There's 2 weeks worth of backposts including the vacation to Hokkaido. But I'm not going to bother crossposting them here, they're over at the website.

---

    

It has been 5 years, it was a long wait, but it was well worth it.

We took over 1,500 pictures which I've trimmed down to 873 and 8 videos in 3 flickr sets: part 1 | part 2 | part 3

There's a thread in one of the flickr groups called the 5-shots-a-trip game where you're supposed to show a trip using only 5 pictures. My choices were based on what they brought to me:

• something new -- marimo
• something breathtaking -- sunset at bibaushi
• something delicate -- millenium forest
• something indulgent -- the joy of hot springs
• something fulfilling -- all that seafood

The whole trip has been written up:

day 1 | day 2 | day 3 | day 4 | day 5 | day 6 | day 7 | day 8 | day 9

Not including flights, hotel and car rental we spent ¥307,823, or approx $2,800 so double that for the whole trip. I've broken down the cash spending into categories various categories. Should really take out mm's Burberry shopping. Heehee.



We want to go back already. Even with 2 trips there are so many places in Hokkaido we hadn't explored. The far south Hakodate, the ice boats at Abashiri, the tiny islands off the NW side, Jozenkei Onsen, skiing at Niseko and many more.

An old New York Times article so aptly described why visitors to this magnificent island return to it again and again.

[T]he primary difference between Hokkaido and the rest of this heavily industrialized, crowded country is that it is still raw and largely unsettled. Hokkaido is Japan's frontier and looks the part. In a country where little goes to waste, the Japanese have set aside large expanses of this countryside.

We'll try not to let 5 years lapse before our next visit.

It's my dad's birthday today. :D We actually celebrated last saturday at the Spring Deer Restaurant. It's one of those really old traditional restaurants that people return to cos they went there when they were young. Mum tried to book for today and they were full!!!

We started with shark's fin soup. Very nice. Lots of shark's fin, not like some places where there are only a few strands. Moved on to the famous Peking duck. It's different from some Peking duck in that they include quite a lot of meat with the skin, just the way we like it. The duck meat is especially juicy too.

 

The rest of the duck meat they minced up and combined with diced vegetables. It's served with iceberg lettuce, the idea is to wrap the minced in the lettuce leaves. This was followed by small steamed dumplings. For dessert we had deep fried "doughnuts" with red bean filling

 

Anyone who doesn't: a) like b) know how to make this dish should have to eat nothing but oatmeal for a month.

Made everything from scratch, no jars of sauce. Oh, okay, the tomatoes are canned chopped tomatoes. I like mushrooms in my spag bol, I suppose I should dice them finely so they are similar sized to the mince, but I like my mushroom visible and chunky.

 
I needed to get new pillows cos the old ones are 10 years old and have gotten soft. I've been using the neck support pillows for a long time. The old ones I got from a regular store, it's the first time I've seen them without the cover and it turns out that they are a sponge.

The new ones, on the right, are memory foam pillows by tempur. Needless to say they're stiffer and more supportive, not only cos they are new but I suppose the technology is better.

I got interviewed briefly for a company event today. The interviewer used a flip video to record me. It was so ultra cool, the device is the size of an original iPod, runs on 2 AA batteries and has no wires. A flip-out usb port connects to the computer and allows the video to download.

For just over $100 to get 60mins of recording, I want one.

Mixing it up with the cocktail chemistry set. UrbanOutfitters via cribcandy.

I've always had 2 cameras. The main SLR and a smaller one I carry around in my backpack or for business trips when I know I won't need a full camera. The second camera has always been an ixus, an original 2.0 model. It's gotten to the point when it's not reliable, even with new batteries.

So in June I dragged mm to get a new one. I was so set on another ixus, I did research on the various models and it was just a matter of trying out to see which fit in my hand best.

The unthinkable happened.

The shop assistant said to me that I can get the same specs as the one I was looking at (850 I think) for half the price. It's not a second tier brand but a Nikon. Same specs! I asked why it's cheaper and he said that Canon spends too much money on expensive advertising which bumps up the prices. Regardless of whether that's true or not I can't fault the big price difference. Yes there was a huge built-in resistance to Nikons, I wasn't comfortable because, well, you're either a Canon person or a Nikon person.

Money won at the end. Plus it's a small point and shoot. What's the harm?

I've been using it for 2 months now. Pretty much exclusively, for the last 2 Chicago trips. Now most people graduate to a DSLR from a small digital, not the other way round. Case in point, Dean Allen's reaction on getting a Nikon D60:

It autofocuses in less time than it takes my eyes to imagine what a proper focus would be! You can take pictures in tungsten light without tacking a fucking white card to the wall and metering fifteen times! You push the button and it takes a fucking picture! I am in consumer ecstasy!

My take on it is that it's a very solid camera. There is no viewfinder, the LCD screen is the source. It took me a while to get used to it. The macro function is excellent, which is important to me cos the major use of this camera is to photograph food. It has a smile mode, a number of nice features, and it's small and light. The biggest complaint is if I have it on single shot mode it takes forever for it to display the picture and enable me to take the next shot. Sometimes I have to wait 2-3 seconds before I can click again and I'm so not used to this.

