Korea's Sights and Sites: Day 3

Our third day in Korea was spent touring Seoul. Again, just like our Tokyo city tour last year my family opted not to join a huge tour group, so it was just us and our tour guide Henry. 

Korea's Sights and Sites: Day 1 and 2

During the Travel Tour Expo held last February at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, my family and I were able to score discounted plane tickets to Korea, which we've been eyeing as our next travel destination abroad (following last year's trip to Japan which you can read about here, here, here, here, and here).

Not too long afterwards, we booked our hotel through Agoda and arranged our tours and transportation with the help of Dreamline Travel & Tours. After months of planning, we were finally all set to go!

Press Release: Laoag na ma-stress sa APEC! Book online instead!

The APEC Summit creates a four-day holiday for the tenants of Metro Manila. Flights are being cancelled and the flow of traffic is expected to thicken within the city as the main roads are scheduled to be closed for this congregation. If you're still thinking about what to do over this long weekend, this hiatus can be best maximized with an out-of-town road trip/adventure to places like Vigan or Laoag.

Laoag na ma-stress as there's no need to line up at bus terminals or commit to a long drive in order to reach these distantly beautiful destinations. Biyaheroes has partnered up with Partas Transport in order to provide a seamless online reservations system that lets you book and even choose your bus seats online! Offering Express First Class Vigan/Laoag and Pasay/Cubao routes, this cuts your travel time by up to four hours as there is only one stopover and no passenger pick-ups will be done along roads.

You can book your seats roundtrip, and via Dragonpay, you can settle payment in major banks (whether it's online or over the counter), payment partners such as Bayad Center, Cebuana Lhuiller, LBC, SM Bills Payment, and other popular options found nationwide.

Online reservations have a 2-day cut-off and a fixed 10% extra service charge per booking or P50 for bookings P500 and below. This gives you Biyaheroes points, cool freebies, and the convenience of booking and paying anywhere for the guaranteed seats of your choice. Book directly at the Biyaheroes website and enjoy this provincial commute easily for this holiday.

Save your energy for exploring! Unwind in the countryside and get to know the Philippines better with historical destinations, awesome food trips, and beautiful sceneries from Vigan and Laoag.

Biyahe na, biyaHEROES! 

Rosanjin Japanese Restaurant: The Silent Fighter

Amidst the much-hyped shops and restaurants at SM Megamall's new Mega Fashion Hall, one restaurant, called Rosanjin Japanese Restaurant, seems to prefer to stay out of the spotlight and would rather let the food do the talking. Do a quick Google search and you won't really find lots of info about it; they don't even have a website, though they do have a Facebook page that only gets updated every few days or so. All I've gathered from a few minutes of research is that the restaurant is named after a Japanese artist who passed away in 1959.

We were at the restaurant during the supposedly busy dinner hours (on the Saturday right after payday) but as the photo above shows, the restaurant was fairly quiet. Would-be diners didn't have to deal with long queues and overcrowding, which may be off-putting to some people. 

I really loved the interiors! Everything about it screams "legit". It reminded me of some of the restaurants I saw during my trip to Tokyo earlier this year. 

Rosanjin has a fairly extensive selection of dishes, and they specialize in set meals (although you can also order some of the dishes a la carte). I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable their prices are! Most of their set meals are at the P300-P400 mark. Click here to see their menu.

Not too long after placing our order (maybe around 5-10 minutes later), some of the food we ordered began to arrive. Very impressive!

I got to try a bit of my mom's Tonkotsu Ramen (P280) which is apparently one of their signature dishes. I absolutely loved it! 

Two pieces of Crab Stick Sushi (P120). Good, but nothing too special.

My dad's Grilled Salmon Set (P390). This set meal includes one main dish, two side dishes, a bowl of "Japanese stew", and unlimited rice.

My brother and I both had the Special Burger Steak Set (P390)  which also had similar sides. I just wish they had something for dessert included in the set though. 

Looks good, doesn't it? Their burger steak is made with wagyu beef which sets it apart from the usual burger steaks. The beef is juicy, tender and very tasty. The sauce on top of it is quite good, too. I highly recommend this one. Amazing!

Overall, dining here was a pleasant experience. While they seem to be happy not relying on hype to attract more customers, I think they should at least do something to step up their game--their Facebook page would be a good start. This place has a lot of potential.

