Wednesday, December 15, 2004
ok i know i am supposed to write about my church camp first but i have nothing much to write about it so i shall write about my japan trip first!
day 1(10/12):
bah.it shouldn't even be considered a day.we arrived at the airport at about 9:30 or so and checked in at the ANA counter with 3 luggages, 2 hand luggages (with our coats and jackets and my pull-over stuffed into them) and 2 haversacks.went for dinner and shared 2 sandwiches+1 cuppacino+1 lemonade between the 3 of us and checked into waiting lounge at 10:45.while we were queueing at the counter there,i found out that 1 of my buttons on my blouse somehow dropped off without anybody noticing.gasp!thank goodness my blouse was stiff so it didn't really matter but i bought safety pins from cheers later on and stuck it in just in case i had to make any large movements.we boarded the plane at 11:30 after a long long wait but we only took off at about 12:10 even though it was supposed to depart at 11:45 and the cool thing was that they have cameras at the front of the plane and below it so u can see everything the pilot sees when he is taking off and the scenery below when u are in the air! anyway i was quite impressed with the smooth take-off because the pilots looked rather young and inexperienced when i saw them(i always thought that pilots were mostly in their late 30s or early 40s).after the usual emergency procedures and stuff "blah blah this is your pilot speaking yaddah yaddah..",they served drinks(i had apple juice)and snacks,which was not the usual peanuts!!!yay!!it was an assortment of rice crackers and peas and cashew nuts!nice...we couldn't bear to eat it all at once so we shared one packet and kept the other 2. :P then lights-out and we were supposed to sleep.
day 2 (11/12):
toss and turn and toss and turn..slept for awhile and woke up at 2.40 and slept awhile and woke at 3.15.gave up on sleeping and ended up staring at the seiling but somehow fell asleep till 6.00 or so and breakfast is served!it was seafood pasta with bread and frits and chocolate mousse.we arrived at 7.00 at tokyo narita international airport.guess what! up till several years ago,the counters were not labelled 'foreign passports' but 'aliens' was used instead.we put on our thick winter clothing and got onto the bus.from narita passing by new tokyo,old tokyo,chiba prefecture to harkone prefecture where harkone nature reserve is located(actually we had a stop along the expressway and the toilets were so darn clean and they even had a convenience store there and a restaurant.we even bought a pau and a stick of fried chicken there!)and then we 'jia beng'(had lunch)uhh..we had 3 pieces of teeny weeny fish and 2 slices of pork with fried cabbage and miso soup with turnip and carrot in it.oh!they had an ice cream shop outside the restaurant where they sold green tea ice cream(very nice..yum..)and(can u imagine it?!?)wasabi ice cream and tofu ice cream!!!!)then we went to see this place with lots of hot geysers and i found out that sulphur smells like rotten eggs(my lunch nearly came up).we returned to the coach a little late and got ticked off by the tour guide.oh! by the way,our tour guide is called annie.she was born in hong kong,studied in japan at the age of 18 and now lives in vancouver,canada and is a canadian citizen.anyway,we took a cruise across lake ashi to get a good view of mount fuji(which is actually a volcano and NOT a mountain)and we were supposed to go up to the 5th station on mount fuji which is 2000 over meters above sea level before 4.30 but the weather was too cold and ice had formed on the roads so the coach could not go up,so we went shopping instead.we were at this shopping center near our hotel and it had a department store and a supermarket and a 100 yen shop!!!!!!!yes!exactly like our 1.99 shop!cool!the supermarket was sooo nice!they sell all these lunchboxes in there and stuff like fried chicken and potato croquettes and gyoza which u can buy and eat on the spot!and they had samples too!and i don't mean itsy bitsy bits of chicken they actually give u half a piece of the chicken cube(the chicken cubes are usually stuck onto a satay stick and fried till nice golden and crispy!)and they give u one whole gyoza!after buying drinks and some titbits(chocolates and sunflower seeds!),we went to the hotel called 'san sui so' its written as shan1(mountain:mount fuji)shui3(water:lake ashi)zhuang1(i think it refers to village).we changed into yukata and came down for dinner which consisted of a chicken soup hotpot,the egg broth(forgot what's it called in japanese :P )tempura prawns,salad,some funny sweet thingy with lotus root snd uhh..this thing that looks like a fishball, pickles and a sashimi boat which costs 10 000 yen(my mom ordered that as an extra.it was shared between 5 persons)and rice of course.then we turned in for the night.it was a japanese inn so the rooms had tatami mats and we slept on thin mattresses and tiny pillows.haha.and i saw this japanese family staying there who actually brought their dog along so we were walking pass this room when we saw this doggy looking out at us!!aahhaa..sooo cute!
i shall write till here for now.i will write about the next 3 days soon.
says oddball
