A Month's Love

19th

The end.

JAPAN TRIP - My Christmas Present

My mum came home from work one day and asked me to check her bag, inside I found travel bookings to The Land Of Sashimi - Nihon desu. (Hahaha I failed my third language, don't laugh.) *SURPRISEEE* It's my christmas present from her. I was sooo happy I cried, yes cried.

I went Tokyo with my mum, uncle Ray, Ah Ling Jiejie and Ashley 2 years ago and it was one of the best trips ever. Finally, Japan once more <3

Day 1 - 10th December 2014, Wednesday

Finally departure~

(blogger seriously needs to stop changing the colour of my pictures)

I shared a post on facebook about a wifi router long ago. Ah Ling Jiejie helped reserve and collect at the arrival terminal. It's $12 per day and can connect up to 8 devices. So much cheaper than singtel's data roaming please.

Japan airlines babeh

At changi airport's 24hr eatery.

PS: Must eat the wanton mee. Damn good please.

I had this on top of the wanton mee, what can I say, I'm a pig.

Boarding time:

My mama sibei act cute, her spects I cannot..

Ashley and a not so flattering shot of uncle Ray

HAHAHA

I cried like cray cray while watching 'If I stay', I wouldn't have stayed if I were her.

Some snacks on the plane and my dose of white wine, I miss work already :(

Caught Sex and The City

Took a short nap and by then 5 hours have passed already

Breakfast is served.

"Tea or miso soup?" "Both."

Caught this documentary about Nissin Cup Noodles, HAHA FUCKING CUTE.

How they pack their noodles, got diagram somemore wahlao.

Eyebag game strong

Arrived at Haneda International Airport after 7 hours:

Freaking tired already

Uncle Ray, Ashley, Ah Ling Jiejie and mumsie <3

I think I damn yolo, temperature was 6 freezing degrees and I'm wearing shorts! I literally ran to the toilet to put on my leggings. HAHA THE BUS SO CUTE RIGHT ^^

Remind me why I love the toilets in Japan again? When every part of my body was freezing, only my butt was kept warm. My Butt. The toilet seats are freaking heated. Omg best thing ever.

Boarded the limousine coach heading towards our hotel

What a beauty, Tokyo Tower aka Japan's Effiel Tower

I can get used to this omg

Shinjuku

I'm freezing sooo badly, especially when the wind blows, my cheeks just gonez.

We grabbed a bite (okay fine more than a bite hehe) while we waited for our rooms to get ready for checking in:

Keio Plaza Hotel:

Our room was amazing. It's not drop dead gorgeous, but it's spacious. Trust me, spacious rooms aren't exactly what Tokyo is known for.

Time to bathe. It's so cold.. Can I not? :( We set our aircon as a heater, 28 degrees. LOL

Five layers of clothings. Five. 5.

I'm my mother's model. No kiddz.

God. Now you know where I get my genes from.

Told you I'm her model

Time to go gai gai

Don't ask me why blur, I also don't know.

Bao ba zhang

Freezing freezing freezing

Brrr

Gopro makes my face fat

Shinjuku > Shibuya JR line tickets

Touristy touristy

With such complicated lines they can still be punctual regarding arrival, I don't know what SMRT have to say for themselves.

Shibuya

Their version of Orchard Road, fucking expensive Far East Plaza in my opinion. The last time I was in Tokyo, we stayed at Shibuya instead.

Hello Kitty Samantha V. bag

Sucker for hearts and roses

Streets after streets

Hachiko, the dog who can't be moved. Our second time taking pictures with the loyal dog.

No feeling better than eating ice cream during winter:

I scream, you scream, we scream for Icecream?

Uncle Ray and his rare strawberry cheesecake

Ashley and her daddy

Pure vanilla I think

My favourite couple in the world

Ah Ling Jiejie so cute omg hahaha

My mumsie looking satisfied her cappuccino and cone

NOTHING CAN FIGHT MY MATCHA AND AZUKI BEANS WAHAHA

I look damn stupid but I ate Icecream in the cold, sibei badass WHATCHAGONNADOBOUTTHAT. HAHA.

Uncle Ray and I were saying how cheated we feel for paying so much more for alcohol (and basically every other thing) in Singapore.

I'm being retarded overseas. HAHA

We had shabu shabu for dinz:

Thank you Zhong Wei for interpreting the menu over whatsapp for me. HAHAHA.

After dinner I was running errands for all those people who asked me to buy things for them. PS: MY BU YAO LIAN DE FRIENDS TSK. LOL

I managed to brave the cold (I almost froze and died) and got Julian his magazine:

AND I ALSO SPOTTED WHAT I WANTED EVER SINCE THE MOMENT I HEARD ABOUT IT:

HAHA YES LUGGAGE COVER. It makes your lugagge look like sashimi on the conveyor belt. Japs are so brilliant omg. I bought it la of course.

SPOTTED. DAMN. TOO. MUCH.

