Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Zekezoned Tokyo, Japan

It was Japan time again for the little boy, this time in Tokyo.

Zeke is a real trooper in diy trips like this and you really see that he is enjoying the trip. He didn't cry once in the trip and never complained (only when he got hungry and was craving Jollibee,there wasn't any in Tokyo!)

We strive to give Zeke more memories of trips with his family and extended family because we know that this will be what he will remember and treasure when he grows up as I remember all my trips with my family even when I was young.

More than toys and parties, we'd really like to invest in travel so he sees what the world has to offer.



Random pet shop in Shibuya. Zeke really wanted to buy this Chihuahua. Even now that we are back home, he continues to tell stories of his future dog. 

We stayed in an Airbnb and we would buy Zeke pancakes or waffles or cooked rice and spam so that he can have breakfast before we leave for our trip for the day

We ate twice in Han No Daidokoro Shibuya. I swear you will not look at beef the same way again after tasting the yakiniku here. 

At Senso-Ji Temple Asakusa with a random Japanese girl

More girls!

Strawberries from Tsukiji Market are really sweet

Lake Kawaguchi 

Team Lab's Borderless 

At Ikspiari Mall outside of Tokyo Disneysea

Random elevator selfie in Tokyo Disneysea
While we were in the long lines for the rides, look who was sleeping

Toy Story Mania ride

We didn't go inside Legoland here but he wanted a picture with this guy

At Odaiba

The Unicorn Gundam

At Team Lab, you can draw and they will scan it and you will see your artwork come to life around the walls and floors of the room

More Team Lab

Wakanda Forever pose. You watched Black Panther before leaving to Tokyo, thus this pose

The iconic Tokyo tower

In the observatory level, there are glass floors where you can step on and look down 

View at night

Amazing Tokyo Tower

Appreciating the sight in Lake Kawaguchi

We didn't catch full Autumn but there were several trees already turning red

Lake Kawaguchi Musical Forest

We were lucky to see Mt. Fuji

Mt. Fuji

At the sky garden of one of the malls in Yokohama

Vintage Ship in Yokohama

Back view of the Cosmo Clock Ferris wheel

Odaiba

Ride the clear gondolas for better views 

The cup noodle museum

Cosmo Clock

No visit to Japan is complete without Ramen. Here's our favorite Ichiran

Lucky to have seen the top floors of the Shibuya Sky which opened just in time for our visit

At Meiji-Jingu Shrine

Walking to Meiji-Jingu

Look at that marbling of the beef. Again at Han no Daidokoro

Views from above
It was also our first time to use the Lounge perks so we used the new PAGGS lounge in the NAIA Terminal 3. Here's the selection of food.

Nachos!

Assorted Fruits

Magnolia Ice Cream, Yey!

Coffee

Juice

They had beef, rice, siomai etc. 

Arrozcaldo

Heading to our boarding gate

And of course, Hachiko
In gist, this is our itinerary:
Day 1 - Shibuya Sky, Shibuya Crossing
Day 2 - Yokohama Cup Noodle Museum, Cosmo World
Day 3 - Mt. Fuji and Gotemba outlet
Day 4 - Odaiba
Day 5 - Disney Sea
Day 6 - Asakusa & Senso-ji Temple

Till the next adventure.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Zekezoned Singapore & Malaysia - Birthday Bonanza

For the entire first half of the year, Zeke was looking forward to go to Legoland for his birthday. And since there was a very timely holiday this August 21 and 26, we took the opportunity to go and celebrate. The energetic toddler's current addiction is Ninjago and the Transformers so we planned to go to both Legoland Malaysia and Universal Studios Singapore

Day 1
Our flight out was at 6am so we are awake really early but Zeke was so cooperative. The flight was uneventful and we slept all through it. I booked a van transfer straight from Changi airport to Legoland Malaysia from Sgmytrips for a supposed 180 SGD to and from Malaysia. The advantage here is you do not need to go down the border to fall in line in immigration. However, since its Mac and I's first time in Malaysia, we still needed to go down but straight to their office to do biometrics. It only took 5 minutes.

We arrived in Legoland around 12 noon and there were so many lego bricks to keep Zeke entertained, even from just the lobby. Check in however was at 4pm so we just decided to get our theme park tickets and leave our luggages in the concierge.

We went first to the water park. Zeke is a real water baby!

