Yoga progress

On my recent holiday to Korea, I did a headstand in the Bukhansan National Park. Before that, I did it at Halong Bay, Vietnam. It struck me that it's been a year since I successfully attempted the tripod headstand unsupported. It was a milestone for me then, but since, because I haven't put in additional effort to practise, my yoga progress has been.. naught. It's true, that what you reap is what you sow; cos when you don't, there is nothing to account for.


This morning, I did not manage a long run due to the storm, and instead, did my usual ashtanga practice (standing series). I have been doing this for 2+ years now, and have made no progress. At the end of that practice, I decided to try a headstand. I had tried it once before and felt it was super hard and today was no exception.



This looks deceivingly simple.

Faith in my trusty walls

That one second that I managed to stay up.

I enjoy yoga, as it gives me a chance to stretch yet sweat it out slightly. I like yoga for the benefits my body reaps from it. I also like the challenge that seemingly simple poses are actually not; not at all! I also like to know that as with any other sport, progress can be tracked by how I do it and/or how I improve for many different poses.


Since my last yoga progress post, I haven't been doing that much at all. So it's a good reminder to self to keep going. Let this be a new challenge to myself, that I wish to continue to practise; not that I needed a reason to, but it's always nice to have a check to track how it's going.


Onwards, we surge on this #fitnessjourney!

Day 4 - a full day of eating in Osaka

So the night before, the husband and I discussed of doing some running to explore Osaka, and do something touristy like visiting Osaka castle.


That did not happen because we did not set alarms and though the husband woke up before me, he let me sleep in. It's day 4 already and I was still paying my sleep debt. It felt so good! I swear the debt must have started since Jan 3, since I had to be responsible for school runs!


Anyhow, because it was already this late (10ish), we aborted plan to run and headed for food instead. We washed up and headed to the subway underground; and found a street of restaurants. We picked ramen and headed in. The joint was cosy, noisy with chitter-chatter and we shared a bowl of ramen and dumplings. I still felt sleepy.

Burp.

While sipping my coffee and slowly waking up (at brunch), I read about Endo sushi - it appeared on several links and came recommended. The husband and I decided that we should go and eat there, because it was Saturday and it was the only chance we had to eat it. So off we went. We decided to take a cab there.

Where we got dropped off.

Our cab driver did not speak English and let's just say that the GPS wasn't 100% accurate; because this place we were standing at did not look like any sort of restaurant. We were smack in the middle of a housing estate. We relied on the husband's GPS and trotted our way out of there... and found this.

Fishing port/market sorta thing

The sun was blazing hot and it felt really dry and uncomfortable to be walking. Thankfully, I had an umbrella! It was about 1pm when we found Endo Sushi... and there was also a long Q.

Hello, Endo Sushi!

As we'd made it all the way here, we joined the queue and waited as patiently as we could. The restaurant closed at 2pm and we weren't entirely sure if we would get to the front in time.

At 1.15pm, the restaurant staff took a "closed" sign and put it at the back of this q. WE HAD MADE IT.
Also, see how I fit right in with my umbrella among everyone else?

It took us about an hour+ before our turn. We spent the time by standing around, surfing the internet, getting a tan, watching the others in the queue... and finally, it was our turn!

Inside the tiny joint

Menu

What they pictured was truly what they served!

The husband and I ended up eating a total of 20 sushi each. BURP. Let's just say that we could have ordered less but due to me not understanding/reading Japanese and panicking due to the rushed auntie talking to me in broken English, we ordered a lot. Every sushi was tasty and I guess it's as good as it gets for the place to be as famous as it is. I enjoyed their hearty miso soup (it had a lot more ingredients within, unlike the usual watered down miso version) and the sushi definitely tasted very fresh. The whole place was small and added to the experience, with a Japanese man sitting opposite us at the tiny table in the whole tiny place.

Touristy shot in front of the place where we ate the most sushis we ever
did before

After this, we navigated ourselves to the main city again and strolled along the streets. We shopped a little and soaked in the Saturday hustle and bustle. After strolling about, we also made a stop at a tea house in a quaint English restaurant at the top floor of a shopping center. It was about 6ish when we headed back to the apartment and the husband was psyched for a run. And so we did. I typically do not like to run in the night but we were so full from eating and I felt in need of some balance. We clocked a total of about 7km in 50minutes along the streets of Osaka. The air was slightly muggy, it wasn't too hot nor was it cold; and I felt pretty strong running behind the husband who paced us very comfortably. The streets were in grids and we seemed to do rounds and loops around... it was pretty quiet in some areas but I still felt very safe.


