A Photo Canvas

Having tried Thai-Spanish fusion, I decided to give the European Swiss cuisine a try for our New Year celebration.

We headed off to The Tavern Restaurant, where we were greeted with a Swiss Chalet-inspired
theme.


And they even prepared some New Year celebration 'tools' in the anticipation that you might stay till midnight.


Escargot and lobster bisque were on our menu this time, as we also enjoyed a complimentary raspberry sorbet.


For our main course, I had some beef with avocado (one whole fruit in fact!), and the Boy had some pork chop with apple sauce. Both tasted fantastic, and we could not help enjoying ourselves to the fullest!


Dessert however was a disaster with the baked alaskan. Even with the lure of brandy for this dessert was not enough to save him from the saccarhine overload, nor me from the overdose of meringue.

But I guess overall we still enjoyed our experience at the Tavern. The waiters/waitresses were warm, and our entrees and mains were sumptuous. We can jsut count ourselves unlucky to have chosen a dessert which we both didn’t like. Not to mention that I got to spend lovely time with my partner, so that makes up for all the dislikes =)

Happy new year my dear!

During this festive month, we decided that the Boy would plan for Christmas, and me, the New Year.

This year, our Christmas Eve dinner was at Limon, a Spanish and Thai fusion restaurant.

Tucked away in Purvis Street lies this quaint restaurant with lovely decor.


I guess he must be quite happy as well, seeing his cheeky grin =)


For tapas, we had Guy Krapow – Thai style fried chicken. It tasted pretty good, though I was wondering what leaves were in the dish. I have a feeling it was basil…


As for our mains, we were both in the fishy mood, as he had the Filete de Salmon, and I had the Limon Bacalao. Both fish were really fresh, and they were yummilicious!



For dessert, we tried out the Lemon Caramel Egg Custard Flan. This was absolutely delicious! A must try! (At least in my opinion)


We also had some wine for the night, as there was a 1-for-1 promotion on their wines. Overall, the dining experience was a really pleasant one, as the place was very comfortable, and the food was great. And when it went back home, it was time to exchange our Christmas gifts!

Merry Christmas my darling!

Our last day was a tour of Tokyo city.

First up: Asakusa Kannon Buddhist Temple

We also got to shop along Nakamise Shopping Street, though once again, we were too early for most of the shops to open. But... Somehow I managed to purchase a really nice but expensive beret!! Oops... =)


We then proceeded on to Ueno Market, a place where we could buy lots of food at cheaper prices! It was there that I told the Boy it would be a good time to buy a box of hi-chew. But, the silly dodo that he is thought that the airport might sell it at a cheaper price. In the end… I was right, and we were a box of hi-chew less…Boo to that though I did manage to buy some mochii to make up for it.


It was on to Ginza, place of high-class shopping, home to the ever famous Burberry Blue brand… It is here that we ascertain our beliefs that we were in a tour of rich people, as most of them bought the expensive label back home.


After a whole lot of shopping, we bought tickets to the monorail, as we made our way to Venus Fort. It was quite cool trying out the public transport system of Japan. In fact, there were many other tourists on board as well.




After a few stops, we finally came to Palette Town, where Venus Fort was located.


It seems like we stuck true to our hobby of photography, as we decided to give shopping a miss, and instead take more pictures.


When we finally stopped and made our way into Venus Fort for some lunch, we discovered that due to the festive season, the shopping mall has prepared some lovely lightings for its shoppers!


Since I'm a lover of all pretty things, I feel in love with the beautiful lightings of the mall.

After lunch, we proceeded on to our final destination – Tokyo Bay

There, we took pictures of the Statue of Liberty and the Rainbow Bridge against the ever beautiful sky of Japan.

And then… It was time to go home!! =(

It was really sad to know that it was time to leave beautiful Japan and head back to Singapore. I thoroughly enjoyed the nice cool weather, and the opportunity to wear my boots! (Seriously, Japan is such a boot country, regardless of age.) And although this marks the end of our Japan trip, I am very sure we will return once again, especially when we have yet to capture Mount Fuji on camera! Japan 2011?

It's time for Disneyland!!

