Back to The Land of The Rising Sun

So, we are home, back in the land of the rising sun, and I must admit there is no place like home. I like routine because it makes me feel more in control, and I am a bit of a control freak, so it is nice to be home. :) But I had a FABULOUS vacation. My husband gave me the best of both worlds by going to a city in Singapore and then heading to the beach in Langkawi, Malaysia. It will probably take me a few posts to get through the trip since I took about 250 pictures, but hopefully you will enjoy reading about our family vacation for 2010.

I will start with Singapore and the flight. The best thing this seven hour flight did for me was confirm that although I am still terribly jealous Kan gets to go to the US for ten days in just a few weeks, and I am staying back "home" in Tokyo, I do not want to fly that far with an almost two year old for a short ten days. It is not that Miyako did bad. She is actually a very good traveler. But it is just hard flying with little mobile children. She is not old enough to enjoy 7 hours of on demand Disney Channel, but she is not so young that she is content sitting in your lap and playing with a chew toy. Plus, our flight left Tokyo at 7PM and we did not get to Singapore until 2AM our time in Tokyo, so that first night felt like jet lag nights - up every hour on the hour with a screaming child who simply does not know what time it is or what she is supposed to be doing. So, when I blog about how I am wishing I was eating Rincon with our friends like Kan is getting to, you can make a sweet reminder comment about how I did not want to fly all that way with an almost two year old for a small little trip of just ten days! Remember though to be sweet in your comment.

I fell in love with the city of Singapore. First of all, THEY SPEAK ENGLISH PEOPLE! Did you hear me? Or read that? They speak English. I could communicate and read signs and it was so so refreshing. I did not realize until I spent a few days in Singapore how much it weighs on me that I simply cannot communicate here. Sure, with my friends I can because I make friends who speak English, but in general if I go to the drug store to buy medicine for a cold sore in my mouth...well, I cannot ask for it so I have to wait until a Saturday when Kan can go with me. (The only downside of vacation was I got two cold sores in my mouth. Yuck.) There was a Borders bookstore one block from our hotel. I could have spent $1000 there...I didn't, but I could have if we had unlimited funds. So, I will give a little shout out for the English language.

The second thing I loved about Singapore was the shopping. They had clothes I could buy! I am not a huge person by any stretch of the means, but I am also not a size negative 12. It is hard for me to find clothes or shoes here in Tokyo since the Japanese people are simply a lot smaller than us Western folks. But in Singapore, I found a shop where I bought four shirts and two pairs of pants. Grant it, I wore the largest size, but I had a ball trying on clothes! And I got some new pink Birkenstock sandals because they had my size in shoes...size 8.5 if you are curious. I needed some good support sandals for all the walking I do in Tokyo.

Now, the last thing about Singapore are all the little things that add up. Taxis are cheap! Public transportation only has three metro lines so very easy to get around. There was a Dairy Queen right next to our hotel and I treated myself to two blizzards while I was there. Diet Coke people! Diet Coke was everywhere. I do not mind Coke Zero, but I prefer Diet Coke. And the McD's Diet Coke fountain drink tasted soooo good. Thankfully they had diet coke in Malaysia also so I had ten days of Diet Coke heaven. And did I mention the English speaking? It truly felt like a melting pot - the east meets the west - it was such a good mix of Asian and Western worlds. It felt like a little bit of the US in Asia and I thoroughly enjoyed that. Oh, and if you ever get the chance to try the Singapore Sling, order it. It was yummy.

As we left Singapore, I told Kan if his company ever wanted to move us to Singapore I would not think twice about it. I would swim there. I enjoy Tokyo and was glad to come home. I am really looking forward to seeing my friends and I missed them while I was gone, which is a good thing. We only moved 8 months ago and I have a community here which is such a blessing. But it really was nice being in an English speaking country, especially to know if I had an emergency and could not get a hold of Kan or my friend Minnie, I would be okay by myself. Funny thing...we read an article on one of those airline magazines listing the top 100 countries to live in...Japan was ranked 9, the US 11, and Singapore 25. I guess of those three countries, we are in the right one for now, but the other two are not so bad in the rankings either.

Pictures will come in further shorter posts as I give you recaps of our days. Today was just a day for me to journal my thoughts on Singapore so I do not forget what I was thinking at the time of our journey.