Tag Archives: japan

Bisdak Babbles’ 6th year!

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As I celebrate my little girl’s 8th birthday, I’m also celebrating this blog’s 6th year!

I started this blog as “Idle Moments” in October 2006. I later renamed it to “Bisdak Babbles”. In 2008, I transferred from Blogger.com to this domain. Am I going to continue blogging? Yes, definitely!


I started this blog in Japan, so the photo to include in this post should be from Japan ^^

To mark this milestone, here’s 6 my of “6ths”:

France is the 6th country I have visited. I was able to stay in Paris for two nights and two days when I was sent to Lisbon, Portugal on a business trip in 2011. The first five countries I visited were: Japan, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport is the 6th international airport I’ve been to. I decided to go through Kuala Lumpur on my way back home to Philippines in December 2009. The first five airports were: Narita*, Kagoshima*, Sydney, Kansai* and Changi International Airport here in Singapore. And the least crowded airport was Kagoshima.

A very nice and quiet Shiojiri City in Nagano is the 6th city in Japan that I’ve visited. I stayed there for about 3 months when I was a trainee at Epson in 2001. Our apartments were very nice, too. I can still remember clearly how nice the bath tub was! The first first five cities were: Yokohama, Tokyo, Nagoya,, Kyoto, and Osaka. Yes, I’ve already been to Osaka before I went back to Japan in 2006.

The current company I’m working for is my 6th. I’ve been in this company for almost 4 years, my longest stay so far. I previously worked for companies in Philippines and Japan.

The 6th plane ride I took was from Kagoshima to Tokyo in 2001. It was the end of my training in Epson. It was such a sad day for me. After my 7 months stay in Kagoshima, I came to love the place. I hope I would have the chance to visit that city again.

Finally, on my 6th birthday, there was a power outage in our area. I know, because it’s in the photos. There were candles other than the ones on my birthday cake!

*Narita, Kagoshima, Kansai are all in Japan

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Mementos of Japan

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February 2009
We received the sad news from our employer that they needed to let us go.

March 2009
An opportunity came and I had to immediately leave Japan. Thus, there was no time for me to mentally and emotionally prepare my self. Three years in Osaka and I came to love the place and accepted it as my second home. I wasn’t able to buy things that would remind me of Japan. Good thing I still have friends over there to buy stuff for me. A few months later, a good friend had the following things delivered to my home in the Philippines. Arigatou, Luanne-san!

A katana!
Yes, it’s not a real sword. And even if I have money to buy a real one, I still wouldn’t. I’m scared of sharp objects. >_<

Japanese dolls

Ukiyoe postcards

Golden bookmark

These things are probably the parting gifts to myself from Japan but I believe that one day, I’m going back there to stay longer. ;)

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Unfinished business

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It’s almost winter in Japan, so for the past few days I’ve been missing Japan a lot. It must now be cold enough to wear 2-3 layers of clothes. I do love winter, maybe because I’ve spent most of my life in the Philippines. I get cold easily but I can just add up another layer of clothing to feel warmer. And it is a nice feeling eating something hot when it’s really cold outside. It’s the best time for ramen and hot green tea! Honestly, I’ve been doing some job searches because I do want to go back to Japan. First, I love the place so much. Second, I have an “unfinished business” there. I never tried skiing, never found out what it feels like wearing Julbo Ski Goggles! I was already there yet I kept putting off the chance. The thickest snow that I’ve seen was during that one day in Osaka. Ohh how I loved it!



Lord, please, grant me the chance to go back to Japan…

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They call it “Okos”

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After years of stay in Japan, I’ve come to love and now, long for Japanese food. Singapore is flooded with Japanese restaurants, mostly sushi bars but so far, none came close to how “real” sushi should taste like. Well, I should not expect much from the budget that I usually dish out.

Aside from sushi, okonomiyaki is another favorite. I even tried to learn making okonomiyaki while I was in Japan. I was so delighted to find that Japanese restaurants here serve okonomiyaki. But in here, they call it “okos”. Sounds weird and up to now, I’m still not comfortable calling my favorite food as such. I’ve tried using its “full” name but I am often not understood.

With the 10SGD budget, I’ve finally found the okonomiyaki that tastes almost like the ones in Japan. The place is close to where I live, too. It’s in Botejyu at the Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town in Tampines One.

The pork okos is not that good. Perhaps it needs a better-tasting bacon on the top. But the seafood okos really tastes great! See how mouth-watering it looks…

I also tried their yakisoba. It tastes OK. Just like any other yakisoba. I suppose they need to put in more of something, like bacon or more slices of cabbage. Nevertheless, I would definitely order again yakisoba from them.