We walked down allies after allies hoping to find our favourite dessert shop selling toast with Hachiko as the signature. It turned out they no longer sold it and was closed for a private function. SMLJ :( We had it the last time we went to patronize,

Ps: Picture taken from Google

We decided to get our dessert fix somewhere else, after roaming for a bit we chances upon a very crowded cafe:

With a cool lift HAHA

The food was not too bad I guess. I loved the view though:

The legendary Shibuya Crossing.

Then the adults had a crazy idea, they wanted to cab back to the hotel. If you have never been to Japan, tip 101: never cab, cause it's too fucking expensive. We knew but we were too tired and we have never sat in one so ahh might as well.

WAH THE METER HOR.. FOR EVERY 20 CENTS JUMP IN SINGAPORE, JAPAN JUMP 90CENTS. Bo ho seh, but not I pay so I sit until very ho seh. Hahaha okay we're all really tired with only 2 hours of napping on the plane. Goodnight earthlings x

Day 2 - 11th December 2014, Thursday

Shinjuku

We grabbed brunch somewhere near our hotel before going gai gai for a bit:

Orders are placed via vending machines hahaha I know right! The first time I saw it I was damn shocked. Now? Still sibei coolz

My orders

Love the ambience

Ashley, Ah Ling Jiejie and Uncle Ray

Our router broke down and the first thing that came to my mind was like 'Jialat liao lor, second day only BOHOSEH' but heng ah we played around with it a little and pressed the reset button. All is fine now hence this blogpost. HEHE :)

Authentic ramen

The 90s kiddos would know what Sega mean to us

When in Japan, do what the Japanese do:

I wanted ONE so I played and played but I couldn't get any :(

Uncle Ray's second try and he got THREE for me instead. Haha yay today is a good day ^^

TADAH <3

DisneySea

Don't ask me why not Disneyland, cause just no. The last time we also went to DisneySea cause.. Just because. Well, there's only one DisneySea in the world and it has a great balance of entertainment for both adults and children (I feel).

On board the coach *choo choo*

Ft. My Minnie ribbon from the previous DisneySea adventure <3

Ps: Everybody is asleep but here I am blogging.

I changed out of my trenchcoat into a down feather jacket. It was freezing and raining omg I died.

My lil sister <3

Less than 5 degrees with wind is no joke

Groupshot with Minnie ^^

I look like a PRC oh god

We went on some lame boat ride and my hair is in a complete mess

It's not blur, it's frozen camera

Meow

Woops blur this one blur

AHAHAHA THIS ONE CUTE I DONT CARE I SAY CUTE

QUEUEING FOR INDIANA JONES RIDE

Then uncle Ray and I went on Raging Spirits, pretty fun ride:

Picture taken from Google

Then we randomly chanced upon Adventures of Sinbad:

It's this slow boat ride with amazing effects and all

This looks like nothing but I swear is the world's most tender chicken drumstick. We bought like SIX of it? HAHA

Chocolate Churros

NOM NOM

I don't even know how to begin to describe how beautiful the view is. iPhone camera sucks so bad uh

Tower of Terror taken from Google.

I sat on this ride alone with all the screaming japanese girls. It was soooo scary but I'm glad I did it. #AdrenalineJunkie

This is easily only 5% of how breathtaking it really is

With mumsie <3

I could live here forever

We spent our remaining time walking into like 4 souvenir shops, big ones, small ones, I bought quite a bit of things (such as presents *winks winks*) They sell everything. Everything. And you can feel free to try on their hats and stuff.

The Tokyo Disney Train on the Resort Line is so bloody cute I cannot:

And once again, taken from Google

In time for Christmas! They dressed up all the handlebars. HAHAHA

Seriously. Too. Adorable. 

We were sooo tired so so so tired, we were practically dragging our legs. We went to shop somemore at a nearby shopping centre and after that we were so tired to the point that nobody talked during dinner at T.G.I.Fridays. Everybody was just eating and stoning:

The lights were blue not the fries, just saying

After dinner we took the train back and I fell asleep. Omg long walks to transiting trains and long train journey I swear. Time to toh.

Day 3 - 12th December 2014, Friday

Shinjuku

おはよう! Good morning errbody!

Checking out of our hotel now

Going for breakfast now

Katsu curry (pork)

Chicken

I look like siam bu in this photo LOL

Ticket to Tokyo from Shinjuku

Bullet train tickets! The last time we bought these tickets were to Mount Fuji, so this time - Kyoto here we come!

Kyoto

I spy yellow goodness

Train conductor

Matsui Hokan Ryokan:

We had to wait for check-in so in the meantime, we went for lunch:

I don't know what I had but this, this is so so good

And for the highlight of our entire trip, or rather to me, KIMONO RENTAL:

Yumeyakata overnight kimono rental

No pictures of trying and fitting but I can only tell you, it's many many many layers. I feel so fat, so figureless and I. Cannot. BREATHE.

Back at our hotel for check in:

Room briefing and translator

We went to walk down the streets of Kyoto:

WE WERE ALL FREEZING

Yakuza or samurai?

