Japan – Day 4

We set off late from our hotel today… 11am!  We woke up early but spent the morning washing our clothes and that took longer than expected.  Still, that did not damper our excitement for the day!

Our tour in Kyoto today would be entirely by bus and foot!  Exciting!  We bought 2 All-Day City Bus Passes for 500JPY each.  Great value for money since a single ride already costs 220JPY!  We took a 10-minutes bus ride to Nishiki market, which we originally planned to have breakfast at but it seems more like lunch by the time we got there.  One peculiar observation I MUST mention is the experience of riding on the bus.  During the journey, the bus driver would turn off the engine each time the bus came to a stop… be it the bus stop or at a traffic junction.  He would then restart the engine when it’s time to move off.  This happened on all the bus rides we took for the rest of the day!  The aircon remained on throughout though.  I wonder if they did that to save fuel and reduce pollution but it’s definitely not saving the engine.

We alighted along Kawaramachi-dori in search of Nishiki market.  The main reason for touring Kyoto today was because we wanted to catch the Umbrella Procession happening along the streets of Kyoto as part of the month-long Gion Matsuri festival.  We were not sure what time the procession would start but it looked like the procession was just in the preparation phase when we arrived!  Hooray!

     

Since the Nishiki market area marked on the map spanned across several streets, we decided to just explore the whole area.  First stop… Shinkyogoku, a street lined with shops selling food, confectionaries, sweets, clothes, bags, sourvenirs, etc… just about anything!  Shopping time!

   

One of the interesting sights in Japan is the abundance of temples everywhere, even in the midst of all the shops in a crowded shopping alley!

  

Having to wake up early in Japan, something that Julian doesn’t do in Singapore, he would fall asleep in his stroller when he’s tired, which is also something that Julian doesn’t do in Singapore!  There he was dozing away while Daddy was in the fitting room trying out clothes!  He was half awake just before leaving the shop with our purchases but the sight of toys brought this little boy back to his chatty mood!

  

230pm… our stomaches were telling us “We need food!”, so we went hunting for lunch.  Lunch was not at this place with a huge crab above it… I just took a photo of it because it was one of the more interesting-looking restaurants around.  Instead, we tried out the food in a rather run-down and small restaurant.  We ordered Udon with Scrambled Eggs and Tendon (Tempura Donburi).  Food was slightly cheaper but not so nice.  We had to try it to know that it’s worth paying more for better food! 

 

  

By now, Julian was hungry… and sweating!  The weather was hot and there was no aircon in this restaurant!  It was not smoke-free either.  Ok… there was an improvised aircon but it was not effective.  You can see it in the background behind me… a fan with a bag of ice hanging in front of it.  By now, Julian started to imitate us taking photos by forming a square with his fingers and looking through them before saying “Chickak… Ju Ju take photo!  You see you see…” and he would show it to us so excitedly!  So cute…

  

More discoveries!  Chopsticks that looked like colour pencils… and the first 100 Yen Shop we shopped at!  Great place to buy bottled water since vending machines usually sold them for 120JPY to 150JPY.

  

The mood in Kyoto was very festive and vibrant today with participants of the Umbrella Procession clapping and cheering in various parts of the city.  Julian also joined in the clapping and cheering!  But as he tried to imitate their cheer, he ended up with “Mosquito… Mosquito…”… haha.

     

4pm!  We were supposed to be in Nijo Castle instead of the shopping alleys!  By now, the preparations for the Umbrella procession seemed to be in its final phases and we were contemplating whether to stay on for the procession or rush off to Nijo Castle, which closes at 5pm.  Not sure when the procession would start, we decided to cross our fingers and charge to Nijo Castle but not before buying crackers to munch during the bus ride.

   

We finally arrived at Nijo Castle… CLOSED!  Hmmm… last entry was at 4pm so all we could do was marvel at the castle walls and moat from the outside.  The castle is famous for its architecture and its Uguisubari-no-roka corridor, where the planks make a sound like a nightingale’s song when walked upon.  We wanted to let Julian test them out but too bad, seems like he can only test them out when he’s older.

  

We decided to head to our final stop… Philosopher’s Walk, a walk along a 2km path lined with cherry trees where Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida used to walk to meditate.  We had to take 2 buses to get there and while waiting for our second bus, we shopped at the convenience store just behind the bus stop for tidbits to munch again.  While shopping, the Umbrella Procession took place right outside the store and when we saw it, we were so excited that we ran out of the store with the unpaid merchandise!  There were sensors at the store entrance but fortunately for us, the alarm didn’t sound!  Otherwise, it would have been embarassing!  We quickly went back in to place the merchandise aside before running out of the store again to view the procession.  We resumed shopping only when the procession ended. 