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Fruit Salad

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When you order fruit salad in the Philippines, you’ll wonder where the fruits are because everything is covered with milk and cream. But in Japan and Singapore, they just put in sliced fruits. I don’t really like it much because like in the photo above, I just eat the orange and watermelon slices.

Non-Pinoy style does justice to the name but, I still like the Pinoy version more. Not only because of the milk and cream but because there’s a lot of banana in it.

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Hokkaido in Singapore

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I miss the “real” Japan taste, so I was ecstatic when I received a flyer about the Hokkaido Fair at the Tampines Mall from July 3 to 12. I dropped by last weekend and the venue was crowded.

The usual comment that I heard from the customers? “It’s not so cheap.” If you’re used to the prices in Japan, you’ll find the prices at the fair acceptable because based on the computations I’ve made, I think they have just directly converted the prices to SGD. But I’ve stayed in Singapore for more than 3 months already so I find it not so cheap also. But Hokkaido doesn’t come to Singapore often so I just ignored the guilt I felt and bought Hakodate Maru Cheese Cake and … mentaiko! I miss the ramen in Japan so I might visit the fair again before it ends.

The booth owners are really from Hokkaido that I was so happy to speak in Japanese again, but alarmed at the fact that I’m slowly forgetting the basics. I also miss how the Japanese treat their customers. I wish that would be the same here in Singapore, too.

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“Saifu wa uchita” Scam?

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Some of you might have heard of the “ore ore sagi” here in Japan.  Just an overview, I took this from the article written by Rev. Ai Hironaka:

“In Japan, males refer to themselves as boku or ore, so ore ore sagi is fraud committed by males pretending to be sons or grandsons in need of money. Victims, mostly mothers or grandmothers, receive a frantic phone call from someone who says, “Ore ore!! Ore dayo!! (Mom, it’s me!)” Because the caller is talking and crying at the same time, it is difficult for the distraught mother to truly recognize the voice of her son or grandson. Instead, the frantic mother responds, “Is that you, Ai?” (using her son or grandson’s name). The caller responds, “Yes, it’s me, Ai” and assumes the identity of Ai. Then the caller says, “A debt collector is after me for money I don’t have. If I do not pay now, something terrible will happen to me. Can you put money in an account for me?” And he gives a bank account number.”

This afternoon, I’m pretty sure I fell victim to another type of scam. Let’s just call it the “saifu wa uchita” (I dropped my wallet) scam.  I was in a hurry to my next lesson when an old guy, probably in his 70′s asked me something.  I thought that he was just lost in the confusing underground structure of Osaka.  He was wearing a suit and carried an attache case, an image of the usual “salaried man”.  I told him that I didn’t understand what he said but he rambled on.  He spoke so fast but I was able to pick up some words.

Old guy:  densha … saifu … uchita (train, wallet, fell).
Me: [So, he dropped his wallet on the train. But why ask a foreigner like me instead of going to the lost and found section? I am sure that I'm being tricked.]
Old guy: kaererarenai… okane … kashite … okurimasu yo (can’t go home…money… lend…send)
Me: [Tadaaan! He finally said the "trick" words] Ikura gurai? (How much?)
Old guy: Mie-ken… 3,640 yen. (Mie prefecture … 3,640 yen)

I almost laughed out loud when I heard those words. If my Japanese were any better, I would have told him upfront that the best people to help him were the police. But I was running late so I just told him that I don’t have that amount and I could only give him 500 yen. After giving the 500-yen coin to him, he still asked me if I don’t have any more money! Honestly, I only had 1,500 yen with me.

I was held up for about 5 minutes already so I just said no and continued running. I was in a bad mood after the incident because I knew that I was being tricked but I still gave the old guy something. It was because a little voice in me kept asking… “what if the guy is really telling the truth?”.  At least I gave him something that’s more than enough to use the payphone and contact someone from his home.

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Photohunt: Bridge(s)

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted a photo hunt entry! I’ve been very busy these past few weeks that I didn’t have much time browsing through my photos.

Fortunately, I have lots of photos of bridges so I get to join today. Osaka has many rivers, thus, it has lots of bridges, too. Here’s one of my favorites. This was taken in spring last year after I visited a cherry blossoms orchard. I’m also using this as a header in my other blog, Exploring Kansai.


This one’s also a favorite:

Same with most of the photos in this blog, these were taken using my old phone camera. I used Photofiltre to “revive” the colors.

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