As a married person, one of the things that is vastly different from all the other Chinese New Year is of course giving ang baos. Wasn't as painful as others make it sound. Though it was a little odd giving to my older unwedded cousins. And at such occassions, it's all expected that the other relatives start flooding me and Alexis with questions like, when are you going to have a baby. So predictable right? And as this is the year of the "golden pig" according to the lunar calendar, this makes it a very auspicious time to have a child, since the so-called "Golden Pig" year which happens only once every 60 years. Children born in such a year are thought to be particularly fortunate with money and business. And can you believe it, the Chinese are so obsessed with it that there's apparently a baby boom in China! And my grandma decided that since there is no "dragon" in the family yet, she made an "order" for it in the next 5 years! Faints...

Thank you very much, but I would like to enjoy this phrase of my married life first. I can't imagine being a mom yet. Just not quite yet. That's why I have planned to go for more holidays first before that happens.

Oh by the way, the recent trip to Japan was great!It was a good 9 days away from work and stress.

What I enjoyed the most was no doubt, Tokyo Disneyland! The place where magical dreams come to life with childhood friends, like Mickey, Donald, Pluto and the more recent addition, the Disney Princesses.

We also visited Hakone for their hotspring. What an experience it was, imagine dipping your bare body into the hotspring during winter time. Pretty awkward at first, but to really enjoy it you just gotta do it like the locals and lose the inhibitions. What can I say but that it was really shiok!

We also went to Kyoto for a slower pace of Japan. It was a lot of walking and visits to castles, shrines and the gion area to catch a glimpse of the geishas.

It was winter in Japan, but apparently not a very cold one. The average temperature was only 8 degrees, but I was not really enjoying it as my skin started to get very dry and threatening to crack. And you know how winter is, when everyone is all wrapped one and walking faster than usual to get away from the cold. And of course I complained that it prevented me from enjoying more shopping. Shoes sizes there are really interesting. It comes in S, M, L, XL. So you hardly get shoes that really fit. But that didn’t stop me from bagging a pair of boots, simply because most chic Japanese gals all wear them during winter. And despite what most think, shopping is not that expensive. That is if you’re like me scouting for sale. So my boots cost me S$26 and so did a suede furry jacket (the one I'm wearing below).

I think the next time I go to Japan, I want to wander up to Hokkaido where I can experience snow. I actually did see snow on the way back to Tokyo while travelling back on the shinkasan, but what a pity it was only all on the ground. I would so love to have a white christmas once in my life. Not too long away I hope :)