    

When our bus finally arrive, we hopped onto it and started munching on a long-lost tidbit that Joan and I used to enjoy alot when we were kids… Doraemon chocolate balls!  Julian loved it just like daddy and mummy did and since the container looked so nice and cute, we decided to keep it as a memorabilia.

Traffic was heavy due to the Umbrella Procession and after half an hour, our bus arrived at Kawaramachi-dori where we shopped earlier in the day.  As our bus journey to the Philosopher’s Walk was not even one-third covered and the sun was beginning to set, we decided to give up the idea of being Philosophers in the dark.  The idea of being Shoppers was more appealing!

  

So many shops!  They even have the type of glue we used so often for art classes during primary school days!  Don’t see them in Singapore now so the sight of them brought back fond memories!

  

Rubber breasts!  We passed them to Julian and asked him what these were… we thought he ought to know since he is still breastfeeding.  When he saw them, he started laughing and said “Nak Nak”… haha!  He was so amused by them that his laughter attracted the attention of shoppers around.  For a moment, we seriously thought about buying them as temporary substitutes just in case mummy needed a break… until we realised the possibility of them bursting and leaking under Julian’s stress tests.

  

 Julian trying out new slippers here.  He loved them but too bad, they were all too small.

 

 A pet shop in Kyoto.  As usual, the sight of dogs got Julian excited.

We read about Mister Donut in travel books and thought we should try it out.  We picked 7 donuts for our Day 5 breakfast but we were told 2 donuts could not be taken out… they had to be consumed in the premises.  Strange… but wondering why (since we didn’t understand what they were saying), we agreed to consume the 2 donuts there and take out the rest.  When the 2 donuts were served…

  

there was ice cream inside!  Ahh… that’s why we could not take these really yummy donuts out.

 

Kids dressed up for the Umbrella Procession (although I thought they looked a little too skimpily dressed).

 

 We finally found  Nishiki Market… at night when all the stalls were closed!

 

More interesting shops… a restaurant specialising in beef dishes and just beside it, a shop selling model guns.  The guns looked so real that for a moment, I thought they were real until I saw the word “model”.

  

 A last look at the lantern decorations for the Umbrella Procession.

  

A night view of Kawaramachi-dori…

 

 and a view of our hotel from the bus terminal.

 

Dinner was in Kyoto train station after leaving all our shopping bags in our hotel room.  With so many restaurants at the basement of this huge station complex, we were spoilt for choice until the restaurants started closing one by one.  So we quickly made up our minds to have Ramen for dinner… a nice change after lots of udon since we arrived!  We had Soy Sauce Soup Ramen, Miso Soup Ramen, Fried Rice with Tori No Karaage (deep-fried chicken nuggets) and free flow of cold tea!  Satisfying meal!

   

Julian enjoying his walk back to the hotel after dinner.  By now, he was getting good in climbing up and down stairs!

   

A trash bin that could climb up stairs!  This elderly cleaner was really kind to stop his mobile trash bin for me to take a quick photo!  I supposed we were not the first ones to be so amazed by the sight of these hi-tech stuff.

 

Finally, a great way to end a wonderful day… a nice long bath to relax…

  

Next stop… Osaka!

Japan – Day 3

We are off to Himeji today!  Once again, we had breakfast on the shinkansen consisting of small dumplings, a rice dumpling with chicken filling, chocolate eclair, chocolate coated custard puff, bananas we bought from the supermarket in Osaka on Day 2 and milk for Julian!  Wonderful spread but the chocolate eclairs and chocolate coated custard puff were rather expensive (about S$7) but they looked too tempting to say no.

This is the shinkansen we had our breakfast in.  By now, Julian became really good in differentiating a shinkansen from a local train.  He could also pronounce shinkansen really well!  Good job Ju!  Each time a train leaves, he would wave and say “See you later… See you later…” until the train disappears from his sight.

  

Here’s a view of tourists waiting for their train on the opposite side of the track.  An interesting sight down below where the train station floor was marked out with lanes for human traffic!

  

Once we were out of Himeji station, the sight of Himeji Castle greeted us!

 

Following the sign at this bus stop, we waited for the shuttle bus that travels around Himeji Castle.  After a 15-minutes wait, our bus was finally here… but not at the bus stop where we were waiting!  Strangely, it stopped along a small road 20m away so we had to quickly fold up our stroller and make a quick dash to board it.  Still better than walking 1.25km to the castle under the hot sun!

