A day at Marine Pia Kobe

Marine Pia Kobe Porto Bazaar is a major outlet mall that resembles a port town in Southern Europe. There are approximately 70 stores selling luxury designer brand items produced by well-known makers in Japan and overseas. Another must see at Marine Pia is the World's longest suspension bridge, Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which is very close by.

We went there last weekend during one of the Coach sale. I had received an invitation postcard saying there would be on sale for the next 2 weeks. People who brought the postcard along would have an extra 30% off from the discounted price. Great chance to 'borong' if you were Coach lover right?

But...to cut the story short, I didn't get any Coach bags. Sigh...There were many nice bags. Very very nice...but I hardly had the chance to use them at the moment. I have like more than 10 different designer bags sitting in my closet. Still brand new but never had the chance to be used. So, I quit the thought and later we agreed to walk around and enjoy the sea view instead.

Among the stores available

Sya and his Biology lesson...looking for insects

He spotted something more interesting...

So there goes our food...That was supposed to be part of our lunch! Bertuah betul!

Then I spotted a few pigeons with deformed foot.

They are a few causes to this (learn about it after googling at home). The main causes are diseases (pigeon pox or bumble-foot) and injury from entanglement in synthetic threads such as fishing line. But they seemed OK. The size was normal and was not extremely thin...I supposed they could survive even with deformed foot.

Hey...forget me not!

Most of our food went to these pigeons!

Enjoying his favorite takoyaki. Who asked you to give all your food? Kan dah lapar balik...

Perut kenyang, hati pun senang...

Enjoying the sea breeze, it's good to come here once in a while...

On a cold autumn evening...

Watching ships come and go....

Watching the longest suspension bridge in the world...

Day dreaming of our own boat/yacht one day...

And watching the beautiful sunset....

Before heading home.


Oh, before that...a small confession! We did go home, but not after purchasing two discounted price bags. No, not from Coach though, from a Japanese designer. *wink*

I know, I know, I am guilty of being a bag lady!

Teka-teki

We came across this scene while driving at the kampung area of Tokushima. Finding it amusing, I took a few photos of them. Can you guess why these life-size dolls were placed in the road junction?

Life-size dolls in human clothes, pants, and hats with different poses

The answer: They were placed in order to remind road drivers for safe driving.

Did you get it? Can you actually link road safeties to these dolls?
Perhaps these dolls look so real that drivers are given the impression that they are watched by these 'people' hence they would drive with a better manner?
But to some people who are 'kay poh chi' like me, who likes to look left and right instead of watching front, accidents may happen on the road instead! :)

Can you imagine spotting these dolls for the first time...in the middle of night? Alone....?
Brrrrr....scary, scary!

Nursery school trip

The yearly autumn trip is back again.
This year, the nursery had organized a trip to Onokoro amusement park in Awaji island. Onokoro is famous for their miniatures of famous buildings. They also provide quite a nice place for picnic. Otherwise, we think the park is just like any amusement parks we see in Japan, offering rides as their main business.

We were required to gather at the front gate of the nursery by 8am.


Then there was a speech by the headmistress, giving a brief talk and making the kids promised to follow the three basic rules:
1. Always be with your parents. Don't wonder around alone.
2. If you need to go to toilet, never lock the door as it is difficult for kids to unlock later ( we don't want the kids to be locked in the toilet do we?)
3. Make sure to come back by 12.40om. (Kids should remind parents as well...)


After making the kids promise (by touching their heads....Hmmm, that was new I thought), we all walked in twos to the nearest bus stop where the hired bus were scheduled to wait for us there.

Up to the bus we climbed

Sya sat with teacher during that one hour trip

The parents sat at the back seats, watching the kids occupied their time with singing and quiz answering sessions

We arrived at Onokoro at about 9.30am

Here we come, Onokoro!

Ok you two...we will have to go separate ways. See u later Monica!

Mommy, let me have a look at the map. I shall decide where we would go first!

Sya decided to take a train ride with his friends...of course without his mommy and daddy

Joining his close friends...discussing where to go next.

The train ride would take them to a forest where statues of Jack and the beanstalk, Thumbelina and other famous fairy tales were featured

See you guys later!

The five minute trip seemed so long....sigh!

He spotted the big ferris wheel...obviously, we couldn't escape the ride.

Sya wanted to ride alone! Beraninya...But of course we refused

The views from the top of the ferris wheel...it would have been great if the weather was sunny

Excited with his first ride

A miniature of The Arc de Triomphe

It's so hard to get them to pose properly...hahaha

Lunch time, since we had made lunch box, let's have picnic!

Tamagoyaki ( Japanese omelette)

Karaage (Japanese fried chicken)

Fresh veges

sausages...Sya's favorite

Shrimp salad with erkkk...oxidated avocado (forgot to put some lemon juice...haha)

Persimmon and Fuji apple for desert

We continued the adventure after our lunch

Miniature of Neuschwanstein Castle

Miniature of Acropolis

Miniature of leaning tower of Pisa

Sya wanted to ride this antique car

The ride took us to see all the other miniatures

Then we saw this. Wah...this seemed fun!

After the first ride with ayah, Sya wanted to ride alone!

Sya loved it!

A ride with ayah

Go cart race with ayah

Having fun boyS?

Baikin-man (a Japanese animation character) ride

Merry-go-round, which we discovered that Sya had motion sickness after that!

We wrapped up our trip, as usual, with ice-cream

And we finally were back at the entrance before 12:40pm

Everyone seemed to enjoy the trip. What most important was that no unwanted things happened to anyone and all of us went back with a big smile.