When in Peking, eat Peking duck

Day 1 Part 2 (Wed, 19 Nov 2008)

This is supposed to be a travel, not a food blog, but we are such foodies that the meals tend to be highlights in themselves.

Dinner on our first day in Beijing was memorable to say the least. My cousin brought us to DaDong – one of the most celebrated Peking duck restaurants in Beijing. To give you an idea of how popular it is, my cousin made reservations for 7pm and we didn’t get a table until 7.45pm. The place was teeming with well-dressed locals and westerners – everyone was patiently waiting for a table, no one dared to complain. The restaurant is so overbooked that you’re lucky if you can get them to accept a reservation. This is practically unheard of in Beijing where new restaurants spring up everyday and the clientele is as fickle as the wind, in a city where gastronomic choices beckon at every corner.

At the waiting area of the restaurant, you can see an army of chefs behind a glass window roasting a factory line of ducks, at a large kiln.

We were starving by the time we got a table and if you weren’t overwhelmed yet, you would be when you saw the menu. A luxurious coffee table style book as thick as a telephone directory is presented to you – the menu. Every page has the name of a dish with a glossy picture – great for non Chinese-speaking westerners. Yet despite its western-friendliness, the food was distinctly Chinese, unlike the fakey stuff some of the fusion restaurants try to pull off. The restaurant regularly adds new, innovative dishes, such is the ingenuity of Chef Dong, the owner of the restaurant.

Of course we ordered the Peking duck – two in fact. According to my cousin and her friend who had joined us for dinner, this was the place with the best Peking duck. This is no idle boast. The duck, perfectly and freshly roasted, was carved in front of us and a waitress demonstrated the three ways of eating it – dipped in sugar, wrapped in skin with spring onion, or stuffed in 烧饼 (sesame biscuit) with radish and cucumber.

The duck was exquisite. I cannot say more. The skin was thin, crisp and without a drop of grease. The meat was tender, moist and soooo yummy. Each duck yielded two plates of duck (as in pic below) and I think one entire plate was consumed by Andre practically alone! He loved dipping it in sugar the most, and he unceremoniously licked the sugar off the plate.

We also ordered a rich, eggy tofu soup with chestnuts, mushrooms with goose liver, stir fried bamboo shoots, and another meat dish that I cannot, for the life of me, remember what. But it was all scrumptious.

My cousin's friend and colleague is a warm and incredibly hospitable person. She bought dinner, in fact. Great company, great food. No better welcome than this!

My cousin took home the two duck carcasses - duck porridge tomorrow!

The formidable Forbidden City

Day 1 Part 1 (Wed, 19 Nov 2008)

We had a leisurely start to the day since we’d only arrived in Beijing late last night. By the time we reached the apartment that my cousin (who’s hosting us) stays in, washed up, eaten some supper (we’re always hungry on holidays and our holiday had barely begun!) and went to bed, it was already 1.30am in the morning.

It’s wonderful to stay with family when you’re on holiday. Just a little aside, my cousin has been working with an MNC in Beijing for over 10 years. She stays in this super posh apartment within the city. This is the second time I’m staying with her, but the first time with my family. Thanks to her, we’re enjoying this terrific last-minute holiday. Thanks, 大姐!

When we woke up, breakfast was waiting for us. See? Perks! A quick call to the concierge (told you it was a posh place) and we had a taxi waiting for us to take us to Forbidden City which was to be our first tourist attraction. Enroute, Kenneth asked the cab driver which part of Forbidden City would be most interesting to children and the driver replied bluntly, “Nothing in Forbidden City is interesting to children!” There you go. Forbidden City wasn’t very far from the apartment but it still took us 45 mins due to the horrendous Beijing traffic. Here, hordes of cars, bikes and people move in multiple directions all at the same time - I've seen mothers fearlessly push their babies in strollers in front of oncoming traffic, forcing vehicles to screech to a halt or swerve to avoid them. Not for the faint-hearted.

