Buying things from Japan

When I just got back. Muahaha! I should have just grabbed it and carried home right? I save the shipping fees and possibly price difference. 

But the problem was I didn’t know where to get it. I saw this in two restaurants. Compared with all the other sanitizer dispensing machines in other restaurants that we went and still liked this dispenser. 

Thanks to online purchase, I went to order this on the 14th and received it on the 18th. That was fast! 

Set it up on the 20th day time 

Realised something is wrong. In this picture you can see how I attempted to save the isopropyl alcohol. Hopefully the extras goes into this small bottle I carry with me all the time. 

Free shipping 👍

Price if send dispenser to Japan

On the same day I messaged Amazon on fault. The item dispensed 4x every time I put my hand under. Very wasted leh! Maybe that’s the reason why there’s a tray below 🤣. Asked staff how to do an exchange.

Initially staff was saying I needed to ship back with no charges as long as I found any box to place it in. But after some time, another CSO took over and said it’s ok no need to return, they will do a $ refund for me and I can place my new order. I received my money back the same day!!! That’s downright efficient. 

Did I buy another? No, I’m afraid to come across with the same fault as it’s possibly the same batch of units sold. So I guess the best solution is to put a piece of tissue below so that it can absorb the wastage and I’ll use it for cleaning the mirror and piano. Haha! I think these two spots in my house will be superbly clean and sparkly 😂.  

My flight home and this Sunday (19th) gone just like that!

Haven’t been the 100% me since we got back from Japan

During flight

Fell sick one hour before boarding the plane. Thanks to hubby who passed it to me. I can only say it’s him coz he carelessly left his mucus filled tissue paper next to me when he was sick. 每次不会注意卫生。Sigh….

Felt cold so borrowed hubby’s fleece top. Took Tylenol and fell asleep when boarding, which I don’t think it’s the medication causing drowsiness but rather I was over-exhausted. For the record, I was only awake for 15mins or less for my meal which was served after take off. Not sure if drinks were served but lao niang was oblivious to what was happening. I was roused from my sleep when I heard some noise, the CS was asking lil’ one her choice and served her first on the way out. It took me some time to register what was happening coz I thought all meals are served at the same time then I heard him saying he’s coming back for us adults later. Haha! I wanted to tell him she’s 18years old leh! Slept so much that I didn’t even register the complimentary wifi. Woke up for another 5mins after a lull period as I needed to go to the toilet and stretch out my legs. Ehh..how long was the flight time? 7hrs plus. I slept so much on the plane. 

Tested

Nope! Not Covid. Tho with all the variants now, I wonder how accurate the tests are. 

Camping outside

Last year the girls camped outside, this year I camped outside. The man is still coughing so i guess it makes no bloody difference that we’re going to cross-infect each other. I didn’t sleep in the same room as I didn’t want the aircon, it always make my stuffy nose worse. Slept outside for 3 nights, lugging that heavy mattress from lil’ one’s room. No joke man! Was thinking to self that next time if I need to isolate myself from hubby then how? Should I buy a foldable mattress? It’s going to be huge and I have no place to put in the bomb shelter. During one of the camping out night I went online and bought a mattress protector just for the sofa. Yup! I will sleep on the sofa next time. I am able to keep the protector together with the rests of our bed protector in the shelf, thus will not worry about where to put it. 

Back at home

As we all know cough usually take a long time to recover. I was not only coughing and nursing a runny nose as well, for some unexplainable reason nothing seems to agree in my tummy. I wonder how is it that I have more output than input but yet didn’t lose weight. The cold damp weather only made it worse for me. Plus housework, with CNY looming close, heater rack spoilt, all the extra work in getting clothes dry. I have no idea when I will handwash the sweaters and thermal, it’s late this year. Normally I get everything washed within a week including the sports shoes but not this time. It’s impossible with the rainy weather and spoilt heater, I might end up with moldy shoes and sweaters. 

