~*/ m | c h 3 L L 3 \*~

Had ramen for brunch before leaving Sapporo.. not at this shop.. we ate ramen from the shop we visited on Day 1 :) Walked around after brunch... a COOKING STUDIO! so cool! you can see them in action from the outside! An Ice Cream a day keeps Iris away...hahahah.. Iris say must eat Hokkaido Ice Cream EVERYDAY!!!! ?!?how very orderly!?!?! you dun get to see this in SG...

no time for shopping in Sapporo! Sad! We kinda regretted not planning for an extra day in Sapporo... we just popped into a convenient store and grab some stuff before heading back to hotel to get our luggage.... In Hotel Gracery's toilet for the last time... Used the rubber band I just bought to tie up my messy hair! on our way to the bus terminal just across the street..... I gotta drag my pinky and chicky luggage.. HEAVY! and Iris's super big luggage's wheel was giving way... uh oh.. Crossed the road... beside the bus terminal... Sapporo Station.... On our way to Noboribetsu. We booked Daiichi Hotel..and they have FREE shuttle bus from Sapporo all the way to Noboribetsu! The journey's about 2.5 hours by coach.. and it usually cost about $80 - $100... but it's FREE for us! Daiichi Hotel ROCKS!!! We alighted at a stop for toilet break.. and I finally bought my Royce Chocolate Potato Chips! Interesting sign on the toilet bowl.. "Rear" here simply means... buttocks... wahahah! funnily engrishy~ Reached Daiichi about 430pm.. and the hotel staff brought us to the room.. and we changed into our Yukata immediately! Coz we're going for our HOT SPRING BATH! it's Iris's 1st time.. and OUR first time going for bath together........................................................ after 2 hours of hot spring, we went for our buffet dinner. We did not expect the food to be so GOOD! we had many helpings.. coz we only had ramen in the morning :( and 2 of these pots were served to our table.. only our table... we wonder why... AND... my prawn's pregnant! when I removed the prawn head.. I saw the eggs.. SO MANY OF THEM.. too grossed out to eat the prawn in the end.. goosebumps! and my brave jiejie tried this... *faint* we rested for awhile after dinner.. then went back to hot spring bath again for an hour plus..We explored the hotel abit and surfed the internet at the hotel's lobby. Then we went back to our room and zonked out on our cosy tatami mattresses that we set up ourselves :) a looooong day tmr!

Expenses today :

[Ramen : 780yen ($12)] + [Rubber Band : 294yen ($5)] + [Misc : 368yen ($6)] + [Ice Cream : 280yen ($4)] + [Royce : 693yen ($11)] + [Internet : 300yen ($5)] + [Hotel Daiichi *inclusive of dinner* : 12560yen ($195) "per person"]

= 15275yen ($238)

Expenses so far...

$238 (today) + $1260 (Day 0 to Day 2) = $1498

Did you see the Steam Train behind? We were so fascinated by it! haven't really seen a "Choo-Choo" train before~

We were testing out Iris's tripod! Our first time using it today! Thanks Daniel! If not, it'll be solo shots all the way! wahhaah~ Everyone's like staring at us.. *blush*

In the train.. cam-whoring.. *tee.hee* Train ride's free... coz we bought the Otaru-Sapporo 1 day pass yesterday!

Journey from Sappro to Otaru's not very long.. about 20 mins.. Weather's very good! cold and nice~
Bought a bus ticket (210yen-$3)... and we hopped onto the city bus... on our way to the Musical Box Museum!
Otaru's famous monument.. c.l.o.c.k! which makes noise every half hourly...
outside a souvenir shop... this whole area is just so enchanting! so fairy-tale-yish...
ToToRo!
Snoopy and Woodstock finger puppets :)

It's bigger than Iris's head!

so many...too many pretty things in the shop...did not buy anything though.. but kinda regret not buying the sesame street box at the top right hand corner of the photo.. so cute....

the whole area of Otaru's like... a musical box theme... oh! and glass ware too!

it's a very melodious place.. when everyone starts winding the musical boxes..

the washroom!

the signage.. and a stained glass between the 2 toilets... pwetty!

going upstairs....

"aow-aow" musical dog~

musical cats! haha... this picture is specially taken for Eileen! Coz... she LURVES cats... *grin*

Alrighty.. right after this photo, my poor friend has a really bad tummyache.. so I wandered around alone.. drooling at those 5-figure$$ to 6-figure$$ musical boxes.. so expensive lah!

