Time to Visit Family

It's the second day of CNY and thankfully you woke up a little later today (7.30am.. ok la!). Quickly got you ready, had breakfast and we were ready to go a-visiting. When everyone was finally ready, off we went. Daddy had to drive our car, as we wanted you to be seated in the carseat for the ride to Chemor and Tanjung Rambutan.

First stop was Chemor, to visit Ah Tai's brother and his wives and family. Would you believe? Ah Tai's brother is 100 years old. We all sat around chatting and enjoying the wonderful spread of tidbits there his wife always prepares for us and soon it was time to go off to visit our relatives in Tanjung Rambutan.

Here you are enjoying the "ngaku" chips that by now everyone knows you love:

It was a rather scenic drive to Tanjung Rambutan. We weren't sure if they were around as we did not visit them last year. By the time we arrived, you'd fallen asleep. We thought that if they were not around, we'd drive back to Ipoh. But.. they were home. So daddy carried you and you woke up. Luckily you were in quite a good mood. So you were quite cheerful in their house. It was upstairs from a shoplot. Again, we had yummy tidbits and drinks. Soon, it was lunchtime. Time to leave. But before we left, Ah Kong's cousin gave you a convertible BMW toy car. Lucky little guy.

Home to yummy lunch that Kor Poh had cooked. Chicken and abalone porridge. Even you got to eat that. And you enjoyed the lunch.. a lot. We all had an afternoon nap, while Ah Kong and 5th Chek Kong went for a round of golf. Daddy had to wake up earlier from his nap, as tonight's dinner was to be prepared by the "younger" generation... as in daddy, your kor-kor's and Ah Pek. What was on the menu? BBQ... yup, something different from our usual spread of previous years.

After you woke up, while you were having tea-time with your kor-kor's mummy helped Ah Ma prepare the apple salad. Soon it was your feeding time and shower then it was our time to enjoy dinner. It was soon your bedtime. But like yesterday, you had to say goodnight to everyone and kiss them before going up. It took you a while before you finally went to sleep.

It's the first day of CNY!

It was a VERY early day for everyone sleeping in our room. Why? Because you woke up early. And like yesterday, you decided to call everyone's name. How to sleep? Sigh.. boy.. it was only 6.30am! And you slept late yesterday too!

Anyway, since you were already up, we managed to get you to lie around bed until almost 7.00am before heading to the bathroom to brush our teeth. That was when we got the shock of our lives. You had 5 mosquito bites on your left cheeks. And it was one big swollen cheek! Sigh.. I wonder who removed the mosquito repellent.

Anyway, nothing much can be done, so we went down for breakfast. Your chim poh's were already up and getting ready to pray and for the lion dance troupe. We had our breakfast and quickly went to use the bathroom. Otherwise, there would be a long queue of people waiting to use the bathroom.

Before anyone was ready (Ah Kong and Ah Ma who woke up early too and all ready) gave you the first ang pow for the CNY. They couldn't wait, I think. Ashley Kor Kor was still in bed half awake!

Finally everyone was up and the lion dance troupe came. By then daddy and Ah Kong had already put up the lettuce and ang pow from the stick through the upstairs window. While waiting for the troupe to get ready, we stood around outside taking pictures. Su Kor Kor even let you take pictures using her camera. Look what you took: Daddy taking a picture of you

Er.. partial picture of mummy.. your finger got in the way!After that, it was time to give out ang pows and to receive ang pow. Ah Tai was waiting to give you an ang pow. Daddy tried to get you to take it from Ah Tai, but in the end, we only took it when mummy carried you.

After lunch of the usual yummy mee suah, we took some time to take pictures. Daddy had brought back his tripod and so we managed to take some family pictures:

With Ah Tai

Soon, it was time for you to nap. You were already cranky the whole morning from the lack of sleep. And yet, when mummy took you up to the room, you refused to go to sleep. In the end (again!) Ah Ma had to intervene and you slept almost immediately. Sigh..

