Ferreroroche’s Weblog

Day 9 continues

Before that some pics from day 8

Daddy putting on a show on skiing, they all dont ski much except me

The family at Nami Island

Other random pics

In front of the mind boggling shinkansen, really missed it now

everland day

Brother with pretty Korean girl who works at everland

everland in Korea is one of the best themepark but to me there is nothing special especially after visiting the Best theme park in the world Disneyland, Disneysea and of course Universal Studio

Not much better than Dufan with the exception of some snow ride and a cool safari with huge bears and of course not so long que

First off my daddy decided that we should try the snow ride , i fell down again cos somebody from behind hit me, I think i really had bad luck with snow

Here is daddy finishing his ride, the entire family took the ride but daddy was last so managed to take pic of him

secondly we tried the 4-D, with sun go Ku, the mystical monkey as the main character, quite fun as it was the first time with 4-d, Now Dufan also had 4-D

4-D had water and wind and the usual 3-D show, quite cool and fun really

Third we went to the some sort of ghost house, with moving trains, quite fun and then we took the ski lift back

lastly we went on the safari, very much like the safari park in Indo, we r inside a bus and huge animals are beside us but since we cant understand the driver…it wasnt that fun

after that we went to seoul, actually I got all the days wrong, after nami island, we went to everland

so day 7 : Mount sorak n skiing
day 8: Nami island and everland

day 9: seoul city tour

first to the DaeJangGum TV set (Jewel in the Palace )

Sis and Bro standing in front of the ROYAL palace used in the TV show

to Kimchi making factory plus photo taking with the Hanbok (Korea traditional costume)

Mom n dad wearing the Hanbok

then to gingseng factory, never buy much things
then to DongDae Mun Market for some street food and souvenir shopping

then back to hotel in seoul royal hotel

today is the new year’s eve, the streets near the hotel is very packed because we happened to be staying at the centre of the celebration, but my family prefer to watch from TV as the packed street invites crime, and how do we go back to hotel, hmm for us, we will just go shopping n then watch tv when new year comes

Day 10

a visit to the real royal palace and then

HOME sweet home

Bro at the last souvenir stop very near the airport

its actually 11 days but then the first night spent on plane so nothing much so I blogged only for 10 days

Sorry for incomplete story, its been quite long and I dont upload alot of pics because I havent really edited them, and my pics are taken in 7MP format so it took quite long to upload, to see the details in each pic, u can just click on it

and because I went with my family on a tour, its a little commercialised, we went to alot of factory tour, from crystal factory, gingseng factory, souvenirs shops, even duty free shops damn irritating, so commercialised until the gingseng factory girl is really from indonesia

anyway, I would really like to go on tour with my family as well as a group of friends, our time in disneyland will not be restricted and such …but then my daddy n mummy getting old so yeah maybe to nearby places

next up: Kuching trip

day 8

moving back to seoul on a 4 hr journey, before that we dropped off the ski suits,

Sorry I have not been blogging about food in korea and Japan, but generally they were acceptable to me. In korea, it was mostly kimchi of course with meat …barbecued meat to be exact. so I cant take pics for 3 reasons
1> I was too hungry to think about that, the cold weather makes me hungry easily
2> I dont want my camera to smell like barbecued meat
3> It becomes the norm there, so I didnt see any point in blogging.

oh well kinda regrets now. but even my daddy the picky eater can eat well so no worries about food in Korea.

so on the way to Seoul, we stopped by Nami island, the place where they shoot winter sonata. actually it was just trees lined but this road where the couple kiss each other was said to make relationships last forever

Mom and Dad in the said road

Brother at the ice sculpture in nami island

By the time we reach seoul it was nearly 9 o clock but sista and I were eager to check out Lotte downtown, near our hotel, it is a huge shopping area too. So she completes her nail polish collection that night from missha,
oh have i written about it before? that they do not give out plastic bags, oh I think I did. So I bought my Laniege water sleeping pack too, everything alot cheaper. If mom had given extra wons, i would have bought the entire laniege range I think. I love this skincare brand alot.

