Okinawa-Tokyo Winter Trip (Tokyo Part 2-Disneyland)

Day 2 of our Tokyo trip was a visit to Tokyo Disneyland! When Loralee and I were in the first stages of planning our Winter Trip, we knew that visiting Disneyland would be a must, haha! Other than me, it would be everyone's first time there, so we were all pumped to go!

Tokyo Disneyland was the first to be built outside of the US and opened in April 1983. Surprisingly it's bigger than Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Park! With fewer rides than its American sister parks, the abundant open space seems to be about holding as many visitors as possible. Which is not surprising because it ALWAYS seems packed!

Luckily, since we went on a Wednesday, it wasn't too crowded and average wait for an attraction was 15-20 minutes. (I've been there when average wait exceeded 2 hours, and all Fast-Pass distributions stopped before noon!)

The park was nicely transformed with Christmas decorations with a large tree in the middle of Main Street. The store windows were full of Christmas-themed toys/gifts.

Our first ride was on Pirates of the Carribeans (Leyna didn't cry!) and then the Jungle Cruise. (A cute photo! Leyna in the reflection of Danny's sunglasses) By then it was about lunch time, so we filled our stomaches and headed back out.

Next we all took turns riding on Space Mountain and we took a relaxing stroll through Toontown.

(These robot vending machines were @ Space Mountain, so cute!)

It's a Small World was a nice ride that we enjoyed!

Although we didn't go on all the attractions, we were quite satisfied with walking around the entire park and taking in the site. We turned our backs to a nicely lite castle in the sunset and went back home!

The following are photos we took throughout the day that I thought would be fun to share with you! Enjoy! Fun hats Danny and Loralee!

Next Stop : Tokyo Part 3 & 4 - Conquering the busy cities of Tokyo!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Danny and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Holidays and wonderful New Year! We also wanted to take this time to thank you for viewing our blog, and hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy creating it! Next year we hope to have lots of fun stuff to share with you!

Okinawa-Tokyo Winter Trip (Tokyo Part 1-Ukai)

Day 1 of our Tokyo visit was a wonderful dinner to Ukai Toriyama. Nested away in the lush surrounds of Mt. Takao, the breathtaking views caught us all in a daze. More so a village rather than a restaurant, it consists of 30 thatched-roof buildings, with a total of 79 seperate rooms all surrounded by Japanese-style gardens.

The restaurant provides shuttle service from the train station to Ukai, and visa versa. After being taken to the entrance of the place, we were greeted and directed to the tea sipping area. Since we wanted to see the entire place before dark, we opt to walk the grounds and take pictures before having our meal.

Strolling through the lush gardens and walking alongside goldfish ponds felt extraordinary. Further down onto narrow paths we came across an outdoor tea-sipping area in the midst of all the Autumn-colored leaves. Here they provide self-service sobacha (roasted soba, or buckwheat, kernels made into a grain tea), to be enjoyed while taking in the surroundings and feeling a sense of calm.

A waitress dressed in traditional Japanese kimono ushered us to our private cottage, that was over-looking a goldfish pond, a moss-covered water wheel and trees with bright-red colored maple leaves. Inside the cottage the floor was covered entirely with tatami mats and in the center of the room was a large sunken table with 3 irori (traditional sunken hearth common in Japan) grills.

Throughout the entire meal, a waitress would present dishes well timed so that each dish could be enjoyed before a new treat arrived. The first course was appetizers featuring sesame seed tofu and a lacquered bowl containing yams and other seasonal vegetables. Next an old gentleman came in with glowing hot coals and placed it on the hearth, where we would later be grilling our free-range chicken meat! As we wait a bit longer for the coals to heat the grill, we are timely presented with another dish - a thick, warming soup of assorted mushrooms.

The grill is hot, and now it's time to eat the meat! The chicken meat came on skewers along with green onion and sweet potato skewers. When the chicken meat is nicely browned on both sides, you dip the entire meat into a soy-based dipping sauce and cook it a second time on the grill. The selection of vegetables complimented the chicken and everything tasted fantastic!

