CNY 2020

It is sad but I have to admit that somehow I have grown 'old' and am bothered with image whatsoever.  I do not give oranges for CNY visiting because I do not eat oranges and do not want to bring home the exchanged oranges. I also avoid bakkwa and cookies since I am sure my aunt would be well stocked with these. Thus I will always try to find something unique to give in place of oranges or these traditional CNY stuff. I did not go for any CNY visiting last year as my aunt was in Australia but in previous years I had no problem finding a decent gift but this year wow.. everything was boring and expensive such as small tubs of cookies for more than $30 or things which are not in CNY theme such as Japanese dried scallops and snacks, chilli and sauce for meals/cooking, potato chips. To add to my headache, an aunt and a cousin (from another aunt) came here for CNY this year and usually they gave me angpaus so I have to return them something since usually I cannot give them anything without meeting.

After an evening of window shopping and another evening of actual shopping, I ended up buying a  jar of hae bee hiam cookies for my aunt here and kurobuta bakkwa for my aunt and cousin from Indo. My aunt was worried that the customs would not allow pork to be brought in so she opened the bakkwa for us to eat during the CNY eve dinner. Wahlao it is not as tender as advertised. I don't know how the hae bee hiam cookies taste but I can conclude that this year I spent a lot for not nice things. One thing to take note for future CNY shopping, now the CNY fairs end on the day before the eve so there is no more chance for last minute shopping on the CNY eve.

My CNY holiday just went up to the smoke. Instead of resting, I had to accompany my aunt :( Sianz.. On the first day of CNY, I refused to go to a distant relative whom they visited since I did not know that person. To make it worse, after that they went to Jewel. Gosh.. The hottest item in the news recently is the Wuhan virus and airport is considered the most risky area of the moment with the travellers. I saw my friend's facebook post that people were already wearing mask there when he flew back for CNY.

They did not call me for Jewel so I though I could rest for the day. After ordering my dinner, they asked me to come to MBS -_-" It was a waste of time to just wait 2 hours for the fireworks as my aunt got the timing wrong. I expect most businesses would close on first day of CNY but it was business as usual at MBS. People were wearing masks but majority did not. As we were waiting for the fireworks outdoor, at least it lessened my worry of Wuhan exposure.

We went to Jurong on Sunday and again there was no planning to agreed on timing whatsoever. Luckily I woke up before they contacted me and I reached a good 45 minutes before them so I had KFC for lunch as I was tired and did not want to stand up while waiting for them. We journeyed so far just for Ippudo Ramen and after reaching that my aunt did not really want to eat but she was more eager to take photos with the bowl decorations on the wall of the shop. Gosh.. My aunt did some shopping today so at least I got some free credit card miles hehe..

On Monday, they went to Tanglin Mall before calling me. That was good because I was not keen to join them to eat beef noodle there. From there, we went to Vivocity. My aunt did a little bit of shopping so I got more free miles. My cousin mentioned about Jay Chou-endorsed pancake shop which unfortunately already closed. We ended up having a meal at the FairPrice. Never knew the FairPrice here has the pork ribs, pork knuckles, and the eating area inside. Well I hardly visit Vivocity anymore so I am quite out of touch. They wanted to have seafood dinner at Punggol and I decided to go home.

My aunt and cousin are going back tomorrow so today was the last day to meet.  My cousin was meeting his friend but I heard nothing from my aunt until I ended my gym. Lucky I was contacted when my train was at Botanic Garden and I transferred easily to Orchard. If I was already at Bishan or at home, I would decline. We did not have dinner and we just sat outside Takashimaya to talk for about 40 minutes.

My CNY is over just like that :( With all the jitters about Wuhan virus and I visited all these busy tourist areas, I do not know how much risk I have exposed myself to. What a start to the Rat year 2020 which does not seem gonna be a good one.

Taken at FairPrice JEM.. If only I wore something better, I would sit in the middle to take a photo :(

Miscellaneous shopping stuff

I have been buying Tomica limited editions from Tokyo Disney Resort since 2017 to sell them. I have sold zero so far and am losing hope to ever sell them, until last week. Someone bought 8 at one go and because of her busyness, she was willing to drive to my place. Wow!! Yay!

$210 for all these

After the disastrous vacation package experience, Tokyo Disney Resort still had the cheek to send me a survey. In return, I get a lame ass wallpaper. Tsk...

My landlady did not receive my Disney SnapCD. Instead of waiting until the CNY eve to collect, I rushed to the post office to collect it yesterday. After that I went to St Joseph's Church (Bukit Timah) for Landings coffee talk. That was my first time there and prior to this, I never even knew there was a station called MRT Cashew. Haha..

One sad news from last week is the announcement that Final Fantasy Mobius will be ending its service in June 2020 :( I have not been playing it as much as I would like. I did not even finish the FF8 collaboration event last year. Still, I spent 100 bux for Tidus' skin in early days of the game and by far, FF Mobius is still the best game in the era of Android/iOS gaming. Emo..

Disney and Mickey Mouse have been hogging all the limelight for the upcoming Lunar New Year of the Rat. Pikachu is also a rat and surprisingly Pokemon is not really making use of this CNY except for SK Jewellery. I only realised this last weekend I was honestly tempted. I surprise myself that I successfully manage to resist: nope I am not gonna buy any of them. Haha.. I already spent way too much for Disney stuff from Singapore Mint.

Still in 2019

I feel that I am still living in 2019 as I have not composed myself to look back at my 2019. Aging is real and crazy. It took me 4 days to recover from the 2 nights of sleep deficiency so I extended my gym suspension for another week. Meanwhile, I successfully dragged myself for Saturday Novenas, Sunday masses, Landings sessions, and volunteering session. I convinced myself if I did not force myself to start 2020 in the right track, I would just fall into a life of mess again.

