Tokyo

Mohini – mini high tea

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

I’ve been slack on my high tea consumption.
I partook in afternoon tea last month with a friend made through this blog. She contacted me and told me she was a fan of high tea, so we arranged to meet up. Coz, that’s how I roll.
We ended up going to a small tea cafe called Mohini for a mini high tea.

Served on a single tray platter we got tiny finger sandwiches, a small piece of pound cake, some fruit, and the tiniest scones I have ever seen! It was very cute. The set is called “small afternoon dish” and not bad for a mere 700yen. Pots of tea are 550yen and there is a very good selection of teas. It’s a tea specialty store. A simple afternoon tea which made for a pleasant change from a hotel high tea. I’m finding that the service at hotel high teas are terrible. There are no shortages of plenty of cute cafes around Tokyo.

It was nice simple old school, home-style afternoon tea, something you’d whip up if your neighbours were to drop by. A nice light refreshment served with a pot of tea.

From Mohini – mini tea
From Mohini – mini tea

The tiniest scones ever:

From Mohini – mini tea

Cute tea cafe:

From Mohini – mini tea
From Mohini – mini tea

Mohini website.

Progress

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Getting faster, slowly.

From Progress

Not running as often as I’d like.

And to think that I ran a half marathon this time last last year (in Feb 2012). Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I struggle to run 5km these days, let alone 21km!

“Motivation is what gets you started.
Habit is what keeps you going.”

Hachijojima: Miharayama waterfalls

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Hachijojima island has two mountains. The smaller one has some waterfalls.
Managed to hire a car and drive out to Miharayama and do a nice waterfall hike.
It was quite the leisurely hike. About 45min or so. Would recommend wearing appropriate footwear. Sandals aka Crocs didn’t quite cut it. Anyway, hiked we did in sandals. Was a gorgeous sunny day. Not the most scenic hike, but pleasant enough.

Am loving that it is spring, and summer on the way. I plan on doing more hikes this year. Have no major overseas trips planned this year (unlike last year’s Trans-Siberian month-long holiday), so plan on doing more active, nature stuff and exploring more of Japan.

From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall

Mount Mihara:

From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall

We crossed rocks, rivers and walls… in search of this elusive waterfall.

From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall

And then finally through the clearing, amidst the trees, we could see the waterfall.

From Miharayama waterfall

Ok, so not quite the majestic waterfall I was imagining. More like a refreshing mist of water. Niagara Falls this ain’t.

From Miharayama waterfall

If you got closer to the rock wall, you could stand right under the waterfall:

From Miharayama waterfall

The rockpool it opened into was lovely though. It made for a nice refreshing stop after our little hike. In summer, this place would make a great little secluded watering hole. The water was numbingly cold. I dunked my feet in and waded across to the waterfall, and my feet were numb. Not quite yet warm enough for a proper swim. The rocks were also really slippery.

From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall

I managed to get right by the waterfall and did a mini photo shoot. It’s not often you get a whole waterfall to yourself.
Here are lots of pics of me (you were warned!)

From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall

Catching water:

From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall

BEWARE: Crocs in the water. And by Crocs, I mean footwear!

From Miharayama waterfall

Clear, cold water:

From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall

On the hike back down, we stopped by the swamp pond.

From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall
From Miharayama waterfall

Hachijojima

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Eeek. It’s May already.
This year, I’ve definitely had way less time to blog.
May means Golden Week – public holidays and long weekends galore.
This year, I went camping on Hachijojima Island – one of the Tokyo seven Izu islands.
Having already visited Shikinejima, Niijima and Kouzushima, I racked up another island – Hachijojima – the furthest of the seven islands (an 11-hour boat ride). Hopefully will get around to visiting all 7 islands at some point.
Spent 3 nights there on the island sleeping in a tent in a nice little camping spot, along with another hundred or so people. It was Golden Week after all.

