I wanna go Japan

Mummy, Daddy and my sister Rachel had lots of fun in Japan. They started their trip from Osaka and went straight to Universal Studios upon arrival. Spent a whole day on the rides (or rather, queuing for rides).

The next day, they took a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto to visit Kiyomizu temple. Each one of them took a big gulp of holy mountain water to bless them with good health and fortune. In the evening, they proceeded to view the magnificent pillar-shaped rock formations at Tojimbo. Think of 12 Apostles at Great Ocean Road near Melbourne, Australia. The day ended with a sumptious Japanese dinner at Onsen resort in Awara.

When in Japan, you can never tell your children not to eat sweets. They have thousand of varieties of sweets. After breakfast, they visited Kagahan, where they could sample many types of yummy desserts. Knowing that too much sugar makes people hyper-active, they moved on to a Japanese garden, Kenrokuen in Kanazawa City. It was time to stroll around and relax (and burn off the sugar). Imagine having tofu (beancurd) topped with real gold flakes for lunch. Wow! Looks expensive. But that really came at a price because everyone came out half-full. :p

After being treated like royalty, it was time to see how people live in remote areas at Shirakawa-go, a UNESCO World heritage site. The people there built their houses using straw (grass). Amazing handwork. A trip to Japan is not complete without trying their beef. Although not as popular as Kobe beef, Hida beef really melted in the mouth. Delicious!

It was a cold and windy morning. A stroll to the morning market was refreshing. Mummy bought lots of goodies home, including rice that was freshly harvested. And she got lots of Sarubobo good luck charms for family and friends. Ramen, ramen, ramen! A trip to a ramen house gave them a chance to see how ramen was manufactured. Of course, everyone got to sample the simple but yummy ramen. After lunch, they proceeded to Daioh Wasabi Farm and tried wasabi-flavoured ice-cream. A fresh wasabi root about the length of an adult's palm costs about Yen2,500 (about SGD30). Before dinner, they visited Fuji Grape vineyard, where they got a chance to pick and cut the juiciest bunch of grapes. Slurp!

Finally, the day my sister was eagerly waiting for arrived. It was time to go to Tokyo Disneyland. But the sky had other ideas. It started to drizzle when the bus departed from the hotel. Everything looked gloomy. Even my sister, Rachel, got moody. They reached there late at about 11am. The place was crowded although it was a weekday, probably because it coincided with Halloween month. Mummy was terribly disappointed when they reached Pooh's Hunny ride. The waiting time for the normal queue was more than 2 hours and the FastPass, where you can come back later, was for 9.30pm. Shattered! They skipped and went on to Toontown, where they spent most of the time. The sky started to pour late in the afternoon while Mummy and my sister were queuing up for Dumbo. Rain or shine, a mini parade went on, although shorter than usual. That was the consolation for the day.


For a safe trip home, they started the last day praying at one of the oldest temples in Japan, Asakusa Kannon. It was more than 1300 years old. Then it was souvenir shopping time at Nakamise Avenue leading to the temple. The last stop was at Odaiba Park, where they visited Toyota Mega Web, a huge showroom of Toyota vehicles, including the latest driverless car. Mummy, Daddy and my sister departed from Narita airport in Tokyo and reached home late past midnight.

I am going to drink more milk, grow up faster. Then, I can join my family for the next tour. Where next? I don't know.