Chuas travelled to Japan - June 2015

the much anticipated trip just because it was an "All-In" family trip for the first time in 16 years.... 

And for this trip, Angela bought matchy matchy passport covers for all of us... =) 

 i luv how the charms were selected with much thoughts;

Mummy is the key to all our hearts.

I am the princess in the family.

a wing for the angel in her name

Alfred is in the navy.

Alvin is her competitor at taking selfie. 

wefie with 蔡 mummy before we board.. =)  

蔡 mummy totally mesmerized by the droplets of the Kinetic Rain at Changi Airport Terminal 1 

our very first famfie on the trip

Bought JAL flight through Bravofly at $570 each 

my entertainment set for the 7 hours flight - watched Focus (very nice) and Cinderella (okay okay only) 

crackers with milk for breakfast

ice-cream and coke for lunch as only the chicken set was left by the time the flight attendant served the row i was in and i dun eat chicken... =S 

Lucky Alfred and Mummy got to sit on the first row, next to the emergency door, that came with extra extra leg space

touched down at about 4.30pm 

and headed to the JR centre at B1

to exchange our JR exchange order for a JR pass

bought this at $321 each from price breaker @ Plaza Singapura

the young ones helping to fill in the forms 

while the senior citizen was posing with the luggage trolley.... 

clear immigration + change JR pass took us close to 1.5 hours and we could only take the Keisei Skyliner at 6.13pm... cost us 2470¥ (S$26.90) each

chose this over JR narita express because it's cheaper 

 

chanced upon our first Family Mart at Nippori station  

and spent 1300++¥ S$(14.50) on our first round of Onigiri ... so oishi!!!! i mad luv these simple rice balls

and so were the rest... =D

oki...maybe not so for angela

took JR Yamonote line from Nippori to Shinjuku at 200¥ each followed by the toei subway oede line at 180¥ each to nishi-shinjuke-gochome

it was 8.30pm by the time we got to our apartment.... that's a freaking 4 hours after we touched down!!!! 

more about our apartment in the next post... =S 

we were starving for a proper dinner and were very happy to see CoCo Curry House

Here's Alvin pointing to all the choices he wanted.... 

 our dinner being prepared right in front of us... =) 

round 1 of many many curry rice on the trip .....

蔡 mummy's day 2015

since december 2014, 蔡 mummy has not been in the pink of health ...

first, she was running super high fever and was having chest pain from her cough

then she got admitted into hospital and was put in the isolation ward as the doc suspected TB but 'luckily' it was only lung infection and mild pneumonia and she was discharged after 2 weeks

doc told her that she had to be on medication for the next few months so as to flush out all the phlegm that was in her lungs and that the medication might cause blood in her stool.... 

the bleeding was so bad that she had to report to the polyclinic twice weekly for an injection to stop the bleeding.... since doc said that the bleeding was 'normal' and expected, we just let it continued and hoped that once she stopped the medication, everything would be fine.... but the bleeding persisted for weeks even after she stopped her medication in March... 

arranged for another review which led to a scope through her digestive system and eventually a CT scan that revealed a cancerous lump in her large intestine.... arranged has been made for it to be removed on 12 May.... 

She will be fine!!! 

蔡妈咪，

看到你这样辛苦， 我很难受也很心痛。 你一向来都为了我们而很坚强， 请继续为了我们而坚强下去。你劳碌了大半辈子地把我们带大， 才刚刚在这几年享受到我们对你的回报， 所以你一定要好好地康复， 健健康康地活多十几年好让我们四个轮流带你到不同的国家玩； 就从六月的日本之游开始，带你四处走走看看， 带你去尝试不同的好料。。。

你要加油！！！

母亲节快乐

蔡大宝

4th and final makeup by 蔡三宝

终于等到 the last round of make-up by 蔡三宝 for her portfolio exam on 8 May.... 

it was a mad mad rush for her as she had to complete a total of 5 different looks within 5 hours??? i was the model of 2 of the 5 looks; 

bridal make for the day @ the beach 
 

and the night bridal look 

 one of the rare time i had my wedding band on.... oopx 

and yes, i was in my wedding gowns from 2011.... 

couldnt resist taking a few more selfie even in the car... =) 

and i think this shall be the last time that i have so much makeup on.... 

some of her other creations on the same day

Japan (Tokyo & Kyoto) itinerary in June 2015

Alfred has been wanting to go to Japan for the longest time ever so i shall be the nice jie jie (as always) and fulfill his dream this june... and managed to persuade + coax + lure the other 2 As to come with us...making this the first family holiday trip with full attendance in 16 years after the china trip way back in 1999 .... 

 

though we will be spending about 10 days in Japan, we will only be visiting places in and around Tokyo and Kyoto... 

Flight: 

We will be flying by japan (JAL) airline... gotten the tickets @ 390 euro via Bravofly which equates to about S$570.... 

reviews on Bravofly are very scary online...so many complains about 

• not receiving confirmation (we did within 15 mins)
• cannot get through to customer service (Alfred could @ the first call regarding a typo in Mum's name and was rectified immediately

yet i was still not 放心 enough.... so worried was i that i emailed JAL directly and asked if all our names are in their system for the flight and received a Good to Go reply...=)  

well, i conclude, happy and satisfied customers just don't have the habit to give positive reviews... i will try to be those positive ones more often!!!... =) 


Accommodation:
(1) Apartment in Shinjuku for our 1st night @ S$189 via airbnb... (actual visit) 

(2) 2 bedroom traditional wooden townhouse (Machiya) in Kyoto @ $260 per night via booking.com.... it is just a 5 minutes walk away from kyoto station... super convenient for all our day trips out and about kyoto... =)  (actual visit)

 looks like it's a 2 story townhouse ah...

(3) our most expensive accommodation is at Shojoshin-in, a temple at Mount Koyasan via Japanese Guest House... it cost a whooping S$145 per pax per night inclusive of a vegetarian dinner and breakfast the next morning... (actual visit)

(4) 2 bedroom apartment via airbnb at nishikasi @ S$181 per night after a 15% discount using my DBS credit card for payment

living room 

2 bedrooms that look similar

(5) first cabin capsule hotel via booking.com @ S$50 per pax per night .... selected because we (more to I) want to experience a capsule hotel and also because it's just 150m away from Tsukiji market, a must visit place at 3.15am.... Yawn!!!! 

Places of visit:

(1) Nara Park - to feed the 1200 free roaming deers  (actual visit)

(2) Toei Studio Park - a theme park where japanese ninja shows are filmed... i suspect wolverine might be filmed there too... 
(actual visit)

(3) Universal Studio Japan - for Harry Potter World... =) 
     (actual visit)

online tickets can only be purchased on the japanese universal studio website.... thank god for having a friend, Natalie, who can read Jap .... =*

(4) Mount Koya - of steep cable car ride and our temple stay 

(5) Zao Fox Village - to feed the foxes and be swarm by them... =) 

(6) Nissin Cup noodles museum - to make our personalise cup cup noodles... limited to 3 each though.... 

(7) Tsukiji market - for tuna auction and fresh sushi for alfred 

(8) Akihabara - manga paradise for alfred and owl cafe for me... =) ... (actual visit) 

(9) Shinjuku, Shibuya and Harajuku 

pics credit:

anywhere and everywhere on the net

shall take and upload my own pics when i am there... 37 more days to the trip!!!! Yippy Ya Yo!!!