all about the trip - part 1

after days and days of excuses, still, i haven't finished sorting and marking the pictures, but for the 3-day tour (NY-Niagara-DC), finally i have now watermarked them.

how many days were we in the US? technically we've stayed for 10 days but the first day and last day were mainly spent in the air and in the airport so that leaves 8 days for recreation.

day 1 (april 10) - from chinatown in new york, our bus headed to thousand islands. it's an archipelago that can be found between canada (ontario) and US (new york). it was a very refreshing scenery - all nature and vacation houses of rich people. the weather was very cold.
we rode a ferry that navigated around the islands and our ferry even entered canadian waters so technically i have also been to canada :D

here are some pics:


day 2 - niagara and corning museum of glass. this is the first big waterfall that i have seen in my life and i'd say it's worth the wait. that day, it's still very cold and we could still see big blocks of ice flowing towards the falls. we were not able to ride the ferry to see the falls frontal view because it's still not open. i guess our timing was out. also, there are some areas areas that are still closed to the visitors because it's still covered with ice.
after the niagara falls, we went to the corning museum of glass, the biggest glass museum in the world. there are many interesting items in that place. here are some of our pics.



day 3- washington d.c. and philadelphia.
we visited the white house (very far away from the gate :D ), lincoln memorial, jefferson memorial, vietnam war memorial, korean war memorial, madam thesaud's wax museum in DC.
i loved DC. if we've the chance to live in the US, i like it there.
after DC, we headed to philadelphia, we visited the Independence Hall, the Old Capitol Building, and the Liberty Bell. then after those tiring yet very memorable 3 days, at around 11 PM we reached our hotel back in NYC.



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after this, 5 more days of pictures! yep, pictures are all we got after the trip because our pockets were damaged :D I'd say, NY is a very expensive city to travel to!

a baffling statement

“We should stop letting unskilled laborers into Japan. We should make sure that even the three-K jobs are paid well, and that they are filled by Japanese,” he said. “I do not think that Japan should ever become a multiethnic society.” (http://tinyurl.com/dzb252)

These words are Jiro Kawasaki's - the leader of the ruling party task force that devised the repatriation plan, part of a wider emergency strategy to combat rising unemployment in Japan. Upon reading this news in yahoo entitled Japan Pays Foreign Workers to Go Home, my exuberance over japan somehow diminished.

Based on the news, this offer is being extended to the Brazilians with Japanese descent who were welcomed to come to Japan in the 1990's because of the increase in the demand for labor work. Now that recession is here, and these people have started losing their jobs, they are now being sent home. I feel very sorry for them. Even though they are being offered incentives, it's unfortunate that upon accepting that inevitable bait, they would no longer be able to come back to Japan with their previous privilege. I mean they come to Japan because of better job opportunities errr.. compensation. And now that they are no longer needed they should go back home from where they came from. They should leave the life they have built here and forget all the privileges. Because they are still not considered Japanese. Despite their Japanese lineage, they are still gaijins. The people from outside.

Being a gaijin here in Japan, this statement of Mr. Kawasaki made me rethink again about my improving perception of Japan. I thought it's slowly digesting the concept of diversity, but now I think it is still a closed country and the gaijins are still second class inhabitants here. I remembered a friend asked me if where is the place we wish to settle down in the long run... now, I feel like saying not Japan. But life has a course of its own, so I still don't know. But if all stars would align and would open all the best doors and opportunities to other places which we can call home, and Japan is still NOT embracing diversity... maybe that would be the time to say sayonara.

what do you think?

twitter

hay... gustong gusto ko na umuwi kanina pa pero hanggang alas singko ako dapat ngayon sa trabaho. ang hirap nito, wala naman na akong ginagawa. ang aming pinuno ay nasa bayan niya dahil sa suliraning pangkalusugan (talagang kawawa naman). ang isang kasama ko sa trabaho ay umuwi naman na at naghahanda na sa kanyang bakasyon sa isang islang malapit sa okinawa. ang isa naman ay pumunta sa isang eksibisyon sa may tokyo bigsight. ako ang tanging naiwan dito sa tanggapan. subalit wala naman nakaimbing takda na dapat matapos. ang mga gawain na naiwan ay natapos ko na...

kaya sa malaking bahagi ng araw, walang humpay ang aking paglalakbay sa mundo ng internet. pindot dito, pindot dun.

konti na lang... alas singko na...

ay siyanga pala... nagrehistro ako sa isa pang aplikasyon sa mundo ng internet - ang twitter.
kaya pala eto ang pamagat ng akdang ito.

ellecul lang po...

ayan na alas 5 na. paalam.

am back!

Hello cyber world!!! I know you didn't miss me but I missed you!

It has been daysss since my last blog entry. I have a lot of story to tell and share from our US tour (naks parang band).
I can’t call it a vacation because it was clearly NOT. I got sick and we're so dead tired after every day but I should say, it was all worth it.
It's an ultimate experience that I would always remember and would always be a reminder that I should appreciate tokyo.
I love you tokyo! (hihi...)

