have the run of the place. Actually, this is what they do most of the time.
The Adventures of Rojak and Laksa (with dessert at The Fullerton)
No, that’s not a new UPN show. It’s some of the traditional Singaporean food that I got reaquainted with. I met up with Dimsumdolly this evening. She and her red shoes (cuz that’s how I found her at the MRT station where we met up) took me around to some neat places.
We wound up in East Coast (apparently a tradition since my last trip out here) and wound up at some food stalls that claimed to have the “Best Laksa”. And they did, depending on the newspaper/website/TV show that was quoted. And after she ordered and we started eating, I realized I’ve never written about these. So heeere we go….
The dish in the middle of the two bowls is Rojak, a interesting dish with a cool manly sounding name. Sounds Klingon, actually. “I am Rojak, son of Baggh”. OK, no more Star Trek references.
Rojak is a sort of salad, but according to DSD, its not healthy like a traditional salad. I believe that! It feels more like the main course of a meal then just a “salad”. The bowls flanking the rojak is Laksa, a rice noodle (yum) and prawn soup. The soup has coconut milk and chili paste and other spices in it along with seafood. RICH STUFF. This alone is a meal! Yum yum yum.
After that meal and a few beverages (which I kanna remember exactly what), we wound up farting around East Coast. We passed by Charlie’s (from dinner with the lovely Sara-Ann back in May) and picked up some “authentic Hong Kong dim-sum” in the form of chau siu bau for DSD who was fighting a bug. And not winning. We wandered through the Malay Village but that wasn’t too much fun because everything there was closed. Instead, we wound up at the Fullerton for dessert. Better choice. We both ordered a dessert set (coffee, dessert) for S$15 each. Wasn’t bad, considering the price of alcohol (more than the dessert set). DSD had tiramisu and I had a creme brulee with coconut ice cream and shards of coconut on top.
Wound up chatting about all sorts of stuff before we and the MRT began turning into pumpkins (translation: it got late). Fun evening.
Sign for Bun
Yeah, I’d like a Golden Pillow Curry Chicken Bun too.
Xiao Long Bao and Retail Therapy
Met up with a couple of frens for some window shopping and lunch at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Scotts Road. Yeah, I know it’s a chain, but who cares? It was good chow!
Yum yum yum, now THAT’s a good beginning!
Look at those dumplings! That was our starter. Mmmmmm. The xiaolongbao were really good too!
Good xiaolongbao u dun have to go to Shanghai 2 have, cuz it’s cold there!
Usually xiaolongbao outside of Shanghai is pretty pathetic, especially in the US, but these were excellent! Just soupy enough inside but not that soupy so that it was soggy. If you eat xiaolongbao, you understand what I’m trying to describe. We had some fried eel and some other dishes.
It’s easy to take pictures of food. Not so easy to take pix of people. For one thing, food cooperates!
Since it was my fren’s day off, we partook in that peculiar Singapore sport, retail therapy. I mean, it IS the Xmas season, so I guess it was the thing to do…
We wound up going to Tang’s where we looked at dehydrators (huh?) and “sampled” expresso from fancy schmancy expresso machines (yeaaah!). Actually, they were making cups when you listened to their presentation. So we made like we were dense so the guy would make us expresso.
Then to Takashimiya for more of the same. Sounds pretty domestic lah! Of course, back home we have Williams-Sonoma to do this kind of shopping in. Did I just say too much about myself?
Then…
The shopping day ended when those two decided to head to Tiffany’s.
Guys are there for two reasons: either to look at the men’s stuff (watches, various accessories) which takes all of five minutes because there’s so little of it OR they are there to get baubles for their girlfriends/wives/mistresses/SOs. Big expensive baubles in a baby blue box.
My self preservation instinct kicked in and I made myself scarce until they were done. My fren’s husband didn’t come out with us today, claiming illness. I wonder if he knew this was in store…
Smart guy! =P
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