I am happy that I did not skip last week's Sunday mass and Landings session. Last week's Sunday was the Epiphany which I hardly come across before since usually I will be home for Christmas and New Year. It was also an epiphany for me as it is my first time realising that the Three Wise Men did not see baby Jesus in Christmas night! The Three Wise Men are always part of Christmas story so I always had the idea that the shepherds and the magis saw baby Jesus on Christmas night. It actually took the Three Wise Men a long journey to find baby Jesus. In fact, considering that Herod's order to kill the babies under 2 years old, perhaps the Three Wise Men found Jesus when he was between 1-2 years old.

This really changes my perspective on their story and journey. It was not just a simple 'following the star' for one night. Did they continue walking at day time when stars were invisible? Did they have to wait and only could continue their journey when the star is visible. Yet they persevered and reached their destination. This is a mirror of my own faith life especially during most of the times when I feel lost, alone, useless, and all the negative things. The question is: can I persevere?

The reflection during Landings session last week was about the stars in my life that lead me to Jesus. I am in the period of feeling spiritual dryness now so it was really difficult for me. In the end I realised that my star is Mother Mary. Even during those period when I skipped Sunday masses and stopped praying, I still carried the rosary rings with me to try to pray on my walks. In addition, I start to attend Novena to the Mother of Perpetual Help since last year. I think I can finally believe the Marian dogmas that we are not praying to Mary but through Mary. I admit that I am often confused to whom I am praying or if I am simply reciting prayers without much thinking when I pray the rosary but now I realise that everything brings me back to God.

Last Friday was a Landings event and I was assigned to be a befriender. I am so bad in speaking to strangers and I think I did a shitty job. I was not aware that there was early MRT closure so I was very lucky that I actually was on the last train that reached Bishan. Woa...

Saturday was another busy day since there was a training session for the upcoming Landings run. I went for 8am Novena, the training at Church of the Our Lady of Perpetual Succour (that was my first time coming here), and then my volunteering session. The busyness allowed me to visit Paya Lebar Quarter for the first time for lunch. Despite the tiredness, it was quite a blessed day. The volunteering session was enjoyable as it was with few others volunteers that I worked with previously and they were quite approachable to work together. I also had a throwback to dispensing in isolation room for chickenpox patients although this time it was in a far corner of the field and I only had to wear mask.

Landings training session makes me realise another divine intervention in my life. I have always thought of volunteering through church or be involved in a ministry but that never came into fruition until Landings. I feel that Landings' spirit fits me and my approach to the faith. When we are promoting for our run, we are not doing a recruitment drive. We are essentially saying that we are ready to welcome those who are ready to return. Essentially we are just the instruments but it is ultimately God who does the calling.

I was so lazy for the session yesterday as it was at OLPS again. If not because of Saturday's training session which made me know how to go to OLPS, I would definitely skip it. I had a hard time listening through Father's European accent but even with the little bit that I learnt from yesterday, I did not regret going.

The talk was about Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is reassuring to hear that God forgives even those sins that I never mention, whether due to deliberate omission (because I am not ready to say or repent yet) or simply due to forgetting (like when I am prepared to say 5 things but somehow during the confession I only manage to say 3). The latter actually really bothers me previously since I always thought "Oh shit, just now I forgot to mention this and that so they were not confessed yet". It is also reminder that even though God is forgiving and merciful, we still need to ask for forgiveness and go for confession. It is the same principle with our fellow human beings. If we fight with someone, we will not know if we have been forgiven if we never even say sorry to the person. Of course not everything is good news. The 'bad news' is sacraments are not tickets to heaven.

Christmas season officially ends on Sunday so I no longer have any excuse not to continue with gym. I will slowly get into the habit since my more important goal is not to injure myself. I am more worried with controlling my diet as it has been very difficult to stick to my red dragonfruit for dinner. Nowadays I only eat it twice a week while I eat rubbish for the rest of the days. No wonder I am already back to 66kg. Sianz..

The night market at Bishan MRT is suprisingly still going on. I thought it would be just for Christmas and New Year. Now it seems that it is going to be all the way until CNY. It has been very difficult to resist as I have been buying the shumai almost everyday :( The only thing stopping me from buying daily is the person behind the counter. I am avoiding the same people as I am quite paiseh if they remember me buying quite frequently. For now, at the very least I have to tahan with bubble tea and potato chips.

Back to unpack

Boohoo!! I am so lazy to unpack my stuff. I cut down my shopping by only buying Tokyo Banana Kitkat. Previously I would buy other unique flavours but I am sort of grown out of them. Of course I still bought food stuff from the airport duty free shops as my handcarry luggage still had space. Now I feel that I bought too much and I really cannot stand the state of my room.

I had the consideration to work tomorrow for at least half day in order to save my annual leave. Looking at the mess in my room, that is not going to happen. Luckily my aunt is available tomorrow so I can drop my souvenirs for her first.

There is nothing really remarkable today. The breakfast at the hotel was nothing special. I was not dying to have the breakfast but since yesterday I did not even try, at least I wanted to utilise the dining voucher. I found out that there was a purikura machine at the hotel so I spent my coins for that. There were Frozen 2 and Toy Story 4 designs so I chose the former. I was not impressed with the results. Haha..

I was initially exited to fly A380 for the first time but other than seeing the staircase to go to the upper deck, there is not much of a difference in the economy cabin. The lavatory is even bigger than A350 which I think is reasonable considering that A380 is usually used for long flight. I fell asleep barely 30 minutes into Ride Your Wave which left me WTF! at the end. I am not surprised that I did not continue with Toy Story 4 but ended up re-watching Aladdin live action again. After that I simply listened to Greeeen compilation album.

I also checked out the photos taken using the photo keycard and I am sad to see that the price had increased. In April, I paid 5800 yen for 80 photos. Currently, the price is 8000 yen for 30-100 photos. I did not really hunt for official character photos at this trip so I only had 50+ photos. I think my sister's card would only have 10 photos at most. Sigh.. There is no way I can cut down to 30 photos as well so it is kind of a waste of money T_T I still want the photos though. Just think that it is still better than paying 1600 yen per printed photo at the park.