  

A 5-minutes ride on the cute air-conditioned bus brought us outside the grounds of Himeji Castle… such a serene sight…

but just like Day 2, the weather was so hot!  Fortunately, we made the right decision to tour in bermudas after having our jeans stuck to our legs while touring Nara.  Definitely a good decision although it seems like the black swans were the only ones having a cool time.

  

A view from the bridge across the moat outside the castle…

  

and Julian balancing his way along the wooden divider on the bridge.  By the way, we are not advertising for Similac…  Ju is breastfed and he still is… haha!  :-)

 

It was a good day for photos as the day was sunny… but hot!  Julian had a cooler time though…

   

Water!  We took a break here for water, like most people did.  The bin certainly testifies to the crave for water on this hot hot day!

  

The view of Himeji Castle was just beautiful from all angles and we only started to realise how majestic Himeji Castle is as we got nearer.  While I was purchasing entrance tickets, a caucasian family was so amused with Julian that they even posed for photos with him.  They probably found him cute and funny, expecially since he’s so chatty.  I suppose the mobile fan that we attached to Julian’s stroller attracted their attention too… just like it attracted the attention of many Japanese.  Surprisingly in a country that is so famous for their hi-tech and innovative gadgets, many Japanese seem so amused by the sight of Julian’s mobile fan as though they have never seen one before!  Maybe they just wanted to borrow it… haha.

  

We trekked around the grounds of Himeji Castle, which was larger than we expected.  With Julian prefering to walk and explore on his own, our planned 1 hour tour turned out to be over 2 hours.  Haha…

  

We found a nice spot on the castle wall where we could put Julian on and take photos of him.  He loved it initially but when I took my time taking photos of him, he started asking us to “bao bao”.  Haha… so we quickly granted his request and off he went exploring the grounds again.  He had some falls along the way but our brave little boy would pick himself up and continue.    Good job Ju!

  

We are finally at the base of Himeji Castle having a picnic (well… more like water parade) under the hot sun… before realising there was a sheltered rest point nearby… Gee.

  

Another view from the base of Himeji Castle…

 

 while enjoying the cool spray at the sheltered rest point.

  

Before climbing up the castle, this was where we had to remove our shoes and carry them in plastic bags.  I was kind of doubtful how clean the castle floor would be considering the number of visitors they have each day but at the end of the castle tour, I was convinced that the floor is indeed very clean!

 

Julian accomplished an amazing feat today… he climbed up all 6 storeys of the castle to reach the top all by himself!  The steps were high and the stairs were very steep, very much like the steep stairs that ships (at least naval ships) have but Julian conquered them so well!  Great job Ju!

   

And finally, we all reached the top of the castle and were rewarded with a magnificent view of Himeji!  The wind at this height was great, blowing through the windows of the castle.  On this hot day, the interior of the castle was amazingly cool, thanks to the natural ventilation.

Up we came and down we go.  This time, I had to carry Julian down as the stairs were very steep.  Certain points required us to lower our heads and arch my body to avoid the overhead beams.  It was just like climbing down the stairs on a ship but carrying Julian with a hand.  Quite a challenge…

 A view of bamboo trees in the park while walking out of the castle grounds.

  

Lunch @ 3pm!  We had a lovely spread at this restaurant outside Himeji Castle.  We ordered hot soba and Tori No Karaage (deep-fried chicken nuggets) that came with Julian’s favourite… Chawanmushi (steam egg)!  But my soba didn’t come with any spoon!  Initially, I thought the waitress forgot about it until I realised everyone was drinking the broth direct from the bowl… chopsticks in one hand and the bowl in the other.  So I just copied what I saw.  It was a funny experience as I was just not used to carrying a hot and heavy bowl of noodles with one hand.    Something new about the Japanese culture that I learnt today!

   

After lunch, we decided to walk 1.25km back to the train station to enjoy the view and feel of Himeiji streets.  The shade offered by the buildings along the streets did help make the walk enjoyable.  Julian dozed off very soon after we put him into his stroller and this is something that Julian learnt to do in Japan… sleeping in his stroller without the need for mummy’s milk AKA “Nak Nak”.  Guess the climb up Himeji Castle really drained him out!

 

Here’s our shinkansen to Osaka!

 

I did mention that we spent a much longer time at Himeji Castle than planned.  It was definitely worth it but at the expense of missing the last ride of the day on the Aqualiner Cruise around the Port of Osaka.  Hmm… so we headed for the next item on our itinerary… the Floating Garden Observatory at the top of Umeda Sky Building.

