Cold wave swept over Japan again. It will be snowing in Tokyo again. Its already like the fourth or fifth (?) time in Tokyo this winter.

Actually, it rarely snow in Tokyo, once or twice yearly perhaps.
Does this explain why Tokyo residents get so excited each time when “Snow” mark showed up in the weather forecast?

All these excitement dies when the ground got so slippery due to the frozen ice and people tumbled because of that. I managed to escape a fall this year with a number of hard struggles though.

今年の寒波，本当にしつこいですね。
東京はまた雪です。この冬の何回目だろう？　４回目？ ５回目？雪が降ると寒いし滑るしで，とても面倒です。

でも。。。
そんな面倒さとは裏腹に，実は昨日から密かにワクワクしていました。
子供と一緒ですね ヾ(●´▽｀●)ﾉ彡☆。

しかし。。。
今朝，実際に家を出たら面倒くささを実感。滑るので何度も転びそうになりました。やっぱり雪はイヤだ～ （；￢＿￢）じ～…

Have a sudden craving for hometown’s food. The images were of course Singapore’s famous Yong tau fu. Singapore’s food might not be as decorative when compared to Japan’s food, but I am proud to say that the taste of our food is very unique and delicious, due to the influence of multi-races.

Yong Tau fu is just one of my many favorite food in Singapore.

This winter’s addiction — Ginger + citron tea. A new addition to my list of favorite teas. Ginger tea is well known for its benefits to health. During winter, ginger drinks aids in cold and flu prevention, warms the body, which is especially useful for women with low body temperatures (I am one typical example). Citron addition makes up a very refreshing drink as compared to ginger tea alone which is strong and slightly bitter in taste.

These days, ginger tea becomes a “boom” in Japan. Combinations of all sorts of ingredients into ginger teas can be found easily. Perhaps a different type of ginger tea might be worth a try.

This package comes in 10g/10 sachets at 295yen.

Japanese ginger tea

There is this cake shop within the grounds of Chou line’s Mitaka station. The shop is selling freshly baked pies and tarts with generous toppings of fresh fruits, besides cakes. I love especially their tarts, but calories is my greatest enemy when I am on diet. I have since made efforts to “distant” myself from the shop for quite a while.

On valentine’s day, I decided “why not?” and went down to get myself a piece of cake and a tart.

TOOoooo satisfying, the cake and tart.
d(^o^)b A few rounds of extreme work-outs will follow next after I went home today －＝≡ヘ(*・ω・)ノ

2. Chocolat amer / ショコラアメール
A very thick, concentrated chocolate cake that melts instantly in your mouth. The strong taste of melted chocolate “secretly spreads” to the entire mouth. Indescribable, the level of deliciousness!

★ 濃厚で，コクのあるチョコレートケーキ。 口の中で一瞬で溶けて，チョコレートの香りがぶわーっと広がる。美味しすぎる～

All of a sudden, I felt like eating Mcdonald’s Teriyaki burger (Japan’s very own version). Oh yes, each country’s Mcdonald’s apart from regular ones, have their own extra version of burgers. The below made up the regular menu of Japan’s Mcdonald’s. So what are the varieties in your country?

Today is valentine day.
For all those lonely souls out there, why not treat yourself to a meal at Mcdonalds?

1: Las Vegas burger *(Limited period) / ラスベガスバーガー *(期間限定)
2: Salt & lemon icon chicken / アイコンチキン ソルト&レモン
3: Double quarter pounder with cheese / ダブルクォーターパウンダー・チーズ
4: Quarter pounder with cheese / クォーターパウンダー・チーズ
5: Big Mac / ビッグマック
6: Double cheese burger / ダブルチーズバーガー
7: Bacon lettuce burger / ベーコンレタスバーガー
8: Teriyaki mac burger / てりやきマックバーガー
9: Prawn filet / えびフィレオ
10: Filet-o-fish / フィレオフィッシュ
11: Chicken filet / チキンフィレオ
12: Cheese burger / チーズバーガー
13: Mac pork / マックポーク
14: Hamburger / ハンバーガー

Children wear (Jinbei)

The Japanese style kid’s wear that my nephew is wearing in the picture is not known as “kimono”. The precise term is “jinbei”. I bought it for him hoping that he could wear something special (different from what kids normally wear) during Chinese New Year.

The response was overwhelmed, so that I felt shamelessly flattering, even though the credit should go to the “model” who earned the points for the attention. (*^-^*)

A change of topic from the children wear thing. Frankly speaking, the picture of my nephew reminded me of how adorable children are. Maybe using pictures of children could be an effective method to counter birth rate decline problems in developed countries??

In Japan, train disruptions caused by passengers falling into the rail tracks are frequent. It can get into you especially when you are rushing for time.

I had a close shave too, the other day when I was heading for the airport on a flight back to Singapore. Just as I was settling comfortably into one of the seats, an announcement came. Imagine, the train will stop due to passenger falling into the track （*○*）!!

My brain went empty! I had a plane to catch!　(@.@ ;;)
Not only me, in fact, the whole station was in chaos, flooded with people rushing to the staffs asking for other transport means and when the train is scheduled to start moving. Poor staffs! They need to handle all these.

Fortunately, I made it for my flight. But every time when such accidents happened, it had me wondering why railway companies in Japan though having such remarkable history and technologies, did not make efforts to take measures on repeated human accidents. Few stations have auto doors setup.

These pictures were taken from Singapore’s railway platform. At least they prevent such accidents from happening.