Rikugien Light-up

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On Saturday night, I went to Rikugien (Rikugi Japanese garden). For a limited time, the garden is open at night time where they light up the garden and you can view the autumn colours. Although, I gotta say it’s pretty much winter now. It was about 5 degrees out! Brrr cold. The garden is pretty big and there were heaps of people there all with their cameras and tripods. Cold and crowded. And dark too. A good chance to practise some night photography. I took a lot of bad photos. Haven’t quite got the hang of low-lighting/night photography yet. A lot of slightly blurry photos. Also my hands were too cold to really care to fiddle with the settings too much. My hands were practically frozen. It would actually be quite nice to go back there during the daylight. I think the garden would be quite beautiful where you can properly see the autumn colours. Here are some of my photos of the garden illumination.

From Rikugien

Bamboo trees:

From Rikugien
From Rikugien

Leaves on the ground:

From Rikugien
From Rikugien

Shadows on the wall:

From Rikugien
From Rikugien

I like the lighting in this next shot:

From Rikugien
From Rikugien

The garden island in the middle of the pond is the piece de resistance of Rikugien.

From Rikugien
From Rikugien

Still water reflection:

From Rikugien
From Rikugien
From Rikugien
From Rikugien
From Rikugien
From Rikugien
From Rikugien

Interesting branches:

From Rikugien

Figures in the dark:

From Rikugien

Light and mist:

From Rikugien
From Rikugien
From Rikugien
From Rikugien
From Rikugien

Entry into Rikugien is 300yen. The night entry light-up is on until December 9. Closest station: Komagome station (3min walk from JR South exit).

Afternoon Tea in Moscow: The Ritz

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I have an overdue afternoon tea experience to write about. Back when I did the Trans-Siberian over the summer holidays, I, of course, found myself in Moscow. And naturally I made it my mission to have afternoon tea in Moscow. Being the overachiever I am, I did not one, but TWO afternoon teas during my three-day stay in Russia’s capital. You’d be surprised that there are a handful of venues that offer afternoon tea in Moscow. I did my research and narrowed it down to two venues, where I would grace my presence. Today’s review is of afternoon tea at the Ritz Hotel, Moscow. Had there been a Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow, I would have gone there as part of my Four Seasons Afternoon Tea project, but alas no Four Seasons in Moscow, so the Ritz it was. The Hotel:

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

And for those who don’t read English above, here it is in Russian:

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

The hotel is within metres from Red Square (which you can see to the left of the photo):

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

The hotel lives up to its brand — sheer opulence. The dictionary defines “ritz” as “ostentatious or pretentious display”. I had the Tsar Tea afternoon tea set in the Lobby Lounge, which includes a glass of champagne which is always welcome.

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

The tea selection was impressive. 22 varieties of hot tea and 3 iced tea blends. Teas are mostly supplied by Ronnefeldt tea and also TWG. Yes, a table for one:

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

A relaxing cup of tea:

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

Four different kinds of sugar!

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

I was even served strawberries!

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

The afternoon tea 3-tiered platter is a serving for two. So even though it was just me, I had to order the set as 2-person portion, which meant that there was double of everything. That’s a lot of food for one person!

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

The spread:

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

The food was pretty traditional. Nothing too crazy Russian, I guess.

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

The savoury plate was a selection of 5 open finger sandwiches: – cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers – camembert, walnut and sour cream – sour cream and roe – cheese, ham, sour cream and capers – prosciutto, cucumber, sour cream Everything had sour cream. They use sour cream like it’s butter. They do love their sour cream in Russia.

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

Desserts was 2 different flavoured macaroons, a choc cup, some jubes, and a cake. One of the macaroon flavours was mint and basil. A little weird.

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

And the scones for last:

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

And yes, even the scones were served with sour cream! This is a thing in Russia. Sour cream with everything. I love sour cream as much as the next person, but on my scones! Even I have limits. Scones, sour cream and jam is just a weird combination. I actually even had the audacity to ask for fresh cream. They happily obliged and gave me a generous serve of fresh cream.

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

Now that’s more like that. Topped with strawberry jam.

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

Afternoon tea in Moscow. Check.

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

Hotel interior:

From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow
From Afternoon tea, Ritz Moscow

The Tsars Tea afternoon tea set cost 2500 rubles (portion for 2). So for two people, I think you get to split that cost. It does include a glass of champagne, 3-tier platter of food and unlimited tea. Not recommended if you have an aversion to sour cream!

Hotel Tokyo Palace Afternoon Tea

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The Palace Hotel Tokyo right near the Imperial Palace garden precinct and Tokyo Station district opened earlier this year in May. It’s also really close to my office building. I’ve been able to see the hotel being constructed over the last year or so. Since the hotel opened in May, I’ve been meaning to go and check its afternoon tea. Finally got around to getting there last Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny, warm autumn day. Such a shame I had a bit of a hangover. It was a rather subdued afternoon tea as we’d all been out the night before celebrating a friend’s birthday. I took a stroll through part of the Imperial Palace area. Lots of people out and about enjoying the sunshine. (All photos taken on iPhone and not my SLR this time).

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

Marunouchi CBD in the background.

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

The Palace Hotel:

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

They don’t take reservations on weekends for afternoon tea. Most unfortunate. They only take reservations on weekdays. We arrived at 2pm, and had to wait about 30minutes for a table. The Lounge was quite busy, and weddings were also going on in the hotel. We waited in the hotel lobby until a table was available. We finally got a table for our party of six. Afternoon tea is served in the Palace Lounge (lobby lounge).

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

The hotel is very new and the interior is nice with lots of natural light. The new polished floors were a little slippery! Wasn’t a huge fan of the ergonomics of the decor. It’s one of those lounges with comfy soft chairs, but with coffee tables built way too low. The Afternoon tea set here is pretty good. It gets bonus points for creativity and it’s serving ware. I kind of like it when places don’t serve afternoon tea on 3-tier platters. This place serves its afternoon tea in a really cool way. Autumn place setting:

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

The tea set includes unlimited tea of any variety. Yay. I think I tried four different kinds of tea!

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

Loved the teaware!

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

The tea selection is very decent. I was suitably impressed. My favourite of the day was a black tea blend called Trois Freres. A good strong tea best served with milk. The genmaicha was a nice tea to end with. Also had the English breakfast (not that good) and the light Ceylon tea which was too light. The way the afternoon tea is served here is really cool. No tiered platters…instead you get a lacquered wooden box! It kind of looks like a jewelery box with little drawers.

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

Pretty neat, ay.

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

Each drawer pulls out as an individual box of food, kind of like a bento. One of the slim drawers then serves as a plate.

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

The top drawer contained the scone.

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

The scone was pretty awesome. Definitely one of (possibly if not the best) scone I’ve had in Japan. It was definitely less ‘biscuity’ and more softer/fluffier on the inside. It was also square-shaped. I wish there had been two scones to a serve though. Scones should not however be served with honey and apricot jam. Where’s the regular strawberry jam?! And honey has no place on scones. Crumpets however are totally deserving of honey. Oh well. The savoury “drawer” was my favourite.

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

Two portions each of sandwiches, quiche, pork rillette on baguette, and even inari sushi! The quiche was pretty divine. I thought the raisins and dried apricot was a nice touch. The dessert drawer was ok – an assortment of cakes and berries.

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea
From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

And I always save the scone for last. Sadly, sans jam.

From Palace Hotel afternoon tea

Afternoon tea here is standard fare. Not the best and not the worst in Tokyo. Location is convenient though and the food is decent, as is the tea selection. The service however was ridiculously slow! Be prepared to wait 30minutes for each pot of tea. I am not exaggerating. Doesn’t help when the wait staff are shuffling about in kimonos – makes it awkward to carry trays and serve food etc. It is all very pretty though. Afternoon tea (includes unlimited tea) is 3800yen plus tax (about 4100yen). Menu can be viewed on their website.