Not doing any Ōsōji in particular coz cleaning in my home is an ongoing process. But it’s me trying hard to close two eyes to the mess in the home lor. Should I nurse my health or die over-exerting myself? 

CNY

Also no mood lor! With things happening, who have the celebratory mood for CNY? I just want to pass the day quietly and rest. 

It took me days to put up the decorations and I didn’t have many coz I was not going to stick anything on the wall from now on. 2025 is almost like 2022’s CNY where we only have two weeks to CNY after returning from our trip.

This year not buying any NY goodies as we always end up throwing them away as nobody eats them, now our house looks just like any other day except just a bit of red deco. 

And …. I just remembered didn’t shop for new clothes!! Haiyah! 算了吧！not like we’re going anywhere also. 

Sleepy, lethargic, sleepy on a Sunday (19th)

Doctor prescribed hubby Metophan (cough mixture) on Wednesday and he said it’s pretty effective and asked me to try. I hesitated until last night (18th). I drank and past one in the morning I woke up and vomitted. Wah! Stayed awake for the next 2 hours feeling sleepy and queasy, didn’t want to choke on my own vomitus in my sleep 🤣. Woke up doing just the minimum housework and then nuah. Ate my lunch and fell asleep in the living room.  I have no idea when hubby left the living room switching off the TV, I woke up at 1+pm and decided to lie down on the sofa and woke up from deep sleep at least twice and went back to sleep. The next time I woke at 6pm, I dragged myself up. Took a late shower and had my dinner. Now at 8.20pm I’m feeling sleepy again. No more cough syrup for sure. I don’t want to end up vomiting in the morning again. How many more days will I continue to feel so lethargic? Is this the 所谓 - 老了很难病好？🤨 

E-wallet

Payment has never been so easy with e-payment almost everywhere now. My cards in my wallet keep increasing but monies decreasing 😂. 

Why do I have 2 Revolut cards? Coz I thought I had lost the old physical card so went to apply another. Found the card but second Revolut account still remains $0 🤣. 

Not forgetting the 5 expired passes I have inside the wallet. Time to clear them from the phone, but first thing first is to do a screenshot and keep the images. 

Funny girls

Were waiting at the dental clinic when the girls saw these book in the kids play area. 

The girls because of restricted video viewing in Shanghai were stuck with either 小猪佩奇 or 熊出没. Who can forget lil’ one was so enthusiastic in the opening part of Peppa Pig, that she often recites and snort in her shower and everywhere else when in Shanghai. 😂

Lil’ one took the books and started reading 

When every minute counts

When every minute matters. With lil’ one’s school dismissal at 12pm and therapy at 3.30pm, it means I need to make full use of whatever time I have. 

The day started with hubby sending lil’ one to school at 7+ for school to start at 8am. Was too tired to get out of bed even though I slept early last night (early in my standard). I couldn’t go back to bed after she roused me from my sleep “who’s sending me to school?” Volunteered to send che-che to work. Had some time while she got ready for work so used the time to remove the curtains in living room n lil’ one’s room. I can’t remove the curtains in master bedroom coz the stupid cabinet is in the way (who puts the cabinet all the way so in leaving only 1cm for the curtain rod?) and che-che’s room (coz I can’t open up the ladder with her bed in the way. N too short when I use her bed as a stepping stool). Started washing the curtains in batches. 

Left one set of curtains to do the tumbling in the house and I brought the rests out and dropped by the 24hr laundromat. 

Had to remember to bring che-che’s chicky chicky. I washed it and air-dried it few days back but coz it’s been raining, now chicky chicky smells. Re-washed it today and brought it to the laundromat with me. 

Separated into 2 dryers and put for half hour ($5 each dryer), packed lil’ one and my lunch at coffee shop next door and went to pick her up from school. 

The curtains completed its dryer run when I was otw home, barely 2km out from her school. Yippee! Curtains dried, che-che’s chicky chicky is fluffy and smells nice. 