Allow me to sort our mega tons of pics, taken from different angles and camera settings, before I show them off.

FREE sumo

do you like to watch a sumo game live but you just can't afford the ticket or you don't want to spend that much for a sumo ticket (i mean, i understand they're pretty expensive and all you'd see are oversized men in cloth diapers). if you're the stingy type like me, then here is your chance. there's an exhibition game (Hono Ozumo) this coming friday, april 10 at the yasukuni shrine and it's available to the first 6,000 people, FREE of charge. this event takes place annually. the place will open at 8:30 am. regretfully we can't go because of prior plans. i would like to see hakuho and asashoryu in person.

yasukuni shrine is accessible from many stations, like kudanshita, ichigaya (8mins), iidabashi(8mins). click here for more info.

anyway, if you're not available that day or you're not in tokyo, here is a link for all the upcoming events/festivals for the month of april 2009 all over japan.

happy spring!

sakura 2009

these pictures were taken in Yotsuya, Ichigaya, Kinshicho and Kukdanshita.
i love spring. after months of daily life in winter wonder land, the better days of flowers and sun and few rain come. spring is a sign that after the monotony of white, colors would soon be painted across the horizon. flowers here and there and sunshine kisses your face as a gentle wind brushes your hair. oh the poetry of life. for a moment it allows you to escape all the daily troubles and reality of life.

do you also like spring?

a review: "Gluten Free Everyday Cookbook"

remember many many months ago i wrote a blog about an email asking me if i would be interested to receive a book to review... i was really skeptical about that (i mean i don't have that much reader, do i..) but who would knew, it's true!

I have received this cookbook, entitled "Gluten Free Everyday Cookbook." It was written by Robert M. Landolphi and the reason that motivated him to write this book was really inspiring. To make his introduction in the book short, it was his wife's health condition that led him to make this book. For many months they didn't know what causes her deteriorating health and it was after a long line of doctors that they approached, they received information about condition called celiac disease. The only way to manage the disease is to have a gluten-free living.

the introduction made me more curious about the book. i have heard of gluten but i don't know things other than the term. gluten is a protein that can be found in wheat, barley and rye grains. so from there, you need to say bye to pastries, pasta, sandwiches, pizza and other yummy wheat-based delights but in this book, this was remedied.

the book contains more than a 100 simple and appetizing recipes that can easily be done from my own humble kitchen. there's not much of a hard-to-find ingredients, but because i'm living in japan and don't know the kanji yet for gluten-free, i'm not yet sure if i could find the gluten-free ingredients. fortunately i'm not gluten intolerant (i hope i won't ever be), i could still try the recipe and use the regular ingredient for the meantime until i learn where to buy the gluten-free type and how is it written in kanji.

the book is divided into chapters based on their categories.
there are 7 chapters of recipes plus a couple of chapters about gluten-free food and ingredients and eating out advices. the book has a wide array of options, whether you like chicken, veggies, beef, seafood (which i'm allergic to), pasta, bread or soup. since they're all gluten-free recipes, the bread and pastries that gluten intolerant individuals once can't eat, now they could enjoy them. the steps for each recipe are easy to follow and there are chef's tips for some of the recipes. of course, who doesn't wanna produce a food like a chef right?

the book that i received is not hard bound which makes it easier to carry around like when you'd be cooking in a friend's house, for example. i just hope that there are pictures of the finished dishes so i could also copy the food presentation. but since the book is just a two-tone colored book, it seems not possible. maybe if this book is available in color, it's better to get that version.

i think this is a must-have cookbook whether you're required to have a gluten-free diet or not. whether you love baking or cooking or just mixing, there are recipes thrown in for you.

if you'd like to know more about the book and would like to buy (but it's not yet published), it will be available in AndrewsMcMeel website.

thank you for reading and for sharing some of your precious time with me! :)

the letter

yesterday, we received a letter from the itabashi city office but since it's in japanese and our idiocracy level in the language has not improved, i brought it to the office today. i implored my colleague's kindness to explain to me the letter. last night, all we know is that there were 2 amounts of 12,000 yen written across our names ( 12K each ). and we were thinking urgh! we have to pay to the city hall.

but after reading the letter, my colleague told me that we're not paying. instead, we will be receiving 12K yen each. so i asked her if she could call the indicated contact number. after her call she told me that the itabashi city is giving help to its residents because of the current financial situation. how thoughtful of them! it's very nice. i know 12K yen may not be much but it's still a gesture that the gov't wants to reach out and appease the people at the least.

lately, i have been seeing more street dwellers in tokyo, especially near our place. now, i even witnessed homeless people who are old women. it's a very saddening sight. once i tried to extend help but i know it was not enough. i hope companies would get back to their feet sooner so they don't need to let go of their people. when the US sneezes, people around the world catches the virus -- even the ones in richer countries.

did some of you receive a similar letter too?