One of the reasons why we really enjoyed our Japan trip was the chance to experience and see the daily happenings on the the streets of Japan.   Ladies walking along the streets in kimonos never fail to catch our attention… the variety and elegence of the kimono really adds colour to cosmopolitan Japan.  Here at Osaka train station were 2 ladies walking in Kimonos.  We figured that one (in blue) is a bride-to-be and the other one is a bridesmaid from the wedding-style ribbons on their backs and the paper bags of wedding stuff they were carrying.    Congrats!

 

The towering sight of Umeda Sky Building at sunset!  Great place to view the sunset and night scene of Osaka!

  

Beautiful architecture with the Floating Garden Observatory suspended between the 2 main towers.

 

What’s happening here?  Well, a Japanese man was walking his dog and the sight of the dog got Julian really excited… so he chased the dog but got chased instead and Daddy became his safety zone.  So when Julian started running circles around me to hide from the dog, the dog followed and I got trapped with my legs bounded by the leash.  At least the dog didn’t lick my legs… guess they were too salty… haha!

 

Here we are queuing for tickets.  It costs 700JPY per adult to enter while Julian enters for free.  However, we paid 630JPY per ticket after using a discount ticket we got from a visit to the Tourist Information Centre outside Osaka station.  So the trick is to visit Tourist Information Centres and ask them for directions to the places you want to go.  They will be glad to hand you discount coupons if they have it!

 

 A view of Osaka city in the evening and at night.

 

Over the years, Joan and I have a habit of visiting observatories as it gives us a chance to marvel at the view of the entire city.  But among all the observatories we have visited in France, South Korea and Australia, this was the most beautiful observatory.  Modern and stylish interior design coupled with impressive cleanliness made this place soooo cosy!

  

 So cosy that Julian had his diapers changed on level 39… 150m above ground…

 

and then enjoyed his favourite “Nak Nak”…

 

before playing on this platform that served as a display for interactive games.

 

We proceeded to the open-air observatory on level 40.  The view was breathtaking but Julian was more interested in the colourful luminous rocks embedded in the floor of the walkway.  There was this corner in the open-air observatory where visitors could sit on a long red bench and use their hands to rub on the 2 metal spheres at the ends of the bench.  The heat generated would light up the floor like what you see Joan and Julian doing in the photo below.  There was no way I was going to miss out on the fun!  So there I was trying to light up more squares on the floor by rubbing the spheres more and more vigourously but it didn’t work.  Then an idea came to my mind… squeeze the spheres hard!  So I tried and Voila!  The whole floor lighted up and the crowd went “WAAAAAAH!”  That felt really good!

  

It was about 8pm by the time we left the observatory.  The plan was to have dinner at Dotombori Gokuraku Shotengai, which is famous for food.  But since we were hungry and there were many restaurants in the area, we decided to just find a nice place near the train station for dinner.

So this was what we were rewarded with!  A hot Udon with Tempura set and a Nabeyaki Udon to end our day, which Julian really enjoyed as udon is one of his favourite food.

  

Next stop… the place where we are staying… Kyoto!

Happy Birthday Joshua!

Before I post my blog on Japan – Day 3, which I suppose many friends are looking forward to, I would like to wish our first child Joshua a big Happy Birthday!  He would have been 3 years old yesterday.  Do check out Joan’s blog to read more about Joshua.

I got off work early yesterday at 5pm.  I had to leave early to make sure I had enough time to get flowers from Novena Square before attending the 630pm mass at Novena Church.  That’s how we celebrated Joshua’s birthday… celebrating mass in memory of our little boy.  We wanted to get white daisies as they are Joan’s favourite flowers but since the florist didn’t have any, we got 3 stalks of pink Gerberas… 3 stalks to signify 3 years old and pink because we placed pink gerberas into Joshua’s casket 3 years ago.

  

Julian was very well behaved during mass and played with the flowers occasionally.  I told him to be gentle with the flower because they are flowers for kor kor… and very gentle he was!  When mass ended, we gave Julian the flowers and prompted him to offer it up to his kor kor Joshua at Mother Mary’s alter.  He sure looked happy doing it, especially when he managed to reach and place it at the alter.  We then offered a thanksgiving prayer to Mother Mary for guiding us to God all this while. 

  

We had dinner after mass at Velocity… Japanese food!  It was good and very filling!  Guess we haven’t had enough of Japanese food yet… haha.  We headed home after that only to realise that we forgot to buy Joshua’s birthday cake after we alighted at the bus stop near our home!  So we walked to the nearest confectionary shop we could find (which was 10 minutes away!)… the one outside Whampoa market and we got a small nice chocolate cake before heading home.  Hmm… how could we have forgotten about the cake!  Thank God Joan remembered!

