Hi Japan... you're confusing...

What's supposed to be one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world is a little REALLY confusing! I guess that's what happens when your train routes are privately owned and there are a million of them. Also, Steven and I have been pronouncing everything in our Japanese phrase book incorrectly. Note to self: take some Japanese classes before coming to Japan.... 

 Steven and I got the 7-day JR pass only available to foreigners visiting Japan. It's basically unlimited travel on the JR lines, which can take you to Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, etc. <-- These are the places Steven and I are hitting on this trip!

The JR office at the airport has English-speaking staff, and an great knowledge of which passes to use and when. We both purchased the Suica card to save us fumbling around for passes and fares while we are in Tokyo. Isn't the card pretty?!

By the time we finally got back to our hotel, we were starving! Air Asia doesn't feed you, so it had been about 6 hours or more since either of us had a real meal. 

Our first Japanese meal...

Ordering was tough... telling the waitress I'm a vegetarian was TOUGHER (they didn't have ANYTHING for vegetarians... oh well). I ordered myself a beer as a celebration for my *ahem* success. 

And continuing on the trend of this vacation... ABSOLUTELY NO EXERCISE! YAY! 

From Sydney to Hong Kong

1. (top left) Steven and I spent our last day in Sydney being the best tourists we could be: walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, shopping for souvenirs, and having our last Australian Starbucks!

2. I think Starbucks cards make pretty good souvenirs! They are printed with all those touristy things like the Sydney Bridge or kangaroos and stuff like that. They are also technically useable back home even though it would make no sense to use an Australian card to spend Canadian dollars in Canada...

3. Steven and I ordered a pizza from Crust for our last meal as we were busy packing and had no energy to go out and eat. I think I will miss this pizza: loaded with veggies and topped with a delicious pesto aioli. 

4. Skip ahead about 12 hours and BOOM we are waking up in Hong Kong! The flight was hard on my poor motion-sick stomach, but Steven seemed to have a great time watching all the movies and chowing down. I'm always so jealous of people that can so thoroughly enjoy themselves on flights. Don't they know I can barely move my eyeballs without wanting to throw up?!

5. (bottom left) This is Steven's new favourite Hong Kong thing: iced milk tea but with the ice on the outside so as not to dilute the precious tea on the inside. He had two in one sitting today, and I think he will have more later. If it were his choice, he probably would hook himself up to one of those beer helmets, but instead of beer, pipe HK milk tea straight into his mouth.

My new favourite hobby

Forget running.

I'm taking up roller skating so I can be as rad as the old timers I saw a few nights ago:

The picture doesn't do justice to the rockin' rollers out there, jammin' to the tunes while spinning around on their skates, doing cross steps and hops. Simply put, kicking our young asses out of the park completely!

Although we didn't dance nor skate the part, we looked it!

The night before that, we decided to have a pizza party.

Steven and I got started first because we got hungry.

We made The Perfect Pizza on our first try. This mini 5-or-6-bite baby:

It had the perfect blend of cheeses, mushrooms, sauce, and garlic. The cornmeal at the bottom of the crust gave it such a beautiful, fresh crunch.

Unfortunately, we were never able to replicate perfection.

Pizza #2 in a cast iron:

For some reason, we messed up All Important Sauce-to-Cheese ratio and it didn't taste the same.

How do people do it?!

In doggie news, the new kid is enjoying our longer afternoon walks as much as the Two.

They plop down at my side upon coming home, all tired and cuddly.

However, Fu-Fu is a little disaster when he's feeling rebellious.

He got into the garbage one morning, and got a big a-scolding when I got home. He's done this 2 or 3 times now, and we're thinking he needs to be tied up when we leave the house in the mornings.

How do you teach your dog not to get into the garbage?

Two-Two had never really messed with it. She is so sensitive to criticism that she stays by Fu's side while he's in time out, clearly ashamed of herself while Fu looks like he's the king of the world. Grr...

La Bettola lunch

Remember the days of hour-long lunches in the middle of your dreary 9 to 5?

Oh you don't?

ME NEITHER!

WAHAHAH OFFICE WORKING SUCKERSSSSSS!

Where is this insulting post going, you ask?

To La Bettola for a work-day lunch my friends! 

It started with fresh bread (not warm though), and olive oil.

A little balsamic vinegar would've made that piece of bread all the better, though.

We started with a really deliciously mushroom cheese arugula salad! 

Then, we had the buffalo mozzarella pizza. Very thin crust. Crazy good mozzarella!

Overall, a really tasty lunch, but without too many options for vegetarians. They have lots of cured meat things which are probably really good, so if you're into that, try it.

The pizza was 17 and the salad 13, so splitting it among the three of us made it a 13-dollar-lunch, which was pretty good for the fancy-shmancyness of the place.

But later, I was super thirsty and not feeling too good at all. I wonder if my system didn't like the salt, or if I was suffering some sort of Consistently-Skipping-Ashtanga-on-Fridays Syndrome.