Japan in June 2016 (Series 3, Episode 1)

The moment school was out, off we went to Tokyo. As tickets were bought almost a year earlier, by the time we got round to planning the itinerary, it was too late to make changes. So, thoughts of going Hokkaido had to be shelved. For now. (TheHusband excitedly remarked that this opened things up for an Episode 4 of Japan.)

Our itinerary is a very simple one and things are added or taken away depending on the situation. Traveling with a 22-month-old means that most of the time, things are taken away because of a) he's tired and b) therefore I'm even more exhausted. The 7yo and 10yo are pretty okay although they do whine a bit when we are shopping.

For the sake of those who are planning their trips, this is our basic plan:

26 May, 2355. Flight from Changi Airport to Narita

Day 1: 27 May, 7-ish. Arrive at Narita.

Days 1 - 4: 27 May - 30 May. Airbnb apartment near Shinjuku/Shibuya. Jalan-jalan around that area. Day trip to Mount Fuji (Tip: Avoid weekends! Traffic is horrible!)

Days 4 - 7: 30 May - 2 June, Monday to Thursday (avoid weekends!). Tokyo Disneyland. Stayed at Hotel Mira Costa.

Days 7 - 10: 2 June to 5 June. Airbnb apartment at Asakusa. Across the road from Sensoji Temple.

5 June, 8.30pm. Flight from Narita to Singapore.

6 June, 3am. Arrive at Singapore. Sahur at airport.

You see, the reason why we could not go to Hokkaido was because of Disneyland and the fact that we booked our flights to fly into and out of Narita. We planned for Disneyland to be on weekdays so that didn't leave us with much time to do all the traveling to Hokkaido. And combined that with the fact that we have to cart 3 kids along (although the first 2 should be able to do things quickly), we will have to visit Hokkaido another day.

This time round, food was much easier to get. We didn't have a problem at all in that area, especially when we were at Asakusa. We had another problem - overeating. I was too full, too often, and I was looking forward to that hunger we feel in the daytime of Ramadan.

As I am obviously updating this blog looong after our return, I cannot possibly remember with much accuracy where we went to each day. So from here on, I will let pictures do the talking. I'll take a look at the pictures I've taken and hopefully, they will help me recall what we did.

That's the firstborn, ready to be shipped off. 

That's the son who woke up just when we entered the plane. Sigh.

Day 1: All three kids, safely arrived.

This is where we had our first meal in Japan. Halal udon and crispy tempura. This is at Narita airport itself. Pretty cheap (compared to the rest of our meals in Japan). And of course, so delicious!

Tempura!

When we were done with our meal, I looked around to see what other people did with their bowls and plates and all. You have to return them to the stall. I looked around some more and noticed that people were wiping their own tables. There are stations like this. You take the clean cloth, wipe your table and drop off the used cloth in the other tray. Only in Japan!

Done with our meal, we looked for a train that would get us to Shinjuku. We took the JR Narita Express train and it got us to Shinjuku in less than an hour but at twice the normal price. Time is money, I guess. Money-saving tip: take the bus. 

We reached the train station where our first Airbnb apartment is. About 15-minute walk away. But, weather was good, so no issues.

Day 2: We went to the Fire Museum. Entrance is free and quite a few hands-on things for kids to do. All about firemen and emergency services. Very interesting because emergency services in Japan also include earthquake rescue. (Most pictures are in TheHusband's phone and he hasn't uploaded them into the computer so we'll just have to wait.) Here, the kids are fiddling with the insides of a helicopter.

Then, we walked and walked to this ramen place.

Buy your ramen here. Choices are limited but this is Ihsan's favourite ramen in Tokyo!

That's the owner, Megumi.

I only thought of taking a photo when I was almost done with my meal. That chicken is very juicy. The skin is crispy. The taste - ooh la la!

After that, we went to Takashimaya where there is a musollah. Then we (TheHusband, mostly) went shopping at Uniqlo. It's much cheaper in Japan! We were all exhausted after that and went back to our apartment for dinner. Dinner was rice + omelette + lots of the most divine cherry tomatoes ever. This dinner was repeated time and time again because we could not locate a supermarket near our house. There were lots of minimarts that sold basic goods like eggs and bread. Had we found a supermarket, salmon would have been a daily affair. 