Mummy cooked your dinner for you while your many kor kor's kept you entertained. Soon, it was dinnertime. And again, your Chin Pohs and Kor Poh cooked so many different dishes for dinner. After your first round of moi moi, you also joined them to have some rice and the pork ball that is daddy's favourite dish. And you loved too. Daddy's boy...

This time you slept earlier. I guess from the long long day, despite your afternoon nap. And this time, daddy warned our other "room-mates" not to be too loud the next morning, so that you get to sleep in a little more.

Chinese New Year

It's a time for celebration and how did we do it this time around? As always we headed back to Ipoh in 2 cars. Why? Because we had to carry so many things. Also, we were stopping by BM on the way back on the 3rd day of CNY.

So on Tuesday, we went home to have diner, do last minute packing before heading to Ipoh. You we're a good boy all the way back, although you did not fall asleep until we were more than 1/2 way there. And you continued to sleep even when daddy carried you up to the room. Thank goodness your Su Kor Kor had the foresight to turn on the air-con to cool down the room as well as turn on the mosquito repellant. So after tucking you and bringing all our stuff out of the car, daddy and I chatted with your Kor Kor's before heading to bed.

Today we woke up early as you decided to wake up early too. Probably because you slept earlier than usual last night. Poor Ashley Kor Kor who was our "room mate" also had no choice but to wake up, since you were (in her words) calling everyone in the village. Haha.. from the time you were up, you called Ah Kong, Ah Ma, mummy and daddy.

We spent the day chatting and everyone else entertaining you. Of course when mummy tried to get you to nap, you refused to. You only took your nap after Ah Ma came in. In fact, you slept almost immediately. Big bully!

Mummy fed you dinner first and you even got to join in the fun for our dinner. Yee sang. Daddy carried you and you got to help mix the yee sang.

What did your Kor Poh and Chim Pohs cook?

Yummy right? They always cook up a storm during CNY. 8 dishes. Even the yee sang (except for the sauce) is home made!

As usual, being in a new place, you refused to go to sleep early. Even when everyone left us in the room, you played around and only finally slept at 11pm!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

And we're off to Ipoh tonight. Will blog about our second CNY with you soon... I hope...

Getting Ready for CNY

It that time again. CNY is just around the corner and one of the things that needs to be done: get a haircut. Hehe.. we all need a haircut. In your case, it a little more stressful. Then again, maybe it should be considered stressful in mummy's case too. I'm still wondering what to do with my hair. Cur? Perm? Trim?

Anyway, we've been putting off your haircut for way too long. And sometimes when we finally found the courage to bring you to Uncle Austin's place, he's got too many customers. And we don't want you to scare them off with your volume. Hehe...

So today, we left work a little earlier to try our luck again. And daddy called ahead to check if the shop was crowded. Nope.. nobody around. But Uncle Austin was a bit worried about giving you a haircut, as he's accidentally snipped a little kid last week on his ears. Sigh..

As always when we arrived, you didn't want to get into the shop. Luckily daddy told me to carry you, otherwise, we'd be standing at the door. In the end, mummy had to coax you to "wash your hands" to get you agree to go into the shop. When the time came for your haircut, you struggled a bit but suddenly stayed still when Austin started to cut your hair. Hhmm.. so he quickly snipped here and there.. And he stopped to take out the electric clippers and oh boy.. what a mistake! You started to make noise and struggle until the end.

Thank goodness all was done in less than 30 minutes. Of course, mummy needs to put in some work to cut some of the stray hairs that he'd missed. But... better than letting mummy cut.. Look:

Weekend in Ipoh

We made a trip back to Ipoh over the weekend. Originally planned to be a stopover in Ipoh before heading to KL, we ended up only going to Ipoh as Chek Kong and family decided to go back to Ipoh too. Chek Kong suffered another mild stroke over the week and we had wanted to visit him. That's why we planned on going to KL.

