Hong Kong Day 4 - DisneyLand

Bought entry tickets to Disneyland in advance via Klook. It was raining again in the morning when we woke up and we contemplated if we should move the Disney trip to the following day. We looked at the weather forecast and decided to proceed on this day.

Crowd was not crazy in the morning when we reached the park. Took a few rides and I skipped all rolled coaster ones knowing that I wouldn't be able to take them.

My lou got so nauseous after all the roller coaster rides and he had to sit out while the boys continue with their quest.  I guess after going through the various theme parks in the last couple of years, we probably had enough of them. . 

At night,  we tried Lung Kee wanton noodles shop near our hotel and those wantons were really good! 

Hong Kong Day 3 - Causeway Bay

It's Dim Sum Day!  We slept in again and reached Maxim's Palace at City Hall near 930am. Waited for about 20 mins before we got a table. The ambience was nice and so is the price tag of each dim sum.

It has been raining since morning and I noticed that Central is a place where the foreign maids gathered during their Sunday off days.  The area was literally flooded with them and we decided to move out of Central after Dim Sum to head over to Causeway Bay. Sogo was also flooded with shoppers because they had some super Sunday sale (but I didn't buy any stuff) 😂 .We walked around Hysan Place too and headed to DTF for lunch.  Given the weather condition,  we went on to shop around at Causeway bay (I covered Island Beverley which was a disappointment) and landed at Times Square. 

Line shop at Hysan Place 

DTF in HK is super expensive! 

Literally , this whole day was dedicated to shopping .. 

Hongkong Day 2 - Dragon's Back and City Plaza Mall

We started the day later than planned and we found some difficulty in waking up at 730am. Our hotel is 5 mins to Tsui Wah restaurant, and we dropped by for breakfast to savour the condensed milk toast bread. Slightly disappointed, I guess their standard seemed to have dropped from a few years back. 

 We took a mtr ride to Shau kei wan station and was shocked to see the longest queue at the bus stop.

The bus ride up was rather fast and we were at Shek O station in 15 mins (tip: to skip the bus queue,  get ready to hop onto the bus when the first few people in the queue decided to wait for the next bus for seats and you are okay to stand ).

It was quite a strenuous way up in the first 20 mins because the steps were steep. Thereafter, there were no proper steps built so it's a hike on natural stones around the trail. The scenery turned out to be really nice and it's definitely worth the effort to walk on both sides of the trail. 

We completed the whole hike in 2 plus hours and took a train to Tai Koo, where there's a big shopping mall for us to grab our lunch.  City Plaza has a many shops worth spending time on - Niko and..  , sports apparel,  muji,  uniqolo, ice-skating as  well. Lunch was lovely at Super sandwich (their pasta and sandwiches were really nice). We hang out at the mall for more than 3hrs.

Back in K11 and we decided to have mango shaved ice and panna cotta for dessert at Wired Green (Japanese restaurant). This is nice! 

Hongkong Day 1 - Mongkok

Start of our Year end overseas trip - Hong Kong!

The boys managed well on the plane without any air motion sickness pills this time round. We bought the airport express tickets in advance via Klook at a discounted price. Klook has few great prices to make use if you can decide your itinerary in advance.

On our way to hotel,  we took a airport shuttle bus and checked into the room earlier than the stipulated 3pm timeline.

We decided to explore Mongkok on the first day.  I checked out the highly recommended Aryle center which I read up prior to the trip. It was quite a disappointment because most of the clothes were of lower grade quality and can't be tried on.  We love one of the bubble tea stores on level 3 though :)

At Top building in Mongkok, this is where Ethan set his eyes on the plush toy..

Brought the boys to walk around Ladies market. One of the rare occasions they get to shop at a street market. They spent their allocated budgets for Fortnite keychains and I bought myself a small Hello Kitty pouch. One of the nights,  we came back here to get a backpack for Ethan ($14!).

Since sneakers street (Fa Yuen street) is nearby , we checked out the shops and bought a pair of Adidas shoes for Caden's school use next year.  Subsequently , we realised that the shoes in city gate outlets were cheaper if you are not fussed about the model/season of the shoes. 