Afternoon tea at Enokitei, Yokohama

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It’s been a while since I’ve done an afternoon tea in Tokyo…maybe about 6 months…so it’s about time I did one. The weekend before I last I went to Yokohama for afternoon tea. I was finally able to go to a venue that had been recommended by a blog reader of mine (“Bottlelobotomy” occasionally reads my blog for my afternoon tea reviews, and I had asked him once what his recommendation was, and he said it was Enokitei in Yokohama. Since then I’ve been meaning to check it out. There are two Enokitei branches in Yokohama, one of which has a private tea room. I ended up taking my eikaiwa class (Fukushima survivors, from my Namie days) there. So our party of six was able to book out the private room (flat fee of 2000yen split between 6 people). We were each served our own afternoon tea tiers which made for a very crowded table!

From Enokitei
From Enokitei

The private room is a bit on the small size. Very cozy indeed and was up on the second floor of the building with windows that looked out onto the courtyard. It’s nice for some privacy in a small group where you can talk without being a disturbance to others. It fits a maximum of 6 people.

From Enokitei
From Enokitei

The afternoon tea is very simple and traditional. It consisted of toasted sandwiches with ham, cucumber, cheese and mayonnaise (no assorted sandwiches here), two currant scones, and a plate of cakes. Tea variety is limited. From memory, I think only 2-3 kinds of tea and no English breakfast tea. There might have even been only kind of tea from memory. I had Earl Grey Tea and I think I may not have had a choice about it. The tea is of course served in pots thankfully with little tea cozies.

From Enokitei

The vibe here is very quaint English rose theme. They offer home made cakes and sweets as well as lunch sets.

From Enokitei

Simple, classical afternoon tea. Sandwiches – I did like that they were toasted sandwiches!

From Enokitei

Currant scones with jam and cream – the scones aren’t probably what I would call “scones”, but nevertheless they were actually delicious. They were on the well-baked crunchier side which I enjoyed. I think “Australian” scones are very different to the scones in America, Japan and England. I think the best scones are most definitely “Australian” scones.

From Enokitei

Plate of cakes – raspberry bomb cake, fig and caramel cake, and a hazelnut chocolate cake which was delicious, and a generous dollop of cream.

From Enokitei
From Enokitei
From Enokitei

Afternoon tea here is very pleasant and cozy. Also on the second floor is a little store:

From Enokitei
From Enokitei

On the first floor is the general seating (second floor is the private room). The venue was really crowded on a Saturday afternoon, and there was even a long line to be seated. I was really glad that I had booked the private room.

From Enokitei
From Enokitei

The building itself is very quaint – a more European colonial style building, being that it’s in the Yamate district of Yokohama which has a more international/European style of architecture. It was actually my first time to that area of Yamate and I definitely need to go back to explore more of that beautiful area. Lots of cute cafes there.

From Enokitei

There’s also a nice courtyard which is perfect for spring/summer afternoon tea.

From Enokitei
From Enokitei
From Enokitei
From Enokitei
From Enokitei
From Enokitei
From Enokitei
From Enokitei

The view of Yokohama from the Foreigner’s Cemetery:

From Enokitei
From Enokitei

Afternoon tea set (includes the tea and food platter) is 2,575 yen. There are two Enokitei cafes located close to each other in the Yokohama area. There’s the Enokitei main store, and also Enokitei Rose Garden. I’ll have to go and check that one out too sometime. Both offer afternoon tea sets, as well as cakes, tea/coffee and light lunch meals. On this occasion, I went to the Enokitei main store. If going in a group, I’d recommend booking the private room in advance (2000yen fee for the room). Private room option only available at the Enokitei main store. Website here.

Murakami tri

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What would 14,000yen get you? (That’s about 175AUD.) – my grocery bill for a month (maybe even longer than a month)! – My water, electricity and gas bill combined for a month – 4 high teas – a Michelin star meal or two (well, lunch anyway) – Over 130 items from the 100yen store – half an iPad OR It can buy you a few hours of pure torture. Mmmmm sounds tempting. There’s nothing like paying 14,000yen and hauling arse to Niigata for some public humiliation on a long weekend at that! I made the rookie mistake of making my FIRST EVER triathlon race an Olympic Distance one! Most people start off with a short, sprint distance. Me thinks, I’m not like most people. What’s with that?! Instead, I plunged headfirst into an OD tri (which I did 2 weeks ago). A 1.5km swim. Check. Can do. A 40km cycle. Can do. Albeit only once! A 10km run. Can do. Barely. But try doing them all in one go. 51.5km. An Olympic Distance (OD) triathlon. We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner over a day. We know we can get through each meal. But try eating breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one sitting, consecutively, without a break. That’s what a triathlon is like. Except only one of the legs involves sitting on your arse. So whilst I knew I could get through each leg individually… ..collectively was going to be a struggle. I only gave myself 7 and a half weeks to train for an OD triathlon! Not the best idea…but it was all I had to work with. Argh sheer panic! On the upside, I lost 3kg whilst training for this. Ok, to tell you the truth, the hardest part of a tri (or at least IN Japan) is signing up for it. Now, I’m not trying to be deep and all Confucious on you with all that stuff about mentally taking that first step, the committment, the being brave, the opening up the purse strings to enter in your credit card details and actually register for a triathlon. I mean that it was ridiculously hard to sign up for this particular triathlon because the online registration process was all in Japanese and was so convoluted! They did not make it easy at all navigating through the registration process. I reckon getting into NASA would have been easier! So after 5 attempts I finally registered and still had yet to pay for it. Again another process that required more Japanese and walking into a conbini and using a different payment machine. With very little training (but a lot by my standards), I rocked up to the Murakami triathlon in Niigata. I chose this particular triathlon for a couple of reasons. One, it’s called MURAKAMI! How could I not enter this one?! You should know by now I’m a massive Haruki Murakami fan. Also, Haruki Murakami himself has actually entered and completed this particular triathlon. Murakami at Murakami. He competed in this back in 2010. I totally stalked the Internet and found out his time. He finished in a time of 3hr and 21 minutes at the then age of 61! And he totally put me to shame! I have actually driven through Murakami before on a road trip a few years back, so was a little familiar with the area. Also, this particular triathlon draws a big gaijin triathlete crowd (mind you, they are all hardcore and seasoned triathletes and ironmen/women). I actually felt like an imposter at the starting line. I’m hardly a triathlete by any definition of the word. More like a try-hard. Furthermore, I had heard the bike and cycle course were relatively easy as far as triathlon courses go (easy my foot!). It’s a predominantly flat course (no hills. Yay! So I’d heard…). Let me make it clear — I swim. I don’t cycle. I don’t run. Run and cycle are two verbs that don’t appear in my repertoire. Getting to the race venue was a feat in itself, that I’d be lucky if I even made it to the start line. The race was on a Sunday of a long weekend, and required staying overnight in the area the night before. I spent the whole Saturday getting myself to Murakami. The bullet train from Tokyo to Niigata, another express train from Niigata to Murakami, arriving at Murakami and registering, and then because a lot of accommodation was booked out, I had to take another 20min train up north to a further up town where I would stay the night. It felt like quite the epic journey. I did meet some fellow gaijin triathletes on the train journey up. Everyone was so hardcore. Carrying my road bike and all my gear on three trains was a huge pain in the arse! Lugging that thing was no fun. Poor, sore shoulders. If I never have to lug my bike halfway across Japan on a handful of trains, I will be one happy girl! Niigata scenery:

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

Lugging the bike on trains all day:

From Murakami tri 2012

I spent the night in Kuwagawa at a small minshuku. Was pretty buggered after a super long day of travel and hauling gear. Right on the west coast of Japan, got to see a pretty sunset…

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

Sunday morning: Race day A train back down to Murakami and then a taxi to Senami Onsen beach where the swim start was. The start and finish line for this race were are two different points. This race was pretty big. Over 800 participants in just the age-groupers. There was an elite category with some international triathletes too (even from Australia). This race is part of the JTU series as well as the Asia Cup triathlon. A pretty big deal. I set up my transition area and prepared for the race. What the hell had I gotten myself in for? Transition area:

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

Setting up my gear:

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

The day was really hot. A sunny 33 degree day, with 80% humidity, and water temps of 26 degrees. It was going to be a race in tough hot humid conditions. Swim course: And because I’m too tight to pay to for the photos…here are the screenshots….