We dropped at Tiananmen Square, but apart from the infamous incident years back, it wasn’t too interesting. Let me remind you that we are generally a theme-park kind of family, so the fact that we’re in Beijing is already a great leap of cultural faith – don’t expect any historical narratives of the trip.

What lodged in my memory more was the fact that it was COLD. Everyone had warned us it would be so, so we were dressed appropriately, but still… the winds were so cutting it took my breath away. I think it was only about 6 degrees but by golly, 6 degrees in Tokyo is a walk in the park compared to 6 degrees in Beijing! We were wearing about 3 layers each including down feather overcoats but it was still barely enough. We all wore woollen gloves but we had to keep wriggling our fingers to keep them from hurting. How on earth do the Beijing-ers take it? This is just the beginning of winter!

For most of the trip, Andre was dressed in what I call the Michelin Man look. He looked pretty funny but it kept him warm.

Anyway, we finally reached the entrance of the Forbidden City and were immediately hounded by swarms of touts who kept trying to lure us AWAY from the attraction, saying the main areas were under renovation and wouldn’t we prefer to have a day trip to Great Wall/ Summer Palace/xxx, guide included for only RMB xxx? After fending off a few of these, we bought tickets to what we thought was entry to the Forbidden City only to realise later that they were entrance tickets to one of the side attractions! Aiyoh… it was like an obstacle course, you had to navigate a series of ticket booths before you get to the one selling the actual tickets to the Forbidden City.

After returning the wrong tickets and buying the right ones, we finally entered the gates – and formidable gates they are too. I first visited Forbidden City three years ago when I was in Beijing, so it wasn’t quite as wow this time (that time, I was so awe-struck I stood stock-still every few steps just gaping). I can’t think of a way to describe it that would do it justice – it’s just magnificent. Here was where the emperor would live with his hundreds of concubines, thousands of eunuchs, generals, etc etc. It was a gilded cage on the grandest scale.

Again, I’m no historian, so any descriptions on this blog are purely from scant notes that we made from hurried web research before the trip. What amused my kids were the names of the halls and gates which sounded perfectly fine in Chinese but in English were totally grandious and hysterical. Like after we pass the Gate of Supreme Harmony, we come to the Hall of Supreme Harmony (where the Emperor performs the most important ceremonies), followed by the Hall of Complete Harmony (where the Emperor prepared for important rituals) followed by the Hall of Preserving Harmony (where the Ming Emperors changed their robes).

This courtyard just after the Gate of Supreme Harmony was where the panoramic scene of The Last Emperor was filmed.


Lesley-Anne and I had a fun time joking about what would happen if the Emperor was fickle about his wardrobe and the sedan bearers had to keep ferrying him to and fro the Hall of Preserving Harmony between his performing ceremonies and preparing for rituals. There was also the Hall of Abstinence, the Hall of Benevolence, the Palace of Concentrated Beauty. And these were just the ones we passed by, there were many, many more that we missed. (The Forbidden City is 1km by 1km in size, visiting all the halls and palaces was just impossible. Ok, impossible if you are a Philistine with two kids.)

Anyway, after you’ve seen the 8th hall, it starts to look the same. (Again, Philistine!) I started making up names of Halls, like the Hall of Absolute Boredom and the Hall of Extreme Yellowness (inspired by Andre’s outfit).

By then, the kids were pretty restless although to their credit, they didn’t complain. It was also cold. So we just made a few half-hearted explorations down unending corridors before ending up at the Imperial Garden near the exit.

It's very pretty with many picturesque spots and willow trees. There’s also the Hill of Accumulated Elegance where the Pavilion of Imperial Scenery sits (right pic), apparently a favourite lookout for the Emperor and his whole ching gang during festive occasions.

Exit the Forbidden City, cultural quota hit for the day! Time for lunch – kids perked up. We took a short cab ride to a restaurant recommended by my cousin. It's called 天地 一家 (no English name, sorry.)

