Monday, April 15, 2013

Japan Part Ni (Mount Fuji)

On the second part of the trip, the family and I stayed and toured at Mount Fuji vicinity, and we visited some snowland theme park.

If i'm not mistaken, it's called the Sylvanian families theme park.
Located at the Gotemba town, an hour away from Tokyo.

It rained in the morning!
Therefore it was almost impossible for me to appreciate that snowland wonderland place to the max.
It was too cold for me to risk my fingers and want to take much picture.
Most of our pictures turned out misty anyway.

That's the start of the place, and I know its the toilet behind, do ignore that.
It's pretty cold up in the mountain, so I look kinda puffy.










Cute "snow"girls greeted us as we trod into the place!
I like!







Snowgirl#2






Us entering the snow wunderland.








We did not do much, the only thing that really "appealed" to us in that weather, was to keep ourselves warm. We did try this yellow snow slider thingie though....





It's very slow in an unexciting way. It felt very much like i'm on a kiddy ride, slowing cruising my way down to the bottom of the slope.

*yawns*


I tried like once, and I lost interest in it.

That's my mommy and brother crawling down slope, while I yawn and take a picture of them (actually, if you stare carefully, i'm trailing behind them with my kitty ears cap!)

Guess who's the photographer then?
Hahaha









We swopped for something more exciting, and tried riding on the tyre, and it's waaaaay faster!

That would be me on the sliding tyre thingie below, attempting to use my hands to brake, because I was about to crash.
Okays, I enjoyed this alot better than that plastic slider.











Here's a picture of us!
Actually, I regretted bringing change of clothes along.

Every picture of us look pretty much the same.
We're forever taking pictures with our coats on.
Okay, I changed to my Nike Skater shoes with gold foil floral prints though.

Excellent grip I have to say.
I bought the Nike skater because it was pretty, but it turned out to be really useful for travelling.
Never failing to produce a squeaky sound whenever I make abrupt movements on the floor tiles.

Most importantly, I'll NEVER wear fabric shoes up any snow mountain.
Lesson learnt from my sad sad experience when I was 5 and up on Mount Sorak in Korea.
The snow melted and seeped into my shoes, and basically, I just stood frozen and refused to move.
The daddy had to carry me, and later bake me in front of the Heater/warmer place indoors.
Ahahahaha.
I got myself spanky new shoes that trip. White LA Gear with lilac purple trimming.
Another pair of pretty shoes that I can no longer fit into. :(


This is a cute picture of the mommy being squashed.
I lent her my pretty red dotted scarf, for no apparent reason.
Fend off the cold I think?
anyway I had like 20000 scarfs with me on the trip, so it's definitely a pleasure to see my scarf making itself useful.





Mom at her complusory photo taking sprint again!

Told her to try posing differently, because I got bored of taking the same boring pose, and she did this. #Cute

Not sure who's the kid most of the time...









This would be the brother and I doing our thing.
Posing pretty is a thing of the past!












The fog mist cleared up, and hey! That's fuji mountain in the background!





We became alittle happier, as the fog dissipates shortly for us to savour.
Pops and the mama had a go at the mountain!








and it was our turn..





After we're done with the appearance of Mount Fuji, we went back to the Slyvanian statues




We were done with the Sylvanian theme park, and left for the Peace Park, also at the Gotemba area.









Now you (secretly) know where all the camera narcissism genes came from in the family!










On our way out, we spotted a statue of Goddes of Mercy. :)







Since she's one of my favourite, I try to take nice artsy picture of her :D
But far away shots, so as not to be disrespectful.

I love how the snow is being shovelled away from the path towards mother.














Back on the bus!

Was using the phone to check if my hair was okay, and I caught the brother trying to photobomb my picture.

Ahahahah.










Private shot to ignore the brother..







and I invited the mommy to try a cute pose, and all she showed was her teeth.




This is very good tea!
Tea's tea.
Love the balance and the flavouring to this tea.

I never trusted the recommendations ever, after the beauty tea saga.
But this is definitely good stuff!
It's dispensed off the vending machine warm!
Whaaa
I'd have op for the cold version, if there is - but alas, only warm Tea's tea is served.
Warm is pretty in the mouth too.






Last destination is a tiny village up in the mountain.






Just look at how clear the water is!
It's about 8 metres deep.
The grass and algae below reminds me alot of Chendol.




Random scenery shot of the place.
Sun, mountain, snow and house with pretty skies.
Everything that's not possible in Singapore.