Unfortunately, the tickets to Disneyland were not part of the tour package, but we had our tour guide to thank as she decided to help us purchase it from a convenience store, for us to exchange it for the tickets itself when we reached Disneyland. Initially, we had the choice of choosing either DisneySea and Disneyland. But I thought since I have had experience with Disneyland before, it'll be good if I could guide him along (Besides, we can always go to DisneySea together next time) =P

Staying in Hotel Akasaka, we were lucky that they provided transport to and from Disneyland. However, it came at a price. It was either at 730am or 10am, when Disneyland opens at 9am. We decided to go with the later one, as I could then sleep in more since I looked more and more like a zombie as the days go by. As nice as it might sound, horrors of horrors, the day that we visit Disneyland is actually a Sunday!! Crazy crowds…

Upon arrival, I knew that the Boy had to take Winnie the Pooh ride. Our first stop upon entering the gates was to head directly to that station. But…The Fast Pass was for 8pm onwards, and the standby queue had a waiting time of 210 minutes!! Disappointed, we decided to give it a miss first, and headed off for other rides.

Our first ride was the Haunted Mansion, which the Boy felt unimpressed. For me, I thought it was amazing how they changed everything to be Christmas themed just cause the festive is around the corner.


Here, we waited for more than 2 hours!! The crowd was just crazy, that even the ever patient Boy also got a bit tired of waiting… However, when finally we got onto the ride, it was a pretty nice one!

When we finally got out of Splash Mountain, there was a parade on suddenly. We thought that we’d skip this one first, and head on to the other rides first, because the crowd tends to dwindle for the rides when parades are on. But luck wasn’t on our side, when we discovered that Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster ride was under maintenance…

In the end, we decided to just try waiting for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt.

Struggling through the crowd to make it to the ride, somehow we got a bit lucky that we managed to still see the parade carousel past us while standing in the horribly long queue…


It was during this 1+ hours of waiting that the Boy got turned off by the Fast Pass too. He realised that while it was good to get it, but the system of letting in 20 fast pass to 3 standby crowd was overly unbalanced. Thankfully, the ride was just awesome to him, that I’m so glad that he thoroughly enjoyed himself! =)

After these 3 rides, it was time to camp for the parade… And with it being 3pm, we decided to just feed ourselves with some munchies to tide us through lunch.

Presenting the ever interesting star-shaped prawn and dumpling bun with mickey chocolate banana pastry.


Since I was armed with just my P&S, we decided that we would divide the work, as I focused more on the parade floats and him the characters.

I thought that the parade was really nice and entertaining, filled with lots of Christmas cheer. When it ended, it was only about 4pm, but the sky was starting to turn dark! Hence we quickly made our way to the castle to grab a shot of it first before we lose the blue skies…



Towards the end, we took a few more rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours (of which I felt sick), and shows like MicroAdventure.

Soon, it was time for the Night Parade, where thousands of lights dazzle the streets!

This was really an amazing experience, it was really cool seeing all the lighted floats! But... Apparently, this parade was a lot longer than the first one we saw, so much so that my arms were aching from holding up the camera for so long.! Not to mention that I had no tripod as well that it was such a challenge taking clear pictures with the floats constantly on the move.

At the end of the parade, I cannot help but feel starved. We decided to just give in to our hunger pangs and buy some of their expensive food in the theme park. During then, we were hurrying with our food, because it wasn’t long before they would blast off some fireworks in the sky. I thought that I would have loved to capture the fireworks with the castle. But due to the lack of time, we ended up being behind the castle, the wrong place to be to capture both the castle and fireworks together on film!

And so, I only got this... -_-

At the end of everything, we decided to just call it a day. As our shuttle bus back to the hotel would only arrive at 1045pm, we had close to 2 hours of shopping! Unfortunately, Disneyland only sells food and souvenirs, as the Boy went crazy over choosing the various types of cookies and crackers, and even influencing me to buy some! Before I met him, I was not one to buy souvenirs or foodies from such theme parks, but because of him, this time, I bought a lot! =P

Anyway, before I end this entry, I shall share with you all a wonderful find.

By the time we reached our hotel, it was about 11pm, and most shops were closed by then. But because we were starving, we decided to try out the convenience store’s takeaway. I chose the udon (left), he chose the prawn noodles (right). And… They were extremely delicious!! Do not be misled that we found them tantalizing just because we were hungry. They do really taste good, and you will really marvel at how they turned from a frozen ball of food to such delicious meals. If you are ever in Japan, do give these takeaways a try! =)