Hakone 12- 13 Oct Con't

Thought I will make full use of the 50minutes train ride home from work... on the romance car now...

Con't
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After all the Drama buying the tickets ... we were finally on our way to Hakone.. nothing dramatic... since it was a long weekend, Hakone-Yumoto station was really really crowded...

now when we reach the onsen resort, .... the Staff were already waiting at the entrance giving us a very warm welcome.... from outside the resort,.. it really didn't look like much .. my sister even asked me again softly.. am I sure I booked the right resort and we are at the correct one....

Hmmmm .... I had some doubt too ... *gulp* ... well no mistake when they ask if I was Mr XXX
..... double *gulp*...

during the wait for them to make sure our room was ready... we were roaming the reception area which had a very nice view at a running river and a densely forrested Mountain.... hmm
views nice... Our designated "concierge" came and greeted us .. and brought us towards the window to explain the layout of the resort to us ( that same window with the fantastic view)..

Oh.. wow... not bad... the place didn't look big, but ... didn't know that the resort entrance was on top of a cliff.... the rest of the resort, actually ran along and down to the valley below!... and the Open air hot spring is right next to the running river... HMMMM wonder what the view will look like...

Anyway.... conclusion:.. it was a fantastic stay... the dinner and breakfast spread was Fantastic!!..
the Pictures in the photo album Bar will tell the rest....
oh.. and this is the resort's website.
http://www.hoeiso.jp/ they have jap/eng for the website...

The only regrettable point is we went too early in Autumn... the leaves are just about to change colour.... so it was still mostly green .. and yellowish.. SIGH... I did see 3 RED leaves!!,, ha ha ha 3 pathetic red leaves.


Check out Day 13 OCt:
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Today we made full use of the Free pass.... my son has had his
FIRST romance car (express train) ride, FIRST cable car ride, FIRST pirate ship ride, First tram car ride, FIRST bus ride ..
(yes, mummy pampers zayne, he has been riding CAB all this while)... I think that about covers all possible major mode of transport except for bicycle, motocycle and plane...

By the time we were done with Hakone and on the way home... ha ha ha... slight drama getting the romance car back again!!!... ended up we had to wake about 40mins at the station for the next available one.. 2 trains before were all full!!!.... we reach shinjuku around 9pm.... everyone look really tired... there is 5 of us (not counting Zayne) .. so I hailed a cab and told them to get on and go straight home, while I went on to catch the 2 connecting train ride home.... cab can only take 4 ppl... no point trying to save a little money and see my family tired and suffer right??...
as for me... well... i'm used to this long travelling route...

I'm doing this right now.... reaching shinjuku soon and catching the 2 connecting trains home...

Zayne boy misses them...

21 Oct, my buddy, Ah pek and C flew all the way to see us and Zayne!! Their yearly shopping trip too!! They are so nice, chose to stay at my place.. and we really had a great time!! Not just because she is my personal shopper (yup! i finally have some new stylo milo clothes to wear .. to Jusco? ) we had Nabe, BBQ and drinks at home!! And Zayne loves to play with them..he will stay up late just to wait for them to come home! As usual, good time flies... they left yesterday! House suddenly become so empty.. Zayne was awake till 1am..he thought that they are coming back to play with him again..

Last night, Zayne boy cried to sleep... he misses them :(

18 Needles holes!!

Zayne boy just went for his BCG vaccination.. in Japan, babies all have to be injected with 9 needles stamp twice,, So 18 needles holes mark will be on their arms for life! Its really kinda cruel to inject babies with so many needles at one time!! My Zayne boy was so tired after a good cry! ... :(

Papa says:
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This Vacination exercise at our ward wasn't as rowdy as Aloysious Kor kor's ward... I am only commenting from the video we saw Aloysious's daddy posted... Even though our area has soooooooo many babies, surprisingly that day there were only at most 40 - 50 other babies there for the BCG. quite a few Pretty mummies too .. ha ha ha mum to pauline's displeasure :p

Anyway.... it was kind of ..err... strange.. should be illogical... let me explain.
When we registered, the lady realise we are non-japanese, so looking at the ALL japanese forms I had in hand.. she asked if I would like to have english forms ?? of coz I said that would be great!... so she asked her male colleague to get me English forms...

the Guy came with english forms for me... and asked me in concern tones..."Daijou bu??"...
errrr.... i've english native speaker... why would i have problems filling english forms??...
to which I politely answered.. "ii yo"..

After I handed in the completed form .... minutes later .. the guy came back and asked if I can transcribe from the english form to my original japanese forms.... "HUH??... if I knew that was the case, I wouldn't have wasted time filling in the ENGLISH forms.... I can comfortably fill in the Jap form in the first place!!!!.... SIGH... I was in a good enough mood... I just said ok.
halfway circling the yes and no on the Jap form,.. the jap lady came over to take a look .. probably thinking why I took so long...

She saw me transcribing from english to Jap form and gave me a puzzled look and told me .. the enligsh form alone is ok ... HUUUUUHHHH???... @%$#$@#!! So she took the forms away from us... and we were given a waiting number.

The rest after that was smooth and fast. The attending nurses and helpers there were very nice and well something that Singapore hospitals will not have, i'm very sure. A basket is provided for every mother to put her bag and stuff ... if possible, they have 1 helping attending to every mother... this help will be helping the mother to carry the basket and stuff and be guided along to the different rooms.... Now... does Singapore hospitals provide that???....

Okie... that's all ..