Hot guy spotted, Tae Yang look a like and after that everybody in the family started snapping photos of him, 'with him'. HAHA

Group shot <3

Went back to our hotel and look see look see the hot springs. LOL:

Looking at hotsprings made me miss a few people that I went Taiwan with for my grad trip :(

If you have watched Japan Hour on Channel News Asia before, you'll know how traditional dinner is served:

Firstly, in your room

One by one they will serve the starters, mains and dessert

Starters

2 sakae for uncle Ray and I

OMG it was sooo lethal :/

I started eating first. Guinea pig, haha honestly it's scary because you don't know what you're eating half the time. The other half the time, you're prolly guessing. In any case, dinz was actually pretty good.

Dishes after dishes

Additional hotspots

Desserts

Disclaimer: What happens when you drink too much sakae?

K

After dinner we stood one side for them to start making our 'beds' on tatami mats

Done ^^

So much love on every single mattress

AH LIAN AND AH BENG SINCE 1980s

The last plan for tonight - HOTSPRINGS:

*soaking in the hotsprings* prolly had one of the best baths of my life tonight, shiok or wut

Goodnight errbody, and yes is my pjs for the entire trip. HAHA

PS: First time sharing room with them and they have been snoring for the past 1.5hr, how am I gonna sleep :( Hehe just kiddz don't kill me tomorrow hahaha

Day 4 - 13th December, Saturday

Kyoto

Grilled food in the market place

Japanese things are sooo pretty

One of their many temples

Kyoto is a relatively quieter town as compared to Tokyo. Standard of living, pace of lifestyles are so different. But one thing is for sure - freezing all day err day 

I'm always intrigued and attracted to wax food. The resemblance is so, so I don't know how to put it in words. Realistic? 

You've probably tried red bean paste cake but have you tried white bean paste cake? It's really sweet and aromatic

Kawai bread

This is unbelievable and irritatingly addictive. SGD$10 just thrown away because it doesn't catch onto anything and we got so pissed that I might just buy the real one from Harajuku again LOL

2 years ago:

It's blurred but I bought 3 craftholics as Christmas presents and none for myself :( Fine, I'm going Harajuku tomorrow, let's see what I'll get then.. Ps: I bought it before the craze k

Toys street, oh god I love Japan

We bought 2 luggage separately and went for lunch at a nearby eatery:

Lunch was pretty good

<3

THE red bean paste thingy I was talking about, usually the cake looks like a fish

Moving crab on the wall, too bad I can't gif this

I customized a shirt for someone in hiragana, it's so cool like shop keeper did it in less than 3mins?

And I bought a few stickers to decorate my luggage, it's quite a well known brand. Apparently my uncle said Naomi Neo posted about it before or something but aiya anyway the guy was so cute I decided to let him have the honour of pasting the first sticker. HAHAHA

Checking out of our traditional hotel already :(

Okay I know I sound a lil crazy but the colour of the cab? LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE, SHALL PAINT MY CAR THAT COLOUR TOO HAHAHA TIFFANY AND CO SIOL

Aww my uncle's new luggage for court and mine found one another HAHA

Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo, another 2.5hr journey ride to sleep oink oink

I could really get used to this :')

Ps: I sent Keith a video of the bullet train launching itself forward and his reply was 'wah so fast' I LOLED

Train attendant

Then suddenly I remembered a facebook post I chanced upon the night before - 'The biggest pokémon center in Japan opens' and decided why not? Impromptu things are the best

Tokyo

Ikebukuro

My mumsie and I split with the rest, we dragged our luggage, jumped from trains to trains during transit, braved the cold and ran all the way to (and joined the crazy queue) - may I present you - The Pokémon Center:

*Ooh so excited*

Too bad I'm single, if not my boyfriend shall have this for a present just because I happy HAHA

Their latest toy

THIS IS MY CHILDHOOD. I could never choose which one of them to start the game with! Omg I remember my transparent (fully see through and fucking cool) game boy. I had all the cartridges and I can't believe I just announced the geek side of me on the Internet LOL

Trust me when I say they sell everything. Everything except a pokéball toy :(

I bought the jigglypuff one, hahaha

Pikachu cup noodles hahaha seriously sarah

That bag right there is worth SGD$80, I have no idea what in the world I bought but kaching$ fly

After shopping I went to the ladies to shit (ALL THEIR TOILETS ARE FREAKING CLEAN?!) and I've been meaning to share with you guys, what I call a 'Polite Cover Up'. This machine you see here is a recording of a flushing sound. Yes literally it sounds like you flushed your toilet bowl and it can go on as long as you can release your fart. I'M NOT KIDDING. It's a cover up so that you don't feel embarrassed when farting. HOW COOL IS THAT *POOOOOOOOOOT*

This trip I've prolly tried all types of Japanese food (except sushi so far) and yes I just had one of the best tempura for dinz:

That. Good. 

Shinjuku

Keio Plaza Hotel:

Back to the same hotel for checking in but this time, we have an upgrade. Long story but thank you Ah Ling Jiejie :)

I know it looks like nothing much, but I just had a bubble bath in Tokyo. HAHA but seriously though; nicer layout, bigger room, nicer view, better toiletries, branded soap etc.

Okay I'm dead beat, shall continue blogging tomorrow, thanks for reading <3