So here’s the lovely little cake we got for Joshua.  It was very heartwarming to see Julian singing the Happy Birthday song to Kor Kor Joshua so happily before blowing the candles out.  Julian was so good at blowing out his 2 birthday candles last month but this time, he took alot more tries blowing out 3 as he kept giggling the whole time… haha.  The whole scene was just so funny.  It looked as though he was celebrating his own birthday but he knew it was kor kor Joshua’s birthday because each time we asked him, “Whose birthday is it, Julian?”, he would reply “Kor Kor Joshua’s birthday”. 

 

We cut the cake and shared a piece after that.  Yes… the whole family shared a tiny piece as we were all still feeling so full from dinner.  Julian was more interested in the chocolate and berries on the cake though.    Typical of toddlers huh…

And today on 6 August, it’s the 3rd anniversary of Joshua’s funeral and 2nd anniversary of Julian’s baptism!  So it’s another day to commemorate and celebrate!  Cheers and God bless!

Japan – Day 2

We are back home in Singapore!  But here I am recalling what we did on Day 2 of our trip.  Seems like I had underestimated the effort to blog daily in Japan.  Well, I took tons of photos and videos, close to 18GB.  The effort to choose the photos, size them down and blog proved too tiring especially when it’s usually past 11pm by the time we returned to our hotel!  No worries though.  Everything we experienced in Japan is still fresh in our minds and I’ll continue to update our Japan trip over the next few days.  :-)

Anyway, back to the main topic… Japan – Day 2… 

This is the train which will bring us to our first destination of the day… Nara!

In Singapore, we could never have a chance to eat on the train so we grabbed the chance to do so here… Ha!  Breakfast for the day consists of bread, pastries, chips and yoghurt drink we bought from the shops and supermarket at Kyoto train station.  Yes, every train station seems to have something that is so mouth-watering!

  

Oops… realised I forgot to take a pic of the apple puff!

  

Julian was fascinated by the many things that he has never seen before and today, he learned a new word… “mountain”!

  

All ready to alight at our destination… Nara station.

This is one of the many places where we would take short breaks… for the aircon.  Julian was busy playing drums at the arcade while I was finding our bearings on the map.  The weather was so hot that we took frequent short “aircon breaks”.  The temperature was higher than we expected (probably 35 degrees celsius or more) and we were just sweating and sweating!

This is another one of the places we stopped by for aircon.  It was a shop selling all types of Japanese sweets and confectionaries.  We came out with a box of sweets that Julian chose for himself.  It tasted just like sugar with no flavourings even though it looked so yummy.  But Julian loved it!  I guess anything sweet appeals to him.

 

We finally arrived at our first stop!  The 3-Storey Pagoda.  The walk from the station was supposed to be 10 minutes but we took about 45 minutes with all the short breaks and shopping on the way there… Haha!

There were so many pigeons outside the area and Julian was so fascinated that when he tried to reach out to touch one of them, he got bitten on his index finger.  Thank God his finger didn’t bleed but he kept rubbing his finger.  This brave little boy didn’t even cry!

  

Our first hand-washing ritual, which we read so much about and were looking forward to.  It’s a symbol of cleaning oneself before entering sacred grounds.  Here, we washed our hands at the entrance of the temple grounds before exploring the area.

  

As we walked to the adjacent 5-storey pagoda, we saw deers freely roaming in the garden!  Julian was so excited that he ran towards them ahead of us.  Here he is feeding them grass he pulled up from the ground but seems like the deers were not interested.  They turned away after smelling Julian’s grass.  Seems like they preferred those direct from the ground.

  

Water parade in front of the 5-storey pagoda.  It was Hot Hot Hot!

 

Here we saw visitors buying biscuits from this lady to feed the deers.  The deers are intelligent as they seem to know food is coming.  The moment they see people at the booth, they will follow them and are rather persistent to get the biscuits!  For that reason, we decided not to buy just in case little Julian got “harased” by them.  We also had to make sure Julian’s Pocky in his stroller is not visible to them… haha!

 

Useful directions as we walked towards Todaiji Temple.  We were glad we brought a light-weight stroller as it doubled up as a trolley for all our baggage!  I can’t imagine carrying all the load and Julian in the sweltering heat!  Probably saved me from heat stroke… haha.

  

On our way to Todaiji Templee, we planned to visit Isuien Garden but when we arrived, a sign outside displayed… “Close on Tuesdays”!  So we decided to visit the adjacent Yoshikien Garden instead.  The ticketing staff was great.  She spoke some english and told us there were many stairs in the garden and it would be difficult to push a stroller around.  She suggested that we carry Julian and leave our stroller with her.  But since Julian was sleeping and we didn’t want to wake him up, we decided to trek the garden with our stroller.  We enjoyed talking to her… especially when the cold air from her air-conditioned booth felt so good!