End of 2017, Hello 2018

Finally managed to complete all my Nagoya-Osaka-Kanazawa-Takayama posts on the last day of the year.

This year has been such a tiring, fulfilling, year for me...

1) getting through P6 journey with sadness, tears, anxiety, happiness and relief at the end

2) dilemma in giving up lecturer job at RP

3) embarked back a full time job in HR

4) going through tantrum phases with Ethan, most of the times disappointed with tears..

Thankfully, the year ended with more happiness than disappointment for me. I am definitely looking forward to see more improvements in the boys' behaviors in 2018! And I ought to relax and enjoy like a kid too! 

Day 9: Nagoya - 12 Dec 2017

It had snowed heavily the night before.. and when we were about to check out in the morning to head back to Nagoya, it started snowing heavily as well... The boys were equally excited but I was frozen .. (-ve 6 degrees on this day)

dragging our luggages to the bus station

Never seen so much snow in my entire life.. hahaa..

heavy downpour

sadly.. approaching nagoya, there's no sight of snow..

I love Hirayu but to get there, it takes about an hour ride from Takayama station, and an hour back to Takayama station (and the bus tickets cost about S$50 per adult one-way). It will be more worthwhile to make a trip back here, if we were able to time the opening of the ski resorts perfectly.

Our ride from Takayama to Nagoya was very torturing as the express train stopped its service halfway and we had to transfer to a local train (which was long, and no seats). It took us near 6 hours to reach Nagoya, which was supposed to be about 3 hours !

Given the short timing we left in Nagoya - we did very minimal last minute shopping around the station area.

And we found this ramen and dumplings shop near takashimaya at level 13 of Nagoya station which was so good!

Summarizing my favourite shops in this trip:

1) All time no. 1 favourite: Niko and... http://www.nikoand.jp/

2) Rope Picnic http://www.ropepicnic.com/

3) Loft https://www.loft.co.jp/

4) Kitchen Kitchen http://www.kitchen-kitchen.jp/

5) Lush https://jn.lush.com/

6) Muji

7) Studio Clip http://www.studio-clip.jp/

8) Plaza in Kanazawa https://www.plazastyle.com/store/detail/?id=147

Hopefully, I can be back in Japan next year!

Day 8: Hirayu - 11 Dec 2017

We were woken up by the host mum's TV program which was switched on as early as 6am.. breakfast was served by 7am and this was the setting. Generally the food provided was nice but in super big portions that the kids had a lot of problems finishing them.

love these fermented beans which went very well with rice

we checked out early in the morning because it will be a long ride to our next destination. Morning scenes in Shirakawa-go is so beautiful..

We took a 50mins bus ride to Takayama, and then transferred another bus ride to Hirayu which took about an hour plus.

Ethan started to play with snow again at Hirayu.. the snow texture here is so fine and powdery which was very different with what we had come into contact with earlier.

After checking into our onsen (about 5 mins walk from the bus station), we went to a nearby cafe which was very cosy

We spotted a dog near the cafe and the boys were curious but held back in getting near it.

 while checking out the ski resort, we borrowed this mascot from the tourist centre..

We were directed to a nearby ski resort which was only a 15 min walk from the bus station. As it was windy and cold (-ve 2 to 3 degrees), this walk was very torturing for me.. but the boys seemed to be doing better than me!

Sadly the ski resort is only scheduled to open the next weekend, we couldn't ski but decided to hang around this area for them to play with snow..

Papa dug himself into the snow

so light and fluffy

sheet joy

started snowing slightly in the afternoon

returned back to our ryokan. This place is also very nice and comfortable. I love their onsen!

room has a view to the mountains

 At about 6pm, we braved the weather of negative 4 degrees out to have this hot udon..

 After dinner, we went back to Cafe Mustache again for their desserts..

 And then.. we went for onsen..

we can't do much here at Hirayu but I like the tranquility and the untouched nature. At night, the adults played MJ, while the kids were occupied with their own games..