Day 2 (16th July 2011) - Sanrio puroland

Visited the Hello Kitty theme park in the morning. Was about an hour ride from asakusa.









first stop was at some hello kitty house







went in to explore myself since my clumsy friend went to throw away the entrance passport into the dustbin zzz so here's the interiors















hello kitty stuff at the souvenir shop, very nice crystals



and some show was going on but only managed to catch a bit of it



there were lots of LEDs though ahha



after She found his ticket back - the amazing part was when we went to the information counter to get a new one they actually managed to find it in the bins!!!! we went in the room again. realised there's a photo corner to exit, no wonder i didn't know the exit previously.



we then went to search for food, and saw many cute food which was just expensive x-x











didn't eat any and wandered to this place where you could play multiple games and us a 'piggy bank' to collect coins. in order to earn the coins, you just have to visit each station and finish the activity there. the activities include dancing, posing, answering questions, etc.



this is supposed to be the 'king' of the country, if you manage to gather all the coins, you inherit the kingdom.



this is the 'piggy bank' that stores electronic coins



first station requires you to shake as much as possible =.=



then you had to cross a mini path without the spotlight touching you



after that it's the posing. look how idiotic She looks bwhahhawh







after you are done with all the stations, you have to proceed to the last station where you bet all your coins to win double or lose all of them.



amazing thing is... we both WON!!! so now we're both kings lol. lucky!!



we then watched a nice musical based on a pair of lovers who attempted to go to the country of the stars.



was too crowded so we had to stand and strain our necks.



appearance of the sub-cast and the queen





the main stars, the lovers. the story is actually quite sad at the beginning, because the female lead is born from a flower, which will die in 3 days. she falls in love with the guy and when the guy realises that she was going to die, he searches for all ways to keep her alive. the only solution was to drink some potion from atop a mountain and stay alive in the country of the stars, which was something forbidden by the queen. hence, the queen stopped the guy by detaining him in the mountains when he went to fetch the potion. even though one of his friends died while trying to get him out, the guy didn't make it to the girl in the end. Touched by their love, the queen used her power to revive the girl and sent them to the country of the stars.







sorry the pictures are so bad, my cam ran out of battery =.=

oh, and there were acrobatics in between and the girl was just being thrown and split around by the guy. Her flexibility and balance is just wow O.o



went off to have a lunch/dinner at their foodcourt. $25+ per set... ok la...



Didn't manage to explore the other parts of the city as I was planning to meet shoko at 6 back at kudanshita, since there was some festival going on. However we didn't get to see each other in the end as it was just way too crowded and she had the timing wrong -.-

Stopped at shinjuku for te train transfer and saw a cool little dog going around with a donation box o.O too cute!



Headed over to Kudanshita next, and realised that it is actually where yasukuni is. (the shrine that pays tribute to the Japanese soldiers that died during Singapore invasion...) like all the festivals, the shops were aplenty with food, drinks, games, etc. Saw some interesting shops while climbing the pathway to the shrine.





The obayashiki looked really scary with all the chopped heads and I couldn't figure out what the other shop with all the porn like poster and weird big booby woman was exactly. 500-600yen entrance, so decided to skip it. finally managed to squeeze to the temple in an hour (usually with no crowds should take 5-10mins).







So squeezy it was hard to breathe and we literally had to inch our way across. thank goodness you could get out outside of the temple so you don't have to travel via the festival path. didn't manage to meet shoko in the end as the crowd was just overwhelming. Thought there would be fireworks but it obviously couldn't happen in shrines haha. After we were done with the festival, we headed back to our hostel.

Day 1 (15th July 2011) - Pre-departure to japan

This must be the longest day I have before the trip, to stay at work till about 3am before I leave for Changi to meet ben. =.= my website live date was already 3hours overdue when I left, and I was so afraid I won't be able to leave like my first year, where I had to stay cos one of my projects had a lot of screw ups. I'm glad I had my senior to cover me but I still felt bad for leaving (；´Д`A

Had a hot green tea with compliments from my cute little son before departure, and was happy that ben's mom said i looked like lee junki lol xD and got ready for the 6 hours of sleepless flight. Departed at 6am.



Delta flight was actually pretty good - had omelette for breakfast and some croissant like burger for morning snack. Nice!



Seat wasn't all that comfortable, I was barely able to sleep... Managed to watch the wimpy kid movie though. Lame but funny all the same.

Reached japan around 2pm in the noon and took a 2hour train ride to my hostel. just out of the station asakusa, you could see the new Sky Tree, which is due to open next year May.



And here is the hostel, called Khaosan Tokyo, at $37/night/person for a twin room. small, but affordable and the facilities weren't too bad!



Freaking hot weather, what a torture. Shoko came to pick him up at around 6pm so I was free all the way till She arrives at 8-9pm. Took a short walk around asakusa station and ate an ice cream then went back to the hostel to relax.

When my friend arrived, we went out for Mac pork and milk shake for dinner! and She had lots of devices i went crazy over. love this dual screen.

NDP 2011 was awesome! i love the new song, 'in a heartbeat'. the whole show was simple with lots of fancy float parades, lovely video background and there was no rubbish singing like the past (where they had so many singers to just waste time, and emcees to talk cok).

the place to watch is great as well, considering there's waters all around, so they could showcase the marine battalion.



when it was night, the pictures were lovelier...





there were laser shows and buildings lighted up like the victoria harbour in hong kong!!! and fireworks rose all over. very pretty.







i especially love the fireworks throughout the show, and especially towards the end. thought it would be the same out light bursts, but this time it just felt very different. <3









the weather was wonderful - no sun at all, and breeze from the beginning to the end! really made the whole event a comfortable experience.

took some pictures with the elephant before we went off.





and passed by a lighted banner...



and i believed everything led me to you. it can't possibly be a coincidence for me to be rejected by 20 others, all on the same day...!

anyhow, we went for dinner later on, as everything ended around 815. met up with daphne, junjie and chloe and had desserts at MOF! waiting for her pictures to come!