Learning Japanese

I got this from someone on my livejournal friend’s list. I love reading stories of people living in my two favourite cities, one of them is New York and the other, Tokyo. I picked up Japanese last year because I’ve always wanted to learn it but never got around to it till recently. When I did, I was both thrilled yet not. I love being able to understand it once sensei taught it, but I abhorred having to study for it. As my piano teacher once said accurately, I love learning new things, I just don’t have it in me to practice.

So my JLPT 5 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) is coming up in December. I’ve signed up for it but I don’t think I will go for it. I keep finding reasons as to why there isn’t any point to going for certification. I won’t get to use it, even if I were to get certified, I’ll probably forget everything soon since I’m not continuing with Intermediate class. And the best reason of all, it’s best to not be able to speak Japanese while in Japan coz if you get stopped by the authorities, you can speak English and get away with everything. But that’s a story for another day.

But I long to find ways to practice my Japanese. My friend Bibs learnt Japanese by watching hours of videos of her favourite band SMAP. It seems the rage for boy bands in Japan to star in some comedy show or other. They are often found doing funny silly things, like the video clip above (although these 2 are comedians). She quickly learnt how to speak Japanese, despite not being able to read it at all. Once during a karaoke session, she picked a Japanese song to sing to and she sang every word perfectly, all from memory, while I stumbled along trying to read the Hiragana before they disappeared off the screen.

So I tried to find ways to practice Japanese her way but I’m no fan of any boy band so there was no real motivation. But this video is still the funniest thing ever.

Ippudo, Mandarin Gallery

I thought I’d be on a “new cafe” roll when we decided to have brunch at Wild Honey. However, the line was really long and it was way past brunch time so we hopped into Ippudo on the 4th floor of Mandarin Gallery instead.

I’ve never been a fan of ramen as it always tasted like instant noodles to me. I’m a picky eater and ramen at run-of-the-mill places like Ajisen shouldn’t count. but like I said, since the dish never appealed, I never made it a point to try proper ramen until I got to Japan. I was on a trip with my boss and she asked what was it i wanted to eat while in Tokyo. I stated plainly BEEF and she asked if there’s anything I’d avoid and I said ramen. at that, her face dropped a little and she confessed that she had wanted to bring me to a tiny ramen stall just around our hotel at Ginza and eat her favourite ramen. I acquiesced to her craving, she signs my paycheck anyway, so she brought me to this hole in the wall that served one of the best ramen I’ve ever eaten. ever since then, I thought I didn’t mind giving good ramen a chance.

Ippudo opened at Mandarin Gallery to great crowds. It’s practically impossible to get a seat and every time we went there, there’s a long line. Today, we were slightly luckier since we were in between meals and the crowd was sorta clearing, so we got a table under 10 minutes.

Deep fried chicken. my favourite fried chicken is still the one we had from a Korean restaurant at St Marks  in New York, which served the best spicy fried chicken in the world. they brought the branch to Ion called Bonchon but the standard isn’t as good as in New York, although it is still pretty good. so when I saw this on the menu, I couldn’t resist ordering it.

Richard ordered what sounded like char siew bao on the menu but turned out to be kong bak bao. and it was the yummiest kong bak bao ever. it’s a soft white bun with a slice of crispy lettuce, a layer of japanese mayo and succulent barbecued pork loin sandwiched in between. 3 bucks for one kong bak bao that we had to share but yummmmmy!

and their famous Ippudo Tao Kuro ramen. the noodles are springy, the soup is thick and yummy, served with a layer of special miso paste (the black stuff) and garlic oil, topped with 2 pieces of pork belly. I LOVE PORK BELLY!

Sumono (Okonomiyaki), Prinsep Street

We discovered Sumomo at Prinsep yesterday which serves Okonomiyaki. Actually we had always known it was there coz we eat at the Italian/Persian restaurant next door but i never knew it was an Okonomiyaki restaurant.

HOW TO COOK YOUR OWN OKONOMIYAKI guide // condiments clearly labeled.

it reminded me of the Okonomiyaki restaurant we went to in Japan after our radiohead concert. it’s called Okonomiyakiwahahahaha and the lines were really long. the boys who greeted us as we entered were the typical loud japanese WELCOME TO OUR RESTAURANT WAHAHAHA variety. they cooked it for us and dumped our Okonomiyaki before us. Linda and I pigged out massively.

But at Sumomo or Sumono (i’m not sure which), we had the choice of cooking it for ourselves which i made Bryan do it. they served a mix of egg, prawn, squid, cabbage, and a bunch of other things that goes into an Okonomiyaki. you toss it on an oiled grill pan and watch it fry. minutes later, just flip it over. really easy peasy!

they ran out of hamburg steak so Bryan ordered a yakisoba, which is basically mee goreng actually. i’ve always thought hamburg steak was some danish / swedish / austrian type of food until i realised it’s merely hamburger patty without the bread.

they had really yummy deep fried salmon skin and grilled corn. mmm i never thought i’d love corn so much.