Here are some initial pics of the Sokodo beach area. Note the absence of white sandy beaches. Hachijojima is a rocky volcanic island with black sand and a helluva lot of concrete and rocks (solidified volcanic lava)

From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima

Mount Hachijo-Fuji in the background:

From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima
From Hachijojima

Bread Brunch: Le Pain Quotidien

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Another brunch venue ticked off the list.
If you like bread and got the dough to spend, check out Le Pain Quotidien (means “The Daily Bread”) right near Shiba Park and Tokyo Tower.
Here you’ll find a great bakery with real breads – a bit of a luxury in Japan.
Breads and pastries galore and tarts to boot, including lemon tart!

From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien

I got a pot of tea (surprise, surprise), but I highly recommend ordering a large cafe latte or cappuccino, or any large coffee for that matter. They are served in awesome bowls (oversized handle-less mugs).

From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien

Le Pain Quotidien is open for breakfast/brunch, lunch, afternoon, and dinner.
It’s a great breakfast spot because they’re open from 7:30am in the morning – a rarity in Japan. Throughout the day they serve quiche, mezze platters, open-faced sandwiches, waffles, breads, cakes/pies etc, and even serve alcohol. It’s a great all-day venue.

The first time I went there was in the afternoon for a late lunch and cake break with friends.

From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien

The second time I went was for breakfast/brunch. Note that the breakfast menu stops at 11am. They have an assortment of eggs they do. I opted for another open sandwich – prosciutto, fig, and ricotta.

From Le Pain Quotidien

The restaurant itself is comfortable. There’s an open street terrace out the front perfect for summer al fresco dining.

From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien

Tokyo Tower in the background:

From Le Pain Quotidien
From Le Pain Quotidien

Tower reflection:

From Le Pain Quotidien

Drool over the menu here.

Bloomin’ Tulips

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Move over cherryblossoms, bring on the tulips.
I think tulips would have to be my favourite flowers. Yep, way better than roses any day.

Went for a gourmet spring picnic with some friends over the weekend, back to Showa Kinen Park for the tulip festival. It’s such a great park. You might recall I went there last autumn to see the autumn gingko leaves. Was nice to go this time around in the spring. It’s supposed to really nice when all the cherryblossoms are in full bloom too, but this year the cherryblossom season happened really early and they were all over by the end of March. Instead, all the tulips were out. So colourful, so pretty, so many people. That’s Japan for you.

Gave the old camera a bit of a workout.

This is how your picnic, gourmet-style:

From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic

Ahh, spring love:

From Showa Kinen picnic

Oh, this park bench must be mine:

From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic

A spectacular tulip garden spread:

From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic

Don’t you just want to bury yourself in a bed of tulips.

From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic
From Showa Kinen picnic

Aah so many tulips.

Bookshelf Cafe

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Found a great little book cafe today, aptly named “Bookshelf Cafe”. I trekked (ie trained) across to the other side of town for a swim. Need to get back into the swimming training with summer and ows season approaching. Have found a nice pool to train in, but it’s a little bit further than I’d like. I wanted to find cafes in the area for a post-swim lunch, and came up with the Bookshelf Cafe.

It’s a great little place. On the one hand, I want them to get a lot of publicity, but on the other hand, I want to keep it a secret.

It’s a cafe that encourages two of my favourite things: books (reading) and eating.

From Bookshelf Cafe

And it’s a new-style book cafe in that it’s totally with the times and supports the digital age of reading – they encourage iPads (so much so, that iPads are free for customers to use).

When I arrived, I had the whole cafe to myself. It was totally deserted.

From Bookshelf Cafe
From Bookshelf Cafe
From Bookshelf Cafe

The cafe is awesome for the following reasons:
– it’s quiet and cozy
– they have free iPads you can use!!!! There are 12 iPads available to customers and they’re FREE!
– they let you use laptops, iPads etc and are happy for you to plug in your device. There are dedicated tables that come with power plug outlets (like the study tables you find in libraries) so you can type away on your i-gadget for as long as you like
– free wifi!!!

It’s one of those cafes where you can read, study or write/type your next upcoming novel and you can while away as much time as you like without that feeling that you’re taking up space. And to top if off, they even had the Amelie soundtrack playing in the background (Amelie being one of my favourite movies).

