Lioness in Japan

Happy birthday to the kangaroo! Today is the actual day but his birthday feels longer than an Indian wedding twice over. He has had celebrations in New York, Wiesbaden, Singapore (twice: once with friends and once with my folks as shown in the photos above), Sydney (will post this soon), tonight with Mrs Kangaroo who flew in from Sydney this morning, and the grand finale this Saturday with our Tokyo friends.

I think he actually likes being 40…since he is celebrating it so many times…o.o

(If you are reading this, you are like good wine — you get better as you get older *muacks*)

If you know the kangaroo personally, you wouldn’t be surprised by the fact that he is celebrating his birthday “around the world” – four birthday parties in four cities to herald in his big 40th. He really likes a good party, as they say Down Under.

This photo is evidence of his first 40th birthday party in NYC with a small group of friends at Rye in Williamsburg. His two requirements for choosing a restaurant for his birthday celebrations are great meat and cocktails.

Rye delivered on both fronts with their amazing Southside gin cocktail with muddled cucumber and lime and a monstrous serving of grass fed beef steak for two (he shared it with a friend) – he declared it was melt-in-your-mouth.

The restaurant also helped me look like an attentive wife. For his chocolate mud cake dessert, they stuck a candle in and wrote happy birthday in chocolate sauce on the plate. They must have heard us toast happy birthday to the kangaroo because none of our friends made the birthday request, and I forgot in the whole whirlwind of chatting with various friends in the bustling restaurant.

Excellent food, booze, and company – what a great way to kick off his month-long birthday celebration.

The kangaroo has a particular style of photography that is very unique. He either likes my head in a corner with a great view of something spectacular (e.g. the Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road, or Mount Fuji) or he would align my head with something sticking out of it.

With the Washington Monument, he couldn’t resist his favourite mise en scène.

He thought it was excellent photography.

So when it was his turn, I was happy to oblige.

Remember the kangaroo’s foray into green smoothies? Well, I’m sad to report that his health kick is over. He got better and dissed my green smoothie two weeks after his first glass. He’s now back to his berry smoothies which is better than nothing, I suppose. How do you get your man to eat more fresh vegetables? I mean, he’s not a child so you can’t actually “hide” it…

I used to sneak lettuce into his morning berry smoothies at home. They looked pink/blue/purple like they should but after oxidizing, they would turn grey, so he knew something was up. I also tried chucking in berry-flavoured wheatgrass which was undetectable. The surprise on his face was priceless when I told him, but it made him very suspicious of his food, so I stopped.

I’m back to leaving it to the hands of the universe. Everyone’s path is different and you cannot force yours onto others.

The shopping in New York is so friggin’ amazing. Everything is cheaper here and the variety is considerable. There is something for everyone in this town. I took some non-food photos to prove I do think about other things other than my stomach…

I bought five Butter London nail polishes and a whole host of other beauty products that have no no real place in this blog. I binged on Essie, Maybelline, L’Oreal, MAC, Benefit, Too Faced, etc. Sephora was my favourite haunt. I also took a day trip to Woodburry Commons, a huge outlet mall in New Jersey, 90 minutes from New York by bus. The kangaroo also shopped and shopped with me. Yeah, that’s a past-time we share — going to outlet malls.

“Why would you buy anything at full retail price after this?” wondered the kangaroo. He spotted Timberland stuff for USD40 and below and lamented he paid over SGD200 for a shirt and pants in Singapore to look decent for a game of golf with my dad.

What I realized about old New York apartments is that while they are quaint, their toilets may not capture the same fuzzy feelings.

I found myself embroiled in a stuck toilet situation one late morning. Laugh at me if you will but I have been blessed with living in places where toilets run very efficiently, almost like obedient sentient beings that never take a break. So being faced with this delicate situation was something I was unprepared for.

“The toilet is stuck! What do I do?” “A plunger? I have to plunge the toilet? Can we get a plumber?” I SMSed the kangaroo furiously.

I was given very detailed instructions on how to cover the toilet hole with the plunger and plunge with all my might till the paper or whatever was clogging the loo comes out. Ew.

Apparently, the kangaroo typed all this out on his iPhone while he was negotiating a deal on how his brand of software could possibly change the face of advertising in the television industry.

Both very important and urgent matters indeed.

Although I’m no longer strictly a veggie-gal, I still have a strong affinity to all things gluten-free, dairy-free, etc. I had to pay a visit to vegan cupcake mecca, Babycakes, a cute little store that sells healthy vegan AND soy-free cupcakes.

They don’t use refined sugar either and their cupcakes taste GOOD and are not overly loaded with sweetness. It’s sort of like how I would like my cupcakes to turn out but I have no idea how to make them so dreamy and yet so healthy.

The kangaroo loves them too and even bought a second batch voluntarily. He wasn’t even trying to get into my good books. He just really likes them.

Still on the house tour theme, today’s picture shows a pair of pretty Japanese cups (for tea or shouchu) with our names in katakana. They were given to us as a wedding gift by the kangaroo’s co-worker.

We live in a fairly Western-style house but we have touches of Japanesey things which remind me that we are indeed living in Japan.

I like showing you around the house. Today’s nook has us in a cupboard as paper dolls, a handmade gift from a pair of Japanese brothers who also gave us fancy schmancy glasses as wedding gifts.

I was floored by the creativity and it’s not often I get something made from scratch and with such a great sense of humour! I think the kangaroo’s shoes are awesome!

We have a kawaii corner in our living room where we have stuffed animals and other animal type ornaments which is probably the most Japanese part of our house, barring the toilet with all its snazzy buttons and functions.

The Hello Kitty and Snoopy toys were given as telegrams by friends who couldn’t make it to our Hokkaido wedding. They sent them to the reception table with letters of congratulations. The red dragon was bought by me for the Chinese New Year party in Jan and the kangaroo thought it would be cool to have a dragon mascot for the year of the dragon. Hopefully that could translate to being a good year for us.

The rabbits were last year’s New Year gift by friends because it was the year of the rabbit.

And the bird in the cage is actually a tea strainer, gifted by visiting friends from Hong Kong. It’s too pretty to use daily but I would whip this out at dinner parties.

The little “Casper” dolls are called teru teru bozu which are supposed to ward off bad weather. They are not animals but they are cute, especially with the blue is for boys, red is for girls, theme going on. The hotel we had the wedding at gave us these dolls to help us get sunny skies on the actual day, but alas, it was windy, snowy, and chilly. But the wedding indoors turned out really beautiful and the kangaroo and I still managed to take a great photo frame worthy moment with us outside against the great Niseko countryside.