Nature Parks Walk - Coney Island

10/10/2015, Saturday

Today, I went for a walking trail from Punggol Waterway to Coney Island (which was previously known as Palau Serangoon Island). I went with a group of volunteers from Punggol North Community Services Centre. It was the opening day for the public to visit Coney Island too and it was opened by the Guest of Honour, Mr Khaw Boon Wan. We walked past the Serangoon dam and saw some wild otters swimming in the waters. Then we continued onto island, there were free fruits given by the national parks staffs too. The road into the island was with stones and muddy.

Wild Otter having breakfast

A little history of the island, the Aw brothers of Haw Par Villa accquired Pulau Serangoon and bulit a holiday villa in the 1930s. But the villa was damaged during the World War II (it was still hidden in the island). Later in 1951, an indian businessman Ghulam Mahmood renamed the island to Coney Island and planned to convert the island into a resort and amusement par. But his plan was not realized after he was fined for corruption. Later in 1972, our Singapore Government reclaimed the island back and developed it into a recreation site under Punggol 21 plan. And in 2011, Sungei Serangoon was converted into the 17th freshwater reservoir and because of this, it was connected to the island, Punggol and Pasir Ris.

Battleship?

After we reached the East Entrance of the island, we walked around the island where the national parks volunteers had setup 5 stations to explain some of the plants, trees, birds, fishes and the history of the island. At one of the stations, the volunteers were explaining on horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs and lightning crabs. Interestingly, lightning crabs are so called due to if you ever got bitten by it, it will never let go of your finger until there is a lightning. As for horseshoe crabs, they are being hunted because of their blue bloods. Their bloods are previous as it is used to help humans in medical purposes. They have been staying around long before the dinosaurs time. Now they are getting extinct due to all the hunting. The volunteer told us it wasn't exactly from the crab family, they are more to spiders because of their legs. There are alot of trees there and there are areas to enjoy the breeze from the sea. Opposite, you can see Pulau Ubin island too. You can also cycle around the island, but there is no electricity and water there. The toilet uses rainwater, meaning if there is rain, there will be water...hohoho...and did i mentioned? There is only one toilet available in the whole island. There may be boars around in the island too, if you are lucky enough to see one there. If more lucky enough, maybe you can see the single Brahman bull roaming around. I found a giant log which looked like a giant turtle from far. I ended my walk when i reached Punggol Settlement, where i took a bus back to Punggol interchange. 

Horseshoe Crab

Does it look like a giant turtle?

Road on the island

Bird Hide

Pulau Ubin

But i find there are more to explore on the island, maybe some hidden spots..heheee...Will go back another time but maybe with a bike...hahahaa....As there is no electricity in the park, there is an opening timing from 7 am to 7 pm daily. So make sure you arrive there early and leave before 7 pm. Hahaha...one thing i didn't expected, was that i found myself in the photograph published in The Sunday Times the next day. Luckily i wasn't doing anything funny there.

Last Day in Tokyo, Japan Trip (Day 15)

10th January 2015, Tuesday

Origami Display

Ahhh....tonight have to fly back to Singapore, last day to enjoy the cold weather and good food in Japan. Since we didn't plan any activities today, so we woke up and did out check out first. Then we headed out to Hakusan station to help my brother to buy his origami book. We walked to the metro line from Shin-Nohombashi station and we passed by a shopping mall like Istean under the station. Many people were actually outside the doors for it to open. We waited for a while and the doors opened, we went in to take a look. We were at the food level, so there were a lot of food, all looking so nice to eat. We spent there like almost half an hour before we dragged ourselves out of the place..hahhaa...Then we went to take the metro to Hakusan station and tried to find the origami shop named Origami House. It was located on the 2nd level of the shops opposite the street. So we went up to get the book and there were some origami displays by the experts but photography is not allowed.

