Sayonara, Hokkaido

 The flight back to Malaysia was fun. Here's the food we were served:

Mei-mei had such a cute meal. And it was clearly labelled as "no peanut":

Just before the clock stroke midnight, we were serviced drinks to usher in the new year:

Such a nice holiday and sweet timing that we got to celebrate the new year on the plane!

We arrived in KLIA all bleary eyed. 

We were so worried that we would get taxed for the large souvenir we bought from Otaru, but it seems that the customs officers did not really check. Some random bags were requested to be scanned, but all went well.

After clearing immigration, we were about to sit down at McDonald's for breakfast when daddy realised that his headphones were missing. Oh no!

We headed back and inquired but had little hope of getting it back. But luck was with us. One of the tour guides had seen it on their way out and daddy got back his Bose headphones.

Back in Penang, the immigration officer wanted to scan our bags, but we said that we were flying in from KL and had already cleared immigration. So no hassle there and we were soon home.

Hokkaido Day6: Shopping before heading home

It is our last day in Hokkaido. We woke up, got ready and headed downstairs to have breakfast. 

She needed to take a picture with the decorations!

We hopped on the bus and they brought us to look at the former Hokkaido Government building. The snow was everywhere!

The tour guide was helping the tourists take pictures. And so Mei-mei also insisted that he took pictures for her: 

Playing with snow

We saw them taking bridal photos too. Brrr.. look at the bride. She must feel so cold.

On our way back to the bus, poor Ko-ko had a tumble, right on his belly. He took it well. My brave little guy!

Final stop for the trip was the Chitose Outlet Mall Rera. We didn't plan to buy anything. But lucky mummy got a new handbag *grin*

We had lunch in the foodcourt. It was quite costly.. but yummy:

Such a big bowl!

And Mei-mei of course was happy with her fried chicken fingers:

While daddy took Ko-ko to play a slot racing game, we headed to the indor playground for kids. It was paid for a short 30 minute session. Mei-mei sure had fun. 

After we were done (she wasn't too willing to leave!) we walked around and took more pictures. 

While waiting for daddy and I to claim our refund, Ah Kong and Ah Ma allowed the both of you to play this dispensing machine and got something each:

Finally we are at the airport. As this was a chartered flight, there wasn't really a weight limit on baggage. To our amazement, the other tourists bought boxes and boxes of many things!

It took us a while to get checked in also as we needed to sign off on Evelyn's peanut allergy. 

Our tour guide gave her this fan which she got all excited over. She even pretended to be a tour guide:

Hokkaido Day 5: Free and Easy in Sapporo

The evening before, our tour guide had brought us to the JR Station and showed us the best location to meet with family if we planned to go separate ways. We were even given the schedule of the busses which would bring us to and from the station to the hotel:

So early in the morning, we headed to the station and then hopped on another train and headed to another stop Horohira-Bashi Station to get to Chūō-ku just to wander around:

Evan showing that he can reach the holder

Evelyn had her own ticket to use

Daddy holding her tight on the train

We arrived there and found this pretty mural

Walked to a nearby park (Nakajima Park) and saw cute little duckies swimming in the nearly frozen river. 

We then headed back to the Sapporo JR Station and walked to the nearby JR Tower where there was a few dining options. We picked this quaint little shop to have ramen. 

As usual she got a cute little plate

And she was treated to a nice drink

Daddy had his beer

Look at the delicious noodle

And of course, the umpling

Little girl finishing off her drinks

On the way back to the station, we were hanging around and she asked to take a picture with the mannequin:

Look at her funny expression!

We took the bus back to rest at the hotel. Then for dinner, we headed back to JR Tower for dinner. This time we opted to pick another restaurant, but the senior citizens (Ah Kong, Ah Ma, Chek Kong and Chim Poh picked another place).
Great pick, daddy. The food here was amazing!

After dinner, we walked around abit, to enjoy the cold weather. 

Look at this Christmas tree

We decided to take a slow walk back to the hotel and enjoy more of the Christmas decorations which we saw while we rode the bus:

Of course, we had another round of noodles, beer and milk in the room:

Missy fooling around on the floor

The snow was so heavy. We were abit worried about whether our plane will be able to bring us home. After chatting in Ah Kong's room, we headed back to the room. Daddy asked if either of you wanted to go out to play in the snow. The little girl took up the offer. And off went the two of you... to play in the snow in the middle of the night!

Hokkaido Day 4: Okurayama Olympic Ski Resort and Otaru

 The first place we visited was the Okurayama Olympic Ski Resort which is renowned for the ski jump used for the Sapporo Winter Olympic Games in 1972.

Here we are on the ski lift. Again, daddy was with Mei-mei in case she needed help to get onto the ski lift.

See them up ahead?

Nothing much to see, at the top of the ski jump. Just able to appreciate how steep the jump is. There was a stall there, and Chek Kong treated you both to ice-cream. Yup, all "three" kids had ice-cream.

We headed to our next location for lunch. We dined upstairs from a large seafood market. 

After lunch, we wandered around to look at the seafood and take pictures:

Then we hopped on the bus and headed to Otaru. The tour guide gave us instructions on where to go and what time to meet up. And away we went. We had nowhere in particular but ended up in the music box museum. We did not have anything in mind to buy but headed in as we had a free gift to claim. 

Clock outside the museum chimes every hour

Mei-mei posing in the museum. Everything caught her fancy.

This was so adorable

In the end, we did end up buying something(s). Daddy spotted a beautiful ferries wheel (like) photo frame which spins and plays music. And both kids each got a music box. 

We were walking outside again and smelled something lovely... wow.. barbecues squid. Yummy....

We stopped by to buy chocolates and then headed to the Venetian Cafeteria while waiting for the time to board the bus. So as we had time to kill, daddy treated us to the famous 7-layerRainbow Soft Serve ice-cream.

Daddy and the ice-cream

Kids digging in

Kids still digging in.. almost done!

A last minute change in plans (to go to Hakodate) brought us to Shiroi Koibito Park. We just wandered around to enjoy the decorations. Mei-mei was sleeping, so Ah Ma offered to stay on the bus to accompany her:

Mei-mei sleeping in the us

Dinner was barbecue. Yummy.. the food was buffet so we picked what we wanted and cooked them.

And of course, there was ice-cream for dessert. We sure had our fill of ice-cream this holiday, even though the weather was freezing cold!

So ends another long day.