A Complete Me Day ― 2024/02/06
I spent today for no one, only for myself.
9:00 Had my hair cut for the first time this year.
10:30 Had a break with buns and coffee.
590 yen in total
Found a cluster of cafes near the Sunny Kego branch. A pleasant surprise,
Off to a cinema.
11:30 Got to the cinema, newly opened in 2020．
Here I got a six-month membership for 600 yen, which allowed me to see a show for 1,000 yen on certain days of the week.
Since the regular fee is 2,000 yen, I think this 600yen can be justified even if I visit there just once.
This is the first time for me to see a film in a cinema since 2020.
Image retrieved from
The film itself was neither very persuasive nor very moving (although the casting should be very correct in terms of anti-agism and anti-lookism). But sitting alone in a dark room, completely isolated from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, immersed in another world on the screen, is a relaxing experience in itself, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even better, there were only a handful of women in the screening room. It felt like a private screening for those who must have been very taken with The Rose of Versailles in the early 70s.
13:45 Left the cinema and went to Tenjin to get some meat and fish and had a late lunch at Iwataya.
A genmai onigiri stuffed with deep-fried koya dofu for 350 yen and a can of blended green tea for 140 yen, in attempt to take some healthy-looking food.
Oh, and on the way to Iwataya, I stopped by Junku-Do bookstore and got some books to read in bed, free magazines and a new ball-point pen.
Souvenir of the day!
15:15 got a bus home.
On Sale! ― 2024/02/04
The Hilton Seahawk Resort is a hotel that has seen its fair share of ups and downs, just like Japanese economy.
The story began in 1995 when this hotel opened under then retail giant Daiei. At the time, I heard a rumor that despite the upscale appearance, the in-room fridges were filled with Saving (the retailer's low-cost private label) products.
After Daiei's business failed, management of the hotel passed to JAL in 2005. However, JAL filed for bankruptcy in 2010. The airline could no longer take care of the hotel.
Since 2010, the hotel has been owned by a Singaporean fund and managed under the name Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk. Coincidentally, Japan was losing its proud economic status and becoming a cheap country.
And now in 2024, according to some news reports, the hotel is to be put up for sale. I wonder who would own this too-big-to-fail hotel?. Vietnamese? Taiwanese? or Burmese?
This hotel is one of the legacies of Japan's bubble era. Its ridiculously inefficient use of space and complicated structure are not be seen in any modern building. It embodies the last glory of our bubble days, when everyone believed our economy would only grow.
In a practical sense, if I were a tourist visiting Fukuoka, I wouldn't consider this hotel as a candidate for my accommodation, unless I planned to enjoy staying in this particular hotel itself, or I needed to isolate myself for whatever reason. It is too far from the main train stations and the airport. Although the hotel offers a shuttle service, it is only to the nearest underground station, not to Tenjin or Hakata stations. To make matters worse for this rather antiquated hotel, the Japanese chain Prince Hotels has announced that it will be opening a brand new hotel in the Momochi-hama area, just a few blocks away. As you know, the newer the better and more popular when it comes to hotels of this type.
Today's Cat ― 2024/01/31
A hotel and a cat. Can you fine him?
Winter Guests ― 2024/01/16
Migrant birds from the Eurasian continent used to be welcome guests, but these days I have to regard them as a pest carrying the bird flu virus. They are only doing what their instincts tell them to do, though.
A Pleasant Surprise ― 2024/01/15
Today's snack was a doughnut, 110 yen, and canned coffee, 110 yen, at a local library. This humble snack turned out to be my first pleasant surprise in 2024.
Our local library has several vending machines, including one for snacks from Family Mart. I chose this doughnut by chance, without expectation, and was pleasantly shocked to find that it was exactly what I had been looking for all these years.
Its leavening agent is baking powder, not yeast. As a result, its texture is fluffy rather than chewy. Its texture is most, with some crunchy sugar mixed in - just like I used to have between films at a local cinema in my childhood. And its price is 110 yen!
Like the cream of corn-flavored snack I became obsessed with few years ago, Family Mart sometimes introduces a truly irresistible snack. I now hope that the convenience store will stock this product forever, or at least for the rest of my lifetime.
Today's Cats ― 2024/01/14
Through the barricades
Perfect day...
New Year's Feast and Its Leftover Dishes ― 2024/01/06
New Year's feast, served on the morning of 1 January. This year's speciality was homemade Datemaki made from Hanpen and eggs.
For the coffee time, I especially bought a loaf of butter cream cake. The cake looks so sinful because of its fat content that I only buy it once a year.
A thin slice, about three centimetres, is the maximum quantity I can enjoy without getting heartburn afterwards.
The protein and sugar I put into my body kept me full for the rest of the day. In the evening I even hoped to skip diner. But just in case...
On the morning of the second day of 2024, we still had the same menu, but in smaller quantities and on more casual tableware.
The pudding of the day was a defrosted Christmas leftover cake with whipped cream and banana.
(The sinful cake went into the freezer.)
After the 3rd of January it is usually about how we should eat up the leftovers. But this year, I had stocked less food because of the crazy price rises, and it was easier and quicker to clear out the fridge.
Oden lasted for a couple of days.
Kuromame went with yoghrut and Kinako as a light treat.
Kakuni turned into a topping of ramen and
was cooked with daikon and atsuage for a dinner on Day 3.
Kohaku Utagassen 2023 ― 2024/01/04
Image retrieved from グランドオープニング | 第74回NHK紅白歌合戦
- Sorry in advance for not being politically correct (excuse has been made), but this time the show seemed to put too much emphasis on so-called "diversity", different ages, genders and sexual orientations, nationalities, races and physical characteristics (eh, disabilities, in short), but not political and religious identities. The performers were so varied the show ended up looking like a kind of chaos. I don't think I'm narrow-minded enough not to listen to people just because they are different. In fact, I tend to assume that anyone who can comprehend my great Japanese English, or my inconsistent Japanese is my friend, even if they don't think so. Anyway, while watching, I felt that heterosexual Japanese men with a wife and two children (a conventional archetype of Japanese), were excluded or simply treated as "wrong".
- Also, what we call "Chu-Ni Byo (14-year-old disease)", which used to be an underground culture, seemed to be accepted, or even saluted in the Kohaku. Girls and boys who might have been left out of the classroom in the past yelping merrily on stage should be something to celebrate. To be honest, it was a bit hard to watch. The more animated they were, the more pathetic and sadder they looked to my eyes.
- Was there ever a time in the history of Kohaku when there were only elderlies on stage like this? When I came across this view, I thought that I had mistakenly tuned in to another station broadcasting "Toshiwasure Nihon no Uta (Year-End Japanese song festival)" where you can see singers who were active during the Showa era. I prefer this if I go for oldies.
A breakthrough!
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