Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 1 (3/3)

Day 1 in Tokyo continued with a shabu-shabu dinner at a shopping center named DECKS in Odaiba.
 

The exterior of DECKS shopping center.

Another exterior view of DECKS. There's JOYPOLIS amusement center and a discovery center (HINT: The discovery center is also one of the theme parks in Nusajaya, Malaysia)

 

DECKS has 2 different paths. I forgot the names of the 2 but it separates the JOYPOLIS and that discovery center into 2 different paths. The restaurant that we were entering is located at the JOYPOLIS path, 5th storey.

The restaurant that we went in for dinner.

Fried tempura

The main dish: shabu-shabu

Pork slices to dip into shabu-shabu

Sauce to dip the pork slices.

The shabu-shabu dinner was great as the broth used was not the normal pork bone broth which I thought. The clear broth uses kombu (seaweed) to boil and also cabbage, carrot and leek. The taste, as compared to the normal pork bone broth or any other broth, was tastier and healthier.

Each person received 12 pork slices to dip into the broth. It only took around 20 seconds to make a pork slice completely cooked. After that, dip the sauce. The sauce itself was a bit sour but the pork slices were tender and melted into my mouth. Apart from the tempura and shabu-shabu, udon was also served but as the meal was delicious, I forgot to take a picture of the udon. Anyway, the udon can be eaten with the shabu-shabu sauce or pouring in the broth to eat. I tried both and it was great.

After dinner, I went in to the washroom and noticed something special. Although not pictured, it was a fun discovery that the washroom is also an arcade. For male toilet, there's something to play while you do your small business. Large business inside the cubicle...Sorry! I didn't enter the cubicle.

Outside DECKS, we moved on to see the view of the Rainbow Bridge but...

Statue of Liberty in Japan?!

I was amazed by that but by combining Statue of Liberty from New York and Rainbow Bridge from Odaiba, it makes a wonderful view. I thought I was in New York in a minute.

Other than DECKS, there's another shopping mall named Aqua City Odaiba. Behind Aqua City Odaiba, there's FUJI TV building. Diver City Tokyo is also around Odaiba too (See Central Japan Day 2 for more details).

Aqua City Odaiba and FUJI TV building behind it.

Rubbish bins are very hard to find in Japan. Even if you find it, you have to classify it. So...what to put inside non-combustible bin and combustible bin?

 

 

 

 

 

 

We boarded the sightseeing bus after walking around and arrived at Tokyo Dome Hotel. That hotel is near Tokyo Dome (Duh!). Unfortunately, I didn't go out to visit Tokyo Dome.

My younger brother and I were in a twin room and the room for the first night was wonderful with desk and chairs.

Before we slept, there's supper and it's custard and red bean buns.

Supper time!

I ate the custard filling bun.

That's the end of Day 1 in Central Japan after finishing our supper.

To be continued for Day 2.

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 1 (2/3)

Here's part 2 of Central Japan Day 1.

We've arrived at Narita Airport in the morning and were prepared to move to the next destination.

According to the itinerary, a family could choose whether to go Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disneysea. For us, we've chosen Disneysea because Disneyland is an exclusive theme park made for Japan and also it would be strange to see teenagers riding on kiddy rides. I thought Disneysea would be a water theme park. Yes, there's water. No, that's not for playing.

All families decided to head to Disneysea after listening to Florence's (our tour guide) explanation. And sadly to say, as it was a Sunday (14 June 2015), both Disneyland and Disneysea were crowded with visitors. Not just overseas, even locals went to visit.

The view of Disneysea.

Different Disney characters were featured on the passport. Mine was Donald Duck.

A 1-day passport shown here. As it was a group passport, it cost 6,200 yen.

We got our bags checked at the entrance and went in to visit Disneysea. Our first stop was to watch Fashionable Easter performance at 10.30am JT (or Japan Time). Although there's 15 minutes before the start of the performance, many visitors have gathered at the Mediterranean Harbor, many sat down on the floor or with plastic sheets and other ground coverings while others stood and patiently waited for the performance to start.

The crowd gathered at the Mediterranean Harbor.

The Fashionable Easter performance was a fashion show with Disney characters and dancers in celebrating the beauty that took place on the waters of the Mediterranean Harbor and the new stage on the shore. The show was first started on 1 June 2015, performing 3 shows a day. 23 June 2015 was the final day of performance. We got the privilege to watch that show during that 1 June to 23 June period.

There were big boats, Disney characters and dancers during the show.

There were also flying colorful kites and fireworks (picture not taken).

