fuchsia fragments

In the whirlwind that is December, it has been a crazy month of working, trying to bake and organizing a very short trip home for the holidays.

It started with what to get everyone in the office for Christmas (next year, I will be more prepared and get things when I am back in Australia!). I managed to make a few gingerbread houses and some gingerbread trees for everyone as well as safe bets of nuts and hand cream! Think it went down well...

Then there was the last minute decision to fly home for 6 days whilst supporting SEA at the same time! So short, so tiring but so worth it. There is truly no place like home with crazy family gatherings that seem to grow in size every time.

And every time that I come home, there is usually a flurry of the same announcements. When I was home from Japan, it was wedding invitations and this time, it was the "I'm having a baby" announcements. So far, know of 4 babies due in July and 1 coming in April... how exciting!

Then, as it is still a PH in Sydney today (not that I get Australian PH anymore), I came back to work to a whole bunch of gifts and warm wishes on my desk. Certainly makes coming back to work a lot easier! And got some pretty cool stuff (and lots of food).

I've been in Singapore for just shy of 4 weeks now and it's been a relatively easy transition so far. My colleagues (and friends) have been pretty supportive from offering to help me move in, go shopping with me, go out for lunch and set up bank accounts etc.

Setting up a bank account here without a new place is a bit of a nightmare and a catch-22. I need a bank account to be able to put down a security deposit and bond but I can't set up a bank account without an address! And to top it off, had issues with my name since all my Australian bank accounts had first name + last name but passport and EP had first name + middle name + last name.

Work hiccups included not being able to download my emails (which turned out to be stored locally on my old laptop). Luckily I was able to get my laptop written off in oz and have it sent here or I might have cried... that's over 3 years worth of emails! Plus my laptop was so much better than the one they gave me here... haha.

I found a place within the first 3 weeks of arriving which was awesome. In the area I was looking in, within my budget and reasonably sized. I was so excited to go to IKEA on Friday evening to get things for my new place!!! Another thing I'm grateful for: my jetsetting parents for spending a few days here and doing all the heavy lifting and transporting all my stuff (and I managed to bring a LOT) to the new apartment while I went to work. Seriously would have taken me all weekend without them.

Bought some appliances today and most things are cheaper here but the sales people really try to push you towards one direction to the point it gets annoying!

Sadly, did fall ill one of the days in Langkawi. After a 4 hour solid bike tour (and I mean a solid ride) that involved a few hiccups - bloodied hands, dodgy coconut water, flat tyre - I think I came down with a bit of food poisoning. In a stroke of good (or bad) luck, we misread the kayak tour time and missed our pick up. And it was all for the better for me because I was stuck in the hotel room most of the day. Managed to go for a very nice hot stone massage but the rest of the day was pretty blurry... stumbling to the toilet and passing out in bed. But the time that I spent to recover really helped to get me back on track as I was pretty normal the next day. Charcoal tablets and hydralyte helped. Another awesome thing about this bunch: Alex is a nurse and everyone was carrying all sorts of drugs to make sure we weren't down for too long.

Another weekend, another wedding. Good thing I've tried to lay low the weekend before otherwise it is just exhausting (and was still exhausted by the end). Think it was the right decision to drive up the day before and spend the night at a rental (it had a real fireplace, so exciting...) and a nice little dinner with Joyce and John at the Leura Garage.

The day itself was a bit chilly but it was a beautiful day regardless. We got to sit in the gallery at the church since Jen and Joyce were playing some music and it made us feel so special / important. Haha. The reception was so pretty too with native flowers, candles, photo booth handmade napkins. I kept mine. It was all very Anna.

It was a small contingent of ex St Georgians in comparison to Cat's Kitchen tea. I'm pretty sure the Kitchen tea was the first time I've been in a room with so many girls from HS again. A little bit... strange - it's like do I say hi? Because I didn't really talk to them in HS. Oh well, that didn't say hi to me so no point in wasting time with them... not like I'll see them again after the wedding...

Very glad that we got to squeeze in a short bushwalk despite the muddy weather and that I had flats (not even walking shoes) down to Fletcher's Lookout. Nice little views of the valley and Wentworth Falls. Makes me wish I could spend more time out there.

Finally, the big weekend was here! The prep the night before wasn't the best: CFO bar and drinks, darts and a late supper with colleagues. Luckily, I live close by! Still managed to get up at 6 to be at the meeting point in Shinjuku by 7:15 am. Had maccas for breakfast - something I didn't want at the time but was so glad I ate something by the time the bus started going up the mountain.