After i got the book, we went down to Tokyo station to get the brum cakes as there was still time. We didn't managed to find the shop which we bought when we were going to Nikko. But we saw the same cakes inside Istean, so we went and bought the cakes we wanted. After buying the cakes, we rushed back to the same food market in the shopping mall in the station. And then we went back to the hotel to pack our stuffs into the luggage. By the time we left the hotel, we had already missed the airport express train. As the airport express train platform and the platform we alighted were the same, so we were thinking whether we can just board the airport train without getting a new seats reservation. We were walking along the platform to see the cars color but all were green cars. We actually waited until the next express train came but we don't dare to board it still. So my friend went to check with the train staff and she came back saying we need to do seat reservations. So i went up to the JR office alone to get the new seats reservations for the next coming train which was at around 3 plus. For the Narita Express Train, there were a total of 12 cars and the train will arrive in 2 sections. First cars 7 to 12 will arrive and then cars 1 to 6 will arrive and they join together in the platform. Both of the car front (where they were joined) will opened up too.

Naita Express Train

Train Seats

Our Last Sashimi Meal

Oysters Rice..Sinful!!

We boarded when the train came, it was really spacious to sit and so comfortable too. So we took our lunch out to eat while the train traveled to the airport. It was around 1 hour and 30 mins plus ride and the train stopped on terminal 2 first, so passengers need to know which terminal to alight not to alight on the wrong terminal. After we reached the terminal, there was security check before we entered the airport. We went to shop around in the airport as it was still early for check-in. I bought a fleece jacket for my brother and a neck cushion from Muji for my dad. Then i also bought some green tea powder for my little sister. My friend bought a postcard to send to her sister in Germany. Then we went to check-in our luggage and continued walking around in the airport. We also still bought a couple of snacks and a few boxes of Royce chocolate. There was even a small Japanese restaurant on the way to the gates, where we went in to have our last bite on the nice sushi and sashimi. Then we went into our gate and boarded the plane to fly back to Singapore. And this ended our Japan trip.....will go back visit Japan some day again... ^_^

Disneyland, Japan Trip (Day 14)

9th January 2015, Monday

Giant Mickey Pocket Watch

Main Entrance

Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters

Today, we will be going to Disneyland and so we woke up early to get ready to get our breakfast and then make our way down to the theme park. We took the metro to Tokyo station, where we had to change Maihama station. We stopped at a bakery shop to have our breakfast first before we take the JR train to Maihama station. When we alighted from the station, there were a lot of people in the station and all were walking towards Disneyland. We had cross over a bridge and beside it, was a grand Disney hotel and there was a big Disney shop too. When we reached to the ticket counters, there were long long queues waiting for the gate to open for the public. I went to buy the tickets while my friend queued at the waiting queues. Once the gates were opened, everyone rushed in to all the attractions to queue. I dragged my friend to go for the Buzz Lightyear's Blasters to get the express pass. We got ours at 11.35 am to 12.35 am, so we went off to see other attractions first. We also bought the souvenirs medallion from the machines, and after that we went to queue for the Grand Circuit Raceway. Queue was long but luckily it was moving quite fast, we both drove each car on our own. It was quite fun and we were allowed to drive 1 round each.

Minnie Mouse's House

Burger Set Meal

Canoe

After the car drive, we walked to Toontown and we queued to visit Minnie Mouse's house. There was also long queue to go in but Minnie wasn't at home. So we just went in one round and the oven and the dishwasher were cute, in the oven, there was a cake inside. After that, we walked to Good Time Cafe (opened by Donald Duck's newphews) and bought a Duck Feet-shaped Burger set meal. There were also also big big crows, trying to get free food. There was a lady who just bought her food back and was on the phone too. And a black crow came along and grabbed one of her burgers and tried to snatch off. After the nice burger meal, we walked back to Buzz lightyear's Blaster attraction. Then we went to queue to go in to the attraction, i was kind of worried that my friend will get giddy from the ride...hehehe....But she got more excited than me inside and was really firing away on the lasers. She was really enjoying the ride...hahhaaa....After the fun ride, we walked until to Winnie The Pooh honey ride as it was shorter. While walking to the ride, there were big story book pages for people to read while queuing. After the honey ride, we walked to the Critter Land and we went for a canoe ride. We got to row the canoe for a while too, and it went for one round the lake. After the canoe ride, we walked by the staffs selling turkey leg too. So we got one leg to try. It wasn't so nice as the one in Universal Studio.

