Trip to Paris with Qatar Business class Haneda International Airport to Doha

Many of my friends know that I am a nervous flyer despite being a frequent flyer.  However, unlike the thousand other times I have traveled, I decided to travel in Business Class this last trip. I have always wanted to travel business class but never felt that it was an option because the prices were always so high. However, after much searching around and deciding this would be my last trip overseas for at least 6 months, I decided to purchase a business class ticket with Qatar Airways.

Qatar Airways offers the best economy class product I have ever experienced. I have flown with QA at least 6 times last year. I have never been disappointed with their economy class product. The food was always good, flight attendants polite and movie selection good. Knowing this, I decided to fork over a large sum of money to fly their award winning business class product.



Upon entering the flight, I was greeted by the head flight attendant and offered my amenity kit along with a glass of Champagne.

 The kit included lots of goodies such as lotion, socks, chapstick and so on. I found the kit itself to be quite sturdy.







The menu for the flight was quite extensive. I really enjoyed the meal on demand option that Qatar Airways offers to all of its premium cabin guests.

I started my three-course meal with an Arabic Mezze. It was delicious and quite filling. I could not finish the whole mezze. 

The next course was steak and mashed potatoes with a sweet basil sauce.

Yuzu and chocolate cake 

The cake was delicious.


The whole meal service took about a whole hour. I tried to enjoy the meal at my own pace but the flight attendant kept on taking my food away before I could finish it.


After eating, I decided to go to sleep and I ended up sleeping for a total of 8 hours.


I woke up an hour before landing and decided to eat breakfast.

 Greek yogurt with oatmeal. 

The yogurt was good but I found the sauce to be a little too bitter for my liking.

Fresh fruit french toast

I found the french toast delicious.

After eating breakfast, we started to prepare for our descent into Doha.
The plane landing was smooth and after taxiing for about 20 minutes we have arrived at our stop. Due to the lack of gates available we were transferred via bus to the terminal.

Free time or work time?

Over the last year, I have enjoyed traveling around the world to destinations I would have never thought possible being a small town boy from Colorado. However, recently I have been thinking about my career and what I should to work towards my future. I love traveling and experiencing new cultures and especially the food.

But, I know I need to concentrate on tomorrow and not only live for today. Thus, I have decided to take a short break from travel and pursue a career that will help me in my future. I have been living in Japan now for about 12 years and I have become bored with my daily hell. I think now is the time for me to experience something new.

I have been offered a new job working for a hotel company that is going to expand to the overseas market. I know this is good oppoturnity for my future but I will no longer be able to enjoy my time traveling or spending it with friends. I guess.. there is a point in everyone`s life when we need to figure out what is important.... time or money?

Three years and no post

Hello,


I hope everyone is doing good. I know it has been a long time since I have last post anything on this site. To tell the truth, I had totally forgotten about my blog and concentrated more on my Instagram account. I have a had a long two years and it is a lot to write about here but I can give you a bit of a review. I purchased a house with my partner in Yokohama, got divorced and made that house a rental. I moved to central Tokyo. I have also traveled a lot over the last year. I traveled to England, Spain, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, China, Taiwan,  The United States and more. I will write about my journeys here on my blog. I hope the few or if any of you will enjoy my journey and future journeys.

Recent update

Hello Everyone,

Recently, I haven't wrote much on my blog and I have a good excuse. I have been too busy at work!!!

Currently I only have one day off a week and I usually spend it sleeping all day.


I have cooked many good foods recently. I will try to upload the pics and info later


;)

April and the puff pastry

It is spring here in Japan and I have decided to do more cooking at home. Recently, I have been into baking this last week and I have discovered a new product at the supermarkets here in Japan. Japan has started to sell Pie Sheets (In the USA, it is known as puff pastry).


As you all might know, I have love to bake quiches and pies and so on...

But, sometimes I get very busy and I do not have the time to bake from scratch. This is where the pie sheets come into play.

You can buy a pack of these pie sheets from the supermarket for about 400 yen. You get two sheets of pie crust. The brand I use most is Meiji.



This last week, I actually injured myself and I couldn't walk. These pie sheets were very easy for me to use and I was able to cook without spending a lot of time standing.

I made apple pies, pigs in the blanket and even homemade hot pockets with them.

Theres pie sheets are a lifesaver

Stuffed squid

After returning home from the department store I decided to cook dinner. I decided to look online to see what I could make with my newly bought ingredients and to my surprise I found a list of things I could make with squid.


I decided to try making stuffed squid.


The recipe was quite simple all it required was a cup of old rice, chorizo sausage, red peppers, the tail and tentacles of the squid, garlic, white wine vinegar , salt and pepper.

All I did was cut up the squid and fry the the rice and other ingredients in a fry pan. And then stuffed the body of the squid with these ingredients and then fried the body of he squid. After frying the body on both sides for about 2 minutes each I placed it in the oven safe dish and covered the squid with about a half cup of wine vinegar and baked for about 45 minutes on 170C. If you want to make the presentation look nice, I would add some tomatoes or other vegetables around the squid when you bake it.

The stuffing can be replaced with anything you have in the fridge.

The recipe is quite easy to make

You can find the original recipe at this link

http://pasto.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/chorizo-stuffed-squidlulas-recheadas/

The original asked for bread instead of rice, but since I live in Asia I decided to use rice instead of the bread and egg mixture.

Shopping in the Japanese department store for food

Since moving to Shinjuku I find it quite enjoyable to shop in department stores for daily goods. They are quite expensive compared to supermarkets but the quality is great.


This last week, I was walking around Shinjuku after work and decided to go check out the seafood department at Odakyu department store. After arriving at the department store I was quite shocked to find that they were having a sale on seafood.


I was able to buy a basket of squid and two Kai

The basket of squid only cost me 500 yen and the Kai cost 480 for the two.

Great deal