No way am I abandoning my trusted EOS, it's just the occasions when I needed a camera lately have been more suited to a point and shoot. For quick snaps of hotel rooms and restaurant food the small camera is oh so convenient. There's not such a big emphasis on resolution and picture quality.

I did a quick test of both cameras over the weekend. The sunrise shot was taken using both. There is a marked difference in colour rending.

Picture 1: Nikon Coolpix S550 | fully automatic.
Picture 2: Canon EOS350D | 28mm on EF24-105mm | ISO200 | P

 



Not photoshopped or altered in any way except resized and cropped. Does the S550 hold its own against the EOS? Well, no. The colours from the EOS have more depth, and captured the orange-red of the sunrise better. Exposure wise the S550 is brighter and sharper but the EOS picture is easier on the eyes.

I know, it's unfair to compare. I'm not saying the S550 is not good, in fact for quick snaps it's better. I'm just saying there is room for separate cameras in my life.

Jetlag has been bad. I don't know why I'm not completely exhausted cos I've been waking up at stupid hours all week. 1am, 3am, 4am, 5am. I give up on trying to get back to sleep once it gets to around 5.30am.

I took this at just before 6am from my study. The sky was full of reds and oranges for just those few minutes. The trees around the swimming pool act as a good foreground to the skyscrapers in the background.

I entered this for the flickr 888 event. Some people actually take pictures of three 8s, I wish I had the opportunity to do that.

oh. my. lord. I'm watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

It's spectacular.

The air-conditioner in my bedroom should have been replaced 3 years ago, I just never got round to it. Lately it's been making such a racket that I have difficulties sleeping (jetlag notwithstanding). Once I decided, I acted quickly. Went to the electronics store on Tuesday and bought 2 -- one for the study too since it's as old as the one in the bedroom. Originally they were supposed to be delivered yesterday but it got cancelled because of the typhoon. Today they arrived. It took the technicians about an hour to install both, they even took the old ones away.

All in all, a nice deal. I didn't get fancy ones, just store branded. It's fine for the time being.

No work today cos of a typhoon. When I woke up it was raining hard and the wind was very fierce. It's a rare occurrence that the warning was kept on all day. I spent the day reading and playing online jewel quest. It's the same 4 games repeated but it's fun enough. I got over 500k points, and only a particularly difficult game bombed me when I got to 624k, thwarting my attempt at a million.

Went to this modern Japanese restaurant with SC and AK last night. Skewers and drinks are 50% off on Mondays and Tuesdays. They served the typical luxurious Japanese cuisine -- we had a seafood platter, a bunch of skewers and a beef udon.

The highlight was one of the dessert. It's the one in the background. Tomato with champagne jelly.



I have a recipe for caramelised tomato but this was different. Seems that the tomato has been poached in sugar water to strip out the vegetable taste. The texture isn't lost and it was altogether something special.

I tried looking online for a recipe but failed short. There was a thread on ask metafilter that pointed to some interesting tomato dessert but not this one. The closest I could get is a Japanese site that has a recipe for tomato compote as part of a dessert.

In any event I intend to bring mm to this restaurant. I hope I get a second chance to taste this really awesome dessert.

Ignore the fact that mm had to work over the weekend. We'd originally (or rather, I'd begged and begged) planned to see the X-files movie sometime over the weekend. But when I got back I found out that it was on for a week, then disappeared. Either The Dark Knight was too strong, or the people here too stupid to remember. I suppose I have to be resigned to waiting for the dvd.

I'm reminded of this strange article in the USA Today a couple of weeks ago. Most of the article was blurb about the film, which appeared with all the other blurbs out there. But the bits about the Museum of Jurassic Technology inserted into the article were truly weird, like they were trying to be as weird as the show in the early days of the mythology.

Unfortunately the reviews of the film were pretty harsh. Perhaps Chris Carter was trying too hard? Trying to satisfy the formerly faithfuls while trying not to confuse newcomers. It's like trying to park a car with 2 open spaces, you're never as focused as when you have only one space available.

I dunno. May be I managed to convince myself that the film wasn't worth the hype and anticipation cos I missed it. I may have felt differently if we'd gone and seen it. May be. I hope they aren't too disappointed and bounce back with a third movie. After all, we still haven't used the tagline The Truth is Out There.

Woke up at 1am, 5am and then finally 8am. Bummer. But it meant I could go get my hair cut earlier, before the place gets busy. My hairdresser always gels my hair and styles it. He says my hair looks good when gelled cos it's short and thick. The problem is as soon as I'm out of the door I run my fingers through it and flattens whatever style he put in. Hee.

Had to go to the supermarket. The delivery yesterday missed all the fruit and veg items. Just as well cos I bought more than I wanted, including my favourite rocket.

Slept all afternoon again. Crawled onto the sofa at 1-ish and woke up just before 5pm. Had rocket, yellow pepper, tomato and pear salad. Sprinkled a few dried tart cherries I got in Chicago last time, they're not that tart, fit the salad perfectly.

