Trip to Yokohama

Hello! This morning, I could get up early, so I am writing my diary :)

It was nice and clear during our trip to Yokohama!
We enjoyed a lot!!!

First, we went to "LaLaport YOKOHAMA". It is a big shopping mall newly opened last year. There were over 370 stores!

We had a lunch at "SOY DINING Mamemame". Their menu is all soy-based! I love healthy food, so I couldn't decide what to eat, but finally I chose udon, which was their today's menu!

In the mall, we found Purikura.
It is a photo sticker booth.
The new machine was too complicated to use, but we enjoyed!

In the evening, I had a German Foot Care (removed dead skin cells) at "Ru Tan" !
Now my feet are smooth! This is what I've wanted to do for a long time!


My boyfriend shopped for clothes, but I ran out of time, so we went to the hotel: Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu.
We stayed in the room called "Luxury Ocean Twin".
From the balcony or while relaxing in the large bathroom, you can enjoy the view of the Yokohama port and the illuminations of the Ferris wheel.
It was gorgeous!

At night, we had a dinner at chef Wakiya's "Turandot" restaurant, which I said I won a meal voucher for the restaurant the other day. They offer a new style of Chinese cooking inspired by the traditional food of Shanghai, Szechuan, Canton and Beijing. All dishes comes with fresh vegetables. Very healthy and delicious!
Simmered shark's fin (which costs approx. $73) was extremely delicious.
I have never had this kind of Chinese food in my life. All were super great!

The next day, we woke up at 7AM!
We had a buffet style breakfast at the hotel.
I loved their fruit sauces for yogurt!
They had 6 different kinds and all went good with yogurt and cereals :)
Their famous croissant was great, too!
We had a relaxing time.

After the breakfast, we checked out and went to "Nihonmaru Memorial Park".
I was in a brass band when I was a junior high school student and used to play music here.
My boyfriend has had bought a kite the previous day, so we played with it.
It was fun!

In the afternoon, we enjoyed window shopping at "Landmark Tower" and "Queen's Square".

Early in the evening, we had a dinner near home and went home.
We had planned to go to karaoke, but we were so tired that we couldn't.
Maybe someday soon :)

Anyway, I guess I played too much.
I have a touch of cold :(
Despite this, I cooked 4 new recipes yesterday.
I will write about them when I get a chance!!!

Okay, will come back after the holidays, this time :)
See you again!

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PHOTO IMAGING EXPO 2008

Hello!
It is very cold today and raining.
Actually, it has been raining for a few days.
The cherry blossoms might bloom next week, since it is going to get warmer from tomorrow!
I live close to a famous cherry blossom viewing spot, so I will show you the picture if I took a nice one!

Anyway, on the 19th, as I said last time, I went to the PHOTO IMAGING EXPO 2008 in Tokyo.
It was very crowded with camera otaku, most of them were men.
They were taking pictures of booth bunnies.
<-- Like this :)


The reason I went there is to attend the lecture of Kouichiro Saito, who is an advertising Photographer.
This lecture was about food photography and was held at the booth of Olympus, which is my camera manufacturer.
This was my first time to take lessons in food photography.
We took some pictures of cakes they prepared.
My problem is that I cannot take a picture that looks like taken under the natural light, under the room light, so it was interesting to know the way he set.

At the Olympus booth, there were some experts, so I asked them a lot of questions about color temperature, lighting equipment, etc...
Also, I tried macro lense which I wanted to buy someday.
White balance is not correct, but you can see the difference in feathering.

I think I need to know more about the basics of camera!
I will try my best!

Okay, see you next week :)
Have a nice weekend!

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Company Year-End-Party

My company year-end-party will be held at a hotel in the city today.
Every year the same hotel.
We play bingo every year but I have never won anything good...
Also, the food there is not that good.
It is a stand-up buffet so we can't really eat a lot.

This year our department won a chief executive's prize, so I can't skip the party. My boss is going to be commended by the chief executive, so I have to attend.

Christmas is coming, so I will show you my pretty Christmas tree pasta :)
I used cherry tomatoes to resemble Christmas ornaments.
I have a recipe, but in Japanese... sorry.

Have a romantic Christmas!
xoxo

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Princess Night

Hello!
As I wrote last time, I went out with my boyfriend for my birthday on Friday and had a wonderful night!
He took me to a Japanese French restaurant in Shinagawa.
http://www.thedining.jp/english/index.html
I took photos of all the dishes we had!
Oh my god, the lobster I had was delicious!!! (My boyfriend had a beef fillet .)
It was nice and quiet there and I enjoyed a conversation with my boyfriend.
Before we leave, we had a commemorative photo taken.
It was a very memorable dinner.

The restaurant was located in the InterContinental hotel.
Surprisingly, he had reserved a room for me!!!
http://www.intercontinental-strings.jp/english/index.html
The night view from the room was beautiful!
I enjoyed taking a relaxing long bath and felt like a princess for a while :)

The next day, we woke up early since I had an appointment with the orthodontist.
We had a breakfast at the hotel, which was also nice and comfortable.

After the appointment, it was Saturday as usual.

On Sunday (on my birthday), I created 5 new recipes.
It was Sunday as usual.
My boyfriend bought me a petit bouquet though :)

That Friday was like a dream!
I had a great time!

I will write about my cooking tomorrow.
Bye for now!

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