Weekend wrap-up: photos and journeys

For the last couple of months, I've been taking the camera along almost everywhere I go. J has gotten used to it (or at least, gotten tired of complaining about it), but she still tries to avoid having her picture taken. Lately, she's been giving me split-second funny-face poses, then tsk-tsks me for being too slow when I miss the shot. But I do manage to catch some on occasion. :)

Trigger-happy
Spent some time this weekend visiting old friends and taking photos of their baby girl. And their two cats. I wouldn't mind keeping a cat or two at home, I kinda like 'em. But the furniture will suffer, and so will J, whose fear of animals hasn't lessened quite enough yet.


My remote!


Don't bug me now, Survivor is on


Who are you and what do you want?


I'll be good, mummy, just feed me

Wanderlust, wander lost
Another friend recently returned from a 7-day tour of Hokkaido with his wife, and stopped by our place today with photos and some souvenirs. Their trip included a short stopover in Tokyo because of the internal flight transfer, so we'd recommended a number of food joints to try in Tokyo.

I had passed him a shopfront photo of a tempura restaurant in Shinjuku, called Tsunahachi (tsu·na·ha·chi), along with an annotated map pinpointing its location, since I knew there would not be any English signage along the way. Apparently, he'd forgotten about the photograph, and the couple, confused and disoriented, had walked straight past the restaurant. They then entered a fast-food joint to ask for directions, and someone there, even more confused, pointed them in the wrong direction!

Eventually, after some backtracking and reorientation, they did find the restaurant in time to enjoy a good tempura lunch, before rushing to catch the flight home.

After looking through their photos, J and I are itching to go back to Japan again (third time in twelve months? oh yeahhh), and definitely to Hokkaido. This time we're thinking of abandoning our usual free-and-easy mode, and take a guided tour instead - hoping that not having to plan will translate to a more enjoyable break.

Come to think of it, I haven't been on a beginning-to-end guided tour for more than a decade. Might be a good time to do one.