It’s quite fancy with a koi pond and delicate yellow umbrellas as its signature décor. It was pretty pricey too. Kenneth and I ordered tie guan yin tea, not realising it costs RMB38 (S$8.50) each! But it is super grade tea - very refreshing, and no bitter aftertaste whatsoever. Look at the tea leaves! The food was scrumptious, even if a tad oily (like most Beijing food tend to be). We had some sliced Japanese pork (very tender), a crispy roast chicken (very crispy, Andre loved this!) with a bean sauce, and a dish of four types of seasonal vegetables.

Then it was a cab ride back to the apartment and a rest until dinner which so deserves its own post, so stay tuned!

Afterthoughts & tips on travelling to Tokyo Part 2

Places to Visit

I highly recommend a trip out to the country, the Tokyo outskirts are very beautiful and offer a nice change of scenery. But even if you decide to stay within Tokyo, there's lots to do. Obviously you need to cater to your family's tastes. We didn't bother with the many shrines and temples in Tokyo as they don't interest us. Other famous activities that we gave a miss included the Ginza shopping district (too upmarket), the Tsukiji fish market (too early), the Noh and Kabuki theatre shows (too cheem).

If you have kids, then I assume Disneyland and Disneysea are on your itinerary. But if these aren't enough to satisfy your kids' theme park appetites, Tokyo has lots of other theme parks - the Japanese are theme park crazy. There's Sanrio Puroland (Hello Kitty!), Sega Joypolis (Sonic the Hedgehog!), Fuji-Q Highland, LaQua at Tokyo Dome City (more for adults), just to name a few. Even some of the smaller districts boast their own theme parks. In Kinugawa near Tobu World Square where we went, there's Edo Wonderland - a theme park where everything is based on the Edo period. You can see ninja shows and even dress up like one!

In short, do what you enjoy. That's why we almost never go on package tours. It takes more effort and homework to design your own tour but you can be sure the itinerary is catered to your pace, and you only see and do what you like. If you do your planning well, chances are you'll find that you spend significantly less too.

Dates and Times

Since we have two schooling kids, we are able to travel only during the school holidays. So although we knew that June would be the rainy season for Japan, we had to take a chance, we didn't really have a choice.

Check out the peak periods for the specific place you're visiting. Eg. Nikko's peak season is autumn. So go there during that period if you want breath-taking scenery but be prepared for bumper-to-bumper traffic.

If you're going to visit theme parks, do try to avoid the school holidays or public holidays in Japan. Also try to go on weekdays instead of weekends. It will be a madhouse, especially at Disneyland. I am not exaggerating, the queues and crowds at Disneyland on weekdays, during low season, are bad enough. For the Disney parks, the mornings are the best, try to get there before opening and go for the most popular rides first. Plan for Fast Passes for maximum time saving (forgotten how it works? Go back to my blog.) The parks start to fill from 11am and they don't ebb until about dinner time. I can't speak for the other theme parks as we didn't visit those.

Other sights might have special time or day considerations. Eg. if you want to visit Harajuku, schedule it on a Sunday late morning, that's when the costume party is in full force. The morning peak hour rush at the train stations are legendary. Enroute to Mt Fuji near the Central Business District, from our coach, we saw a formidable sea of men looking identical in their suits, pouring out of a train station and waiting at a traffic light. Try not to schedule any travelling on trains, especially at the busy stations, before 9am. You will either get swept up with the crowd, get lost, or get crushed. The evening peak is not as bad as it's staggered over a few hours, but it can still get uncomfortable, especially if you have kids with you.

Oh yes, whatever you do, be on time! The Japanese don't fool around with their schedules. Eg. if you're going on the Mt Fuji day trip and the pickup time is 8.20am, don't be late. They will not, I repeat, will not wait for you.

