Tokyo Trip iPhoto Book : Jan-15

Like our Taiwan trip, I had decided to create a iPhoto book for our Tokyo holidays and print it out for our fond memories.  I exactly spent a week to select and develop the book.  When it was finally completed, I also utilised the iPhoto capability to export the book into a slideshow.

Before our visit to the Hall of Great Vow... - Jan-15

We finally did our Tokyo holidays in 2014 and visited the Hall of Great Vow!

Although it was a very enjoyable trip, the entire process of planning and execution was not as easy and there were several obstacles which we had overcome before going too.

Early in 2014, we had planned to go Japan with a tour agent.  However the December holidays travel advertisements would only be out in May for us to book the holidays.  When they were finally published, we immediately went to check out a few reputable tour agents.  Unfortunately, the outcome was disappointing as most of them were either pricey or inflexible in their offers.  Ruling the tour package out eventually, It left us to decide if we would still want to continue with our Japan trip ourselves.  After a good discussion, Shin Yang and myself decided we should go ahead and bring the family to Japan (especially Papa and Mama) and visit the Hall of Great Vow.  Once we had made that decision, I started to source for our flight and hotel and settled down with ANA and Keio Plaza Tokyo.

After these confirmation, we were hit with several challenges in the next few months before our trip. 

First, Xuan contacted these hives or rash all over her body which refused to go away for months, both Eastern and Western medicine could not help her recover and the hives kept returning.  The only way to relieve Xuan from the itch was the Western pills which would subside the rash a while before it returned.   When chanting, I was praying that that this misery must leave Xuan before our holidays.  I could not remember how long this stubborn situation lasted, but Xuan actually recovered before our trip!

Then came Shin Yang’s problem where she was having some abnormal and prolonged bleeding.  After visiting the genealogy, the scan revealed that there were cysts discovered in her.  Luckily, the bleeding stopped shortly but she was asked to return for another check up after a couple of months.  With much determination to win over this illness, she was also cleared from the cysts during the next consultation, they were no longer found anywhere!

Papa was next in the queue, where he had been complaining about his consistent dryness in his throat for several months.  Despite visiting several doctors, his situation did not improve.  In September, the polyclinic referred him to the ‘mouth, nose and throat’ specialist in Tan Tock Seng Hospital for a through checkup.  Two specialists attended to him and after the examination, they decided to retrieve some tissues from his throat for a biopsy.  Whenever a biopsy was recommended, the situation would not look pretty.  The result would only come out in a month time but Papa and the family anxiety and nervousness were raising day by day.  I believed many of us have chanted for Papa wellness and good outcome and I had also applied leave to accompany him to ‘face the music’.  During consultation on that particular day in October, the doctor told Papa that his tissues were perfectly fine and encouraged him to reduce smoking as a preventive measure.  Another wonderful victory!

The final ‘episode’ was myself.  Shortly after Papa’s incident, I was down with a high fever and was later diagnosed to have blood in my urine.  On a Sunday evening, our family doctor advised that in worst case scenario, there could be some stones in my kidney which caused the inflammation and fever, if the inflammation entered into my blood, then it could be fatal.  To rule out the worst case, he urged me to visit the A&E at the hospital immediately and wrote me a reference memo.  At the same time he prescribed some anti-biotic and asked me to take them if I had chosen not to visit the hospital.  I made the decision to take the anti-biotic first and observed my situation. I was also determined and focused on my prayers to get well with this medicine.  The medicine did work for me! And in a week’s time, I was fully recovered.

In his Gosho, Nichiren always mentioned that if we were advancing in our faith, the three devil and four obstacles will definitely emerged and tried to stop us.  Our role was to continue in our faith, identify these obstacles, challenge and overcome them bravely.  I was pleased that we were able to overcome these challenges before our trip and they had indeed made us stronger to front any future hurdles in life. 

Thus despite all these challenges, we had successfully visited the Hall of Great Vow on 12-December 2014!

New Year and my Birthday : Jan-15

This year, my birthday was splendid and eventful.