Then it was back in the heat… and it was tough with the gravel, uneven walk way and steps.  Julian was like an emperor sleeping in his carriage while we were huffing and puffing up the stairs.  The shades from the trees in the garden didn’t really help as the weather was just HOT!  Even Julian was sweating in his emperor carriage while sleeping with a mobile fan blowing at him!

As we trekked through the garden, the saving grace was the sight of resting points in the garden.  We thought Julian would have enjoyed running around if he was awake.

   

Our wishes were granted!  Julian woke up while we were taking a break in the garden!  He explored the grounds while Joan and I took turns to wash our faces at the toilets.  The water from the tap was amazingly cold on a hot day.  Not cool water but cold water!  I literally washed my head and face to cool myself down!  Thank God for that as it really helped to cool us down as we were already drenched with sweat!

 

We finally arrived at Todaiji Temple… the largest wooden building in the world!  More deers and a boy offering incense!

 

 

Here we are at the entrance of the temple.  Julian was fascinated with the sunlight coming through the temple windows.

 

 

More hand-washing rituals…

 

Julian really enjoyed running around the spacious temple grounds and climbing up the stairs.  Each step was hip-level for Julian but this adventurous little boy “crawled” up every step!  Imagine ourselves climbing up steps that are hip-level… we’ll probably be complaining and turn back!

  

Julian peering into the temple before deciding to have another round of water parade.

  

Here is the bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana in the temple, whose fingers are the size of humans!  Here, Julian saw people kneeling down to pray.  Like any toddler, he imitated them by squatting down but what amused us was when he started saying “Thank you Jesus for…”.  Great to see Julian thank God so spontaneously.

 

As we walked within the temple, we came across a crowd of people around a pillar.  We approached and realised there was a hole in it!  While a little girl was squeezing through it, we heard someone saying if one is able to crawl through, he will have good luck.  We also read before the trip that anyone who manages to squeeze through it would be granted a healthy life and guaranteed a place in heaven.   To me, it looked more like a fun and challenging obstacle… haha.

When the crowd dispersed, we coaxed Julian to crawl through it but he didn’t want to.  He just squatted in front of the hole and peered through it.  Well, so I guess it’s Daddy’s job to take the lead.  The hole was really small!  I had to crawl through it with my body tilted slightly to my right as the hole was too narrow.  Then Julian thought Daddy was stuck and helped pull Daddy out… Haha.  Well, Daddy was just taking a breather and Mummy took the chance to photograph the moments.  

   

Here’s Julian taking a walk along the sandy path.  Every time he gets down from his stroller, he would treasure every chance he has to walk and he will explore walking on all kinds of surfaces, especially the rough ones.

  

Outside the temple, we came across a rather interesting shop built around a tree.  Wonder what is the significance of this tree… hmm.  But what we were more interested in was… WATER!  We just finished a bottle of water we bought in the temple and here we are looking for more.  As usual, Julian loves helping out!

 

As we walked to the bus stop to catch a ride back to the train station, we came across 2 rickshaws!  We thought it would be interesting to ride on one of them back to the station so we checked out the price.  It was 1000JPY per person and Julian doesn’t ride for free!  That meant 3000JPY (S$39) for the family!  We thought about it for awhile before deciding… well, we’ll just take the bus for 360JPY.  I wonder if I made the right decision as Joan said the price was for the experience… hmm.

   

Did I say we skipped lunch today?  Well, we had our breakfast on the train to Nara and after that, we just felt so hot and thirsty the whole day that all we craved for was water, water and more water… forgot about food entirely until we reached the train station!  Joan said “I’m hungry… let’s look for lunch”.  We checked the time and it was… 6pm!  So we checked out MOS burger to see if there’s any difference with the one we have back in Singapore.  I would say they tasted the same if not better but service was amazing!  The service at MOS burger in Singapore has always been great but over here, the staff would greet, explain and thank you for everything.  Even the process of receiving payment, giving me the change, the receipt and my tray of food was so delicately done step by step.  Too bad I didn’t understand a word they said but what they did already impressed me!

 

Check this out at Kyoto station!  It’s a huge station so we always end up walking along different parts of the station.  Anyway, we were attracted by this shop that sold an amazing variety of pies… or maybe giant fruit tarts to be more precise.  I think we probably marveled at the tarts and the intricate fruit arrangements for at least 10 minutes!  We told ourselves we would be back to try it out but just didn’t get the chance.