Food

What is there to say that I haven’t already said? Japan is a food haven and I hope through my blog, I’ve managed to debunk the myth that eating well in Tokyo has to cost a bomb. You just need to know where to look. Many restaurants have displays in their shop windows, you can check out the selection and prices before entering the restaurant. I would caution against going into restaurants without knowing the price range first.

There are also many street vendors in Tokyo, selling food like pizza or yakitori (grilled meat on a skewer), food that kids tend to enjoy anyway. There are many tiny noodle stalls where you can get a bowl of ramen or udon for S$5 but often at these places, you eat standing up at the counter, which makes them unsuitable for kids. Kaiten sushi is conveyor belt sushi and can be readily found around Tokyo. You've already read in my blog about the sushi there being cheap and good.

Of course, Bento boxes are a good bet. These come complete with chopsticks, paper napkin, even a toothpick, so they’re good on the go or to bring back to your hotel. (One Bento box we bought in Nikko came with a whole raw egg in its shell, meant to be cracked over the beef rice bowl. We heated it up in hot water and had soft boiled egg for breakfast.)

As a rule of thumb, the basements of supermarkets are the food halls and they offer the most choices for takeaway food. Here, they give out samples of all kinds of food and you can choose from rows of Bento boxes containing sushi, grilled meats, tempura, as well as counters selling croquette, oden (stew), tempura and other types of finger food. This is just my opinion but if you are ever faced with a choice between beef or chicken, take the beef. The beef we ate throughout the trip was exceptional.

And when all else fails, there's always Japanese fast food like MOS burger and Yoshinoya. Or *whispers* McDonald's or KFC. This should be the ultimate last resort because I think it's a tragedy to be in Tokyo and eating at McDonald's. (Andre heartily disagrees).

Final tips

Use the takuhaibin! If you’ve forgotten how it works, go back to my blog here. Using the takuhaibin will save you a lot of hassle, especially if you’re not going to stay put in one hotel throughout your trip. The service can be found at most hotels, at convenience stores and even at little shops. Near the Nikko train station, the service was offered at a little newspaper shack that didn’t look like it could withstand a strong breeze. It looked like a make-shift place, yet it offered the service.

If you're using the takuhaibin, it pays to pack smart. We packed one suitcase for Tokyo, one for Nikko. At any one time, we would have at least one suitcase with us, so we didn't have to worry about whether we were short of anything. In fact, most of the hotels we stayed at provided most of the amenities we needed, down to toothbrushes, so we didn't even have to pack that!

If you want to research Tokyo as a travel destination, chances are you would go to the library and borrow heaps of guidebooks like Frommers, Fodor and Lonely Planet. I know I did. I've read all of them and I feel that they all say more or less the same thing. They recommend similar hotels, similar restaurants, similar sights, sometimes even written in the same way. By all means, look up those books, I'm not saying they don't offer any valuable information. But do supplement your research by searching actual experiences and reviews online.

Eg. all these guidebooks list the Tsukiji fish market as a must-see and how the sushi they serve up from the fish freshly caught is a must-try. I did a search and came across an account about how a tourist well-versed in fish grades discovered that he had ordered the top grade plate of sushi at a stall but was served a 2nd grade one. He complained and they replaced his order with the correct one, but he then saw them do exactly the same thing to other unsuspecting tourists! A generally honest society doesn't mean there are no crooks. You won't find that sort of information on Lonely Planet.

If you want a fun read of a tourist’s impression of Japan, I recommend Dave Barry Does Japan. It’s NOT a guide book. It’s a comic travelogue by a very, very funny writer. It left me in stitches. I first read it ten years ago when Tokyo was furthest from my mind and read it again before we left for Tokyo. It’s still hilarious.

And that rounds up my blog for Tokyo, Japan. I'm not sure when I can write another travel post, unless it's of past trips, since there is nothing on the horizon for now. Next year, Lesley-Anne will be sitting for her PSLE exams and her teacher has already "strongly discouraged" any travel next year until after the exams. Maybe end of next year? I wonder if I can stay sane till then.