The show went on for around 20 minutes before we decided where to go next. We decided to have lunch first before moving onto the Big Band Beat performance but things didn't go smoothly as we began to look for a place to eat. As I've mentioned earlier, there were many visitors and all we could do was to queue and wait. From Mediterranean Harbor to American Waterfront to Port Discovery to Lost River Delta, that whole journey, just to look for lunch, took an hour.

At Mediterranean Harbor, we found a restaurant called Zambini Brothers' Ristorante, serving pastas and pizzas. There were seats available, great. However, when we continued to walk in, something strange happened as we decided to queue. I looked at the menu and saw only sandwiches? Where's the pastas and pizzas?

The exterior look of Zambini Brothers' Ristronte, serving pastas and pizzas.

Where's the pastas and pizzas?

When I looked at that menu with red-colored background and I looked up, I saw "DELI". DELI?! I checked on the map and realized we were at NEW YORK DELI! The location? American Waterfront! I was like we moved to another destination by entering and exiting a restaurant?! How on earth did we do that?

We moved on instead, giving up on pastas and pizzas. Since we were at American Waterfront, we saw the "BIG BAND BEAT" sign.

Big Band Beat performance at the Broadway Music Theatre

 However, when we saw that, we gave up.

The crowd. We couldn't stay here all day waiting.

The Big Band Beat performance initially planned was out of our list. Then, we continued to search for other places to eat. We tried the S.S Columbia Dining Room but too many people. We also tried Horizon Bay Restaurant but didn't know there was another queue behind us.

After an hour of walking, we finally stopped by a restaurant named Miguel's El Dorado Cantina. No queue and not many people were in there. We're inside for lunch.

The entrance of Miguel's El Dorado Cantina

Inside there, it sells Mexican foods, mainly tacos. There were 3 types of tacos available, Teriyaki Pork Taco, Fried Chicken Taco and Shrimp Salad Taco. Sorry to all Muslims, by stating these 3, it's a non-halal fast food restaurant. Apart from tacos, there's also a Mexican Plate Set which includes a Spicy Chicken Tostada, Mexican Rice, Banana and Caramel Mousse Cake and a choice of soft drink. The set costs 1,490 yen. Each taco costs 610 yen but ordering a set costs 1,020 yen which includes fries and soft drink.

I ordered the Teriyaki Pork Taco set with Fanta Lemon and a cup of corn soup (250 yen). Total: 1,270 yen for me.

3 different taco sets (Orange: Chicken, Red: Pork, Green: Shrimp).

Teriyaki Pork Taco

Mexican Plate Set, corn soup not included.

Total for a family of 4 for lunch was...

4,800 yen!

After lunch, we continued walking around. I felt that I should at least tried a ride before leaving this place so I chose to go to the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull which is located at the Lost River Delta and also from the restaurant that we have eaten for lunch, it is just opposite.

We went there and I decided to use the FASTPASS!

[About FASTPASS: FASTPASS is a kind of ticket which will help to shorten the waiting time at any attractions marked with FP or FASTPASS. Visitors will have to place their passport into the ticketing machine and check the return time stated on the FASTPASS ticket. Until the return time, visitors can visit other attractions. During the return time, visitors will only to go to the attraction's FASTPASS entrance and minimize the waiting time. FASTPASS attractions are only available at 8 different places in Disneysea.]

FASTPASS Ticketing

Got a ticket! Wait, 6.35pm to 7.35pm?! We are staying until 5pm!

FASTPASS could help to shorten the waiting time. However, not all the time. When I placed my passport into the ticketing machine, it told me to wait for 5 more hours! I thought the purpose is to shorten the time?! Never mind, I decided to go for the standby queue but the waiting time...not 5 hours but 90 minutes.

Indiana Jones Adventure ride

No FASTPASS, never mind. Standby Entrance is there for you.

Look at that queue.

The queue went smoothly until I made that one stupid mistake that caused me to give up the ride. That stupid mistake would be revealed when I reached to queue for another ride.

After giving up the ride, we went to visit the Arabian Coast, Mermaid Lagoon and Mysterious Island. At the Mysterious Island, I decided to go on to the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride with my father. No FASTPASS was needed this time because it would be the same thing as the Indiana Jones ride. We went to the standby entrance and expected waiting time: 100 minutes.

The entrance to the ride.

The long queue, going round and round and round.

While queuing, look at those artifacts.

After around 70 minutes of wait, we reached the elevator. Huh?! That's it?

There's more! The ride itself.