From Murakami tri 2012

Swim – 1.5km The swim was a floating start out in the water. Wetsuits were compulsory, despite the super warm temperature. There were 5 start waves, with the women’s wave being the last…which was to be to my detriment. The course was 750m horizontal swim across the beach and then back again. The water quality was poor. Very murky and quite dirty. I felt pretty decent in the swim. Despite what felt like a strong swim, I was disappointed with my time of 33minutes. I was however, in the top group of females out of the water though which would be a nice lead in the bike leg. T1 Transition was decent enough. Peeled off the wetsuit and already had my tri suit on, so no need to faff about with clothes, except for socks and shoes. Helmet on, and away with the bike. Bike leg This is where it all went downhill. Thanks to the swim lead, I got a decent getaway on the bike. It was a bit hardgoing on the bike, trying to make the legs pedal as fast as I could. I was expecting a pancake flat course…but there were a few smallish hills, which I still struggled on. It was a 20km course out along the coast of Japan by the Japan sea. The headwind going out was intense! And ultimately my downfall. I was pedaling as fast as my legs could, but really could not get any speed up. Literally, hundreds of people passed me. I could not overtake a single person on the bike. I felt as though I was riding a mamachari, whilst everyone else sped past me. It was very disheartening seeing people that were 20min behind me on the swim, pass me on the bikes. I was out on that bike course for a ridiculously long time. Embarrassingly so. It took me well over an hour to reach the halfway point (20km). Headwind was too strong for me. Coming back was a lot easier, and did the last 20km in under an hour. It killed me that I couldn’t even maintain an average speed of 20km/hr. Oh the shame! The training I did would not have suggested that I would be that slow. Just goes to show the importance of aerodynamics in triathlon and cycling in general. It took me over 2 hours to cycle those slow 40km. I had totally gone into the race thinking that I would do it comfortably in under 2 hours. Clearly, I’m not in the most aerodynamic position…

From Murakami tri 2012
From Murakami tri 2012

My cycling makes my running look good! My cycling skills are pretty lame. Non-existent aerodynamic positioning. Also, I had only just learnt the couple of weeks prior to drink (water) and cycle at the same time! Retrieving the drink bottle from the holder is one thing…but getting it back in is another! Also I was limited to hydrating from my own drink bottle because I cycle lefthanded and drink with the right hand, but the drinks on the course were passed out and had to be retrieved with the left hand…and I can’t cycle one-handed with my right hand. Yes, I am that unco!!! I was also mega sore on the bike… sore arse, cramping leg. A whole world of pain. Spent way too much time on that bike on that course! Finally got back to T2, and was about to start the run leg. When I approached the run start, I was stopped by a race marshall and a barricade. I was not allowed to start the run leg. I had been too slow on the bike and would be stopped from completing the race! Oh, the disappointment! This triathlon had a time limit of 4 hours. At this point, I still had 1 hr and 15minutes to get to the finish line and complete within 4 hours. However, in addition to there being a total 4 hour time limit, there were cut off times foe each leg! So because I had been too slow on the bike, I couldn’t make up for that on the run leg! All competitors had to have started the run course by 1:05pm (regardless of whether you were the first swim wave or the 5th swim wave – there being a 20min difference between the first and last swim wave). I had missed it by about 5min!!!! I was not allowed to finish the race much to my disappointment. Had the women’s wave not been the last wave (20min after the first wave), I would have made it to the run start by 1:05pm! At the end of the day though, I was just too slow on the bike…but it’s a shame that in this triathlon race, you couldn’t make up for a weaker leg in a stronger leg. Every leg had cut off restrictions. It shouldn’t really matter how long a particular leg takes, so long as you can complete the whole race within the time limit! So, anyway, found myself stuck at T2, and considering the finish line was in the centre of the town, I ended having to ride my bike to the finish line (where they had transported all our gear). The official result will forever show a DNF (Did Not Finish). More like WNATF (Was Not Allowed To Finish). Oh the shame! And I had actually put effort into training for this! I mean just two weeks earlier I had done a 1.5km swim and 10km aquathlon race in 1hr 39min. I had not anticipated taking over 2 hours on the bike course. The headwind bit me in the arse big time! What was more disappointing, was that when the results were released, I didn’t even get a time recorded for the bike leg…despite completing it. I only got a swim time recorded. Man, it was a friggin achievement I even completed the 40km cycle, so I had hoped I would get a time for it. Most disappointing. I guess, I will just have to make Murakami my bitch next year!…if I can ever get over the devastation of this race. Will know to improve my cycling. And yeah, they should totally not make the women start 20minutes behind the first swim wave! Had the women’s swim wave been the third or fourth wave, I would have made it to the finish line. Lesson learned: Need to get more tits (time in the saddle)!

Kozushima aquathlon race report

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So it’s been a while since I did a race report…or simply a race for that matter. This summer, I didn’t have much of a chance to enter in an as many events due to lengthy travel plans. At the beginning of the year, I did a slow and painful half marathon. I have also only done one other open water swim race and a sprint aquathlon race this year. Over the weekend, I finally got around to completing my first proper (longer) distance aquathlon race. I started out in 2010 doing only ows races. I needed more of a challenge than just swimming, so have slowly built in jogging into my fitness routine, despite being a really lousy runner. I have bad, uncooperative feet. So on Saturday, I did a 1.5km open water swim and a 10km run race (ie an aquathlon). I didn’t treat it too much like a race, more like a hard training session, in preparation for a triathlon I have prematurely and foolishly entered. The race was on Kozushima island. Logistics for this race was a bit of a nightmare. Because it’s on an island, access is only by boat. And the boats to get there were all fully-booked! I ended up having to take the Friday off work and get there the day earlier. At least there were seats available on the Friday. This meant staying on the island for two nights. Next nightmare was accommodation! I rang up 10 places and they were all booked out! No room at the inn! I very nearly thought I would have to camp on the island! I ended up finally finding a place to stay at a little minshuku. Thankfully, this place had a room to spare. Actually, they weren’t booked out at all. They even had rooms to spare. And it was in a great location. A 5-minute walk to the beach and my room had partial sea views.

From Kozushima aquathlon

On Friday, I snorkeled and explored the island. The island is fabulous for marine activities – snorkeling, scuba diving and swimming. The waters were teeming with marine life. That’ll be a separate post. Took some awesome pics. Saturday was race day. Breakfast at the minshuku was served at 7:30am:

From Kozushima aquathlon

However, the race didn’t start until 1:50pm. The weather was concerning. It rained in the morning, then cleared up to be a ridiculously hot day. This summer has been crazy hot. Temps were in the 30s and I was worried about running in the heat and the humidity of the middle of the day. I had the morning free, so I decided to walk a part of the run course to familiarise myself with it. Kozushima island is beautiful. Wonderful coastline and beautiful beaches and water. My favourite beach on the island was Sawajiri beach.

