Okinawa Trip (Japan)

I always wanted to go Japan because people rave about it's food, it's culture, good manners, weather, good dress sense and a super clean toilet. Haha! A clean toilet that can at the same time wash your ass, who's complaining?

After coming back from France, I hardly travel. Have to save money right? Finally, we decided that we probably save enough for a decent trip and we picked Okinawa. Hooray! Never regret this decision.

I kept seeing advertisement from Jetstar airlines that they fly direct to Okinawa. In the past, there were no flights that fly direct from Singapore. You have to transit at Tokyo, Taiwan or China. But with Jetstar, it look us 5.5hrs to reach the beautiful island of Okinawa. Such short distance, to sit in a budget airline, I really have no complain. And we save time and money in this way.

Okinawa is famous for it's beaches, watch sunset, bitter gourds, pineapple, purple sweet potatoes, pork meat in soup with noodles or grilled pork sliced and Shisa dogs . I love Japan also is that, hotels have washing machine that you can wash by yourself at such cheap price. That's means, we can minimise space in our luggages.

1st day:

• Reached Naha International Terminal
• We choose OTS rent a car service because they open very early so we don't have to wait.
• We drove to ANA International Hotel. We choose this hotel as we wanted to be far from airport which is more town and city. We will slowly drive back to stay near airport for our last few days.
• We get to explore the facilities there. There are many things to do. Examples: Arts and crafts, swimming, sea sports, Submarine activities, take photos, etc. There is no gym though. I realised that many hotels there do not have a gym and I guess they emphasise on water sports instead.

 Such nice view of the pool

 Our hotel in the background

 Submarine experience!

Famous rocks behind for photo-taking

 children made a photo frame each

In their pyjamas :) Provided by the hotel.

 

2nd day:

• Drove to Cape Manzamo, take photo
• Drove to Nago pineapple Park (please try their giant pineapple sundae. Super awesome!)
• Watch Sunset on sailboat at the hotel
• Dinner at Salvatore Cuomo

 so many pineapples!

 automated, so we just have to sit back and relax

 souvenir photo to bring home 

 talking dolls that you can purchase

 Must try pineapple sundae. It's enough for the 4 of us

 on sailboat to watch sunset

 

3rd Day:

• Drove to Churaumi Aquarium/ Ocean Expo Park
• Kouri Island. we climb up to Kouri Ocean Tower to have a spectacular view of Okinawa
• Dinner at Ufuya 100 years old restaurant. They are famous for its unique house, which is now a restaurant and they serve premium pork meat. (Please make a booking as it can get crowded. We didn't book but managed to reached there by 6pm.)

 there is an outdoor play area for free!

 the road from Okinawa to Kouri Island

 Ring the bell, they said

 Ufuya restaurant

 

4th Day:

• Check out and drive to Hotel Nikko Alivila (you can choose Renaissance Okinawa but it was fully booked)
• Visit Cape Maeda which is very near to our hotel
• Went to Cape Zanpa for sunset
• Dinner at Hanagasa (cheap and delicious food)

 Bye to hotel ANA

 At hotel Nikko Alivila

 a church, probably used mainly for wedding

 Cape Maeda

 Cape Zanpa

 Hanasaga which is near our hotel

 

5th Day:

• Gyoku Sendo (Limestone cave)

 

6th Day:

• Drove to Kokusai Dori. No carpark nearby so we park at one of the public carpark when we saw one and walked 15-20mins to the market.
• Lunch at Makishi public marketfor sashimi
• Maihama American village and we took the ferris wheel
• if you have time, you can make your way to sunset beach, which is nearby

 look for this entrance into the market

 selection of seafood

 they will bring it upstairs to cook or prepare the sashimi

 Maihama American village

view from ferris wheel

 

7th Day:

• Lunch at Janatei (Supposedly, a place when filming took place)
• Drove to Crown Plaza Harbourview as it is near airport (please note that as we get nearer to town, the hotel rooms get smaller)
• visit Shurijo Castle. (they said is a must-see but we went and the castle is under renov)
• Return car

 Lunch at Janatei

 Shurijo castle

Bye Okinawa

 







 



8th Day:

• Home sweet home

I seriously want to go Okinawa again. I can't stop thinking about it.:D

Housing rent contract in France (Important!)

