Mom's kimono

Mom and I dug out the kimonos sleeping at our place in Tokyo. All of them were really exquisite, and I really look forward to wearing them someday. As it goes with these kimonos, they cost as much as a car and you really need to take care of them with expert knowledge. To avoid all the hassle, I bought two simpler kimonos (one is even washable by yourself) and a very nice obi belt to practice wearing them, and will come back for these someday...

Pat Sin Range in Hong Kong

Yesterday I climbed a mountain called Pat Sin Range in the new territories. It means eight peaks, and there were literally eight of them. The toughest was the first peak where there was just steps after steep steps forever. The trail overall was very organized, and when it becomes flat, a very pleasant walk. My friend brought a hitech mini gas based water boiler, so we had a very nice cup of coffee at the top. LIFE.

After we climbed down the mountain, we arrived in a little town called Tai Po where everyone was bicycling. You can see the eight peaks in the back of the below photo. 

To get to this hiking course, get off at MTR station Fanling (very close to Shenzhen) and get on Hok Tau minibus. Once you start on the trail, it's a one-way mountain course (4.5-5 hours in total), and you can't get off in the middle, so you should bring at least 1-1.5 liters of water. Enjoy!

Asian dinner tonight

I feel like I've finally started to meet my 2012 resolution, which included to learn a new cooking, like an entirely different group of food. As I wanted to theme tonight's dinner as Asian, I bought namplar (fish sauce), soy bean sauce, and sweet chili sauce for the first time in my life. Alas my gapao rice (below) finally tastes like Thai food! I'm also happy that the Jenggala plates from Bali really work well. The rolls are from my friend Yoko who also made the California rolls in the previous posting. She's an excellent roller.

     

Tonight's dinner

I must say it's nice to have friends who can cook :) 

I contributed with Swedish meatballs but with tomato sauce (therefore Italian meatballs?).

Loving my new HK apartment

As much as I love the look of this place, the main feature is the view. Only in Hong Kong...

I made cookies

I borrowed a Japanese baking book from my Australian friend who lent it to me so that I will perhaps translate for him (what a lovely request). The cookbook is based on this website Cook Pad where non professionals post their recipes and people vote, so the ingredients are usually really easy (I found a 3 ingredient cookie too). My cookies only required 5 ingredients, but let me tell you, tasted super good! So super that I would compare it to the Frog and Toad cookie story (do people remember this? I always wanted to taste those cookies. Alas, there is a wiki page of the Frog and Toad cookies! I'll go ahead and read it now...). Enjoy your Sunday!

Long time... weekend breather

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in a full month.. In the meantime, I moved apartments and feel a lot of things have changed for the better, resembling more of my life before Hong Kong (I guess the bigger space can give you lots)! I was going to take photos of my new apartment today but given the super fog outside hopefully not pollution from our neighbor, I decided to wait for a sunny day and just relax today, taking a bath, baking (I never really bake other than in Sweden), and doing home things! When I took a bath, I found this package from my favorite hotel in Bali, from Komaneka! They are so sweet, they had given me a massage oil, bath salt, and soap set when checking out...

This week was Jakarta week. I had met my 2 friends from Jakarta time from (scary) 5 years ago, visit my new place! I feel that was a special moment in time in my life: for the first time living in a developing country, working outside of Japan, and just taking everything for what it is and enjoy whatever you can (and all expats were automatically a friend!). I met a lot of special friends then.