Tried this grass bun.
I'm not sure how grass is a sustainable diet for cow and horses.
It taste like crap.
Grassy, green, and very very vegetation, herb sort of taste.
Like someone's just finished mowing the lawn.
Yeah.




At 8 metres, I can still see fishes.
That's how clean and clear the pond water is, up in the mountain!



Cutel little Mount Fuji mascot.
I always thought this ghosty fella is white.
When I saw it... I was like.. huh! Yellow? Where the white fella?



Mount Fuji, the boy and girl version.
Cute eh?






Bought the biscuits to try, because they're cute!




and the pouf as well.




I tried peach flavoured icecream!




End of grocery shopping.
We bought the mount fuji nom noms, some seaweed scallop thingie, miso paste, mushrooms, tons of japanese produce, but I'm not the happy camper that's carrying all that!




According to daddy, Lichens only grow on trees when the air quality is pure.
Make sense, I've never seen them in Singapore before.
Oh how polluted we are!




Last few shots of the vicinity.










We stayed in a tiny hotel/motel up in the mountain facing the Mount Fuji.
It's such a tiny place, I decided to take a picture of the toilet just for Visuals.




This would be me, standing right in the bathtub, and taking an aerial view.
Done. It's that small!





We changed and had dinner.

Brother's crazy about everything Japanese remember, so we did him this favour by donning on the Traditional Jap garbs just for him, and look how happy he is.

Tsk!




Our Sashimi platter.






It's yummy!
Fresh! and Yummy!
Dad's not a fan of raw food, and mommy ate merely 3-4 slices, and the rest of the ship was divided between the brother and I.

There's scallops, ika, tako, maguro, salmon, lobster, abalones, oysters, unidentifiable fishes that are out of my dictionary.



The end.




Brother started becoming giggly from too much good food.
This is probably the most Sashimi he's ever eaten (buffet not inclusive)
Indeed.





and this was the weather that night.

A mere 6 degrees, but what I could not understand was why was the entire room freezingly cold. I kept ranting the entire night that the heater was bloody useless.





Apparently melting snow is usually tougher to endure, despite the real temperature.
It's the wettish type of cold that seeps right into you and all the clothing.
The brother kept daring me to turn off the heater, just to see if it would make a difference.
I refused. and practically slept next to the heater the entire night, cooking myself.

It was so cold, that no one (the entire family) used the toilet that night.
I refused, to touch a single drop of water on my skin.

Sorry, I flung hygiene out into the winter that very night/next morning.



Brother and I wore all our clothes meant for the next day and slept with them, to minimize undressing.
Thankfully, we raided the convenience stores before heading up to the mountain.

This would be our comfort stash.

Mentaiko Onigri.
I ate that in the comforts of the bed and blanket









and went to sleep after.
This has got to be the earliest that the entire family hit the bed.
record breaking 9pm for the parents

(brother and I kept waking them up for various reasons intermittenly, like, what time do we have to get up tomorrow... can we have our stash of food please.. and stuff like that)

Hahaha.

The mom opened the door, handed the food, and said to the brother.
Dont wake me up anymore, I'm going to bed. -_-"
So much for motherly love.

We were frozen asleep by 10.30pm



Woke up to pretty breakfast.
Not sure if it's because I was mad cold, or that in Japan, everything is delicious!




Driving off from the hotel.
Never been happier to step into a warm and toasty bus!
Bye Mountain.
I'm still the city sort of girl.
On hind sight, I wonder why no one utilized those heat packs that we brought along.
We packed tons of heat packs, and used none.
#dumbasses





Changed my hairstyle, because I figured the only thing that looked different in every picture, would be my hair.






Meet Fat Pigeon.
Fluffing his feathers to do dont know what.


These 3 seagulls reminds me of the penguins in Madagascar.
Not sure why.





This has got to be the tiniest car I've every seen.



Look, I took another shot for comparison with the Toyota Taxi.
In it, sat 2 grown men.
Looks squashy.



I also promised myself that if I ever were to get my driving license, I'd never settle for small cars.
I'd go for big monsters like the Hummer
Just so that I wont ever be bullied on the streets.
Bully me?I'd just run over your vehicle with the Hummer. How handy.
I'm a very rage-y person by nature.
Tsk.




Couple of street shots, and I'm done!







That's sharksfin yo.
Tons of them!
Yums!



Til part three...