Dungeness Crabs

San Francisco -  Lesley, Young Jin and I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) from Pleasant Hill to San Francisco for lunch and it was more than an hour before we reach our restaurant for a good crab meal.   The place is Crab House at Pier 39.

the full menu of this restaurant

We ordered one hot plate of scrimps and mussels and 2 dungeness crabs.

scrimps and mussels

Dipping the scrimps and mussels into the pipping hot sauce was very good.   The scrimps and mussels are very fresh.

2 big baked Dungeness Crabs

This is the first time tasting baked Dungeness crabs - it is very delicious and the meat is succulent.

Close up of the crab

I was wondering why Young Jin was grinning and he finally confessed that he was competing silently eating as many Dungeness Crabs legs as he can.  Seeing that Lesley and I was taking our time to savour the freshness of this crab; he was racing away eating one leg after another.....

Pier 39

Sea Lion attraction @ Pier 39

Sea lions have external ear flaps; seals do not.   Male sea lions develop a bump or "crest" on their heads at four or five years of age.  California sea lions are known for their intelligence, playfulness and noisy barking.

Lobster Roll and fun

Walnut Creek -  Our company picnic is at a local park near the office and this year we had the lobster truck that churns out delicious lobster rolls and clam chowder.   I had a nice servings of the lobster roll.

Lobster roll and coleslaw

Ginger Ale and Cane Cola

Never seen these drinks before and they are bottled by Boyland Bottling Compnay.  

Major league baseball game

Oakland - It was fun to go and watch for the first time a major league baseball game.   The queue to enter was long as it was a major league baseball game.   Oakland supporters came in their fan jersey and baseball caps to support their home team.

My company arranged for food and drinks at the suite box right at the top of the stadium.   Looking down the players looked so small.   Joe provided me the rules of baseball which was fairly easy to follow.

taken from the suite box

taken up close to the game

We walked around the huge stadium and at each entrance there were ticket warden checking for authorized tickets before they allowed you to enter.   We did not have tickets for the premium seats but the ticket warden allowed us in once we showed that we had suite box tickets.   It was more exciting upfront...Let's Go Oakland.    Oakland Athletics won the game...

Hearty lunch

Walnut Creek - Since Young Jin, Lesley and I chose different dishes for lunch; we just shared a third of our dishes and we had pork ribs, beef ribs and beef brisket.

I was a big lunch for me....together with tossed salad and baked beans.

Sumida Aquarium

Tokyo - There is even an aquarium within the Tokyo SkyTree town.  The brochure said it was huge but compared to Singapore aquarium @ Resort World this is consider small with an entrance fee of Y2,000.  The most interesting was the Penguins enclosure.

lots of jelly fish

Huge spider snow crabs

I have eaten them too - their legs are just as juicy as their bodies...

Japanese lobster

Penguin Enclosure

World Beer Museum

Tokyo - This is a bar cum restaurant located on the 7th floor of TOKYO Solamachi Mall and they have a wide variety of beers from around the world. They have draft and bottle beers.

a stack of world's beer

entrance to the restaurant

Bar counter

waiter cutting the sausages

I ordered their special which the 3 German sausages - all Pork - smoke, white and frankfurters (Y2,580) together with a Munchen beer 300ml (Y980).   A very expensive experience.

On the way to SkyTree Park

Tokyo - From Tokyocho station I changed to the Nihombashi station (Asakusa Line) and alight at the Oshiage station (SkyTree station which is in fact the last station.  It was a short subway ride to SkyTree station. There are many clear directions that lead me to the SkyTree ticket counter but many people were already in the queue.   I take my hats off the Japanese as they are very organize and systematic so the queue move very smoothly.

This is a new city town in the district of Oshiage, with a free standing SkyTree broadcasting tower, the Tokyo Solamachi mall, an aquarium, planetarium and offices. 

Tokyo Skytree - The ticket to reach 350m of the observatory deck cost Y2000, very expensive but worth it once. The weather was clear and I was able to see as far as my eye can see.    This is the world tallest freestanding broadcasting tower @ 634 metres.   Amazingly the SkyTree rest on a tri-pod with roots to support them.   The legs of the Tokyo SkyTree are piled to about 50m deep into the solid ground.   As it progress upwards, it morphs into a circular cross-section.   It is built to withstand any harsh weather conditions. 

from another angle...

Tokyo SkyTree

Entrance

densely populated

Tokyo looked so congested and cramped looking down from the tower. 

350m to 345m and exit at 340m

standing on the glass looking down

Sushi Dinner

Tokyo - Terry took me to a sushi bar near to the office and it was quaint.  I have been here once before and the chef was very friendly.   We started off with 'biru'.

sashimi platter

Starting from the right - Macheral, Bonito, clams and small squid. I thought it was tuna but it was a different type of fish - Bonito are a tribe of medium-sized, predatory fish in teh Scombridae family, belonging to the Sardini tribe.   

Japanese tuna

white fish

another type of white fish

mackeral with chopped shallots

sardine

Japanese clam sushi

small scallops sushi

sea urchin (uni) sushi

This was the best uni I have ever eaten - it is soft and sweet. I actually do not like uni because it has a bitter aftertaste. I was told by the Chef that this is a high grade Uni.

deep fried prawn shell

All of the prawns can be eaten and not go to waste; so the head of the prawn is deep fried and you can the crispy and crunchy part of the shell. We had a very delicious and good dinner.

Terry was not finish yet and we adjourned to another quaint joint which is bar.

Entrance of this quaint bar

Japanese grown oysters

These oysters are delicious and succulent....Oishi des.   

Raining in Tokyo

Tokyo - My flight into Tokyo was smooth but shortly after the limo bus took off it started to rain heavily.   Tokyo is going through a season of unusual heavy rain brought forth from typhoon and tornadoes not seen for a long time.   But with great climate change, this might be the norm for many years to come.

Upon arrival at TCAT I was greeted by an old colleague - Adelene Ong.  I have not met her for more than 10 years and it was a pleasant surprise.   When I reached my hotel, I quickly walked to my Tonkatsu restaurant for my usual 200g - it was nice and good.

Tonkatsu set

Free flow of miso soup, rice,  cabbage salad and cold tea.

Had a good rest and ready for tomorrow's meeting.