Anyway, since the plans changed and we were to meet in Ipoh, Ah Kong had wanted to make it our usual day trip. So off we left early on Saturday morning. We arrived in Ipoh at around 10.30am and went directly to the Ipoh old town area to eat our favourite Curry Mee. On top of that, Ah Ma even orderd the "liu" (from the neighbouring shop) with fishballs, meatballs, beef tendon balls and many more that I don't know what they are *grin*. So since you could not take the curry mee, we gave you the soup from this as well as 3 fishballs that you happily ate. After that we headed home to see Ah Tai.

Of course she was already waiting for you. Kor Poh from China was also there. She'd met you last year when she came back to visit Ah Tai. It was nice to go back to Ipoh as it's been a while since we last went back. You had a good time plonking on the piano too. Too bad you also had to feed to mosquitoes while you were playing there.

After your lunch and nap, we went to play in the garden and soon Chek Kong and family came back. He sure was happy to see you.You'd even called to "chat" with him while he was in hospital. Aunty Su told mummy he told her that you'd called. Haha... And your aunts brought back donuts from "Big Apple" and you loved the "snow" one.. Actually, you loved the icing sugar! Turns out Big Apple is also known as "Krispy Kreme" that we saw a lot of people queuing up for when we were in Japan.

We had dinner at home. With the yummy roast duck from KL. On top of that we also had yam duck and "lap mei fan" from Overseas Restaurant. We ended up staying the night. Aunty Su managed to "convince" Ah Kong to stay the night. After dinner, we went out to buy mosquito repellent as there were a lot of mosquitoes. Also we wanted to buy coconut water. We went to many places before finally finding a place that sold coconut water.

Ah Tai waited for you to go home before she went to bed. You even kissed her and called "Ah Tai" (much to her delight, I'm sure). And soon you also went to bed, after much effort from mummy's side, as you were excited with so many people around.

We on the other hand, went out for supper of "Nga Choi Kai" at Cowan Street. Yummy.. And the next morning, we had another round of curry mee as well as more liu and after that we went for white coffee and "chee cheong fun" while you had the toast.

Soon, it was time to go home to Penang. But before we made our trip back, you had your lunch that Ah Ma had cooked for you. Unlike the trip to Ipoh where you were up the whole trip and we had to keep you entertained, you slept almost all the way back to Penang.

Rain Rain Go Away

And our party season is not over yet. Daddy invited some of his colleagues over for a barbecue party yesterday. Of course the seasoning of the food was done by Ah Ma. But daddy did his part, he seasoned the cod fish. There was one piece left for you to share with Kelvin.

Our guests started arriving after 6pm. The skies looked OK, but within 1/2 hour, it started to get dark.. and then.... drizzle. Sigh.. So up we went with Kelvin and some of daddy's friends to relax in the air-conditioned house while the rest of them continued to barbecue the food. Yup.. they all carried umbrellas and continued in the rain.

Mummy was upstairs in the condo and heated up the oven to grill some of the food. In the end, Uncle Terence went down to bring up the prawns and mummy and Aunty Joanne "tried" to grill the garlic prawns. Er.. we couldn't really tell whether they were properly cooked or not. Nevermind.. They looked ok.

While mummy was busy with the prawns, Melissa Che-che kept you entertained. She also took some nice pictures of you and some of her and Bee Suat Che-che with you too. Looks nice right?

There were also pictures of Kelvin. Here's a nice one:

After a while, the "heroes" downstairs came back up with the cooked food. In fact, they had already eaten the food while cooking downstairs. Never mind, there was more than enough to go around. In fact after everyone was done eating there was still a lot of leftovers. So how? Some of them were playing with your Christmas toy, which were building blocks. They made a game out of stacking to see who'd end up knocking down the pile, and the loser had to eat one piece of chicken thigh. Yup, that helped clear off most of the food! Haha...

You were so excited the whole night, "entertaining" everyone, especially the pretty che-che's that you did not want to go to sleep even after Kelvin had left and it was way pass your bedtime. In the end mummy gave up, took you out again and you kept Grace Che-che entertained until around 12midnight! Yup, I think that's the latest you've stayed up so far. I think everyone had a good time chatting and enjoying the food. I know you did..