From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon

Lovely water vista:

From Kozushima aquathlon

The swim part of the race took place on Maehama beach (the beach next to the port). This beach was ok. On the Friday, I had tested out the waters, and there were a lot of jellyfish. In the race briefing, we had been warned there would be a lot of jellyfish but during my swim, I didn’t see or notice any. Thank God! Maehama beach:

From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon

A pretty nice race venue, I might add on a nice little island. This was the first race where I would test out my new wetsuit. I vowed I would never own a wetsuit, being the swimming purist that I am. But unfortunately, wetsuits are compulsory for triathlon races in Japan, so I had to buy one. I ended up forking over about 200 buks and buying one on the Internet (I don’t really fit into Japanese sizes) which is always risky because you can’t try before you buy. I had only worn it once before in the water at a test open water swim training session at Kamakura beach. This would be the first time under race conditions.

From Kozushima aquathlon

The very cool lifeguard team. They would have given the Baywatch cast a run for their money!

From Kozushima aquathlon

Wetsuits have a negative effect for me. I actually swim faster without one. I already have a high percentage of body fat so I don’t need the extra bouyancy. If anything, I felt that it weighed me down and made me feel heavier and slower. It also gave me a hell of a neck rash. I barely have any skin left on my neck. For me, I like the feeling of being light and free in the water, and a wetsuit detracts that from me. I would much rather prefer to be as close to naked as possible when in the water. The wetsuit felt cumbersome in the water. During the swim, I was really bothered by the stinging and chafing on my neck. 1.5km swim time was 30min and 32 seconds, which I wasn’t happy with. I had expected to swim well under 30minutes.That being said, I was the 5th female out of the water, and overall 33rd place (out of total 99 people). The swim course was 2 laps of 750m, with a land exit between the 2 laps. The water temperature was a whopping 29 degrees! I seriously debated not wearing the wetsuit thinking it would be kind of dangerous in this heat. But I really needed a trial run wearing it. I wasn’t really relaxed swimming in the wetsuit. How lovely does the water look!

From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon

Transition was awkward. I got out of the wetsuit pretty quickly though. Helps that it was sleeveless. The thing with the transition was that it was on the sand! Here are our transition baskets laid on the actual beach!

From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon

There was no possible way to clean and dry your wet feet! How were we supposed to put on socks and joggers when your whole body is wet and there was nothing to stand on but sand, and we all had to dump our wetsuits on the sand. At the transition, I took off goggles, cap, wetsuit, threw on my glasses, a cap, and wrist sweatbands (yeah, I know, I went bought sweatbands. How very 80s of me. But seriously, you try jogging in 35-degree heat). I had also bought a race belt and buckled that on as well. I didn’t know what to do with my wet sandy feet. So I held my joggers and socks and ran up the beach barefooted until I got up to the beach promenade where I sat down and tried to brush sand off my feet with my hands, threw on my socks onto my damp sandy feet, threw on the shoes and just started running.

From Kozushima aquathlon

By the time I started the run leg, I was the 5th female out there. And this is where I lose it. I really wish my running was a lot better to be able to maintain my lead. This 10km course was intense. It was extremely hilly. We were on a crazy hilly island. It was a tough, hard course. A lot of people’s times were slower than normal for a 10km run. They actually used to hold a triathlon here, but it was deemed too hilly, curvy and dangerous, they used to have bike accidents, so this was the first year they changed it to an aquathlon event instead. Still, the hills were a killer. And it was 2 laps of a 5km course. The flat parts of the run course were nice though along the coastline. Run course:

From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon

Now during the run leg, I was in a lot of pain! It also happened to be the first time that I was wearing a tri suit, which I wore under the wetsuit for the swim leg. This meant that I was already wearing shorts and a singlet so I didn’t need to faff about with clothes at the transition. The shorts though come with padding for the bike leg in a triathlon. I was in for a rude surprise, when I felt major discomfort. How shall I put this delicately… it was something akin to adult nappy rash. Under the shorts, you don’t wear swimmers or undies, so I was suffering major chafing in a majorly sensitive area. Holy crap. I had heard of saddle sores, but I had not been warned about this kind of friction. You try running in wet, salty, sandy, sweaty shorts for 10km in 30 degree heat. Basically, I had two mantras going in my head during the run course. “Nappy rash. Blisters. Nappy rash. Blisters.” I didn’t know which was worse! — the chafing or the blisters on my feet. I couldn’t run as fast as I would have liked given that my feet were giving me grief. You might already be aware that I have a lot of feet problems…namely blisters and that I am very prone to them. I think the fact that I have flat feet (absolutely no arch) doesn’t help. More surface area for friction. And given the crappy transition, there was no way to properly dry my feet and get rid of the sand. So my feet were moist and sandy. I’m not exaggerating when I say the blisters were slowing me down. It hurts to run when meanwhile this is going on…WARNING: ugly feet photos coming up NOW! This is how my feet looked after 10km. Believe me, I wanted to quit during the run. Yeah, I know I gotta HTFU (Harden The FEET UP).

From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon

Seriously, flat feet much?

From Kozushima aquathlon

Friction is my Enemy Number 1. Given the hilly course, my nappy-like rash and blisters on my feet, I finally hauled my arse to the finish line. The 10km run took me a whopping and painfully slow 1hr and 9min and 27 seconds. I’ve mapped out the run, and yes, there was definitely one hilly section. And we had to do it twice. A lot of people struggled on this section. I much prefer an absolute flat courses! To hell with hills.

5km course x 2 laps

Total race time for 1.5km and 10km hill run was 1hr 39min and 59 seconds. Transition time is included in there as well (although I’m not sure if that gets lumped in with the swim time or run time). Hooray. Made it to the finish line in one piece! (Check out the sweat wristbands!)

From Kozushima aquathlon

I ended up being 12th overall female (out of 21 females), and 70th place out of 99 competitors (male and female). I surprised myself by not coming last! Despite slow times, I did ok relative to the field. I was actually 2nd place in my female age group (of which there were 5 of us). Unfortunately, no AG prizes. Only the top overall 6 places got prizes. Bummer. I was disappointed. Far out, I have no idea how I am supposed to squeeze in a 40km cycle in between all that, in the upcoming triathlon. I’m going to be looking at about 3.5 hours for the OD tri. Ugh. My feet were in a lot of pain after the race. Could barely walk on the soles of my feet. Had to bandaid and tape them up. Had a shower back at the minshuku. And boy was I stinging in places where one should never be stinging. It hurt to shower (and pee for that matter. TMI?). Finally, got myself refreshed, although I was rather exhausted and sore. Definitely feeling a little worse for wear. Definitely was not looking as fresh as this during the race.

Saw the sun set.

From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon

In the evening, there was a party and awards ceremony. It was all a free all you can eat and drink spread, prize giving and taiko performance (all included in race entry).

From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon
From Kozushima aquathlon

Goal to complete a full aquathlon distance, now complete, although painfully slow as it was.

From Kozushima aquathlon

5193322 2012-09-04 10:18:21 2012-09-04 01:18:21 open closed kozushima-aquathlon-race-report publish 0 0 post 0 aquathlon Fitness here and there in japan Japan Swimming Swimming Tokyo Tokyo Tokyo life Travel _edit_last 253158 _encloseme 1 _encloseme 1 _encloseme 1

Molecular Gastronomy in Tokyo

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I had a pretty awesome Saturday. I slept in late, then hit the gym. Swam 1km and did a 7km jog (and walk). In the afternoon, I went to the Tokyo Photography museum to catch the last weekend of the World Press Photo exhibition (a yearly photo exhibit which I try to go to see each year when I can). There was a lot of people there. Memo to self: don’t go on the last weekend of an exhibition. I thought I’d see the women’s Olympic triathlon at a sports bar or something. Tried two pubs. One wasn’t open yet (at 5:30pm) and the other was only showing the rugby, and not a single Olympic event! Went home and managed to see the event on my “tv”. Dinner was the highlight of the day. A late dinner at 8:30pm was a 20-morsel journey of molecular gastronomy. Food meets science. I think molecular gastronomy is pretty fascinating. At the end of the day, cooking is technically a science of processes and chemical reactions. Dining at the Tapas Molecular Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel had been on my Japan bucketlist for a while now. The main deterrent was it’s price tag. However, when a friend organized the event a couple of months back, I was definitely in. There are 2 seating sessions per evening. 6pm and 8:30pm. We were booked in for the 8:30pm. Seats are limited to 8 people only. It’s more than food, it’s a performance show. A magic show of sorts. The Tapas Molecular Bar is technically the bar that’s in the Lounge of the hotel on the 38th floor, the same place where they serve afternoon tea which I did a couple of years back.