Glass Slippers to try out

Once Upon A Time Magical Show

Then we went for a rifle shooting game in Western Land, it was 10 shots for $200 yen. I managed to get 4 shots but it wasn't good enough..hohohoho.....After that, we noticed people already starting to sit on the floor, waiting for the afternoon parade. I went to find a spot to sit down while my friend went off to buy popcorn. The parade started around 1 plus and it was fun looking at the cars and the characters dancing and singing. After the parade, we walked to Cinderella's castle and went up to look at the paintings inside the castle. After the castle walk, we went to try the Snow White & Seven Dwarfs ride. It wasn't so fun on this ride, it was a bit boring..hahaha...After that, i pulled my friend to try on Peter Pan's ride. I still find it fun, even though i had taken it multiple times in Paris Disneyland. After the ride, we went to AdventureLand for the choo choo train. There was a new attraction opened there too - Jungle Cruise. and there was a long queue for the ride. After the choo choo ride, we went to the square in front of the castle to find a spot for the Once Upon A Time magical show. There were already a lot of people seating on the ground. We sat in front of the castle but it was a but far away. And the wind was blowing strong as the sky got darker. When it was about time for the show to start, the staffs got everyone to stand up. Then the show started and it was quite nice but i wasn't able to see the whole thing as there were many people in front. After the show, we went to walk around the World Bazzar while waiting for the night time parade. The night parade started at around 7 pm, so we had to find a spot to sit for the parade. All the cars were lighted with lights and the parade ground was also had the street lights turned off. The parade was fun too.

Captain Hook's Pirate Ship

Toy Story

Monsters' Inc

After the parade, everyone started to walk towards to the entrance. We went to the Disney shop near to the train station and bought a few goodies back....hahhaa....There were so many cute stuffs to get but cannot buy back....ahhhhh! After shopping, we said bye bye to Disneyland and took the JR train back to Tokyo station where we had our dinner in the ramen street. After the dinner, we took the JR train back to our hotel to rest for the day.... Tomorrow will be our last day in Japan....waaaaaaa!

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Kazusaya

 

Tokyo 東京, Japan Trip (Day 13)

8th January 2015, Sunday

Ebi Filet-O Value Meal

Today, we are going back to Tokyo and we got really lazy from getting off the bed. Eventually we missed the hotel check-out time, which was 10 am and so we got to pay $2000 yen extra for the extended one hour. We left the hotel at around 11 plus and we took the train back to Shin-Osaka JR Station. We bought value meals from MacDonald's to eat on the train as the journey will be about 3 hours plus. I got Ebi Filet-O burger to try and it was nice!! And we passed by Kyoto, Mount Fuji, Nagoya and some other small towns, there was a big rainbow too when we were to reach Kyoto station. We reached Tokyo station at around 3 plus and then we made way to our hotel. The hotel room was not bad, we can open the window and see to the opposite building. Then we rested for a while until 4 plus before we headed out again. We took the metro and went to Tsukiji Fish Market.

Tsukiji Honganji Temple

Yum Yum!!

