We started our trip on Monday 13th August at 9am. Gabe was a happy baby, eagerly awaiting our departure and he knew we were going kai kai once he saw me taking his baby carrier and wearing it. He was already bouncing bouncing in anticipation
Waiting patiently....
Hamamatsu is about 150km from Tokyo. So, i had to strap Gabe up in the car seat. He wasn't very happy at all, screaming n crying. Then, after awhile he realised i wasn't gonna budge, so i think he kinda just accepted it and fell asleep soon after.
Yup, him showing his sad face...
Unfortunately it took us much longer than expected to reach coz it's holiday season and boy was it jammed. Many many cars along the way. I think we were caught in the jam for like 1.5-2 hours. Thankfully, after that it was pretty OK. We reached our hotel to check-in at about 4.30pm....Yes yes you're wondering why so long....err, you have to take into consideration toilet breaks and lunch breaks mah....
Anyway, our hotel looks pretty old from the outside, but thank goodness they did a lil refurbishment in the rooms. Actually, the room was pretty nice n comfy. Clean too. We had a twin room and the beds could be joined together....yay!! That meant we had a super duper huge bed and I didn't have to get squashed by Gabe.
Since it was too late to go to the flower park n fruit farm, we decided to just go for a drive around. It was pretty quiet even though it was a holiday. For dinner we decided to go to Aeon mall to look around and settled for a simple dinner of tempura noodles, nothing remarkable. And had ice cream which Gabe loved.
Uneventful first day since most of the day was taken up driving...
On the 2nd day, we woke up early (ok, actually Gabe woke up early n woke us up too). We had breakfast at the hotel..err...i didn;t eat much just coffee. Their idea of rice with fish n veg for brekkie wasn't my ideal...i'd rather have scrambled eggs n bacon. Oh yes, the weather...down right disgusting..it rained the whole early morning until about 10am and the forecast was more rain over the next few days. Anyway, we decided rain or not, we had to get out.
So, Daddy suggested we go to this Toyota Museum first since it was probably covered and wait till rain stops. Umm...turns out, the museum was set in a very very traditional Japanese house. But huge....apparently this is the house where the founder of Toyota was born. So it's like a tribute to the family. But the museum pays tribute to his father, the person who invented the loom machine. It's a beautiful house, with gorgeous trees and landscapes. We walked the compound and had to climb stairs. Not easy since it was still raining and i had about 7kg worth of weights.
Oh yah....Uncle HK, this is for you...our car of the moment. Daddy says must show you
Next off, we decided to go to the Flower Park coz by then it was just drizzling lightly. Ad by the time we got there, it stopped..yippee!!! Surprisingly, not many people at all...so sad...holiday yet deserted...I guess Hamamatsu is just not a touristy place.
But we had fun..the park was beautiful...the flowers n trees...and it was connected to the Hamamatsu Zoo, a small one.
Letting Gabe touch the grass..
We only have 1 photo of us at the zoo coz by then we were hot, tired and hot..
Phew....we walked alot, like alot...but when we finished it was only around 2.30pm i think. So we decided we'd go to the Fruit Farm. I mean, we were already sweaty n sticky, may as well get sweatier.
You need to take an escalator to get to the hill top where the farm is
Hello!!!!
It's pear season now..and oranges
Gabe plucking a pear:)
here you go...all sweet n juicy..yummy yummy
We plucked a total of 10 pears...oops...actually 11, but we secretly threw it onto the ground coz silly Daddy was trying to pluck this one pear, but pulled so hard, another dropped too...and it wasn't a pretty pear so we didn't want it..10 pears for JPY1400....good deal eh
Yay!! What a fruitful day...so happy we got to visit at least a few places and it didn't rain more. We headed back to hotel to rest..Gabe fell asleep for an hour and then we went to have ramen and ice cream. After that, sleep time, we were all tired.
It's time to check out...as i mentioned earlier, we planned to go to Shimoda beach. Unfortunately, the weather was shitty...it was to rain over the next few days. Even on the day we checked-out, it rained heavy...so, in the end, we didn't go to Shimoda. It was pointless coz firstly it's holiday season and hotel prices at the beach are double, nearly JPY20,000 and if we were going to pay that much, we'd better have good weather. So Daddy said, we'll go to Gotemba and over the weekend, since Shimoda isn't far away, we could go there then.
Of course, i was upset n disappointed, but fun at the beach is no fun if it's raining. Gotemba was Ok since we got to go shopping. As the saying goes "No fish, shrimp also Ok"...err...the saying is in Hokkien, so i just translate..
Gotemba was packed with shoppers. We just walked around and scored some good deals at GAP, especially Gabe. Had coffee too.
Oh...yes i said i'd show a video of Gabe's bye bye...here it is below. But it's funny, coz when i started to teach him, he did it with 1 hand, then i think he got it confused with clap hands action, so previously, he'd pause when u asked him to do one after the other. Then he'd just mix it both up....and in the end, the bye bye was modified by His Majesty to using both hands....
We had a lovely few days, short but precious. I love travelling with Gabe. He has his tantrums n all, but he's really so happy to be out and smiles so much and makes so much happy noises. There's nothing more than me being happy seeing him happy.
Us mucking around
Him crying his lungs out after being strapped in
What's not to love about this face
The cutest face ever....Mummy's Baby
Daddy, we need more fun trips like this....exhausting but precious.
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