The Opera Populaire

Torii at Suizenji-koen. Mom in white.
Sakura at Kumamoto Castle. Kumamoto is famous for horse meat, made into some sorta sushi. I sampled a bit and found it quite ok, just a bit stronger tasting than beef, to my Mum's absolute horror!

Suizenji-koen. Kumamoto Castle.

They say pictures paint a thousand words. It's a huge pity I din take more photos with my handphone while in Japan. Anyway, decided to upload this because I am so pleased at having managed to use my phone PC kit at last! The happy words of an IT idiot hahaha :)

Being in Jakarta makes me miss the safety of Japan, where you dun have to worry about being pickpocketed even in the most crowded Ueno station. I miss the cleanliness there, too. Have been having the runs on off here and am wondering if it's due to the food. Looks like I had been too pampered by clean food in S'pore!

I liked the great customer service in Japan too. Although I had read about this Japanese "mask" thingie, which meant that Japanese don't really like to show what's beneath their facade of politeness and all, it had been pleasant to be on the receiving end of politeness. While we were still browsing around the food department of Daimaru at closing time (Mom loves looking at food!), we found that all the salespeople had stood in a row behind their counters and bowed to us as we walk past, thanking us in a gesture that struck me as being so typically Japanese installed form of politeness. Very interesting indeed.