weekend #02

= house-hunting, gourmet dining, 1st movie in japan, japanese brides, odaiba and samurais!

Well. So this weekend the desperate search for the impossible "just another square meter within my budget PLEASE" house continued. And it came with chauffeur service all over again. And gourmet lunching and dinning at yet another pair of posh hotels in Tokyo. Life is good! But it will get so much better once I move into MY HOUSE! Of course I'm sharing it with the two most lovely persons ever, but it will still be my house when compared to the 9 square meter room I now inhabit, plus the 14 sq meter or such I share with FOUR GUYS (not enough patience there).

After a long hard search I finally found a place worth reserving for us - really nice area, with everything around it (even a small scale oceanarium), near some of the best hotels. The thing is, since they're renovating the whole thing, we can actually only move in around the 15th so I'll have to put up with these guys for at least two more weeks. But since it's taking so long I'm actually going to check a couple more houses I found in really nice areas, about the same size and prize.

This time, my ojii-san wanted to take me to Odaiba - a new area of Tokyo where they have small scale reproductions of things like the Statue of Liberty (you do have everything in Japan really...). The place is really nice, with a great giant wheel which you can ride on to see the sight. And believe me, once Tokyo lights up at night, that's something you don't want to miss. One of the other things is the upliftingly named "Rainbow Bridge". Odaiba includes the area of Tokyo Bay, so you have a great sea view as well. But what is really great in Odaiba are the hotels. Brand new multi million complexes with fabulous restaurants and spas. We dinned at the New Nikko Hotel and I must say it was oishii! Food in Japan is really exquisite, whether you go for traditional cuisine or fusion like flavours. And the presentations is always impecable. One thing I've notice is they always eat smaller amounts, but do a longer meal, comprising soup, an entry or at least salad, the main course and desert/fruit. Even at your everyday work and eat fast restaurant that is rather normal. The other thing Odaiba is big on right now are: BRIDES! They were absolutely everywhere. It looks like Saturday is THE day to get hitched here in Japan, and Odaiba's hotels definitely the place to celebrate it in.

Sunday I checked a couple more houses and went to the Sengakuji temple, still considered one of the most important in Tokyo and Japan, since there is where you can find the remainings of the 47 loyal samurais who comited seppuku after avenging their assassinated master. It's located not far away from the house I reserved. After that we went to lunch at a PORTUGUESE RESTAURANT - obviously called "Manuel's" - where I could finally seek my teeth into some not too bad "pastéis de bacalhau, arroz de polvo, creme de favas and torta de laranja", well accompanied by a tasty red Pegos Claros. Then it was getting to Shinagawa time - which ended up leading to my first movie watching experience in Japan (it wasn't easy finding one in English, I'll probably have to skip Letter of Iwo Jima...) sitting in a deluxe theater with extra large sofa like chairs. Afterwards of course - girls only dinner at a nice Italian place and finally HOME.

No wonder I'm feeling tired...And tomorrow I have a lot of places to go, since well, being out there checking the shops is actually part of my job!