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I expected a really quiet birthday this year but haps life chose me.

My wallet became super loose since December and I have been trying to tighten it but failed miserably. I bought this for myself because it was on additional sale and it was the last piece for my size. I was super impressed when it arrived within 3 days and it really fits me well. 

Lynn got spidey stuff for me for Xmas and Bday

I got a surprise when my Jap classmates bought me a cake, a card and a bottle of Johnny Walker black! Super sweet of them.

Andrew got me a Blood Orange Jensen's Gin, which is only available during Xmas and gave me some of his Rhubarb flavoured ones in my blue bottle.

LJ and James also treated me to Starkers. And also because I have birthday voucher haha.

On the day itself the army gave me a activation present so I had to report to camp and did nothing else after that hahaha.

The day after I had a totally unexpected birthday lunch treat at Equinox. Mac treated me and also because I had 50% off. I haven't had buffet for sooooo long. The food wasn't as good as Colony, it was super average, but the chocolate birthday cake that they gave me was super divine.

 

 

Tokyo Winter 2018

We only had 3 days in Tokyo after Myoko so the first order of business after outlet shopping at Karuizawa is to head to this apple pie shop at Ikebukuro. I have read so many things about this small corner shop called Ringo with long queue but when we reached there, there was no queue and we immediately got 4 apple pies and ate 2 on the spot.

As expected, it was heavenly. The buttery crust, the custard cream and apple cubes made the perfect apple pie.

As usual, I have to have my yuzu highball and crab miso at Isomaru Suisan. We tried to go to the Pokémon Center but it was closed.

The second day, I was actually reluctant to go Disneyland when Piti told me he wanted to go, but I was like yea I haven't been there before and if I want to go shopping I can go on my second trip later. So we bought the tickets and headed there on the second day. The winter theme was Frozen and everything was Frozen themed, which was nice.

Piti was a super skilled model of pretentious pose and he asked me to do the same hahaha.

 

At night there was this electric light parade which was exclusive in winter in Disneyland Tokyo. It was super awesome looking at these light display. They were really beautiful.

We took so many rides throughout the day but still waited for the fireworks parade at night, which was really cool. They projected the lights on the Disney castle and showed a summarized version of the Frozen movie, complete with songs and fireworks. I actually suggested to skip this but I'm so glad he requested to stay because this was totally the highlight of the whole park. 

The fireworks were so in sync with the songs, it was like let it go *fireworks*, let it go *fireworks* and sort of made my hair stand in awesomeness. 

After that we went to Akihabara for some shopping in certain shops and ate Katsudon, then Shinanoya to buy my Japanese Gins.
The next day we went to Roppongi Hills Mori Art Museum for more pretentious poses.

Then Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Cat street and Shibuya for shopping and meals.

Oh this is Afuri Ramen, which had a queue but indeed it was really good. It wasn't like those traditional salty Japanese Ramen, it had a hint of yuzu in the clear soup. The pork slice was carefully roasted in front of us and the noodles were made of buckwheat (I think). It was very enjoyable and a cool ramen.

After shopping at Shibuya and all the touristy stuff we had to put down all our stuff at the hotel and touch up for dinner at Tapas Molecular Bar (in previous post), after the dinner we went to the bars for some drinks and met his colleague. 

On the last day we only had a few hours of shopping so we went to Shinjuku for Beams, Takashimaya and some sushi for lunch. How could we miss sashimi and sushi in Tokyo?!

After we rushed to the airport we had to separate ways because he was heading back home and I shopped in the duty-free shop for a while and spent more than $150 there on snacks hahaha. They even have LeTao now, which I brought back. It was as good as I remembered, even my mum said it tasted so good (she doesn't eat dairy products)

Piti is such an amazing and wonderful travel companion and he made this trip the most satisfying trip to Japan. We really had so much fun despite me having travelled to Japan for so many times and he actually made me go to places I've never been like Disneyland and Mori Art Museum.

He took so many nice pictures of me and he taught me how to do pretentious poses LOL. We ate so much good food including Tapas Molecular Bar and yaki-tori. He never complain about anything and is so keen to try everything and makes good decisions when I gave him options. We could connect on so many levels because we have so many common experiences, especially travelling.

I really miss our trip so much. "It was perfect, let's do it again pls!!!" -his words. Needless to say, to more adventures!

Next up, Iwate in 3 weeks time.

Tapas Molecular Bar

Visiting a good fine restaurant in Tokyo has become a habit for me whenever I go Tokyo.
I told Piti about Tapas Molecular Bar and the price and he's like "oh I don't mind" and I went ahead to make a reservation. I read that it was difficult to book because there are only 8 seating for dinner and they get filled up pretty early. We were lucky I made a reservation quite early.

We had yaki-tori before this and we had to dress up and reached right on time for this.
A toolbox wrapped in a bandana like a Japanese gift and we had to pour the water into the pill to make it rise like a towel. We had to use the tools to eat our food.

