Our Tokyo stay was a wonderful one, despite all the late nights early mornings lackofsleepdarkcirclesgroggydazedays.

Our hosts for the 4 days were [sister's friends] National Japan Floorball Team player, Tomoyuki and his wife, Maki. “Their names remind me of the couple Doumyouji and Makino from Hana Yori Dango!” I kept telling sister at every chance I got.

They were such sweet and lovely people! *cue gushing*

Sister calls Maki-san the ‘perfect japanese woman’ because.. she simply seemed so perfect. Gentle, soft-spoken and super-feminine, she came home from work and very quickly produced a yummy two-course dinner for the four of us, complete with their fine-dining cutlery and sprigs of mistletoe on the table.

Perfectly perfect.

The wonderful hosts. I know I look am fat. 

It was so embarrassing. Tomoyuki and Maki thoughtfully got Christmas presents for sister and I but… *small voice* we overlooked it. *dig hole in nihon ground and bury head in it*

When Tomoyuki passed Maki her gifts, she twinkled at him so sweetly that Sis and I concentrated on finishing our food and tried to dim the light from our lamp posts.- From sister’s blog

The cake shifted position. Oops. 

Tomoyuki-san even bought a cake to celebrate Christmas. We were stuffed full with Maki-san’s cooking yet he insisted we have a slice of it. How not to become fat??

When I first caught sight of Tomoyuki [again, it was through a lot of funny trouble for both sides before he finally managed to 'find' us at Fuda station], I was totally in awe and a little intimidated by him. I’m not sure why though. Perhaps it was his height, or that full-length sweeping coat he doned, or his mannerisms. Hmm, puzzling.

 They prepared our beds for us. So comfy! *snuggle*

Tomoyuki and Maki examined our crammed itinerary and laughed [a lot] at it. -__-” Being the exemplary hosts they were, they went to find out all the different train stations, timings and routes we can take to our different destinations.

Their cosy home.

On the second night, we returned home from a hard day of shopping to see a special guest with Tomoyuki – Kikuchi, another Japan team floorball player. Maki was down with a flu so the two men cooked dinner for all of us.

The most delicious udon[s] I have ever tried. The one on the left was cooked by Chef Kikuchi while the one on the right was done by Chef Tomoyuki. I had…. 4 – 5 [?] helpings of it! Even sister, who does not like udon, agreed the noodles were very nice!

Halfway through dinner, Sis air-boxed me with a “Bish!” Immediately Maki picked it up and repeated it with a smile, “Bish!” They all seemed to find the onomatopeia rather funny, and repeated it several times. Tomoyuki and Kikuchi then taught us that the way to react to jokes in the Japanese fashion was to hit the other person’s shoulder with the back of your hand and go “Nandeane!” or “Ahoka!”, meaning something like “you idiot!”- From sister’s blog

And so sister and I used Nandeane at each other many times throughout our nihon trip. Hur hur.

[Obviously I cannot take good photos and the focus is all wrong, but let's ignore all that.] Maki got us all Hokkaido cheesecake, and it was heavenly. No cheesecake in Sg can measure up to it!

Kikuchi looks like he was signing to sister, “understand?” 

They forced sister to par a pear and apple and when she was struggling with the slippery pear, Tomoyuki said, “All Japanese women must cook!” and sister gave a priceless retort, “In Singapore, men cook for their wives!” Laughs.

Other Nihon Reads:

The Amazing Race [Nihon Version]