May 21 A Little Trip to Tokyo

So it wasn’t exactly the dream vacation to one of my favorite cities in the world but instead, I went to a hidden gem located along Makati’s commercial district. Little Tokyo, as it’s called, is a tiny compound of authentic Japanese restaurants/bars and groceries. It was my second time visiting and I’m really glad to be back. The first time around, my friend and I had huge bento boxes for lunch at the price of Php250/US$5 which is about fifty pesos cheaper compared to the bento boxes from a popular Japanese restaurant. Truly a great deal and you won’t get disappointed with the taste.

Pathway to Little Tokyo Little Tokyo at 3 in the afternoon

All dining establishments inside Little Tokyo are only open during lunch and dinner hours and by the time we got there yesterday, it was already late in the afternoon. However, on the exterior of the area is a restaurant/grocery called Yamazaki, which is open throughout the day. My friend usually eats there with her family and she recommendeded me to try their ramen. Turned out to be a great choice! For a price of Php175/US$3, I got this bowl of miso ramen that’s enough for 2-3 people. Aside from that, the restaurant also has a collection of manga anthologies, some of which even has pornographic contents. o__o It’s a shame I didn’t get to see one of those on the pages that I browsed on.

Big-ass ramen bowl for P175

The purpose of my trip though was to buy umeboshi which I’m gonna be using to make rice balls for S’s birthday at the end of May. It is reminiscent of the Filipino’s kiamoy, a preserved fruit candy that’s sweet, sour, and salty all at once. I have to admit, it isn’t one of my favorite things to chew on but I do like the tanginess of it.

And the next time I visit Little Tokyo, I gonna try the takoyaki (octopus dumplings) and also okonomiyaki (a sort of savory pancake). Heck, I may as well eat in each and every one of those restaurants. So watch out, Little Tokyo! This hungry Japanophile will be back.

A fish flake-flavored umeboshi together with a plain one

May 18 Revival

Y halo thar!

It has been almost two years since I last updated this site and after a random bout of insanity coupled with overcaffeinating myself, I’ve decided to bring it back from the forgotten depths it has sinked into. Everything from my Wordpress installation has been deleted and then I switched over Chyrp. Apparently, this wasn’t such a great move as I hoped to be since the day after putting Chyrp in order, I’ve found out that the creator stopped development of the CMS.

What wrong timing.

Nevertheless, I’m going to put up with it for a little while longer. I’ve gotten used with its lightweight interface and right now, I’m really not in the mood to be searching for another blogging software.

Anyway, the truth is I’m a terrible, terrible blogger. Much as I love to write, especially when it’s about trying to make my life far more entertaining that it actually is, I often get distracted by other pretty things (like the lastest Glee episode or the fact that the French Open starts in a week). I hope it’s not the case this time around and just in case it is, I’m gonna enjoy this blogging groove while it lasts. :)