Next, we were served freshly grilled river fish, rubbed with salt and already grilled in a dedicated thatched hut where a chef grills the skewered fish over charcoals. The white fish was perfectly cooked and the meat fell right off the bones.

The meal was completed with miso soup, a bowl of barley rice and optional sticky mountain potato topping.

Being inside the cozy, warm cottage made it really difficult to leave and return to the winter cold air, but the night had to end. All the staff gave us a warm thank you and bowed their goodbyes.

This was a perfect way to start off our Tokyo trip! Thank you for the wonderful dinner, Mom!

I highly recommend if anyone has the time to visit Mt. Takao, to try Ukai. Just about 50 minutes away from Shinjuku, it's surprisingly easy to access. Check out their website!

(Official Ukai Toriyama Website : http://www.ukai.co.jp/toriyama/guide/index.html#english )

Next Stop : Tokyo Part 2 - Tokyo Disneyland, yay!!!!

New at Disney's California Adventure

Danny and I recently visited Disney's California Adventure and saw that much of the park was under construction. Looks like they are adding several new attractions!

Cars Land

Scheduled to open in June 2012, it will consist of three attractions! The first, apparently the most expensive attraction to be built in the entire Disneyland Resort, is "Radiator Springs Racers" which takes guests on a high-speed race through hairpin turns, tunnels, bridges and steep banks. (Can't wait for this one!) The other two attractions that are more child friendly are "Mater's Junkyard Jamboree" (similar to the tea-cup attraction), and "Luigi's Roamin' Tires" (like the 1960's Tomorrowland Flying Saucers ride).

World of Color

Scheduled to open in Spring of 2010, a nighttime water show that supposedly takes water-infused entertainment to a whole new level! With the world's largest projected water screen, the show will combine fountains, colors, lasers, fire, fog, surround sound, etc! Some of the animation that will be brought to life with the powerful fountains are such classics as "Alice in Wonderland" to more recent films like "WALL-E". Along with the massive infrastructure they are building, they are adding a newly designed 9,000-capacity viewing area along the lagoon near Paradise Pier. (Can't wait for this either!)

Okinawa-Tokyo Winter Trip (Goodbye Okinawa, Hello Tokyo!)

Our last day in Okinawa, we took it easy and spent time seeing the local sites, and visiting the nearby military bases. The majority of our day was to get ready for the Tokyo trip and doing last minute shopping!

The two bases we visited were Camp Foster (US Marine Corps) and Kadena Air Base (US Air Force). Camp Foster is where Dan currently serves as a Marine Corps JAG (Judge Advocate General), and the visit to Kadena, the hub of US airpower in the Pacifics, was to see the jets on display (picture below)!

"TOKYO, HERE WE COME!" We had an early start getting up at 5:30am, arriving to the airport by 6:30am and checking-in for our 8am flight! Leyna with her passport in hand was ready to fly anywhere!

Anyway to avoid the chance of catching a cold/flu in the plane, we all geared up with masks! Since it's so common for people to wear masks in Japan, we didn't get any funny looks from others. I'm sure if we did the same in the US, having a group of 4 adults in masks, we would have gotten some looks, hehe.

Our 2.5 hour flight to Haneda airport went smoothly. Arriving at 10:15am we quickly took the limousine bus (a shuttle bus service) to Shinjuku and the local surface train to my mom's house in Hachioji. It felt good to touchdown to our destination and put away our suitcases!

Before we say goodbye to Okinawa and enter our journey into Tokyo, I would like to share with you some photos that we took during our stay in Okinawa! As you can see, Leyna got quite the attention!

Next Stop : An amazing dinner at a traditional Japanese-style restaurant, immersed in tranquil surroundings we were taken back to old Japan!

Okinawa-Tokyo Winter Trip (Okinawa Part 2-Churaumi)

Day 2 of our Okinawa trip was a visit to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. (Chura-umi means "beautiful ocean")

Loralee and Dan had just visited this aquarium in July when Loralee's mother came to visit Okinawa, but they were kind enough to take us and show us around! We had a relaxing start to our day, and began our tour of the enormous aquarium at noon.