Between 12+ to 2+ : Back at home. Last batch of curtains done and did our laundry. Brought them out with me, was hoping to throw them into 3 dryers and spin at a lesser time but alas! All dryers were utilised. Kept the damp stuffs in the car while I brought lil’ one for her therapy. Didn’t walk around much, packed dinner and dropped by NTUC and then went back to the car to rest. Closed eyes for 15mins is better than walking around aimlessly mindlessly. 

Reached back close to 5pm and promptly went over. Thank goodness all dryers are empty. Threw into 2 dryers for 18mins each (cost : $1/ 6mins. So $6 gone!)

Dropped lil’ one back at home and picked up the washed undergarments. Should have asked hubby to help wash the socks. I did a quick wash run for 15minutes

and came back with the curtains and clothes dried. Dump all the undergarments and socks into one dryer for 18mins. Aiyah! Don’t care 了。It’s not a huge quantity each batch so …. Want to put into 2 dryers is akin to wasting money. 

By the time all is done, it’s already 5mins to 6pm. Should I pick che-che up or not? In the end, I simply headed home, I’m so tired today from all the running around + cleaning windows and doors, all I look forward to now is a nice warm shower and rest.

$19 gone just like that! I’m grateful that we have this 24hr coin operated laundromat only 350m, a 5min walk away from us. Used only in emergency. However I must admit I like the idea of not having any laundry hanging around in the yard area. In the meantime, I’ll need to look to get a new one. I haven’t washed our sweaters and thermal yet. Sobs! Can’t do it in damp weather.

Allergic reaction

All my life I thought my kids do not have any allergy except maybe to their mother 😂. 

I almost forgot about it until today che-che asked where I bought her roasted pork rice and showed me her ducky swollen lips. OMG! 😲 I was reminded that quite some time back during our conversation she mentioned something about her eating roasted pork I and hubby bought before which she had an allergy reaction to. Of course having packed food from various places, I don’t remember when / where I had packed for her then. Now I can safely pinpoint which stall. 

Fortunately only her lips were swollen and felt hot, other than that she was alright. I should be thankful it isn’t life threatening that she needs an epi. 

Should I make a trip to the stall one day and ask them? Then maybe from there I can pinpoint which ingredient may have caused it and then send her for an allergy test. She still has a long life ahead of her so knowing her allergies will help us. 

阿嫂的唠叨

Can we not have any curtains at all? I always loved it when the curtains are removed for wash  E.V.E.R.Y..S.I.N.G.L.E..T.I.M.E 

Everytime I’ll say out loud, “I wish we don’t have any curtains.” My family is sick and tired of hearing me on repeat mode all the time 🤣. Yah, I think the older I get the more lorsoh I get 😂. 

Without curtains, the small house looks S..P..A..C..I..O..U..S. I’ve removed the heavy curtains for almost 2 years(?), leaving only the white translucent curtain to save our modesty from the privy eyes of neighbours walking past our unit everytime. Without the huge heavy curtains, (1) it makes washing easier too, cutting down the batches of curtains to wash and to hang dry with heat blasting on the drying rack continuously for hours. Hmm…maybe that’s why the rack broke down just as we returned from Japan. Without the huge curtains, (2) it makes cleaning the window grilles and windows and doors slightly easier.

Like…can we maybe just paste a white paper or transparent paper on the doors and windows so that nobody can look into the house both day and night? *the woes of living on the first floor* . So that I don’t have to wash the curtains just clean the sliding doors frame and windows frame. And when aunty feels like it just tear off the paper and replace it, better still if I don’t have to start measuring and cutting and pasting. In conclusion, I’m just so tired and lazy and want to have nothing to do with household chores. 

わらび餅 drinks

In Kobe. Small kiosk operating out from a van. 

In KUR, a peach specialty, we didn’t try this tho I would have loved to if someone could share it with me. 

In INY. Not the first time we came across this brand, we saw one in OKA as well just that we didn’t stop for a drink. 

