Hi internet strangers,
As promised, I'm back with another post. This monthly blogging might just work out...
February went by so quickly. You'll probably know it's the Year of the Horse (fyi, Feb 17 2026 to Feb 5 2027) and it's the Fire Horse this round, not that it means anything. The Fire element and Horse zodiac occurs once every 60 years. It's Hub's year. The next time a Fire Horse year comes round, hubs will be 120 years old.
Remember the last time I travelled with my fam to Bangkok, and there was a big fight between my daughter and hubs involving a coffee drink and digging through a rubbish bin and I swore I'll never travel with them again? Well, seems I forgot all about it and we all booked a trip to Japan (Okinawa and Tokyo) to escape Chinese New Year. Lol, I hate Chinese New Year celebrations so much that travelling with family who are constantly arguing didn't seem so bad.
We were away for about 12 days and we only blew up at one another once. When we returned to Singapore, we were still friends, lol.
Okinawa
We went to Okinawa first via a layover at Fukuoka. From Singapore, we took a SQ flight. Service is usually good although I can't say the same for the seats. Always too little legroom. We didn't take a direct flight to Okinawa because the airline that we were considering - Scoot is miserable for long flights. Anyway, I discovered my body wasn't designed for taking 2 flights within a day. And to make matters worse, the domestic flight from Fukuoka to Okinawa was extremely shitty. It was only around 2 hours but 3/4 of the flight the airplane was rattling and shaking. I honestly thought I was going to die on that flight. I had this strange feeling on the flight - like my entire body disappeared and then reappeared as if I was put back together again. Anyway I've learnt my lesson. I'll never take 2 flights in one day again.
We stayed at Naha City and you see 2 things everywhere - Shisa statues, Shisa merch. Shisa are traditional Okinawan lion-dog statues which comes in a pair with one open mouth and one closed mouth. The stuffed Shisa I bought is open mouth so it wards off evil. If the mouth is closed, it keeps goodness inside.
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| I regret both the tongue and the hat |
We even ate Shisa pancakes. It wasn't very good. The "official store" selling it was closed and we bought from another one not knowing better.
The temperature in Okinawa wasn't low but strangely I felt very cold probably due to the wind. I had to wear Uniqlo's heattech innerwear and my down jacket for god's sake and hubs was wearing short sleeved shirts.
Another common thing I saw was the hibiscus. Even though hibiscus is also found in Singapore, I couldn't resist buying a fake one from Donki. (it's a hibiscus hair clip)
Hubs and daughter went on a boat humpback whale watching out on the Pacific ocean. I slept in because I was recovering from the 2 flights and also I don't do well on a boat.
In Naha City, the main transport system is monorail and buses. The monorail is constantly crowded especially when there are tourists likes us with our luggage. The locals must hate us.
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| Us doing the Shisa pose |
Food
While my daughter's goal in Japan was to acquire all her favourite character's and favourite celebrity's merch, I had nothing specific I wanted because I have so much stuff at home already. So me and hubs just tagged along with daughter wherever she wanted to go. One thing I like to do is to enjoy the food and I think I managed to achieve that somewhat.
My first meal at Naha airport was a bit disappointing. The taste was alright. The rice perfect. But there were a few bones in the salmon. The bones made me jittery and lose my appetite.
We came across Hands Cafe and we had to eat there as we often go to Hands (the shop). However, food is not their forte. I had curry and much to my surprise there were only tiny bits of meat in it. Like really, really tiny. I did enjoy the side dishes.
The day we went to the aquarium, we had buffet at a restaurant before we entered the aquarium. We were starving and at first the food was really good but after a while, all the food tasted the same.
I ate twice, the same amazing onigiri from a stall at a supermarket. The taste is very simple but the addition of a vegetable in the salmon made it heavenly.
We ate a lot of food in Okinawa but these were the ones I remembered.
Hotel
We stayed at Hotel Azat Naha and it is a basic hotel. I think only green tea and coffee and a few basic stuff were provided. There was a place where you can get water.
The Okinawan weather was not very kind to my nose. The air was not very dry though. My skin wasn't super affected. No cracks and just the usual amount of dry skin.
After a few days in Okinawa and honestly by then I had grown bored already, we left for Tokyo. Yup, via domestic flight but this round, we got a better plane and the flight was smooth.
Tokyo
Tokyo was very cold but less windy than Okinawa. My nose got better although my skin felt drier so I had to apply vaseline on weak points on my face throughout the day. Since we had been to Tokyo a few times already, my daughter who's our tour leader decided to go to the less touristy side of Tokyo plus we did 2 day trips out of Tokyo.
Hotel
Believe it or not, we stayed at Asakusa again. This area is very crowded during the day. Fortunately most of the time, we're somewhere else.
