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.