Monday, December 29, 2008

"Old Zayne" vs New Zayne


Finally manage to dig out the only 2 baby photos of me that i brought along to japan...

so .... is my son a carbon copy of me??


Thursday, December 25, 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Mummy has a runny nose...Uh-oh!

(Sorry, no pictures for today)
We were on our way to Kyoto station to take the bus to the Golden Pavillion, when mummy says she is feeling very cold and feels the chill into the bone ... UH-Oh... and she is sniffing non-stop

Mummy (who still thinks she is 18yrs and strong) is having runny nose and a little feverish...
we decided to buy our return train ticket on christmas day instead, since we are at Kyoto station and then headed back to the Hotel. Better let mummy take precautionary medication and sleep.

So while Mummy sleeps, I am tasked with entertaining Zayne..... and lucky me, Zayne followed suit and fell asleep too ... Phew!..

When mummy finally woke up, it was dinner time, we decided to have dinner in the hotel so that mummy don't have to go out into the cold :) we Both had the Japanese sirloin Beef and I had a glass of Toscano 2005 red... the Beef (not steak) was just awesome!... brown and even nicely burnt yet soft, succulent. The beef was medium rare, but yet no hint of any "blood" taste..

It might just sound funny, but this beef was really a delicately prepared with a very delicate balance in taste.... it was accompanied with a few sprigs of spinanch and mushroom with japanese sweet soya sauce.. again, the taste was AWESOME!!!...

The wine however spoiled the taste...(my own opinion) ... The wine was good, but it was too "strong" in taste. Instead of enhancing the palate, it obliterated the taste of the beef....
Both were good on its own, but not together.. :) About 14,000 ++ (Sgd$230) for this dinner, which is definitely worth the money! oh... there was ceasar salad and calamari too ..

Mummy really like the dinner too.. and the ambience of the restuarant was nice. We had a window seat that overlooked the garden scenery of bamboo and mapple tree...
Our second Christmas together (yes, we are only together for that long :P), and this year with our most wonderful present, Zayne....

Monday, December 22, 2008

Day 2 - Kiyomizu tera (清水寺)

Mummy was tired out from the accumulated sleepless or late nights,... daddy (me) was just glad to finally take a good break.. and Zayne, well is just a baby... so all 3 of us slept in late.. till about 12 noon.. before we got up and get ready to go sight seeing


Zayne as usual is all smiles and cheerful whenever he is dressed up...
He is wearing the Polo Ralph pull-over from Auntie "Ah Huay", mummy's friend in tokyo.

Thank you Auntie "Huay".. Zayne "Ham"some and charming or not?


Kiyomizu was very close by, so we decided to take a nice winter stroll.. ha ha... too bad no snow, if not can romance romance mummy a bit :P



Kiyomizu tera, one of the main attractions in Kyoto (a must in Spring during the sakura blossoms) was very to our hotel, so we decided to see this first... It was a pretty cold day today highest was 11 celsius and lowest was ... errr well cold.. :P



Mummy posing at one of the numerous flight of stairs and slopes in kyoto...



Family outing picture....
see mummy and my eyebags ?? still recovering....





It was really cold and muumy says we absolutely need to take a break so she can feed Zayne boy, so we ducked into this nice cozy little outdoor noodle house, along the temple walking trail..


But of coz before feeding zayne, mummy says must take picture first (as usual)..
mummy says this noodle house very cool... of coz "cool"... its open air leh!!!
should be Cold man!!!



So while Zayne gets his energy boosting power milk from Mummy, I order a hot bowl of soba for mummy and myself and a tub of Tofu. Kyoto is famous for silky tofu, (hope I am not wrong).. Mummy says even softer than the best Dao-huay in S'pore :O




Mummy pretty or not?? me and my random "eye" for a nice picture :P
After this we headed down to downtown Kyoto to SHop shop shop!!



And guess where we went for dinner?? the same yummy restaurant last night. This time we were seated outside, so no nice to take picture of the dishes :P

This night we had flamed "triangle" beef (牛三角炙り), deep fry puffer fish (ふぐ唐),
seafood salad, breaded deep-fry Oysters (カキフライ), vinegar octopus (たこ酢), seared Chicken breast (mostly raw inside)(鳥わさ), octopus with wasabi たこわさ

All were superb!! here's the restaurant website, its in japanese only
http://www.manzou.co.jp

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Hyatt Regency Kyoto...



From Kyoto Station, a short Cab ride to Hyatt Regency Kyoto, with good traffic conditions the meter doesn't even jump! It was a pleasant surprise to me that flag down fare for kyoto cab remained at 640yen.



All 3 of us couldn't wait to jump into the comfortable king bed!!
AAHHHH................



Zayne boy is just beaming as he is finally out of his baby stroller and/or baby carrier!!!


After settling in, our stomach started to protest as it was 4.30pm already, since our hasty Bento at Tokyo station... so we walked along the roads and found a Japanese restaurant that wasn't close for the afternoon break.. lucky us!

Zayne hugging mummy's face lovingly for a heart-warming photo.. Awwwww.... So Tweet! He knows there will be Yummy milk later



<--Daikon Salad - Absolutelly refreshing and delicious!!

Kamo Rosu (Duck breast meat) -->






<--Buta Kakuni (Soy sauce Braised Pork) To DIE FOR!!

Hamaguri sakamushi (Sake steamed Clams) -->







<-- Hire Age (Deep fried Sole fish Bones)

OMG...(that was wifey's comment!)

There was braised Ox tendon (牛腩) which we couldn't wait to devour and forgot to take a picture of it :p Wifey said it was good enough to give her a big "O" ...:p

Shinkansen to Kyoto!



21 Dec morning, papa n zayne all dress up to head out to tokyo station to take the shinkansen to Kyoto!... of coz mummy is going too ...




Papa "kiasu" arrive a little too early... 1hr earlier to be exact... so we all have to wait.. and Zayne boy was too tired coz he has to have his "before noon nap"..
Can see the shinkansen behind us?? ... see all the Barang barang Mummy and Daddy has to carry... sheesh..



Better have an Eki-bento while Zayne boy is too sleeping.. if not mummy might not have time or peace to eat onboard the bullet-train


Awake and refreshed!

Zayne boy giving me a "condescending "smile" when I ask him to smile for the camera..
this boy,.. so cheeky yet so cute... buay tahan him ( Cannot take it!!)

He does look like a little pilot doesn't he??



Train is Finally here... Mummy and Zayne boy happy and excited onboard!.. its both mum and zayne's first Shinkansen ride!!


Zayne boy refuse to drink milk on the train... so mummy has to put on his stylo-mylo addidas bib to feed him rice cracker.... oh.. did you know that Zayne boy is teething??





What can Zayne do after eating?
Sleep of coz!!... there he goes, dozing off again while the bullet train sped towards kyoto..