1st stop.. Tokyo Sea Life Park
Day 6, the parents are tired carrying the stroller plus girl going up & down the stairs. This morning we got them to walk instead. :)
The train ride to Tokyo Sea Life Park is pretty the same as going to Tokyo Disney Resort, just that we stopped at 1 station earlier.
This place is basically a park with the sea life park intergated.
5min walk to get to the entrance but I think we took longer than that.
Bea wanted to take a picture with the giant penguin like Christal but only from a distance.
Tokyo Disney Resort in the background.
That's how small the cup noodle will shrink under sea pressure.
The reduced scale of the submarine.
Giant tuna swimming in the aquarium.
We had McDonalds for lunch.
That's how cold Jenny felt. :)
2nd stop.. Shinjuku Gyoen
One of the popular park to see cherry blossom. It was about 50% bloomed when we were there. This park has more than a 1000 cherry blossom trees all spread throughout the park. We didn't walked through the whole park, just find a spot, took some pictures & enjoyed the surroundings. Partly cos we spent a little too much time at 1st stop which we didn't anticipated for it.
Our itinerary was planned for Ueno park which has majority of the cherry blossom trees planted on both sides of the footpath, it will look more beautiful. But from the cherry blossom report online (every 2 days), the park looks very crowded so we decided to changed to this park instead. Ueno park was 70% bloom then.
Some shots of the cherry blossom. :)
3rd stop.. Ghibli Museum
Getting around with the trains required us to simply ASK, especially the private lines. To get to Mitake, we were required to take the Chuo line. However, Chuo line is available in 6 platforms! So ask & the chances is it won't get wrong though we were still a little worry that we get up the wrong train due to language barrier.
An animation museum of Miyazaki Hayao's Studio Ghibli. If you have been following my blog, you will know that I like his animations. And I have been following his animations since I was in secondary school days? This is a must visit place for me.
Photography was strictly not allowed indoor. These photos were taken discretly with our iphones until we were warned not to again. Basically every rooms were stationed with staff. Thanks Mervyn for some of the photos.
Showcase of the history & techniques of animation.
This is Miyazaki Hayao at work from one of the window above.
Spirited Away
My Neighbor Totoro
This thing rotates & becomes 3D with the Catbus, Oh Totoro, Chu Totoro, Chibi Totoro, Mei and Satsuki coming "alive". The few pictures above showing the step by step of different animation.
This is a picture on the toilet window.
Showcase of his sketches.. Grave of the Fireflies
His most recent production.. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
The entrance fee also include a 15min shows of Studio Ghibli shorts that are exclusive to the museum. Though it's in Japanese but by watching the animation, we could laugh together with the locals too.
DH bought a few collections from the shop for me. Thanks Dear!
Life-sized robot from Castle in the Sky on the rooftop garden.
Some exterior views of the museum.
We had hotdog & ice-cream before we left the place.
This is the cafe.
Porco Rosso sign board
Zoom in & see the Totoro plates & cups displayed. These are used to served the guests.
This is the museum bus that we took to & fro from the nearest train station.
How I wish I was able to get an earlier time slot & spend more time there. Even getting the collection & looking at the exhibits were so rush. But still thank God that He provided the tickets for me to get there. :)
I had a 'hard' time trying to get hold of the tickets. Yes, the tickets are available in Singapore but it is at double the price and with conditions of a day of hotel booking with the agency here. Only source without terms is in Japan from Lawson. They do accept online reservation but tickets must be pick up from Lawson within 3 days of reservation. As the date gets nearer to our trip, the tickets were running fast too, the fact that it was school holiday. I was monitoring the tickets online every 2 days. Even called Ana if she could check out with the HK agent. But the conditions were very different in HK, only residents are allowed to get the tickets from HK. Desperately wanting to get hold of the tickets, I even prayed about it. ;-p
Budi (Ana's hubby) was in town and overheard our conversation. He told me to call the hotel concierge for help. My reaction was but the hotel was not reserved using my credit card, it was Mervyn's credit card. Desperatley wanting to get hold of the very last slot of tickets, I went ahead to call the hotel & explained to them, asking them to get the tickets from Lawson for me. Thank God they agreed to help and managed to secure the tickets charged to my credit card. So we managed to get tickets for 31-03-2010, 4pm.. that is the last day of March and the last time slot to visit the museum. Our flight home was on 01-04-2010. Truly God's miracle!! Mervyn, Jenny & Brian knows how much I wanted to visit this place. :)
Time to settle for dinner after the museum, walking around Mitaka to find a eating place.
We found Yoshinoya.
The meals served there are very different from Singapore. But it was yummy.
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