Japan Trip - Part 1

First of all, we are back! And we did not experience the earthquake, thank God, 'cos when it occured, we were in the north, Hokkaido.

So, here's entry 1 for our trip. We relied heavily on japan-guide.com, which we used to obtain much useful info, including best Cherry Blossom Spots!
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After a long overnight 7hour flight, we landed at Narita International Airport (which happened to be 1.5 hours away from the domestic airport!).



First stop is Asakusa Kannon Temple (oldest temple in Tokyo) and the Nakamise Shopping Street in front of it. Lots of attractive goodies here!

Famous red lantern at the entrance.










With long-lost primary school friend, Jim. We share the same surname! Meeting him for the first time after more than 20 years. And all the way here in Japan!

Don't these goodies look so tempting? The Jap munchies are famous for their packaging!

Next, is the well-known local shopping Ueno Flea Market, which is located under the railway track (but not noisy nor dirty).




Karen learning to post like the Japanese, always with a V-sign =)








After a quick drive pass of the Imperial Palace, we stop at the electronics heaven (Singapore's Sim Lim Square equivalent) at Akihabara:

Sorry, no electronics to buy, 'cos all in Japanese!

Before dinner, it's another hour ride to Yokohama Chinatown (Yokohama Chukagai). Not very interesting though, 'cos it resembles alot like those in Australia.



A quick group photo with Daniel & Cheryl (from Perth, Australia) and Annie, our tour guide.






Dinner at Odaiba, then it's another flight to Osaka before retiring for the night.

More photos here -> Flickr.com

Fruits

Karen brought back this interesting apple from her office. You can see the chinese character "FA" on it. There's a 'cousin' apply - "CAI"!! Interesting. This reminds us of square water melon by the creative Japanese.

Talking about fruits, SG is recently pondering very hard about the fruits he's bearing with his time. Is it good, sweet & juicy? Or is it undesirable, which will be left to rot & be useless?

A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
~ Matthew 7:17-20 (New Living Translation) ~

Lunar New Year

On the 3rd day, we invited some friends over in the afternoon. Good time to chit-chat and catch up.

The exciting part came in the late afternoon, when most had left. Tze Hau & Huizhen stayed to chat, from BGR to many other stuff. Very good to be open and have a great heart-to-heart talk.

And the most interesting thing was when we decided to visit their place in Toa Payoh. Very nice place. Did not take many photos as we became busy cooking food in the freezer! We ended up experimenting with apples & mushrooms for a special soup (tasted quite good). Here are some photos of a great 4 course meal!!

Speacial of the Day - Apple, Mushrooms & veg soup!

Main meat dish - steamed fish

Huizhen's mum special

4 course dinner

Hot off the pot!

3 hungry souls

Actually, the most enjoyable part wasn't the food (though it was nice & healthy) but the company. Yes, good company, easy-going-fun-cooking together add more taste than the best seasoning in the world!

Bon Appetite!!

4 Questions

SG attended a course at MBI recently on Marketplan Theology. One key learning point is the following 4 questions:

1) What do you at your work?
2) What are the issues you face at work?
3) How did your faith make a difference on how you grapple with these issue?
4) How can I pray for you?

If we ask ourselves the same questions about family, ministry, health & other areas in life, won't it help us to gain a better vision of "what on earth are we here for?" & the next steps?


Vision is always accompanied by strong emotion, and the clearer the vision, the stronger the emotion.
~ Andy Stanley, Pastor of North Point Community Church, Atlanta, USA ~

New York Trip Jan 07

SG went to the Big Apple in the Jan. 'cos it's the onset of a very cold spell, there is not many places to visit.

Here are the photos ->>


Really like the one in Central Park (which is empty, barrne & lack of activities due to cold weather) of a couple walking. That's the sort of marriage we want, isn't it?? =)