I did my obligatory trip to Mercury drug last Tuesday to buy toothpaste. Not that we are out of supply, but I couldn't put it off any later because that was day my Citibank charge slip discount would expire. It's a Citibank promo where I can get discount to Mercury Drug or Rustans for the amount I purchased using my card. Ever since my dental extraction, I pledged to STRICTLY follow the recommended three times a day tooth brushing. I have to be honest, I get so lazy at times that I put off brushing my teeth. I'm pretty confident that I'm not the only one hehehe. So when I shop for toothpaste, I made sure that I won't have any excuse to brush my teeth wherever I'm at. I bought 4 pieces.

One for the house, it's a back up for myself in case my sister Ivy takes the family toothpaste upstairs. The second is for my work place, the third and the fourth goes to my bag so even when I'm on the move, I have something to use. Absolutely NO EXCUSE!

The only thing is, I also bought chocolates for MYSELF, and don't forget that I still have my bonbon candies which may not be very healthy for my teeth. But give me a break, what is life without candies and chocolates?

Trip to Little Tokyo

I've been meaning to dine in Little Tokyo in Makati ever since I saw it many years ago. Back in the days when I frequent Makati Cinema Square, when there was still Feata Bookstore, it was where I get original Japanese manga. Little Tokyo is a compound of Japanese Restaurants, and I knew back then that they are pricey so I didn't get the chance to try it. 10 years after, I finally

got to try it. My friend Mike had been there and he gave me a good feedback. So last weekend, we went there with my friend Sherry and her boyfriend Lester.

The moment I entered the compound premise, I immediately felt the Japanese ambiance that I don't normally feel in other Japanese restaurants that I've been to. With Mike's suggestion, we chose to go to Kagura. It appears to be famous for okonomiyaki, every customer ordered it. They also have a tatami area, where you can sit and eat the traditional Japanese style (lotus position), but under the table is a cavity where you can extend your legs, in case you prefer to sit the normal way. While waiting for the food, I knew I was in for an authentic Japanese food because we were the only Filipino customers inside. There's a small TV that shows a Japanese sports channel. The owner must be a Hanshin Tigers (baseball team) fan, the whole place is decorated with various Tigers memorabilia. Good thing I was wearing my Onitsuka Tiger sneakers so I felt right at home hehehe. I wanted to take pictures, but I was so worried that I'd look like some kind of weirdo so I refrain and just took some shots that wasn't so attention grabbing.

The food was good, the okonomiyaki was great. I really had nothing to compare it to. Unless I go to Japan, I wouldn't know how authentic Japanese cuisine should really taste. I'm only judging it base on the demography of customers. I only had 3 things to critic, first is the payment method. I wish they accept credit cards. The food is pricey and I seldom bring cash, I have a paperless culture and always rely on my magic card every time I go out. Thank goodness for this occasion, my instinct told me to bring cash so I was saved from humiliation. The second one is I wish the place had more space, by the time we left, the place was already jam packed. And third, I wish they'd serve desserts. I always wanted to end my meal with something sweet. I mean, sure they served a complimentary orange fruit, nicely peeled and segmented, but again, I was hoping to try Japanese desserts.

Good thing there was a convenience store beside it, and boy was I happy to find that they sell Sakuma bonbon candies. The tin cans have different packaging art from the one in Graveyard of the Fireflies, but who cares about that now, I'm just happy I got me bonbon candies. I also bought a Meiji pudding, which is insanely good. See, that's what I say when I want to end my meal with sweets. Overall, my trip to Little Tokyo didn't disappoint, and I'm definitely going back! Next time, I'm gonna try the takoyaki.

I just want to share this cool animation I've come across in one of the forums I joined. Very cool.

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

I can't tweet!!! =(

I don't know if anybody else is experiencing this problem with Twitter, but it won't post my tweets! Nope, I'm not getting any error message, even worse, when I click the tweet button, I don't get any respond. My point is... I want to tweet. Twitter is like the SMS blogging, when I want to share something that I don't need or want to elaborate, I tweet. Even if I only have 20 followers, and who knows, there are probably 2 or 3 people who read my tweets. I still like it for recording purposes.

Anyways, if only Twitter was working properly, I'd tweet:

• I'm enjoying reading the Polish thread of ED.com forums. Don't ya just luv Google Translate hehehe...
• #bloopersnight Blooper 5: "you have to go to the homepage, where you "will saw"
• Is this how Globe treat their valued customer? I'm giving up the iphone, not worth the hype... oh which phone should I get now?
• Globe homepage sucks!

Pffft! I want to tweet!

I wasn't gonna blog about this, but because of so many times I've failed to upload this on youtube (thanks to my amazing broadband connection), I've felt that a successful upload (finally) deserves a blog post (and plug) hehehe.

Evangelion is one of the most popular anime of my time, there are tons of merchandise available and thank God music box is one of them. It comes in different variant, this one is the version 2. It is manufactured by Sega and is supposed to be an arcade prized item. The set comes with Asuka and another Rei wearing white one piece suspended in a glass tube. I sell the Asuka figure and also the version 3 (both Rei and Asuka).

Fly Me to the Moon is a popular song by Frank Sinatra. It has different versions by various artists but I have to admit though, that only Evangelion made me love this song.

For some reason, whenever I wind this up, our dog Majinbu barks along. Even when I tried playing the video, he goes barking again -sigh-

Only in the Philippines

So I have balikbayan relatives staying with us, they just got back from Boracay and I just can't let their flight delay story pass. According to my Aunt, not only was the flight delayed for 3 hours, their flight was diverted from Katiklan airport to Kalibo airport. So the passengers had to move from Katiklan to Kalibo. I mean, I have heard of flight delays but to move from one airport to another? Come on! I mean if I'm a passenger, I deserve some compensation for all the trouble, right? Hahaha!!!

23 years ago...

So I saw an old picture of me, dated February '88, that my mom sent to my dad when he was still working in Saudi:

And it read: Dear Daddy, Here's Miss Japan of Tanay, Rizal.

Take note that my mom wrote this. Hmmmm.... now it figures hehehe

Music Box

Here's something that I haven't shared. I love music box! I think it started more than a year ago when my fascination with this 18th century technology started and I don't really know why. I know that I've always loved music box version of some anime songs, but I'm really fascinated with the wind-up movement. That complex mechanism of interlocking cogs, gears and wheels got me locked. In this age of Ipod and digital music, here I am, crazy for an old technology.

I created a youtube account so I can upload some of my collection and hopefully meet other music box enthusiasts. Here's a sample from my collection. Being an anime fan, I tried to limit collecting to anime related music boxes. In Japan, music box is referred to as "orgel". This one is Laputa Castle in the Sky orgel figure that plays the movie's theme song. Please enjoy =).

-sigh-

It's unbelievably cold these days. I honestly prefer cold wheather, but not when I'm sick... and I am. I have cold -sniff- that gives me headache and I still have this recurring toothache that I need to deal with until I decide to go back to the dentist.

And then I have other things going on my head that I wish I'm strong enough to keep on moving on. Welcome to my gloomy February.

Did you know that today is the day the music died? As Don Mclean puts it:

but February made me shiver
with every paper I deliver
bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step

Dear friends, I am hopeful but I need prayers and hugs...