Sunday 28 June 2015

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. :-) 

Saturday 27 June 2015

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.


Friday 26 June 2015

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.



Wednesday 24 June 2015

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.

Monday 8 June 2015

Our Trip to Japan By Angelo Celedonio



Mom, Tristan and I were packing our stuff to get ready for our Japan trip.  Tristan and I were distracted by our Xbox 360 and were delayed a bit which caused our mom to get mad at us.  We finished packing our stuff which consist of my drawing pad, book and some toiletries. Our clothes were already packed beforehand.  When we were ready, mom called for a taxi and we headed to the airport.  We ate at McDonald’s for a while and then went to the check-in counter to check in and deposit our luggage.  However, we ended waiting for the wrong line and got delayed even more.  But we were able to check-in finally and after that we headed to the airport terminal.  

We had dinner at McDonalds, my brother's favourite food chain
When I went  inside, the alarm set off and the officer told me to stand aside.  He checked and scanned all parts of my body and found out that it was my key chain that triggered the alarm.  It wasn’t very troublesome though and the officer was still nice to me.
When it was time to board the plane, we had to walk to the way behind for our seats.  We put away our bags and waited for the plane to take off.  After a few hours, our mom suggested that we watch a movie.  So we watched Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters, but I ended up being the only one to finish watching the movie.  Mom and Tristan just went to sleep.  I then started to play ‘Osu’, a rhythm click game that makes use of clicks, sliders and spinners to follow a song.  After a few hours, the laptop ran out of battery and I just sat there until we arrived in Taipei.  I assumed that we were there so the plane could refill.  Then we took off again and arrived in Japan. 



It was very cloudy when the plane landed. I was surpsrised when the captain announced that we were landing already because I still see too many clouds so I thought we were still up in the air. It was really cold in Japan, I had to wear a jacket most of the time.  


My parents asked us to buy our own tickets at the station.  There were also other kinds of vending machines there. I sat with dad at the train on the way to his house.But before going home, we ate at an Italian café for lunch then went to dad’s house to rest.  
This steak is so yummy!!!
Tristan and I enjoying our steak
For dinner, we ate at Ikinari. They had great steak but it was a standing up restaurant, there were no chairs for us to sit down.  We then became full and we passed by a convenience store and ended up buying some ice cream.  I had cookies and cream then mom had green tea ice cream.  Tristan and dad were too full so they did not buy anymore.  We sat down outside the shop and ate our ice cream there.

Still eating ice cream despite the cold weather.