Hello World!

Hubby and I welcomed our little boy into this world on Wednesday 15th October 2008 (incidentally his due date too). He weighed in at 4068g, setting a record as the biggest baby born at Aiiku Hospital in Tokyo. He was measured as 55cm tall with a head circumference of 35cm. If you asked our opinion, this little baby is one of the best looking newborns we've ever seen as he didn't have that wrinkled, squished look that many newborns have at birth.

With 1-day old bub at the hospital:


Though bub was scheduled for an induced delivery on the same day, he managed to beat the clock by a few hours when I started getting active labour contractions at 3am in the morning. I underwent 12 hours of back labour, unmedicated, before it was decided the labour wasn't progressing sufficiently and caesarean was opted. All I can say is that it ain't fun being prepped for surgery in the middle of advanced labour stage.

Both of us are doing well, and we were discharged from the hospital yesterday. I never thought I could survive on only 4 hours of sleep a day, but that is how little sleep I've been getting since last Wednesday morning when I went into labour. You'd think that I'd be able to get more rest at the hospital, but my hospital stay was more like boot camp to prepare me for motherhood. I'm sure my recovery period would be quicker with more sleep, but I get what I can. This little guy has a huge appetite (not surprising if you look at his parents!), and thankfully I've been able to meet his demands, although this wasn't without some initial hiccups with breastfeeding in the first couple of days.

Unfortunately until I've established a routine, I won't have much time for blogging. But do occasionally check back for updates.

Cold Stone Creamery, Tokyo

Three journal entries in less than two days! Can you tell that I'm in a bit of a frenzy to get as much of my blogging done as I can whilst I still have the time before baby's arrival?

After our lunch on Sunday with my parents in Roppongi Hills, we decided to head to the Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. There is always a long queue outside this shop, even on a relatively chilly autumn afternoon. The ice cream is a tad bit on the pricey side, but I love the waffle cone and Rob loves the ice cream (we have a complementary thing happening with ice cream in cones). My mum was especially keen to have ice cream for dessert, which was a bit surprising because she's always claimed not to have a sweet tooth. There's plenty to choose from the menu, but you can also have your very own custom creations using the large variety of ice cream flavours and mix-ins available. We kept it simple and ordered from their Signature Creations. We got the Coffee Lovers (coffee ice cream, roasted almonds, Heath bar and caramel) in a plain waffle cone (extra 60yen) for my parents, and the Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip (mint ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie and fudge) in a chocolate waffle cone (extra 120yen) for ourselves, both in the "Love It" serving size (610yen each). It was sooooo yummy, and that's all I'll say about it.

Choices, choices:


The staff sing for tips! Here's a couple of the girls making our order on the cold stone:


And they will happily oblige videos and photos too - cute girls with good voices who are happy to pose are always good for sales; our Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip before Rob's eager mouth:

Chinese Claypot @ Tian Yi Bao, Tokyo

On Sunday after church, we headed to Roppongi Hills for lunch. It was past 2pm when we arrived, and my parents were starving, so we didn't take very long to decide where to eat. Tian Yi Bao is a Chinese restaurant that specialises in claypot dishes, and you can order claypot rice, noodles and dishes, as well as non-claypot dishes. After placing our order in clumsy Japanese, we discovered that our waitress could speak Mandarin Chinese, and that my dad could have easily made our lives easier by ordering in Mandarin instead. I'm quite certain that the cooks in the kitchen were Chinese too because I heard snippets of Mandarin being spoken, which was an assurance that the food is at least authentically prepared.

To start with, we got a plate of Yaki Gyoza (fried "potstickers", the Japanese version of Jiaozi) [480yen]. Although the gyoza were meant to be appetisers, they came after the Ebi Chilli Sauce (prawns in chilli sauce) [1380yen]. In fact, the prawns was served before the bowls of rice, but we only had to wait a little while before the rice came and we could begin our meal. It's funny how the strange order of dishes served appears to be universal in Chinese restaurants anywhere - Australia, US and Japan! The gyozas were tasty with pork filling, and my mum especially enjoyed them. The chilli prawns were swimming in a gluggy almost-fluoro sauce which had the texture and taste like the sweet and sour sauce that one can get at Chinese restaurants and foodcourt stalls that cater mainly to non-Chinese clientele. It wasn't very spicy at all, but the prawns were fresh, and I actually didn't mind the sauce!

Gyoza and Ebi Chilli:


We also ordered Seafood Claypot with Harusame (glass noodles) [1790yen for medium size (there's a choice between small and medium serving)] and Szechuan Mapo-tofu [1380yen for medium serving]. The mapo-tofu was actually my dad's request, but he didn't realise that it came with mince pork. He'd have much rather a dish with larger pork pieces. The seafood claypot was delicious, although a tad bit salty, and the mapo-tofu was actually the least oilest we've had in Japan! I enjoyed both claypot dishes, with a preference for the seafood one.

