Pinky Promise (The Beauty of Cherry Blossoms) by Nanette Celedonio

This was my first trip to Japan and my itinerary was really simple: to witness the beauty of cherry blossoms, to take a picture with Hachiko, to take a photo and video of Shibuya crossing and to eat sushi!

Cherry blossoms along the street near  the hotel.

It was a very short 3-day trip but I was able to maximise my time very well.  I even had problems with my visa and vacation leaves prior to the trip and I thought that it would not push through but thankfully I was able to resolve the issues.  And I was very fortunate to be able to use my husband's reward miles.  Since this is Japan's peak season, airfares have rocketed really high and I was so lucky to be able to book my airfare for free...paying only taxes!
Prior to the trip, I was able to contact a friend who took time out to tour me around Tokyo. If not for her, I wouldn't be able to experience a lot of things in that short period of time.  My biggest problem going around Tokyo is that I don't understand the language and most of the signages are in Japanese and it's difficult to ask around because people don't speak much English.

Up close with these short-lived but amazing flowers.  That fleeting moment when you are on a high experiencing God's  creation.

Was able to ride the Shinkansen, one of the world's fastest trains...

Met up with Hachiko, the famous dog and one of the landmarks in Shibuya

Disney Trip by Angelo Celedonio

I wasn’t as excited as I should’ve been when I woke up. I was going to Disneyland with my parents and brother after all. Well, technically it was Disneysea, but who cares about the specifics? I got ready, bathe and breakfast and all that stuff. Dad was also coming with us, and so we were off. We went to Urayasu station, but it turned out to be the wrong station, and we had to go to Maihama station. Instead, we just took a taxi to get there. 

Taxis in Japan are so cool! They are embellished with really nice seat covers and they open automatically.

It was pretty far. I shuddered at the thought of having to walk there. The ride to the amusement park took about probably ten minutes.

We had finally arrived and we headed to the front gate. After giving our tickets and papers, and clearing up some other stuff, we were in the Tokyo Disneysea theme park at last.

The first place we headed to was ‘Mysterious Island’, which held Mt. Prometheus and the first ride we had was, ‘Journey To The Center Of The Earth’. The line wasn’t too long, and we had gotten on the ride fairly quick. 

It was awesome how there was an elevator that made it seem like you were being brought down much farther than where you were actually going. The ride didn’t go that fast at the beginning, and was mostly just scenery, but gained speed and had a surprise drop at the end which caught me and my brother really off guard.

The next ride we rode on was ‘Stormrider’, which simulated into going into a storm and sending a missile into it to destroy it. I could barely understand what the ‘pilot’ was saying since it was in Japanese. In the end, the storm was destroyed and that was the end of the ride. After we had exited, I saw the line and it was ridiculously long.

After which, we rode the ‘Indiana Jones Adventure’. I had to take off my spectacles for this ride, since it rocked around a lot. It wasn’t very fast, but it was still enjoyable.

The next ride was ‘Raging Spirits’, which a had a 360 degree loop. Tristan and I were excited, but were disappointed when we actually got on the ride. The loop was less intense than what we expected, and we kept bashing on it for a while.

Raging Spirits

We wandered around for a while, and got a bit lost mid-way, but we got back on track and we did some more exploring.

After a few hours, the sun had started to set, and there were a whole lot more lights around. There were also more shows going on. One of the last rides we rode on was the ‘Tower Of Terror’. It was horror ride, and sorta creeped me out, I guess. I was expecting a jumpscare,but there was none. So, we got on the ride and it would just go up and down really fast. It ended much faster than I expected. It was still pretty fun though.

Tower of Terror

After that we wandered some more, and then headed home. Tristan had made mom buy him a Mike Wazowski plushie. I forgot where we had eaten for dinner, but it was probably really good. Most of the food I had tasted in Japan was really good.

And thus ended the day.

My Fourth Day In Japan by Tristan Celedonio

I woke up as usual, used the tablet but mom did not allow me so she told me to take a shower then she woke my brother up and while my brother was taking a shower, she let me use the tablet. I played for a few minutes then we went to meet dad at his office to give him the key of the apartment. After that we went to the JR line train station, boarded the train from Suidobashi to Akihabara and from Akihabara to Shimbashi and from Shimbashi to Odaiba.

It took a long time but we met mom’s friends at Shimbashi station. They knew the way to Odaiba. When we reached the place we ate a restaurant  called Zest. 