Sushi Set

My friend was basing on her memory to try walk to the market area (as she went before), and the sky had already dark. We walked passed Tsukiji Honganji Temple, the temple looked grand from the outside. As the temple had already closed for the day, so we cannot went in to explore. Then we continued to walk to the fish market but all the shops were closed for the day, except some sashimi restaurants around the area. And the whole streets were very quiet....hehehee....So we looked for nice sashimi again, we went to a restaurant and looked at the menu. We both found it familiar, like we been to this restaurant before....hohoho...Later then we realized it was the same famous restaurant we had in Shibuya - Sushizanmai. As we wanted to try other different restaurant, so we went off looking for others. We went into another restaurant, there was only seats near the sushi bar, so we sat at the corners. Cos the whole table were all working class men and they were having their dinner and chatting. We ordered 2 sets of sushi, it was quite nice but not as nice as the ones we had at Sushizanmai. When we paid for our meal, we asked the counter staff on the direction to Diver City Tokyo Plaza but she wasn't so sure about it. Then she told us that she visited Singapore a couple of years back when she was still a student. My friend told her to come back visit Singapore again as it had already changed a lot....hohohoo......

Mini Zaku

RX-78 Gundam

Gundam Shop

We took the Asakusa metro line from Higashi-Ginza station to Shimbashi station to make a transfer to another private train network - Yurikamome Line. When we reached the Yurikamone line station, we got a little confused as the stations of this line is not shown on the Tokyo metro map. So we were trying to find what station we had to get off. One of the station staffs saw us and approached us, asking where we wanted to go. Then he told us to get off at  Daiba station for the Gundam. The train was very new as it was their new design for year 2014. And you can sit on the very front and see the train moves (like our LRT trains, except this was with more carriages).  Although it was dark outside, we still can see the lighted buildings and Tokyo Tower with 2015 lighted on it. The train even passed under the rainbow bridge and there were roads for cars to cross above. The moon was very big, round and orange tonight too. It was fun taking this train, hehehee....We then alighted at Daiba station and walked towards Diver City Tokyo Plaza. The wind was blowing very strongly here, so cold....grrrr......We quickly walked into the mall to hide away from the wind and we went to find the 1/1 scale Gundam, which was standing outside of the mall.  Finally, i got to see the real scale of RX-78 Gundam. It was lighted with lights and it was really big. And luckily for us, it was having an illustration at 7.30pm, 8.30pm and 9.30pm during this period. We were able to catch for the 8.30pm performance. Just beside the gundam display, there was the gundam model kits shop and the gundam cafe.

Gundam Snack

Hot Chocolate..Nice Nice

Rainbow Bridge

We went into the shop first, there were a lot of model kits to be sold and there were also model kits displays. We walked for a while and then left without buying any. Then we went to check out the gundam cafe. It was selling the gundam toys and figurines and of cos, drinks and snacks in form of gundam logos too. There was this interesting box, where you have to fold the box into a stand form and scan a QR code on the box using your phone and put your phone onto the box. And there will be a 3D video playing onto the box. It was sort of like limited edition item now. Then i went to buy a nice hot chocolate from the cafe and i got to choose the art on the drink. I chose the gundam face art and the chocolate was quite nice, surprisingly. The illustration show started while i was buying the hot chocolate, so we went out to catch the performance. There was a projection of a video behind the gundam and the gundam was changing with different color of lights shone on it. The gundam head moved too, left to right direction. After the show was finished, we walked back to the gundam cafe to see whether to get anything. After that, we walked towards to see the rainbow bridge and the Tokyo Tower was just behind it. There was even a mini statue of liberty when we were walking towards Aqua City Odaiba. We went in the mall but most of the shops were already closed, so we just went up to the top floor to catch a nice full view of the bridge and the tower. There was even a mini shrine up there and behind it, we could see Fuji TV Building.

Legoland Discovery Centre

Supper for us

Then we walked towards another mall named Decks and we saw below across the street, there was a big christmas tree and the lights were changing colors. And while we were walking towards Decks, we noticed there was a long queue of sports racing cars going into the car park. We were wondering why there was so many sports racing cars going into the car park. Anyway we just walked into Decks shopping mall and explored. There was a Legoland Discovery Center, a Madam Tussauds wax museum and a trick art museum but all were closed for the day. My friend also keep saying wanting to bring me over to Toyota Web Mall, where visitors can do driving with their cars there. As we were making our way to the train station, we saw  a white car did 3 rounds of turning in front of a traffic light. We were so amazed by it, i also forgot to take a video of it. After the car left, there were marks left on the road. We also didn't thought of going into the car park to take a peek on whether the cars were having a race party (wasted!).....hehehee....guess we were both too tired. We also gave up going to have dinner at Ninja Akasaka where we had made reservation earlier cos the set dinner was really expensive there. Then we just took the train back to our hotel to rest as tomorrow will be Disneyland day......Yippie!!