This is the view from the backside of the aquarium.

After walking through the first floor of the aquarium, mainly consisting of coral life and deep-sea creatures, we decided to eat lunch as all five stomaches were beginning to cry for food! The Cafe Ocean Blue is located right beside the Kuroshio Sea Tank, and brings you amazing close-up views of the enormous whale sharks and manta rays! Danny and I ate spaghetti and taco rice. Throughout the entire morning Dan was telling us about taco rice and how it's a common dish seen throughout Okinawa. So, with plenty of convincing, we decided to try it! It's basically your common taco fillings topped onto rice. It was actually pretty good =)

The Kuroshio Sea Main Tank using the world's second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring a thickness of 60cm...that's approx 2 feet thick! Amongst the 70+ species in the tank, the 2 enormous whale sharks and manta rays are the main attractions. It's amazing to see such huge creatures so close!

After being mesmerized by the large sharks, we were lucky to join a behind-the-scenes tour of the Kuroshio Sea Tank. They took us above the tank and explained how they feed them, clean the tank and keep them happy! They also have other smaller holding tanks (not visible from the outside) with tiger sharks and other dangerous creatures that could potentially harm the other species. They have a glass-bottom walkway, and looking down Leyna was definitely curious of the moving things below!

A visit to the shark lab, you can see shark skeleton, an entire wall full of shark samples preserved in jars, and a Shark Tank full of dangerous sharks!

This is at the Sea Turtle Pool, located just a short walk away from the main aquarium. They even have a nesting beach nearby where turtles lay eggs each year! Below, Loralee is waiting for the right moment to get that perfect picture of the hungry sea turtle!

Also, a short walk away from the main aquarium is the Okichan Theater. Here they have performances by dolphins. ("Okichan" is the name of their main dolphin performer).

So, this is at one of the nearby beaches. Couple days before going to the Aquarium, Danny had asked Loralee & Dan if the ocean water in Okinawa is warm or cold. Funny enough Loralee & Dan still hadn't walked in the water since moving to Okinawa in May, so they attempted to answer Danny's question at the Aquarium. Dan piggy-backed Loralee to the water, so she wouldn't get sand in her flip-flops, but the waters were not in their favor and Dan's shoes got wet from an unexpected wave! That was a sweet gesture Dan, and sorry that your shoes/socks got wet!! Now that I think about it....I still don't know what their answer is, I think we got distracted with what happened to Dan! haha...Loralee?

Here are a few photos to share! Leyna behaved very well, and hopefully she'll remember the many fisheys she saw!

We come to the end of our visit and wait for the elevator to exit the aquarium. It was a really fun day and glad we got to experience the world's second largest aquarium!

Next Stop : Our last day in Okinawa, and our journey to Tokyo begins. It will be Dan's first time visiting Tokyo, and Leyna's first time ever on a plane!!

Kogi Coming to a Street Near You!

Yes, Danny and I finally got the chance to try the foods from the most chased after taco truck, putting LA and OC people in a frenzy! The "Kogi" taco truck delivers a menu of Korean and Mexican foods married together into total yumminess!

We've heard of people waiting in line for over 2 hours, so we were hoping that going on a rainy day would help a bit...and, luckily it did!! From the time we waited in line to order our food, and picking it up only took 30 minutes (^_^)

Everything on the menu sounded good, but we stuck with getting a Korean Short Rib taco and Black Jack Quesadilla. The Korean Short Rib taco is their signature taco and includes special marinated short ribs, lettuce tossed in Korean chili-soy vinaigrette and sesame-chili salsa roja. Apparently, this is a Kogi crowd favorite, and I think it's my favorite too! The Black Jack Quesadilla includes spicy pork with cheddar and jack cheese finished with salsa verde. They were both really, really good!

Next time we go, we're gonna try for a sunny day with no need to bundle up and fight the cold wind! If you see a Kogi truck, you should try 'em out!