They have a food menu (meals and desserts etc) too and serve coffees, teas and even alcohol (including Hitach no nest – a craft beer). Perfect reading or study cafe in Tokyo. Kicks arse over Starbucks anyday. Very chilled laidback cafe. I will admit, the food was not the most gourmet (I had the taco rice) I’ve ever had, but I think it’s perfectly fine if you go for a coffee and cake. And not so expensive either. For less than 1,100yen I had a cafe latte and a lunch meal. (Free wifi and iPad usage available too).

From Bookshelf Cafe

It was a shame that it was so deserted. Another 3 customers came in whilst I was there though.

Cute clock (the cat’s tail swings as the seconds hand):

From Bookshelf Cafe

What a gem of a place! Now don’t tell anyone.

Bookshelf Cafe website.
Hamacho
Closed Sundays

Tokyo Marathon 2013

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

I attended the Tokyo Marathon yet again as a spectator. I missed out on the lottery to actually run it. I swear, I am not going to leave Japan until I get to run/walk/crawl the Tokyo Marathon, goddamn it! Instead, it’s now tradition to go out and watch it, mostly to check out all the crazy costumes that people wear.

This time we staked out a spot at Asakusabashi and walked alongside the route all the way to Ginza (about 5km).

The goal this year was to just take photos of all the interesting costumes, because you know, running a marathon in 5 degrees celcius is not hard enough!

I present the fancy dress parade that is the Tokyo Marathon:

Super Mario:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Salaryman (man in suit):

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Short Panda:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Tall Panda:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Someone from The Flintstones??:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Don’t know what this dude is meant to be:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Where’s Wally! (Super cool. And he wasn’t the only Wally. I saw a few people dressed as Wally). I am impressed they wore jeans as well! Must be some serious chafing.

From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Eggplant:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Tiger suit (and a spectator giving out chocolates. I happened to be standing next to the woman, so lots of runners were swooping in):

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Another costume:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Beer head:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013

A banana:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Santa Claus:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

And the perennial favourite: Jesus Christ!
Even more hardcore than ever. This year he was half naked!

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Carrying a cross:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

And he was BARE FOOTED! For the whole marathon. And carrying a cross. And wearing nothing but a nappy (in 5 degrees celcius!)

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Jesus, on the way back:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Jesus has run in the marathon for the last few years. I’m not sure if it’s the same dude.
Here is Jesus back in 2011. A lot less hardcore back then. Fully clothed and had shoes.

From Tokyo Marathon 2011

This Gladiator dude gave JC a run for his money in the costume department:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

That can’t be comfortable:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Saw Gladiator again about 6km later. Bet he’s regretting the costume now.

From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013

I mean, wearing a costume is one thing, but having a prop is another – a cross, a shield etc.

A toy dog on a leash, say what?!

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

A handbag:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

More costumes:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

For the love of god, how you can run 42km in a frog costume:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

A deflated Michael Jackson. That ain’t no moonwalk!

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Love the couple/pair costumes! Ketchup and mustard!

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

A freaky clown:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

A different Where’s Wally dude. Again, in jeans! It made me wonder if a whole group of Where’s Wally all started together at the start line, but then all went off at their own pace once the race started.

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

I saw one Japanese dude who had a sign on him that said “konkatsu-chuu”. It means looking for a girlfriend/wife! Can’t remember if the sign had his number on it or not. But a great way to tell the world you’re single AND available!

Saw sooo many more costumes! But hard to capture them all. I’ve decided that if I have the pleasure (or pain) of getting in, I am totally going to wear a costume. And boy, do I have a doozy of a costume planned!!!

Some more pics of Tokyo Marathon 2013:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Spectators line the streets:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Runners in action:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013
From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Drink station:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Towards Sky Tree:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Running back into Ginza:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

The sweeper bus:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Pounding the pavement:

From Tokyo Marathon 2013

Congrats to everyone who finished, especially those who wore costumes! You provide great entertainment and inspiration to us spectators.