Everyone left shortly after that and we only woke up at 9.30am this morning. Why so early? Because Ah Ma called to ask if we wanted to have breakfast with them.. *sigh*

At Long Last...

All this while, you were able to call daddy "da-da". Or should I say "whisper da-da". At long last, you can say more than that. At last you can say:

Ma-mi: Took you a long time. But better late than never. You started off by saying "Ma-ma" after we came back from Japan. But it's mostly "ma-mi"

Ah Ma: That is very clear. No denying you're calling your grandma

Ah Kang: Or something like that. It was initially "Ah K'ng" or "Ah Ka" then slowly it sounds like Ah Kong. You sure made his day when you finally called him Ah Kang (good enough-la)

As for daddy.. it's still a whispered "da-da". But at times when I ask you to call daddy, you will yell at the top of your voice "DA".

Other than these, you can also say: "Car" and even recognise pictures of cars in the newspapers (even if it is not a whole car) and of course "Ball". Oh yea.. and "Nanan" for milk, even recognising the box of milk when we open the fridge door!

Even Wati is lucky as you seem to be able to call "Kaka".. probably because it sounds like car. I wonder what else you'd be able to say next.

Happy New Year 2008!

How time flies, it's now

Another Christmas Party

Tomorrow is Christmas and we had another party to attend today. Where? In Aunty Jamie's house. This time the crowd is even bigger than the one that we had in our condo on Saturday. All the great-grandaunts were there along with their family. And so there were more kids there too. Look at the food that they ordered:

On top of this spread, we were treated to another of Great-Grandpa's specialty. Hainanese Chicken Rice. Yup, no chicken rice tastes the same after this. Ah Kong didn't join us today, as Uncle Stanley had invited us to have dinner with him in Equatorial Hotel too, and since we already had plans to go to this party, Ah Kong was our representative to have dinner with Uncle Stanley. *grin*

Before we went down to join the rest, we had to feed you dinner first in Grand-Aunt Doris' room. Away from the crowd. Otherwise, you'd be too excited to eat dinner. By the time you were done with dinner, they'd already started, so mummy took some food and we went to sit by the Christmas tree to enjoy our dinner. Of course, you also had to share some of mummy's chicken rice. And some of the noodles(mee tiau) too.

Just like our party, there was a gift exchange session too. But with a different twist. How? Lookie here:

Did you spot him? No? Look again:

Haha.. yup, uncle Sin Tien dressed up as Santa Clause. You didn't want to take a picture with him, but you were willing to take the present from him.

It was almost 10pm and was pass your bedtime when we left the house. We even packed chicken rice for Ah Kong to have, since he missed out on Great-Grandpa's chicken rice.

Good night, and Merry Christmas.

Our Christmas Party

It has become our family tradition to have a Christmas party, with most of Ah Ma's relatives coming to the house to have dinner followed by presents. Of course, we had Ah Kong's friends over too: Uncle Stanley and Aunty Nellie. And since our Christmas tree was set up in the condo, our party was held in the condo.

Unlike the other parties that Ah Ma throw, our Christmas party is simplified where we bought most of the food. But the food was bought from a variety of places. And also in the end, Ah Ma cooked the prawn dish and she also left mummy and daddy with instructions on how to cook the potato dish (Ahem, and it turned out ok too!)

Luckily for us, you had your afternoon nap on time and that gave us enough time to prepare the potato. After you'd woken up, mummy gave you your bath and fed you before our guests arrived, because knowing you, you'd get all excited and not be able to eat your dinner.

At around 7pm, most of our guests arrived. Hhm.. quite punctual surprisingly. Even Abby, Uncle Sin Chuan and Aunty Amy arrived on time. They'd driven straight to our condo from their trip to KL. Soon food was served and everyone had a great time trying the variety of dishes while listening to Jim Reeves singing Christmas songs. Look at the "loot" under out tree!