First course of the meal. Walnut paste, foie gras, strawberry and dried fig in an edible walnut shell. We had to crack open gently with a hammer. 

Lollipop. Pork shank, apple, onion and cotton candy. We had to spray the cotton candy with apple juice so that it will reduce in the lollipop and finish in one mouth. It was wows. The pork was slow cooked for 1-2 days but tasted so fresh and tender.

Japanese wild blue fin Tuna cooked for 3 seconds in front of us and Hokkaido scallops in yuzu dressing. This was dripping in tuna fats when they served it to us.

I literally had goosebumps when I bit into the Tuna and orgased many many times.

Cigar, fresh out of the box.

Duck confit, cucumber and onion. Their signature dish complete with an ashtray with sesame and tapioca dressing.

 This is chicken soup cooked in an espresso machine with dried mushrooms. It was so comforting and appetizing.

This is another hair rising dish. Grouper with oyster leaf and black pepper sauce. I love fish and this is absolutely fresh and steamed just as I liked it. Sweet and juicy and tender and with every bite a different flavour explodes in your mouth. I orgased a few times eating this.

 Maine lobster, hollandaise, olive oil caviar, brioche. Enuff said.

 Chicken, Parmesan crisp, jelly pasta, tomato and truffles. Those are French black truffles that the chef shaved fresh right in front of us. 

 Lamb, persimmon, spice. The herbs were stuffed inside the lamb and it just burst out in my mouth when I bit into it.

 Cottage Pie. Wagyu sirloin, sukiyaki, potato beef paste. The beef was raw until they poured the potato paste into the glass bowl and blow-torched the thing. We had to stir quickly until the beef was half cooked. 

 This is rocky road. Truffle Ice cream, marshmellow, nuts, almond cream and chocolate sauce. The chef poured the chocolate sauce into the Fuji-shaped glass and it erupted like a volcano. I had the video of it on my Instagram highlights and it was super epic. This was just the start of the 4 course dessert.

 Pumpkin molten cake. The chef made it using liquid nitrogen in front of us, fresh from the ladle? Ha.

It tasted like pumpkin ice cream and cake.

 One is a Kyoho grape (famous expensive Japanese grape) soaked in rum for 2 days, and the other is jelly rum in grape juice. Both were carbonated so it created a sparkling taste in your mouth.

The last dish was Mint meringue chocolate which was simply a meringue in liquid nitrogen.When we bit into it the smoke comes out of our nostrils like a dragon. It was hilarious everyone was so entertained when we ate it one by one. It looked hilarious in the video which I posted on Instagram.

It was a totally amazing dining experience. I had many goosebumps moments because the food is totally out of this world. The food was superb, the timing was great, it was super fun interacting with the chef, I would dare say this is the best dining experience I've had. I would definitely return if my budget permits, if not then I'll just head to the Pizza Bar on 38th which the chef recommended.

Mandarin Oriental in Tokyo is very impressive. Even the toilet view.

Nagano Myoko 2018

You know your Japan trip is super awesome when you can't stop thinking about it and you smile on the train while thinking about it. By far this is my most satisfying and most fun snow trip yet, it came up top of the list because we just had a lot of fun, took a lot of nice pictures and ate a lot of good stuff.

It was super random. I was supposed to go with Ed but Jas is going to give birth so he can't go and then I was chatting with Piti one day and we just bought the tickets the following week.

After reaching Tokyo we immediately and took the shinkansen to Nagano and chatted for 2 hours on the train haha. Nagano is famous for their soba and tempura, and we had that for our first meal and I discovered the magic of portrait mode in my X.

We headed to Myoko in the morning after breakfast. We were so lucky there was a snow dump the day before we reached so fresh snow on our first day. I had accompanied Piti to ski on the forest trail for a day and he was making great improvements. By the end of the day he could do the entire forest trail without falling! The onsen after was as sweet as ever.

The food was great as usual. Even Piti agreed that the BBQ was one of the best he had, and it was hidden in the ski town.

I never fail to go to this udon place everytime I'm in Myoko.

Ah I missed Mieko-san so much. We didn't chat much this trip because she's so busy and the last day I couldn't find her and got into the car and she came out running "Soh-san! Soh-san!" because she wanted to say goodbye and we could only just wave each other goodbye because the car was already moving. :(

I'm quite satisfied with the snow. I went to Suginohara for 2 days after 1 day in Akakura and it's now my favourite run. Suginohara's always so awesome and I got to explore till the top of Suginohara. 8.5km of slope is really thigh burning and challenging. I also managed to take a few GoPro Vids, including my really bad epic fall (posted on ig stories) and we had a great laugh over my epic poses.

Pit went for the snow monkey tour and explored Nagano for 2 days and we went outlet shopping after departing. I didn't buy much because most clothes were winter wear but the Descente ski jackets were quite reasonably priced. I didn't need another one thou.

Iphone X camera is out of this world. My pictures never look so beautiful before with the scenery behind. My IG stories always turn out so smooth and the battery never seem to run out by the end of the day.