From Molecular Gastronomy

There was 6 in our party, and then a couple on the end. The food and the way it’s served is crazy and wacky. However, it does not compromise on taste or flavour. Arguably, the flavours are enhanced by the techniques they use. As we sat down to the counter, we were faced with beakers, test tubes and pipettes.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

This was the aperitif – a red shiso mojito.

From Molecular Gastronomy

We had to squeeze the contents of the pipette into the test tube, shake and then drink. It was very, very shiso-ey. All the food is served at the counter, in front of you, by two chefs (although a lot of the mis en place has already been done). They explain in both English and Japanese the technique and process involved and you’re free to ask them questions.

From Molecular Gastronomy

Next up were two snacks. 1) Caramel popcorn.

From Molecular Gastronomy

This was just bizarre. They have to prepare each one individually. It tasted exactly like corn soup (very corny), but powdery and then was coated in a caramel syrup.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

Second snack was caprese – a dehydrated tomato skewered by a pipette filled with cheese. You had to inject the cheese as you ate the tomato.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

There are 10 courses in the degustation part of the menu. They used a lot of tweezers and liquid nitrogen to prepare the next few dishes. The presentation of these dishes were amazing. Beautiful and creative. New soba – a jelly soba with wasabi and soy sauce foam and karasumi. Karasumi tastes like cheese, but is actually fish eggs.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

The soba dish was delicious. Was definitely one of my favourites. So flavoursome! Who knew foam would taste so good.

From Molecular Gastronomy

Gotta love the silverware – skinny forks and a scalpel-like knife. Super fine and sharp.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

The soba was followed by the crystal salad – dehydrated salad components with dressing that had been frozen and quinelled onto the plate. The salad was also really awesome. I can’t tell you how flavoursome all this food was. There was just so much flavour and taste and a variety of textures. The salad lacked height though. Everything was so finely sliced.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

That went down a treat:

From Molecular Gastronomy

Delicate work. Food surgery:

From Molecular Gastronomy

Next up was the squid ink soup. Earlier during the evening, the chefs prepared squid ink balls. They squirted squid ink blobs into calcium water to soak and form balls.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

They later used these squid ink balls for the squid ink soup.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

Here are the stages of the squid ink soup: The components – a squid ink cracker (which was tasty), the squid ink balls which now looked like mini kidney sacks. and octopus legs.

From Molecular Gastronomy

They they add broth to the dish:

From Molecular Gastronomy

You then pierce the squid ink ball to release the squid ink:

From Molecular Gastronomy

And then we added something to it and stir. I cannot recall what it is. I thought it was a mustard, mayonnaise of sorts, but it had a cream-like texture. Stir it all through. The dish was surprisingly yummy, especially since I don’t really like squid/octopus. I ate the legs and had a few spoonfuls of the soup. The soup was tasty, but the flavours were very strong. It was very squid inky. Like I said, there was no compromise on taste. If anything, all the flavours were accentuated and were quite strong. Despite the small portion of the soup, I couldn’t eat it all. Next up was the cryptically-named dish called “Summer Mountain Stream”. Watching the chefs prepare this dish was like watching them make a diorama or collage. Check this out:

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

So pretty. The rocks weren’t edible, but the fish and the crab were. I didn’t care much for the coating on the fish. Unusual flavour. But made better with the green jelly sauce. The baby crab was a little more awkward to eat. You had to eat the whole thing in one go, and all of it – shell, legs, body and all. It had been fried in oil and again was really tasty. Very, very crunchy, I might add. We’re now about halfway through the culinary journey. Uni and fennel – powdered, dehydrated uni (sea urchin) with the use of liquid nitrogen, served with a hot fennel broth which they poured from a teapot. There was also fennel tied to the spoon to add to the aromatics.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

Try each component on its own, and then mix the uni into the fennel soup. Very unusual flavour combination. The next dish was called “Beach” and ended the four-dish seafood section of the degustation.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

There was a scallop with a clam sauce. The scallop was delicious. Have a thing for scallops, I do. The shell came complete with a pearl which contained a yoghurt sauce of some kind inside when pierced. Even the sand was edible. Did not care for the sand.

From Molecular Gastronomy

For the gazpacho that followed, the chef injected the tomato with liquid:

From Molecular Gastronomy

The gazpacho:

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

This was one of my least favourite dishes. It was a frozen tomato, injected with something served on more of that “sand”. My tastebuds were not happy with this dish.

From Molecular Gastronomy

Chef at work:

From Molecular Gastronomy

The next three dishes were my absolute favourite of the evening – these were the meat dishes. Hell yeah. Give the girl some meat. The whole meal had been carb free and I’m not sure that I was yet full. The next three meat morsels were divine. First up was a dish mysteriously called “Smoke”.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

Smoke had been captured under the glass klosh.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

When you lifted off the lid, I took an inhale – a very woody aroma. Underneath the klosh was chicken and gooseberries. This dish was awesome. But the next dishes got even better.

From Molecular Gastronomy

Next up was sholompo which technically means a dumpling but is soupy and juicy on the inside. It’s the squirty kind of dumplings. To our surprise, we were served up lamb. We were told to eat the thing in one go. The inside of the lamb with be all squirty. Simply delicious.

From Molecular Gastronomy

I could have had me a dozen of these.

From Molecular Gastronomy

The final dish of the degustation was the piece de resistance, simply titled “wagyu”. Mmmm drool.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

The potato mash puree was so light and fluffy. The wagyu had been roasted at 58 degrees for 6 hours. My only complaint was the tiny petite portion of wagyu. I could have had me a whole slab of this. And a yummy red wine jus. Pure culinary magic. And here is a magic trick of my own… Now you see it:

From Molecular Gastronomy

Now you don’t!

From Molecular Gastronomy

The great disappearing act. Except it lacks the prestige. “It’s not enough to make it disappear. You have to make it come back” – a line from the movie “The Prestige”. You must see that movie! Food bliss:

From Molecular Gastronomy

I absolutely love that every course is served on different plates and serving ware. That’s a whole lot of washing up! Now onto the desserts. And what’s molecular gastronomy without MORE liquid nitrogen!

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

The chef’s made a mint puff – which was like a mint marshmallow. This thing was freaky. You placed the puff on your tongue and chew fast. The liquid nitrogen can kind of freeze your tongue. Your tongue goes a bit of a numb tingling sensation, but as you eat it, all this “smoke” comes out of your nostrils. It’s pretty insane.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

Then the dessert wheel is brought out:

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

On the top shelf was cappucino-flavoured fairy floss.

From Molecular Gastronomy

On the next layer was the NY cheesecake and olive oil gummy.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

The cheesecake was good, but the olive oil gummy – what were they thinking. It was very olive oil. Even the thought of consuming a jelly lump of olive oil makes my blood curdle a bit. I had a tiny bite to taste, but pass. Sparkling chocolate which contained popping candy inside and then a berry meringue.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

Nice views from the 38th floor:

From Molecular Gastronomy

The next dessert dish was the pina colada ice-cream. Deliciously refreshing. Enjoyed this dessert.

From Molecular Gastronomy

The final dish of the evening was “Fruits”. We could see them prepare fruit such as oranges, lemons and lime. How were they going to jazz up some citrus fruit, we wondered.