What's up with housing rent contract in France? Isn't it just sign the term of contract and when the contract is due, just return the house keys to the landlords? So easy right? NOPE.


As we are moving out of the 3years old rented house very soon, my husband's company assigned an agent to help us with the moving, selling of the cars, internet and etc. One day, the agent, H, called me up and told me that she is coming over to the house to check on the house. I believed she meant to see how the house has been maintained. Now, I am not trying to be proud here but I must admit that I am a cleanliness freak. :D I vacuum the house everyday and every other day, I mop the floor, wipe the exterior of all cupboards, shine the mirrors. And the house we rent is 2 storeys high. I am a very busy SAHM. Haha.




So she rang the doorbell and I let her in, together with my landlord and his wife?! What is happening here?! Being polite, I let them in. (Now, here in France, Landlord cannot show up at the house unannounced.) After that, H asked for my permission to take photo of the house and I'm like "ok", maybe husband's company wanted the photos of the house for documentation purposes.




Next, H started to walk around the house and went to the kitchen first (landlord and wife following closely behind her). So suspicious. H looked under the stove hood and said "Ah, you need to clean the hood mesh." I said "ok". We are not returning the house yet, so I'm not going to clean it now. If not, I have to clean again, I thought.




Then they looked up at the ceiling, all corners of the walls and air vents and said "there are spider webs, you need to clean it." I wanted to laugh. Even if I clean the spider webs now, they build another one by the afternoon. I swear! Beside, when we first came into the house, the house was filled with spider webs and VERY big spiders. Ok,I exaggerated. Maybe about half the size of my palm ( and my hands are not small ok :D ).




Later, I spoke to my friend who has been staying in Toulouse for many years. She is from Singapore too. She warned me that landlords here will "sabotage" the tenants, especially those who are not French and may not know the rights as a tenants. The reason is that they do not want to return the security deposit. They tried to point out here and there and said the house is not to their cleanliness state. Also, landlord will come over to check on the house at the very last minute so you would not have the time to clean and probably rushing to the airport. She said a lot of her foreigner friends got this from the landlords all the time. Deducting money here and there.




I have to emphasise this, landlord cannot come to the house without seeking permission from you first. They can't show up just like that. If that happen, feel free to chase them away. Nicely please. :D
And when the contract is almost up (like 1 month before), landlord can arrange for people to view the house but he can't simply take over the keys from you, even if you are not at home. It is for your own security.  My landlord and H tried to convince us to give up the house keys to them for people to view the house when we wanted to go on a holiday. We didn't do that of cause.




Let's talk about the house when arrived in Toulouse, France. It was not ready for us to move in so we put up in a service apartment for 3 weeks. We have already signed the rental contract and we were supposed to move in a few days later when we arrived. The house is empty without the essential furniture, except the kitchen. It is quite normal to rent an empty house or apartment in France and once the contract is due, people will just sell away the furniture. The house have nothing to sit on and mind you, people here wear shoes into your house. We don't! As the house just finished with the renovation, the floor was very dirty and you definitely don't want to sit on the floor. The windows on the house were filthy with dust from the renovation and the walls were infested with thick spider webs. yucks! I cleaned that up all for the landlord. so he should be grateful, right? or so I thought.


Now, after 3years, We have to return the house. guess what? the landlord uses the same tricks as other landlords. Finding little specks of dusts, a little black line on the walls, walls have to be extremely white ( he is asking us to paint his walls for free!). So my hubs spent about 2 hours arguing with the landlord. Luckily, we have our agent with us and all was resolved without us paying any cents. phew.....


See in France, is like this. just be careful and knows your right. take photos of the house before and after. Cover your back.

Goodbye France.

Its time to remove the stickers on the walls in our house. We are moving back to Singapore as our work contract in France has come to an end. Oh boy, I do feel devastated. This 3 years in the house, I have very fond memories of the things we bought. The furniture that we picked, the arts that I did with the kids, the many stickers on the white walls which we made it more homely and lively. All this have to be taken down and furniture have to be sold away. The first 2 years here, I hardly go out because I was not confident in driving, 2 young kids in toll and the sickening foreign language that I ould not understand. I spent a lot of time in this house and everything evolved around it. Eventually, We grew to have feelings for it. We called it 'home'. Finally, this phase has ended and our new one is starting. I took lots of photos of the house, for memories - beautiful memories as a family and that we have ever lived in France.