Seafood Harusame Claypot and Szechuan Mapo-tofu Claypot:


All four (and a half) of us were pretty full, and the bill came to under 5500yen - pretty affordable for a restaurant in Roppongi Hills!

(By the way, photos in the last 3 journal entries were taken using my dad's more compact camera, which I have been carrying around in favour of its portability.)

Tsukiji Autumn Food Festival, Tokyo

Last Saturday afternoon, my parents, Rob and I headed on foot towards Tsukiji/Ginza area in search for lunch. Walking is currently my only form of exercise this late in the pregnancy term - only a couple of days to the due date - and for some reason, the sight of me and my heavily pregnant belly out and about often draw plenty of attention, and sometimes kindly comments about my apparent state of health, from strangers. I've also noticed that there aren't that many pregnant ladies out and about on the streets. Well, I like being active, and pregnancy sure isn't an illness, so I sure am not going to be couped up indoors all day!

Anyway, on our way, we stumbled across the Tsukiji Autumn Food Matsuri, which was running only for Saturday and Sunday, so we decided to hop between the food stalls for our lunch. With the festival being held in Tsukiji, the home of the world-famous fish market, most of the food in the festival featured seafood. The Seafood Tempura stall had the longest queue and I think we waited about 15 minutes for turn. My parents waited in line for the tempura while Rob and I went in search for more food. We came back to my parents with a packet of Seafood Chijimi (aka haemulpajeon aka Korean omelette/pancake) and Ebi Hotate Monja (prawn and scallop pancake). The chijimi was served with packets of shoyu (soy sauce) and chilli oil, and the pancake came with wasabi mayonaisse. We all agreed that the chijimi was better than the pancake which was a bit stodgy and not enough prawns and scallop and seasoning in it.

The pancake stall, and our purchase from it - Seafood Chijimi and Ebi Hotate Monja:


The seafood tempura was good, considering that I'm not very big on deep-fried battered food.

The tempura stall was bustling with five people serving: one to oversee that everything runs smoothly (eg making the batter, handing out plates), one to dip the ingredients in the flour and batter, one to deep-fry, one to do the plating, and another one to take the orders and payments. We got two plates to share between the four of us:


We also got a tiny bowl of unagi (freshwater eel) on rice, similar to unadon (unagi rice bowl), but this was served in clear soup:


I love Japanese matsuri (festivals), and more so when it involves food!!

Sunday lunch grazings

My parents arrived in Tokyo last Wednesday, and while I am grateful that they are here to help, I cannot deny the fact that the past week was pretty challenging for me as I had to learn how to live with my mum again. Thankfully things have settled down as it seems we have both adjusted to each other's way of living and doing things. The help my parents have given with the cooking and household work freed up a bit more time for me to complete my errands and tie up a few things, so right now I can afford to actually relax a bit while waiting for bub's arrival! Of course, I am still doing some cooking and housework because I am still capable of doing them, but it's nice to be able to ask my parents to take care of dinner when I'm exhausted (like I was yesterday).

For lunch on Sunday after church, we wandered around in the restaurant and shopping area of Harumi Triton Square, which is near our apartment. We all felt like having different food for lunch, so rather than having a sit-down meal at one place, we split from my parents and went around to a couple of places for our lunch. We also bought a couple of extra items for my parents to try.

At a cafe - Salmon Focaccia and Grilled Chicken & Roast Vegetable Panini (420yen each). Rob said: "They call this a focaccia??". Needless to say, he wasn't very impressed with the food, although I did quite enjoy the panini which was lovely toasty with cheese and chicken bits:


Choco Cro (170yen) from St-Marc Cafe - a chocolate-filled croissant, which combines two of Rob's favourite foods:


From a bakery - Onion Bread and Pumpkin Loaf (420yen total). The onion bread was deliciously savoury with onion, cheese and ham topping and filling, but the pumpkin loaf was pretty plain:


A seasonal sweet - Imozukushi (芋づくし). It uses satsumaimo (the Japanese sweet potato), which is in season right now. The yellow 'dumplings' contained the ubiquitous anko (red bean paste) filling and covered with a layer of sweet potato cake, and the purple ones are actually mochi (glutinous rice cake) covered with anko.

A quick one

Sorry for the lack of posting. I've been extremely busy this past week with moving residences and with my parents arriving in Tokyo - all of which is not helped by the fact that my gynaecologist informed me at my weekly checkup yesterday that the baby is likely to arrive before my appointment next Wednesday (bub's not due for another couple more weeks, but is already the weight and size of a very overdue baby). So, I have many errands to do before bub arrives and unfortunately this journal will have to take a lesser priority on my list. Do keep coming back occassionally to check for updates!