Birthday treat

Yesterday was the day I was born more than a quarter of a century ago. With a 3-week old infant at home now, it wasn't too easy for us to go out for a simple celebration. So instead Rob brought dinner to us after work: takeaway from our favourite Indian restaurant, Nawab. I've blogged about the food twice already, so I won't go into much detail here except to say that the food was great and delicious as always eventhough we had to takeaway.

Clockwise from top left - Chicken Biryani, Lamb Korma, Dahl Spinach, and 4-piece Chicken Tikka; with Plain Naan, Bhatoora and Mughlai Naan:


Rob surprised me with a rather large box of chocolate truffles from Godiva, and I'd greedily eaten one before I'd even thought of taking a photo of them.

Decadent chocolatey treats:


It's a good thing that I'm breastfeeding so I can sort of justify pigging out. I've so far lost about 90% of the weight gained during pregnancy (and I'm eating almost twice as much!), but this box of truffles, coupled with the rich Indian food, will certainly stop the progress for awhile!

Tokyo, the urban jungle

It's no lie that Tokyo is full of concrete and buildings, but it's not hard to find areas that improves the livelihood of residents and workers. The Sumida River runs through both the areas we lived in previously and currently, and this 27km stretch of river runs under 26 bridges. There are plenty of riverside footpath for our use, and the view is pretty good and relaxing.

In Shinkawa: the footpath we used to go jogging on, and the view of Chuo-Ohashi (the Great Chuo Bridge):


In Kachidoki: the night view of the river, Tokyo Tower, and one of the borders of the great Tsukiji Market (the lit area to the bottom right of the shot):


And the Kachidoki-bashi (Kachidoki Bridge):


Both bridges are within good sight of each other - that's how close our previous and current residences are.

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.)