Updates

Well, after getting Dad's email today pointing out that the blog needs updating and broadening past food, I figure that I should write something. At the same time I realise that it's been a couple of weeks since the last entry.

Well, what has happened? Sonia was here for the weekend, but left today to go back to Bangkok.

This weekend we decided that we'd had enough of sitting working at the computers (our home laptop, Sonia's work laptop, and my work laptop) at a desk the size of a postage stamp. The answer (or course) is to buy a wireless router. Which we did at a place called Bic Camera. It's essentially a department store, but focused mostly on electronics.

So off we go to Bic Camera in Ginza (posh area in central Tokyo). Easy enough to find the wireless routers, but a bit more difficult to figure out which one is a good balance between the cost and the features. Given that we have one in storage in HK, we were not in the market for a good one. Rather, just something that will do the basics until we get the shipment sent up to Tokyo. Eventually we selected a box that had a good picture on the outside, and some logos that looked like they meant the router would do what we want.

After getting it home, I unpacked it and started setting it up. Problem is, the software is all in Japanese. I tried looking at the appropriate website to download a software update in English, which I found. However, the version available in English was older than the Japanese version on the router. In the end I decided to make do, and after some mucking around I managed to get the appropriate settings made.

So I write this from the coffee table, where the laptop sits comfortably. TV is showing the movie "The Transporter" except here it has the French name "Le Transporteur". Not sure why, but that's what they call it.

I have just got back from the gym, after doing 30 minutes on the bike. These days I'm up to resistance level 12, and doing the time at about 90rpm. That turns out to be about 11.3km, burning somewhere around 470 calories. At least that's what the bike readout says.... Doing that between 4 and 5 times a week, with weights 2 or 3 times.

Daryl: time to get a move on - you are falling behind!

That's all for tonight. More later.

California Grill

Just a short update this time.

Tonight was dinner with the CEO (his wife and kids just left for a holiday in Thailand). We went to a place that I'd previously been to with a friend. Called California Grill Yoshi (not sure why to Yoshi on the end) in Azabu-juban. This is about a 15 minute walk from the apartment, and serves fairly standard fusion food.

However it's definitely worth a visit because it's very good quality, and at a reasonable price. The set dinner (big range of appetisers and main dishes) is ￥3900 per person for three courses. Dessert is pretty small - a sliver of cheesecake with a dollop of coffee icrecream, but it's still great food.

The restaurant is typically small - four tables plus two seats at a counter. Tucked away upstairs, and easy to miss from the street. In fact, I had not been able to find it again after the first time I went there the first time with David.


Anyway, I had soft-shell crab entree (masala sauce), and then the foie gras burger. A huge heart-attack-inducing slab of foie gras on top of a medium-rare burger. A little mashed potato on the side (which is not really needed given the pile of carbs that make up the burger). Definitely recommended.

Bikes

Well I heard today that Evan (of M&M fame) now has a Honda Gold Wing! I am officially green with envy. Well not so much green as slightly off-white. The racier bikes are more my thing, but still....

Spring continues to play havoc with the weather here, rainy-sunny from one day to the next. I did manage to get sunburnt arms on Sunday, sitting at Starbucks with the paper for a couple of hours. At the time I did not think it was that bright (which might be attributable to the sunglasses). However by the time I was on the treadmill at the gym last night, I could see the warmth rising. Ended up spending 45 minutes on the treadmill while watching the final of American Idol. I think I mentioned we are a few weeks behind?

Food & cooking

Well, as Sharon so kindly points out, my blog entries are by no means as informative (or picturesque) as Paul's.

We found a Japanese cookbook on the weekend - an English book by an English author who describes how to make Japanese food. It seems to be authentic - when I described making Soba dipping sauce from scratch, my colleagues 'oohed' and 'aahed' in amazement. Most of them (it turns out) buy instant dashi powder, which when mixed with water turns into the same sort of sauce that I cooked up.

Funnily enough, the jar that I put the sauce into to keep (glass jar with a metal lid) could not be opened last night when Sonia and I had soba for dinner. In the end after much struggling, I made two holes in the lid with a pair of scissors. Now I need a new jar for the next time I cook the sauce...

For anyone who's interested, the recipe goes something like:
100ml soy sauce
100ml mirin (go to a Japanese grocery store)
400ml water

Boil the mirin for a couple of minutes to cook out the alcohol.

Bring the soy and water to the boil, then turn down, add the mirin, and then add 75g of dried bonito flakes. Simmer for about 2 minutes, then leave to sit for 10 minutes. Then strain, and leave the liquid to cool - put in the fridge.

The make the soba (boil 100g per person) and wash thoroughly in cold water (the noodles need to be cold by the time you finish). Then serve with the sauce in a separate small bowl. Sprinkle chopped nori (seaweed, about 1 inch long) on top of the noodles.

Yummy. And much nicer than asparagus soup.

Update

Well, what to say?

As I said the other day, it's become very changeable here in Tokyo. While Sonia enjoys the usual hot weather in Bangkok, Japan has moved into the rainy season. Almost every day this week it has rained part of the day, and it's raining even now as I write. This will apparently continue through into the start of July.

Sonia is flying back to Tokyo overnight tonight. We don't have anything really planned for the weekend, so it will probably be another quiet one.

TV is the usual boring stuff - it seems to run somewhere between 4 weeks up to one whole season behind everywhere else. Although American Idol has finished everywhere else in the world and people are celebrating David Cook, here it's finishing this week (tonight I think).

The Day of the Jackal is on at the moment - the original version. Much better than Bruce Willis' version in 1997. Strange how the remakes are often not as good as the classics.

What else? Well I cooked cold Soba noodles tonight, with authentic dipping sauce. A bit of a rigmarole, as you have to cook the sauce, cool it, and then cook and cool the noodles. I now have a jar of sauce in the fridge for next time. I am not sure how long it will keep, but as it is primarily soy sauce, mirin, and water it will probably be ok for a week or so.

A quick note

Just rushing to check email and then get off to work - through the rain again.

Weekend before last I got the chance to ride a BMW K1200S - very nice bike. A bit bigger than I am used to, but amazing amounts of smooth power.

Then last weekend we went to Costco - highlight of the weekend.

As you can see there is not much happening at this end of the Pacific....