From Molecular Gastronomy

They instructed us to eat one of the strawberry halves, one lemon wedge, one lime wedge and one lemon wedge. Obviously, these were really sour and not what you would call an enjoyable dessert. We then had to take a sip of water (which they also provided). We then had to put the red berry in mouth for about 1-2 minutes without breaking the seed inside and just keep it in our mouths. They even had a egg timer going. This red berry they told us was called a “miracle berry”. Once the time was up, we had to remove the see from our mouth. We then had to eat the remaining lemon, lime, and orange wedge. Amazingly, the citrus fruits tasted super sweet. The miracle berry makes whatever you eat afterwards sweet. This effect can last up to about 2 hours. It was amazing how the lemon and lime tasted so sweet! Wow. I was impressed.

From Molecular Gastronomy

If you consume red wine afterwards, it makes it taste like port. Everything tastes so sweet afterwards. What a sweet way to end the night! The other Japanese couple in our seating session, it was the guy’s birthday so they did a little cool birthday surprise trick for him at the end of the night. Won’t give you any spoilers, just in case, you decide to come here for your birthday, which would indeed be a treat. My first foray into molecular gastronomy was enjoyable. Definitely interesting and creative and pushes the boundaries of food and science with some unusual taste sensations and flavour combinations.

From Molecular Gastronomy
From Molecular Gastronomy

The Tapas Molecular Bar received one Michelin star for the last four years, but was not awarded a star this year. The menu changes with every season. We had the summer menu. But it would be really interesting to see the offerings for the other seasons. Seating is only limited to 8 people. Two seating sessions per evening. I recommend the later session. The earlier session has a very strict time limit to make way for the 8:30pm session. But with the later session, you can sit and linger at the bar for a bit at the end of the meal. I’m undecided whether it’s value for money though. It is incredibly pricey, but there is a lot of food and a lot of ingredients go into the preparation of the course. And the price does not include drinks, so drinks on top plus the service charge, make it overpriced. You’ll definitely need to save your yen for this one. Good to try the once, but based on price, will not be in a hurry to relive this kind of dining experience. Still, the food was pretty incredible and definitely has entertainment factor.

Tea at Laduree, Ginza

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I don’t feel so guilty for not going to the gym this morning, because I woke up to sea of snow. The ever-picturesque view from my apartment window:

From Laduree

So that gives me extra time to do a blog post of the first afternoon tea for the year in Tokyo.

From Laduree

After running around watching the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday, I ended up in Ginza where I met a handful of friends for afternoon tea. I had chosen the venue with it’s location in mind – prime real estate in Ginza with views of the Marathon to boot.

From Tokyo Marathon 2012

The building on the corner in the photo above is where we had afternoon tea – on the second level of the Mitsukoshi departo (in the corner of the shoe section) is Laduree French tea salon.

From Laduree
From Laduree

We got there early (before midday) to secure a seat. This place gets busy and reservations not accepted.

From Laduree

It’s a little heavy on the French decor.

From Laduree

The sole reason for doing this venue on this day was to watch the marathon whilst having tea. The L-shaped tea salon has large glass windows with full views over the Ginza intersection, allowing front-row seats to the Tokyo Marathon. Check it out!

From Laduree
From Laduree
From Laduree

So yep, safe to say, that Laduree Tea Salon is the best place to go and watch the Tokyo Marathon with a cup of tea and macaroons in hand.

From Laduree

We we’re in fact here for food and tea. Laduree is both a tea salon and french patisserie. They have lots of beautiful-looking sweets to tempt the tastebuds:

From Laduree

The dessert to the left (in photo below) looked oppai-ish.

From Laduree
From Laduree
From Laduree

I started off with the champagne and macaroon set.

From Laduree

The menu here is quite extensive. They offer a la carte light dishes, the 3-tier afternoon tea set, as well as various lunch sets. We actually all ended up doing the lunch set instead of the afternoon tea set. I went with the omelette lunch set which came with an omelettte, mini bread roll, choice of dessert and choice of tea. I probably wouldn’t recommend the sandwich sets as they looked tiny (half a sandwich only). It was a truffle omlette too.

From Laduree
From Laduree

Had a little bit of food envy because a couple of the others got the hot lunch special – choice of fish or beef. They went the beef which looked delicious.

From Laduree

We could choose one dessert (from a select 4). So a friend and I chose a different one each and shared them.

From Laduree

The desserts here are pretty divine. They really excel in the patisserie department. I got to try the giant raspberry and lychee macaroon sandwich filled with raspberries. The other dessert was insanely delicious – chocolate, hazelnut, crispy goodness. Tasted like nutella. Really clean, sharp flavours. The tea selection here was also impressive. 3 pages of teas to choose from. You can choose any tea with the lunch sets.

From Laduree
From Laduree
From Laduree

The highlight of the day were the macaroons. Laduree is famous for their macaroons. I’m generally not a fan of them. Love looking at them, but I don’t enjoy them so much. The macaroons here won me over. They are totally worth it. And you’ve not had a macaroon until you’ve tried Laduree macaroons. Hands down, they win the best macaroon award in Tokyo (to date). This is their specialty. I got to choose two flavours from the window selection.

From Laduree

I settled on the chocolate madagascar macaroon and the citron macaroon. Simply divine. Totally satisfied with my selection. The chocolate madagascar was yummy and the citron was amazing lemon creamy tartiness. Imagine a lemon meringue pie captured in a macaroon. And the texture of these macaroon were amazing.

From Laduree

Macaroon Tower:

From Laduree

Laduree Tea Salon: Level 2, Mitsukoshi department store, Ginza But there’s a bunch of them around Japan. Also one in Nihonbashi (Tokyo). Afternoon tea and lunch sets vary between 3200-3500yen. Champagne and macaroon set 1800yen A la carte also available.

My first half-marathon

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Have just crawled my way through a half marathon race. Show me the chocolate! Stat! And a new pair of legs while you’re at it. I eat. I swim. I walk. I travel. I drink. I work. I poop. I sleep. But ‘run’ is not a verb in my repertoire. So it may surprise you to know that I ran – actually ‘attended’ or ‘participated’ in would be a more accurate description – in my first half marathon. Might be my last as well. Don’t plan on doing that again any time soon.

Don’t know why they call these things “fun runs”. Traumatising, is what it was. Fun is a theme park. Fun is a holiday. A run is not fun. 21.097494 kilometres. 13.1094 miles. A half marathon. The first 21km were fine. It’s those last .097494 kilometres that got to me! Because I didn’t get lucky in the Tokyo Marathon lottery this year (which I think may be a blessing, in light of today’s efforts), I decided last year to do a half marathon in the same month instead.

I can officially say I have completed my first half marathon today – the Tokyo-Akabane half marathon. That’s 2 hours and 45 minutes of my life I will never get back. So yes, a PB! Should be pretty easy to beat, coz I doubt I could ever run this slow again. My form was neither fast nor pretty but I did make it across the finish line in one piece…barely. That wise guy Confucius said: “It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop”. Yeah, I bet Confucius never ran a half marathon in his damn life! Talk to the hand, brother. I mean, what kind of name is Confucius anyway.

It was a race which almost didn’t happen. I made it to the race in the nick of time. For some reason I thought it started at 11:30am, so I figured I should get there around 11am. Fark me. It started at 11:10am! I had to run from the train station to the start point. I arrived with barely five minutes to spare, and was at the back of the pack coz I had arrived so late. It was a brisk 8 degrees but at least the sun was out. No rain. No snow. But there was plenty of wind and chill factor. And then the torture began. First 10km was bearable. By no means enjoyable. It was a hairpin course along the Arakawa River which meant that we ran the 10.5 something k’s and then looped back around the exact way we came.

