Mid-Autumn Festival at Chinatown 2014

I really enjoy every trip to Chinatown in every Chinese festivals like
CNY and mid-autumn.

This year mid-autumn in Chinatown displayed colourful Orchids along the
streets. Many lantern, autumn flowers and light are also used,
especially in the temple where the Holy tooth relic of the Buddha was
kept and displayed. When you are feeling down in luck, Buddha Tooth
relic temple is a place where you need to go. By merely viewing at the
Buddha Tooth took your countless bad karmas away. There is a hugh Dharma
wheel on the roof top, go circumbulate and turn your bad luck away, it
works. There is no restriction of religions to enter this temple,
whether karma is know as sin, as in love is known as 爱 in Chinese, they
are merely form of languages which are read differently. Ultimately,
same meaning. So, Buddhists or not, enter the temple with Respect mind
and go for your change in luck.

Fork of streets are the places I like exploring while in Chinatown.
pomelo, piglet in colourful baskets, colourful lanterns, traditional
Chinese arts, oh full of vibrants.

Do you like Chinese culture?

Collection of Food baking in Sep 2014

September is a month full of festivals and events.

This is the first year I tried my hands on baking and making mooncakes.

I first ventured into making snowskin mooncakes. It's easier than you
think. So, never venture never gain. Then I try my hands onto
traditional mooncakes which require baking. I also try making "piglet"
biscult, using the skin of traditional mooncake. Realised that I cannot
put too much sugar in it else the whole piece become too sweet and will
be difficult to digest as a piece of "biscult".

Making mooncakes make me want to get more beautiful mooncake-molds. The
only place i can think of is a shop in Hong Kong selling a wide range of
baking ware. It's a few house away from Silka Seaview Hotel.

Next came Teachers' day. This is also the first year I bake for the
event so that the kids can bring them as gifts for teachers.

I remember that last year I did not prepare anything. Being very "down
to earth", my boy never care to write a card or anything for the
teachers. I never bother if he doesn;t mention anything. So that's it,
give nothing, no appreciation and no non-appreciation. He will not learn
to give and appreciate. When I decided to bake this year, he mentioned
that most students will teachers something. Ah-hah, so he mentioned,
that means he senses embrassment not giving anything last year.

This year bake for the teachers was Osmanthus cookie. It is easy to make
and I get the girl to help since she is in the afternoon session. She is
in P1 this year , I want her to understand the joy of giving and also
think of appreciating the kindness of a teachers. Kindness needs to be
repaid.

Down the road, we came to learn about making 旺仔小馒头. To get the boy
out from playing on the PC all day, I have to distract him with
something else. Probably asking him to make 旺仔小馒头 will let him
focus abit as he will need to concentrate on rolling the small dough.
The outcome of the product is hard like cruching on nuts, but the
process is worth since he has to concentrate on not making the balls too
big or too small. Most importantly, he gets the feel of being
"appreciated" for his hard work and I can get him off the PC for 1 hour.

I have more dishes to share too. C-ya later.

Pasta and spaghetti day

Pasta day on 26 Sep 2014.

Used up the whole bottle of Prego pasta sauce today, crazy right...

I made pasta for lunch and spaghetti for dinner for the whole family. We love them topped with ham and cheese. KL can finish the whole dish by himself. He has since grown and no longer lean. We think this is a good sign.

Metta cannot finish so much because she does not like tomato. However she likes the toasted garlic spread bread. She can eat up to 2 slices.

Do you like pasta and spaghetti?

Tokyo Trip Day 5 - Day trip to Hakone

Mt Fuji seen from Owakudani, Hakone

((Apologies for the pics mixing up, conso from various camera and phones, so...))

While most people prefer to do a 2 days course in Hakone, we had opted for a day trip even though our tickets (Hakone Freepass, which was NOT free) allowed for 2 days usage.

We ride the Odakyu Romance Car in the morning as the view would be better. The train would start from Shinjuku station. At Shinjuku station, we bought some　パン　（"pan"） (bread or bun in Japanese) instead of bento (which we regretted for not buying). We were running as we could not miss the Romance Car timing!!! (We paid the top up fee for Romance Car so the timing of the trip was shorten due to lesser stop).

Along the way, we started to nom our パン. Looking out of the window on the right hand side, we saw residential houses, fields and mountains. Not long before reaching, Mount Fuji peeped on and off along the way. That was awesome. What a magnificent view, because we did not see it elsewhere for the past few days since we touched down in Tokyo. (Except that I did see birds' eye view of it when I was on the airplane!)

We do the round course in Hakone, starting from Hakone-Yumoto station, just in front on the next track, Tozan train was there, waiting for alighting passengers. We went across and took the Tozan train uphill. When Tozan train crossed a bridge, the view was superb! Just like those seen on Japan Hour. The driver was "kept busy", as he would need to keep on "switching his position" front and back in order to "switch" (drive) the train upward (uphill). It was a rare sight, I guessed we appreciated what he was doing all these while, to keep Hakone Tozan train marked as special, lolz...

From Hakone-Yumoto station, we skipped the Open Air museum and went straight up to Gora. The Open Air museum was a nice one according to our brochure but seeing the 2 tiring pair of feet, we gave it a miss. At Gora, we walked out of the station to explore. There was a little street
line with flowers and a ryokan. As the time was still early, the noodle shop which we were expecting was not ready for business yet. We ended up in the ryokan, walking around and exploring the shops  inside. After some warmth, we came out again on the street and the 2 little ones started to snap pictures of the flowers. We then continue our journey to Sounzan station.

At Sounzan, we decided to walk outside awhile for fresh chill air before proceeding via ropeway to  Owakudani station. Most people rushed immediately for the Ropeway though (why?), but we were not in a hurry. You would still need to stand at the queue even if you were to rush, I would rather take 5 while the crowds were slowly sent off in cable cars (ropeway).

While on the ropeway to Owakudani station, get your camera ready as Mount Fuji would appear again! You too could see smoke/steam coming up from below you from the valley. These were the steam (sulphur) where the black Owakudani tamago (eggs) were done. We had our lunch at  Owakudani and then we strolled into Owakudani trail. Along the way, you could see Mt Fuji. Another station to see Mt Fuji would be at the area at the end of the trail. Smoke and smell of sulphur was everywhere, so we did a quick trail and back, but it was really fun and worth the trip!

After the trail, we continued with ropeway to Togendai. At this station we waited at the pier for the ferry. This time we would see the "water"part, ie lake. When descending, we could see Mount Fuji again! The sun was very bright at that time (about 2.45pm).

The lake was beautiful and there was strong breeze. We did not stop anywhere else along the water-way with 3 complaining fellows . We actually could visit the shrine by dropping at Moto-Hakone-ko pier. It was also getting late after the 1 hour water way. We finally dropped at Hakone-machi-ko pier, which was the last station. At this time, we were walking around frantically because we did not know how to get back to Hakone-Yumoto station since I did not plan for dropping at the last station. Anyway we finally managed to board a Tozan bus which was full of standing passengers. The journey took about 35mins, most of us were nodding our heads while standing...

By the time we reached Hakone-Yumoto station, it was almost 50% dark. A quick snap around the beautiful river and surroundings, we quickly reserved seats for our tickets back to Shinjuku. Luckily we still have sufficient time, so we bought 2 Hakone bentos to feed hungry tummies while on the train. Those was last few left, otherwise we need to get something cold and raw again.

Well, I guess no onsen while in Hakone was a regret. However it was still worth the trip with the little ones.

Thanks for following us around Hakone!