Lil one not a fan of this drink but she likes it when she took a sip of chocolate drink from che-che. Then she decided to order the Asakawa-en matcha that che-che usually order in SIN. She just had to join in the fun then declared that she has always LOVED matcha. *I’m rolling my eyes* since when she likes matcha? 

In KAM its namesake. It wasn’t what I thought it was, this shop didn’t originate from Kamakura at all. After a search on the history of this novelty place just to write up on this in this blog entry, I realised its HQ is in Niigata and main store in Niigata Prefecture. 

Che-che has a tremendous appetite for snacks. She just finished her cup of hojicha latte less than 10 mins ago (from もみじ茶屋) and we walked past our favourite warabimochi place. It’s at the far end of 小町通りand won’t have the chance to walk all the way back for her to digest the latte and come back for this, so within 20mins she had two cups of filling drinks 🤣.

This is a specialty drink in KAM, where one will find snacks with Buddha head and all. So must have a “Image of the great Buddha” drink 🤣. I see no Buddha leh…. the morsels of granola gave the drink some crunch while sipping the small sticky bits of warabimochi - a good combination. 

Yums! Che-che commented that they should bring this to SIN, I beg to differ. It will make this just so special that one needs to fly over to drink it. Think what happened to chicken-in-a-biscuit. 

I didn’t come across TororiTenshi in Japan at all. 

Marked up JPN books

Unless I know that I will be headed for Japan soon, I would usually hold my books purchases till then. 

I was looking for Japanese baking books so Kinokuniya is a good and ONLY place to go. However majority of their books are also sealed up so it can be difficult to look into the contents. 

These are the books I was looking for, but ended up buying more other books.  

Why pasta books? Coz the Japanese cook scrumptious wafû pasta  

Price in Japan

Price in SIN

Ippudo

We walked into Ippudo by chance in our recent trip. Somehow the name sounds familiar to me, I thought we came across this restaurant in one of our trips, turns out I probably heard of / seen them in SIN. Like what we do on most post holiday, we agreed unanimously that we should try it back home. 

In Japan. First time seeing lil’ one tucking into gyoza. She isn’t a fan of fried stuffs and things with flour-y filling. 

Better still when there’s one outlet about 15mins drive away from us. Went there for dinner today so enthusiastically but were sorely disappointed with the dining experience. 

Not nice 

Colour of broth looks paler. It’s also paler in comparison to taste. 

Why does it taste differently? We know about adjusting taste to suit locals, but this is not spicy or sweet kind of food. Japanese is more palatable to Singaporeans who often travel there. Hmm… 

Not going back for sure. #spoiltfamily# #iwanttogobacktojapan#

Shupatto crazy

You just can’t take the Auntie-ness out from a 100% 💯 aunty 🤣.

Added the medium size shupatto bag to my collection. Bought this in Japan. 

I have the large shupatto bag (far right of pic) for the longest time, probably since 2017 or 2016 but hardly use it even way before SIN start charging $$ for plastic bags in supermarkets. 

I have the small shupatto bag since 2023 or was it early 2024(?) and use this very often as it’s always in whatever bag I carry. Coz it’s so much smaller than the large shupatto bag I tend to bring this out. 

我的妈啊！

我的妈啊！为什么好不坏这个时间坏？

Came home after a long trip and all one needs is things to run smoothly. But no……somebody just likes to make my life difficult. #%^*!!

Last year (2024), we came home to some thunderous noise in our compressor that the girls had to camp in the living room for the next few nights. This year, the dryer died. Ok, I have no idea what went wrong but I changed the remote control battery and it doesn’t work. 

I can’t bring down the rack to remove the towels and clothings hung since we left; I can’t even hang up the newly laundered bedsheets! And what?! Has it been raining continuously since we left? Some clothes still feel damp!! Damn!! As if I’m that fit now, came back sick and …nobody is helping me with anything, I need to go against my tired body and iron all the clothes dry. If not the clothes will stink (maybe just nice for me to use all the fabric fresheners I have) 

After all my complaining, you would think that I swore off new technology. Would I still prefer the old tek-kor method of hanging clothes? No, I prefer this where I can dry my clothes faster especially now during the monsoon season. 