I had my runkeeper app going to keep track of my pace whilst listening to my half marathon music playlist. And then at the 17km mark my iPhone battery died. And with it my music and my spirits. At least I know that ‘I’ can last a half marathon. Sadly, the iPhone can not. I had anticipated that this would happen. I had done a 20km practice run two weeks prior, and the battery didn’t last then either. The last 4 kilometres therefore were music-less. A fate worse than death. 15km in, and things started to go downhill. Body system shutdown. My legs were starting to cave. There’s a fine line between a ridiculously slow jog and a fast walk. At what point does a walk become a jog and vice versa?

The second part of the course was also super windy as we were running right into it for the last 10km. Also had girly stomach cramps. And feeling cold. No fun at all. The run/walk turned into a crawl. Was feeling really drained and slightly nauseous. Kept thinking that I would need to puke like those people on Biggest Loser at the slightest physical exertion. Thankfully, that never happened. Just counting down the k’s to end this misery. For the last 5km’s, the only thing that consumed my thoughts was ‘sugar’. Wanted sugar. Needed sugar. Stat. I hadn’t eaten enough before the race because I was running so late. Two hard-boiled eggs for breakfast were the only things I had consumed pre-race and are what got me to the finish line. I had packed bananas and had planned on eating them prior to the race but with barely enough time to get to the start line to begin with there was no time for bananas before the starting gun. I desperately wanted some sports drink during the race course, but they were only offering water. “Sugar. Chocolate. Sports drink.” Anything. Needed energy.

I don’t recommend running a half marathon on very little training. Do not try this at home, kiddies. Should’ve trained more. Should have trained. Full stop. Made it to the finish line just within the 3-hour race limit. Official time was an officially embarrassing 2 hours, 45 minutes and 6 seconds. Safe to say, I ain’t a runner. I really should stick to swimming. By some sheer miracle I did not come last. That title went to some other poor soul (with poor soles).

Here is a breakdown of my pace/km splits up until the 17km mark when my iPhone battery died. Times are indicative only. The start time I pressed on my iPhone may differ from the official time on my run chip.

From Half marathon
From Half marathon

After the 10km mark, my times got slower…

From Half marathon

and slower…

From Half marathon

From the 18km to the finish line, I think I was doing 11-12min plus/km as I was half walking, half jogging, praying that my legs wouldn’t break off. I almost thought about getting on all fours, except damn pride stopped me. Crossed the finish mat and was ready to keel over. They finally offered us that sugary sports drink that I had been yearning for. They made us run 21km to earn it. Was really cold at the end of the race. Sat on the grass to rest my weary legs and wrapped myself up in my trackpants, jacket and scarf. Wolfed down two chocolate bars and a banana. A banana has never tasted so freaking delicious. That was a 3 Michelin star banana, to be sure. It was that amazing. All I needed now was a drip to intravenously inject sugar into my bloodstream. Race done and dusted.

Next hurdle…to walk/limp all the way back to the train station. The walk back was somewhat worthwhile. There’s a Mister Donut right next to Akabane station. Just the man I wanted to see. And there was a donut sale (100yen donuts). I bought two. I had earnt them! As if to add insult to injury, I had to stand up on the trains all the way back home. As if running a half marathon wasn’t tiring enough for my feet. Those train courtesy seats should not only be extended to pregnant women and handicapable peoples, but to those who have also run 21km.

Home, a bath and a cup of tea never felt so good. I am now going to have be surgically removed from my bed. I am exhausted. I feel like a broken woman. My knees are shattered. Some minor toe blisters as well. And to think that a full marathon is double that!!! The thought of doing that all over again is enough to make me run walk crawl for the hills. The first of my sporting goals for 2012 is done. Another three to go! For details of my training or lack thereof, you can check out the running blog I’ve been keeping for a while, over here.

And finally, now I ain’t no Confucius, but some sage words of wisdom would be: “One who is foolish enough to enter a half-marathon must be willing to punish themselves, and get their training on!”

A date with Joël: Le Chateau, Tokyo

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Had a date with Joël today. He’s a man that needs no introduction, but I’ll introduce you anyway. Full name: Joël Robuchon Age: 66 years old (what can I say, I like older men). Nationality: French (excellent lovers, so I’ve heard) Occupation: Chef He’s a man in demand. Had to book 3 months in advance to score a lunch date. Take a number, ladies. Ok, the above is not entirely true. It wasn’t really a date. But in my defence, dining at a 3 star Michelin restaurant is a bit like a blind date. The girl ums and ahs over what to wear, you wine, you dine and you want to be impressed and hopefully walk away at the end of the night without a bad aftertaste. (NB: I’ve never actually been on a blind date, but it’s how I’d like a blind date to be). First impressions were not too shabby. I will admit, he was a little bit out of my league though. The reality is, today I got to tick off something on my bucketlist – and that was to dine at a 3-star Michelin restaurant. A once in a lifetime dining experience (for the economically challenged like myself). For this one guy, back in 2004 – he spent an entire year traveling and dining at every 3 Michelin star restaurant around the world at that time! Deep pockets AND a big stomach. Really, I’m just jealous though. Japan is the culinary capital of the world and Japan has been awarded more Michelin stars than any other country (even France). I think there are 12 3-star Michelin restaurants in Japan. A group of us went to Joël Robuchon’s Le Chateau restaurant in Ebisu. Robuchon is a world-class chef. He has a total of 26 Michelin stars across a dozen restaurants around the world, more than any other single chef in the world. Quite the achievement. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this building in Ebisu’s Garden Place.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

And for the longest time, until recently, I had no idea that it housed Michelin star establishments (yes, that’s right, more than one). Inside this chateau, you’ll find the Robuchon bakery, Rouge Bar, a restaurant called La Table on level 1 (2 Michelin stars) and Le Chateau restaurant (3 Michelin stars) on level 2, and on the third level is the private dining room for the Le Chateau restaurant – all by Joel Robuchon. He also has other 1 and 2-star Michelin dining venues around Tokyo. My friend organized this dining event last year, securing a reservation 3 months in advance. We were impressed she got us a table there. Lunch is cheaper than dinner, so we indulged in a long lunch on a cold, wet January Saturday. (For dinner, you might want to get a loan approval.) Upon arrival, my coat and umbrella was taken and placed into the cloakroom. I was then escorted up the stairs to the second level and into Rouge Bar. I had arrived early and was seated in this waiting room. I think the bar is only serviced in the evening. I was left unsupervised in the room which provided a good photo op. Gradually the other girls in our party arrived and we hung out in the room posing and taking photos. Here are photos of Bar Rouge. My photos aren’t so great. There wasn’t a lot of light in the room:

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

The carpet: So that’s Rouge Bar, where the colour theme is obviously red. As it turned out, I had arrived half an hour early, hence the number of photos of the bar. Once everyone in our party had arrived, we were ushered to the ‘Gold room’ – the Le Chateau Restaurant. The 3-star Michelin restaurant. Wow! We had entered the pearly gates of culinary heaven. We had all half-thought that they may reject the likes of us (even though we had a reservation). We worried that they probably would have thought that we couldn’t afford to pay the bill at a place like this. This is a place for people with real money, as opposed to us girls with fake Monopoly money. We were seated in our chairs, beside which were little stools for our handbags. Table setting was amazing. And yes, I was totally going to be that person who took a photo of everything on their SLR camera and look like the tourist. (Bless, Japan. Don’t reckon I could get away with it in Paris).

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

We had a glass of champagne to begin with.

From Robuchon Le Chateau

And soaked in the ambience. So much gold and bling.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

It almost felt like we were in a gallery or museum. All the walls were protected in glass.