What's next? Gift exchange. This year, we had 3 assistants to help give out the gifts, unlike last year where we only had Anna Che-che to pass the gifts around. And on top of the gifts, we bought reindeer antlers for the 3 of you when we went to Nara.

Giving present to Ah Ma

Annabelle giving her daddy his present

Little Reindeer

Opening presents

On top of being our early Christmas party, today is also the winter solstice festival. So great-grandma made a traditional Hainanese dessert (tang yuen) that is different from the colourful ones that we usually have. It's been a long time since she made this. Not too sure exactly what it's called, but it sounds something like "wa-at", made with the glutinous flour, peanuts, sesame seed, coconut and sugar(and maybe some other ingredient that I cannot figure out). And the picture does no no justice to the taste:

This was served along with our dessert of chocolate mud cake from Sunflower (next door) as well as Häagen-Dazs ice-cream.

By the time everyone left, you were already very tired. But too bad our room's air-con was not working well. But you'd refused to sleep in another room, so mummy had to turn on the fan and try to get you to sleep. After you'd fallen asleep, I moved you to your bed, but you woke up again and refused to sleep, so back to our (hot!) room we went to go to sleep.

Me Oh My...

How much walking did you do while in Japan? Let your shoes give you the answer:

Oh no.. they look quite clean right? Coz Kakak already washed them. By the time mummy procrastinated and got around to taking the picture, they've already been cleaned.

Actually, they were brand new before we left Japan. One lady we met on the way to Japan even told her son that your shoes were identical to his, only yours were new and still very white, unlike his. And after this trip, your shoes probably look worse than his!

Ooo.. It's time for Shopping

Of course! With Christmas just around the corner, we need to do our Christmas shopping. Our Christmas tree has already been up for one week, but the poor little tree is bare underneath. So we NEED to do the shopping for our little tree *grin*.

Off we went to Gurney Plaza on Saturday after everyone was up and your moi moi was ready. We originally planned to eat somewhere else before going shopping, but it started to rain, so we had no choice but to go directly to Gurney Plaza. Lunch was a quick one in Aji Ramen. Daddy had to eat quickly as he'd promised you that he'd bring you to have a look at the Tiny Tunes characters that were going to make an appearance.

You didn't seem as interested in it this time as you were the last time mummy showed you the Tiny Tunes characters. So we went our separate ways from Ah Kong and Ah Ma as we wanted to buy gifts for you and your cousins, while Ah Ma needed to buy some more gifts for our party guests. Where to? Toys R Us, where else?

Mummy walked around looking for something to buy for your cousins, as we'd already decided to get you the Imaginarium that daddy wanted to buy a long time back. What to buy? Especially Annabelle che-che who's got almost every toy imaginable! Before we picked a toy for the girls, you'd picked another toy that you wanted, using your newly learned word. What is it?

Yup. You went: car, CAR, CAR, CAR, CAR. What to do? We ended up buying that car for you too. Not much time left and we were getting a headache trying to pick a toy, so in the end, we picked a dog house for Annabelle and a shopping cart with Hello Kitty for Abby. But before we left, you also picked another toy, a Barney soft toy. OK, OK, time to go before you pick more toys!

We paid for our purchases took wrappers from the wrapping counter and off we went. We dropped our purchases in our car as Ah Ma said that she was not ready yet. So we walked around a little more before leaving Gurney Plaza.

Went home and you fell asleep shortly after that, as it was way pass your nap time. So mummy took this chance to wrap all the gifts while you napped.

Where to go on Sunday? Hehe.. Gurney Plaza again. No chance to pick up gifts for Ah Kong and Ah Ma yet. After we'd bought the toys yesterday, Ah Ma unloaded Ah Kong with us, so no chance to buy their gifts. So another round of shopping today.

Another round of shopping (inclusive of trying to crack our brains to figure out what to buy for them) and we're finally done. Even managed to buy a new pair of shoes for daddy.

