The Kawaii bento set that J bot for us! Can't remember the price...but they were on half price so we grabbed!
Everything from Japan is kawaii...see my meal onboard Cathay Pacific on the outbound flight from Osaka...with the kawaii rice roll and carrots
Found this book on Kyoto's sakura: Cherry Blossoms of Kyoto...see the sakura at their best
Takasegawa River
Philosopher's Path
Ryonji 
Kitano Tenmangu Shrine
Kiyomizudera Temple
Since we were in the area, GM suggested going to Brussels Sprouts...a place for mussels....normally, we would have given this place a miss since I m not a big fan of mussels, but I guess today was a good day, and I was game for something different. Thumbs up for the mussels here! We also tried some fruity Belgian beers. But the salad here wasn't too fantastic.
http://www.brusselssprouts.com.sg/Food-list_Snack.html
The beer I ordered...fruit of the forest
Apricot flavored beer
Heart of butter lettuce salad
Main size Brussels Sprouts Special Mussels with free flow fries
For Mothers' Day this year, we now have to celebrate twice...
It was a rush trying to make reservation for Mothers Day at Chinese Restaurants...and most places I called were full and didn't accept any more reservatons. As a last resort, I called Xin Cusine at Holiday Inn Atrium (fka Concorde Hotel, fka Glass Hotel). I used to like the tim sum at Xin Cusine, but hasn't been there for some time. They had available seats, so I made a reservation and went.
They had set dinners at $58 or $68 or $80 each. They also had promotions for the $58 and $68 set dinners, it was buy 2 get 1 free, whilst the $80 set dinnner was 1 for 1 with AMEX card. Since there were 5 of us, we couldn't enjoy the maximum benefits of any one fo the promotions. So we asked whether we could combine the 2 promotions and they were willing to accommodate. So we had 2 free set dinners! The food was wonderful and it was quite worthwhile with the promotions.
On Sunday, we had dinner with my family, ended up calling and trying to make reservations in the last minute again...this time, I booked Zhou's Kitchen near Anchorpoint. The seating was so cramped that if there was an emergency, we would all have been trapped... We originally wanted to order the 4 for $198 set dinner, but since we had some snacks earlier, we were all quite full, hence the waitress recoommended that we order 3 set dinners at $68. Well, the food was sadly disapointing, most of the courses were cooked in the same chili oil. I didn't enjoy the food at all. In the end, the price we paid for 4 of us, was almost the same as the price we paid for 5 the night before...whilst the food at Xin Cusine was so much better!
I originally had quite a good impression of Tung Lok Restaurants, but after this episode at Zhou's Kitchen, I believe I would try not to visit them again.
We liked these:
1. Kirin salt and lime drink
Picture taken from this site
http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/drink/snack-nation-salt-lime-503269
2. Calpis water
3. Pretz tomato
4. Pocky cheese
Can't find the pocky cheese picture. So put up this custard strawberry which we also tried and found quite nice
Having heard the good reviews of Golden Peony Restaurant at Conrad Hotel, GM decided to hold our private wedding dinner there. Hence, my relationship wth Peony continues...the food was indeed nice and the presentation western style...each dish was served individually.
Only managed to take a few photos of the food as I had gobbled up the food before I remembered to take a photo. Hee.
1st dish
2nd dish
Lime drink b4 dessert
Since we were having dinner at Conrad Hotel, we decded to reserve a room. The bed was so comfortable that I could not feel the movement of GM lying beside me! Finally mustered the courage to call Conrad Housekeeping to enquire about the brand of bed that they used...anyway, for anyone interested, it is Simmons that they use.
Simmons...GM's preferred choice...my choice...Serta...with the sheep mascot...we shall see when we go bed-shopping tomorrow!
It is back at work for one week already...let's see what I missed about Japan:
1. Clean toilets
2. Safety
3. Convenience stores at every corner
4. Variety of Japanese cosmetics
5. Variety of every other thing
6. Japanese grown strawberries, melons, oranges, cherries...
7. Sakura and other natural scenery
8. Kawaii girls
9. Cool weather
10. (Over)Friendly & (Over) helpful sales girls at department stores
11. Vending machine drinks
What I would NOT miss about Japan:
1. Prices of everything, except item 4 above
2. Language barrier
3. Crowds
4. Huge and confusing malls with North, South and Main Building
5. Smoking indiscriminately