It kicked off on the last day of 2014 when some colleagues were so nice to make deliberate arrangement back to the office and brought me out for lunch at Jurong Point.  While in the restaurant, Joey even secretly sneaked off and bought me a birthday cake for me to spend a few embarrassing moments cutting it.  It was a quick and simple lunch but the thoughts to celebrate for me were just wonderful.

That evening, the family gathered at Benny’s place for a year-end dinner.  Coincidentally,  Shin Yang had baked a fruit cake that day and some hesitation, she decided to bring it along to share.  At Benny’s place, Jackie was quick to offer the idea to the kids to convert the cake to my birthday cake.  And before returning back for our New Year Gongyo, the gals carried out the cake and sang the birthday song.  As a result, I had the honour to cut my wife’s tasty birthday fruit cake, specially baked without butter in consideration for me.  How nice!

After our midnight New Year Gongyo came the highlight!  I started to request for my presents… With much hugs and kisses, my presents were finally ‘delivered’ to me.  It was always such a nice feeling unwrapping presents, I got a pen engraved with my name, a superman T-shirt and 2 colourful shorts.  Just lovely!

The good thing about having birthday on a New Year’s day was that everyone would be in the same festive/celebrating mood as you.  It was also not so embarrassing for me as I could easily returned with a “Happy New Year” when someone wished me “Happy Birthday”.  On New Year’s day itself, Mama prepared my Birthday “面线” breakfast with a double dose of eggs and plenty pig’s “spare parts”… :P

Something unique this year was a NTU friends gathering at a vegetable farm in Lim Chu Kang.  The key spotlight was the fish pond where the kids really enjoyed fishing since the hungry fish never seemed to stop visiting the hooks.  Everyone got a least a chance to experience catching a fish and it was a pleasant feeling revisiting a long abandoned hobby.  After fishing, these “more than 20-years” friends also did not forget to cut a cake for me and treat me on the face!

The only uneventful thing that happened that day was when En’en fell into the drain and scratched her leg.  She was crying so loud that the neighbours must had thought some kids were been kidnapped.  Luckily the farm trip did cheer her up a bit.

Last event of the day was our usual double celebration with Papa where family would gathered for the traditional cake-cutting and present giving.  This year we had missed Ally as she was painfully down with HFM ulcers and was sleeping soundly after Hong and Dor brought her for a car ride.

It was very nice to be loved and my heart was filled with gratitude to have such a special birthday and wonderful start for the year, 2015 is going to be a good one, we will make it great!

Sequel to My Own-made Fruit Cake : Jan-15

Sequel to My Own-made Fruit Cake : Jan-15

We missed Xitong and her family at Alfred's place on Christmas Eve. Anyway, the girls were thrilled at Xitong's invitation to go her place on New Year's Eve!!

Ma, as usual, prepared something nice to bring along. Whatever Ma prepares, is always nice.. I already had intention to make my fruit cake no. 3, but should I bring it along? Recipe states that cake is "best eaten at least one day later"..

To bring or not?? Juz do it!! It's the heart that counts. Moreover I was inspired to make my first fruit cake after I returned from the Christmas gathering at Alfred's place..

Boy! Ain't I glad that I brought the warm fruit cake along; it became Victor's birthday cake!! (^_-) Thanks to Jackie's idea and the girls' contribution! 

I received pretty positive and encouraging comments on my fruit cake.. (:(:(: 

Juz a pity we did not take any group picture at all for the occasion.. ) :

At Last, My Own-made Fruit Cake : Dec-14

I love fruit cake. And I especially love the alcoholic taste of Christmas-time fruit cakes. So sweet, so dense, so intoxicating..

I seldom buy fruit cake because Victor would not eat them.. To eat them all by myself would be overly indulgent and too fattening!! So I don't eat them as much as I would like to..

Ever since I made my own rice cooker non-dairy cakes, i have been wondering if the rice cooker can make fruit cake as well.. and searching for a reliable recipe. Well, the blog which inspired all my cakes did not fail me!! It has a simple recipe which can be baked, steamed or simply put into the rice cooker!! Check this out -- http://everybodyeatswell.blogspot.sg/2013/12/easy-christmas-fruit-cake-in-3-ways.html?m=1

I had initially wanted to put together my own mixed fruit.. But that took to long and one day when I passed sun lik, I juz bought theirs. The packet of mixed fruit sat on my kitchen shelf for a good many weeks. And it was only on Christmas Eve take I decided to juz do it!! So it was "best eaten after one day", I finally tasted my very own fruit cake on Christmas Day at Dor's party!!