We left the water park at around 4pm to check in and freshen up. Upon entering the Ninjago room, Zeke went straight to the treasure hunt! He knew this because he would always ask to watch youtube videos of other kids who had previously stayed in the Legoland Hotel. After 2 tries, we finally got the combination code correct and got the lego toys. Yey.

Since the aquarium Sealife was gonna be closed at 6pm and we still had time, we decided to visit it already so that we can dedicate our full day in Legoland the next day. The aquarium is fairly small but there is one interactive portion where you get to touch the starfish.

We went to the Medini Mall accross the Legoland Theme park to buy dinner after and since we had a very early day, we slept really early. The Medini Mall had a Burger King, a very expensive convenience store, KFC and a Chinese restaurant

Day 2:

It was a very hot day! We went to a lot of rides since Zeke already met most of the height requirements except that the horse ride required him to be 4yo already. So he didnt get to ride that.

Zeke was so funny in the fast rides because he said he didn't want to anymore because "nagugulat tyan ko" . I keep on further encouraging him to be brave.

We enjoyed the Ninjago ride and also bought Lego toys that weren't available in the Philippines.

Our pick up to go to Singapore was scheduled at 4pm however the driver said he was coming form KL and would be arriving at around 7pm. We didnt want to waste time waiting so we decided to cancel that and had arranged a taxi from Legoland Hotel. This taxi dropped us off in Queens Street. Grab is not allowed to transport passengers from Malaysia to Singapore and vice versa anymore. The taxi cost 90SGD.

Upon arrival at the bus terminal in Singapore, we just took a 9SGD Grab because we had luggage and didn't want to really commute.

We stayed in Hotel Jen Orchard Gateway because location wise, it is just above the Somerset MRT station which is accessible to places we wanted to go to.

Day 3:

Before we went to Universal Studios, we went to the ticketing office in the MRT station to get Zeke a child concession ticket which will allow him to ride the MRT for free till he is 7 years old.

Zeke was less than a month's shy of 4 years old and USS tickets are free for children 0-3 so yey! We paid through klook around P2,600.00 each for the entrance ticket.

We went straight to the Transformers ride and waited first for Bumblebee and Optimus Prime to come out. Zeke had such a blast! As usual, rides were so long for all the rides but we made sure we still rode the transformers ride (which was really similar to the Ninjago ride). That was a 60 minute wait in line but good thing Zeke was so behaved.

Day 4:

Decided to leave the hotel a little later to be able to take advantage of the beautiful rooftop pool.

We want back to Resorts World Sentosa, this time to ride the Luge. We all had so much fun going down the Luge but again Zeke got scared of the ride in the airlift because it was so high which I actually found really funny.

Day 5:

Zoo day! We went to Singapore Zoo and the River Safari. I guess we were already tired this day so we didnt get to really walk around the huge Zoo. haha.

We went to the newly re-opened Funan mall to buy electronics stuff and then back to Orchard to meet with Mac's friends

Day 6:

Going home day! Flight was still at 2pm but we spent the entire morning packing and upon arrival at the airport just went to take quick pictures of the Jewel at Changi.

All the pictures after the jump:

Meet up with Mac's friends. We ate at Marche, a European restaurant

At the Rooftop pool of Hotel Jen

Amazing work of architecture. Changi Airport's Jewel which can be found in Terminal 1

Hotel Jen by Shangri-la really lived up to the Shangri-La brand. They thought of everything, they had a vendo in all their guest room floors for those midnight hunger pangs and they also provide an ice and water dispenser which was really useful if you had your own water tumblers, you can refill your water every morning to bring on your travels everyday. Upon checkout, they also have these luggage carts. 

At the Funan Mall there was a claw machine area at the top floor. These machines were really from Japan and not rigged. We were able to get these stuff toys! 

At the MRT

We also watched the Gardens by the Bay Light show. Since August was the founding month of Singapore, their theme was the songs of Singapore

While waiting for the light show, they have a grassy area in front of the Food hall where you can have a picnic while you wait. 

Happy boy at the Luge

Water baby

Enjoying the rooftop pool

The Waterworld show was too loud for the boy

Finally saw both Bumblebee and Optimus Prime

The mandatory USS globe picture

Early morning swim

Legos Legos everywhere

Wall climbing in the Ninjago area

Lego car

What's interesting inside Legoland Hotel is that their Lego mascots come out at times

Sealife