A Pinoy in Tokyo: Haneda International Airport

Although I was still about 14 kilometers away from my friends Glen, Arlene and their little Saira, who were waiting for me at the airport bus drop-off at ANA InterContinental Tokyo Hotel, I wasn't worried since I knew everything at Haneda Airport would be convenient, easy and wouldn't get lost in translation once I get off the plane. 

Haneda International Airport is the closest airport to the Tokyo center, and most practical point of entry for me into Japan.

And as expected, the queue at the immigration took a while. Lots of Japanese tourists flying back to Japan, and more Korean tourists going there. Plus a Pinoy completing the mix. Ha-ha-ha!

And to continue my tradition of practicing a foreign language at the immigration counters, I greeted the Japanese immigration officer with my low, quick and almost perfect Nihongo, even my teacher at the Japanese class would be proud of: "Ohayo gozaimasu!" (Ha-ha-ha!)

I stood there as I watch him scan, browse and enjoy the feel of my Philippine passport. At that moment, I thought to myself that I might have let more strangers read my passport than I have let doctors read my medical charts.  

Immigration officers will tell you if you can enter or leave their country. Doctors will tell you if you can live or...die. Ha-ha-ha!

And after he was satisfied that I was no threat to the constitutional monarchy of Japan, he gave me back my precious and loyal travel companion, and waived me through. I, of course, followed up with another impeccable sentence, "Arigato gozai-masu!" (Ha-ha-ha!)

And I think he uttered, "Hai".

So, off I went to claim my luggage, cleared Customs and looked for the nearest information counter.

I was glad nothing got lost in translation at the counter. The ladies were polite and lavish with their hard-to-understand English phrases. But I understood just the same. I didn't bother to practice more of my Nihongo on them. Two perfect sentences were enough that morning. Ha-ha-ha!

They pointed me to the free shuttle bus waiting outside, which brought passengers to the main terminal where passengers could take the airport-to-city buses. 

I finally was on the way to the Tokyo city proper. As I expected, passing through this airport was convenient, easy, and nothing, including luggage, was lost in transit, nor in translation.

A Pinoy in Japan: From The Air...

Like everyone else last Friday, March 11, I was glued to the TV watching the horrible news about the 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan.

And like everyone who have friends living in Japan, I was frantically calling and sending them messages through Facebook and emails asking how they were.

And I was relieved they are safe. At least some of them were able to reply.

And as a tribute to Japan, and to my Filipino and Japanese friends living there, I will post a few blogs this week and share the photos of the streets, the food, the people, the subway stations, the buildings I took while I enjoyed walking, getting lost and getting wet (in the rain) in Tokyo!

Thanks to the helpful Asiana Airlines booking clerk, I was able to take a few photos of Tokyo (and Japan) from the air...

That Twilight Movie...

Just as I was changing channels tonight, I stumbled on a local channel playing the 2008 Twilight movie, which reminded me of a review I wrote for my other blog on the winter it was shown in Korea.


So, I thought of posting it here:

(Twilight poster in Korea)

"Well, with all the buzz this movie was making, I had to watch why these vampires are at it again.

And I learned why.

Think of it as: 'Buffy, the Vampire Slayer' meets 'Blade' meets 'Interview with the Vampire' meets 'Edward Scissorhands' -- all in one romanticized, glamourised, de-horrorized vampire movie.

First stop: Finally, a bunch of goodlooking 'daywalkers'! A daywalker is a vampire who can walk under daylight. Wesley Snipes in 'Blade' was the first one I can remember. But who would want to watch a love story between an African-American vampire and a white American girl with divorced parents? The daywalkers in this movie have style, taste and hot wheels, while Wesley Snipes had a long sword, a long face and a long....yunnow... vampire life! Ha-ha-ha! 

Second. Edward Cullens, the boy vampire, looked uncannily similar to Johnny Depp's 'Edward Scissorhands'. The pale face, the awkwardness and of course, the big hair! Not to mention the first name. But these vampires' make-up is all very 'Interview with the Vampire'-ish. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were still goodlooking in their anemic faces and bleached fangs, remember? So are Edward and his clan.

The movie's main plot is all about the forbidden romance. Forbidden by a local native American tribe, that is. Wow! The Indians had a pact with vampires! An ancient memorandum of understanding! Ha-ha-ha! The Indians wanted the vampires to reconstruct the vampire foodchain. I can't understand that the fuss is just about the forbidden romance. Gosh, the girl-meets-vampire relationship between Bella (the girlfriend) and Edward (the vampire) - between a mortal and an immortal - is even less complicated than the joint custody arrangement between Bella's divorced parents! The poor girl had to shuttle between the deserts of Phoenix and the rain forests of Washington.

And speaking of shuttling, Bella transferred into a new school in Washington, where oddly, there was no school bully and no popular girls; only a bunch of vampire misfits who actually want to graduate from high school! Perhaps, they're determined to have fallback career in case bloodsucking requires a high school diploma. And in their hundreds of years of roaming the earth, they have amassed quite a lot of alma maters.

These daywalkers have golden eyes. Elizabeth Taylor should be envious. Hers are only violet. And their skin shines like diamonds when struck by sunlight. No wonder Bella wants a vampire for a boyfriend. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, or in this case, a boyfriend. She doesn't need to insert him into her finger. It's him who can insert....oops. Let's stop there. Ha-ha-ha!

