Bisdak Babbles

“26 persons — 23 civilians and three soldiers — killed in fighting triggered by attacks by fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Lanao del Norte province on Monday, officials said.” Inquirer.net

These killings happened just a few kilometers away from our house.  Some of those casualties may had been my acquaintances.  I called my family a while ago and they’ve evacuated the children (including Shaynna) to Iligan City.  But my mother, along with some cousins are staying at my house tonight for fear of burglars.

Dear friends, I ask for your prayers for the safety of my family, friends, neighbors, the soldiers, and everyone in Lanao del Norte.  For the families of those casualties, that they may find strength and healing.  For the deceased, that they may enter into the fullness of eternal joy, despite the injustice that they had went through.

Taken near Coogee Beach in Sydney, Australia, in March 2006
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When you’re far from home, it would help a lot if you have someone you can talk to about just anything, over a cup of coffee. But do you know that it’s hard to find a coffee shop here in Osaka that’s open 24 hours? Even the Starbucks cafe in Umeda, Osaka’s main northern railway terminus, is open only up to 2:00AM. The Starbucks cafe closest to my apartment and to the Shin-Osaka station is open only up to 10:00PM! We’re glad to have found this cafe (Travel Cafe) because it closes later than Starbucks. It closes at 11:00PM.

The biggest *shotengai in Osaka runs through the Dotonbori, near the Namba station. It’s one of the most crowded places in Osaka. It may be flooded with people, but it’s still one of the most famous meeting places because of this crab, a very effective landmark:

For over a year of staying in Osaka, finally I was able to pose in Dotonbori with some friends:


* A shōtengai (商店街) is a style of Japanese commercial district running along a certain street.

Stephen of Sun Jun visited Osaka. Reunited with other ex-officemates, I shamelessly feasted on all-you-can-eat buffet! And after more than a year, I was able to eat leche flan again!

I really miss hanging out with friends from company #4. It’s really nice seeing you here, Steph!

By the way, in the Philippines, we refer to all-you-can-eat buffet as “eat-all-you-can“. But here in Japan, it is referred to as “viking“. Dunno why…

Days ago, Akane-san and I we went to a takoyaki (literally fried or baked octopus) restaurant here in Osaka. I love takoyaki but cooking it is entirely a different story. In that restaurant, a stuff just pour the ingredients onto those takoyaki pans. The rest is up to the diners. Forming a decent takoyaki was an impossible feat and we ended up eating deformed and burnt takoyaki. But it was fun and the food was still delicious.

Basically, the staff just dumped these into the takoyaki pan:

After much struggle, here’s the almost cooked takoyaki:

And the ladies who took the takoyaki challenge:

I was really surprised, but was of course, delighted when I heard Mayen was coming to Osaka. She arrived last month but I’m really busy nowadays that I only got to meet her yesterday! We went to Osaka’s electronic gadgets haven in Den Den Town. As always, I almost drooled over those really cool gadgets but for now, they’re for my eyes only. Mayen already made mental note on what to buy on her next visit. We concluded our reunion with a quick tour at Namba parks and of course… pictures! Here they are….

Why I call ourselves Maruho Duo? We worked on the same project before, code named “Maruho”. That project was really unforgettable. I experienced staying in the office for more than 24 hours and there were occasional “ghost” encounters…

I forgot to mention that I haven’t seen Mayen for almost 4 years!