Mom with her friends

This restaurant is like a cave inside

I had French fries and some steak that tasted weird and we also got to drink some coke for free. 

After lunch, we went to Legoland. I regretted going to Lego Town because it only had two rides but it was still fun making the Lego cars. I think the more weight the faster the speed of the car because I made a tractor and I waited for my brother but he took so long to assemble his car so mom and I watched a short 4D movie first. I was glad we did not need to wear the 3D glasses for a few hours because it was uncomfortable. When the movie finished we saw my brother, Angelo still making his Lego vehicle so I raced with other people against their cars. I sometimes won first, second, third, fourth and last so I upgraded my vehicle. I got second and first mostly and then we went to a place where we could build buildings but I did not know how to build so I just upgraded my car and then drove it off a ramp but it broke.

You can add on to the buildings here

After exploring Legoland, we went back to Suidobashi and then to Kudanshita to meet up with dad and after that we ate at Yakiniku. I ate two bowls of rice with meat and finished it and also had Mos burger. After dinner, we went back home and now I am finished with my essay. :-) 

Woah! Legoland?! by Angelo Celedonio

I didn’t wake up as late today. And my shower wasn’t as long as Monday or Tuesday. I got my new Pikachu t-shirt on. It had that ‘new shirt smell’. We immediately headed out as soon as I finished eating my

cup noodles which was my breakfast.

Since dad was at work, we had to go to his office and hand him the key. It didn’t take long, and as soon as the key was delivered, we immediately went for the station.

Meeting up with Dad in his office

We were going from Suidoubashi to Odaiba-kaihinkōen, which held the SEGA Joypolis and the Legoland Discovery Center. 

Odaiba

Unfortunately, we were only able to visit the Legoland Discovery Center due to lack of time. But it was still fun. It wasn’t very interesting at first, but it got better along the way.

There was a ride called ‘Kingdom Quest’, where you rode in a singular car that could fit five people, and would be given laser guns, to shoot at monsters that you pass by during the ride. You gain points per enemy shot, and I got a whopping 137 000 points, probably because I was shooting backwards a lot. I compared to Tristan’s 63 000 points. Mom only got 17 000 points, since she had no idea at what to do at the beginning. There wasn’t that many people, heck there wasn’t even a line. Mom got a key chain with our picture from the 'Kingdom Quest' ride. After that, there was Miniland, which was basically a copy of a large area, in smaller, lego brick form. You could even interact with it using buttons. There was a baseball-themed pinball on it. It was fun for a while.

Miniland - a replica of the Tokyo Tower

Miniland - a replica of the bridge in Odaiba

The next area was this ‘playground’. I didn’t bother with it because I was apparently too tall for it. You had to be a child who was shorter than 140cm to enter. There was also an area where you could build a racecar. That’s where I spent most of my time in.

Tristan and I assembling our racing cars

I took way too long in actually assembling my racecar. Tristan and mom even watched a mini-movie in between, and I still wasn’t finished. 

I wasn't able to join Mom and Tristan in this movie

My race car was pretty amazing though. The wheels weren’t just taking two wheels and a brick connected together, and it actually went straight when going down the ramp. That should be an achievement. It was also pretty stabilized. I let it go down the steeper ramp with an elevation at the end, and it stayed intact when it crashed into the wall, except for some loose parts that I slapped on last-second.

Tristan's car on the left and mine on the right

After I got bored, I asked my mom if we could go home, but she told me there was a ninja laser thing downstairs. I checked it out, and it was like a scene in the movie where there were lasers sticking out of the walls, used as a security function. A spy would have to get through the corridor without touching any of the lasers, otherwise he would set an alarm off, and he would get caught.It was like that, except it was for fun and without consequence. I seemed hesitant to join in as it seemed like it was for little kids, but I tried it once and it was pretty fun. It was a whole lot harder than it seemed. I could barely do the ‘Rookie’ difficulty without touching any lasers. It baffled me how they expected kids younger than 10 years old to do that. Or maybe they didn’t. It was pretty funny to watch a toddler just charge in without minding the lasers.

I did it for a while, and mom told us it was time to head back, so we did, but not after mom told us to start taking pictures of the statue and other stuff. It kinda pissed me off, since we were supposed to have already in heading home. We met up with dad and ate at Yakitaro, where you were given raw meat and had to cook it yourself. It tasted great, especially with soy sauce. 