Finally, it was the ride. Inside the cave, there were creatures, scary but not to an extent of hugging each other. There were colorful lights in there but things were about to get scarier when you thought the ride was malfunctioned, a dark environment, wind blowing in and the ride suddenly went fast. At first I thought it was an easy ride. No worries! However, when the ride went fast and suddenly went into a sudden drop, I didn't scream out loud but my head was almost being pulled out. Lesson learned: Don't ever underestimate the ride.

Back to why I made a stupid mistake while waiting for the Indiana Jones ride (IJ ride). That was only discovered when the passport was not checked while waiting to ride. In the middle of queuing the IJ ride, I realized that I did not have my passport with me so I gave up instead, worrying that I may not be able to ride on it if there's no passport to be shown. Actually, I made a major mistake when I discovered there was no such procedure. Well, at least I got to try on a ride at Disneysea.

We watched Fashionable Easter for the second time but this time, it's at a different view. That was a 2.30pm show and there's one more after that at 4.30pm but who wants to watch the show for the third time?

Fashionable Easter at a different angle.

The rest of the 2 hours to 5pm went to shopping and resting on a bench to see the Disney characters walking towards us and entering the staff-only entrance.

At 5pm, we left Disneysea and went for a shabu-shabu dinner at a shopping center.

Details for the shabu-shabu dinner will be revealed at the final part of Day 1.

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 1 (1/3)

Time really flies! The last time I wrote my first Travel Diary on Krabi, Thailand was a year ago. Initially, there was another Travel Diary to be written on Hainan, China which was back in December 2014 but maybe because of my memory faded a week after I came back to Singapore, I didn't continue to write.

This time, I believe that I can do it, finish writing my experience in Central Japan for the past week. Here it is, my written experience of Central Japan starts now. As different locations in Japan has many stories to tell, there will be many parts to be posted. Let's begin with Singapore to Tokyo.

Day 1 - 14 June 2015

The first night on the 13th was basically wasted in the airplane. Needless to say, it's not a free and easy trip. It's a guided trip! Like in Beijing and Taiwan back in September and December 2012 respectively, it's a flight at night. When my family arrived at the destination, it automatically became the next day. I don't want to confuse anyone so I would make this straight. I took the flight on the 13th at 11.55pm and arrived on the 14th at around 6am (Japan Time or JT after that). Simple? Clear enough?  I don't know what on earth am I writing now!

Anyway, when we were on board the airplane, it was already the 14th so I will start Day 1 as 14 June 2015.

We took SQ to Narita Airport. On the flight, I watched Infinite Challenge, even though I had watched it before online (Before I got Oh!K channel on the set-top box).

Die-hard fan of this show. When I saw that program featured on the magazine, I watched it immediately.

Refreshments were served in the middle of the flight. There were 2 - Warm mango and shrimp with herbs panini sandwich or Warm chicken satay with potato wrap. I chose the latter one as my refreshment.

The red one was the one I've chosen - Chicken Satay while the other one was Warm Mango and shrimp which my mother ate.

Our breakfast were served after the refreshments were served 1 or 2 hours ago. Again, 2 choices -  Japanese breakfast (Salmon saikyo miso, fish paste omelette, fish cake, seasonal vegetables and steamed rice with yukari powder) or Scrambled egg with chicken chipolata, tomato and hash brown potatoes. I decided to have a taste of Japanese breakfast since I'm traveling to Japan.

Japanese breakfast for me. The dishes tasted great even though the rice serving was a bit small.

The other option - Scrambled eggs. Again, that's what my mother ate.

Oh I forgot to mention about this small bag containing toothpaste, toothbrush and a pair of...I don't know what. Socks?

After 6 or 7 hours of flight, we've finally landed in Japan.

It's daytime, meaning we would be arriving soon.

Custom declarations in Japan is different from other countries that I have visited. As you arrive in Japan's Narita Airport, instead of queuing up one by one, letting the officer to check your passport, it goes by 2, 3, 4 or even more people. Apart from the embarkation form that you have to fill up on your own, there's another form to be filled up as a family for baggage, which is the baggage claim receipt.

It's time to have fun in Central Japan as we began our journey to Disneyland or Disneysea. I forgot to mention the people involved in the guided tour. Our tour guide was a female named Florence. There was another tour leader who accompanied us throughout the tour - Chye Huat. We boarded the bus and moved to the first destination in the morning.

The entry was a bit too long so I would have to make another part of it. See you in part 2 of Day 1.

My Views from Star Awards 2015: Show 2

Show 1 have ended and I have concluded my views from that. Now, it's time to share my views on Show 2. Show 2 is basically more on giving out awards to the entertainers who have contributed and have shown outstanding performances from dramas to variety shows to news.