But 老娘 still end up using the clothes hanger hook to bring down / hang up the clothes. Better still, have you seen anyone using a ladder just to do laundry?? Me lor! Coz Ms Shortie can’t reach the white pegs to clip the undergarments and socks. 真搞笑！

Sigh…… hubby says to get someone to come over. Eh…get who? I don’t even know where he bought this from, he didn’t pass me any invoice. Looks like I will need to get a new drying rack. Time to say goodbye to this “欢迎使用晾衣架…祝您生活愉快” cheena rack. 

I checked the hygrometer and humidity level reads 90%. OMG!!!!

Muchas gracias my mamasan bag

My last mamasan bag or what hubby always call it “Alibaba bag” life expectancy has finally come to an end 😭 

The senior crew would always introduce the newbies this personalized mamasan bag in Itaewon. I bought a medium and large bag. I was always so proud to say that my mamasan bag lasted me more than che-che’s age. Had it in mt first year of flying. Wow! That’s 29 lasting years!! 

My medium size bag frayed so much that I had to discard it last year. Both bags have served me well as a backup extra check-in bag; as a bag to carry our laundry to the laundromat; as a bag to carry groceries from supermarket trips overseas. 

When I was in Seoul last September I had wanted to drop by the shop but lil’ one didn’t want to make the trip to Itaewon 😟. Made a check with ex-crew in the FB group and was directed to Jenny (yah! Name sounds familiar now) - Seoul Yongsan-Hu Itaewon-dong 34-102 (Itaewon station exit 4) - IG under kukilsa_itaewon. So thankful for their replies. 

This time round, I did mend a small part of the bag when che-che noted a small slit in the hotel after we did the packing. All her heavy snacks lor!! Thankfully it didn’t burst open in Japan or enroute back to SIN. It finally gave way when hubby brought the bag of heavy bedsheets and laundry to the 24hr laundromat today 😭

Time to bade this goodbye. Time to let go of this small memory. 

Thank you ! 

Things we bought from 🇯🇵

Too tired to blog when I got back. So some photos have already been deleted from phone camera roll just coz I drafted this in early Feb 2025 (and posted to an earlier date - today) 

Or kept aside already so lazy to take out coz already packed them into the storeroom (che-Che’s snacks) and into the pantry cabinets 

Bought for us - miso. Never bought so much miso in my life before 😂. red miso from Nagoya. Miso the girls helped to pick in Shirakawago while I went up the observatory. And before that miso from ??? 

Taken from AR Instagram posted on 10/1

Mt Fuji

I'll never tire of the view of Mt Fuji. When I had the chance I'll usually look out of the window. And if we fly into or out of Tokyo, I'll make sure to book the correct side of the plane to get the view. On our last holiday, we flew out of Haneda at night so I didn't even bother to look out of the window. Anyway, I wasn't feeling well on the flight back, all thanks to hubby who spread his germies to me. 

We hardly make trips to Tokyo contrary to friends' belief who kept thinking I always go to Tokyo. Nope! Tokyo is way too crowded for me/us now. When we did when the girls were younger, the girls didn't have the chance to see Mt Fuji. We know Mt Fuji is there right behind us but all we see is covered with clouds. 

Third time's the charm. The girls finally saw it on land on 7th Jan (Tue). We were in Tokyo for 5 days and we were in luck on the day of the Mt Fuji hunting day trip, Mt Fuji showed up! We couldn't see it in Kamakura, we couldn't see it in Enoshima, we couldn't even see it when it's supposed to be smacked right infront of us on our way from Hamamatsu to Tokyo. Damn suay! Haha!  

I've made a short collage. To view it, click HERE