Our First Christmas in Our New Home

(Above) Our Christmas tree laden with presents and decorations. Can you see Mickey and Minnie within there ?
(Above) Here is Mickey and Minnie, in Christmas garb, with Minnie kissing Mickey under the mistletoe at our Christmas tree.

We had our first Christmas in our new home and invited our family to our place for a Christmas lunch specially prepared by my wifey, Gayle. This also being our first Christmas, we set up our Christmas tree with a winter theme and laid all the presents.
(Above) Shayna guarding her presents

For Christmas lunch, we bought lamb racks, brazillian sausages and a beef ribeye steak from Espirito Santo, a gourmet butchery in Parkway Parade. Gayle prepared the meat by pan frying them first and then putting them into the oven. She also prepared her home made sauce - creame 'stard wine sauce plus coriander, pepper for the meats.

(Above) Christmas lunch laid out for 5 (Above) Everyone posing for the camera before starting on the Christmas lunch

It was a declicious Christmas meal that saw everyone lapping up their food and finishing the sauce. We started off with pumpkin soup with white cream and went on for our main course of lamb racks. My brother took the ribeye steak since he wasn't keen on lamb. We also shared a platter of sausages such as spicy italian, brazillian linguica, and lamb . There was also a big bowl of salad with Thousand Island dressing. This ended with slices of the Christmas Log cake bought by mom.
(Above) Pumpkin Soup with white cream swirl

(Above ) Lamb rack in creame 'stard white wine sauce with fried onions and asparagus, prepared by Gayle.
(Above) A plate of Brazillian sausages. (Above) Traditional Christmas Log Cake

(Above ) Everyone, posing at the Christmas tree

Then we had an exchange of present as is the annual practice and this time, there were even presents for our doggy - Shayna who got two soft toys to play with.

(Above ) Shayna with a paw each on her two presents.(Above) Us posing with all our presents from us, mom and brother , sister in law.

(Above ) Showing my pair of Timberland footwear from Gayle

For the both us, we managed to give each other what we were eyeing - For Gayle, I got her a perfume from Anna Sui and a bracelet watch from French Connection while she gave me a pair of Timberland sports footwear and Star Wars toys - a pair of Scout Troopers on their Hoth speeder bikes, haha, another one to add to my collection!

(Above) Gayle showing her Anna Sui bottled perfume given by me. Shayna is as usual looking up and wondering whether it is edible or not.

(Below ) The 3 poses of Shayna
(Above) Shayna guarding her Christmas toy(Above) Looking at us as she places a paw over her Christmas toy
(Above) After all the festive, she's tired and grabs her gingerbread girl toy to sleep.

Experience in Hakodate,Hokkaido(Part 2)

(Above) Having a romantic kiss in front of JR Hakodate Train Station

Hakodate is a pleasant quiet city that presents a different perspective from the usual bustling metropolitan cities of Japan. After Hakodate, it took some getting used to on our part to walk with swarms of people in Tokyo city.

(Above) Us posing in front of the Goryokaku tower . It's around noontime and the skies are getting dark.

We visited the 60m high Hakodate Goryokaku Tower(above), which is the highest observation tower there, built overlooking a shogun's fortress, famous for it's western styled shape in the form of a five-pointed star. This design allowed for greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fortress, and reduced the number of "blind spots" where a cannon could not fire. The Goryokaku fort was designed by a Japanese scholar - Takeda Ayasaburō, who was influenced by French designs. The fort is being rebuilt to it's former glory and has been declared a special historical site by the government.

(Above) Us posing in the tower's observation deck which affords a 360 degrees bird's eye view of Hakodate city.

(Above) An interesting view of the rooftop of a local church in Hakodate - Love God.

(Above)Looking down from the observation deck, one can see the star shaped design of the fortress.

We visited the interior of the fortress where the open areas have been converted into a public park. We saw the folks there exercising there or bringing their dogs for a walk. There are many bonsai like creepers and plants which looked very ancient(Below).

Along the way, we spied a children's playground and just had some retro fun playing on the slides and swings(Below).

(Above) Gayle acting 'kawaii' during our walk by the streets of Hakodate . Walking the streets instead of taking public transport not only saves money but more interestingly gives us new insights into the city and offers us unique perspectives of things one seldom sees as a tourist.

(Above ) Gayle posing in front of the local church. Coincidentally, we captured the shadows behind which seems to reflect that of a man raising his hands towards God, symbolised by the shadow of the cross while he seems obstructed by what looks like a serpent representing evil. Haha, maybe our imagination is too wild!

Walking along the residential areas, we spotted the different houses , from the unique and strange ones(above) to the stylish spacious homes(below)

(Above) It really tells you something about the safety of Hakodate when policemen drive in tiny little 660cc kei cars which shows they don't have much chasing of bad guys in souped up cars. Even the police are environmentally conscious, driving these fuel efficient cars.
(Above) What a nice surprise, as we were strolling, the electronic signboard on the building opposite of us flashed Happy Birthday, and it turns out that it was also my birthday that day!

(Above) We came across Lucky Pierrot which is Japan's fast food chain version of pizza hut, mcdonald rolled into one. We stopped there for a nice lunch.
(Below) The burger is quite juicy and delicious and substantial

(Above) Something which we will never see in Singapore, image of the Virgin Mary carrying a hamburger, found at the Lucky Pierrot restaurant.

(Above) We found Santa Claus riding on a motorized 3 wheeled scooter and taking a break to talk to an old friend.
(Above) Resting at a traffic junction while waiting for the pedestrian lights to turn green. A bonsai rudolph is behind us .

(Above) We passed by a pizza hut outlet and noticed that the pizza delivery is done in little kei cars. At least they have welfare and keep their deliverymen warm in their cars.
(Above) The weather for that day was 10 degrees celcius. The day is warmest while the nights are cold.

(Above) Taking a kissing break in the vending machine store. They have stores filled with vending machines and furniture for you to take a break and have a drink or mucnh on a snack.

(Above) A nice shot of the sun blessing mount hakodate. You can see the observation station at the peak.

(Above) Gayle trying out the ticketing machine

Getting around Hakodate is relatively easy and it can be accessed by foot for most areas. Buying train tickets is easy. Just ask the information counter ( yes they can speak in English) and tell them your destination, ask how much the fare cost and which subway line to take and whether any transfers are required. The ticketing machine has an English touchscreen function so no worries about understanding the ticketing instructions.

(Above) Leaving Hakodate for Noboribetsu. A pose in front of the station with our full backpacks. We carried backpacks for ease of movement and they can be stretched to enhance carrying capacity.

(Above) Our train to Noboribetsu - Hukoto Rapid train no 5 which ends it's route in Sapporo.

(Above) Gayle posing at the train platform just as our Hokuto No 5 train comes into the station. ( Below ) Me boarding the train carrying a packet of Hakodate white chocolate cookies.

(Above) Us in our reserved seats on board our train en route to Noboribetsu.

(Below) One thing about sitting the train, you get to experience the different scenery , from the residential areas, to the countryside, to the mountains ,to the sea.

Hakodate is a city that one should visit in Japan, both for the fresh seafood and also to see a different pace of Japan.