Planning for Hakone 12 -13 Oct

Sorry for disappearing for so long.... But work has really kicked in and i've been really busy late.. and will be quite busy still till probably next March?? .... but please do check our blog regularly...
will post as regularly as I can..

right so my family visited on 9 Oct, but I was busy with work and was running up and down Tokyo and Atsugi almost everyday.. that means 4hrs of travel each day... 2hrs per leg, if I am lucky to the express trains or the Romance Car.. Why all the trouble to run up and down?
well firstly, coz I miss my baby boy .. ha ha ha i'm not ashame to admit that :P secondly, my family is here...

Anyway... everything was kind of rush, all the rushing up and down and entertaining my family and plus Zayne having a COLD.. ( that means sleepless nights AGAIN for both pauline and me)..
I had to plan for a holiday Onsen holiday ... hmm since when did I sign up a tour guide job ah??...

In japan, everyone really plan out their holidays... some even months beforehand... here I am, desperately trying to find a Onsen Ryokan for a party of 6, but everywhere is either full or dun really accept babies... but FINALLY .. on Friday night or should I say Sat morning .. its was 4am I think, I finally found a ryokan, and Booked it without much thought... Price was not an issue anymore..(hahaha ... well subconciously, it still is lah) .. got ourselves booked into the Ryokan 12-13 Oct .. for 120,000++ yen .

Next Challenge was to get the Hakone Free pass.. was thinking of running down to get the tickets at Shinjuku station before hand, but it was too late by the time we were done shopping with my family... so shouldn't be that difficult right??... WELL... being me, I stayed up late yet again... and did my research the best I can... think I slept at 5am .... n we were suppose to get up at 8am..

The plan was suppose to get there about 10-ish so that we have time to sight-see a little before the check-in at 2.30pm.. Anyway, my advise is, PLAN your trip and really BUY all your tickets before hand...:p i'm a natural optimist... so i can still see bright side of things... but think my wife and sis was a little piss at times... but well ke ke ke no choice... i'm the only half-baked japanese speaker..

So .. reaching Shinjuku at about 11++, made our way to buy the Hakone-Freepass (2 days)
that was a walk through the park.... was planning to catch the 11.45am ROMANCE CAR.. that was a limited express train that goes direct to Hakone-Yumoto station... Being the season traveller on the romance car (or so I thought!!, because of work)... I confidently when to buy the Top-up ticket. The free-pass only allows you to take the normal trians.. top-up ticket is required for the romance-car limited express...

Never knew getting the top-up ticket could be such a nightmare!!... I almost felt like a very in-experience Floor trader... before I could call out a bid, somebody else has already closed it.. what do I mean? .. .. well, I had to buy 4 adult and 1 child top-up tix.. the stupid machine only has a "convenient" button for 3 adult n 1 child.... .. so if I did that, it will mean the last top-up for the adult, will end up sitting totally separate from the rest ... ( that I know from experience.)..
so I push the 2adult n 1 child button first... got that ticket... and proceeded to buy the other 2 adult top-up... TRAIN IS FULL ... WTF ..!!!! so now I am stuck ... DAMN it... didn't know train tickets is like the stock exchange!!!

so manage to catch a Platform officer and explained to him my situation.... and asked him what do I need to do now to refund the 3 tics I have in hand so that I can buy the Top-up for the next train.. which is at 12.10.. I was told I had to go all the way out to the front to get my refund, and then re-buy my top-up again... Hmmm.....Right.. so told everyone to sit tight while I dash to the front gate.. ( its already 11.50am) ..

Got my refund, no hassle. was told I had to buy the top-up outside... good think I have the free-pass, I can go in and out unlimited times. At the Top-up Ticket machine... as I punch the buttons frantically so that I can buy ticket faster than the other 20 or so other people at the other ticket machines..... DAMN!!! 12.10 FULL --... DAMN DAMN DAMN... 12.45 Full!!.
no choice... left with 13.10... SIGH... no choice... punch the 2+1 and then 2 topup ... PHEWs..... finally got the top up ticket... was just about to walk back into the station... WAIT A MINUTE!!.. All the seats are apart!!.. only have 2 seats together .. WAH LAO EH.. (ha ha ha when I am frustated, i will lapse into singlish... sorry :P) ,....

but this time, I lost quite abit of my cheerfulness.. Anyway.... since there is about 1 hr before our train... asked my family to exit the station first,....while I try my luck at the manned ticketing counter to ask if they can change our seats together.... Finally got everything sorted out at 12.20.. and made our way to grab a quick lunch before our train ride.... MAN.. what an adventure even before we made the trip!!!..... to be con't......

Papa"s Favourite!!

Stylo Milo! Wake up!!!

After changing Zayne, he fell asleep again!!!! We waited the whole day for him to wake up so we can go shopping... and he went back to sleep... Zzzzz

Baby 'Hat' Fashion..

Red for girl girl only???

Yesterday, We brought Zayne to Jusco, supermarket just across my block! Many obasan thought that Zayne is a GIRL!!? just because he was wearing red?? but i don't find Zayne looks girly in red wo.. what do you think?

Pom Pom buddy!!

See! Aloy kor kor got Zayne a rubber ducky!!! now ducky is his pom pom buddy...he loves it!! thank you Aloy kor kor...

Our little garden!!

There are mini roses, peppermint, oregano,tyme and CHILI !!!!
How to live without chili padi.. when we first came, Chili is the first thing we planted!!

"Papa" is a joke??

Do u miss papa??

This video recording was taken the morning
after Daddy came home from a 3 day business
trip....
Papa don't know to laugh or to feel emotional

Finally met baby Aloysius and mummy!!

Today, Zayne boy finally met Aloysius kor kor!! He was so happy to go out! Mummy Aloysius took leave to meet us at Lalaport, shopping mall near my place!! That is why Aloysius kor kor a bit tired but we had fun!!