It takes a couple of hours to get to the 5th station where the bus dropped us off and we had lunch, changed into our gear and prepared for the climb. We had two awesome guides - both with good enough English - who took us all the way up.

It is not an easy climb nor was it hand. It was challenging and very steep in some sections with lots of rock climbing but very management for people with average fitness levels. The key is to ascend slowly so that your body acclimatises and we did take it pretty slow. Even though it was the first weekend that the trails were open, there were a lot of people climbing already...!

5th station to 6th station: easy, relatively flat walk, took around 40 minutes. From 6th station, things started to get challenging, the wind got stronger and I started to eat dust! Our pace was slow and steady and I am so glad that I did not get any altitude sickness. Had to put a few layers on as we got higher and by around 6:30 PM we reached 3,400 metres and the original 8th station where we were staying for the evening!

The living conditions are basic with a sleeping bag and a bunch of people in the same room. Lucky for me, they were a clusterfuck and I managed to be assigned a corner/side spot. Otherwise... I would not have gotten any rest. The winds were howling through the night which wasn't a good sign and when it was 2 AM (our supposed wake up time), we were briefed that the winds were too dangerous to try and summit.

We were finally allowed (only the confident ones, about half the group) to try and summit around 4 AM. We saw the sunrise but it was absolutely poor at the summit. Wind, rain and almost no visibility. The climb up was difficult with the wind. As we were going up, saw my boss on the way down. We wanted to stop for a photo but it was just way too dangerous. :(

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo HAPPY and PROUD I made it to the top though. The sense of accomplishment feels so good! But I was just as happy to quickly descend and get back to more normal altitudes! The trail down... shredding gravel the whole way for 4-5 km. Takes 3 hours to descend, slipped a couple of times (I think most people did). Going down is really boring actually and would make one rethink if they want to do Fuji again. My first major mountain conquered... it's all about mindfulness!

It was not a walk in the park like Mount Takao. Mount Mitake is around 2 hours from Tokyo first by JR train to Mitake Station, then a bus to the ropeway station followed by the ropeway which takes you up 431 metres in 6 minutes at an incline of 22 degrees: the steepest in the Kanto region and wicked cool!

The hike doesn't really start until you get to the top of the ropeway station and another 15-20 minute walk to the village and shrine itself. The shrine is a few flights of stairs up again and a great "warm up" to the hike. Some nice little shops, probably locally run with souvenirs, drinks and soba. We decided to skip this until we returned in the late afternoon.

We had already decided that we walk to do the hike from Mount Mitake to Mounta Odake. It is hard work and it didn't help that we took a wrong turn and had to back track around 1 km (on an incline and in the bush, this is an additional 20-30 min walk!). We passed the rock garden and had a little break here before going the additional way (another 90 minutes) to the top. Hard, hard work constantly walking at an incline and very steep and slippery in some section. There is a tori gate before the final summit and it gets even HARDER! More rocks - literally there are sections where you are holding on to the built in chains and hauling your ass up (and we had to get back down...). And finally, after another 30 minutes from this gate, we made it to 1,266 metre up... the summit of Mt Odake! There was sunshine and lots of other people (surprisingly) and so we only took a small break again before descending. The descent was very hard on the calves and thighs but it only took us 90 minutes to descend all the way back to the shrine - i was surprised.

So had a quick check of the timetables (so easy with google) and we had time to have a really late lunch (soba again!). Just missed the ropeway so we had another 30 minute wait which was fine, it was a nice area to wander and browse more of the small shops around. Glad I brought a spare tshirt too as it helped me feel slightly refreshed. On the train, it was packed with others who had finished their hikes. The Japanese sure are well prepared with almost everyone decked on in expensive poles, boots, backpacks and weatherproof layers... crazy. Never would you see such a scene in Australia.

Another great day - glad we did it on Sunday as if it wasn't for work, I would have written off the next day! My first 30,000+ step hike!

Then we stopped for lunch at a soba shop that came with tofu skin (yuba 湯葉) which is made locally. I also learnt that sashimi does not only refer to raw fish. Rather, it is any type of dish served in its 'raw' form so it can be yuba sashimi or konnyaku sashimi. There's realisation that the Japanese food Western countries know and love is totally unoriginal... they don't have sushi rolls here! It's mostly nigiri or maki.