Tristan ate Mos Burger, he has been requesting for it for days already

Dad cooking the meat

After dinner we headed back home, marking the end of the day.

The Observatory by Angelo Celedonio

I woke up late, showered for too long, and got dressed. Y’know, just usual morning routine stuff. Our route was from Kudanshita to Shinjuku. We had to switch lines twice to reach our destination. 

Once we did, mom said that we were supposed to find the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office. We soon found it, and saw a lot of students there. I had guessed that they were there on a field trip.

Metropolitan Government Office

We searched for the Observatories, and went to the north wing when we had found them. It was really tall, but the elevator ride didn’t take too much time. It went up pretty fast. Heck, it even made my ears pop.

We are on the 45th floor of the North Wing Observatory

It was really high up the observatory. You could see the whole of Tokyo up there.

There were two shops and restaurant, which was closed and only opened for dinner, in the observatory. I had bought a metallic puzzle, where you take pieces of metal to form an object. If I assembled mine, it would’ve made a tank. 

This is the tank that I assembled

And we also got some Dragon Ball Z cards based on the new ‘Fukkatsu No F’ movie. I got Vegeta, while Tristan got Jaco.

After that, we headed back down. The elevator made my ears pop again.

The next place we were headed to was Takashimaya. It was a big mall, but we were only going there to buy some water bottles. Although, we did get lost when we were trying to get to the mall from the station. We had gone the opposite way, and we had to walk all the way to the station.

By the time we reached the mall, my legs were ready to give in. Fortunately, I could finally sit down on the cushions that were in the shoe store, since that was where we passed through.

We spent some time searching for the water bottles mom wanted but the good thing is we got a tourist discount when we bought it.

The walk back to the station was a whole lot shorter, since there was a line nearer to it. We met dad again and we had dinner at a nearby kebab eatery.

Takeshi Dori’s Narrow Roads by Angelo Celedonio

I woke up pretty late again, but it was still earlier than Monday. A really long time was also taken to bathe. The heater’s just too good. I ate breakfast, except that the bread tasted awful. I think it was full of raisins. I tried to slather it in milo, but it was just too horrible to taste. I ended up just having a cup of milo for breakfast. Mom should really throw out the bread.

Dad arrived a bit soon after. Tristan and I took too much time to get ready and were left behind by our parents. They ate somewhere else, while Tristan and I stayed behind at the apartment. Tristan played some computer games while I just read something online.

After a while, mom had returned by herself, since dad had to go back to work. Tristan and I shut down our laptops and put them away, but mom complained that we were taking too long. We put on our shoes and headed out.

We ate at McDonald’s, it was much different from the McDonald’s in Singapore, there was Mustard Sauce! It tasted real good with the chicken nuggets. But it tasted even better when the mustard was mixed with the barbeque sauce. Dip the nuggets in, and you give your taste buds heaven for a moment, or that’s probably just me.

After that, we put away the trays, and threw away our trash, and went back outside. We headed into the station, and we travelled by train from Kudanshita to Harajuku. It was a long ride, and I got bored pretty quickly. We finally arrived at Harajuku, which we couldn’t find at first, since it went by a different name in the station maps.

Takeshita Street in Harajuku

Tristan and I thought we were going to visit some shrines, but apparently mom ‘didn’t feel like it’, so we ended up just wandering around instead. We went into a mall which had an impressive entrance. It was huge. There was an elevator going upwards, which was surrounded by mirrors in a cave-like structure. I made mom buy me something at the mall, but it was just a keychain though.

This is the entrance of Tokyu Plaza Mall

After that, we walked around ‘till we found a shoe store. I also got new shoes. They had cats on them.They’re great. 

We also got some Pikachu-themed clothes. A jacket for Tristan and a shirt for me. 

After that, Tristan started whining about him being thirsty. So we went up ahead and found another McDonald’s. Mom said that we already ate at McDonald’s, but my brother said that he would just buy a small coca-cola.

In the end, I was the one who ordered it, since Tristan was too shy. Seriously? So I bought one for him and one for myself. After that, we headed back, and had dinner with dad. We ate ‘Butadon’, aka Pork Don. It was really good. Heck, I ate two bowls of it. I was pretty full after that, and we headed home soon after.

Pork Butadon, really yummy!!!

