[ J - FOR THE RECORD]: 2011.02

February 13, 2011

[Tokyo : Day 09, 10 - Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Hall & Asakusa]

Our 2 last days in Tokyo... our 10 day trip is drawing to a close - So quick!!! :( Boohoo....
We ventured into Shibuya again, V researched about this place near the station (about 5 min walk) and it was such a great find!! The girls declared that it was even better than Disneyland! haha... It was indeed a great public facility. Totally shows the care and love for the children that the Japanese culture has. Wish there was a similar place in Singapore. It would definitely help mothers / grandparents who are home by themselves and the kids.

K sporting her favorite purchase - the minnie mouse ribbon

G enjoying the breakfast - every morning, both girls will finish up their thick toast with butter and jam, a pot of yoghurt, a full glass of milk (or juice) and sometimes even the cracker!

Clowing around with V

The Music room at the Children's Hall. Link and address below.

Craft stations were set up all over the place, the girls were so entranced. They immediately got stuck into making all the things.

Glue stations. Ingenious use of recycle things like bottle caps, waste cardboard etc.

G helping her sister with the glue

Crayons

Watching the girls craft

Indoor playground on Level 3. The girls had a lot of fun here too. The architecture that housed the facility was also pretty interesting. Brutalist with just bare concrete and vinyl flooring, it was obviously done quite cheaply. But as most things in Japan, everything was done with so much care and precision, so even the cheapest things looked aesthetically pleasing! The furniture was 1 good example - most were old chairs etc, but they all had nice fabric upholstery that obscured the old fabric.

Clowing around outside the hall. We spent a good part of the day here... well worth the time! And best of all, totally free!!

My personal heater. :)

Mastering chopsticks

Dinner!!!

Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Hall:
1-18-24 Shibuya Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0002 Phone (03)3409-6361/Fax (03)3407-8364

Exit 13A from Shibuya station. It's just a short walk. :)

http://www.fukushihoken.metro.tokyo.jp/jidou/English/index.html

We had snow on our last day in Tokyo!!! But it wasn't the nice fluffy white snow flurries, but rather more like salt crystal wet sort.

G loved it anyhow. She was thrilled!

Hoodies came in very handy! We were all snuggled up in our hoods and scarves.

Last minute shopping at the ROX seiyu supermarket.

Picked up quite a lot of good last minute buys as well. Most importantly, we had to buy 1 additional carryon bag for all our shopping! hah!

Weather cleared up in no time. G fooling around as usual.

K modelling the rainboots and umbrella. So cute!

Vending machine lunch. Yum......

Raw tuna with rice

Tempura

Just leaving our hotel. Our 2 bags.....

V wheeling the bags while i pushed K in the pram. Quite proud that we managed to just confine all our luggage + shopping in 2 bags! :) In the end, we had to just add 1 more cloth bag as the weight of the big luggages were over the limit allowed.

Kids meal on Delta. Pretty impressed with Delta's service, will definitely fly them again! :)

[Tokyo : Day 08 - Disneyland!!]

The girls have been waiting for this day for ages!!! K kept on referring it to Hongkong Disneyland, making G really annoyed... lol.
Here are the pics :

Raring to go!

Walking a LOOOONG walk to the disney entrance :)

Paying through the nose for the tickets....

Taking pics with characters are some of the most fun things the girls enjoy, so it was a little disappointing for them at Tokyo Disney as they didn't manage to catch much of these. Plus no princesses :(

Fairy Godmother signing on G's autograph book

Japanese Mickey and Minnie, they were doing a little puppet show

K waiting patiently for her Dumbo ride

Dumbo!!

Double prams are a must as Disney is quite big. Plus the cold weather makes them tired and sleepy quite fast....

Doesn't this look like the one we took so long ago HERE at Lotte World in Korea

Playing around with the cam and having a quiet coffee break while both girls sleep in their prams

Dinner! Train station at Ueno. Yums.

K enjoying her latest purchase -the minnie headband. She was so thrilled with the 'earrings', kept fondling and touching it even though her fingers were freezing!

V's meal from supermarket.

February 12, 2011

[Tokyo : Day 06 & 07 - Ueno, Shibuya, Harajuku, Daikanyama, Ebisu]

The weekend in Tokyo was supposed to be for us to get some good mornings at parks or shrines, then visit our fav Tokyo shopping haunts at various parts of the city. Of course, the last time we did this, we only had 1 child and she was pretty much sleeping the afternoon away. Plus she was pram bound. This time around, we had G who at 5 going on 6, wasn't allowed to be in the pram, and K who was quite happy being in it the whole day. Had quite a few arguments about this arrangement, but we stuck to our guns, and only caved in at Disney and also on the 1 day she literally fell asleep on her feet. So, we didn't get to accomplish much shopping-wise, but the girls hopefully did enjoy the experience of Tokyo, especially since we discovered some really cool kid-friendly places right in the heart of the city.