Happy Birthday Daddy

This year's celebration was a little low key. Why? The excitement from the trip to Japan is still in our minds. Furthermore, you had a jab scheduled for today. Daddy says I should have remembered his birthday when making the appointment, but mummy pointed out to him that I did ask him "Is 4th December ok?" when making the appointment and he'd said it's ok. Duh!!

So after work, we went home to get you ready to go see the doctor. Our initial plan was to have our favourite Bah Kut Teh for dinner. The wait for you to have your second flu jab wasn't too long. But before we left, Nanna (who's staying at our condo) called to ask us to join them for dinner. She said another celebration with them on the real day. We'd already had chocolate mud cake as daddy's birthday cake yesterday.

So off we headed towards somewhere in Hillside nearby our condo to have dinner with Nanna and 4ee Poh and family. And so ends daddy's birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Happy Birthday Great Grandpa and Great-Grandma

Yup, Great-Grandpa is 90 and Great-Grandma is 80 years old. So where did we hold the big birthday party? It was being planned many months in advance. With Ah Ma delegating the task to your uncles, since we'd be in Japan during the crucial weeks leading to the birthday celebrations.

The birthday was held in Evergreen Laurel Hotel with the food being catered by the Chinese restaurant. We were supposed to arrive early, but as we were cleaning the condo with kakak Wati as 4th Ee Poh, Teo Kong, Uncle Julian, Uncle Ashley and Nanna were going to spend the week in the condo, we were late. Then again, so were the rest of the family.

We arrive just pass 7pm and some of our guests were already there. So before more guests arrived, we quickly gathered in another room to have our family picture taken. After trying to get 3 babies to co-operate, we finally managed to get a decent looking picture with (almost) everyone looking at the camera man.

Soon, we rejoined the party and there were more guests arriving. You, daddy and mummy were asked to sit at the main table with great-grandparents. It seems that is great-grandpa's request: that his great-grandchildren sit at the main table with him. So along with Anna Che-che, Abby Mei-mei and their parents, we sat at the main table. Before food was served, we were entertained with pictures of everyone when they were young, including mummy and daddy's wedding picture and your baby picture too.

Food was served and, boy was it yummy. Even you got a portion. But you obviously were not interested in the food, so we asked the waiter to serve your portion to other people. We even had a traditional Hainanese dessert that was nicely packed. Uncle Sin Chuan had gone online to look for the recipe and get someone to make it for this party.

Cake was served and it was a two-tiered cake, with one for Great-grandpa and the lower layer for Great-grandma (this layer had mahjong tiles on it!). We stayed for almost all the dishes, but it was too late and so we decided to leave. Everyone has having a great time, but you were getting grumpy and tired.

By the time we left Gurney Drive, you'd already fallen asleep on your car seat. Even the short ride to the condo left you totally zonked out.

More Pictures from Our Japan Trip

I wrote earlier that I was going to post a picture of the crowd in Shinjuku. Look at the crowd!

And here's of a little lane with several eateries that I had mentioned:

Here's a picture of some sort of sea-snail that I ate in Kamakura.. It tasted rubbery but was grilled quite well.

Loved those beautiful pictures that I'd posted in this blog? Well here's the photographer (it's daddy.. who else?) in action (in the Kayukan in Osaka):

As most of the pictures that were taken of you had you all covered in your jacket, we attempted to at least take a picture of what you wear underneath... (except that you weren't in a co operative mood then)

And here you are checking out the diaper changing room as well as breastfeeding room in Sunshine City:

Here's of a "Capsule Hotel" that we saw when we took a stroll further than we usually take on our last day in Akasaka:

Bye Bye Japan

As our flight was at 11.30am and we needed to take the bus (just like when we came to Tokyo) which took 2 hours, we had to wake up early to get ready and do some last minute packing before heading to the nearby hotel to catch our bus.

We waited a while and soon our bus arrived. They loaded our luggage onto the bus and we were off. Such a long ride, and thankfully you dozed off on the way and only woke up as we approached the terminal where they checked our passports before dropping us off.