After our run, we strolled along the streets near the apartment and picked out some options we could try for dinner. It was a busy Saturday evening and it felt nice to have sweated it out slightly.

Post-run - pic taken in the living room of apartment

After washing up, we headed to this teppenyaki joint around the corner.

Simple and cosy place

This was some porridge that simmered and cooked in broth and chicken

The dinner place was very pleasant and it was a simple, quiet, non-rushed affair. We did not have to worry about transport or navigating, and the servers in this place were young and friendly. The only peeve we had of Japan in general was that they allowed smoking in the restaurants, so that was something we had no control over, so we just had to put up with it. We did not enjoy it, but it did make us thankful for stricter rules on smoking in many other countries.


Post dinner, we made a pit stop to the mini-mart and stocked up on water and some snacks/beers, then headed back to the apartment.

Our messy living area and that's the bedroom in the background

We made idle chatter and did not make any plans for the next day, and it felt good knowing that we had another full day in Osaka to continue eating!


On this night, I felt a lot more comfortable in the apartment and did not feel as creeped out. Ha!

Day 3 - hello, Osaka

The husband and I had planned to go for the hotel breakfast; but that did not happen as we slept in. We got up just in time to pack our luggage, check out and deposit one bag with the hotel; and the day never really starts for me until I get my coffee fix. Thankfully, I got one cuppa while we made our way to the airport bus-stop for our ride to the airport.



Good company

See? Coffee makes me such a nicer person in the morning

After checking in, the husband and I had time for an early lunch. We looked for simple fare at their version of a food court and each picked our food type.

Noodles for him, stew for her.

Onboard the plane

It was a short flight of about 2 hours and it did not take long for me to nap. The husband was perplexed that I did because I usually never ever take naps. I think it was truly a time for my body to recalibrate and rest. Felt awesome.


Upon arrival, we made our way to the train station and tried to figure out the way to our hotel. It took us an hour from the Osaka Kansai Airport to the Osaka Station. We had trusty printouts with broken English instructions that led us from 'cross the road/ see a tall building/ go straight', and with my capable and strong husband who navigated and controlling our one piece of luggage, we found our apartment!

Enroute to our apartment

Don't be jelly of my strong, personal butler! He's also veh handsome.  

And from this pic, he also looks veh tall (short doors!)

At this stage, I was famished. It was nearly 3-4pm and we had brunch ages ago and I had a headache from being hungry. Bleagh. We literally sat in our small apartment for a few minutes and I said, "let's go now. We need to eat!" Thankfully, being in a central area, we found a restaurant that was open and hopped right in.

Menu in handwritten Jap. Google translate failed us.

When in Japan, eat sushi!

I was a much happier person once I had food in my belly. I do not do hunger well. After this light dinner of beer, sushi and some beef; the husband and I wasted no time to head to Dotonburi, the main stretch of attraction in Osaka. Summer is great, because the skies were still bright despite it being past 6pm, and the whole place exuded a buzz with lots of chatter, tourists and happy vibes.

Greetings from Dotonburi, Osaka 

We strolled the streets and saw food, food and more food. It was sheer heaven for us! Hah!
 

Takoyaki - we had to try, despite not being fans of sotong

Besides that, we also had beers with meat-sticks (yum), along the river with music playing, we also tried crab feet, and took in the ambience. It felt truly surreal that we were now in Japan when we were only in Seoul hours ago. Hooray to travel and new experiences! After a few hours, our tummy was full and we decided to take train back to our apartment.


Wasn't hard, and we managed to figure out the short train ride back to our apartment; train station Umeda. So, a funny thing happened on this ride where the husband made an observation that there were many females in Japan; I took a look around our cabin and nodded my head in agreement. At a train stop, the doors opened and it struck me that the whole cabin had plenty of pink stickers all around. It donned on us that we had inadvertently stepped into a female-only cabin! HAHAHA!

Don't read Jap, but those Chinese words say "female"... oops!

When we got to our station, it took us another half hour to figure out where our apartment was. The streets all looked similar and the underground roads made everything look identical. Thankfully, the husband had GPS on his watch and we made it back. We topped up on water, snacks and beer, and headed back. It felt so early for a Friday (it was, maybe midnight?) but I did not know where else to go, or how much more my tummy could take and so we headed back to chill in our living room.
I felt slightly uncomfortable in this new/strange place that wasn't a hotel and took a shower with the doors ajar, plus waited for the husband to be ready to go into the bedroom together. Just felt slightly creeped out. Ha!


