Where to eat in Japan?

Actually, the thinking to blog about this post has been quite a while in my head. Tapi kerana masa yang mencemburui (cewah), maka hasrat itu sering terbantut.

Anyway, I dedicate this post to my colleague Alina who is going on her 3-weeks trip to Japan with her Mom and 2 kids. 

I shared the same anxiety like she does when I was about to leave for Japan. No idea about Japan apart from the ideas embedded in my head by my mom about her experience in Japan. Apprehensive about Papa taking care of Zara alone, apprehensive of what to eat there, concerned about the cold weather, etc. But when I was there for a couple of months, seriously I can't find anything to dislike about Japan (have I said it before? Haha!). In fact, Zara didn't have any coughing/ cold/ fever whatsoever when she was there. Perfectly healthy. Balik Malaysia je start.. batuk la, selsema la.. sampai mama pun berjangkit! Boleh rasa the difference in air quality. Cian anak mama.. Malaysia memang makin tak best kan..? (ok la habis la kena kutuk tak patriotik)

Ok. So, what to eat in Japan?

Seriously speaking, I have never suffered the scenario of "tak cukup makan" in Japan. Asyik nak makan ada la kot, haha! If we Malaysians think there is a huge abundance of food in Malaysia, in Japan it seems as twice as much. There are plenty of bakeries, a variety of Asian and European cuisine, lots of cafes to chill in, apart from their homegrown restaurant brands.

The easiest place to buy food (I think!) would be the convenience store. They are easily available wherever we go in Japan. And I always go for these 2 things:

 Egg sandwich. The best ever. Priced around 190-240 Yen. Takkan dapat la kat Malaysia egg sandwich of this quality. Eggs sold in the markets pun sangat bersih. No traces of najis ayam whatsoever. Japan is amazingly conscious about cleanliness. Another fact that made me feel Malaysia tak best.

Onigiri. This is tuna onigiri. It's actually a handful of sticky rice shaped into a triangle, stuffed with tuna. Of course there are other varieties but since we can't eat meat there, tuna is the easiest option. Very cheap.Zara loved this very much.

Other restaurants that we dined in:

 

 Shagorika, an Indian restaurant in Asakusa, Tokyo. 

The curry was heavenly. A must visit if you're nearby the temple area

Hubby, the co-star of my blog in front of the restaurant. Shagorika Asakusa.

Saizeriya chain restaurant. This one was in Asakusa. Very affordable western cuisine (compared to other restaurants offering about the same menu). Only that the portion of the meal is not that big. But we can always order more because it's very affordable.

 

At the cashier of my fave pizza place: Garlic Jo's Queens Shopping Mall, Yokohama

 And not only their pizza tasted great, this fried rice with prawn was a masterpiece too! Memang benchmark nasi goreng dah totally increased ni.

 A halal Nepali restaurant at Queens Shopping Mall too. Khazana. Loved the food and the staff cuz they are very friendly!

This is Delhi Dining, located at Nihon Odori/ Motomachi Chukagai area in Yokohama, which also offers halal food. I think the briyani here was the best among all mamak/ indian cuisine restaurant that I've been to. A bit pricey than Khazana, but it was worth it!

Dining at 105 yen sushi shop. Sounds cheap eh? But the taste wasn't. The salmon sushi with wasabi and avocado just melted in our mouth like mmmmm... heaven!

And, when we were totally clueless on what to eat, McDonald's Ebi (Prawn) Burger can do no wrong. 

Other places to try:

Ginza Tenkuni (Japanese food)
Vie de France (Bakery)
Pompadour (Bakery)
Stone Cold Creamery (Ice cream parlor)
Tully's Coffee (alike to Starbucks)

There are many more that I would like to list. But I guess when you're there, you can explore for yourself where to eat, maybe even better than we did. Anyway, we Muslims shouldn't worry much about food when traveling to Japan. Maybe we'll miss our nasi lemak and roti canai, but we definitely won't starve.

I miss Yokohama.. very much!

2012: A Summary

Oh boy.. we are going to welcome the new year again. Looks like I'll be celebrating the new year (and my birthday in January!) here in Japan. Kinda looking forward for it anyway ;)

2012, I'm about to bid you farewell soon..

This year has been a busy year at work. This year too, witnessed the departure of my most-missed grandmother (I just had a dream about her last night.. sigh.. I miss her to the bone..)

Zara has been busy following me every where I travel, along with her Tok Ma, Maktok, Tok Abah and her aunts. Looks like I should consider having her own Enrich card soon, muahaha. So far I'm okay with it.. for right now, she is still breastfeeding. If I'm not yet pregnant again, I would like to just continue to breastfeed her. 