The children's beds

Bathroom stickers for the kiddies

Stickers at the stairway

Cheeky posters

Curtains made from bottlecaps. For fengshui purposes

Family photos and crafts made by the kids

A comfort corner for me

Kitchen, playroom and their beloved swing

Living room. Cosy

Tent in the playroom

Children playroom 

Arts done by the kids

Me outside the house 

Love this elephants stickers

Little garden

Walk-in wardrobe 

Our beds

2nd bedroom

3rd bedroom

Stairway up to 2nd level

With neighour's cat, Christy

Kitchen 

Some more stickers

I love them all

Expat Identity Crisis

Lately, I have been feeling very emotional, my mood was almost like a roller coaster ride. In less than 3 months time, we are leaving France and back to Singapore, our hometown. Our 3 years contract here is finally coming to an end.

I don't know why i feel this way. If it was my first year here, I would very gladly said that I want to go back Singapore. I admit that our first year in France was the toughest. We came without any furniture, the house was empty, Erica is only 7months old and Stacy couldn't stop crying wherever we go. We have problems with our home address, internet, our resident cards, medical insurances, etc.. almost everything have problems. Lol.

In our 2nd year, things only started to get better. We have friends, the children have grown up alittle more, i started driving and i am able to take care of the house and children. We are also starting to understand simple French. And when we are finally enjoying our 3rd year, it's time to say goodbye.

Well, in singapore, I was rather fortunate. Everytime i went out with the children, there will always be my mum, my in-law, helper or friends with me. When i knew that i have to come to France, i have to put a stop to my job and learnt a foreign language. All this were not the biggest problem for me. The hardest was taking care of the kids. With my limited French, 2 crying children, no friends and clueless on where to buy things .. but, all these, seem like a dream to me now. The hardship has passed.

Now, we are experiencing a different crisis - expat identity crisis. I quote from a website "You can only visit your old life a couple of weeks a year and you would feel like you are a visitor in your home that you grew up in. But you also feel the same way and maybe treated like a visitor in the country that you are currently living too. You feel like you don’t belong anywhere."

Now, our problem is going back to our "old life". Its another adjustment for us. My 2 children are so called grew up in France and we are already quite comfortable here Going back is like a question mark to us. Our views on way of life have definitely change.

But my home country will be always be where I belong.

Monkey Park Indoor playground - Toulouse

Newly open in Toulouse. This same location used to be Rigolus Parc but have since close down.

Monkey park is a massive play structure all joined together. Which means the children can climb from one structure to another without getting out from the structure. Awesome! There are also mini cars, giant legos, soccer and basketball area. Lots of obstacles and challenges for the kids. They will definitely be tired after that. ;)

Babies and toddlers won't miss out the fun either. There is a smaller play structure for them, a ball pits with slides. Yippee!

Very clean and tidy. I even saw the staff cleaning the floor and play structures when they were not many children around. The toilets were very clean and dry. Sorry, it does matter to me how clean the toilets are. Come on, its about hygiene right? They also have a diapers changing room for the babies. Great!

From their website, they claim that their staffs speak English, Spanish and French. Woohoo..

For food, it's the usual kids meals like chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, fries. They serve salads, pizza, waffles, crepes, ice- cream, etc. Price for food is reasonable but for drinks, it can be a little expensive.

They also organise birthday parties but I'm not sure about the charges.

During summer, they will open their outdoor play garden! When we were there, they have not open the outdoor play yet so I couldn't take any photos.

Overall, the place is entertaining for the
children and yet, relaxing for the adults.

Address: 1 Chemin De La Caussade, 31240 L'Union
Http://www.monkeypark.fr

Carcassonne - France (A must see)

We have been to Carcassonne several times and how can I not blog about it. Haha. Carcassonne is in Aude, Languedoc-Roussillon. It is an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town, encircling the castle and surrounding buildings, and cathedral. I am not able to take a good photo of the whole of the castle and its city. However, you can go to this google link to view photos taken by other people. https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=carcassonne&rlz=1T4BFLR_enSG473SG494&biw=1138&bih=534&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwict8eUsqjNAhWF6xoKHXljAz4Q_AUIBigB#


You can walk around the castle and it's free. However, if you want to see more of the history, etc, you have to pay an entrance fee. I would say that it is quite worth it to go in but once for me is enough. Other than that, you are still free to roam around the town and the castle where there are many shops and eateries. We always love visiting the souvenir shops where they sell a lot of knights swords, helmets and also princesses' gowns. At any of the eateries, we usually ordered crepes filled with nutella and whipped cream. Yum yum. There are also a lot of fine dining restaurants and the food are reasonably price.

