Back from Tokyo!

I'm back from Tokyo, and I'm still sorting out the photos, so will put them up at a later time. (I've got like 1000+ photos to sort out. :P)

Anyway, just want to share a bit of God's goodness to us in our trip to Tokyo.

Testimony 1: The Trip to Tokyo
The trip to Tokyo with the bridal studio was quite a blessing in itself. I had always wanted to go to Japan for a tour, and this time, the timing couldn't have been better. It was sakura season, it was about time for our wedding album shoot, and my mum's friend was working there so we could extend our stay and bunk in with him and save $1000 each on accomodation (Japan's accomodation is about $200 per person per day).

What's more, we were the first bridal team to go to Tokyo from Singapore, and we were the last team that was allowed to extend our stay beyond the photoshoot days. (They had removed this option after our team as there were too many complications.)

If not for these, I don't think we would have gone. It would have been too costly, and with the limited time we have, we might be happier taking photos at Sentosa. :P

Testimony 2: The Sakura Blooms


It was forecasted that the sakuras would start blooming at the end of March, and it'll take about a week for it to reach full bloom (when it'll look the nicest). So June and I thought we were only able to see blooming buds when we arrived on 30th March.

Little did we know that God had prepared a warm front to move across Japan, causing the sakuras to start blooming on 21st March. (Sakuras will bloom earlier if it's warm.) By the time we reached on 30th March, they were already in full bloom and looking very pretty. :D

Now, sakura blooms usually last a week in good weather and 2-3 days if it's windy and rainy, but for us, we had it in full bloom for almost 2 weeks! God had made the weather a little chilly after we arrived, and there was no strong winds or rain during the few days (not until we finished photo shooting with the sakuras), so the sakuras stayed up for a long time! Praise God! :)

PS: Sakura blooms are really very pretty to behold. You really need to see it for yourself to know what I mean. Photos can only show you so much. :P

Testimony 3: DisneyLand and DisneySea


We had planned to go to DisneyLand on one of the days of our backpack tour, but when we arrived there at 10am in the morning, the tickets for the day had already been sold out. In fact, sales were so good that even the next day's tickets were sold out!

So trudging our backpacks along, we decided to go to it's sister-world - DisneySea. We had quite a lot of fun there, much more than we had anticipated, so at the end of the day we were quite joyful that we managed to catch DisneySea. But there was still this lingering regret that we weren't able to catch DisneyLand.

On the second day of our photo shoot with the bridal studio, we were scheduled to go Hakone for our shoot, but because of heavy rains, we had to reschedule the shoot at Hakone. (We had already arrived in Hakone after a 3 hour journey, and no one was happy with the heavy rain.) In place of Hakone, the group decided to push DisneyLand one day ahead for our photoshoot. (DisneyLand was scheduled for tomorrow, and the guide had already informed us prior to departure that we will not have time for rides.)

But due to the heavy rain, the amount of people in DisneyLand was greatly reduced, and we managed to finish our photoshoot in 2-3 hours (since there was little interferance by bypassers, and cameras could not stay in the rain for too long). The rest of the time was given to us to enjoy the rides! In the short span of about 5 hours, we had managed to cover even more rides than we had for DisneySea! (The average waiting time was about 15 mins, compared to 2 hrs on a normal day!)

Due to God's planning, we had managed to cover both DisneyLand and DisneySea. And it was actually a blessing in disguise for us to miss DisneyLand on our backpack trip, and for the heavy rain to come on the day of the photoshoot. Praise God! :)

As an added bonus, we managed to catch Cinderella's Castle Mystery Tour on it's very last day of existence! This was a tour within the iconic structure of DisneyLand Tokyo, which would be permanently closed after the day we visited it! If we had come to DisneyLand as scheduled, we would have already missed it! Thank God for the rain! :)

PS: On hindsight, both of us actually enjoyed DisneySea more. DisneyLand's rides are more children friendly. ;p


Really want to thank God for His blessings for the whole journey. Indeed, all things work for good for those who love God. May I be so bold as to presume that God changed the weather for the both of us - to rain when it should, and not rain when it shouldn't - so that we could maximise our trip in Tokyo!

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28, NKJV)