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| Lol, trying to look sexy |
Our hotel was Hotel Gracery Asakusa. It was a bit nicer than the hotel at Okinawa. There were lots of freebies and many types of tea. For water we had to get it from the water dispenser. Our room was on the 13th floor and we did get a view, except it's of another hotel - APA hotel which is directly opposite.
Food
I got lucky I found food I like. I loved the curry soup at CoCo curry house. I love it so much I want to make it myself.
Once we were very tired, cold and needed food. We saw a Hoshino Coffee and got a table. We hadn't realised this particular outlet was a cafe, not a restaurant. Still we made do and I ordered hotdog with fries and a pot of hot tea. The hotdog and fries turned out to be so amazing. Maybe I was very hungry. And the mustard? I'm really not into mustard but suddenly I love mustard. In fact, now I'm thinking I need to buy mustard so I can eat my food with mustard. How have I lived my life all these years without mustard?
One time we were at a mall and I was asked to pick a restaurant. So I went to all the restaurants on the floor and I looked at the menus. I picked Olive House because I wanted to eat Clam Japanese Style Spaghetti. It turned out to be so, so delicious.
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| Very small space |
Another time we were super tired again and my daughter saw on google 2 possible restaurants. I picked tempura and we went to the restaurant (Tendon Itsuki Ginza) which had a queue as it wasn't open yet. When the restaurant finally opened, we were the last to be let in and after us, there were more people waiting. The restaurant only hires young female staff and it has a tiny space. We all sat at the counter. The tempura was cooked fresh and there's just one cook so there's a bit of waiting time. The food is good. It's just a lot. Way more than my stomach could hold.
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| hubs posed in front of the Singapore Chicken Rice stall |
One time we went to Yokohama and we ate at this food court which strangely had Singapore Chicken Rice. It tasted quite good and very close to the taste of Hainanese chicken rice in Singapore.
I love carrot cakes but I'm always scared to order from cafes I've not tried before because there are so many variations of carrot cake and my taste is so specific. After visiting a craft market, we took a short break at Bless Coffee and the carrot cake was really good. Exactly how I like my carrot cake. We had a nice time people watching outside the glass window and also escape the cold.
My good luck with food was on a roll. Even the tacos at a random cafe were good. Of course not everything we ate was good. Some were ordinary and the only bad food I felt we had were Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant close to Ueno Zoo. It was oily and over flavoured. (hubs chose it, lol)
Craft Markets
We went to 2 craft markets, one was at a shrine. There were a number of handmade stalls and I really enjoyed looking at all the cute handmade stuff. I only bought one thing because I own so much stuff already. I felt so inspired after visiting the markets I wanted to go home and make stuff right away.
Ueno Zoo
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| Gentaro |
Of course we visited Ueno Zoo because my favourite gorilla family in Kyoto Zoo had sent their young Silverback Gentaro to Ueno Zoo to live and also to mate with another young gorilla, Annie from Higashiyama Zoo. Both get a very small outdoor space to roam about and honestly when I saw how small it was real life I wanted to cry. It's smaller than my flat and my flat isn't exactly big. I managed to see Gentaro but there was no sight of Annie. Later I found out that Annie was bitten by Gentaro after both were allowed to be in the same space together. Currently both are in "training" to learn to cohabitate. Looks like it's not going well. In previous training sessions, Gentaro had also attacked Annie. How long will it take before both can live together in peace and get it on?
Flight Back
Our flight back was via ANA/Japan Air. The legroom was good. We had chosen our seats such that hubs sits in front of me, both aisle seats. My daughter gets the window seat. So there's a stranger between me and my daughter. I know it sounds strange to choose such seats but I often get the worst person on earth sitting in front of me who insists on reclining all the way throughout. The boy between me and my daughter happened to be travelling with the boy sitting in front of my daughter. Throughout the flight, they kept ordering alcohol. They looked like minors but the stewardess kept giving them drinks. After we were up in the air for a while, the boys asked if my husband could swap seats with the middle boy. I was really pissed off with the request and I wanted to explain that we had paid extra to select our seats but in the end I realised I could just say no. Both boys accepted my decision graciously. It was strange that he didn't try to swap seats with the person sitting in front of him.
Knitting
I didn't finish making anything in February. I did attempt to knit myself a beanie for my trip innocently thinking I could complete it in time. But I had started too late and since the trip is now over it seems pointless to continue. This is the current status of the beanie. Should I continue? I'm not even sure it'll fit me, lol.
Swimming
I was very diligent with my swimming. In fact, the day we came back to Singapore, it was very early in the morning and after a good sleep, I went swimming in the late afternoon. Since then I've been able to go swimming at least once a week. I'd like to go twice a week but the bad weather is a deterrent.
See you in my next post, first week of April?
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