Day 2: Day Trip with Yokoso Japan. Full day in the bus. Not exactly fun for a wriggly little worm.

Strawberry picking and eating! 

We learnt that the sweetest strawberries are the ones which are small and dark red. The big ones are almost always sourish. It's a nikmat to be able to eat fruit that has been ripened on the vine/tree itself. 

On crowded, crowded Mount Fuji.

Extremely gorgeous place. Supposed to be covered with pink flowers but this year, the flowers bloomed a bit earlier so it ended its run earlier too but still so picturesque.

As I have become unbearably lazy and not to mention horribly tardy in updating this post (I've been updating this in bits and pieces and my memory of what we did in Japan is becoming very sketchy), I will upload this first and I will reserve the next two posts for Japan-related entries. Maybe one for Disneyland and one for Asakusa. So this here is my very incomplete post on the Shibuya/Shinjuku leg of the journey.

A Short Summary

Here are some updates of our lives. Some might turn into longer blog posts. Some will remain here as one-liners.

1. Alhamdulillah. Ihsan's aneurysm has been reduced to a dilated artery while his dilated artery has turned normal. I cannot thank Allah enough for His Mercy.

2. We went to Coventry, London, Paris, Switzerland and back to London. Coventry, London and Switzerland are awesome.

3. Came back 2 days before Ramadan and Ihsan is letting me stay wide awake between 11pm to 2am. Baby jet lag is horrible.

4. Huda has gastric. An extension of her severe motion sickness that she gets during any travels. Includes car rides.

5. I must upload many many pictures of Ihsan here.

Stories

1. Yesterday, somehow, the kids got interested in the story of their birth. And it got me thinking about this blog.

2. This afternoon, I took them to my school. They have not been to their own school for more than a week. We went to Bandung and after that I happily let them ponteng. It's December, after all. Their job was to collect the printouts from the printer but changes to the security system meant that I had to go to the printer myself to activate the printer. So, instead, the girls - after about 10 minutes of quiet work - spent the rest of the 1 hour 50 minutes we were there tearing the place down. Thankfully, I was the only one in the staff room.

3. Bandung shopping is best. It's perfect for makcik-makcik like me. I got myself 5 long-sleeved top. Should have gotten more. What's significant about the tops is not the quantity (I often end up with more at gmarket) but the colours. Finally, my wardrobe has more than just three colours. (It used to contain just black, grey and maroon.)

4. Farah said this just now:

F: Mak, you said you are going to take me to see  a doctor?
Me: Huh? For what?
F: My voice. It's so loud.

I might have told her that I wanted the doctor to remove her vocal chords. She really has a major problem speaking softly. I keep on telling her, "Telinga mak sakit tau?" But, aching ears or not, she's as loud as ever.

5. My attempt at speaking Malay is finished. I'm speaking more English now because I got to combat the bad English that the children are using.

Japan (Part 2/3 - Disney Resort)

[20 July 2013 - All pictures from Multiply have disappeared! Booohoooohoooo! So, until I develop the technical know-how, this will be a pictureless entry.]

Everyone should visit Disneysea & Disneyland. They are possibly the best man-made production ever!

(As always, wrote the first few lines eons ago and now, must finish writing before I forget.)

Tips when going to Disney Resort Tokyo. (I'm going to put a number of pictures here so just wait for them to load, okay? Most pictures will be irrelevant to the text. :D

1. Go on weekdays.

The carparks were empty when we got there on a Wednesday morning. But by Friday afternoon, there were cars everywhere!

 

Disney Resort Line. Cool stuff.

See the empty parking lots?

2. Avoid Japan school holidays.

Unless you love crowds.

We saw lots of little girls dressed up in princessy outfits. LOTS. 

3. Go when the opening hours are extended to 10pm.

We were fortunate that the opening hours were extended to 10pm for the entire month of June. We managed to go back to our hotel to make the kids nap for 2 hours in the middle of the day so that we can go back to the park and stay til closing time.

Had we gone in March, the parks might have closed at 6pm and that will be a mighty shame. 

Disneysea. So nice, right?