Anyway the biggest surprise at the end of this trip is my weight. I was shocked to see that I actually lost weight from this trip. Haha.. 64kg is a good start for the new year. Happy 2020 :D

Japan Trip Day 9 (PM) - 10: Vacation Package (New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Disneyland and Disneysea)

I previously shared that this Vacation Package planning has been a madness (here and here) and it does not end yet. The actual details of the package were only sent last week where it is written as Year End / New Year standard 3-day plan which means the ticket includes 2 Jan. This is never made known in the website since the package is called New Year's Eve / New Year's Day. Our return ticket is for 2 Jan so basically we will be wasting another day of playing. I was even contemplating to forgo my air ticket and redeem a new ticket for 3 Jan but in the end common sense triumph. It does not make sense to pay another night of hotel stay which is more expensive than a one day ticket to Disneyland. Another bullshit is about running out of Vacation Package special ticket holder as well as Vacation Package blanket (one of the options for the Vacation Package special  goodies). Aaaargh.. I felt super cheated. I could not even cancel the plan as any cancellation within 21 days before the package start day already incurred 30% penalty and all these were only informed 10 days before the start day.

In 2017, I stayed at Disney Ambassador Hotel. This time I am staying at Disney Celebration Hotel - Discover for the same price although Disney Celebration Hotel is considered value-type (aka cheaper) although both are still official Disney Resort hotels. Two main differences for this so-called value-type are: it is located far from Disneyland and Disneysea (20 minutes away with shuttle bus) and we cannot use Disney Welcome Centre to check in and drop our luggage. Other than these, I think the rest is comparable.

The only thing I took photo of in the hotel. I would recommend to stay at Wish (instead of Discover). Wish has Minnie statue at the lobby and Cheshire Cat in the garden. At Discover, Mickey statue is at the lobby but the garden only has some random ship.

Feels smaller than Disney Ambassador Hotel room but with the 2 sofa beds, this room can fit 4

Closer look of the wall decoration (right side)

Closer look of the wall decoration (left side)

More limited toiletries that are Disney-decorated

Room cardkey holder. The cardkey itself is not personalised.

The park opened at 8pm but I did not want to tire myself. Since Fantasmic was scheduled at 920pm, my goal was to reach before that. After around 2 hours nap, I ate my dinner purchased from the convenience store in the hotel and I took a shower first. My parents called to settle my winter clothes that my dad wanted to borrow so I had a better picture of how much space I was left with in the luggage and how much more I could shop.

We left hotel at around 830pm and reached Disneysea around 9pm. I was relieved that there was no queue and in general the park was not as crazy as in the morning during normal operating hours. At least this crazily expensive package indeed gave a unique overnight experience as well as lighter crowd. We received Happy New Year 2020 glow stick upon entry. We went to get our ticket holder first. Initially we thought we could get any ticket holder in the store but nope. Our choice was limited to Mike (from Monster Inc) or Buttercup (from Toy Story 4). Sigh.. definitely the not so popular ones. For the Vacation Package special goods, I chose the Mickey and Minnie Vacation Package hanging plushie and omg.. they are small and the faces look shit. I was excited with them in the photos and I was planning to take photo with the characters while holding this. I changed my mind.

Tokyo Disney Resort New Year's Eve 2020 glow stick

Mickey and Minnie in their Vacation Package outfit but their faces ...

Bad luck still continued as due to weather condition, Fantasmic was cancelled and even the New Year's firework might also be cancelled. The strong wind was still ongoing and it was cold despite me wearing 5 layers of top: ultra warm heat tech, ski base layer, fleece, fleece jacket, and ultra light down. These are my thickest winter clothes and I did not even wear this much for snow at Shirakawago few days ago.

After the magical Christmas decorations which were bright and full of lights, the decorations for new year were lacklustre. The lights were not even turned on at the entrance where the new year barrels are. There was official photographer at Mickey but not at Minnie. I was so speechless since my sister forgot to bring her photo keycard. Sigh.. Bless the nice cameraman who was not racist. Despite realising that we are foreigners who want to take photos separately, when he saw my photo keycard, he offered to combine both mine and my sister's into one order.

I am not sure why they did not offer official photos at Minnie which was just a few steps away. Thank God I bought new camera so at least decent photos at low light condition was still possible. The queue at Minnie was shorter than 10 people so we queued there. This was when I started to get angry again. Same position, same camera, same low light condition and yet my sister took fucked up blurry photos of me. She also did not tell me when my standing position covered the writing. I even re-queued and still get blurry photos. Really fucker.

 The decorations for new year the entrance of Disneysea are just these (taken during Happy 15 entry)

We decided to 'jump' to Disneyland to take photos with the new year decorations there. It was more crowded than Disneysea but there was not really a queue to enter. The new year barrels were even more disappointing than Disneysea. Similarly, the official photographer was only at Mickey and the queue was much longer than at Disneysea so it was a pass. Again at Minnie, queued 2 times for mostly blurry photos.

And I forgot to take photo of the Minnie version.. or at daytime with better light.. sigh..

Magic and miracle did not happen as the castle was still covered but at least they added 2020 LED to the castle front where Mickey usually appears during evening light show. I preferred watching the New Year's show at Disneysea but due to the tight timing, we decided to just stay at Disneyland. We managed to get a somewhat good place. In fact, that was the best at that time since after I did not manage to find a better spot after walking around.

The weather was still windy and chilling but luckily the countdown event was not cancelled. During the wait, they were playing all the music used in the parades throughout the year. I was honestly disappointed with the countdown event. Without the castle, no matter how good the fireworks and the lights were, it would not be good. The only saving grace was the show lasted for a good 10-15 minutes so it was kinda worth the wait. In fact, the only evening fireworks and light show that really impressed me was the 35th Anniversary show which included water from the area in front of the castle as well as light show including the plaza/garden in front of the castle.

My view before the countdown

With the castle under renovation and dark, it was just bad...

