Gundam in Tokyo

Gundam is on display at Shiokaze Park on Odaiba island! This is to mark the 30th anniversary of the Mobile Suit Gundam space war anime.

The life-sized RX78 Gundam stands at 18metres tall and weighs 35 ton. When activated it emits mist with special sound effects and the head can be rotated left and right.


Can you guess who the happiest person is?

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Papa, of course!

Tokyo Tower at Night

We decided to make a trip to Tokyo Tower after dinner today. Both of us were having Monday Blues. Yes, I am not spared either. Moreover, the kids had a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon so we figured that they wouldn't be sleeping so soon.

Miniature Tokyo Tower

We got there around 8:45pm and walked around the 2nd floor souvenir shops and restaurants before closing time. Spent some time enjoying the night scene outside the tower. It was totally cooling and refreshing.

For free view of Tokyo's skyline, check out:
- the 45th floor of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku
- 38th and 39th restaurant floors at Yebisu Garden Place (Garden Palace Tower)

Trip to Mother Farm, Chiba

This Saturday's trip was to Mother Farm in Chiba. Unfortunately we didn't get a good start to our day. Woke up late and left home at 10am instead of 8:30am as planned. It would take about 2 hours to get to the farm so we anticipated to arrive there around noon time. Then I suddenly remembered that I hadn't pumped petrol yet. (*Grumbles*) We went to the petrol station and waited for about 20 mins in the queue.

We continued our journey but things were still were not working too well for us. We depend on the GPS system when driving in Tokyo and Papa had difficulty going back to the highway. The car was under the bridge which we were supposed to be on and we couldn't find the entrance to the highway. Missed the turning not one, but three times!!! Arrgh! At this point we were thinking of postponing the trip. But it was such a good day....... , so we pressed on.


The view was fabulous as we crossed the Rainbow Bridge to Tokyo Bay. It was even more amazing when we reached the Tokyo Bay Aqualine Tunnel. The expressway consists of a 9.6km undersea tunnel (longest in the world) and a 4.4km bridge from Kawasaki City to Kisarazu City.

On the aqualine bridge

The transition between the bridge and tunnel is an articial island known as Umi-hotaru with restaurants, shops and amusement facilities. Beyond Umi-hotaru island (see picture below) is the sea. That was the point where we drove into the undersea tunnel.

Umi-hotaru

After reaching Kisarazu City, we stopped by a Combini (Japanese term for convenience store) for a break. The store was next to a paddy fied and thereafter was a railway line. Justin excitedly exclaimed, "Level-crossing over there!!".

Train Level Crossing

We arrived Mother Farm at 1pm and headed to watch the Agrodome Sheep Show and sheep shearing. A performance by the sheep, sheepdogs, ostrich, pig, ducks and shepherd. After the show visitors were allowed to take photographs with on stage. Justin and Jonathan happily petted the sheep, lambs and the sheep dogs.

Sheep Show from New Zealand

Jus & Jon petting the lambs

New Zealand Sheep

Jon with papa

Lunch was at the farm - Genghis Khan BBQ cooked with Mother Farm's special sauce. It was highly recommended but it wasn't that fantastic. The scenery was lovely though. We were sitting near the cliff overlooking the valley. The kids were happy to be able to eat their custard pudding while waiting for the food to be cooked.

BBQ Lunch

"Look there! A plane"

There were other things we could do like watching the duck parade, piggy race , milking the cows and blueberry picking. Time was limited as the park was closing at 5pm. We walked to the horse farm and livestock farm instead. Not forgetting a train ride at Waku Waku Land.


And on the train ride, we saw sheep grazing in the meadows.



Jonathan taking a photo beside the lovely red Salvia plants at the Flower Square.


It was 4:30pm when something from afar caught my eye.

The Grand Canyon Maze

I had to do it with the kids! There were 3 checkpoints with an average of 15 mins to complete. Quite impossible with two kids. Justin took the lead to scout in front for any possible routes or dead ends. There was once he said it was a dead end and the next second someone walked towards us from that direction. It was fun. Of course, we couldn't complete it in 25mins. The park was closing so the staff guided us through the rest of maze.

Check point No. 1

Walking through the maze was tiring. We sat down for a rest and had blueberry ice cream made from fresh milk.


We left the farm at 5:20pm. One more last picture at the entrance of the farm.


What a day! I am glad that we still went to Mother Farm. Jonathan enjoyed the sheep shearing show while Justin loved petting the animals.

Trip to Fuji Safari Park

This weekend we drove into Fuji Safari Park, a park where the animals roam around freely without enclosures . This is our first time visiting a safari park. There were a few occasions when the animals crossed the road and the cars had to stop and wait for them to pass. A llama stopped in front of our car before passing us. The kids were excited and unbuckled their seat belts so that they could see the llama walk past. Justin even said that the llama touched the rear of our car.