by Goo Jun Seng (P5 2021)

        As I looked out of my house, shafts of the morning light poured into my room. I was wondering what the fresh new day would hold for me.

       “Surprise!” Mother jumped into my bedroom. She explained that my family and I were going to Tokyo, Japan for a vacation since the December school holidays had started. Father had booked the tickets for our flights. Our trip was at eleven in the morning. We would be having lunch on our plane. Then we would be boarding another plane to reach Tokyo in Japan. We might even have to sleep on the plane for a few of the nights.

       We arrived at the airport early with our luggage. Mother and Father had prepared everything for us. We had our breakfast there. Our breakfast was a dish called Hokkien Mee. It was very delicious, and the prawns were fresh. Then we strolled to Terminal 4 to wait for our plane. While we waited, I took out a book called “Life on Earth” and read it. It was very thick, and I had just finished Chapter One.

       After one whole hour, we finally boarded the plane. The plane was huge! We sat in first class and in the middle row. We (again) waited for a while, so that all passengers were aboard the airplane. When everyone was seated, the plane started moving like a big, metal bird. It reversed a little and began taxiing towards the runway. Suddenly, the airplane sped up, and like magic, it lifted off the ground. I watched the airport grow smaller and smaller. This will be an exciting trip! I thought.

       Mother, Father and I spent the next few hours in the air watching movies on the mini television. I was watching Ironman halfway through when I dozed off. I was still sleeping when Mother woke me up and asked me to eat lunch. Father told me that the food typically was not very nice, and I do not need to finish it if the food was not nice, but to take some mouthfuls to fill up the stomach. I found the food quite delicious, so I ate most of the vegetables, meat and sushi, but did not finish the rice. After finishing my meal, I went back to sleep, but it was not long before we had reached Hong Kong airport. It was four in the evening, so we had a light dinner and a toilet break while waiting for our flight to Tokyo, Japan. Father told me that the Japan airlines recently unveiled a new cabin design. We would be going into the new airplane.

       At around four-thirty in the evening, we boarded the airplane. We were sitting in Economy class this time. When we settled down on the seats, we all leaned back and rested. Although we were not sitting in first class, our seats were very spacious.

       After quite some time, the plane took off. My mother and father were watching a series called “Star Trek: Discovery” while I was listening to relaxing music through my earphones. At night, I slept very peacefully. The next day in the morning, we woke up and had our breakfast. Suddenly, the plane started shaking very violently. We rocked to and fro in our seats. Some passengers screamed and others tried to remain calm. There were even toddlers and babies who cried. An announcement came up immediately. “This is Marc Tan the co-pilot. We had hit a bit of a turbulence. Sorry for that.”

       We finally reached Japan at around seven in the evening. We landed and slowly taxied to the gate. When the gate was open, we went out with our bags. We collected our luggage and hired a cab to drive us to our hostel we booked. We settled down in our hotel room number 137. We took out our clothes and accessories, kept the key in the drawer and went to bed.

       The next day, we brought the key down to the concierge. After that, we met our tour guide at the rendezvous point. He introduced himself and gave a brief explanation on what we would be doing in our seven day-seven night stay in Tokyo. Then, we set off immediately.

       First off, we visited Meiji Jingu. We saw Shinto shrines everywhere. Then we went to the garden to smell the flowers. The Shinto shrines were very grand. Then, we visited the Tokyo Skytree. When we were at the observation deck, we saw the landscape of Tokyo. It was such a breathtaking scenery! Father took photos and selfies and we left for lunch.

       We arrived at a highly rated restaurant. The waitress said, “Shimase” to welcome us. We had to kneel down and eat. That was the Japanese eating style. We all had the Nigiri lunch sets. The food was salmon sashimi, sushi rolls and one bowl of tempura. The wasabi was too spicy and both my mother and I sniffed.

       Lastly, we visited Ueno Zoo. The tour guide said that there were more than 2,600 animals in there! We took our time and spent four hours looking at the animals. The giant panda was very cute. We even saw baby pandas! We took some photos of them and left. After going there, we called it a day. We headed back to the hotel and slept.

       We spent the six days visiting attractions, eating delectable food and buying souvenirs. We bought a Starbucks City cup, three sensu (folding fans), three Japanese wallets that had tourists attractions on the outside.

       After our stay was over, we took our flight back to Singapore. This holiday was very enjoyable. We had a fun and satisfying stay in Tokyo. I hope I can go to Tokyo again with my parents!

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