Quest for the "Sakura"

Attempt one: On the day we arrived, we went to a park near Lay See's place, hoping to see the cherry blossoms. But, the flowers has yet to bloom. Consolation: the kids were happy as we had a ride in a "Duck".

Attempt two: When we were at Asakusa (the place with the red giant lantern), we wanted to go to a park nearby to see if the flowers had bloomed. But we cannot locate any park. Consolation: there were a few trees along our way into the temple with 80% of the flowers already bloomed. Nice.

This picture on the left was taken by Jeremy.

Attempt Three: Thanks to Hiroshi, we managed to soak into the "real" sakura atmosphere! It was at this park in Ueno (actually, part of Ai Wah's recommendation prior to the trip was this place. my comment to her then was "why are we visiting the Zoo"!!) Beautiful!!

There were lots of people already there. Drinking, eating and merry making. We had our own little fun too.. Picnic





and enjoying this special Soda drink..

Tokyo DisneyLand

This was our 3rd day in Japan. Everyone was excited as we were going to Disneyland.. The boys were thrilled to see so many bullet trains along the way and the adults were busy planning which rides to take and which place to reserve for a good view of the parade at 3pm.

When we entered the park, to our "horror", there were people everywhere! The park was SO SO crowded! Queue for each ride was at least an hour!! Between the time we reached the park and the parade at 3pm, we had lunch and took the "Jungle Cruise". (Yes, only ONE ride) Even though the commentary was in Japanese, the boys enjoyed the ride as there were lots of animals to see and the commentator was quite expressive. Jeremy enjoyed it so much that he requested to go another time. Of course we did not agree as we were in the queue for an hour! We needed to queue for everything. From going to the toilet to buying popcorn! There were people everywhere.. lots of them.

About 2 hours before the parade, we saw people laying mats on the ground already. So, being typical Singaporeans, we decided to join in too, with no mats though.. We realised that it was an easy task to keep the boys occupied for more than an hour sitting down as long as you have ice cream, fries and drinks.. Junk Food, that is.

After the parade, we went for another ride. Peter Pan's Flight. We had to queue for about an hour and a half for this "less than 2 minutes flight"! And this wait was quite torturing for me as i had to carry Timothy. When we were close enough to see the "ship", Sadiq commented that he did not want to ride. We told him he has to get up there no matter what! Sorry, but this was our reaction after more than an hour wait!

After this SECOND ride, we had to go and reserve place for the night parade again! So, we bought out dinner and sit out in the cold for about an hour before the parade starts. Well, it all ended ok despite the "only 2-rides-trip" and Jeremy's disappointment that he did not get to ride the "Western River Railroad". The fireworks was nice and we managed to get some stuff.

For record purpose, we did walk round the entire park. And for those who intend to use the lockers, do not be fooled by the cheap rate. it cost you 400yen only. BUT, each time you open it, it will be another 400yen before you can lock it again!

Trip To Japan - Yuta and Miki and trains

Sometime ago, a few of us (me, Jeremy, Timothy, Ah-Ma, Aunt Ai Wah and Sadiq) decided to go and visit Aunt Lay See and Family in Tokyo. So, after tons of email exchange, we decided to make the trip on March 25 and we will visit for a week.

Highlights of the trip were Disneyland for the kids and for the adults, it was the hope to catch the Cherry Blossoms! Of course visiting Lay See and family was the main purpose... err..

Anyway, enjoy the photos below...

Miki. A big girl now. We could not recognise her when we first saw her.

Yuta. He can speak Japanese very fluently. He even translated an announcement in the train for me!

Our main mode of transport during our stay there was the train. The children loved it. The 2 pictures below was taken at one of the station where we can see "Shinkansen" aka "Bullet train". We did not ride on it as they are expensive and it is usually for long inter-state trips.

The boys had opportunities to be up close and personal with the trains too. Everyday, we needed to walk across the tracks to catch our train. And most of the time, the barrier will be activated for the trains to pass and this was when they had a close view of the train.