I will be back for sure!

Rosanjin Japanese Restaurant

3/F Mega Fashion Hall, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City

Facebook: Rosanjin Japanese Restaurant

Tok-Yu Sushi Bar and Restaurant: Satisfy your Japanese food cravings

I must admit, I haven't really been trying out new restaurants these past few months--I guess that's one reason why I haven't really been blogging as often anymore. Lately, my family and I have been sticking to tried-and-tested places where we were sure we wouldn't be disappointed.

Recently, however, we were feeling a bit adventurous and wanted to try out something new for a change. Our destination? Tok-Yu Sushi Bar at Pioneer Center, Pasig City.

We didn't exactly have this place in mind when we were at Pioneer Center--we were just looking for somewhere to satisfy our hunger before visiting my grandparents at the cemetery. After looking at different restaurants, we decided to settle here. 

The restaurant's exterior is anything but imposing. Take away the huge sign and the hanging Japanese lanterns and you might easily dismiss this place as a cafeteria or a typical neighborhood carinderia.

Consistent with the exterior, the interior only reinforces the whole cafeteria look and feel of the place. I didn't mind it at all, though. I actually even felt a tinge of excitement since I rarely get to try these hole-in-the-wall places. These hole-in-the-wall places tend to hold a lot of promise. Case in point: Tim Ho Wan, the Michelin-starred restaurant famous for their baked pork buns, started out as a small, hole-in-the-wall place in Hong Kong. 

While they don't exactly sell their food at cafeteria prices (read: CHEAP), I wouldn't say their prices are at par with some mainstream Japanese restaurants. Food here is priced very competitively.

We started off the meal with some Tamago (Japanese sweet egg).

The Sashimi was good and I do like the thick slices, though I noticed a not-so-fresh piece mixed in. I was unfortunate enough to actually get the not-so-fresh piece.

My dad's order: a bowl of Gyudon which, at P145, seems pretty decent. He finished off his bowl without any complaints.

My eyes widened as my mom's order of Seafood Ramen was placed on our table. Just look at all that seafood! If you're into seafood then I don't think this will disappoint. The serving size was huge, too.

My mom also ordered some Ebi Tempura for sharing. It wasn't bad at all, but it doesn't stand out for me. The restaurant doesn't try too hard to please customers with elaborate food presentations. Some people may actually find the simpler food presentations more appealing. 

My brother and I each had an order of Pork Tonkatsu, at P140 each. Again, food presentation was simple, but wouldn't make you feel like the chefs don't care at all. While the meat wasn't really too tough to chew, I was hoping for that melts-in-your-mouth feeling with each bite. Not bad, though.

Verdict: While the food here isn't spectacular by any means and service could still be improved (it took about 20-25 minutes for our orders to reach our table, and we were the first to arrive before the rest of the lunch crowd trickled in), I would still recommend Tok-Yu Sushi Bar to those craving for affordable Japanese food and those just looking for something more different from the typical Japanese restaurants. 

Tok-Yu Sushi Bar and Restaurant

Pioneer Center, Pasig City

Facebook: Tok-Yu Sushi Bar

Book Review: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Title: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Author: Robin Sloan
Genre: Mystery/Fantasy
Publisher: Picador

"The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But Clay soon discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything -- instead, they "check out" large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele's behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends. But when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore's secrets extend far beyond it's walls. 

Rendered with irresistible brio and dazzling intelligence, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly what it sounds like: an establishment you have to enter and will never want to leave."

Let me be completely honest here -- I don't think I remember the last time I was this disappointed with a book before. 

While the previous book I reviewed also turned out to be a disappointment, this book was an even bigger disappointment. Given the highly positive reviews it has received and after reading the blurbs on the front and back covers, I was expecting to be absolutely blown away at the end of it. Unfortunately, the book felt flat throughout, and I do have some problems with it, too.

First, I felt that the characters lacked development. They weren't really very relatable, and lacked depth that would make you sympathize with them. One character in particular, Kat Potente (Clay Jannon's love interest), was just plain annoying. The only character I actually (somewhat) liked was Mr. Penumbra himself. He somehow reminds me of Albus Dumbledore, except he lives in the non-wizarding world and does enjoy tinkering with his Kindle.