What a first day in Japan! 

Day 2 - visiting Kyungbukgong and Itaewon

I awoke this morning feeling... surreal. After being so busy the past weeks, and needing to wake up at 6am for mandatory school run; suddenly not having something to wake up to have to do felt amazing.


The husband shared that I slept so quickly and soundly the night before - my response was that I was truly knackered and this sleep in felt so good for my body and soul.


This morning, we decided to go for a run. We figured out where the Kyungbukgong palace was - not too far from where we were - and set off. I thought that we were going to go for a jog then head back to the hotel... so I did not bring anything with me (no phone). It turned out that we were out for 4 hours! Not only did we run to the palace, we made it there just at 9am when it was open to public; so we purchased tickets and went in.


We spent the next 2 hours strolling and walking about the expansive palace grounds, looking at the old buildings and talking about random stuff like "how did they move from one spot to another?" / "no wonder they had horses" / "oooo this is not really real. they revamped it before in 19xx" / "the house for the father is bigger than the house for the mother" / ... you get the gist.


In total, we clocked 10km and though we did not run the whole time, it still felt nice to be out sweating a little plus doing something touristy. The husband and I lounge like lazy tourists a lot and it's nice that we found something to do besides, lounging. We passed their museum of sorts and there was an exhibition on the grass patch about their path to freedom... it was mildly depressing to see the pictures and read the bits of English copy that was available, and I love that it was totally a random activity!


It was near lunch by the time we were done and we re-traced our way back to the hotel and settled for lunch on a Korean restaurant at City Hall. He had a beef stew, I had a bimbimbap along with beer/coffee and the usual buffet of picked vegetables - so yum! We beat the lunch crowd and it was interesting to observe how the locals eat their pickled vegetables. I know I devour kimchi pretty much on its own; but I think the locals eat it more as an accompaniment #greedymuch And by the way, we had lunch in our sweaty running gear amidst the locals who were in their work clothes. I love how ghetto we are - I love holidays with no rules!


After the satisfying meal, we slowly strolled back to the hotel and sat down on a bench - just because. The sun was out, our seat was in the shade and it felt... really nice not rushing anywhere or doing anything.


We made it back to the hotel and washed up. I felt a bit sad that we had no pictures from this morning, but it's fine because the fact is that holidays at meant to be for whims, and to be flexible is key to not caring too much.


After washing up, we decided to head to the malls to shop. We headed for Shinshegae, a mall that was a short stroll away.

But first, a wefie in the hotel lift.

Funnily, we bumped into a couple and their kids in our hotel lobby. School holiday period sees us many Singaporeans travelling to popular spots! The afternoon was spent strolling about... we replenished necessities like socks; and did a tour around the supermarkets. We stopped for another small meal (shared) of fried pork with rice set; before continuing to shop.

Our between-lunch-and-dinner-snack (because share ok)

The husband decided to head back to rest and I then ventured about the malls alone. Myeongdong is the strip of shopping fiesta and I knew I'd have no problems entertaining myself/passing time. I specifically went to hunt for this StyleNanda Hotel, because it's something new and quite novel.

Laundry level

Hotel lobby leading to rooms

Bed

Mandatory colour tasting - yup, that's a bathtub in the background

The whole block was pink on the outside, and each level had a different theme that served to be like a real hotel (it's not). I thought it quite adorable and the concept quite interesting. When I got tired, I headed back to the hotel to meet the husband. We decided to head to a new area he's never been - Itaewon. We took a train there.


With no specific destination in mind, we strolled along and decided on this restaurant.

Busan Galbi - Korean BBQ

My personal chef

Stone coals and fresh meat - best combo!

We had a super filling meal of meats and veg and picked veg and beer.... it was amazing. I was so stuffed that I had instant food coma. No, for real. I sat there in a daze... enjoying the buzz in the restaurant, enveloped in food smells and just soaking in the holiday. It felt so great.


After we managed to roll off our chairs, the husband and I walked about the streets of Itaweon. A lot of shops were closed due to it being a weekday night, and while we saw signs of 'Itaewon market', we didn't see anything much at all. We ended the night with dessert - the husband had cake, and I had ice-cream. Then, we took a cab back to the hotel.


For the second night in a row, I concussed into deep sleep. Oh, such bliss!

Goodbye Singapore, Seoul good!