Stacy was standing under a bridge, which to me, look like the casle's little garden

Be prepared for some walks

Magnificent view of the city

Another view

 Next, we went into the cathedral and was so amaze by the decorations and the serenity inside. I am not a Christian or Catholic but I am always open to visit the cathedral because then nobody judge me whenever, I am in there.

Inside the cathedral. The stained glass is so beautiful. Awww..

When we were about to leave the castle, we saw horse ride outside and we thought it was a wonderful experience to go around the castle while sitting inside the carriage. Please be aware that the guide / staff only speak French. while I was sitting in the carriage, something that the guide did, that made me regret to take the horse ride. He was a bit impatient with the horses and was saying something angrily to them. Example, when one of the horses bent its head down to touch the ground, the guide yanked his head up. I don't understand why he did it. But it just made me felt that he was not kind to the horses and only making use of them for monetary gain. sad.

Taking photo with the horses

Sitting in the horse's carriage



After the horse ride, which lasted for about 20mins, I saw a petite train ride just outside the castle. I think it goes around the outside of the castle. sigh... I should have taken this train ride instead. At least I don't feel so guilty after the horse ride incident.


Overall, going to Carcassonne is always an enjoyment for the kids. So many things to see and eat, and also the walking tired them out, which is what we want. Haha!

Lastly, a family photo for sweet memory

The beggars in France

Today I took Erica to Lidl (supermarket) to get my groceries and sitting outside Lidl was a man begging for money. He don't look French to me, more like from middle-eastern country. He greeted me "Bonjour!" And asked me to give him a piece of coin.

Now, I am a very soft-hearted and you would say a generous person. If I can help and it is within my means, I will try my best to help that person. I am definitely not rich. If I only have $2, I give that poor soul $1.

I didn't give the beggar any money (I didn't have any money with me, except my debit card). I went into Lidl, bought 2 croissants and other groceries that I needed, went outside and gave him the croissants. I guess he didn't expect anyone to buy him food. Usually people will just gave him a coin.

My husband will always scold me for always giving things or donating money when we didn't even have enough. Well, that's me. Everyday, I count my blessings and thought about some people who are less fortunate than me. Anyway, my husband and my friends did remind me that these beggars do have help from the govt. e.g shelters, money and medical benefits. And that begging is an easy way to get money, instead of working. Personally, I think it may be a little difficult for some of them to get a job as some of them are migrants.

Beggars in France, I noticed, consist of the French people, the young people and the old people. They are everywhere. On the streets, outside supermarkets, traffic lights junctions, etc. Sometimes, I wonder why they beg when they are French, I mean, don't their government help them in some ways?I am very naive, right? These young beggars, they look fit and healthy to me. Why beg? Aren't they suppose to be in school? There was one time I saw an old women holding a sleeping child and begging on the street! I cannot bear to see this, especially when it involve children and this one was sleeping?! I had a feeling the child was drugged. Few days later, I went back to that street again as I couldn't rest my mind. The old woman with the sleeping child was gone. I went by a few times the next few weeks, still no sign. Phew.. I guess the authority must have intervened.

When I first came to France, I like to go by this small supermarket to get my grocery. Outside the supermarket, there was this man, I think he is French, who begged for money. He looked strong, tall and healthy to me, except for his long unkept hair. And whenever I walked past him, I will gave him some coins. One day, as usual, I walked past him and saw him talking to an old man. That old man look like he was counseling or advising him something. Few weeks later, I did not see the beggar again. Later on, I did see him again. He has cut his hair short and he seem to be walking somewhere. He was not begging anymore. Actually, I was kind of happy. Maybe he found a job or maybe he found hope. Maybe He found life again.

I look at Singapore, my home country, and we are truly fortunate and blessed.