The biggest let-down for me, however, lies in the story itself. While the book seems to present itself as a mystery novel, the characters were never really in any grave danger to leave readers hanging on to their seats. Everything was just too convenient for the characters, too, especially for Clay Jannon. The unemployed Clay needs to fly to New York? No problem! His filthy-rich childhood friend can pay for his plane tickets. Clay needs a scanner to scan some books that contain weird codes that need deciphering? Well, he can just easily purchase one from the internet. Clay now has to decipher these codes after scanning the books? Well that's easy--his girlfriend just happens to work for Google and has access to all sorts of machinery to figure out these codes! 

Now, I don't really bother finishing books that fail to impress me early on, but I still decided to hold on to this book thinking it would get better at some point (given the blurbs and all the hype, how could you not give this book a chance?). However, as I reached the end, I couldn't help but think, "Really? That was it?". The ending was just so overly simplistic and wasn't something I would play in my head over and over long after I've put the book down. The plot was so weak and difficult to follow. I knew there were certainly some parts of the story that were never really properly explained. At first I thought maybe I just really wasn't paying enough attention, but I really couldn't figure out the connection between why those books had all those codes that needed deciphering and the "big reveal" at the end. What was the real purpose behind those mysterious customers' visits to the bookstore? How were they really expecting to break the code by moving from one book to the next? Why do the members of The Unbroken Spine (the cult-ish group to which Mr. Penumbra belongs) have to write their own memoirs that are eventually translated into code? Who translates these into code? And why does it have to be coded? It's an absolute mess!

Overall, the book just felt like one big advertisement for Google (the Google-worshiping gets really annoying after a while), so much so that the author didn't bother to properly develop the characters and the plot. If you're thinking of buying a copy for yourself, do NOT let the blurbs and the hype fool you. You might be better off reading something else instead.

Book Review: Held Up by Christopher Radmann

Title: Held Up
Author: Christopher Radmann
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Headline Review

"Paul is a contented man; his life is cruising. But one day he's dragged out of his new BMW while waiting at traffic lights and his assailant drives off in his car.

It's an everyday car jacking in South Africa. Except his nine-month-old daughter is in the back seat. 

Paul descends into the heart of darkness of his country to find his child. He uncovers a criminal gang involved in people trafficking and discovers in himself a capacity for violence. When the trail goes cold, he is on the verge of losing everything, but finds redemption in the most unlikely circumstances.

Moving from the enclaves of Johannesburg's northern suburbs to the throbbing heart of Soweto's informal settlements, Paul is forced to confront the changing political and social landscape of the new South Africa, questioning his own values as his life is transformed.

If you happen to come across this book and expect it to be a page-turning, fast-paced thriller, then this book might disappoint you.

After reading the synopsis while browsing through the bookstore, I did not hesitate to buy it right away, even if it was a bit pricey. This book seemed to be so promising that I thought it was worth a try. However, as I began flipping through the pages, I realized this book wasn't exactly what it promises to be.

The book actually focuses more on the protagonist's (a white South African man named Paul Van Niekerk) internal struggles as he tries to cope with the loss of his very young daughter whom he and his wife had difficulty conceiving, and the impact of the carjacking and kidnapping on his five-year marriage to his wife Claire. It also dwells on some political and social issues in post-apartheid South Africa (the "new" South Africa, as the author would put it). 

While the book did have a sprinkling of thrilling parts here and there, the book would suddenly lose its momentum and suddenly become slow-paced (too painfully slow, in fact) again. The very liberal use of Afrikaans words and phrases throughout the book also slows things down for the reader, especially one who is not too familiar with the language. The author's writing style and the often too overly-poetic and unnatural dialogue by the characters and the narrative and the fact that the chapters drag on to over thirty pages each doesn't help, either.

Of course, the book does have its merits. I particularly like how the author draws readers in with the way he describes things. His descriptions of places like the slums of Soweto are very vivid and made me feel like I was actually there. The part where Paul and Claire try their best to control their emotions and have a "normal" meal immediately after their daughter's kidnapping but fail miserably was particularly compelling as well. The book also helped me understand more about South Africa, a country which I didn't know much about.

However, this book still falls short of my expectations. I felt like some parts were a bit unnecessary, which the book could have done better without (and replaced by other scenes instead). The sudden jumps in time in the latter parts of the book left me scratching my head, too. I'm not quite sure if this book is something I'd recommend. Probably not.