So for now, it's sayonara and arigato gozaimasu for reading!

Afterthoughts & tips on travelling to Tokyo Part 1

Writing this blog has been lots of fun, but it has been frustrating too, no thanks to the wonkiness of the Blogger formatting. Everything would look hunky dory on the screen, then when I publish the post, I would see pictures out of alignment and large chunks of text bunched together without spaces between paragraphs. I would go back and edit, re-publish post and... again! Everything would randomly jumble up and look completely messed up, like some malfunctioning puzzle.

So in the end, I had to resort to editing the HTML code. And I know zilch about HTML code. I would pore over each section of text, trying to guess what represents a line, what represents a paragraph, trying not to accidentally delete something I didn't know how to replace. The formatting ended up taking significantly longer than the actual writing!

But enough of my blogging woes. After this trip, I've come to the conclusion that Tokyo is a great family holiday destination. Here's why:

• It's safe and the people are scrupulously honest.
• The Japanese love children, and kids pay half fare for almost everything.
• There's such a variety of sights and activities, you can find something to interest everyone.
• Everything functions like clockwork and on schedule, making it easy to plan.
• I've only mentioned this about 1,000 times - the food is superly duper.

Some things that might be slight obstacles in Tokyo:

• To say things can be pretty pricey is an understatement.
• Minimal English. Although the younger generation study English in school, the focus is on written, not spoken English so they don't speak or understand it well.

I've compiled some tips about travelling in Tokyo with children. If you're like me, wanting a good holiday with minimum hiccups while keeping to, not exactly a shoestring but a reasonable budget, then maybe my sharing of what I'd done and experienced would be helpful to you.

Accommodation

Accept that hotel rooms tend to be tiny in Japan. It's difficult to find rooms that sleep 4 or more (but not impossible - I did it). For a family of 4, the usual practice is to get 2 rooms that sleep 2 each. But this generally means paying more for the same class of hotel. If one or more of your kids are pre-schoolers, you might be able to fit into a room that sleeps 3 and share. This is workable especially with ryokans, since futons can be placed side by side.

Rooms with attached baths are also more expensive and harder to find. Most ryokans have common baths.

With kids, you need convenience. Try to stay at a hotel near a train station or at least just a short cab ride away (and by short, I mean time, not just distance. Traffic in central Tokyo can be horrendous and it can take a long time just to travel a short distance, exponentially pushing up your cab fare). The first and last hotel of your trip should also be near a mode of transport to and from the airport. You don't want to have to walk long distances or negotiate steps with heavy luggage.

The Welcome Inn Reservation Centre compiles a list of hotels throughout Japan which offer affordable rates to foreigners. It's very good - I found the Teddy Bear House in Nikko and Hotel Edoya via this website.

Travelling within Tokyo

Trains are by far the easiest way to get around. Some websites recommend buying the JR Pass which gives you unlimited rides on the JR rail. But after some calculation, I've concluded that the JR Pass is only worthwhile if you're going to travel to another city out of Tokyo, eg Osaka. If you're staying within Tokyo, the JR Pass is very expensive. The JR Pass also doesn't cover travel on the subway, which I've found is generally more convenient and user-friendly.

Try to plan the route beforehand (ie before you reach Tokyo). Use the route finder, it will save you time and money. But still, bring both the JR and subway maps with you. Both the JR and the subway offer pre-paid cards (Suica for JR, Pasmo for subway), similar to Singapore's EZ-link card, if you don't want the hassle of buying tickets before each trip. There are also child Suica and Pasmo. Both types of cards can be used interchangeably on JR and subway lines. However, we didn't get those because of the hassle of going to a station to get a refund at the end of our trip and there's a charge of Y210 for the refund service. Anyway, it's no biggie buying tickets before each trip. If you can't figure out how much your journey costs, just buy the cheapest ticket and pay the difference at your disembarking station.