I'm sitting here alternating between playing Jewel Quest and reading a book with the aircon on. I'm still hot and need to rub the sweat off periodically. Sigh.

Even with melatonin I woke up at 6am. Didn't even struggle to get back to sleep, I got up, made tea and turned the mbp on.

Luggage was promptly delivered by 10am. I started getting tired again but had to wait for the supermarket delivery. I got the 9am-1pm time slot and by 1pm when they hadn't arrived I was annoyed and tired. Checked outside the front door and there were packages! I wonder why they didn't ring the bell.

After quickly unpacking I flopped to the sofa, sleep chasing me urgently. It was hot so I put a beach towel on the sofa seeing how sweaty I get. I've always been easy to sweat and I can't believe how many towels I've been using lately.

Slept until 4pm. Reheated the cacciatore sauce in the freezer and had that with penne and chicken. More melatonin tonight.

Flight arrived at Tokyo early at 2.45pm I was booked on the 17.00, which I changed myself when the not-helpful-new travel agent didn't have enough common sense to change it from the 18.30. Anyway, I was the 5th person off the plane and got through transit security quickly. Hustled to the lounge and asked if I could be placed on the earlier flight. See, I know there's one around 4pm. As it happened, the 17.00 was delayed so I was doubly glad I made the effort.

The lounge and desk staff were super helpful and I got myself a seat on the 15.55. Another aisle seat, what's up with that? Can't complain. I was really tired and fell asleep after dinner.

Problems started at the luggage reclaim. It was a busy evening, with a huge number of flights arriving. On the same carousel were bags arriving from LAX. First all the crew and priority bags from my flight arrived. I was mildly irritated that mine weren't among them, but figured it'll show up with the regular bags.

But no. The carousel cleared and soon it was empty. Sigh. I wasn't all that worried cos the suitcase will show up eventually. When I reported to the lost luggage desk both the agent and I figured that it didn't make it to the flight but will arrive with my original flight.

So I got on the train and went home. Talked to mm on the phone and she met me at the train station to talk a little. I really wanted her to come home with me but she was tired, and I needed a shower. She got me dinner though. :D

I got the call after I showered that they found my suitcase. They even offered to deliver it straight away, but couldn't guarantee that it'll be before 11pm. I told them to deliver it tomorrow morning. It's not like I'm desperate to do laundry, and there is a difference between lost luggage when travelling and lost luggage when home.

The hotel bill came to $3000+ and that's already including breakfast. They comped me last night's dinner (wow!!) but otherwise I had minimal charges.

Taxi to airport, checked in, hung out at the lounge, the usual. Had an aisle seat this time, and the passenger in the middle seat moved just after take off so the seat was empty. Perfect.

Read a little, disappointed at the lack of interesting films (remembering that I've been on this route 4 times in the last 2 months) and slept for 3 hours. The flight attendant was okay, but could have done better. Friendly enough but seemed to be just going through the motions. Not offering drinks refills, dropped a wine glass and did a sloppy job of picking up the pieces (the passenger across the aisle from me had to finish the tidying up), dropped food into another passenger's lap. Not unexpected from an American airline but would have failed in an Asian airline.

Ack, the falling standards

 

I can't stay away from food posts right now. I wanted to go to Gibson's but all the restaurants along that strip on Rush were crowded. I ended up at the hotel restaurant, with a fantastic dinner.

Ordered the wine flight -- the Peter Andrew Ingenium (a mix of cab, malbec, merlot and petit verdot), an Argentinian Cab and a Californian zinfindel. Surprisingly it was the zin that came out as favourite. I also got an amuse bouche of tuna pieces.



For starters I ordered the tomato trilogy for something light. Besides, I love tomatoes. The dish consisted of 3 variations on tomato -- a stack of lightly marinated yellow and red slices, a tomato ice and a tall shot glass of tomato foam. Very nouvelle cuisine but amusing.



Main course was curry-crusted lamb with couscous stuffed pepper, figs and a soft pancake. I haven't been that impressed with lamb in the US but this was perfectly done.



Dessert, at the captain's recommendation was banana pain perdu with caramelised bananas and cumin ice cream. The pain was a bit filling after the meal but I can't fault the caramelised bananas or the cumin ice cream.

Good thing about eating at the hotel was that I could sign for it, and no need to walk outside. It was a very hot day! Rest of the night was spent packing and watching tv.

I think I should take a break from all these posts about food, heehee. May be something techie, but it's all been iPhone this iPhone that all month. I'm still in the watching tv mood as opposed to reading mood, which is just fine. The travel channel is having a China week cos of the Olympics and I've been watching bizarre foods.

I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten alone at a restaurant. I went back to McCormick and Schmick's and sat outside, the evening was so nice. For starter I had steamed clams and I must say clams in the US are great. The juice was so delicious I couldn't stop mopping it up with bread.



For main course I had the mixed wild grill of sockeye salmon, chilean sea bass and crab cake for $29.95, including creme brulee as a dessert. Had some wine and was extremely full when I got back to the hotel