Sri Lanka trip

View of the sea
My parents
Neighbours
View from my parents' place
Playing pool (or trying to!)
Old college friend with her husband and friend
Ready for high school friend's wedding homecoming party
With the bride

Bangkok trip

Wednesday allergy

I have made an interesting discovery. . . I am allergic to Wednesday (the cat, not the day -- then again, maybe the day as well).

The past few times I've visited Okia's apartment to see Weds, barely three minutes pass before my eyes start to itch and I develop a fit of sneezing. The first time this happened, I thought it was just a coincidence. But after the second, third time, I'm convinced that it's not.

But how could it be? I lived with the little guy for a year-and-a-half! Sigh. I guess now, my visits will have to be confined to under three minutes -- which would probably suit Weds just fine -- he's going through an anti-human (or maybe it's just an anti-Ini) phase.

Anyway, it's been a while since my last Weds photo, so here's one.

Yokohama and turning 27!

Seeing as last Friday was Black Friday, Okia and I decided we were due for another Ikea trip in memory of our U.S. days! Just to keep life exciting, we headed off to Yokohama this time, a different place and a different Ikea. We spent most of the day there, and emerged hours later, duly laden with lots of good (but necessary) stuff.

Deciding that we'd earned a good dinner, we headed off to Chinatown for a wander around and some yummy Chinese food.

Some pictures from Chinatown:
Ini in front of one of the Chinatown gates

The world's best Nikuman (pork bun) shop (or so they claimed)

Enjoying the world's best Nikuman

Okia trying to decide which of two identical pink teapots was prettier

A real rotary phone in the restaurant where we ate

Ahhh! Food!

The next day I turned 27! Something about getting older must have triggered some sort of signal in me, because I spent most of the day huffing and puffing, rearranging my furniture to make my apartment more homey. I think I sort of suceeded (pics to come!) That evening, a few friends and I went out to a bar with some live music for a very low-key celebration.

Daytrip to Kamakura

Okia and I headed to Kamakura on Saturday for the day. We'd been hoping that the weather, which has been unusually warm for this time of year, would have cooled by then, but no such luck (as you can see from the photos). The highlight of the trip was definitely the really cool bamboo forest (home of the zen Hokokuji Temple, where I also got my first taste of Matcha Tea (not a fan of any tea, green tea included, but was still a worthwhile experience. . . it's thicker and more bitter than regular green tea!) And of course, the beach!!!

Soba lunch!

Traditional Japanese Shinto wedding
Okia with a Japanese fall flower (she told me the name but I can't remember:()

Hase dera Temple
Kamakura Daibutsu (Great Buddha)
In the bamboo forest

First bowl of matcha!

At the beeeaccch!!!