Gardens by the Bay - Christmas Wonderland

Met Cheryl on Monday for k session and a visit to Gardens by the Bay. I have never been there cause I am not the type of person who can fully appreciate flowers, but the lighting there for christmas is very attractive (and to many people too, judging from the crowd).

 

Went to Teo Heng at Katong in the afternoon. It seemed like many people were going to Teo Heng that day because Suntec and Renzendous Hotel were fully booked for 1pm that day. Enjoying the k session but the room they gave us was super problematic, something wrong with the sound system and the next down was just plain loud. I think because their rooms were all fully booked they also couldn't change the room for us. I think their system at suntec is much better.   

Went to Chabuton for dinner at Millenia Walk before heading down to GBTB. 

Went to visit the conservatories (Cloud Dome and Flower Dome) first where tickets are needed. Can check online for cheaper tickets. The most exciting part of the cloud dome was this waterfall. They placed the peak right at the entrance which made the other parts of the exhibition just meh~.

When I looked at this photo, I realised that I am really short.

Cloud Dome

Don't you think the bottom right plant looks like the pokemon that gives off a smelly smell while the bottom left one is Victreebel. I didn't realised the plants in the middle top photo (which consists of the bottom right photo plant) was made up of legos until Cheryl mentioned it. I thought they were real!

Wefie~

Flower Dome

Next we went to the flower dome, so as the name suggests, there are lots of flowers in there. There is also christmas lighting setup inside the flower dome.   

After that we went to explore the lightings outside.

Love the 3-D Deers

They have quite a few activities available there but need to pay and pay. Don't know why we didn't see the carousel though. They do have free lightings outside, where they have light shows and fake snow at specific timings. But otherewise I think be prepared to pay and pay. Pay to enter the two conservatories, pay to take the ocbc skywalk, pay to ice-skate, pay to take carousel, pay to take picture with santa claus...

Japan, Hokkaido Day 1

Took the flight to hokkaido on 5th December, transiting at Incheon Airport. I think we are one of the rarer ones who take Korean Air to Japan, but I love Korean Air, and it is cheaper than JAL! There was a slight delay on our way. I think their service has actually went down since the last time I took it but still good.

Korean Air Flight Meal

Breakfast on plane, we chose seafood fried noodles. The other choices were omelette and porridge. Their noodles was good. Why don't they give supper though, I prefer the flight back to Singapore because they give dinner and supper and there's ice-cream!

Flight meal to Hokkaido

Didn't quite like the meal from Incheon to Chitose, cause is pork with potatoes or beef.

landing in hokkaido

I can see the snow!!! Quite exciting because this will be my first experience with real snow.

At the Chitose airport immigration, I am very impressed with their service. Their immigration officer is really nice and it made me feel very happy to be there. The person before me was Korean so I guess he thought I was Korean, so when I went over he said "annyeonghaseyo" then I smiled. Haha, but when he saw my passport he said "sorry, ni hao". So nice! They are also very efficient because despite the long queue, the queue moved very quickly.

After touching down in Hokkaido, activated our sim cards for data. I was damn stupid because I kept thinking why am I not connected, it was actually because I forgot to off my flight mode. Then bought our bus tickets for our Ryokan.

Things we do while waiting: Testing how cold is the weather.

The bus to the interchange was okay because they have space for luggage storage, but the bus from the interchange to the ryokan didn't have space for luggage so it was quite troublesome and made my big and heavy luggage a burden.

After settling down, we went to walk around the area to see what they have.

Hokkaido Mascot - Bear

Hell Boy Mascot?

It was snowing quite heavily outside.First we get hype over it and take photos, and then we froze.
After walking for about an hour, went back to the hotel to hide. Then we had some time, about one hour before dinner, so I went to the onsen. Previously when I was in Tokyo, I didn't go because too shy, I only went to the one in taiwan because swimsuits are allowed. Japan, you have to go birthday suit. Decided to go this time because I have paid alot of money to stay here, so I have to make my money worth. Eunice couldn't go, so only me, myself and I. I guess that made me less shy because nobody knows me and I know nobody.

They have I think 7 different onsens which are supposed to serve different purposes. Haha, but I think they all serve one purpose for me, to make me sleep better. I felt damn sleepy after I went for onsen, especially when I went again next day in the morning. They have an outdoor onsen too, quite interesting to soak in hot spring while it is snowing. However, the thought of walking out to the hot spring and walking back was quite scary, but I did it!

Was almost late for dinner at 6.30pm, so rushed back to the room to meet Eunice before going down to 5th floor for dinner.

Our dinner was Japanese fine dining, very atas and the service was so good that it stressed me.

Menu

It has been (I think) 10 years since I last ate sashimi. I don't really like raw food, but since I'm in the land of sashimi, I decided to try. It was okay, very soft and not fishy, but I dipped in loads of the soy sauce.

Melon Soda

Order any drink but melon soda. It actually tastes like medicine.

All ready to eat!

Steak

Very lazy to rotate the picture and reupload, why doesn't blogger let us rotate our pictures. It is supposed to be with applesauce? but I didn't taste any applesauce. It is not bad though because usually I don't really like to eat steak.

Fine dining means very small portions of everything. I thought I wouldn't be full because of the small portions, but in the end I was satisfied. Haha, I guess because there was rice also.

The food was a good experience but the service was even a better experience. One of them accidentally just dropped lightly one of my plates and apologised profusely and after the meal, when we were leaving she apologised again. I already forgot about it. Despite their limited English, they will try their best to provide the best service. Haha, but the service comes with a price tag.

After dinner, we went to explore the ryokan, there was a drum performance, and the girl was good. The performance and the strength, daebak!

Eunice trying out Onsen drink

They have an area where you can try out onsen drink too!

Our Yukatas

All prepared to sleep now!

Angst Mode

Went to change money at Arcade for my Japan trip today.

Since I was there, I decide to change Thai Baht also so that I don't have to go back, hopefully the rate doesn't change.

Changed at People's Corner Money Changer.

I took two envelops because I wanted to each currency in one. Then the person was like "no, you can only take one. Another one 20 cents." So I said but I'm changing two currency then he said I can put both together. So fine, I put back the extra one. The envelops I don't think they bought it anyway, I think NTUC income gave it to them because they had the advertisement for their travel insurance printed on them.

Then after that I was counting my yen, then he ask me to faster move away, don't block. BUT HELLO, YOU HAVEN'T EVEN GIVE ME MY THAI BAHT! So I said he haven't give me my thai baht, luckily I didn't blur blur walk away. Then he the way he put it is like they already gave me the money, until he asked his colleague (who was actually the one who was counting and giving the money while he just sit there and open mouth), who I guess said no, since after that they gave me the money. He also didn't apologise, make me super angst. I think I am somebody who cannot be accused cause I will feel super yue wang which will make me very angst.

It is damn weird, because they want us to count our money and check that it is not counterfeit at the counter but yet they don't give us the time, wanting us to move away to make way for other customers. Then, who will be responsible if the amount is wrong or the money is counterfeit?

Today is not my day, because after that I went to Watsons and they previously message me that I have 30 points expiring by the end of the year, however when I went there and said to use the points, apparently the card only has 14 points so cannot redeem.

Okay, rant over. *take deep breathes*