3. Bring your own food because halal food is difficult to find.

We managed to make contact with a VERY VERY nice person from the Tokyo Disney resort whom we met at the Natas fair. After asking him a whole string of questions and then some, we asked about the ease of finding (vegetarian + seafood - alcohol) food at the Disney Resort. A couple of emails later, he managed to list down a few restaurants in both Disneysea and Disneyland where we can get food that meets our requirements. 

At Disneysea, we can eat the tempura set without the miso soup at Sakura Restaurant.

At Disneyland, we can have the tempura set at Hokusei Restaurant or the vegetarian set from the Eastside cafe.

Once we got to the restaurant, we told them that we had allergies to pork, beef, chicken, mirin and sake and the restaurant staff would take care of the rest. At Hokusei restaurant, we were seated and waiting for our meals but we were told that the oil used to fry our tempura was also used to fry the pork cutlets. So, off we went to Eastside cafe. The vegetarian set was surprisingly good!

Fortunately, we brought had our instant rice and some instant Brahim stuff too so we didn't go hungry during the Disney leg of the journey. Instant noodles came in handy too!

Our nice contact person from Disney Resort also managed to arrange a  (vegetarian + seafood - alcohol) breakfast for us too. We took it on the first day but decided to skip it on the second day because of:

i. time - When you have breakfast at the restaurant, you have to spend time eating there and you lose precious time especially if you book a hotel that gives you a you-can-enter-the-park-15-minutes-earlier pass. 

ii. price - It was possibly the most expensive breakfast we've ever had in our lives. It cost us about SGD120 for 2 adults and Huda. Farah ate for free. So we had it once for the experience and decided that a SGD120 breakfast experience is best had once in a lifetime. 

Expensive breakfast. But really appreciated the effort made by the restaurant staff to ensure that the food met our requirements.

Vegetarian food at Eastside Cafe. Possibly the nicest vegetarian spaghetti I've ever eaten.

TheHusband's favourite character - Donald Duck

4. Avoid breakfast at the restaurant

As above. What you should do instead is, pack your food. Wake the kids up at 8.15am. Get them ready.  Leave the hotel at 8.30am. Go to your desired park. Enter at 8.45am and see all the others just die of envy. Take pictures with Mickey Mouse without the queue. (He is the most popular character. Queues to take pics with him are terribly long!) Watch people run into the parks at 9am.

If you don't have enough food, there are 1-2 shops that sell pastries. Kalau tak was was, you can buy from these shops.

5. You need to spend at least 4 days there. 

We went to Disneysea on the first day and Disneyland on the second day. We didn't have enough of both. Despite what many people say about Disneysea - that it is more suited for bigger children - we disagree. Our family happen to adore Disneysea a whole lot more than Disneyland. 

Perhaps it's because we visited Disneysea first, so we were completely awed by the magic of it all. By the time we went to Disneyland on the second day, some of that awe had been chipped away?

Why 4 days? 2 days at Disneyland and 2 days at Disneysea. The parades are amazing. The rides are just as spectacular. Heck, even the view is something to go "Wow!" about. 

We had to skip some parts of Disneyland because we simply did not have the time. But thankfully we were there during the non-peak period so Huda the thrill-seeker managed to ride the roller-coaster (the kiddy one, of course) 3 times each at both Disneysea and Disneyland. 

6. You will end up buying those mouse ears (and an assortment of souvenirs)

I told the kids early on that I will not buy those hairbands with mouse ears for them. They are ridiculous, I told the kids. You won't ever wear them when we get back home, I added. They'll become white elephants, I further emphasised my point. Then, I turned out to be the one who insisted on buying them those mouse ears. 

If you see a product you like at a particular shop, don't think the way I thought - "I can get them later. Don't want to lug all those Monsters Inc lunchboxes all over Disneyland. I can buy them at the big souvenir shop near the entrance when I'm leaving the park." You thought wrong. Once you leave that particular land, you will never see those cute Monsters Inc lunchboxes anymore. The souvenir shop at the entrance only sells Mickey and Minnie products. Princess characters/Monsters Inc/Lilo and Stitch etc can only be found in their specific lands. So, don't hesitate. Just buy.