After almost an hour under the winter cold, we found ourselves too cold to anything. We decided to eat buffet at Crystal Palace to warm ourselves. First time ever to have buffet at past midnight so how to not gain weight... We stayed through the 90 minutes and it was kinda wasted because we still felt cold despite the food and hot tea. I knew I had to abandon the idea of enjoying the park until 6am as it was simply impossible for me physically :( Initially I wanted to take photos with the characters to experience how it felt at past midnight leh T_T

I insisted on checking out Mickey's house and on the way, I suggested to try Stitch's Encounter in an attempt to warm ourselves since it is an indoor attraction. It was 5 minutes waiting time (a.k.a no queue) but I will not do this attraction anymore. The attraction simulates our encounter with Stitch in space and it is just interactions like Stitch randomly selecting the audience to say their names and say funny things and all that. As I do not speak Japanese, I had no idea what was going on and I was super stressed if I was 'selected' by the camera to interact with Stitch. I am pretty sure the interaction is not computerised but there is a cast member voicing Stitch since the interaction was personalised with details such as repeating the audience's name and where they came from etc.

The queue for Mickey's house was just as long as day time. No way I could last another 80 minutes there. That would be insanity. My sister suggested to enter Goofy's house that I never entered before. There was almost no queue and instead of a walkthrough like Mickey and Minnie's house, inside Goofy's house is a random shooting game. There is no target and no purpose whatsoever so it is just randomly shooting the guns to 'paint' the walls. Damn lame but the shooter is something like a cannon and shooting is by pulling the string at the end of the barrel. As random and purposeless as it is, having to shoot as many as possible means a good workout pulling at the string.

On the way out, I had hot cocoa using the free drink pass from the Vacation Package and that still did not warm my body. I was so cold that I was thinking of just going back to the hotel at this point and forgoing the official photo taken at Disneysea earlier. It was decided to just press on to collect the photo but no further playing or character photos at Disneysea. We went back to the hotel after that.

I planned to have a short nap and wake up at 6am but I could not. Luckily I still got up at 645am to quickly shower. My sister did something to the toilet and the door was somehow locked from outside. I wanted to utilise Happy 15 entry no matter what so even shitting business took a back seat for now. Disneysea opened at 8am today and dang, the Happy 15 entrance was like the furthest counter from the station exit. By the way for Happy 15, the cast member simply took the Happy 15 slip without scanning the park ticket so technically I could use my sister's to enter Disneyland which opened at 830am. I entered at 750am but I did not see any characters around leh.

It was quite an experience to enter before the park officially opened. Many cast members were lining up in front at the start of the day to welcome visitors. Instead of running for fast pass and all that, I saw people asking cast members to help taking photos with the New Year decoration so I followed. I managed to take with Minnie without photobombers but not for Mickey thanks to the inconsiderate asshole family in front me who took their own sweet time with repeated photos. By the time it was my turn, the park officially opened and the crowd started streaming in.

I went to Abu's Bazaar first and the whole area was empty. I felt so intimidated to queue and play: just imagine me as the only person there vs so many cast members at the cashiers, game stations, and queue poles. So I decided to take photos at the greeting trails and suprise, the queue for Mickey and Minnie already went past 30 minutes. I went for Donald since it was only 5 minutes queue and I did not have the chance to use my photo keycard with Donald during Christmas. I noticed that since the queue was not that long yet, Donald actually spent more time playing with us. Hehe.. By the time I was done, the wait time was reaching half an hour for Donald and went past 40 minutes for Mickey and Minnie.

I bought a 500 yen hot dog at a stall opposite Yucatan there since I had not eaten breakfast. I went back to Abu Bazaar and I could only play one game as the queue started to grow. I regretted for being shy earlier since there are 5 pins (Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Chandu) and the theme is Genie's lamp!! I picked Chandu pin first since it is my first time seeing him in the pin prize. It was close to 9am so after hesitating between leaving for Disneyland immediate or waiting for characters, I decided to wait until 9am first. Too bad the character which came out was Abu T_T Abu's face is damn ugly and that's why I don't bother with Abu. I want Aladdin or Jasmine leh...

I feel so curious on why Disneyland feels more crowded than Disneysea this time. The queue for Mickey's new year decoration that I skipped last night because of the long queue simply became impossible as the queue this morning was even longer! Bleah... I took the ticket for Zootopia as previously I did not get Nick with my photo keycard (sigh.. it made me angry to think of that racist photographer again...). I was there before 10am so it was almost 1.5 hours after park opening time and I got 115pm slot. That confirms that there is no need to chiong for this anymore unlike my April trip when the ticket already ran out within 15 minutes.

With about 10 minutes until the New Year's Greetings parade, I was lucky to still able an open unobstructed area to watch. The New Year's Greetings parade concluded that it was not worth spending the money for New Year's Vacation Package. There were only 1 car (Clarice, Chip, and Dale), 1 float (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto) while Max and Goofy were walking on the street. That was all.

I was thinking to have early lunch at Queen of Hearts banquet. I saw Cinderella and Fairy Godmother just came out around that area and I wasted half an hour without getting chosen for pictures. Sigh..  Only managed to shake hands as she shook hands with those in the first row before she left. I waited for another 15 minutes in hope of catching another character appearing but there was not any. The queue for Queen of Hearts were already long so I decided to find other restaurants in the front part of the park that I seldom explored.

Why did you never choose me for a photo? T_T

I decided to be nice for a lunch together but she made me fed up again. How did it take her almost 20 minutes from the pavilion to the Adventure Land area. Bleah.. I even finished one cup of hot cocoa and she still had not reached. Although there was no physical queue, Blue Bayou had to be reserved and the next available slots were 2 hours later. So we tried Cafe Orleans instead. From no queue when I first arrived, the queue was long 20 minutes later but lucky we still got a seat. This was the most 'extravagant' meal I ever had because I ordered curry and ratatouille pita sandwich, banana chocolate crepe, cheese caramel milk tea, and lastly oolong tea for the sake of using free drinks pass. The sandwich was weird but the crepe and milk tea were good.

We split ways after that as my time to take photo with Nick was soon. Before that I caught a glimpse of Jamboree! Mickey which is really a kids' show. So it was worth skipping that last week haha.. Taking photo with Nick was fun but it was not as memorable as the one who even messed up my hair during Christmas.