SKin food and the face shop also alot cheaper so we bought mom a Misha lipstick and she loves it.
yay more reason to shop tomorrow

tom: Everland Korea

Day 7:

After breakfast, we headed to Mount Sorak, this mountain is actually a range of mountain just outside seoul. The best time to visit is August, Sept during Spring or Fall. Winter, it is ok but not as nice. First we took a cable car up the mountain, very nice view

Mommy and Daddy atop mount sorak

more scenery views

Argh I am now so lazy to upload pics, because they are all 7.2 MB so blogger takes forever to load

anyway below mount sorak there is a giant buddha and an temple. There is something on Buddha’s temple that makes it able to change colour, after mount sorak, we went skiiing.

my ski suit is pink and I fell down 3 times during skiing. Actually I master the basics alrd, then I thought I only go Korea or even go skiing this once, so I must try everything. So I went up the skylift, very very high, was hanging on to my dear life but there was no way down except ski down. and I fell once, twice and 3 times…unscathed except for swollen lips for the next 3 days or so.

was fun.

we stayed at the ski area for the night too. Its called samsung something..yup owned by the Samsung group. At night, after dinner. we took the cable car up in the ski range again, the temperature was -12 deg. Very cold and we dont dare to get out of the cable car.

but we saw good skier along the way…maybe someday i can be like that

oh we had to carry luggages from the road to the room, in the end was so tired to do anything, even to check out the mall, esp with my swollen lips, painful and tired. of course every part of the body aches too from the fall, not as nice as imagined…falling in the snow.

day 6

arrived at incheon again after yet another flight by Korean air, immediately after reaching the airport, my sista n I go crazy over the 10x cheaper currency and the possibility of completing her nail polish collection from missha…its only ‘ceban’ here anyway so mom dont complain abt her completing it

at the airport, we meet our guide luci, luci is mentioned here cos she is a nice girl, before this our guide in japan was a SIngaporean…yeah not like I have anything against singaporean but u know..local is better rite…esp when it come to a guide, at least a local would have known that tickets for disneyland cant be used for disneysea and the time used to find that out could have been better utilised by taking another ride. darn

at the airport, lucy did the worst thing…she asks us to unpack and just bring a small luggage..for 2 days that we spent in mount sorak and the ski resort near it. It was outrageous …because nobody wants to pack and unpack in the airport rite? not with 30 other people and the ‘rich’ Indons are the worst people you can ask to do something even it was for our own good.

to set the record straight: I am not rich yet..although someday I hope I am

anyway we then load our freaking big luggages…my family has the least u know…and we are a 5 member family…we only bring AQUA and enough clothes thats it…we dont change jackets nor handbags everyday. in fact the entire family only has 1 handbag…my mom’s which she is lazy to carry and daddy and I or sista has to take turn. My camera is cute and nifty and fits inside my jacket pocket..together with my lipbalm and the ‘change’ for some little shopping

off we go to mount sorak and had traditional korean food complete with kimchi, nothing is ever eaten without kimchi

so we had dinner and then went to the hotel…ok more like apartment to sleep….we sleep on the floor again..and mommy woke up the next day with backache lol

anyway the room is big but then they provide tiny towels…and no soap..luckily mommy tar bao the souvenir shishedo soaps from japan hotels.

korean government is very very environmentally friendly, no plastic bag given for purchases is the norm there, so BYOB day is nothing to a Korean. they are used and prepare for it. Moreover, all the utensils such as spoon, fork ,bowls everyhting is made of metal thus if ur friend gave u metal chopstick as souvenir from korea dont be surprised because that is what they used everyday to save wastage.

and you cant buy big towels in korea, only hand face towel size is sold there, no free toothbrush toothpaste whatsoever, everything need to be paid and soap is once again not provided even in 5-star hotel.