It was good.... In fact much better than I had expected!! That I immediately made plan to make a second one.. This time, I will soak some raisins in rum!! (:(:

So, after one night of soaking, I made my second but alcoholic fruit cake on the 27th. Brought half to share to pa's place and the feedback again, was very positive!! In fact, juz two days later, which I suspect Jiun must have finished the cake I left in her home, she asked me to make some more because it's "very nice"!! (:(:

Hahaa.. Victor had bought me a small bottle of dark rum, which costed about $10 from Little India years ago, when I attempted to make rum and raisin ice-cream. When I went to Cold Storage to check out their rum, it's so expensive.. More than $50 for a bottle!?

In the end, for my third fruit cake, I used what was available at home from Victor's tiny-bottle liquor collection over the years--bourbon whiskey, to soak my raisins. This time, I do not have the luxury of overnight; juz a couple of hours..

Hope fruit cake no. 3 turns out yummy too...

Jay Chou concert@New Stadium : Dec-14

This was the third time we went to watch Jay’s concert in Singapore.  The past two concerts were held in the indoor stadium with a capacity of less than 10,000 while this time, it was held in our new stadium with a capacity of more than 30,000.  Shin Yang bought the tickets several months back and each ticket was almost S$200, not cheap in my opinion.  The concert was initially scheduled early November but subsequently postponed due to the infamous grass issue in our new stadium.  Nevertheless, we were excited to go to the concert and excited about the opportunity to visit the ‘state of the art’ Stadium. 

Compared to the last two concerts we attended, this 2014 Jay concert was rather disappointing in many aspects.  Personally I felt that the most disappointing factors resulted from the poorly designed Stadium.  From my consumer point of view, basic amenities and infrastructure of the stadium were unable to cope with  the demand of the crowd, not to mention other details like the stadium grass or roof.  Even with the non-full stadium capacity during this concert, restaurants were packed with long queues lining outside, walkways were too narrow to cater the movement of the crowd during rain, stadium car parks could not manage the car flow, traffic policemen were required to regulate traffic, MRT station too small… etc etc.  During the concert, the rain was also able to ‘sneak’ into the stadium and concert-goers were ‘splashed’ with rain and needed umbrellas or rain coats.  With such basic issues, it really made us ponder how badly public government projects were handled nowadays, constantly budget overrun and poorly designed.

Take away fast food and eating outside the stadium

Casting away the negative aspects, although Jay’s concert had some sound system issue, the crowd was electrifying and Jay was also able to raise the temperature by singing many of his old favourites and engaging the fans well.  It was a nice concert but our S$200 tickets only allowed us to see Jay at about half an inch tall from our seat.  Indoor stadium still seemed to be much better or maybe travelling abroad next time to attend the concert would be workable too.

Youth Friendship for Peace Festival 2014 : Dec-14

Considering this is February 2015 already, talking about last December's YFP seemed rather dated.. Nevertheless, for the three months leading up to actual event on 20-21 December, our lives especially on the weekends evolved around it.. Of course I have to blog about it, talk about it!! (^_^)

Initially it was simply called YCF - youth cultural festival. The last YCF we had was a good 15 years ago, or so I was told. My own very first YCF was in 1985; I took part as a 10-year-old Kotekitai girl at the Gay World Stadium. I recalled vividly Mummy was a performer as well!! 