At this point, I decided to go back to rest in the hotel since there was nothing else I was really looking forward to do: my sister messaged me that it was 2 hours queue at Mickey's house, I already saw Dreaming Up! and the New Year's Greetings, and I was not that into the rides. With the ongoing renovation and long queue for the New Year decorations outside, I doubted that there would be characters like last week. And here was where things suddenly became interesting...

The characters were out there hehe.. I queued for Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip and the wait time was 50 minutes. I did not get them as they changed characters after every 25-30 minutes. Firstly they changed to Peter Pan and Wendy which I already had from my April trip. While queueing, the cast members mentioned periodically of the characters that might appear and I heard Mary so I thought well Peter Pan would be better than Mary Poppins.

After Peter Pan, they changed the location to the far corner of the entrance so it was not that obvious to the crowd that there was a character greeting going on. This was a blessing because the queue was getting shorter and I kept rejoining the queue for more characters. In the end, the character during my turn was Flynn Rider but without Rapunzel. It was nice interacting with him as he is not a prince so we were quite casual. For example, he put his hands on my shoulders to direct me to the photo spot. I asked where Rapunzel was and after that he talked about my attire. I think conversation topic #101 for these characters would be the clothes since previously Peter Pan, Wendy, and Mary Poppins also used clothes as conversation topic.

Flynn  Rider

I went to toilet first and after that I caught Prince Philip who just appeared as roaming character. As he was alone, there were not many people crowding him. When there were not many people, usually the characters would notice who were there first and that was how I got chosen. I said he was the first prince character that I ever spoke too (Sorry Aladdin but even with Prince Ali attire, you are still Aladdin) and somehow the conversation went back to clothes!! Gosh.. Haha he said I wore princely colours (red and blue) although I had been wondering why his colours were not black and red like in the cartoon. I saw this character alone at Christmas but I was only sure that this is Prince Phillip just now when he was with Sleeping Beauty.

Roaming Prince Phillip

When I went back to the queue for characters, it was still Flynn so I waited for about 5 more people in the queue before I queued again so that I could get the next character change. The 'Mary' that I heard turned to be Marie from Aristocats. Although I prefer human characters, I do not have photos with her yet so it is okay. To make it better, Marie was not alone but with another 2 cats that I had to google the names since I never watch Aristocats. The one that I was expecting to be the most boring turned to be the most fun. These three cats were really playful and crazy in a good way. They did crazy and different poses for the photo while for the interaction, it was as if each of them was trying to get attention of the person. It was crazily fun.

From Aristocats: Berlioz (black fur), Marie, and Toulouse (brown fur)

The next character was Alice, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. I would prefer Alice with Mad Hatter as both are humans but really, interacting with more characters at one time turns to be crazier and more fun. I asked a genuine question of how to differentiate Dee and Dum and Alice showed me that their names were actually sown on their clothes. Again the conversation went about the clothes as she asked why my name was not on my clothes. Lol. She asked for my name and at the end she said bye with my name.

I learnt from my stupidity with Jasmine this April and I did not reject Alice's goodbye hug

Next were Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip. Prince Phillip was still by the same guy earlier and he still remembered what we were talking about earlier (clothes!) as he was telling Aurora about our earlier conversation. For the final one, finally I got Cinderella with Prince Charming. Haha.. Before talking about clothes, I asked about their renovated castle so that was the topic.

Prince Charming and Cinderella

So the afternoon nap ended up becoming a 3-hour character greetings. Hehe.. The change of location was really a blessing because after that I got every single change of characters which meant that it took only about 30 mins maximum for the queue. I felt quite paiseh as the cast members were not changing but there were many others who also re-queued again and again. There were even guys doing that. Thanks to them I did not feel paiseh. The cast members were also very nice as some of them even said welcome back haha..

I start to feel that the cast members are getting more generous with the photos. While they are still strict with 1 camera per party and 1 shoot, they were taking pictures even when we were interacting and few of them took multiple shots when we posed for that 1 shoot.

Taking photos when the characters randomly changed is always stressful for me. After today, I have photos with a lot of characters already so for the next visits I guess I can just enjoy the interaction with whomever instead of aiming for specific ones. Lastly, I am surprised that the princesses are actually more fun to interact with compared to the princes. The princes are acting and speaking in a more prim and proper manner that I felt as if talking to someone acting. With the princesses, I felt like talking to another normal person. I suppose this is an evidence of how well these characters are trained as Aladdin and Flynn did not give the same vibes as Prince Phillip and Prince Charming.

Cold took over me so instead of going to rest at the hotel, I went to have early dinner at Plasma Ray's Diner. I was left with outdoor seats but the tall glass panel at least helped to block the wind. Then I used fast pass for Space Mountain. I never tried this and my sister said it was good when she tried earlier. Despite the fast pass, the whole thing took me half an hour from door to door but I have to say it was worth it. This is definitely one of the more fun attraction at Disneyland. I even find it better than Buzz's Astro Blaster. I was tempted to use the next fast pass (just for the sake of not wasting them) for Pooh Hunny Hunt but if it would take me another half an hour, I would definitely not be resting so I abandoned that idea.

I returned to hotel not to nap. I bought the Disney food stuff at the hotel and started to do some packing. I returned to Disneysea to catch Fantasmic for one last time. Fantasmic is ending its run this coming March so tonight was my last time seeing it and it was nice watching it from beneath Mt Prometheus. Fantasmic is really amazing since it is still nice and enjoyable from there, considering there is the 'back' of the show. Before the show, I went to Zambini Brothers to have 3 churros hahaha... I got another 2 of the Soaring one and 1 of the potato cheese.

Tonight's weather was very comfortable. It was not crazily windy like yesterday. If yesterday's weather was like tonight, I am sure I could last until 6am and fully maximised the New Year's Eve. Oh well, weather is something that I can control so I can only enjoy what I have. I met up with my sister again after Fantasmic and to close the night, we played at Abu's Bazaar just for two games before the queue became long. I got Mickey and Minnie pins. We used another fast pass for Indiana Jones and then to end everything, we rested our butts and legs at Sinbad.