mount sorak is beautiful …updates with pic tom, at night its only chilly super duper cold, cant even walk ard in the hotel with normal clothes, lol

Day 5:

In the morning it is Universal Studios, wow this time My sista and I took many rides

let me see
1st was Spiderman, wow 2 hrs long wait but it was worth it …it’s a 4d thingy and it was exhilirating, they sprayed water on you
2nd was jurassic park, another water ride, they plunged u down ard 20 mtr, in IN dufan they called this ride niagara …In Thailand’s Dreamworld they also called this niagara but in here it is jurrasic park because, you got plunged down from the mouth of T rex
the wait was bearable
3rd was a snoopy ride, very fun too…water based ride too
4th was …..argh really cannot remember…but then I feel my sista and I should have spend 1200 yen buying the fastpass….everybody else did that…sobz…but no worries, universal studios coming to singapore and I can try all the rides although it will be under the hot sun instead of the cool winter air in OSAKA

we even skipped lunch just to finish everything haha

next we went to sinshaibashi…a shopping street in OSAKA…actually osaka is a factory town…tokyo is the metropolitan however
I didnt get to shop much in tokyo except at disneyland shops and everything were overpriced but must buy haha…so we went crazy at sinshaibashi

my family bought 4 pairs of shoes(2 nike sneakers limited edition only released in japan, 1 missy elliot adidas sneakers for sista and 1 reebok limited edition too for big bro, 1 new trench coat (mummy lar…say leaving japan already better spend everything) we also bought food and more food

and then we went for dinner and hotel…hotel was near the kansai airport

day 6:

leaving osaka for seoul again…
updates tomorrow

have to pack now..MrK always say i am a terrible packer…but I think I am an efficient one haha and …I choose this nomadic life away from parents myself so I shall not complain bout packing anymore…

Day 4:

city tour around tokyo

first off tokyo tower, it is nothing much just a tall tv tower red in colour, we didnt go up cos it wasnt included in the tour package and we didnt know , quite disappointed, I was thinking it was a waste of time to visit it, there was some magic show in front of it and it was quite interesting

after that we went to the temple. I forgot wht its called i think its akihabara or sth like that
quite famous, and there is a shopping street nearby

some pics

mom bought one japanese lucky cat, mom said she wanna have one memento from each country she visited, so she bought this one, sista bought a japanese traditional slippers and me…ever the glutton bought mochi and dorayaki and snacks

at nite
, we make our ascent to the famous mount fuji and stayed at FUJI hotel, this is the first time we will sleep on the floor with just fuutons but surprisingly they are quite comfortable. the rooms are big and nice with tables inside and there is the hot springs that Jpanese love to go inside the hotel itself

when in the hotsprings, female and male are separated and you should not bring anything except a small towel to scrub your body, sadly I didnt try the hot springs because I was too tired from all the queueing and the bus ride.

dinner was traditional too sitting on the floor and all

and the weather was soooooo cold

here are some pictures

dinner

Day 5;

we make our ascent to mount fuji but fujisan refused to show up well and the weather wasnt so good, it was icing already and we were stopped at the very first entrance.

Lunch at the kawaguchi lake, the lake that ‘make’ fujisan. its a very big lake, behind it is the kawaguchi forest, very large forest, a place for suicide. well Japan is a stressful country and each year the police combing the forest will find at least 30 bodies, imagine how many more not found considering how dense the forest is.

quite sad, the culture of perfection and hard work is sometimes to hard on some people leading them to suicide. Suicide is top 5 cause of death in japan

anyway the weather didnt get better so

no choice just enjoy the scenery and we went off to the shinkansen station to go to osaka

sista in front of shinkansen station, behind is the fuji san

shinkansen is really nice and comfortable and freaking fast too, everyone should try it at least once….and they are very punctual so never come late for your train, they are really fascinating when they zoom past you, really sounds like a plane….

in osaka, we only went for dinner and then back to hotell

After Breakfast at Hotel, we head out to TOKYO disneysea, this time round we decided we r going to ride the journey to the centre of the earth
then My sis and I straight went for the queues for that and before that my family and I managed to ride the gondola

the Venice gondola is very nice, really takes u back to Venice and the boatman can sing in Italian just right under the bridge and it was a fantastic moment. He even makes u close ur eyes and imagine.

