#Tokyolife post!

Sakura’s second time to Tokyo ^^.

We usually take JAL from Changi airport late at night so that the kids can sleep all the way and the danna can go straight to work after landing instead of wasting one extra day on the flight. #workaholic

 

STAY

We stay at the same apartment but different room every time so it’s quite interesting to experience different kinds of sizes and layouts.

This time around we have a double (queen size) bed instead of a super single. Still it is really small so Junya ended up sleeping on the edge of the bed T_T.

Narrowest bed ever lol.

Special color for Tokyo Tower on a summer day.

When you are not looking, things like this happen -____-.

Met up with RinRin to celebrate her birthday in advance!

 

EAT

Simple porcini risotto and salad + bread set.

First time eating rice from a jar.

Got a cake for her and Junya decorated it with candles.

Junya ate half the cake lol.

 

Anyway, other than tucking cheesiepetits to bed, picking up bread crumbs on the floor and finding stuff Junya hides and bouncing Sakura around the house, I actually feel that I have too much free time @.@. Compared to when we stay in KL and SG la.

First of all the serviced apartment has cleaning service once a week so I don’t have to worry about changing the sheets and vacuuming. Plus the apartment is like 1/4 the size of our other homes so there’s nothing much to tidy up. Plussssss Japanese washing machine + dryer is so damn awesome that I also save time doing airing and retrieving the laundry!

And when it comes to food… we just eat out/tapao from combini all the time. Confirm get judgmental stares by Japanese super effort moms lol.

The previous time I wrote about how we eat from combini all the time I was criticized for falsely promoting instant food as healthy.

Of course, cooking your own food (preferably 100% organic, and even better if you pluck it from your backyard or drink straight from a cow’s udders, I supposed) is always the best, but I mean, there are times you just have to go for the more convenient alternatives. And honestly, eating instant combini food could be a lot healthier than eating out when I am in KL, say for example, a plate of char kuey teow (my fav) VS zaru soba bento + a box of vegetable smoothie.

I guess a lot of people liken Japanese convenient stores with those from other countries, a place where you buy instant junk food for a quick hunger fix. But man. Japanese combini is more than that. Waaaaaaay more than that. It is a new way of life. (Did you know that you can post letters and receive your parcels from the combini?)

Eating from combini is called “nakashoku“, a culture that bridges the traditional “Naishoku” (eating in – cooking at home), and modern “Gaishoku” (eating out – in resaurants/cafe).

To shake off the image that convenient food is unhealthy, combini in Japan has shifted towards stocking more and more healthy choices, mostly additive-free, preservative-free, freshly packed complete with calorie count, allergy information and even choices that cater for special dietary needs like low-GI, low carb, high iron, people who want to get drunk, people who don’t want to get drunk, people who want to eat junk food but wanna be healthy too, etc.

The new Lawson’s healthy smoothie series is addictive. The packaging is so pretty I ended up getting every single flavor from the shelf. So many choices of fruits and also different percentage blend of fruits VS vegetable.

Instant non-unhealthy lunch: NebaNeba Soba with okra, nameko, seaweed and yamaimo. Confirm better than CKT.

Junya loved it so much he finished the whole bowl.

I have not been cooking much since our family started this 3-countries rotation traveling crazy life. And I constantly worry about insufficient vegetable intake for the family since eating out almost usually means meat and carbs.

I was surprised that the only time we are eating the most greens are when we went for combini food. Take this meal for example.

100% fruit and vegetable smoothie that contains 1/3 of recommended daily vegetable intake.

Stir-fry vegetable and meat bento, with half of daily vegetable intake. With the smoothie, that’s 80% of vegetable intake of the day in one single meal!

Spinach in sesame marinate as a side. Confirm too much vegetable liao lol. Dinner can just spam on KFC lol.

Even Junya loves his spinach.

Combini dessert.

Sometimes you even get luxurious food from the combini especially during special festive days. For example the combini sold unagi jyu bento for Doyo-No-Ushi (Eating eel on the midsummer Day of the Ox).

I think combini will slowly take over the world. Wanna eat Michilin star sushi? Combini. Wanna buy a spaceship? Combini. Hahaha.

So yes. I love my combini, thank you very much .

This is a gaishoku (eat-out) day at Torikizoku. Love this chain yakitori place. Everything at 280 yen!

 

ENTERTAIN

And then I watch tv. With the kids. When the danna is not working, we watch tv. All day long.

I swear I haven’t watched tv in Malaysia for at least like 10 years. We have a tv  in KL but it’s for decoration purpose only. In Singapore, WE DON’T EVEN HAVE ONE HAHHAHA. I mean, who watches tv nowadays when you have Youtube and Pokemongo.

But not in Japan. First thing after waking up – tv. Watch until hungry then go combini get food. Then do housework while watching tv. Try to blog/work while the tv is on = NOTHING GETS DONE.

That’s how great Japanese tv programs are. For sure I’ll experience both stomach pain (from too much laughing at variety shows) AND wiping tears off secretly (from overly dramatic but meaningfully touching documentaries) in one day, if i watch enough tv. That’s how evil Japanese tv is.

Also, I learn lots of useful shit without even consciously wanting to, from just not switching the tv off. It’s like the tv wants me to be a smarter person. I probably learn more things from a 30 sec tv commercial than reading 50 rubbish blogs (like this one) LOLOL.

I learnt how to differentiate a delicious tomato from mediocre ones, how to prevent wall mould, how a cicada hatches and how to live a long and awesome life over an hour of TV watching.

Did you know? Piman (Japanese bell pepper) is the most delicious when it is red color. (As in green-turned-red. Piman is also different from capsicum species, I have never seen Japan selling red-color piman!). But most supermarkets sell it when it is green because once it turns red, it only lasts for a few days before going bad.

Did you know? The Shinkansen bento can come in a Shinkansen bento box.

Did you know? Fishermen hate otters because they eat all the uni (until no more left). This uni fisherman master says that he feels tulan just looking at cute otter faces in the zoo lol.

There is also a program on how big families (typically 6-10 or more children in one family) in Japan live their lives. Seriously, I only have two kids and I feel like I need to level up until borderline kisiao already. This mother has 6 kids @.@ and it is like she is pokeMOM level infinity lol.

To cut cost, each meal she cooks for a family of 8 is below 500 yen wtf. That’s like SGD6. You get 3 buns from BreadTalk lol. Plus her meals are not even like shabby wan. It’s proper and nutritionally balanced.

She would visit 3 supermarkets to compare prices just to save 6 yen on bean sprout. Wait I don’t even know how much that is in SGD. Hold on let me google.

Ok it’s SGD0.079. Yeap.

 

That’s all. Gotta go level up now. #pokeMOMgo

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