This Vacation Package has been a huge mistake: wasted 1 day (for tomorrow), ugly Vacation Package goodies, castle under renovation, cold weather, did not do much during the New Year's Eve, terrible photos by my sister, not even utilising all the fast passes (I only used 2 out of 4), and only utilising the free drinks for only 6 cups. However, at the end of everything, the 3 hours worth of character greetings really made my day. With the end of my free visa to Japan, it will be another 2 years at least before I will visit Japan again. I am alright not going next year due to the Olympics 2020 crowd. Hopefully at my next visit, the crowd for the new attractions (Beauty and the Beast, Baymax, and Minnie's photo house) opening next spring would already lighten. I also hope it can finally be a stay at Hotel Miracosta. Hehe...

Japan Trip Day 9 (AM): Odaiba

I had another fucked up start of the day again thanks to fucked up sister. We were supposed to drop our luggages for Airporter luggage transfer by 9am and she was still taking her own fucking sweet time with waking up late, showering, etc. Jeez..

Anyway I would like write a short review of Airporter (https://airporter.co.jp). Yesterday I mentioned about the price which I find quite expensive. After today, I can say that perhaps the pricing is the only negative thing to say. By the way I got a 20% discount upon checking out yesterday so that helped with the cost somehow. The brochure states that the delivery would be by 4pm. In the physical labels that I filled, there is a field for check in time. I put 3pm and tadaa... the luggages were dropped at Disney Celebration Hotel before 3pm. I am impressed. Their updates and communication are also fantastic. When they picked up the luggages, they also sent photos of the luggages and the physical labels that I filled. When the luggages were delivered, they also sent photos of the luggages at the signage of the hotel name. I will definitely use this service again if needed. Fantastic!

I was contemplating to go to Akihabara this morning but in the end I decided not to exhaust myself. My sister wanted to return to Odaiba so I decided to just get all my shopping there since yesterday I already confirmed that the souvenir shop there have Tokyo Banana Kit Kat that I want.

We found the photo spot that we missed yesterday. Initially my sister still said that it was already gone as it was only for Christmas. Stupid... don't want to find info.. I have nothing to say.. After that she really wanted to queue for the Doraemon store. We reached there just before 1030 and the queue outside was estimated to be at least 2 hours. I passed and I went to Gundam Base instead.

The photo spot missed yesterday. The ironic part is that yesterday we were like only 10 steps away from this place.

With smaller crowd, I managed to take picture of the giant Gundam head. The Gundam Build Fighters statues that I did not see yesterday are now at the 'factory' section. Now they are also behind the red ribbon so lucky I took pictures with them before. As I already decided not going Akihabara, I would have space for toys. I was contemplating between buying or using the space for food. I decided NOT to get the Gundam Base limited edition hangar since I do not even have the time to build the normal editions that I already own for a few years now. I decided to buy Vayeate and Mercurius. I have been wanting to get them as my current Vayeate has broken horn and my current Mercurius' Planet Defensors are ugly (I built it when I was still a newbie for Gundam building and I think I built the Planet Defensors wrongly). Previously there were always 1/100 models that I did not have yet and hence I bought. Now I already have everything from Gundam Wing that I want to own (except for the clear versions of the 1/144) so I can finally buy Vayeate and Mercurius.

As the shop was not as crowded as yesterday, I could explore more carefully and I saw 40th anniversary artbook that I missed yesterday!! Artbook is a no brainer for me and it is an instabuy. I bought 2 since I was thinking of selling the other one since this is a limited for the 40th anniversary. 2200 yen for a 54-page book is expensive but heck liao. Some more there is an original illustration for this 40th anniversary project of Heero Yuy meeting Kamille Bidan (who is from Zeta Gundam a.k.a different universe), although Heero is backfacing. There is a big poster with this illustration around the shop but I am only aware of this illustration when I was browsing the book. There are 3 other illustrations with different pairs of Gundam pilots meeting another from a different Gundam universe.

Big but only the back view (Heero) or tiny but front view (Kamille)?

Yesterday my sister told me that there are already more than 1000 photos and each photo is at least 6-7MB. I am a noob and it did not cross my mind that since my new camera has higher megapixel, the size per photo is bigger. I only bought 16GB and now I am not going to risk running out of memory for New Year at Disneyland. I found the microSD to be expensive as they all came with the SD card adaptor. Sigh... Since I already decided that I would not be going to Akihabara, either I bought it at Diver City or I tried my luck to check Aqua City. I passed by the Unicorn Gundam but the 40th anniversary signage is full LED and hence is only visible when lighted up after dark. In the morning, the panel only appears full white. So I have no picture with the 40th anniversary logo huhuhu T_T

Surprisingly Aqua City only opened at 11am and it was not open yet when I reached. I went to take photos of the decorations at JUMP shop. I just learnt that this shop is not permanent so I really will not have photo with Goku.

Goku statue at JUMP shop

I was not expecting to buy anything but ended up buying a double-sided eye mask. I thought it is Kuroko on one side and Akashi on another side but I am wrong. It is actually Kuroko (from Kuroko no Basket) and Robato (from Robot X Laserbeam) since both are creation of the same mangaka Tadatoshi Fujimaki. I thought Robot X Laser beam was the producer or something and this eye mask was based on Kuroko's last movie. Lol.. If I realised that this is not Akashi but a guy whom I do not know, I would not buy.

In the end I bought the expensive microSD since there was none without the adaptor. After that I wanted to have lunch at the burger restaurant that I passed by when entering the mall but there was a long queue. That led me to exploring the mall more to check out the eateries. I discovered noitaminaA Shop and Cafe. noitaminA is an anime TV channel so the shop and cafe are having things based on the anime shown in the channel. The only one that I know is Banana Fish but there was no merchandise that caught my attention. I also found a nice cluster of 'atas' looking restaurants. I was interested in pasta in one of the cafe but there was noone at the door so I was not sure if the shop was already open for business.