So Mr and Mrs JC arrived and so we spent the weekend food hunting: Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza, Asakusa and Akihabara.

Some interesting places, some pretty ordinary and unfortunately drummed up by food bloggers and reviewers who probably didn't know much better. There is a lot of great food in Tokyo and sometimes, it is the local nooks and basement bars that serve the best dishes. I know one thing for sure: I would never queue up on my own at a lot of these places! And just couldn't justify the 45+ minute wait.

Although there were a couple of standouts. The freshwater eel at Nodaiwa in Ginza was worth going to even if it was just to catch a glimpse of Head chef Jiro at his famous sushi bar opposite! The prices are expensive but it can be a bit of a treat if you absolutely love eel.

Pancakes at Rainbow Pancake in Shibuya really reminded me of Saturday brunch in Sydney. The streets, the lines, the pancakes.. fluffy but not super fluffy with burnt butterscotch sauce and baked apples. It was tasty! However, they need to do something about their drink menu...

A bit of a letdown was Butagumi which is nestled in one of the residential areas not too far from Roppongi. Expensive (and fatty) tonkatsu with average service, sauce and sides. I've honestly had better in other chains and at the restaurants on top of the department stores. Sad face.

I'm constantly surprised at the amount of food visitors can eat in Tokyo. For me, I just want some rest and some green veg and juice! Time is now ticking and a) I need a new job, b) I need to do more shopping.

We had a Design Thinking workshop yesterday followed by Japanese-Spanish fusion at a local restaurant which was very pretty. The food was good too but not Spanish (pretty sure my Spanish friend would be mortified. The drinks were good if you can overlook that the Sangria was lemonade, red wine and cinnamon. But their version of the whiskey highball was good as it had the added taste of gin. I really am liking gin at the moment.

Dinner was great but we went for "one more drink" (i.e., sit at a bar until the last train) around the corner. And as we weren't prepared and weren't planning to stick around the area since we always go to Roppongi, we kind of had to find any place that well, had a table available. Who would have thought that this would be difficult at 10 PM on a Tuesday evening? Anyway, we managed to stumble into a place after our third try (actually, there was a guy standing around who told us to go to his awesome place... talk about managing to get customers - he was good!).

At this stage, it really was supposed to be ONE MORE DRINK. But then about 20 minutes later, this group of around 10 office ladies and guys sat down at the next table and they were noisy. And the funniest thing ever, one of the girls sat down and it was kind of next to my boss (but on the next table) and preceded to tell him how handsome he was. HAHAHAHAHA.

So we bought them a round of drinks and some of them decided to show their gratitude by showing everyone how awesome their drinking skills were (they were probably my age or a little bit older). You really had to be there - it was so much fun and have not laughed so much in months. Literally like drinking with the locals and it was great! Could not believe how loud they can get especially because it is always so so quiet in the office!

Take 2 days annual leave and get 10 days in a row off? Um... no brainer, I am so in!

And so begins the (almost) 60+ tour with my mum, dad and aunty. And it was fun - at times frustrating as we missed a lot of trains and buses by seconds and the trip was always opinionated but still great to have visitors. It didn't mean I was a jolly tour guide the whole time but I managed and I think the trip and itinerary was great! Lots of walking...

First stop: Kanazawa! It's kid of a semi-sleepy city. Not much to see if you don't like fresh food and seafood markets. There's a castle and a garden. Mid-range department stores. The highlight was taking a day trip by bus to Shirakawago... amazing farmhouses in the valley of two mountains. Cold weather as expected but so well preserved and got to try famous Hida milk and beef. Yum!

Then it was down to Osaka, our base for the next 5 days. Some new, some visited before. The shopping street was absolutely packed out and then some so it was just a short walk through. Tried these amazing Portugese tarts from Andy's Dontonburi. Got some local takoyaki and subway hopped a few places like the castle, Namba and Shin-Osaka. Day trips to Kyoto (so tourist these days), Himeji and Kobe. Hotel was a huge let down... never again!

Then was Hakone and Kawaguchiko. Awesome luck that we saw Mt Fuji and the cable car was operating. Totes bad luck it rained the evening we got to Kawaguchiko and had to walk to the hotel. Gotemba outlets were so-so (expensive) but the views there were amazing. The pink moss festival can be missed. The onsen hotel in Gora was a-m-a-z-i-n-g but expensive.

And by the time we got back to Tokyo, I was glad I had an extra day to rest cause it was tiring!