More than a quarter century later, in YFP 2014, although it was a rather strictly youth event, our entire family of 3 girls, Victor and I were involved!! In fact, Jiun and Hong too!! (^^)  I was involved as a PD sunshine aunty helping to train our lion cubs every week. En of course was one of the more than 500 PD lion cubs who participated. Xuan was in the FD item, even Qi who could only join in pretty last minute due to her O level examinations, participated in the FD item too. About 3 weeks before the actual performance, Victor suddenly expressed explicit interest in helping out as a photographer for YFP.. "Don't know whether they need photographers anot..?" -- one thing led to another, and very shortly later, he received a text message asking if he could take some pictures at our last combined rehearsal at Northland Sec!! So for the final training at Northland Sec, Victor was the one who drove the entire family plus our 2 ex-lion cubs-neighbors there!! I was overflowing with pride and joy that my whole family was participating and contributing to this all-important SSA event, actively contributing our part for kosen-rufu!! 

*\(^_^)/* *\(^_^)/* *\(^_^)/*

Of course it was not all smooth-sailing.. Juz as my lion cubs' parents faced resistance from their children to attend the weekly YFP training sessions, I too faced some similar challenges encouraging persuading coaxing cajoling En and Xuan.. Maybe because En was younger and had me accompany her for all the sessions, she was manageable. Xuan's resistance was fortunately juz her very first training. When she went and realized she could see some familiar faces there, though still a lil' reluctant, she dutifully avail herself for most of the subsequent trainings. It helped tremendously too that Sharon and I car-pooled our FD kids and took turns to send them for their training. Surprisingly the stronger resistance came from Qi who after her O-level papers, was extremely disappointed that she could not join SD.. but it helped that Xuan was already in the thick of YFP prep mood and I juz have to push Qi along..

Once Victor got started to take pictures at Northland Sec, he was totally absorbed into the photography team, being part of their whatsapp chat group and regularly being updated on their team activities. Best part was he could legitimately hold his camera and take our pictures at the YFP rehearsals and performances!! Drawback was he could not share these beautiful pictures on social media...

On the district front, considering the very limited number of youths we have, most, including my 3 girls, actually signed up as performers. From their sharing during zadankai after the YFP, they, even Qi and Xuan, actually enjoyed the entire experience and found it memorable!!

Our take back, besides the beautiful memories, would be the beautiful picture Victor took of all of us.. almost everyone whom he knows who took part, would have his/her face on his photographs!!

Victor was so proud to see quite a few of his photographs being selected and printed on SSA Times!! Almost at the same time, he recognized that 2 of the 3 printed photographs by Seikyo Shimbun on the YFP coverage were his!! Beaming from ear to ear, he could hardly contain his joy and excitement!! I guess that must be one of his greatest satisfaction.. I was told Sensei reads the Seikyo Shimbun.. which meant Sensei have seen Victor's pictures!!!!!!!! What a wonderful wrap up to our YFP.. (:

2014 : Our first Tokyo holidays : May-2020

This was our first holiday trip to Japan in 2014.  We considered for a while due to the high cost before finally decided to bite the bullet, save up and just visit the Hall of Great Vow as a family.  There was definitely obstacles to overcome before the trip, one of the biggest challenges I remembered was Papa constant sore throat which later diagnose to be fine.

One of the amazing thing during the trip was our first time experiencing snow, you would see how excited all of us were when we touched it ourselves.

A short Japan Trip video : Dec-14

During our last Japan trip, I realized we did not take many videos as I was busy snapping and swapping between two DSLR cameras.  Nevertheless, with the limited videos we took, I created a short trailer video for our Japan Holiday last December.

Tokyo Trip summary : Dec-14

Just like our Taiwan trip, I had come out with our personal literary for our Tokyo holidays.   We did very well in covering most destination as planned and more importantly, everyone had a good bonding time as a family.

ShinyKoh - 2014_12 - Tokyo Trip

Day 1 (Arrival) – Asakusa + Ueno (淺草+上野)

Day 2 - Tokyo Disneyland (东京 迪士尼乐园)

Day 3 - Kamakura + Yokohama + Odaiba (鎌倉+横滨+台場)

Day 4 - Hall of Great Vow + Akihabara (廣宣流布誓願堂 +秋葉原)

Day 5 - Hakone (箱根)

Day 6 - Soka University Japan + Harajuku (创价大学 + 原宿)

Day 7 - Yuzawa (汤泽)

Day 8 - Tokyo Tower (东京铁塔)