Thursday 29 April 2010

Who Is My Boss?


I never had Baskin Robbins before now.

During Golden Week they had a 31% off promotion. We were in Naka-Meguro attempting to go to another bagel shop that unfortunately closed selling out all its stock before they were supposed to close.

A little miffed we decided to walk to Shibuya.

We saw Baskin Robbins along the way so to escape the wind we indulged in a double cone. I have to say it was much better than Cold Stone Creamery.

NTT docomo are overexposing a Darth Vader campaign in Tokyo stating "Who is my boss?". I'm not sure what they are implying but if you have DV pointing his finger at you, I think it's pretty easy to believe that he (meaning docomo) is your boss. Maybe they probably want to make you think that you are the boss, but personally I don't think so. All shall be revealed on the 11th of May.

I mentioned quite a while ago about Mo Mo Paradise. They changed their name to Nabezo.

It's still a great deal, about 2,000 yen for 90 minutes of "all-you-can-eat" Shabu Shabu. Good thing they have an English menu (not that you'd need it too much) as well.

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Second Cut Is Deeper

This is just a place marker. I know what it's about, and that's all that matters..

Sunday 25 April 2010

Maruichi Bagel

I thought I was SO original with my "New York Minute" video.

I was surprised to find someone else had made the SAME titled Youtube video, and used a fast photo slideshow too. (His was first, 2006). Strange thing was the guy's name was Jimmy as well! I definitely hadn't seen the video before I did mine, so I have to say that was an amazing coincidence.

Since coming back from New York, I'd been trying to find the same kind of bagels as Ess-A-Bagel. I've had Bagel & Bagel ones here. While they actually taste pretty good and offer quite a few fillings, I've always still felt hungry after eating them.

Scouring the net, I came across Maruichi Bagel. There's an interesting story how she went to New York working at Ess-A-Bagel and bringing the New York's style bagels recipe back to Tokyo.

Her unassuming storefront is located in Shirokane-takanawa station on the Namboku and Mita subway lines.

The map on their website is very clear. It's only two streets away from the station. Unfortunately there's not much else to do in this area.

There are quite a few options to choose from. Each bagel is around 200 yen. A half bagel sandwich with a cream cheese filling is 250 yen.My verdict? These bagels although seemingly smaller than Ess-A-Bagel ones, were definitely more filling than Bagel & Bagel.

The taste compares favourably to the New York version too. My only small qualm is that it'd be great to have more variety in the cream cheese options that made Ess-A-Bagel the greatest thing since sliced bread.

If you're in the area though I think it's worth your time to check it out.

Saturday 17 April 2010

Blade Number 2

As you might remember, (but probably not), I don't go through those Gillette blades very often.

The last time was here. So that's ONE YEAR, 3 MONTHS and 25 DAYS. Impressive huh? It didn't beat my previous record, but once I used that new blade, my face was grateful. I'm don't think Gillette are going to call me for endorsements anytime soon.

Sunday 4 April 2010

Spring Has Coming!

And with that, so do the Cherry Blossoms. I've said it before, I'm not a flower lover per se, but seeing Cherry Blossoms bloom is a definite highlight of living in Japan. And the fact that they go all too soon, it's hard not to feel a sense of loss. No one takes sakura for granted here.

I was considering going to the Penis festival again today, but damn, I had a hard time waking up early enough to see the procession.

Instead, we went to Yoyogi Park to catch the hanami parties, helped along by some Asahi "Strong Off" and some Bagel & Bagel bagels. Not to the high standard of the New York variety, but they did the trick.

To give you the idea of how big hanami is here, I had a good excuse to do a panorama shot of the people around me. With people moving all the time, I thought it wouldn't come out this good.

After Yoyogi Park, I did the biggest impulse buy ever, and got a Master Replicas Star Wars Lightsaber in Shibuya like the one I tried year's ago in Shinjuku. The alcohol helped me make that decision. It wasn't so great that I had to lug it to Chidorigafuchi to have our second little hanami fun.


We bought Sbarro pizza slices and I also had a Chocolate beer to chug down under the Cherry Blossoms. Yes, that's my lightsaber I'm holding.. Hey, it looks like I threw my saber in the tree behind me, ne?

Thursday 1 April 2010

April Fools Headphones

The Sennheiser headphones I bought barely a few weeks ago have already started to lose the rubber shielding at the plug.

Considering their price I would've expected them to hold together longer than this. Even my old el' cheapo Panasonics held together better than this.

Lucky then I have a 2 year warranty on these, and that the Sennheiser office is not too far away in Aoyama. They said it'd be ready to pick up in a week. While we were in Aoyama, we took in a nearby cemetery that had a lot of sakura.

Also today the painters have finally taken away all the scaffolding to reveal that I now live in.. the White House!