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Kazusaya

Nara 奈良, Japan Trip (Day 12)

7th January 2015, Wednesday

Nara Mascot

Today, we were going to Nara as today was a nice day, no rain. So we went down to have our breakfast and went out to take the trains to Nara. It took us almost 1 hour to reach Kintetsu-Nara station (not the JR-Nara station). Once you are out of the station, there was a long stretch of shops and restaurants. So we started walking to Todaiji Temple as this is the biggest temple and oldest in Nara. We first passed by Kofukuji Temple, but the temple was under construction and only a part of it was opened to the public. Anyway, there were many deers roaming around, really a lot and there was an old grandma and grandpa selling biscuits to feed the deers. The deers were like so hungry, they were coming at us when we arrived there. And they wanted food from us and they don't like people to touch them...The deers' horns were all cut off as not to injure themselves or passerby. Anyway we bought a stack of biscuits for $150 yen to feed the deers. The deers were chasing me for the biscuits and even pushed me from the back. I stopped there, all the deers came and tried to snatch the biscuits...seems like they were very very hungry for a long time. I tried to run away from all the deers and passed some biscuits to my friend to let her feed them. The biscuits went out very fast and when the biscuits were out, the deers were still trying to get some food out of us. Then we continued walking to the temple and we saw other people feeding the deers too. We even saw there were 2 deers head banging each other and the couple who were feeding them tried to stop them by throwing the biscuits at them.

Deers outside the entrance

Todaiji Temple

Giant Buddha Statue

Then we walked under a underpass tunnel and there were deers along the path we walked. We bought a hot sweet potato outside the national museum, it was quite expensive - $700 yen something for one. Hahaha....we were so worried the deers will start following us while we were eating the sweet potato. A couple of deers did actually followed until the temple's entrance. One was not going give up until we finished the sweet potato and went into the temple. When we reached the temple's entrance, there were much more deers there and there were many poos on the floor too. Then we went into the temple and bought the entrance tickets. The temple was quite big and inside the Daibutsuden hall, there was a giant statue of Daibutsu Buddha. We walked slowly to see the giant Buddha statue and other several Buddha statues there. We lighted 2 small candles too for our blessings. Besides the candles stand, there was a giant replica of the lotus petals from the giant Buddha statue. Behind the giant Buddha statue, there was a model of the whole temple layout from the original state until the present day. And the monks were collecting donations to rebuild the temple by giving $1000 yen for a tile which will be placed in the temple for rebuilding. We donated for one tile and I got to write blessing words on the tile too. After that, there were some more statues to see and we came to a wooden pillar. What interesting with this pillar, was that there is a hole in its base that is the same size as the Daibutsu's nostril. It is said that those who can squeeze through this opening will be granted enlightenment in their next life.

My tile

Hole in the Pillar

Pindola Bharadvaja

There was a small kid, like 2 or 3 years old, kept crawling in and out the hole...hohoho...Then a group of ang mo came along and one of the guys from their group, tall and skinny. He tried to go through the hole and he did it...He managed to squeeze through the hole. Then i decided to give it a try, so i tried to squeeze in the hole but my jacket was in the way. So i took off my winter jacket and tried again. I went in with my hands first and pushed my way through the hole. And i did it!! ^-^.....hehehee....After i got out from the hole, another small sized lady gave it a try and she also did it. We gave her a applause after she came out from the hole, we were having fun there....After that, we continued to explore the hall and there were some devotees in front of the giant Buddha statue to have some blessing ritual. Then we went outside and saw a wooden statue at the side. It was a statue of one of the Buddha's disciples - Pindola Bharadvaja and on the description, it stated that it was believed in Japan that if one person touches a part of the image of Binzuru and rubs the corresponding part of his own body, the aliment there will disappear. So we gave it a try too, i rubbed on my shoulders to get rid of my shoulders ache...hehehe.... After that, we went to buy some souvenirs and then we went outside of the temple to walk. There was a very tall gold tower at the side of the temple, it was the On Asoka Pillar, the monument in commemoration of The "Thousand-Priests" service. There was a time capsule containing all the names of the participants and the messages for the Future written by the followers buried under it and this will only be opened in year 2038 which is the 1500th anniversary of the introduction of Buddhism to Japan (can consider to come here again in this year..heheee).