We had some brunch while waiting to board the flight. Our flight had to be delayed but thankfully we arrived back in Singapore on time to catch the connecting flight to Penang. Again, you fell asleep shortly after take off and woke up only less than 2 hours before we arrived at Singapore.

We met Aunty Jackie on the flight. She was the stewardess on our flight and you were nice to her, showing her your "disappearing hands".

Here's a picture of you having fun on the plane.

And so ends our 2 week holiday.

Our Last Day in Japan

What shall we do on our last day in Japan? We have one more day to go, but several things more to do. Ah Ma wanted to go to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro and we weren't too interested in more shopping, thinking of going to Ueno Zoo to let you see the animals.

As usual, after giving you your moi moi, we headed to Akasaka-Mitsuke station and daddy and I were going to head to the Marunuochi line to head to Ueno while Ah Kong and Ah Ma were to walk to Nagatacho station to ride on the train on Yurakucho Line to bring them to Ikebukuro.

Mummy and daddy were undecided on what we preferred to do, and in the end, we decided to follow Ah Kong and Ah Ma to Sunshine City. We walked and we walked and we rode on escalators going up and down and we finally arrived at Nagatacho Station. What a long walk. Thankfully you sat willingly in the stroller!

We took a (nicer looking train that those we've sat so far) and soon arrived at Ikebukuro station. Pek Kong's instructions were to walk out of the station and we'd see a sign directing us to Sunshine City. But I guess he forgot that there were many exits. And the first exit we took was the wrong one. After doubling back and looking around for signs, we saw the sign indicating Sunshine City. Finally.. We had to walk and walk quite a distance before arriving at Sunshine City.

Nothing much to see there actually.. Now we regretted having gone to Sunshine City. Should have stuck to our original plan of going to Ueno. Too bad. It's too late to travel all the way back to Ueno. So.. we spent our day there in Sunshine City, having Burger King for lunch (too much Japanese food over the past 2 weeks), deliberating whether we wanted to bring you to see another aquarium in Sunshine City (which we didn't) and finally heading back to Akasaka. We'd gone separate ways from Ah Kong and Ah Ma, but in the end, they arrived home earlier than us. We did manage to get a picture the beautiful Christmas tree and also of the fountain. The thirds picture is of the pretty girl preparing out delicious Cold Stone ice-cream. Oh yea.. also took Baby Zen's mummy's advise to try the Godiva drink.. Yummy

Dinner was of course to be with Pek Kong. After all, it' s to be our last meal in Japan with our host. What was for dinner? Have a look.. A quaint restaurant (not very little... it looked small from outside but it had a lower floor for dining). These are what we had as our last meal in Japan.

Here's of a picture we took of the wonderful lights nearby Pek Kong's apartment:

Of Sushi, More Shopping and A lot of Sight-seeing

We had been trying to decide if we wanted to go to Hakone. Firstly Ah Kong and Ah Ma have already been there in their previous trip to Japan. Secondly, if we were to go, we would need to wake up very early. Also whether to bring you a long. So, to make the decision, we decided to take the train to Shinjuku Station where we could inquire further about the trip to Hakone.

As usual, we made sure that you'd taken your lunch before heading out to Shinjuku. Upon arrival, we headed straight to the counter and after making inquiries, we decided to get the Odakyu Hakone Freepass for the both of us. We did not have to make a decision straightaway about bringing you along, as with travelling with you so far within Japan, there was no extra charge for your ticket.

After buying our tickets for a (VERY) early trip for Tuesday, we headed to Shinjuku Terrace City for a little retail therapy (ahem.. for the eyes). Ah Ma bought herself a nice jacket and after looking around and taking pictures, we headed for Ueno again.

What was on the menu in Ueno? Sushi, of course! We haven't had sushi since we arrived and there's only a few more days to go before heading back to Malaysia. So we took the train, and by the time we arrived in Ueno, you'd fallen asleep. A blessing, as it was a sushi restaurant serving sushi on the rotary. As we had our lunch perched on our stools, you dosed contentedly in your stroller parked at the side of the restaurant (safe and away from harm!)

