Cavalock Makes Potato Chips

Well, it sure as hell ain't exactly Pringles but it'll do. The chip (and mochi) maker that I been eyeing at Tokyu Hands online store, found it at Yodabashi instead, got it for bout S$25, that's a tiny little bit cheaper than at Tokyu Hands.

Was real easy and fast too. Just slice the potato with the slicer from the box, place them on the tray and pop it in the microwave oven. The timing instructions were a little off, had to up it by 3 more minutes. Now they're crispy! Healthy too, with no salt added.

You can always find cool and cheap gadgets like that in Japan. Why doesn't anyone bring them in?!? Can't wait to try out my little yakitori grill that I bought!  

Cavalock and The Sweet Mystery Q

It's finally the weekend. And I still got more Japan pix to post! Here's something interesting. Spotted this Q at a depachika in Shinjuku, about 30 deep, had no idea what they were Q-ing for but it's gotta be good food.

Fortunately the Q moved pretty fast, everyone knew what they wanted, just picked them up and paid at the counters. Here's what everyone was after...Gateau Festa Harada.

This is kinda like a really sugar-coated crispy bread snack. People were buying by the dozens. 

The other two favourites are the white and dark choc covered ones. I luv the white choc, crispy and sweeeeeeet. The dark choc ones are still unopened in my fridge. Was there twice, in the morning and evening. In the morning, it was like housewives in the Q and in the evening, was mostly office folks after work. 

What else did I buy? Yah, I'm a sucker for limited edition stuff! <^;^> The one below the soy sauce is Yokohama cheesecake Kit Kat. All still unopened and in my fridge! 

Cavalock and A Week in Tokyo

First off, apologies to Danny Choo for borrowing his popular 'A Week In Tokyo' series, just for this week. <^;^> As you can guess, it's a bunch of pix I took during the week I was in Tokyo.


First stop outside the Narita Airport waiting for the Airport Limo (it's really just a bus) to the hotel in Shinjuku.


My first lunch was a really simple and cheap affair, duck udon.

My first nite's dinner on the other hand, was a much more expensive affair. Udon hot-pot kinda thing in a fancy restaurant.

Celebrating Girl's Day or Doll Festival in Tokyo or rather in my hotel lobby.

One of the few days when it was bright and sunny, outside Shinjuku's station, the world's busiest station!

Here's another vending machine shot for the collection.

The expensive part of Harajuku. Lots of luxury, branded stuff. No need to go to Ginza for that.

Yup, even the desserts on display look fancier than these. Don't you think so?

Lots of new games and other electronic stuff at Akihabara. Remember, shop around to get the best deals, there don't seem to be any fixed prices.

Breakfast at one of the cafes, near the hotel.

Spring is coming! First sign of it along the streets....

And to welcome spring, here's a neat little spring flower arrangement exhibition in the hotel.

Another shot of a depachika, just can't live without them!

That's Takashimaya Times Square, houses Taka (of cos), Tokyu Hands, HMV and Kinokuniya. I can spend an entire day there or rather, I have spent entire days there. Really.

Another shop I always visit whenever I'm there, the Yodabashi video game shop in Shinjuku. Those huge posters are of video game releases, and I always take a pix of them. Kinda like movie posters.

And here's (part of ) the top floor of the Yodabashi shop, yah, its all gashapon now BUT BUT BUT years ago, it was all PORN! Saw them all during my earlier trips. Then I remember going up all the way to the top on one of my later trips and was so crushed when I found out that the porn's all gone! Hah!

Same part of Shinjuku at nite, right after my yakitori dinner.

Cavalock Unleashes The Geek Within

Finally, I'm in the epi-centre, nexus, the ground zero of animeville and all things cool and electronic, Akihabara. Spent the early part of the day there. Well, I managed to find some missing Gashapon figures plus a bunch of other cool stuff, that I'll put up in a later post.


Some shopping tips for anyone shopping for figures, gadgets, etc.. Shop around! Far as I know or can see, there is no fixed price on most of the stuff unless it's a brand new just-released-today thing. Spotted at least a thousand yen difference on the new PSP in different small shops. So shop around, don't buy it at the first place you see it. Enjoy the sights, explore the smaller shops and hidden corners.

And there's always time for food even if it's just a snack. This here's from the Akihabara branch of the famous local donut chain Mister Donut. Unfortunately I think they ran out of their new moshi donuts. Got their signature lumpy one instead. Very light yet chewy, I like it! And you know how most donut places smell of all that oil and stuff? Well, there's hardly any of that here.

Cavalock And All Things Yakitori

Spent almost an entire day at one of my favourite Tokyo big stores, Tokyu Hands. Here we have a bunch of mini-yakitori grills on sale. Guess which one I bought. Yup, I actually bought a electric yakitori grill. One of those guys is sitting on my living room table now. Saw it at Tokyu Hands on day one and couldn’t really decide till a few days later cos needed to check the remaining luggage space and all that.

The part of Shinjuku near the main train station is a great place to grab some equally great food. Right where the popular Yodabashi electronic shops are. Lots of restaurants, big and small. There were touts yelling and shoving menus in front of groups of salarymen, kinda like our satay touts at Lau Pa Sat. Really. Didn’t know which yakitori joint (there were lots) to try so did the only thing that made sense. Look for one with an English menu!

Found a couple and finaly settled on one. Yah, I know, didn’t take down the name again. One surprising little fact. In Japan, I guess when they say ‘yakitori’, they really mean ‘chicken’ and just chicken. Almost all the meat-on-the-stick on the menu is chicken. Very nice chicken, esp the chicken patty one. No asparagus maki but another one of my fav is the bacon-wrapped-round-mushroom-stem. The mushroom stem was really juicy. Don’t think I have ever seen anything like it back home before.

Oh yah, they also have horse sashimi too. And no, I didn’t have any.

Cavalock Takes A Break at Excelsior

The Tokyo weather was certainly …er… memorable. Was freezing cold, cloudy or rainy for most days except for 2 days when it was freezing cold and sunny. Temperature went as low as 2C and never crossed over to two digits. Had to buy a S$16 pair of oversized gloves from the convenience store.

Geez, I just realised I never had my usual royal milk tea bottle drink this trip but I did drop by my favourite café for hot drinks and breakfast more than once. A cup of their very thick and delicious Tiramisu latte on day one afternoon.

Followed by breakfast the next morning, nice runny egg sandwich with a yummy sweet potato muffin.

Here's Ueno train station, with a little sakura exhibition. Discovered a couple of cool shops here. Bought a pair of cool glasses by Japanese brand Jin's Global.

And a really nice sushi joint. Now you know why I can never be a good food blogger. I can never remember to take down the address or name of the place. I did try to get the name but it's in Japanese. Well, it's upstairs at the station's Food Atrium, there's a row of eating joints just above Hard Rock Cafe (yah, HRC is in the station). The sushi place is right next to a Korean joint. What you get is good fresh sushi at a lunch time low offer price.

Next up, it's all things yakitori!

Cavalock *heart* Depachika

After six trips to Japan, I finally took some pix of the various depachika around Shinjuku. Don't ask me why I never took any eariler. I believe the pix are from Keio, Takashimaya and Odakyu. Rows and rows of food, imagine being caught in a vortex of gastronomical delights. I hope you guys like them.


As you can see, I took way more dessert pix than the regular food. Heh, there were lots of sweet goodies maybe cos its White Day this Saturday, 14th March.

The depachika is a great and cheap way to grab dinner. Would usually buy some food and dessert before heading back to the hotel room. But you gotta go before 8pm cos usually by then, most of the good stuff would be gone.