  

From Kyoto bus terminal just outside Kyoto station, we took a bus to Gion, one of the most exclusive and well-known Geisha districts in Japan.  This is the district that was the setting for much of Arthur Golden’s novel Memoirs of a Geisha.  When we arrived, we were not sure where we would have to walk so we followed some tourists whom we figured were there for Geisha entertainment.  For us, we were just there to catch the sight of Geishas walking along the street.  Yes, we did manage to see some Geishas walking along the street alleys but unfortunately, I didn’t manage to photograph any of them due to the dark lighting conditions.  The district was beautiful with street alleys lined with old-style Japanese houses that are now restaurants and tea houses with many bouncers (in suits) outside.  We got stares from some of them as we walked through the alleys… probably a rare opportunity for them to see a young couple walking along the alleys with a stroller and a chatty (if not noisy by their standards) boy in it.

    

By the time we ended our Geisha hunt, it was way past 10pm!  We were a little hungry from our early dinner but the restaurant that we wanted to dine in was closed!  So we headed back, hoping to find a restaurant around our hotel where we could have dinner.  Every restaurant was closed.  Even MacDonald’s was closed.  So we decided…

 

to call for room service!  Nabeyaki Udon for 2079JPY ($27).  It was delicious!  Even Julian loved it!  We slurped up everything… every drop of the mouth-watering broth!  Definitely worth the price!

Next stop… Day 3… Himeji and Osaka!

Japan – Day 1

I finally have the energy to update my blog!  My apologies to all who have been wondering what happened after Day 0.  Well, we’ve been really tired at the end of each day that we just crashed to bed after our bath!

Anyway, this is how we arrived at Tokyo!  Cheers to the wonderful flight!  Although Joan and I only had about 3 hours of sleep (thanks to Julian’s excitement and the great movies on board), we had no problems sleeping as the A380 really lived up to its claim of being very quiet.

When we got off the plane, what greeted us was an unusual sight… a crowd of passengers taking photos of the plane they just got off from.  I was one of them of course!  Even Julian loved the sight of the huge plane!

 

While queueing at the imigration counter, Julian fell asleep!  Thanks to the long queue, he got rather bored and dozed off on his stroller.  By the time we went to collect our luggage, 2 airport staff were “guarding” our luggage.  It was the only luggage left at the “Priority” queue.  They must be wondering why the need for Priority tags when we took so long to get out.  We then rushed off to Lawson’s Convenience Store at Level 5 to get tickets to Ghibli Museum, where we experience first hand the level of customer service in Japan.  Well, we had a bit of trouble getting tickets from a self-service ticketing kiosk, which was all in Japanese.   So we got help from a staff who helped me navigate through the ticketing process and even translated my name to Japanese that would be printed onto the ticket.  Wow!  Amazing service for someone who spoke little english and communicated with us using “international” hand signs!

Next, we rushed off to get our Japan Rail Pass and off we went waiting for the Narita Express train to Shinagawa where we would transfer to the famous bullet train AKA Shinkansen to Kyoto.

We were feeling tired on the train to Shinagawa but the moment we arrived and started hunting for our Shinkansen platform, our eyes brightened up!  Food!  Lots of Food!  We browsed around at the variety that was available and finally decided on what to take away when we realised our train was arriving soon.

 

Our first meal… on board our first Shinkansen ride!

Finally, we arrived at Kyoto after the 158-minute Shinkansen ride.  This is our hotel right above Kyoto station, Hotel Granvia Kyoto.

 

Our hotel room (which was extremely cosy) and the view outside.  I must say we were REALLY IMPRESSED!  Why?  Read on…

 

The bathroom was extremely posh.  Even the toilet bowl was really advanced!  It has a sensor to sense your presence and automatically opens the lid.  It comes with a control panel that has functions to open and close the lids, flush, deploy the bidet with different modes, dryer, deodorizer, etc!  Even the toilet seats are heated!

  

This is the panel beside our bed that controls the standing lamp and bedside lamps.  You can also set the alarm and when it goes off, the bedside lamps turns on automatically (which you can’t off) and after 10 minutes, it dims and turns off.  I guess it’s a feature that tries to wake you up for 10 minutes and if you are still sleeping, it’ll give up and let you sleep.  Haha.

 

Even Julian was so excited!  He would sit at the window and wave bye bye to every train he sees leaving the station, saying “See you later… See you later…”.  Here’s a photo of Julian’s enthusiam… he even arranged our shoes!

We finally decided to leave the comfort of our room and headed for Osaka!  Here we are in a local train at Osaka. 