My poor friend recovered from tummyache about 1.5 hours later.. we figured out the cause of it.. finishing a whole bottle of Vitamin C on an empty stomach! and we did not realised it was already 130pm! and we have not taken any food yet! we crawled to a nearby Ramen shop and my friend recovered instantly! wOooOooH!

We're all ready to explore again! right outside the Musical Box Museum...

PIPE ORGAN! IT'S REAL! IT'S VERY COOL! IT'S VERY BIG! never came so close with a pipe organ before..

when the music starts...the figurine will start to move the pen.. like it's writing.. then, he will doze off.. and the candlelight goes off as well.. that's not it! It'll wake up.. slowly lifting up his head!

picture's not very clear.. but it's a musical duet ... violin and piano!

trying to take a shot of our reflection in the musical...er.... cupboard! ~

antique grand piano!~
ok...we're sitted on a bench.. with the bear.. don't know why this bear's here.. but there's a sign that tells us to take a photo with this bear.. so we took! keke..

some items in the museum for sale...
musical trolley!

okay... we're on our way to make our very own musical box! This pram's for sale.. $100 over bucks.. no no, it's not a musical pram..!~

Iris thought that the motorbike is so cool!

we took about 1.5 hour just to choose the materials we wanna use for our musical box!

we simply do not know where to begin..

finally...we're gonna start working on it! oh! I printed this coupon thing from the internet in Singapore.. from Otaru's musical museum website.. which gives us a small box of chocolate when we make our own musical box!

here's our masterpiece! my duckie in a pond and iris's chickies! and the most hilarious thing is that... her chickies move bAckWARds!!! whahaha.. we did not check the direction which the musical box will turn.. but luckily my ducky swam in the right direction..whahaha..

The sky's already dark.. only 430pm.. we had ice cream while waiting for our musical box to set.. about half an hour.. so we just strolled along the streets.. and guess what.. we forgot about our musical box! we walk all the way back... and luckily the shop's still open..

it's very dark.. too dark to see the pretty canal.. such a pity.. we can't take a nice shot with Otaru's famous canal! that's why we're here for in the first place...argh...

we walked all the way back to the train station.. walking slowly along the streets of Otaru...*i'm missing it while typing this*

ended our last night in Sapporo with a good meal as discussed earlier.
a very enjoyable dinner! we were there for almost 2.5 to 3 hours! we eat and chat.. and yepz... enjoying each other's company! hehe..

Expenses today :

[Hotel : 6000yen ($93)"per person"] + [Transport : 210yen ($3)] + [Lunch : 800yen ($12)] + [Music Box : 2101yen ($33)] + [Ice Cream ; 300yen ($5)] + [Dinner : 2020yen ($32)]

= 11431yen ($178)

Expenses so far...

$178 (today) + $1085 (Day 0 & Day 1) = $1260

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N O B O R I B E T S U tomorrow!

We were the last 2 girls on board..coz we're busy taking photos! keke.. close up with the plane ok! so cool...remind me of the Korea F4's private jet...wahahaha~ We're on our way to Chitose Airport (Hokkaido)! Arrived at about 1230pm... went to the JR station's office to get our Sapporo & Otaru Day pass..and train ticket from Chitose to Sapporo.. all in all.. 2540yen ($40). The passes will cover our transport for 2 days...calculated...& its worth it! Checked into our beautiful room at Gracery Hotel (4000yen/person/night - $62).. just right opposite the train station... it's super super convenient!! Iris boiled water...etc... unpacked a little..and with no time to waste, we were outta the hotel! Our next destination.. Chocolate Factory! woah!
Innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Trainnnnnnnnnn ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's quite cold leh!~ and Shiroi Koibito chocolate factory's about 10 - 15mins walk from the station.. we were quite lost lah.. but a lady directed us there...yippeee! and I saw Black Lollie! I missed my Lollie back in SG then.... okie... that's the chocolate factory in sight!
at the entrance... the wrong entrance..wahaha...
found the correct entrance..and went in..and there were many mini houses! we went into one to take photos! remind me of Alice in Wonderland..keke...
got our chocolate factory passport + free cookie, paid the entrance fee and we're going for cookie making class! yeah!
on our way for our cookie class... Look at this.. so pretty! made of sugar icing! here we are...gonna make our cookies here....
presenting...Chef Michelle and Chef Iris!
after like wat seems hours (actually only an hour)......we finally finished our cookies!
we chose the cookie moulds... and we were abit kiasu lah.. kept kneading the "left-over" dough to get as many cookies as possible..wahaha.. I made the chocolate ones, Iris made the vanilla ones.. look at the bottom left corner..one big round cookie.. that's made from the left over from Iris's dough and mine! and we shared that cookie after it was baked! nice k!
while waiting for our cookies to be baked, we explored the factory abit...
there was a whole lotta collection of old toys... and some characters we knew since young...
just look at that!

and all these! (taken by Iris!)