Like what I have mentioned in the previous post, guests overseas were invited to present awards to the entertainers. List of guests include Calvin Chen, Choi Hao-Ran, Chung Hsin-Ling, Ekin Cheng, Karen Mok, Plungon, Sasa, Ivana Wong, James Tseng (Zeng Guo Cheng), Ella etc. Local guests like Li Nanxing, Huang Biren, Zoe Tay and Yao Wenlong were also there to present awards

Before the awards ceremony, I expected Plungon, James Tseng and Chung Hsin-Ling would give exciting speeches during the ceremony. I was right, even the audience area was filled with laughter while they were presenting.

Here are some of the highlights and my views from Show 2.

1. Exciting Speeches made the Awards Ceremony Less Boring

I've watched Golden Bell Awards from Taiwan through cable TV. It was at least 4 hours instead of 3 hours for Star Awards. However, it was a boring awards ceremony. Even if the guests were presenting their speeches, the audience area was very quiet, sometimes a bit of laughter. At that time, you would feel something is wrong.

Star Awards? Yes, there were some incidents when the audience area was quiet but there's always a trick. Whenever the guests or hosts called out an entertainer's name, the fan club members would scream their lungs out. It's good...but TV audience would always hate it. Over the years, there were complaints posted in newspapers from the audience saying that fan club members should control themselves.

This year, screaming was still there but overseas guests this time contributed a lot as compared to previous years. Plungon's creative song, singing out the list of nominated variety programmes, made the ceremony alive. After that, James Tseng and Chun Hsin-Ling's catwalk show once again brighten up the mood. Last but not least, James Tseng and Ella's witty conversations while presenting the 10 Most Popular Male Artiste Awards ended the ceremony in a perfect way.

My question to the Star Awards team, when will I see this kind of perfect combination?

2. Celebrities are Falling Down, Falling Down and Falling Down

The show ended perfectly but there were some incidents along the way. During the Red Carpet, Rebecca Lim fell down. During the awards ceremony, Jeanette Aw and Taiwan artiste, Daisy Fong both fell down as well. Altogether, there were 3 incidents (Maybe more, I could've miscount).

Jeanette's fall was memorable because she was presented the All Time Favorite Artiste Award (To get this, an entertainer has to get 10 awards from 10 Most Popular Male/Female Artiste Awards) along with Vivian Lai. It could be the steps or the dress or the slippery floor. I think that the steps could be the culprit because it was so confusing that it could mislead that it was a plain ground. The team this time really did not take care of the stage. Thankfully, there was not much of an issue and the ceremony continued as it was.

3. Unexpected to be the Winner

Most award ceremonies always have this kind of situation. People thought that he/she/that programme would be the winner for that category but judges seem to have different tastes.

For example, Best Supporting Actress went to Joanne Peh (J) from The Journey: Tumultuous Times. Honestly, I didn't watch that drama serial at all but when I look through Wikipedia, she only acted in 2 episodes (WHAT?!). In that drama, she died from injuries suffered from rape and torture by the Japanese on Episode 2. Another actress, Carrie Wong, from that same drama acted even more than her. Audience and fans were all hoping her to win but ended up losing for no reason. On social media, while many congratulated J for the win, people could not understand why she won.

Possibilities could be though she's only acted in 2 episodes, performance was better than the others? Or maybe judges liked that mature content and gave her a win?

Anyway, it was just unreasonable. Could it mean that in the future, actors/actresses who only acted in 1 or 2 episodes would have a chance to get nominations and also a chance to win the award? As a wild thought, acting in only 10 minutes of the whole drama serial will be possible to see someone getting a nomination and win the award.

Other than that, the winner for Best Info-ed Programme Host also caused an uproar to many.

Best Variety Special went to Star Awards 20. My comment? How on earth would Star Awards win Star Awards? Also, that's not the 1st time they won that award.

4. Blockbuster Drama = Big Win?!

Every year, there would be a so-called Blockbuster Drama. When there's Blockbuster Drama, the 1st thing that comes to my mind is "They are going to win Star Awards next year!".

The Little Nyonya in 2008, Together in 2009, Breakout in 2010, The Dream Makers in 2013 and The Journey: Tumultuous Times in 2014. Those were blockbuster dramas and they were big winners. However, not all dramas turned out to be best from TV audience. The Little Nyonya was the only drama to win the Top Rated Drama Serial award based on TV ratings so I feel that Blockbuster Drama does not really mean a big win when they did not get best ratings. It's like the ceremony is "forced" to give the awards to the Blockbuster Drama.

