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Bushfires killed 480 million animals

Hot spring in Sembawang,Singapore

This video of the old Sembawang Hot Spring was taken by me in August 2009. Besides the video, I also took a few pictures.



However, after the hot spring has been renovated (2018/2019) it is now opened to the public. There is a big difference between the old and new Hot Spring. Below are some beautiful pictures taken by Ashley Tan. Hope you will enjoy it.

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Harvesting daikon or white radish

Today, we start to harvest the radish or daikon as it is known in Japanese from our little garden. As we have lots of the daikon, we gave them away freely. The daikon is sold cheaply in the supermarket because of its abundance. It is in season now and a slightly bigger one than that in the photo above cost 99 Yen or about $1.30. Our daikon like the one above weighs about 1.5 kg.
Daikon or white radish is used to make the famous Singapore carrot cake or chay tow kway (pic below).

Laying of tiles and installing a BBQ pit

It is a cool glorious autumn morning with lots of sunshine. We are still in the process of laying tiles on the other half of the garden. We plan to complete laying the tiles and installing a bbq pit in preparation for our bbq party in the coming spring.

Kurochan the cat

Kuro has stationed himself almost permanently with us. He has not done the disappearance act since the last time. He has been gaining weight since staying with us. He loves eating nice food and spends his time relaxing or patrolling the garden.
It is quite cold outside especially in the night whereby the temperature may drop to 8c but I guess he is used to it. My in-laws do not want Kuro to be in the house and I am worried that he may suffer during the winter months when the temperature may go down to almost zero.

Oranges in Japan

These orange trees belong to our neighbours. The oranges will be ready for harvesting in March next year. By then, they will be very sweet. Our neighbours have promised to give us some of these oranges.

Fresh oysters from Itoshima, Japan

We drove to a place 2 hours away called Itoshima in Southern Japan. We went there for oysters as we have heard so much about it. Oysters and other types of seafood are being served during the cooler months. Surprisingly, the place was quite crowded even on weekdays.
The oysters are freshly hauled from the sea and they tasted so good that we feel like going back there again in the near future.
1 kilo of oysters cost 1,000 Yen (S$13) and you cook them over the charcoal grill. It's all DIY. A point to note is that you will have to pay 300 Yen for the charcoal. A waterproofed jacket which act as an apron is provided free of charge

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