Juke Box! But the juke in Iris's house is nicer! The Beatles~
This monster scared-ed us lah.. made some sounds when we walked past it... some sensor or something... argh.... here's our big big feet! Astro Boy! there we are, trying out the fresh-outta-the-oven cookies we baked! YuMzzzz... horse carriage in the factory... the outside... it's only 6pm... and the sky's dark....
the outside of the factory's all so enchanting!
apple tree! love this one... very pretty!
stopped by 100 yen shop on the way back to the station.. bought drinks and cup noodles!
had a bowl of ramen each... shared fried rice & gyozas........ In a very small and cozy shop in the Sapporo train station itself.. has only about 4 tables and a counter... but velly velly nice! it's either we're damn hungry, or we're damn hungry...wahaha... we're HUNGRY!!! our only meal of the day was MAC at airport...hurhur...
and... finally back to Gracery hotel!

Expenses today :

[Macdonals : 320yen ($5)] + [Hotel : 4000yen ($62)"per person"] + [JR pass : 2540yen ($40)] + [Chocolate Factory Entrance fee & Cookie Baking : 1529yen ($24)] + [100yen shop : 315yen ($5)] + [Ramen dinner 780yen ($12)]

= 9484yen ($148)

Expenses so far...

$148 (today) + $937 (yesterday) = $1085

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O T A R U tomorrow!

We're all ready for our trip to Japan! Can't really imagine how we got things together within like 2 weeks.. we were so busy with work and left everything till the last min :) we met up during our precious lunch time from 12pm to 3pm like twice a week to plan.. we managed to book our tickets on http://www.priceline.com/ at a velly goodie price! JAL $619 per ticket! woah! wanted UA $750 business class deal, but decided to save that $130 for extra 13 bowls of ramen..wahhaah! We went JTB at Orchard ION one week before our trip to get domestic flight tickets to Hokkaido.. they were of GREAT help.. they planned our itenerary for us.. siiiigh.. we should have went to them earlier....anyway, our connecting flight tickets to Hokkaido and back to Tokyo would be $318 per ticket.. Night flight.. at Changi Airport Terminal 1.. met at about 1015pm..checked in.. and off we go.. our flight's at about 1130pm.. very empty flight.. I took 3 seats to myself and Iris took 3 seats to herself..and we just slept on the 3 seats throughout our flight.. well, I atttempted to watch Hary Potter.. but fell asleep.. when it showed again, I fell asleep again lah...really quite boring :(

We reached Narita Airport the next morning about 7am Japan time (6am SG time)... and we hang around till our next flight to Chitose Airport (Hokkaido) at about 1030am.. had Mac for breakfast..and went the the observatory deck to enjoy the cool cool air! cold cold air for Iris... haha...and we chated for like hours...

okie... stay tune for Japan Day 1!

Expenses today :

[International flight $619] + [Domestic flight $318] = $937

and here's how my Jack-O-Lantern look like in the night time...........................

H.A.P.P.Y H.A.L.L.O.W.E.E.N!

oh man.. it's been really long since I wrote anything here.. I've been really lazy.. because i dun have the patience to load my photos here *yawn* well, I need to update more frequently... coz i wanna have something to look back to next time!

Here's some happenings in the month of October.....................
Proudly presenting........................ The BANG! Gang~~~ Been meeting up rather often with this gang for game... thanks to Daniel (the one kissing the bomb)... We gathered at Eileen's place or Iris's place for our sessions.......
I just love spending time with the girls.. the girls I knew since... Pri Sch... and now... the AB-Team! wahhaha~ The next major event for us would be Sabby's Hen Party and Big Day!!!

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WALA-WALA with Benjamin, Eileen, Shaun, Veron, Yongjie, Weixiang.........on a Sat night...... Happy hour! Buy 1 drink get the other free! WeeEeEeee~
went there after GeGe's wedding luncheon at Grand Hyatt... thereafter we went to "nua" at the wedding suite for a few hours before meeting Ben & Eileen :) the mood was good... the singer's good.. but the crowd's not 'high' enough..... and i guess everyone's too tired from the wedding luncheon to be happening...

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Gege's and Veron's parents... "Ah gong" and "Ah ma"........ I like ah ma's velvety cheongsam!
the girls! and we all want a photo with Valerie.. it's her first time in dress! all for her brother's wedding... wooooO~

yeah! I caught the bouquet!

Sure, It Does.