As I've mentioned, avoid cabs except for short rides. Starting fare for the 1st 2km is Y710 (S$9.30). If you get lost, the best solution is to get into a cab and ask the driver to take you to the nearest train station.

Language

The Japanese language comprises 3 systems - Hiragana, Katagana and Kanji. I memorised the Hiragana system but obviously you don't have to do that. If you read Chinese, you would recognise some of the Kanji characters. Although the pronunciation is different, the meanings are the same. I brought a pocket Japanese dictionary with me, you can also bring one of those handy electronic instant translators.

It's useful to know some of the basic words and phrases. The Japanese warm up to you when they see you're trying to speak their lingo.

• Konichiwa - good afternoon or hello (use this liberally!)
• Ohayo gozamasu (don't pronounce the 'u')- good morning
• Konbanwa - good evening
• Arigato - thank you
• Sayonara - good-bye
• Sumimasen - excuse me
• Hai - yes
• Gomen nasai - I'm sorry
• Kudasai - please (usually placed at the end of a phrase)
• Wakarimasen - I don't understand (my kids loved this and used it all the time!)
• Ikura desuka? - (don't pronounce the 'u') - How much is it?
• (place) doko desuka? - Where is (place)?
• Toire - toilet (very important when you have kids!)

Some guidebooks give the Japanese version of phrases like "Can you tell me how to get to the train station." I think this is, to put it bluntly, stupid. If you say that, the person will almost certainly answer you in Japanese and you won't be able to understand a single word.

What I do is use a combination of basic Japanese phrases, pidgin English and sign language. Eg. if I want to buy tickets for 2 adults and 2 children at the train station, I go: "Sumimasen," show 2 fingers, gesture tall person, show 2 fingers, gesture short person, and say: "Ikura desuka?" If he answers in Japanese, I smile sweetly and say "Wakarimasen" (accompanied by shaking of head). He will then punch out the numbers on a calculator and show it to me. You may laugh but I'm telling you, it works! (Of course, check if he speaks English first, lah).

If you really need help, try to stop a younger person (more likely to have learnt English), speak slowly and use few key words. Instead of: "Can you please tell me where I can find a doctor as my son is sick", say: "Sick. Doctor? Where?" If that doesn't get through, try writing it down. The Japanese can read English better than they can understand it aurally.

I printed out all the key words and phrases and pasted them in a little notebook which I carried with me all the time. It also included printouts of all the names and addresses of the hotels we stayed at and places we were planning to go to in Japanese, so I could easily flash them at cab drivers when necessary, or at the concierge for filling in the takuhaibin forms.

Packing Food

I always pack snacks when I'm travelling with kids as you never know when they'll be hungry. In Tokyo, this is unlikely to be a problem, you can get a dazzling array of snacks from convenience stores and vending machines that are located along practically every street.

Drinks too. You'll be spoilt for choice. Their coffee vending machines alone offer hot, iced, decaf, caf, extra caf, cappucino, cafe au lait and in different brands. One type of drink you'll find at all their vending machines is green tea. Bottled, canned or in a cup, the Japanese drink this all the time. They hardly drink water.

You only need to pack snacks if you're travelling to the outskirts or suburbs. In Nikko, the shops close early, by 5pm there was hardly anything open. Our hotel was located within a forest, so no shops. In those cases, yes, do pack your own snacks. Mini boxed cereal and biscuits keep well.

What I found lacking however, was fruit. The fruit I saw at the supermarket were the high-end ones (maybe we didn't look in the right place). Even at the convenience store, they were selling bananas by the piece and if I recall correctly, each banana was more than S$1 each. Luckily, we had brought a few packs of Sunsweet dried prunes - they are handy and they come in resealable packs, so they keep well. Other dried fruit like apricots would work as well.