 Zara's 1st travel to Miri during her 6th month.. hasn't stopped traveling ever since..

Did I ever mentioned that I am spendthrift this year? I really don't know what got into me, but I just can't resist shopping. Here are the things I got for myself:
3 Kate Spade handbags, 3 Coach handbags, 2 Coach backpacks, a Coach wristlet, 2 Furla handbags, 2 Furla wristlets, a Furla lanyard, a Ferragamo handbag, 2 Longchamp handbags, a Longchamp backpack, a MBMJ handbag and Ipad case, a handbag from Michael Kors, a bag from UCB and a backpack from Guess. 

 This is just a few pieces of my entire collection.. Must think of a sleek way to store these babies..!

 

Phewww.. seems like too many when I put it that way. Ok but that's not all..

I also bought six bottles of designer perfumes (and among them is my fave Hugo Boss XX, my 2nd bottle!) and watches from Rotary, MBMJ and D&G. Ok yang ni takde gambar.

Well.. maybe rezeki is quite murah this year.. holidaying in Seoul and Tokyo.. there is a lot to be grateful for and I am thankful to Him for all the good things and blessings.

Some pics to look back before I end my 2012..

 My darling hubby and I. May we stay strong as life partners, ameen..

 

   

The Syed's family during our Seoul trip in July

 

My Zara.. taking her for a midday stroll in Ueno Zoo, Tokyo

 

 

  With her Auntie Ain @ Victoria Station

 

 Chilling with Mama after a day's shopping at Gotemba Premium Outlets

 I hope 2013 brings continuous improvement in my life as a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, an engineer and a friend. Zara is growing up, and it's fun seeing her growing and developing. With my current work, I am thankful that I get to be with my daughter and spend quality time together.

Career-wise, I'm gonna have a new assignment in 2013. I'm quite nervous about it, but there's nothing to it yet that I should worry. Like what Aamir Khan said in the movie "3 Idiots", all is well!

Oh yeah, I wish for 2013 to bring new great ties to the family. My sister-in-law is getting married in May 2013, and oh yeah, we are all excited about that. Praying hard for my sister's turn!

All in all, only Allah knows what's best for us.. pray hard and put in the best effort Sharifah!

Blabs from Yokohama

It's near to the end of 2012.

The good news is the prophecy of 2012 being the year of doomsday is miscalculated. Feel sorry for the Mayans (and it proves only Allah knows when it's gonna happen ok, tak payah la sibuk2 nak make prophecies of no avail..)

Tapi sebenarnya I don't really like to get into another new year.. it's like I am at the starting line again.. and the acronyms start to play in your head.. KPI, ACD, IPC, ICP.. whatsoever.. so bored of them.

Well, let's put that aside.

For now, all that matters is our Japan trip. Vacation for Papa and Zara, and business + vacation for Mama :)

Actually my husband and I have long been thinking on where to spend our year end holiday. We have been shortlisting a few places since.. hmm.. May this year?? Haha. Well, my beloved husband, being tied up with work, was unable to join us on our Seoul trip last July, so he wanted us to go for another holiday, the three of us. Little that we know, procrastinating the planning would eventually lead us to... Japan!!

We are residing in Yokohama now. Yokohama is a beautiful city; the 2nd largest city in Japan. Modern, very clean, very tasteful, not as busy as Tokyo.

 The view of Yokohama from my room. Can you spot Mount Fuji? Looks awesome, right?

 The street across my office. Many of the trees are already shedding leaves to welcome winter.

This is where I work :)

..and I work with these Japanese guys. Uchikawa-san and Koide-san.

Talented young engineers. Sukidesu!

Zara and Papa are having a great time here (well, dgn Papa leh duduk dalam stroller, dengan Mama tak mau ye.. Mama's arms are getting muscular now you know!) Besides trying to learn the language, we enjoyed the food as well :) Never did I want to taste any sushi or tempura in KL, but now that I've tried here, I must say, I love it!

Dining at one of our fave spots nearby the hotel. Garlic Jo's.

 

Zara laju je makan sushi.. tapi understandable pon, cuz it was good!

We're gonna have a long break for Christmas and New Year holidays.. so we're be taking the chance to go out from Yokohama. Perhaps do more sightseeing, and of course.. shopping!

I'll be posting lottsss of pics to my Instagram from time to time now.. macam agak malas nak layan Facebook nowadays.

Till then, take care guys.