As expected, to show off their super-vampire strength, the immortals can leap and run at Formula One speeds. The tree-to-tree leap scenes reminded me of Zang Ziyi's leaps from 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' while running away from the overweight Chow Yun-Fat, on the bamboos of Eastern China.

One thing you can learn from these daywalkers are the mastery on how to conceal eyebags. Just like New York City, these vampires never sleep! Yet, no eyebags! Ryan Agoncillo can learn from them (oops, sorry!).

Bella falling in love with a vampire is very 'Buffy, the Vampire Slayer'-ish. But only for the 'good' vampire. We have seen this before. And how uncanny that her nickname sounds like the most iconic vampire actor of the 20th century, Bela Lugosi. Hmmm. How original. 

Well, it's okay if you skip watching these vampires. But if you don't, I tell you the big fuss is actually no fuss at all, even if you watch it during twilight, daylight, or no light at all. 

As what they say about some people, 'all bark and no bite'. In case of these vampires, it's just all about the bite."

* * * * *

And as my Canadian friend Mario and I drove through the Washington State that same winter, I was wondering if those vampires were somewhere jumping from one snowed pine tree to another.

After all, Forks, that town where Bella lived in the movie, was just around the corner.

And I thought, in case they jumped on us, fangs and all, they would be in for a garlicky surprise. Ha-ha-ha!

But no vampire, daywalker or otherwise, messed up with our road trip that day. I guess they were all celebrating the success of their movie that time, somewhere.  

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A Pinoy Lunch at Hyehwa-Dong

I finally had a good reason to go back to Hyehwa-dong today:  my friend Polly has never had a Pinoy lunch there!

So I met up with her at the Exit 1 of the Hyehwa Station (where we could already hear some Tagalog being spoken) and walked to the Pinoy Market, while checking out the shops and cafes along Daehangno. We got there past 1PM on purpose. Why? We would have been starving by then and, by that time, there would be less crowds at the Pinoy restaurants since the Holy Mass at the Catholic Church starts by 1:30PM. Most Pinoys would have been inside the church already. 

And after passing through the Pinoy market and marked the goodies we wanted to bring home, we crossed the street and went up to one of the three Pinoy restaurants.

With choices of Kare-kare, dinuguan, papaitan, adobong atay, sinigang na baboy (and what else?), we had a yummy Pinoy lunch!

With two choices of ulam and a rice for the price of W5,000, it was worth the trip!

And after stuffing ourselves while chatting, we went back to the Pinoy market to pick up our goodies: bananacue, empanada and a cassava delicacy that tasted like alupe!

And we weren't at all surprised that even non-Pinoys hovered, shopped and enjoyed the Pinoy dishes and delicacies at the market. 

And while carrying our goodies, Polly and I walked around Daehangno to see the back streets and theaters before getting on a train back home.

We will definitely go back there again, siguro during warmer temperatures. And when we do, I will try the menudo and the pancit and the pinakbet and the....

The Oscars Coverage in Korea Sucks!

A week before the 83rd Academy Awards, I I was so looking forward to watch Channel CGV's airing of the 83rd Academy Awards on Monday night.


Because of the difference in time zones, the Oscars were being held Sunday night in Los Angeles, while it was Monday morning in Korea, a work day. And even though the channel aired it live, it was impossible to watch.


And so, I looked forward to watch the replay of the show on Monday night, but was just disappointed.


On Monday night, the whole show was turned into a 'highlights' of sorts, where selected scenes, awards and speeches were squeezed into an hour of incoherent sequencing, where Korean subtitles (on the right side of the TV screen) competed for your attention alongside the laughing, comments and coughing (!) of Korean voice-overs. 


Well, it's Channel CGV's prerogative to turn the 83rd Academy Awards into one hour of horrible editing.


I guess they just don't know how to handle Hollywood's biggest night.

The Birds Are Back...

In the rural Philippines, all year-round, a typical 'alarm clock' that wakes everyone up is the crowing of the rooster. 


In Seoul, if you're living in a residential area, the irritating noise from the loudspeakers on trucks selling fruits and vegetables in the early morning will not just wake you up, it will also ruin the rest of your day!


But today, I was awakened not by a rooster nor by an ajussi selling fruits. I was awakened by the birds! 


My winter mornings have been really quiet during the past months, but today, for the first time, the chirping of the birds, which I imagined were jumping from one branch to another on my neighbor's tree, and twig by twig, slowly building a nest which I may see taking shape soon, woke me up.


So the birds are back, back from their migration and back in the neighborhood. Tree, that is.

It's Spicy! It's Healthy! It's... AL-TANG!

When that tuna restaurant next to my work place closed down two years ago, I thought there wasn't any other place where I could get one of my favorite dishes.


But lucky me (as always!), I discovered there was another one nearby! A sushi restaurant across the street also serves Al-Tang! 

Al-Tang literally means 'fish-eggs stew', and gastronomically, it means 'yummy'! Ha-ha-ha!

Indeed, it is! It's a boiling, spicy stew with fish eggs (roe) and lots of mushrooms, onions and other veggies, and seasoned with flavors which make me drool....while I finish this sentence. Ha-ha-ha!

Compared to another stew, Buddae-jji-gae, I think I would prefer Al-Tang. And this one must also be enjoyed with rice. Plus, they serve lots of side dishes that compliment whatever you're having!  With people even queuing for a table at lunch time, this restaurant is a neighborhood favorite!

I should have my bowl of Al-Tang soon, and I should be there early!