Other highlights include overly-competitive popularity contest resulting in many young artistes winning the 10 Most Popular Artiste Awards, filming of the red carpet not up to expectations, muting of one of the winner's speech considered rude but could not afford to delay the ceremony and touching the black rose turned out to be the award winner.

That wraps up with my views for the 2 Star Awards shows. Next year, would there be more unexpected results when they move into a new location? We shall see next year.

My Views from Star Awards 2015: Show 1

Honestly, I have been obsessed with Korean entertainment, from Infinity Challenge to Running Man to Gag Concert to dramas such as Good Doctor... (Yes, that was the latest drama that I have watched in full). Well,  it's time to switch back to Singapore where the annual Star Awards was held over the last 2 Sunday evenings.

This year's Star Awards consisted of 2 shows. It has been this format since 2010. Previously Show 1, which was for the technical category, newscaster and current affairs, and young talent award , was held at a gala dinner separately and was shown on TV (which is Show 2, for the entertainers) for merely 5 minutes (Just guessing).  This year was also the final year where the awards ceremony took place at Caldecott Hill before moving to a new venue, Mediapolis.

Overall, Star Awards 2015 was better than last year except for the fact it turned out to be an overly-competitive popularity contest. Other than that, I always feel something fishy about the judges' decisions over presenting the award to someone whom we felt that the other one deserved to be won.

Show 1 will be discussed here while Show 2 will be updated in the next entry.

Star Awards Show 1:

This year was the first year I've recorded the show as I was away from Singapore. Since 2010, I like watching Show 1 even though the awards given out are to the people behind the scenes. In between the ceremony, there's skits and performances especially in previous years, entertainers will portray people behind the scenes which audience could rarely see it. It gave a good laugh although I really don't know whether the people being portrayed really did those actions.

Below is the list of what I liked about Show 1:

1. Hong Hui Fang (H) and Chen Han Wei (C) portraying some of the drama roles they have acted in such as "Samsui Women" and "Cupid Love" while presenting the Best Costume and Image Design

While C acted as Wenqiang in "Cupid Love", I predicted that he would say "S'il te plait" which he always uses it in another drama. Indeed, he said it while talking to another entertainer, Desmond Tan (D), in the audience area. Reason? D "stole C's song" (referring to the song "关怀方式" used in Cupid Love).

2. "7 Princesses of Caldecott Hill" Spoof Skit

No more portraying of people behind the scenes! This time, it was the famous "7 Princesses" which was a "hot topic" back in the late 2000s. I like Kate Pang portraying Rui En in "Against the Tide" and the unexpected Chua En Lai portraying Joanne Peh in "The 'Mole' Makers" (Originally, it was called "The Dream Makers",  one of the blockbuster dramas in 2013). The placement of his prosthetic mole really made me laughed hard as different positions representing different entertainers such as himself, Phua Chu Kang, Rui En and back to his role.

3. Big Bang came to the ceremony? Erm...It's "Big Bank".

I didn't hold much expectations when I heard Big Bang performing as rarely you would see guests overseas being invited in Show 1. Show 2? Yes, there are. As the faces were revealed while performing, it was another portraying act again. Guo Liang (G), Dennis Chew (D) and Jeremy Chan (J) were the ones performing as Big Bank. Initially I didn't know they were called "Big Bank" as I didn't the Chinese translation "大银行" until I watched again on Youtube They performed the fruits version of "Fantastic Baby" where Papaya, Banana and Rambutan etc... were heard in the lyrics. It's creative but don't know how the real Big Bang fans would feel.

Before I forget, J performed as "G-Dragon" or "G-龙", D performed as "Taeyang" and G performed as "T.O.P" or worst "TOP 洗衣粉" (TOP Detergent Powder in Chinese, a detergent brand).

Other highlights include Rui En's "Black Face" during the presentation of the Favorite Male and Female Characters awards which turned out to be a hot topic but after that, it was resolved in Show 2, and Jeanette Aw bagged 6 awards (Most Popular Regional Artiste Awards for Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia, Social Media Award, Favorite Onscreen Couple with Zhang Zhenhuan and Favorite Female Character) but expressed her wish for withdrawal from those voting-based award categories due to fans leaving messages that they would harm themselves if she didn't win. Well, even if my favorite didn't win the award this time, there's still next time. I feel that there's no need to be fully obsessed with the voting-based awards and focused on other things. Ending your life for that doesn't worth it.

That's all for the wonderful Show 1 performances. Show 2 is in the next entry.