View from above

My lunch...Yummy!!

Then we continued walking upwards to explore the area, there were a couple of smaller temples on top. Most of the temples also need to pay entrance fees and we just went into those that doesn't need to pay.... :P
We went up one temple, which was having a great view on Nara from above. After spending some time on the top, we walked back down and we just walked without any specific directions in mind. Then we walked along the road and decided to walk to Isuien/ Yoshikien gardens. We walked past a house which looked the residence of the government. We walked further down to reach Isuien Garden but it required $650 yen to go in and the tea set looked expensive and there was no main courses. So we didn't went in, instead we went walked further in until i saw an owl statue. Then we stopped and took a look, it was a soba restaurant. So we took a look on the menu too, the pictures on the menu were quite plain and the colors had also faded. But we went in already, cos too hungry. There was no one in the restaurant and on the right side were tables and chairs and on the left side were the Japanese style seating. So i chose to sit on the ground and we asked the lady owner to recommend us their dishes. I had hot soda while my friend had cold soba, the food was very nice. And the tempera was nice, with their salt. And after we were done with the soba, the staff brought us the tea to let my friend drink. The staff said the tea was always taken after finishing the cold soba.

Five Storied Pagoda

Apple Pie with Ice Cream

Deers in Led Illumination

Dinner, Yummy!!!

After the nice meal, we thanked the staff and went walking towards the train station. We went back to Kofukuji Temple but the main hall was under renovation. So we went to see the five storied pagoda which was the national treasure and the three storied pagoda. After visiting the pagodas, we walked back to the shopping street near Kintetsu-Nara station. We went into Daiso and then we went into MacDonald's to hide from the wind. We had twister fries and apple pie with ice cream and we just stayed there until 5 plus or 6 pm. Then we walked on the same route to Todaiji Temple and all the deers were not around anymore, don't know where their homes were. We went to the night illumination which 100 thousands led lights were being used and we had to walk to the botanic gardens to see it. But it cost $1000 yen per pax for the entrance fees... :(... Anyway we bought the tickets and went in to see the lights, there wasn't many people around (only like 4 people including us). The led lights were quite nice to see there, there was a trishaw and some deers, all having led lights on them. Other than these, there wasn't anything much attracting. We spent about an hour walking inside the garden and we went off, went out looking for dinner. We came upon a dinning restaurant and ordered a pork cutlet rice set to share. After having the dinner, we went off trying to find direction to walk to JR Nara station. At first, there was some signs to direct to the JR station but at a point, there was no more signs. So we asked a lady for directions and the lady was kind enough to tell us the directions though she was having some difficulty talking to us in English.

Pudding Roll Cake

Milk & Chocolate Puddings

So we followed the directions and walked to the station and we did managed to reach there safe and sound...hahhaa...The station was big and there was a mall connected to it too. We went inside to explore and saw a shop selling puddings and cakes. The puddings' bottles were having a cute Buddha image printed on the cap. We bought 2 puddings to go back to eat, we also wanted to buy their roll cakes but it was sold out for the day. My friend was a bit disappointed as we won't be back to buy it. And with this, we took the JR train back to go back to our hotel. The puddings were nice and yummy too!

Hotel Stayed:
Humor Resort New Oriental Hotel