Another interesting titbit - while many hotels in other parts of the world offer tea and coffee making facilities in the room, in Tokyo, most of them only offer ocha sachets. This is especially true for the ryokans. So if you need your caffeine fix while you're in the room, make sure you pack your coffee sachets or Earl Grey. And don't forget your sugar and creamer sachets if you need those. (I had Super 3-in-1 with me. With 2 hyper kids in a small room, it was a life-saver!)

Part 2 coming up...

A dose of art and eating our way out of Tokyo

Day 9 (Tues, 3 June 2008)

Last day in Japan. I'd spent months planning for this trip and it felt like it was all over in a flash. But, no time for brooding! We're determined to enjoy this day to the fullest.

We didn't have a lot planned, our flight was at 5.30pm and we wanted to have a leisurely day. Out of curiosity, we went to explore the hot bath at our hotel. Yes, Hotel Edoya actually has its own outdoor hot bath on the top floor.

There are two separate bath areas, one for men, the other for ladies. When you open the door to either one, there is a common shower area that looks like this. Basically, you strip down to your birthday suit, sit on one of the stools and wash your entire body clean with soap and water. In full view of everyone! (We were very early, no one was around, that's why we could take pictures).

Once you are clean, you go past a sliding glass door where there is an outdoor bubbling hot bath. You soak inside and enjoy the soothing powers of the water, as relaxed as you can get sitting stark naked in a public place. You can bring a towel but it's to be folded and put on top of your head (??) It's considered very rude to dunk the towel in the water. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP! Forget all the demure ladies you see on Japan Hour with a towel wrapped around their bodies when they're in a hot bath, that's just for the benefit of the camera.

For such a conservative society, I'm amazed that they have such an uninhibited practice. The Japanese are as fanatical about their hot baths as Singaporeans are about food.

Needless to say, we didn't indulge in a hot bath that day (and probably never will). Instead, we went back to our room and packed up to leave Hotel Edoya. Check-out time is 12pm and the hotel can store your luggage for you, but we didn't want to have the hassle of going out and returning to collect our luggage, so we checked out early and brought our luggage with us. To get back to Narita Airport, we were going to take the Keisei Skyliner at Keisei Ueno, so we had earlier planned to explore the Ueno area that day.

Here are the kids as we were waiting for a cab. As you can see, it was another wet day. By the way, you see these transparent umbrellas everywhere in Japan. They're very cheap (less than S$5) but also made of the flimsiest plastic. Often, within a couple of hours of usage, you would find the material tearing from the top, leaving gaping holes for the rain to seap through. Another evidence of the disposable culture in Japan.

We managed to hail a cab and piled in. I told the driver "Keisei Ueno" and showed him a printout of the name in Japanese, just in case. Without a word, he started driving. I was a little disconcerted. Did he hear me? I repeated "Keisei Ueno", a little louder this time. Again silence. I decided he just didn't want to acknowledge me. Maybe he was upset that we had wet his cab. That was the very first and only impolite Japanese we had met on the trip.

Keisei Ueno station was just a 7min drive away. We went to buy our Keisei Skyliner tickets and then we left our luggage at the lockers in the train station. I had done extensive research on this, even to the extent of finding out the size of lockers available at the station! What, you didn't think we were going to explore Ueno with bulky luggage, did you? There was even a nice elderly man, the keeper of the lockers, who tried to help us stuff all our luggage into one single ginormous locker so we would pay less.

Feeling much less encumbered, we headed out towards the National Museum of Western Art (NMWA). Ueno is home to quite a few museums - the National Science Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the NMWA. It's all located around or close to Ueno Park which is next to the Keisei Ueno and Ueno stations.

Why the NMWA? Well, in Japan, we'd experienced theme parks, nature and city shopping. Let's round it up with some culture. I've always liked western art, especially of the 19th and 20th century Impressionist painters, and the NMWA has arguably the best collection outside of the western world.

