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#foodie Japan Japanese food sweet treats

Another visit to Wired Cafe…

I woke up late today, had a small breakfast consisting of junk food from the convenience store. Had to wait around for the mailman so I could pick up an important package for myself; after receiving the package, I decided I would go out for some dessert.

I ventured all the way back to Wired Cafe to get free wireless and try out one of their desserts. This was the chocolate parfait; expensive (around 600 yen), yet it was so delicious anyway. Cornflakes, soft cream, chocolate drizzle, marshmallows…my mouth is just watering trying to re-live the experience.

It’s too bad that I am not staying anywhere close to Shinjuku; Tachikawa is 26 minutes from Shinjuku. A long and somewhat expensive train-ride; I am not aware of any free wireless spots in Tachikawa, so in order to get Internet working on my laptop, I have to come to Wired Cafe. I could use the Internet cafes in Tachikawa, but I really prefer using my laptop to access the Internet since my laptop has all the information I need.

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#foodie Japan Japanese culture Japanese food

Matcha Latte and a Danish.


Caffe Veloce in Tachikawa; for only the past couple of days, I have passed by this little caffe a few times to and from the station. After visiting some old haunts in Harajuku/Shibuya today, I decided to stop into Caffe Veloce and have myself a small treat and a drink.

This was my first time trying green tea/”matcha” latte in Japan. I’m sure the drink was around when I was in Japan two years ago, but I guess I didn’t take much interest in any tea drinks back then. Tasting the latte was a new experience for me; it tasted just like authentic green tea, with a hint of cream and milk. A little strong for any other Westerner, but I personally liked the taste.

The danish was standard, nothing special. Maybe a little less sweet than its Western counterparts. The Japanese are known to have milder flavors of a lot of Western foods/sweets, which I actually prefer a lot more. I don’t feel like I am getting diabetes from eating a Japanese sweet; when I eat sweets in the US, I sometimes feel like I may have to go to the hospital from the extreme sugar rush. Okay, perhaps that’s just an exaggeration, but I can’t help it when I say that most sweets/desserts in the US are TOO sweet for my liking.

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#foodie Japan Japanese food

Omelet Rice @ Wired Cafe (Shinjuku)


I stumbled to this cafe in Shinjuku because my friend told me that there was free wireless available here. I’m still getting re-acquainted with the area, so I come to this cafe located on 7F of LUMINE 2 in Shinjuku station.

This was my first real meal in Tokyo; I didn’t eat anything on the day of arrival besides some onigiri and water. It felt nice to finally eat something of substance; omelet rice with a tomato-based mix of vegetables and a small side salad. This was one of Wired Cafe’s lunch specials of the week; granted, it was a little pricey for my tastes (roughly 980 yen), but I didn’t mind so much since I got a good amount of food in the deal. Plus, the drink was included in the set.

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Japan Japanese culture Japanese language travel

First step off the plane.

Arriving in Tokyo in the late afternoon/early afternoon, my sense of time has been altered a bit. Coming back to this city, this city that used to be my home for four months, feels so strange. A mild culture shock hits me as I try to re-grasp my knowledge of the Japanese language for the day.

It feels strange arriving alone, without someone to welcome me. This happened last time as well, but at least with last time, I was welcomed to Japan by a student helper from my exchange school. Perhaps that time was scarier because I knew little to no conversational Japanese; this time, at least I had more knowledge of Japanese and could somewhat get around.

Yet, it is all overwhelming to go back to a country and try to get used to the way of life, the language again.

(Note: for the remaining entries of my trip, I shall be posting pictures of my meals as a sort of photo documentary. Food is always an interesting thing to look at, right?)

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Japan money travel

Exchange Rate at the Airport.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the exchange rate for the dollar/yen at SFO being 88 yen to $1 USD. The night before, I checked and the rate was at 98 yen on two websites; I knew that the rate could not have dropped so drastically in less than twelve hours, so I called my sister and asked her to check the rates.

According to Yahoo! Financial and XE.com, the rates were still around 98-99 yen for a dollar. Sigh of relief; but this made me pretty much decide that I probably won’t ever trade my currency at an airport unless absolutely necessary–why is it that airports get horrible rates? It seems rather fishy to me, but then again, I don’t really know much about how the exchange rates are determined from location to location (at a bank, as opposed to at an airport, etc.).

If anybody knows the answer, please let me know.