I ended up checking the food court which I never knew Aqua City has. As much as I was interested in Wendy's, I went for Coco Ichibana instead. I needed rice at least once a day since in Disneyland later, I would unlikely be eating rice. Although the food was just for sustenance, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I found a souvenir shop which is better than the souvenir shop at Diver City since it has senbeis, noris, and more options. The souvenir shop at Diver City mostly has cheap souvenir mochis, which after I tried once, I swear I won't buy again. I bought senbeis because how bad can senbeis be? They should be okay. They also have seafood crackers which will be good as more personalised souvenirs for my aunt and landlady. At least I will not have to think too much about souvenir shopping at Disneyland later.

That was the end of the day as after that, I decided to go to Disneyland to check in to the hotel. I had to walk all the way back to Diver City as I would take Rinkai Line. I deliberately delayed my reply to my sister as I did not intend to wait or see her. I left the area at around 2pm thinking that I would reach the hotel by 3pm. I was completely mistaken with my estimation due to unforeseen circumstances along the way.

First obstacle was at NewDays at Shin-Kiba. This was the first NewDays that I found the Conan stuff to be on sale. After hesitation, I just grabbed one of each of the things on the Conan shelves and I spent more than 15000 yen there. Crazy... There is NewDays outside Maihama station so that became another unplanned pit spot although sadly there was no Conan goodies. Then I mistook Maihama bus terminal for Disneyland bus terminal so in the end I only managed to get on to the 245pm shuttle bus. I should not be complaining and should consider myself lucky still. I arrived at the 'golden window' since not long after I queued, the queue just tripled. If I were late by another 5 minutes, I would end up taking the next bus.

Now I have 20 sets of this as one set is given for every 800 yen purchase

The weather had been reasonable in the morning but midway while queueing for the bus, it suddenly got very windy. Die.. how to survive overnight this way. I was so tired and fell asleep on the bus. I did not pay attention to the announcement and all that so I alighted at Disney Celebration Hotel Wish. I should have alighted at the next stop since I am staying at Disney Celebration Hotel Discover. Discover is just across Wish but the wind was crazy that even walking that short distance was challenging. The good thing about this mishap is that I learn that the decorations at Wish are based on Disneyland and its attraction while the decorations at Discover are based on Disneysea and its attraction.

The check-in queue was long and only at 4pm that I managed to check in. My sister pissed me off again. Knowing that check-in time is at 3pm, she only reached hotel at close to 4pm. I don't care what the reason, it just shows irresponsibility. If I also arrived at 4pm, what time would we end up checking in? Luckily she arrived before my turn to the check in counter because both passports were required. Otherwise, I don't want to imagine what I will do to this idiot.

As the hotel decorations are mostly based on Disneysea, I find only few things that I am interested to take photos of. I do not know if that is a good or a bad thing. My plan for afternoon nap time before tonight is already shortened. If the hotel is so nice and make me going around to take photos, maybe I will not even be having time to nap at all. Hahaha.. I will have afternoon nap now to prepare myself for the overnight experience at Disneyland and Disneysea tonight. Yay... Anyway I will write about the hotel, vacation package, as well as New Year's Eve and Day experience in a post after tomorrow. It will be scary to imagine how long that post will be.

Japan Trip Day 8: Caretta Shiodome, Odaiba

I still cannot master the art of balancing the room heater temperature with outside winter temperature as last night I woke up repeatedly again. I was also honestly worried about waking up late because I thought the sun was already high when I saw the brightness behind the sliding door. It was actually the light at the sink that was deliberately left on.

I took a shower in the morning and they flipped around the onsen i.e. the one designated for male last night was for female in the morning and vice versa. I saw some people were already checking out. People usually do not shower in the morning so I got to enjoy the onsen all to myself. This morning onsen was slightly bigger than yesterday with 3, instead of just 2, showers. Although I was in a rush, I still soaked in the actual onsen just for the sake of utilising it.

The male ryokan owner, whom I did not meet yesterday, was the one checking me out and he was promoting the Monkey Park again hahaha.. Sorry uncle.. We have to rush to Tokyo already. He drove us to the station and somehow the train was already there earlier than the schedule that I checked yesterday. Maybe the timetable that I saw yesterday is an outdated one.

The initial plan at Tokyo is to drop our luggages at temporary luggage storage at Tokyo Station and then to go to Caretta Shiodome since it is too early before hotel check in time. I think as it is getting closer to the end of year holiday, the station is just getting busier. The temporary luggage storage at JR East Travel Service was so full that they did not accept anymore. So we had no choice but to go to our hotel to drop our luggage first.

People are excited Caretta Shiodome for the winter illumination but I went there for the Aladdin exhibition to promote its Disney MovieNEX release. The area for the winter illumination was cordoned off.

Could not get any closer to take a photo. In case you wonder why I did not take photo from closer, the 'thingy' at the foreground is actually a water fountain so I could not step on it.

I thought we could just spend about half and hour there since the exhibition was only the magic carpet to take photo and a few things at the 46th floor. My sister took stupid photos at the magic carpet so after going up to 46th floor, I went back to re-take at the magic carpet. Anyway there were only few people and mostly no queue for that so I could afford to be more thick skinned. There is a bubble tea store facing the carpet so I tried bubble tea in Japan for the very first time.

The troublesome part is having to remove shoes before getting on the carpet

The lift that we used to go up was decorated with Aladdin stuff. As the lift went up directly to level 46, it was quite fast. I wanted to take photo in the lift without others so we waited for an empty leave to go down but we ended up with the non-decorated lift. I gave up on taking photos inside the lift with my face.

The whole floor of the lift has the magic carpet design

Stills from the movie on the walls of the lfit

Anyway, at level 46, there are only these 'attractions':

Magic Carpet design on the wall

These are the clothes worn by the Japanese dubbers

Magic Lamp

Out of the things that can be chosen for display, why is it the snake? Meh -_-

There is a stamp rally so we were also distracted by that and ended up going around the mall.

The counters at various levels for the stamp

The final product of all the stampings. No prize to exchange to for completion though.

As we were going around the mall, I even found Toy Story 4 things to take photo with.

I think can step into the ball area but I did not dare :( I don't know if it is only for kids.

