The Mother's Day Weekend

was a great fun. We entered a fun relay race called the Pisang Relay in which instead of a baton, we use banana (pisang in Malay and piesang in Afrikaans).

You know you are in for a good time with this lot :

The event was well represented by the Japanese expat running community here too. Even the Hosotanis (that's one of the top & podium finishers family in KL/Malaysia running scene : mom, dad & son all are great runners) were there.

 

Team Acorn. Errr dunno what's the team's name but they had an acorn logo in their running vest. They had two teams running. The first runner in the first group had a big banana on his head. 

 The lady in the team wore a banana (plastic one, I think) on her headband. Nice. :)

I think they are out in force maybe because they are using this event as a practise run for the 8th Malaysia International Ekiden Run Putrajaya next week. Yes. Ekiden. There'll be exchange of tatsuki (sash) during the run.

Son ran with me and hubby last week, completing 2 loops of 2.72km each. Isn't he such a sport? :-)

Summer Sound

I have a whimsical neighbour. He/she places a row of these wind chimes on the trees just outside my apartment window and if the home is quiet enough (which meant the TV wasn't blaring), I can listen to the chimes.

Music to my ears.

Japanese wind bell is such a nice distraction to the hot and humid summer in Japan. I'm from Malaysia so I should have been able to cope with summer in Japan but truth be told, I suffered during the two trips we made in summer to Japan. (Except when we were in Nyuto Onsen. It was a blissfully cooling September there instead of the HOT HOT HOT Tokyo).

Back to the ones my neighbour made.

There are verses written on the rectangular shapes chimes which further made me think of Japan. Furin 風鈴, has a rectangular card hanging from it and on the card; which is called a tanzaku (poem slip). Poems and verses are written on the tanzaku. A custome during tanabata too, writing wishes; maybe in form of poetry, on the tanzaku or on a piece of paper and hanging it on bamboo or wish tree.

My neighbours wrote verses on his/her card too. Isn't it nice? It was nice to hang out at the staircase, enjoying the strong breeze, listening to the chimes and reading the notes too. ^^

For hubby though, what he enjoys is the sound (or shall I say racket?) crickets made in summer. He always complained that crickets in Japan made nicer (noisier) sound than the ones back home! *slap forehead* LOL

Ah well, they do say opposite attracts. wakaka

Happy Golden Week y'all! 

Namco Namja Town

One of the largest indoor theme park in Japan, which we went some time back in 2011, a treat by the kind Minoru. I have to admit, despite knowing the place's existence beforehand (the place opened in 1996), we never made any effort to enter it, not even when we practically camped at Sunshine 60  when we visited Ulfes (ultraman Festival) in 2006. *grins*

Anyway, before anyone gets excited about this place, it is currently closed for renovation/upgrading and is schedule to open this summer. Well, in July to be exact.

We went on the Bianca Vita (a carousel),

Pass by the Onnen Ryokan (Haunted Inn) and happily walking past haunted stuff along the corridor. Raimie was thrilled. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boy was sure happy with all these haunted stuff. Pity we didn't linger too long and really took our time with all the exhibits. OK... so it was kinda cheesy but hey! Cheesy can be FUN!

Have to admit, we managed to avoid anything cute while inside. Except when it comes to sweet stuff.

 

Thank you again Minoru!

Cafes Are Where You Take Your Date

that's what we told our son when we were sitting waiting for our meal to arrive. He was looking around and commented that the other customers were couples. Heeeee....

OK, so I can't muster any energy to put other posts yet, but I've been neglecting this blog for a looooong time now. So food photo it is. My apologies. I'm distracted. Again. Yeah.

He was a tad annoyed that Mommy still can't stop snapping photos, of him.

Mommy's

Mommy wanted this too... I don't know about you, but getting your daily vege ration in Japan by eating teishoku (set meals) can be a challenge. Well, for me at least who really like to have a huge dollop of veges with her meal. But ah well, beggars can't be choosers.

The boy of course wants omuraisu. The shop have it in three sizes, if I'm not mistaken. A group of guys ordered the biggest portion; an XL and man... it sure can feed three adults! Was tempted to take photo of them with it but good manners prevail. Heh

XL omuraisu is definitely not what you want to order during your date, son.

Daddy's

These happen to be our last meal before our flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Nice, quiet and a bit... classy than what we are used to while vacationing in Japan. But still didn't break the bank. 

Love Japanese food we do, but after a fortnight of it; something not Asian was a nice break (and I'm Asian!) LOL

Oh yeah, he enjoyed this too.

What am I forever distracted at these days, you ask?

I just finished this

My first marathon, at the inaugural Malaysia Women Marathon on Apr 7th with absolute horrible timing but I was happy nonetheless, as my family supported me all the way. (Even managed to get my own Malta drink before getting to the finish line. HAHAHA) Plus I had way too much fun running in it. Just read my race recap. ^^

I'll be doing a night marathon (which I used to swear I would never do) in May. 

It's held the night before Malaysia's general election. Plenty of Peninsula Malaysia runners will fly in to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for the Borneo International Marathon, run and then take a morning flight back to Kuala Lumpur to VOTE! Yup, we are a passionate lot. We love to run. We love our country more.

Oh yeah, got somehow featured in Jamie's "Runner Profile" too. ^^