Honeymoon Episode 1 - Bali

Bali was our 1st destination for honeymoon. We secured the honeymoon package way back in August 2009 during Matta Fair at PWTC. It wasn't our 1st choice of destination, but since we couldn't get a honeymoon package for the place that we wanna go ("Adik, tunggu next Matta Fair lah.. this Matta Fair is just for travels until early March") plus that particular Matta Fair was held in the month of Ramadhan (penat + agak malas nak go through every booth), we quickly secured the package to Bali for a fair price. After finding out the real price, we managed to save about RM600++ from the actual accommodation cost. Worth it eh..?

So we left for Bali two days after the reception by Husband's family. A quite tight schedule, it was for us. But everything went as planned, and that we wanted to utilize the marriage leave to the most optimum capacity as possible. A few colleagues who went there for their honeymoon gave their best tips, and their guide was all that we have.

Upon arriving at Ngurah Rai Airport, we could already feel the strong Hinduism influence in Balinese culture. The carvings of Hindu deities were everywhere, but they were not the same like the carvings we have on Hindu temples in Malaysia. They were more to the epic stuff (I guess!) like Ramayana and Rhavan (even Goddess Guanyin was among the deities featured, it got me confused!) For us, yep, definitely a new kind of experience!

A view of the Balinese carving @ Ngurai Rai Airport.

 Though I was not really sure if this was of which epic (Ramayana ada scene naik kuda eh?) but I must say it was a really magnificent statue.

The journey to Jay's Villa took like almost an hour (Bali traffic condition is almost alike to Jakarta. Macet!) The villa was located in a paddy plantation area in Kerobokan. Most of the exclusive villas were located there. As we arrived, we were served with welcoming drink, and then being led to our villa :) Enough reason to make us not go out at all! A few friends have also asked us where this place is. Haha!

 

Us, in front of Jay's Villa

 

 The bedroom, as cozy as it could get

We had our private swimming pool!

The lovely decorated bathtub. Sayangnya nak mandi..

The spacious + airy bathroom

The TV lounge beside the pool

We had our lunch first before..

.. going for shopping~~!! Weee.. @ Legian. Many handbags and surfwear shops to choose from, and of course, souvenirs and local crafts were sold here too. If you're a nightclub or bar goer, Legian is a great place to hang out with friends. They have bands playing at night too. Mat saleh ramai la kat area ni.

After the tiring walk and shopping, it's time to get a few minutes of rest. This was Husband's idea - me going for manicure (it hurt like ouch!)

And dear Husband needed foot massage very badly.. hehe.

After the hand and foot therapy, we went back to the villa to get some rest. Along the way back, we feasted our eyes with scenic view of paddy fields. Their harvesting way were more traditional, cuz it is mainly for household consumption. And as we reached the villa...

.. we discovered the pool was decorated with rose petals when we got back! How romantic..

Well, we were more tempted to have our dinner and not disturb the pool, haha. Nyum2!

We went to Ubud the next morning after breakfast. On the way to Ubud, we encountered many shops that sell silverwares and paintings, not to mention stone carvings as well. We stopped by this outlet, being informed by Pak Supir that this place had the finest handmade silver ornaments. But it was too expensive here. An ordinary silver ring could cost up to RM150! Kat Malaysia RM60 pun dah boleh beli cincin silver Giordano.. duh. So no shopping done here.

Here we were, at Ubud! (after almost 50 minutes from Kerobokan) We got ourselves good bargain for t-shirts and pretty handicrafts. Sarongs here were quite expensive, depending on the type of material they use for the cloth. After shopping, we asked Pak Supir to drive us to a nearby halal food restaurant. He brought us to this restaurant, Natrabu. Tasteful dining. They also have an outlet in KL.

We had our dinner that night at Jimbaran Beach. There were lots of seafood restaurants for tourists to choose from. Wooden tables and chairs covered the long stretch of the beach. It was definitely a lovely scene and a great dinner too!

Our meal.. nyum2!

and while enjoying our dinner, these guys entertained us with "Can't Help Falling in Love".. ahh.. schweettt..

 

The following morning, again we went to Legian beach, to say farewell before we left that afternoon. I managed to get my hair done and Husband got his massage at the salon that morning, before we rushed back to the villa, pack our things, and headed straight for the airport.

To sum it all, 4 days 3 nights vacation to Bali wasn't enough to cover the whole island, cuz Bali is kind of a big island (or maybe because our pace was not that fast). Spa services are cheap here, so take the opportunity to pamper yourself while you are there. I personally did manicure, hair treatment and full body massage during the 4-day visit. But I guess the villa made it a honeymoon worth going. Perfect for newlyweds! :)

Ok, next stop!