Tomo's Japanese kitchen: Life in Singapore

Showing posts with label Life in Singapore. Show all posts

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

The Worst Japanese Restaurant Ever : Nijyu Maru at Cuppage Plaza, Singapore

The restaurant was empty, or rather, “not crowded” as this word, “empty” made the shop owner mad.

There were lots of vacant tables there, so I picked a 4 seater table.
Then LadyA came and said, “This is for 4 person. Sit there.”
She pointed at this small table at the very corner of the restaurant.

I said, “Well, the shop is empty, why can’t we sit at the bigger table?”
The lady said” We are doing business here! Can not sit here, sit there!”

Ok, firstly I must clearly state here that she was not Japanese, of course. Japanese will never speak to customers like this. This is very rude.

I found it upsetting, but we (2 of us) seated at the small table at the corner.
Then, a couple came into the restaurant. They also tried to sit at 4 seater table, but LadyB came out and told them that they can’t.
“This is for 4, so please sit there.”
The lady pointed at even smaller table at the other corner of the shop.

Everything was ok, until another couple came in.

When they came in, they were told to sit at the counter seats because there were no more small tables. Then, the couple asked LadyC if they can sit at the 4 seater table.
LadyC said, "Ok."

Instantly, I asked the ladyC, “How come they can sit there, but we can't?”
She said, “For this seat, you can sit but must leave within 1 hour because there are booked by other customers. “
I said, “The other lady didn’t tell me that. We can finish our meal within 1 hour, so can we move there too now?”

The ladyC went to check with other ladies and came back to me and said,
“Sorry, customers are coming soon, so can not.”

We were not satisfied with this answer, but decided to continue with our meals on the small table.

Then, ladyA came back and asked, “You don’t wanna eat in this table?”
I answered, “Well, because it’s small.”
“Small?! What?! Small?!”

I said, “Yes? It is small right?”

Then, she shouted, “You don’t have to eat anymore! Just go! Leave now!”

and suddenly, she started clearing our dishes.

Me: “What?!”

LadyA: “Go now! I am doing business here! We are lending this table! Go! Leave!”

Me: “What kind of attitude is this? This is a Japanese shop, you can’t treat customers like this?”

Lady A “Leave now!”

Me: “Don’t point at me! You are so rude and crazy! You leave”!

Lady A: “I am the owner ! This is my shop! You leave leave leave leave!”
Then she spilt soya sauce on my dress.

I shouted, “You spilt sauce on my dress! You! Pay for the cleaning!”

Lady A: “Ok! Send me the bill! Then I will pay! I will not run away! Nijyumaru is here! You give me your address and bills! then I will pay!”

Me: “What? Give you my address? You pay now!”

Lady A: “Then take off your clothes now!”

Me: “What?! In public? In the shop?!”

Lady A: “Yes!”

Me: “You are crazy!!!”

Lady A: “You told me to pay now, then take off now!”

Oh my god. I had never experienced something like this before.
I asked her to write me a paper to promise that she will pay for my cleaning.
But she refused. She doesn’t want to promise anything or leave any evidence.
She is CRAZY and such a liar. And it is disgraceful that she is running a Japanese restaurant.

I hope the shop closes down!!! I really do, from the bottom of my heart.

Thursday, 9 August 2012

Singapore National Day

August 9th was Singapore national day.

Today was not a holiday for me,

but after work, I went to see fireworks with my friend.

In Japan, there are lots of firework festivals during summer.

But in Singapore, even though it is a tropical country and it is summer throughout the year,

they only have fireworks on special occasions like today.

They should do it more often!

I went to Marina bay to see the fireworks

and there were heaps of people out there to see the fireworks, just like us!

Half way through the fireworks,

my friend and I started to worry about going home.

If we stay till the end of the show, we might take a long long time to get home!

Imagine all those people rushing to one MRT station and trying to squeeze in to a train...

What is more, tomorrow is friday and still need to wake up early and go to work...

So we left the place pretty early.

We got there around 8 and left there around 8:15.

We hardly stayed there but we did enjoy the fireworks!

And I was so relieved when I finally reached home.

(Trains were already quite packed even though we left so early)

Lastly, it is a mentos!- Singapore national day version

Freebies at the firework event!

I have missed it, but my housemate who also went to see the fireworks gave it to me as a souvenier.

Thank you :)

Friday, 6 April 2012

My family’s visit in Singapore

My family came to visit me in Singapore from the 10th -14th of March. :)

My family travels together every summer. Our family travelling history goes back all the way to the time when I was small. Then, my sister and brother were born, and as my family expands, our family trip became even more fun & exciting.

We always find funny things to do wherever we go. Sometimes we have serious fights on stupid things like which restaurants to go to, but most of the time, it has been all happy memory.

As i hear from my friends that it is becoming rare to see people travelling as a family nowadays, especially after we are all grown up, I appreciate my family travelling time very much.

But Since the time I left Japan almost 6 years ago to study in melbourne, I had not been able to join this family travel at all.

It's because Australia is in the other side of the planet so their summer is during christmas. When my family goes travelling in summer, I was doing winter in Melbourne and just like japanese schools, we didn't get a long winter holiday.

Anyway, I was very excited about my family's visit in Singapore this time because of these reasons. I felt like I have been missing out from all the fun which my family had!

Well, but this time, as I am working and living in Singapore, it was not exactly 'travelling' for me.

But that doesn't matter! What matters the most is to spend time together as a family.

I had a precious 5 days in Singapore with my family. I hope they enjoyed our family trip as much as I did. And I also hope that we can travel again next year, and the year after, as far as we can go!!!

Life is short, time is precious!

We'd better spend time with someone we love.