My Third Day In Japan by Tristan Celedonio

 I woke up, used the tablet played BVNR and after that used the laptop then I played agar.io. The game is pretty addicting to me so I played it until mom told me to take a shower, I took a shower, a quick one then when I went out mom asked me if I shampooed. I told her I did but she smelled my hair and told me that it was still smelly. I told her I shampooed but maybe not properly so I needed to take a shower again but I was furious! But I took another shower anyway even if I did not want to. My brother (Angelo) was still sleeping so mom needed to wake my brother up. Once we were ready, I took my jacket. Then mom told my brother that she and dad were going to eat sushi and we didn't like it so we did not go with them. I used the tablet and my brother used the laptop. Mom came back without dad and we went outside. I took my jacket with me by the way and then we went to look for Mos Burger but we could not find it so we got lost but we saw McDonalds and we ate there instead. 

McDonalds was just beside the Train Station so after we ate, we went to the train station and once we reached our destination we went shopping and my brother wanted shoes with kittens and cats on it so we bought it and it came with a can to clean the shoe. 

Afterwards, we went to the train station and went back to Kudanshita to meet up with dad. We had our dinner at Butadon I liked the food and my brother liked it too. He ate two bowls of it then we went back home to sleep.

Tokyo Dome City Trip

I woke up late again. Like, really late and I showered for way too long. Fortunately, dad arrived to pick us up almost right after I had showered. Mid-way through my shower, my mom knocked and asked if I wanted some milo drink, which I did.

So, after my shower, I got dressed and found a mug full of milo powder beside the kitchen sink. Beside it was a plate and some department store pancakes. I poured some boiled water into the mug and opened up the wrapper the pancakes were in. There was already syrup and butter in between the pancakes, and it was very tasty. The best pancakes I have ever tasted, surprisingly. I then finished the milo, it was incredibly hot. Shortly after, dad finally arrived and we headed out for the Tokyo Dome City.

Well, we actually went to eat first, but we couldn’t find any restaurants that we wanted to eat at, so we went to the department store to buy some food, microwaveable food. It was decent. We went back home to eat. After that we headed out again, for the second time, for Tokyo Dome City.

We had to walk a while to get to the Tokyo Dome, plus dad had to leave for work in between. Once we reached the entrance, we took some pictures and headed inside. We struggled to get some tickets for the Tokyo Dome attractions, but we managed. Me and Tristan got the 1 Day passes, which gave us unlimited access to rides for a day, and mom got the 5 ride tickets, which could be shared among people per ride.

We were finally inside the Tokyo Dome, and there were all these rides for us. The first one we rode was the Super Viking SORABUNE, which was the ship ride that swung back and forth for a while. We rode it a few times throughout the day.  

We went to the Parachute Zone, and went on the Sky Bloom(I think was the name), where you ride in a metal basket and it moves up and down. It also had a parachute-like roof above it.

There was also a roller coaster, called the Thunder Dolphin, which had an insane drop at the beginning, but it becomes smooth cruising for the rest of the ride. It just becomes wind in your face. 

After that, dad arrived, and we rode on some more rides. I liked The Dive, where you shoot at robots in an underwater themed ride, in a ‘submarine’ that rotated three hundred and sixty degrees. It was competitive if you were with friends, but I overpowered Tristan in points.

After that, we ate dinner at KFC, but my parents just ate some takoyaki, and we went home.

lights and water play

takoyaki - mom and dad's dinner

tokyo dome at night

My Second Day In Japan

I was sleeping when mom woke me up and I did not want to get up since I was still really sleepy. I took a shower and put on my clothes then I drank some milo but it sort of smells weird. I used the tablet and my brother (Angelo) took a long time for him to get up and he also took a long time to take a shower. Once we were ready to go, I took my jacket with me but it was not that cold and I did not realize that I put on my shirt wrongly. We went to Ueno Park then when we got there we went to Tokyo National Museum. At first it was exciting but then I got bored halfway -_- ß My face when I was bored.

I like the automatic toilets because my hands do not need to get wet. 

We ate at Tokyo Food Bar and they made a mistake on our order. Me and dad ordered tonkatsu but they gave us tonkatsu with curry.So dad ordered me another tonkatsu since I didn’t like curry. Dad asked me to try the curry, as I did it tasted better than Singapore curry but I still didn’t like it. I ate my tonkatsu and when we were done we went back home and rested for a while. Hidakaya <- The place where we ate, I liked the chicken and the French fries tasted great. 

We went home and right now I’m going to drink water J.