Under the cool winter breeze and the romantic atmosphere of Disneysea it was wonderful

I will come back here someday. Disneysea is the only one in Japan anyway so it’s reallly reallly wonderful

My sis and I ate at the Mermaid restaurant and wanted to catch the mermaid show too but it was too late

argh journey to the centre of the earth and 20000 leagues under the sea is nice too

At nite, we go to the Crown Princess Metropolitan Tokyo right at the heart of the city and had nice shabu shabu dinner. Sis and Dad loved the eggs eaten with thin slices of beef. We also explored the trains in tokyo and took train to shinjuku in Harajuku area, not many cosplayers around just lots of PACHINKO machines

some pictures

Tokyo

LEFT and RIGHT: Donald Duck and Goofy at the musical in front of the beautiful lake
Middle: Sis in front of the journey to the centre of the earth ride, there is a 30 m fall during the ride it was coolllll

at nite at the hotel eating ufo noodles (my sis love it)after some shopping done at the matsumoto kiyoshi (one outlet has different price from the other)who cheated my sister and after having a look at their arcade
their arcade has 4/5 levels
1st level is usually those machines that allow u to catch nice dolls some JAPS are pretty good and they catch big dolls
2nd level horse racing and poker machines as well as jackpot machines
3rd level more gambling stuff
4th level pachinkos
5th and 6th level the normal arcade u see in Singapore

and it is smokey and yucks
but its cool haha there are many arcade building like this in shinjuku and harajuku as well as near the hotel

and yukatas are very nice, i come to love them
the way to wear it is right over left, the other way round and u r dead
haha only dead people wear it the other way round

Nite parade pics and the show pics

After reaching Seoul in the morning at around 9am seoul time, I was suprisingly awake. The weather was nice and we took some photos of the huge Korean air planes which is pretty reliable and serve good food and give out PLASTIC playing cards. So my sister and I played cards the whole night and the Korean guy sitting next to sis were so nice to get us water all the time from the helpful Korean ladies and it helps if u ask for the water in KOREAN. I forgot what is the korean language for water already. Which is bad and that’s y from now on I am going to blog about my travels immediately.

Anyway we bought a phone card at the ubitiquous phone card dispenser for 10000 won which is ard Rp100000 to call both my sister’s boyfrd n MrK and Uo, our housekeeper to let them know we r safe.

So after landing at Tokyo international airport and ate sushi on the plane, we quickly head to Disneyland. Pics of disneyland is not needed, I think so many are available on the web

tips on your disneyland trip is important
1> when taking family photographs, dont ask Dad or Mum to do it, ask the friendly Disney road sweeper, guides and everyone who indicates they are Disney employee, they take very good photographs, and there are even QUEUES to have your photograph taken at some photo sites. but we just edge abit from them and we get almost the same pic and taken by another friendly disney ‘lady or guy’
2> before going into disney, buy onigiris from 7-11s. water is unnecessary though cos there are plenty of watercoolers. cos, food and drink are terribly expensive
3> plan your rides. I felt so terrible cos I didnt plan and in the end didnt ride the best stuff though we did ride the jungle river cruise and the pirates of carribean and watched some show and even catch the night parade.
Planning your rides means u can the qpass too.
4>have some money to buy souvenirs, ah they are just tooooo good to be missed and u will see Japs buying and buying like water, though they are terribly expensive and overpriced.

thats all for day one, by the time we head back to hotel, we were just so tired. Dinner and lunch were inside disneyland, we bought hotdogs and some chics well passable food.

but supper was onigiris from 7-11s near the hotel and some hot and huge chic like the type u get from MOS burger here in singapore. They were fantastic.