Tokyo Day 1 and Hokkaido 2

This was taken upon arrival at Narita Airport in Tokyo. See how tired I looked. I really do not like taking ANA. The food is mediocre, the seats are narrow and there is not enough leg-space for a person with long legs like me and there are not many movies to choose from. I think about 90% of the passengers were watching Devil Wears Prada.

We spared no time to rush to Aeon Shopping Mall that is near the airport and also our hotel to fill our stomachs and to see if we could shop.


The thing that Shujun is pointing is the food pager. We order food at counter and the waiters will pass us the pager. We will go back to our seats to rest our legs. When the pager beeps, then we can go and collect our food. Very thoughtful for food that requires a longer time of preparation like claypot. Anyway, the curry udon over here is very nice and the udon is very Q too.

The V sign is shown because Fancl's Tense Up costs only about S$4 per bottle which is half the price of the one sold in Singapore! Our big winner for the 1st day was none other than Shujun who lugged 1 month of supplies home.

At Aeon, we bought Hard Rock Tees home for our loved ones. So everyone went back with something on hand, keke.

While waiting for the rest of the group members to come out of the airport, Shujun and I went to take a pic with "Narita" as our backdrop.

Anyway, we were always known as 'the other four' among the tour group members due to certain traits:

1) different arrival and departure time (remember how our original itinerary was cancelled due to inavailability of air tix and how we complained and complained and how they managed to get air tickets. Then they arranged for us to stay in Narita for a nite and then join this other tour group.)

2) We were always carrying many shopping bags. All were wondering why we had so much money.
3) 2 girls and 2 big men definitely invite gossips. We were always questioned about our relationship. My answer: "We are not related. We are merely friends and do not associate us with Shujun and Jeremy cos that pair is always kooning on bus." One snap of the fingers and they will fall into a slumber. Do not doubt their special powers.

4) We were always laughing loudly! In other words, we were noisy!

The other four with four reasons to distinguish ourselves from the rest. Well, we also gossipped about other people. There are the Chan family, the teacher couple, the couple seated next to us and the two women. We have evil tongues but we are still good-natured!

This was our 1st stop with our tour group members.

This is the famous clock tower at Otaru whereby they provide 'live' temperature readings.

The weather was just too good to be true. It was also our 1st step on the snow-covered ground. See how we beamed for the camera!

My lao gong was trying to act cute again and tried to blow air out and show the mist created.

Check out the "Christmas trees" on the left.

What a small world! Both of us actually own the same winter coats in different colours. And we bought ours about 3/4 years ago.

Although there was nothing to do during the 15-minute we had there, we took a winning pic! It's a nice combination of green, red and white!

And this one comes with the sky view and a lamp post!

This kopi place is near the Otaru Music Box Musuem. It's a tourist place. We were given a cup of kopi/tea and had 4 cups to picked from. The chosen cup can be brought home for keepsake.

There was nothing much to see at Otaru Music Box Musuem and the items were to expensive. So we saw this xmas-like tower and use it as our background for the pic. My lao gong in his furry U2 jacket. This crazy man actually brought 3 jackets to Japan. He's here to walk along the runway!

Anyway, we discovered a chocolate shop, Le Tao that sells wonderful products that even the students were taking boxes and boxes out of the shop. Their winning product is the white grape chocolate. We will share with the JC group during our annual xmas exhange party!

The good thing about Japan is that you can actually save luggage space by not bringing your pyjamas. Every hotel provides yukata and they are suitable for both sexes.

We were marching to the guy's room for our fruit supper! So healthy hahaha!

This is what I mean by sensitive new age guys (SNAGS)! The gals washed the fruits and the guys cut them up!

I know your eyes are popping out! I know you are bursting into fits of laughter. *bish bish*

This was a candid shot. While washing the grapes, I realised that they come out as a neat bunch. They were not like the ones from NZ or USA whereby they come off their original bunch.

The pose was the result of "American's Next Top Model". And instead of Tyra Banks, you see Jiewei Bang ...

Our supper was a bunch of Jap grapes, Jap strawberries, Fuji apple, kiwi, Jap persimon and Jap corn (not cooked but fresh). If you can't read from the cardboard, it says the fruits cost us 3260 yen which was about S$50!

I told you that we were happy! Even eating fruits was heavenly cos the grapes tasted like wine and the kiwi was not sour. The persimon was not soft soft and the strawberries were fat, juicy and sweet. According to our tour guide, the fruits in Japan are more expensive than their other food products! A rock melon cost about 2500 yen...that's why we did not buy, sigh.