I thought I was a fast eater,until I met....my Tour Group JAPAN TRIP 2011 8th-15th January

*Extremely long post ahead, but I demand that you read it anyway, since I spent like 3hours uploading the photos.*

Day 1:

Got to the airport(terminal 1) late, so the rest of the tour group had already checked in and we didn't get to see them.

Boarded the flight to Japan, flying there on Japan airlines.
Flight is surprisingly comfortable,and the food is not bad.

Day2: Nikko

Arrived at Haneda airport,got our luggage, and met the Tour Group.
So there are eleven of us, including me and my mum, and even now, I still don't know over half of their names.

Tour Group:

-Old couple on holiday

-Family of 3
son is waiting for A'level results, his sister was left at home

-Family of 4
younger sister is waiting for A'level results, older sister is already in university.

-My mum and I

-Singaporean tour guide who can't shut up

Nikko Toshogu:
some shrines and stuff( I couldn't really understand what the tour guide is saying since he's speaking mandarin almost all the time)



the "black" gate or something...

after that, off to lunch!

we had lunch at that building behind me.

our first glimpse of snow!

the place is freaking windy

Keion-no-taki:
A famous waterfall



then,to our hotel,
Hotel Kinugawagyoen:


our room



I climbed out of the window to eat chocolate( because my mum insisted that it tastes nicer in cold weather) and found that all the rooms have a common balcony!

view from our window

so while everyone else was at the onsen, what were my mum and I doing?

out in the open,chilling at some bridge.(and still eating chocolate)



nice stairs

dinner time!!


we all wore yukatas down to dinner

time to sleep!
we got to sleep on a japanese futon bed!

Day3: Sendai





I'm not sure if you can see it,but these are my footprints in the snow

these 4 photos were taken at some random rest stop

Ouchi Juku:
An old village located in the mountains









icicles!


lunch at Kitakata.....I think.

the ramen here is damn nice

and what's in this cute melon shaped container?

melon ice-cream of course!

Goshikinuma:
Means "five different colour ponds" located near Mt Bandai. Okay, I'm not even sure this is the place,seeing as the pond was only one colour, but I might be wrong, sorry for my ignorance.








my failed attempt at finding the railing, the snow is that thick.


Lake Inawashiro (at least I think so):
A highland volcano lake.
In winter,the lake is supposed to attract a lot of.....

erm, swans.

never mind there are plenty of ducks around.

dinner, then some shopping in Sendai city


back to the hotel, Hotel Jalcity

Day4: Akita

Matsushima Bay cruise:






after the cruise,we went to have some traditional Japanese fishcake which we roasted

I still prefer the fishcake we have in Singapore.

Kanrantei:
Means " a place to view ripples on the water" I guess because it's located right beside the bay







on the way to the ski resort

but first, ice-cream!

the ski resort


making snowmen before dinner...the delivery man must have thought we were insane.


after dinner, took a short bus trip over to see the lights



a lump of snow the size of my head




look at how thick the snow is.

my mum pretending to shovel snow

our room in the APPII Grand Annex

Day5: Aomori

After breakfast, headed over to the ski resort.
We did some snow boarding. Well, not real snowboarding. Basically we just sat in this plastic thingy and slid down the slope.




lunch at this place

then our bus got stuck for awhile so we started playing in the snow,



and they started making snowmen



my mum and her (successful)snowmen



Hirosaki castle:








a real apple tree!

Nebuta-no-sato:
Where there be huge paper lanterns






and a nice lady who played awesome songs for us


absolutely delicious dinner. The meat is seriously amazing.

hotel room in Hotel Jalcity


Day6:
Aomori seafood market:


it's funny how the rest of the tour group were all excited to visit the seafood market, but ended up spending 1 hour bargaining...

for apples instead.
I mean, I get that Aomori is famous for its apples and all that, but seriously, 1 hour?



After they finally finished shopping, we went to some other shopping mall before heading off to the airport for our domestic flight back to Tokyo, which was delayed by about an hour due to the heavy snowfall.

After arriving in Tokyo, we went to Lalaport, basically a big shopping mall, then dinner.

we can see the Rainbow bridge from the restaurant!



then back to our hotel, which to our horror, is in some kind of shipyard?!

room in Hotel Com's

Day7: Tokyo (last day in Japan!)

After breakfast, we all headed out on our own, from Shinagawa station, where our guide had kindly brought us.
My mum and I took the train to Akihabara because I had a personal goal for the day: to find the shop 'Animate'.
Which is quite hard, seeing as I've never been to Tokyo before, and the names of the buildings I'd marked down as landmarks were mostly in Japanese katakana

walking along Akihabara


yes! I finally found it!!
but to be honest, it was quite disappointing...but then maybe it's because I'm not a guy and am not interested in scantily clad girls with big boobs.

so we just walked around Akihabara for awhile, and I failed to find any of the anime series I was looking for.

some train outside the Shimbashi station.

met the rest of the tour group at the Shinagawa station and went to Haneda airport for our flight back to Singapore.


I don't know if it was just me, but I found the flight back to Singapore extremely uncomfortable. The headrest was at a really awkward position and for some reason, it was freaking cold!
The flight to Tokyo wasn't cold at all(I didn't even need to use the blanket) but the flight back to Singapore was so cold,I was still shivering even though I was wearing a turtleneck,and wrapped up in a blanket.


I miss Japan so much, but then I realized that I only ever ate chicken once in Japan, and I tried so many new things I would normally never eat in Singapore. And will continue not to eat,now that I'm back.

1. fried melon
2.fried fish
3.fish eggs
4.mushrooms
5.miso soup
6.some fried green pepper
7.wasabi
8.weird leafy vegetables
9.fried and barbecued prawns
10.tea
11.melon ice-cream
12.white radish
13.squid
14.zucchini


I think I only survived because their rice is so tasty.
And I realized that I ate the exact same things for breakfast EVERY SINGLE DAY.

but I will definitely go back!


wouldn't you?

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