From Robuchon Le Chateau

There was even bling for the table.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

The dining ware was amazing. Check out the bread plate.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

We ordered the lunch course – menu Plasir (french for ‘Pleasure’), which offers dishes from the dinner menu so at least we got to sample some of the dinner dishes. It was an 8 course affair and then some. They actually offer a few set lunch courses here, of varying prices to suit your budget. I’m going to spare you a detailed pompous commentary/critique of the exquisiteness and delicacy of the food, barring a few side comments. I’ll leave that to the professional food critics. Suffice to say the food was really good. It was an amazing dining experience. And it is just that, an ‘experience’. The whole thing was amazing. And I was so elated to be there. Bliss. I’m just going to post up lots of photos instead and let your imagination do the tasting. The menu was in both Japanese and French, so I’ll also write a brief description in English. (I took home a copy of the menu. Don’t worry, it was totally kosher to take it home). We were served bread to start with.

From Robuchon Le Chateau

First up, was the amuse bouche – a pumpkin mousse of sorts.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

Dish name: L’Oursin (sea urchin). A delicate sea urchin gelee with cauliflower cream. I don’t like sea urchin. I don’t eat sea urchin. But here I was faced with sea urchin. I ate it all. (The kitchen will change certain ingredients if you don’t like certain foods or have allergies. They let us study the menu beforehand. I was happy to try the sea urchin and opted not to change the menu.) Still have to say that I don’t like sea urchin. It ain’t my favourite food. It was served in a glass shell. The tiny roses that you see on the plate were real roses!

From Robuchon Le Chateau

From Robuchon Le Chateau

Good food must be accompanied with good wine. The wine menu here came out on an iPad. Welcome to the future, ladies and gents. We ordered a bottle of red wine for the table. We were scared to ask the price, but ask we did and went for the cheapest bottle (at 6000yen). Even the cheapest red wine at a 3 Michelin star restaurant must still be pretty awesome and probably the most expensive wine I will still ever have. The bottle opening is quite the affair. A trolley is brought out, the bottle is opened and then poured into a large glass flask and then left to sit for a while. We were told that the wine needed to “breathe”. Geez, that must mean that every red wine I’ve drunk up until now has choked. It never had a chance to “breathe”. I’m not sure what the significance of the lit candle was. I thought the Sommelier(ess) was very knowledgeable and professional. At the end of the meal once we had polished off the bottle of wine, they then handed us an envelope with the wine label laminated and a profile label which you can fill in. I thought that was super cool. The girls let me keep it coz I love that kind of thing. Pretty special. The whole experience was fascinating. There was a bread trolley which they wheeled around, and you could select a variety of breads and baguette. They came around a few times during the course of the meal. I really enjoyed the black olive bread. I also tried the onion bread as well. After making your selection, they would go off and toast your bread so it was warm before serving. (The bread selection was all complimentary with the meal. You can have as much bread as you like, but it would be a shame to to fill up on bread coz there’s like another 6 courses to get through).

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

Dish: Le Foie Gras de Canard Foie gras (duck liver) in a parmesan risotto. This dish was delicious. The parmesan risotto was amazing. I think I liked it even more than the foie gras. Rice and cheese never tasted so good. To make rice and cheese taste like this could bring world peace. If only one could bottle it’s aroma.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

Looking deliriously happy: Dish: L’Amadai. Tile fish with baked scales poached in yuzu broth with a root vegetable. The cooking technique of the fish scales on this dish, is something special. The fish skin is crispy. It’s almost like the fish equivalent of pork crackling.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

DIsh: Le filet de boeuf Beef accompanied with peas, green beans, carrots, mushrooms, served with a carrot oil. I really loved the colours and flavours of this dish. The mushrooms were pretty divine. And I do love a good red meat.

From Robuchon Le Chateau

And how cool is the plate!

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

Seriously, let’s just hang this on the wall and call it art. What a masterpiece!

From Robuchon Le Chateau

Now for dessert. I wasn’t expecting so many dessert dishes, of which there were four! Dish: Le Guava. Lychee gelee with vanilla cream, with guava granite, and rose foam.

From Robuchon Le Chateau

Bird’s eye view:

From Robuchon Le Chateau

Here’s a group photo of us enjoying our meal:

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

Dish: La Mangue Mango coulee praline parfait with toffee and pepper. Also delicious. Mango, toffee and hazelnut. Best combo ever. And great textures too. Soft and crunchy. Everything on the plate was edible including the halo-looking bit.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

Splurged on a glass of port as well. Tea/Coffee, served with sweets. The waiters even synchronized the tea pouring (which I might add, should totally be an Olympic sport – the synchronized tea pouring that is) (3 of us had tea). Lots of little details like that throughout the meal made the experience awesome, like the little nifty crumb sweeper thing that they used towards the end of our meal. Dish: green tea (matcha) gelee with creme brulee.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

The coffee cup and saucer were really cool.

From Robuchon Le Chateau

Last up was a chocolate and macaron.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

A pretty special experience. Here are some additional pics of the restaurant.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

The food was very filling and we were totally satisfied. We lingered around until everyone in the restaurant had left. We had been there over four hours just soaking in and savouring the experience. We were the last party to leave. The waiters were really accommodating and let us (me) take as many photos of the restaurant as I liked considering there was no one there.

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

We were also led out by one of the chefs! My brush with a culinary celebrity. We had actually discussed during the meal whether we would be allowed to meet the chef(s). As it so happened, I got to talk with and have a photo with one of the chefs – Mr T. Watanabe. He was the chef responsible for the fish dish. He was super nice and friendly and more than happy to have photos with us.

From Robuchon Le Chateau

And then the battery on my DSLR went dead. It had luckily survived the meal. I had taken over 250 photos! So the next few photos are on my regular digital point and shoot camera (hence poorer quality).

From Robuchon Le Chateau

Upon leaving, we were also given a souvenir goodie bag (that all diners receive), which had a loaf of special bread of some sort from the Rabuchon bakery. Ah, the irony. Exchange one kind of dough for another. And then some more photos:

From Robuchon Le Chateau

3 stars, count ’em:

From Robuchon Le Chateau
From Robuchon Le Chateau

It was 5pm by now. A day well spent.

From Robuchon Le Chateau

The Chateau by night:

From Robuchon Le Chateau

I thought the service was good. Very polite and professional. The staff were multilingual (Japanese, English, French – and possibly other languages) and spoke English for our group. They weren’t at all haughty or arrogant. And they were so accommodating with regard to photography. Everyone in the restaurant was taking photos of everything that was put in front of them and the staff happily took photos for people and were happy for people to snap away. As for the price, well let’s just say I dropped some yen, but it was worth it for a bucketlist experience. And that’s the point of a bucketlist. If you had a month to live, what would you want to do? If I had a month to live – climbing the corporate ladder, getting married, buying a house, buying the latest gadget etc would not be on that list. Instead, I’d be traveling, eating, traveling, eating and then repeat. All with good company, of course. I’d want to see and eat as much as I possibly could. So, yes, money would be no objection. A Murakami quote from one of his books comes to mind: “A real gentleman never discusses women he’s broken up with or how much tax he’s paid”. In my case, “A real lady never discusses men she’s been broken up with or how much she’s paid for a meal.” Sadly, my blind date with Joel will be just a one-night stand. Following the above maxim, I mustn’t discuss this either. However, I will treasure the receipt. (They of course, will split the bill accordingly to what each guest consumed. This is one place where you don’t want your guests doing a runner on you and leave you footing the entire bill! FYI, there are no banks nearby to rob.) Le Chateau Website. I also recommend that you try and get your hands on and watch a neat documentary called: “Michelin Stars: The madness of perfection”. It’s a fascinating and interesting doco providing an insight into the history and secrecy of the Michelin headquarters and it’s anonymous judges with a “licence to eat”. The pursuit of perfection and the chase for a Michelin star even drove one chef to suicide. I came across this documentary on a long-haul flight (in-flight documentary) a year or two ago. It was aired on Australian tv last year. I think it’s a BBC production. Get your hands on it and watch it if you can. Super interesting.