Today was the first day of the intensive training before the competition. The bus would pick up the kids everyday at 8:30 in the morning, and they would stay in the studio until 2PM. So, first thing first: breakfast. We tried the hotel breakfast at their Grand Master Cafe downstairs, and it was pretty good. Aina had bowls and bowls of cereal and milk.
After breakfast, everyone gathered at the lobby, waiting for the bus to arrive. At 8:30, off they went with Mr. and Mrs. Cheng.
Instead of going to the studio with the kids, Hui Lin, Lye Wan and I decided to go back to Tenjin, and planned to pick the kids up after they finish. I had to go back to Chacott anyway, because last night, when Aina packed her bag for today’s class, she realized that her tutu belt was missing. She might have dropped it from her bag on our way here to Fukuoka. So I had to buy a new one, and everyone seemed to recommend the Chacott brand. Lye Wan also had to go back to Chacott, because she bought the wrong color make up for Sophie. We also had to get a card-holder for Aina and Sophie, to be used during the competition to hold her ID card. Hui Lin and Lye Wan wanted to take their boys around Tenjin, too, especially after yesterday’s ballet shops tour… They were so bored.
Since Fukuoka was hot as hell (I think they have 3 suns there… It was actually hotter than Singapore, which I thought was impossible to happen!), we arranged our shopping with the least amount of time being outside.
We took the cab to Tenjin, and made our first stop at Chacott. After quickly getting all the stuff we needed, we crossed the street to this Tax Free store that sells everything from deodorant to refrigerators… I went upstairs to their stationary section to get the ID card holder. Right next to the stationary section, there were two arcade consoles. Luke, Sophie’s brother was immediately glued to the Ultraman one.
Jia Kang, Shi Ying brother, joined Luke as soon as he saw the console. I don’t think they knew how to play it, but I guess it didn’t matter. It was fun enough to see guys fighting monsters and pushing buttons.
After playing for a while, we headed to Solaria Plaza again to get lunch. We were too lazy to find another place to eat, because it was too hot to walk around outside. But we didn’t realize that during lunch hour, the restaurants in Solaria Plaza will get very crowded. Yesterday, we were there early, so we beat the lunch crowd by about half and hour. This time, we were with the lunch crowd. We tried to pick the restaurant with the shortest line, but the wait was still about half an hour… Uh oh, we’re gonna be late to pick up the girls!
This time, though, we tried a different restaurant at Solaria Plaza. It was a cafe with a very nice view and it served a very yummy hambursteak; it melted in my mouth…
But yeah, by the time we finished our lunch, we didn’t have enough time to pick up the girls. So, we headed back to the hotel, and waited for the girls to arrive accompanied by the other moms.
Thank you, Shoko-san, for taking care of the girls while we were not there! And thank you Yukari-san for taking pictures of them while we’re not there!
For photos while we were in Fukuoka, there are all in Fukuoka 2017 photo album in Flickr. Other entries of this trip is at Japan 2017 Trip: Ballet Competitions.