I want to rest to prepare myself for the next two days at Disneyland. Akihabara, Nakano, and the usual anime stuff are not in my list for this trip. Odaiba is an exception not because of the Gundam but because of the souvenir shop. I sort of regretting not getting the sarubobo cloth at Shirakawago as even yesterday at Nagano, I still cannot find any reasonable or better souvenir compared to sarubobo. Previously I could not find Tokyo Banana Kit Kat except at Odaiba so that was my main reason.

The pre-new year crowd was obvious at Odaiba. Diver City has never been as crowded as today in my past visits. A new Doraemon Shop just opened in Odaiba and there are few Doraemon statues. These are the main pull factor for my sister to visit. Despite that, she did not even check where the statues are located. The hell... The queue for the Doraemon shop was crazy and according to signage was 3 hours. No way I was going to queue there. The Doraemon statues are at Diver City exit/entrance nearest to the Tokyo Teleport station. The statues are only Doraemon sitting on a bench, Nobita and Shizuka sitting on another bench, and a clock in between. The size is comparable to the statues at Otogi no Mori park so nothing was really impressive. There were queues (~ 5 people in the queue for each statue) to orderly take photos.

In the evening, there will be some light show and puppet show in the 'glass cabinet' thingy. Not sure exactly what as I only saw it as I was walking to Tokyo Teleport station on my way to Maihama

Took photo with the other bench with Nobita and Shizuka first so I forgot to take the picture of just the statue without me.

To commemorate the opening of the Doraemon store, the decorations within Diver City are also full of Doraemon. Previously for Gundam, the decorations were only on the lift doors. For Doraemon, the escalators and the pillars also get huge makeovers. Not fair :(

Just one example of the plasters on the pillars. There are many other designs.

I went to Gundam Base and realised that Gundam franchise is celebrating 40 years this year. It was too crowded to take a photo with the giant Gundam head there. There is also a Harry Potter pop up store with Newt statue in front. We went to a beef restaurant for lunch but the menu was mostly beef tongue. Eeew... I ended up having my first oden in a restaurant ever as well as fulfilling my gyoza cravings from yesterday.

Not sure what project this is about but this replaces the 3 Gundam Build Fighter statues of Iori, Seiji, and Mao. I did not see them just now but I already took pictures with them 2x so it is okay.

Newt Scamander at the Harry Potter pop up store

My sister bought her Owndays snap while I was mesmerised by the Gundam Head Scale 1:7. It is a limited edition item (1979 pieces since Gundam was first released in year 1979) and I would never own. Owndays is having a collaboration with Gundam 40th anniversary. The Gundam spectacles are not for me as they are all slim/thin frame which will not mask my thick lenses. The Gundam Head (which is actually a spectacle case for 6 spectacles) is more appealing for me. The price is 39980 yen (excluding tax).

You can snap a photo of the Gundam Head and post it in SNS to get a glass wipe with Owndays x Gundam collaboration design. I did not say anything about it but somehow my sister just said she would do that and I got the glass wipe. Today I learnt that SNS means Social Networking Service a.k.a social media. All these while, I always think SNS is a Japanese-only social media app. That is why I never bothered with anything that has SNS in the advertisement. Yeah I am quite noob with technology.

At about 5pm, we left Diver City to walk over to Aqua City to check out Disney Store. To commemorate Gundam 40th Anniversary, there is a light panel to show the 40th anniversary at the foot of the Unicorn Gundam. It was too crowded and I was not prepared to take photos there. Too bad there was no official photographer like they used to have when Unicorn Gundam was just unveiled in 2017.

It was already as dark and the lighted up Odaiba Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower at the horizon looked beautiful. My old camera was completely useless at this spot when we went here in 2017. My new camera is able to capture some images so this is definitely an upgrade compared to the old camera i.e. it was a justifiable purchase lol.

No way I can get this with my old Canon camera. At the same time, this is not according to reality (the sky was actually pitch black). It shows how over processed the photo is but at the same time how powerful the Sony camera for low light.

There was nothing interesting to buy at Disney Store so I proceeded to collect Vacation Package for tomorrow. On the way out, I found the JUMP shop. I only knew that there is a JUMP shop in Odaiba today after seeing some people carrying shopping bags of JUMP shop. As mentioned, I was not in the mood for anime stuff so I did not really try to find where the shop is. This was an accidental finding. I already split with my sister so noone helped me to take photo with Goku.

Hokuriku Arch Pass did not cover the trip to Maihama fully as I had to pay 140 yen when I showed the pass to the office. Something new to learn everyday. On the way back, I used normal Suica to compare the cost (more than 300 yen) so for tomorrow I will use the Pass. Before collecting the Vacation Package, I checked out Bon Voyage and Ikspiari Disney Store first and found nothing to buy. I walked through the smaller shops at the sides of Ikspiari and found a collectible shop where I succumbed and bought Aladdin collectible cards. So childish... It is not cheap (660 yen per pack) but I bought 5 packs to round off the total to 3300 yen instead of having 50 yen or 10 yen coins as change.

I bought Paopao at Shinagawa station for dinner and I am pleasantly surprised with the room. This is my first time staying at Keikyu EX Hotel Shinagawa and I will prefer here to Prince Hotel just next door. The room is big for Japanese standard and also bigger than Prince Hotel. The internet is also faster. The only downside is the konbini which is not the usual chains and hence the spread is more limited and the prices are more expensive. The konbini at Prince Hotel is 7-11 by the way.

My sister is still having fun shopping at Akihabara and here I am possibly just injured my fingers a little bit from pushing our luggages by myself. While waiting for the luggages at the guest service, I picked up a brochure for Airporter which is a luggage service transfer. The price is quite high (2000 yen for one piece of luggage, 1500 yen if cabin size luggage) but I am going to use this for tomorrow rather than dragging my luggage. As I have to make the reservation tonight by 11pm, I asked my sister if she wants and how many luggages. Instead of quickly giving a yes or no, she still irritated me with stupid comments that it is expensive bla bla bla.

That was the final straw for today because earlier she sent me an instagram picture of a Doraemon decoration at Diver City that we missed out earlier. Like what the hell... Although I am not a fan, since I was already there, might as well take pictures with everything ma. Stupid..