Went on a 5N4D trip to Tokyo. Was drizzling on the 2 days that were meant for Disney. What a pity.

We went to hunt for a place for Animal Kaiser on the first day. Walked around Akiba and went to all those bigger arcades, but could not find it. Eventually asked around and was directed to go back towards the Akiba station at Yodobashi Camera building. Found one machine at L6. I would have thought it was all the rage in Japan, but there are many more such card based games. Such as an Ultraman, 3X3 eyes, Gundam looking ones, etc. AK was Y100 ($1.50) per play. Cheaper than $2 in Singapore. Lucas played quite a few games. We eventually came back here on Saturday night as well.

Next 2 days are for Disneyland and Disneysea. Both days were drizzling. It was cold, our socks were wet and the feeling was lousy. Still, Disneysea was better... not so much drizzle. And the Tower thingy was great. We almost flew out of our seats. Lucas managed to take the roller coaster at the Little Mermaid area. It's the only one that he is tall enough for. We will have to return some other time in the future I guess.

We spent the next two days walking around Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Akihabara and Shibuya before heading back home. Shopping is always part and parcel of an overseas trip. I got a very nice (but pricey) dark brown Ganzo Cordovan wallet to replace my Ferragamo one and a pair of Katherine Hemnett shoes. 

More pics here.

San wanted to have a trip with just Lucas and ourselves to spend time with him especially after Lyra's birth. We went to Disneyland HK with Lucas, leaving Lyra in the care of my mother-in-law.

We spent the first 2 days at L'Hotel in Tsuen Wan. This seems to be a newly built hotel meant for conventions. The rooms are in a 95% complete state, with some unfinished parts, but I guess they have to turn in revenue as soon as they can, so they made the rooms ready for visitors. The hotel is a little out of the way. It took me around an hour to get to Central via the MTR.

I spent the 2nd day looking for the Yamamoto distributor. It was raining heavily and I spent the most part of the morning trying to locate the shop which is opposite Coach. When I found Coach, it is on the first floor and there are no visible shops selling amplifiers opposite it. I gave up and went on with my other places to visit. It was quite difficult to locate certain shops as the buildings are all so obscure.

In the end, I came to Vintage Sound. It's supposed to be open in 30mins, so I went to grab a quick bite at McDonalds and returned. When I was there, there were 3 guys in the shop listening to some amps. One of the person introduced what they were listening to in English. It was a Klangfilm 203 amplifier using F2a output tubes, giving 3W or power. It was quite nice sounding, able to drive the low db speakers in the shop with surprising bass and soundstage.

I chatted with the guy and he realized that I enquired about Yamamoto on the HK Tube Audio Club forums. Tim is a nice chap to chat with and he even offered to bring me to the Yamamoto dealer. Turned out that the dealer is none other than Reference Audio at Melbourne Plaza. However, they do not carry Yamamoto amps as kits. The A08-s is going for around SGD4k, which was over my budget. They also only have UX4 teflon sockets. I was supposed to get some other types for an echolofter... Too bad.

In the end, I only got 6 cds a pair of Nippon chemi con capacitors and Elna caps... So sad.

Subsequent 2 days were spent at Disneyland hotel and Disneyland itself. I think Lucas enjoyed himself. He liked the Buzzlightyear shooting game more than anything. The shows were beyond expectations (Lion King was great, The Mickeys was good as well), but the rides a bit short.

More pics of Lucas at Disney here.