After a yummy lunch, we headed to Ueno to buy more foodstuff to bring back to Malaysia as well as some food for Ah Ma to cook for tonight's dinner. Soon, we were on the train headed home to Akasaka to rest a little and to prepare for dinner.

We had decided that we would let you decide whether you'd be going to Hakone with us. Since we needed to leave Akasaka latest by 6.30am for our 7am train, we'd bring you along if you woke up. And guess what? You did wake up. Just on time for mummy to bathe you and off we went. With the stroller (despite Ah Ma telling us that it was not possible to use the stroller).

We arrived in Shinjuku Station with ample time to buy something for breakfast before looking for our seats in the "Romance Car", the train that is a faster train. I thought that having woken up so early, you'd sleep in the train. But nooo... you had something else in mind. You played and played in the train while daddy napped most of the way to Hakone-Yumoto and only decided to fall asleep around 15 minutes before we arrived! Sigh.. so mummy didn't get to nap. Oh well...

We waited a while in Hakone-Yumoto and soon the tram arrived and we hopped on the switchback train on Hakone-Tozan Line that first moved forward then backwards, zig-zagging up the hill until we arrived at Gora. When we arrived, there was a large crowd waiting to hop on the cable car to go up to Sounzan. Since it was still early and we didn't want to join the crowd, we decided to walk around Gora and wait for the next tram. It was quite a wait and as we waited the crowd got bigger and bigger. And when we got it, it was rather packed and the seats were VERY close together. As usual, you picked the best time to ask to be breastfed. So how? Luckily mummy had your (current) favourite rice crackers in my handbag, and so that kept you occupied and forgot what you originally wanted from me. Phew... Next was to catch the gondola on the Hakone Ropeway to Owakudani. That was one of the points where we could see Mt Fuji. It wasn't too clear that day, but we've had several nice shots of Mt Fuji already, so nevermind... Here's where the sulfur mountain was. The sulfur smell was quite bearable.. or so we thought. We bought the eggs that were boiled in the natural hot springs. Er.. forgot to take a picture of it. Too busy eating. Then off we went to climb the sulfur mountain. And I tell you, thank goodness we decided to bring the stroller. Hey.. we managed to push you up almost all the way. But the moment we neared the top, the sulfur smell was too strong, so we doubled back down to have lunch and off we went on the gondola again this time heading to Togendai.

You loved the rides that we've taken so far. Especially on the gondola. You even disturbed the nice ladies in the gondola, but of course when they spoke to you, you decided to be shy... Here's a picture of you in the gondola and also the view of Lake Ashi from our gondola.

Again, we missed the "pirate ship" that was to take us to Moto-Hakone, the last stop for our Hakone trip. But since it was still early, we wondered around, got you some more milk from the store and also came across this sign.. Daddy could not resist taking a picture of the signboard.

Soon, it was time to queue to board the ship. We managed to get a seat with beautiful view. Here's some of the pictures taken in Lake Ashi as well as of the ship. Next stop, Moto-Hakone. It was a slow ride of around 30 minutes.

From Moto-Hakone we walked a little, enjoying the view (again, I'm thankful we brought the stroller) and we arrived at the bus station, waited a while and when the bus arrived, we headed back to Hakone-Yumoto. You'd fallen asleep even before we boarded the bus and you only woke up when mummy carried you off the bus in Hakone-Yumoto. The return trip to Shinjuku was to be by train. This time it wasn't by Romance Car.. and it was the longest trip back ever! It was crowded and we stopped at one station for more than 20 minutes!

Finally.. yes finally we arrived at Shinjuku station and took a train back to Akasaka where Ah Kong and Ah Ma were waiting for us. What a long long day of sightseeing and interesting travelling. Just in one day we sat on the: subway, train, cable car, gondola, ship and bus. Wow!