Lunch with an old friend

Lunch with an old friend whom I haven't met in a long time.

We first met in Malaysia and then bumped into each other at the embassy here years ago.

He brought me to a halal tempura don restaurant in Yurakucho and the place was popular as there was a queue outside when we arrived.

As you can see from the pictures, the portion is super huge and is good for those who are big eaters!

After that we went to a cafe nearby for some drinks so that we can catch up comfortably.

Later that night, I went to YH's friend's place for Xmas dinner. Look at the amount of food on the table!!! The 9 of us finished everything! The night ended with some songs and us sharing what we were thankful for in 2019.

Tim Ho Wan (ティム・ホー・ワン / 添好運）

After a very heavy soba lunch, Yh and I queued for about 2-3 hours to get into Tim Ho Wan. It's absolutely crazy how long the queues were!

Here's a picture of the menu, extremely limited!

This here is one of the most popular item on the menu. I like that the top is shaped like a polo pao and that there's really yummy char siew inside.

As we were lacking veg in our diet, we also ordered a plate of veg which we will probably never order again here as it's just not worth the price.

This rice noodle here roll was good too as the skin wasn't too thick.

This is the fried bean curd roll which was slightly oily.

The jelly dessert was surprisingly very and I enjoyed it a lot.

Then there's also the siu mai which was delicious. This is probably the second best dish after the baked meat buns.

I felt this this restaurant is highly overated. The dim sum were very normal and there's nothing extra special about anything on the menu which is small! But I guess, it's good in a place like Tokyo where it's hard to get authentic dim sum. Otherwise, one can easily find a better shop in a country with more dim sum options.

Bon-Odori at Yurakucho

My first bon odori in Tokyo with this group here~ :D

As it was mid summer and really hot, we had some fresh fruits while waiting for Yh to arrive.

Once, we've gathered together, we head to the park and bought some food to be shared.

Lol, as there were no seats left and we didn't bring a mat, we just sat at the side of the walkway to enjoy our dinner!

Bon odori was really fun!!! I really enjoyed dancing with everyone. I would definitely like to participate in another one next year.

Volunteering at the children's home

Dinner after work with a group of fellow Malaysian girls at Cafe La Boheme in Yurakucho. 

It was nice to get to know more Malaysians working in Tokyo and girls talk is always good. 

The next day, I had to wake up super early at 4am as I've volunteered to go on hiking with kids from the children's home. Their home is really far away and the meet up time was 7am.

It really didn't help that my neighbouur was super noisy the night before. They had a group of friends over. They were drinking and chatting really loudly till midnight. Even at 3am, I could still hear the couple chit-chatting. 

Once at the centre, we were told who we would be grouped with and the course that we would be taking. We were also provided with a lunch box for the hike.

I got paired with 2 cute sisters whom I really adore. The older sis was the calmer one if tee two and definitely more mature. The younger one is really chatty and tells me all sorts of things. 

 

The kids were super active. They moved really quickly and I had a hard time catching up especially at the areas where there are many stairs and the slope is really steep. Not sure how they did it but they just went through everything really quickly. 

My 2 girls kept shouting my name throughout the hike so that I will catch up to them. I tried my best but it was definitely not easy.  I'm not small like them so I can't squeeze through the crowd. Also, I'm afraid of heights and stairs. Super thankful for this other little boy who was afraid of height. He held my hand as we went down the stairs. 

The hike was in Nikko and the view was amazing! I love the view but I really didn't have time to snap many pictures because I was busy with the girls. 

It was definitely nice to be able to eat lunch with the kids too as they were super cute. Playful but cute. 

While the traveling time was long, I had a great time and would definitely love to volunteer there again.

Dinner with ex-colleagues

Met up with ex-colleagues from 6 years ago in Yurakucho for dinner~

Lol, I feel so old suddenly!

Felt happy and blessed to meet them again. I would never have thought that one day, we would all meet again in Tokyo. Also, I gotta thank them for treating me to dinner.

The top is an appertiser that we got with burdock, carrot and konnyaku.

We had fried potatoes and omelette with mentai sauce, which was really good! The egg was fuwa-fuwa and went sooo well with the mentai sauce.

Some yakitori~

Deep fried tofu with minced ginger~

Fried squid which was super yummy~ My favourite dish of the night!

And, sashimi~!!! 

After that, we went to a nearby bar for our nijikai.

Also, A san was really nice. He remembered that my B'day was a few days away and prepared a B'day present for me! :D

SKEW, Yurakucho

Met up with A san for lunch at SKEW （スキュー）in Marui, Yurakucho.

Website: https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1301/A130102/13100899/

We both ordered the healthy lunch (ヘルシーランチ) at 1,200円.

This came with soup and bread or rice.

Looks amazing doesn't it?

This comes with fresh, seasonal vegetables with some side dishes.....the perfect meal for those who are health conscious.

I guess when girls get together, it's only normal for us to talk about love~ LOL

Anyways, food at SKEW was delicious. I enjoyed everything on my plate especially the pumpkin. Plus, it was a pleasant surprise to see a pear on my salad!

植物図鑑 & La Petite Mercerie, Lumine Yurakucho

From Shinjuku, Pat and I travelled to Ginza as the cinema there still had tickets for the movie that we wanted to catch - 植物図鑑 (Shokubutsu Zukan)

Movie: http://shokubutsu.jp/

I've been wanting to watch this movie ever since I saw the Flower's PV which showed snippets of this movie.

It was my first time at a cinema in Tokyo and I find it cool that they gave us free postcards and there's even a photo area.

The movie was good and it's been a long time since I've cried buckets in a cinema. I think all the females (98% of the viewers were females) cried loads throughout the movie. I know I did! So did Pat and the girl who sat on my other side!

There's a phrase from the movie which I really liked....somehow.....

A senpai who was interested in the main character said this to her, "It's alright, you're just returning back to your formal self." He said this when he saw her having konbini food for lunch again after she's been bringing really delicious looking bento that had been prepared by her bf to work before his disappearance.

I feel like that phrase somehow spoke to me that it's alright after all these painful experience......I'll just be going back to my old self. It somehow feels comforting.

After the movie, we shopped around a bit in Lumine before having dinner at La Petite Mercerie in Lumine Yurakucho.

Website: http://pscoop.jp/lpm/

We both settled for the prime menu (2,050 yen) which came with a meal, dessert and drink. We were both attracted to this dish which came with a quiche and crab risotto. Then for dessert, we both went for the special for that month, which was the peach cupcake, as peaches were in season then.

The main dish was delicious! The cupcake was good too~ especially the peaches!!! :D

As for drink, I chose the cherry soda while she had coffee.

Another fun outing~

Dinner at Bistro Ryu's, Yurakucho

After our hunt for ajisai, we went for dinner at Bistro Ryu's, near Yurakucho station~

Website: http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g463500/

Some cocktails that were recommended to YH on her previous trip here and they were good.

Parmesan cheese blocks!!!

Raw veg for the......

....Bagna càuda, which was super good!!! I can't compare it with anything else as it was my first time but it was awesome!

Crazy ppl like us ordered 20 pieces of wings~!

Pork sausage with an amazing mash!

Funghi pizza!

A group pic~

heehee, it looked like Mish drank a lot but actually she only drank 1 1/2 glass of cocktail.

Overall the good here is good and I really like the atmosphere of the restaurant. It is only too bad that they are closing soon.