It definitely did not disappoint. It has an extensive collection of Monet and art pieces by the great masters like Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro, Gauguin and Van Gogh. The highlight and signature masterpiece of the NMWA is undoubtably Claude Monet's Water Lilies. It is absolutely stunning.

I'm just going to show a couple of other famous works, although there were many beautiful ones.













Roses by Vincent Van Gogh (left), Woman with Hat by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (right)

In the museum basement, there was a window that showed how the museum was built to withstand earthquakes. As you can see in the picture, it is fitted with an earthquake shock absorbing device in its foundation.


Outside the museum in the garden are several Rodin sculptures, the most famous one of course, being The Thinker.



There was another that particularly intrigued Andre. It was The Gates of Hell, also by Rodin. He was examining the sculpture with morbid fascination. I had to explain to him that it was the sculptor's impression of hell, not that he actually visited and saw what hell was like! (Trust me, I'm pretty sure that's what he was thinking). He was disturbingly absorbed with the graphic depictions of torment. Hmm... maybe that would motivate him to be good??

Satiated with culture, we then looked for a place to satisfy our stomachs. Lunch was at a restaurant within the huge Ueno station. There's actually a large shopping arcade inside the station. Ueno station is not to be confused with Keisei Ueno, the former is operated by the JR rail company. The stations are across the road from each other.

Lunch was not very memorable, hence no pictures. What was more interesting was the array of takeaway food sold at the arcarde, as shown here. Everything looked so appetising!

Throughout the trip, we ate a fair number of Bento boxes. You might wonder if we were sick of it, but honestly, the variety is so great that I think you can have a different one every night for a month and still have not tried everything! Here is a picture of how they are typically sold in shops or supermarkets.

And this is a picture of a counter selling just croquette. I'm making a special mention of croquette because I think they are truly exceptional. They're sold almost everywhere in Tokyo and are perfect as a side dish or a snack. Light and crisp on the outside, creamy on the inside. The standard one is potato, but there are so many other flavours like shrimp, fish and vegetable. I saw one with the chinese word for "cow" on the label and I asked the lady, "beef"? She shook her head, did a little scissors action with her fingers and said "kani". Crab! The "cow" word actually stood for "milk", as it was crab filling with a cream sauce. It was delicious.

Immediately after lunch, the kids still managed to find room in their tummies to down a couple of pizza buns from the bakery. We probably each gained about 2kg in Japan. But hey, it's our last day here, we're entitled to binge a little, right? Which meant it was time for...

DESSERT!!!!

We came across a little dessert shop tucked away in a corner. It offers Japanese desserts of different kinds but mostly featuring the favourite flavours of the locals - red bean and green tea.

We love red bean, especially the azuki bean used by the Japanese, so we placed an order for something which had red bean ice-cream, red bean paste, red beans, mandarin orange slices and some unidentified white jelly slices.

I don't think Kenneth and I had much, the kids polished off most of it.

With bulging bellies, we staggered back to Keisei Ueno station to collect our luggage and catch the Skyliner back to Narita Airport. This is another super fast luxury train, complete with vending machines. And rotatable seats, of course.

We're smiling here but you know we were all reluctant to leave this wonderful city.

At Narita Airport, would you believe we went to a cafe and ate more food? (Don't let our diminuitive frames fool you, they can hold a lot of fuel). And then we spent the rest of our loose change on... MORE FOOD! We bought snacks that were not available in Singapore. I was just astonished by the different types of Glico Pocky available. Brazilian Pudding! Coconut! Edamame bean! Blueberry! We also bought a box of azuki bean caramel (which tasted like red bean Fruitella) and Pringles in guacamole flavour.

So it's sayonara Tokyo. We really had fun, we would love to be back. This has been one of, if not the most, enjoyable family vacations we've had.

Lesley-Anne moaned on the plane, "now we have nothing to look forward to." Well, at least we can relive our memories while munching on our Edamame bean Pocky.