We went to Kids Plaza Osaka, a place we planned for Julian to enjoy himself.  But since we got “stuck” in our hotel room way pass our schedule, it was closed by the time we arrived.  So we went up to the toy shop instead.  :-)

We then went to Tenjimbashi-Suji shopping street, the longest shopping street in Japan stretching over 3km.  Many shops were closed by then.

 

Along the way, we popped by a supermarket to get chocolate milk for Julian.  It seems that the variety of milk is very limited in Japan with no flavoured milk in sight!  I guess Japanese drink tea and coffee alot more.  In the end, we bought some bananas where I was rather amused by the cashier counter service.  The cashier would pack in all the shopping items into a basket with an estimated number of plastic bags a customer needs.  After paying, the customer would carry the basket aside to pack their items into the plastic bags.  Great idea to cut down queueing time!  But I wonder what reaction would Singaporeans have if it’s implemented in Singapore.

We had dinner along Tenjimbashi-Suji shopping street… Tempura Curry Udon (900JPY) and Chicken Curry Udon (700JPY).  It was delicious!  We even slurped up most of the curry.

 

We ended the day with ice cream before making our way back to our hotel.

This wraps up Day 1 in Japan.

Next stop… Nara!

To Japan – Day 0

Joan and I have been planning our first family overseas vacation to Japan over the last 3 months.  It’s a trip where we would explore Japan, entirely on our own since I have enough Krisflyer miles to redeem 2 air tickets to Japan.  In fact, I had options to choose between Japan, South Korea and Western Australia but Joan and I decided that it would be Japan since it’s the only country out of the 3 countries we have not visited.  Besides, SIA started flying the new Airbus A380 to Tokyo on 20 May 2008 and that made us drool over the idea of visiting Japan.

So we started thinking about which parts of Japan we would visit over 12 days.  That progressed to a detailed planning that included train schedules and walking routes.  So here we are finally… Day 0 of our trip to Japan!  We’ve decided to blog our trip to break our usual practice of creating scrapbooks covering our trips, especially when all those scrapbooks are now sitting in the storeroom… halfway done.  Results will be more promising if we blog… haha.  

So here we are, preparing to leave our home for the new Changi Airport T3.

When we arrived at T3, Julian was soooo excited and kept running around T3 while saying “I going to Japan… I going to Japan…”.  When we checked in our luggage, we kept looking at our luggage on the conveyor belt as if he’s wondering where our luggage was going.  Haha… to Japan of course, little boy!

We are travelling to Tokyo on the new Airbus A380 (SQ 638)!

 

We explored the shopping area in T3 before going for a short break at the SIA Gold Lounge.  We munched on patato chips and canned juice before making our way to Gate B4.

  

Here’s Julian in a plane for the very first time!  He checked out what’s outside…

and what’s inside.  Julian was too short to really watch the cartoons on his Krisworld screen so we stacked a blanket and 2 pillows for him to sit on.  Headphones were too big as well so Julian stayed really still to prevent them from slipping off.

  

The sky over somewhere in the early morning and Julian enjoying his own “Suite Class” onboard.

   

Being so excited, Julian finally slept at 1:30am Singapore Time (2:30am Japan Time) and could not wake up when breakfast was served.  He finally woke up at 6am Singapore Time.  Wonder how many naps he’s going to take throughout our first day in Japan to make up the remaining 7.5 hours he needs!

I must say the air stewardess onboard were really good!  They regularly checked if everything was alright. Julian was given a colouring book with a crayon, diapers and an extra cup cake when we toured around the huge plane!  The air stewardess just loved chatting with us… and with Julian especially.  Wonderful flight!

Next stop… Japan!

My First Blog!

My wife Joan has always encouraged me to start a blog, after she started one and I fully supported her enthusiasm.  I felt it was great to see her record the significant and memorable events in our lives, in our home, in our family.  She got better as she blogged and I enjoyed reading it more and more.  So I decided I was going to start one.

I started thinking of THE PERFECT BLOG NAME to blog about our lives, our home, our family… but from my perspective.  Don’t worry, I’m not a copy cat so you won’t be reading a repeat of Joan’s blog here.  Well, I got stuck at finding that PERFECT BLOG NAME.  So Joan helped me out on that… Potty Hubby.  Sounds funny or whatever you call it, but it perfectly describes my life vocation as a husband and a father.  I love it!  Thanks Dar!  So Joan got the name registered and gave me a crash course on using this platform for blogging.  Since I had everything started for me already, what better time to start blogging than now, as our family goes traveling on our first family overseas vacation!  To where?  Read on and enjoy!

Oh yes, don’t forget to visit Joan’s blog and I’m sure you will enjoy it!