And that will include the popcorn buckets. You can buy cute fat buckets for your popcorn at both Disneysea and Disneyland. If you see a bucket that you like at Disneysea, BUY IT. I didn't, thinking that I was going to Disneyland the next day so I might as well buy it there. Big mistake. The designs are different and for the month of June, the designs at Disneysea were a lot nicer than the ones at Disneyland. Grrrr. 

It got rather chilly at Disneysea once night fell. But as a kiasu mom, I was well-prepared. I had jackets, gloves and scarves for the girls but nothing for myself. Had to sit on my hands to keep them warm.

7. Get a stroller

If you didn't bring your own stroller from home, rent one at the entrance. Absolutely essential. You can also see the stroller parkers at work. They are amazing. (All Disney cast members are amazing. Digress a bit more - All staff working there are called cast members. Even the cleaners. Because they are part of the magical formula of Disneyworld. Their level of service is unparalleled! You can ask just about anybody for help. The cast member who was sweeping the area would put away his broom and dustpan and answer your queries as best as they could.)  

Back to stroller parkers - Their job is to make sure that all strollers parked near the rides are orderly. If say, someone who is done with the rides takes away his stroller that's parked between a couple of strollers, the stroller parker will swiftly move in to ensure that there are no gaps and that all strollers are parked in the most orderly fashion. 

Of course, this being Japan, people don't steal the valuables that you leave in the stroller. So, you just bring your wallet with you and you can leave everything else in your stroller - even that much-coveted popcorn bucket that is no longer being sold at the resorts.

Sleeping Beauty with the Sleep-Refusers

8. Watch all the parades and the shows

MUST MUST MUST! This is why you have to spend 2 days at each park. There is no way you can watch all the parades and shows and still soak in the sights and sounds and take the rides AND queue up to take pictures with the characters. If you go during the non-peak periods, you will have a chance to be right in front with absolutely nobody blocking your view. I love it!

9. Stay at the Disney hotels

You gotta get the full Disney experience. We stayed at one of the Disney hotels and we appreciated the convenience of being able to return to the hotel to get the kids to nap, among other things. 

Kid-size room slippers + stool for kids. So attentive to detail! 

10. Lock your jaded self up in the hotel safe

If you are going to go there and act like everything is a big conspiracy theory ("Why are the cast members so happy? Are they in some kind of cult?") or if you think that you are way too cool for this Disney stuff, you might as well not pay the Disney resort a visit. Somehow both TheHusband and I were captivated and dazzled by our entire Disney experience that we talk about going again (right after we file for bankruptcy for this trip) and spending at least one week at the Disney resort.

One is too big. The other one is too small.You girls are just not meant to live in a castle. 

After I cast this spell on you, you socks-and-sandals-wearing-woman, you will learn the error of your ways and learn to dress up the way princesses ought to. (Needless to say, the fairy godmother forgot to charge her magic wand so the spell didn't quite work.)

I think I've covered all the essential points. So I'm going to send this off for publishing!

PS: I doubt that an Osaka segment will ever see the light of day seeing that it took far too long for this one to appear. So, just in case it doesn't, here are some tips which I was saving for the Osaka bit:

1. Get Takuhaibin service

Takuhaibin is bag delivery service. We took the train everywhere and it will be ridiculous to lug everything on the train especially when we have to change trains frequently. (We had 2 average-size luggage, one duffel bag, a stroller and one box containing food. So, from Tokyo, we sent some of our stuff to Osaka and bring only one suitcase with us to Disneyland. (Recap: We went Tokyo -> Disneyland -> Osaka.)

The bag delivery service is quite reasonable and very dependable. For an average size luggage, it costs about SGD20 to get it delivered to your hotel. You can ask your hotel lobby about this service and email the receiving hotel to inform them that your luggage is coming earlier. 

2. Take the bullet train

It is an amazing ride! The interior of the train itself is drool-worthy. The speed is astounding although TheHusband couldn't feel it. 

3. Watch what the staff at the train station do when the trains pull up at the platform.

They bow to the trains!

4. Take the Rapid train from the Osaka city centre to the airport. 

Then, when the train reaches the airport, hang around at the platform til the train is good to go. See the seats turn around.