I was re-reading my previous entry, and - this is a good thing - I had forgotten how busy I was pre-holiday.  Truly, a break for the seoul (pun intended!) is so important, to not do regular stuff with regular food/things/people; and develop/enjoy different routine from the one we have daily; to remind us of the fun there is out there. A reminder of the goodness and differences the world offers; to remind us not to wallow in our little minds only because the world is so big.


So after the mad weeks leading up to this holiday; I had the night before to pack (but of course, we must wait until this last moment to pack. No other way to lead life except on the edge, right ha ha ha). While that was happening, my mind was burdened by the fact that K was running a fever. It was 2 nights in a row that I was up several times a night to check on her temperature.
As she was on school holidays, there was minimal disruption but as with each illness bout, there is always the worry of it escalating.



This is what happens when you have a sick child

Thankfully, her fever was under control and with the helper and MIL holding the fort, I managed to go relatively happily. After kissing the children goodbye, I bade farewell to the MIL who woke up to lock the doors behind me.


Date: 14 Jun 2017
Flight: 0800


The skies were still dark as I boarded the cab this Wednesday morning; and as I left the house in the good hands of those at home, I felt my breathing becoming more stable, less anxious and it felt like the holiday was starting. I got to the airport punctually (after my encounter where I missed the flight, I've developed a phobia!) and had to quickly run an errand of picking up our wifi router. The husband had forgotten to do so and it was a nice episode where I met a kind and helpful counter staff that enabled me to pick up the router from T3 (than going to T2) and I was so happy. On this positive start, I went to seek for caffeine.

Hello lounge

While the food was free (yay), the selection on this morning wasn't great. I appreciated the caffeine kick (2 cups, so tired!) and slowly, I headed to board. On-board, I had a meal, watched 1.5 movies, had some G&T and took a short nap. It was afternoon by the time I reached Incheon Airport. I last went to Korea in January 2016 and the airport looked familiar. With guidance of pictures and instructions from the husband, I successfully made my way to our meeting point. The husband forgetting to pick up the router turned out to be a good thing, as it meant that while he had free wifi at the hotel; I was also contactable being in transit. So hooray #thankfulforallgoodstuff

Bus tickets from airport to town

While on the airport bus, the husband texted me that he was waiting for me to eat this tart:

Pablo

I hadn't known of Pablo, but it was so sweet of him to wait for me to eat it together. It took me about an hour+ to get to our designated meeting spot (a particular bus stop) and along the way, familiar sights triggered me back to our last family holiday in Korea.

The bus stop was just around the corner from this 'castle'
(just like how I remember in my memory)

I got off the bus and waited for the husband. At this point, it was probably about 4pm. It felt so nice to see him! It was only 2 days since I last saw him but it felt amazing to be reunited. I requested to go to the hotel to wash up - I felt really grimey after travelling the past 9 hours.


We headed to the hotel and I showered, while sharing the tart. That pic above does not give true justification to the size of the tart - it was not an individual serving of a tart; but a whole tart! I had a slice and after showering, I felt alive again and was ready to take a walk. My legs felt really cramped and in-need of a stretch.


The husband and I walked around aimlessly along the streets of Myeongdong, which was a road across from our hotel. It felt nice to have no real need to rush or do anything, and after a bit, we finally settled on a seafood meal. While I'm not a big fan, the husband totally enjoyed himself. I now realise that we only had this once throughout and I hope it was enough that he had a chance to have this at all.

See our seafood

Is that too much food for two?!

After the very filling meal, we continued walking the streets (omg, we were so full) before heading back to rest. The husband said that I crashed very quickly and I think that's no surprise given the lead-up to this break; plus I felt very happy to (1) be full from our meal (2) to be on holiday (3) to be with the husband on holiday.


Hooray, end of day 1.

Welcome home

The husband and I were away on our couple holiday of the year! And of course, we're now back.

A welcome note from our children

It's nice to be back, and lovely to know that the children were independent enough to have a rocking good time in our absence.


It struck me that it's just as well that we did this kinda-surprise trip; as the year will be taken up much by real adult responsibilities. Am thankful that we had the holiday and that all is well. I'll slowly document our trip for this year, as I re-savour the lovely holiday we had (hopefully soon)!


Today marks the first day back at school and regular programming for us all, adults and children alike, so hello, reality.

Happy 爸爸节

The husband and I will not be around on Father's Day (18 Jun), so we had a meal a week earlier for yum cha.

Love, love, love these people

As we all get busy with lives, it's time that is most precious for us to give to one another.

Love this crazy bunch of love