2. 1 My Summer 2010 This summer, I went to Hokkaido and Osaka which are in Japan. Including myself, there were 11 people in our group. My two grandmas, my grandpa, (dads dad) my aunt, (dads sister) my uncle, my cousins, Woody and Clara, my sister, Chloe, my mum and I. I thought this summer holiday was a great one. The food we ate there was nothing like the Japanese food in Hong Kong. The udon and ramen was much tastier and their soups had completely no msg. If the Japanese food in H.K. could be like that too, it would be wonderful! It was only the first time I had been to Hokkaido and Osaka and there were some places I would love to go to again. Two of them include Ninja Village and Universal Studios. Want to know the details? Turn the page and see…

3. 2 July 7 th First day in Hokkaido We first landed in Sapporo which is the largest city in Hokkaido. I found it very different from Hong Kong because it is a clean city with almost no pollution. Since it was my first time here, I was already very eager to explore the rest of the city! We first checked into Hotel Gracery. Our room was very big and spacious with lots of furniture. I found the toilet quite peculiar because there was a device for washing your bum! I didnt use it at all since I didnt need it. We then went to Ramen Street to have dinner. The Street was a very narrow alley with lots of small noodle shops. Very few of them could fit our group of eleven people so it took us a while to look for a suitable noodle shop. We finally settled down in one which was quite unusual because it only had one person serving us. He was both the waiter and the cook. We watched the cook making ramen and the way he made it was unexpected. I thought the soup was ready-made but instead the cook prepared it on the spot with lots of ingredients. I couldnt wait to taste my corn ramen. The cook was very efficient and it took him about 20 minutes to prepare all our noodles. For just one cook, he was quite impressive but I think he could hire 1-2 more staff to speed up his service. I have never tasted such delicious ramen. If I have another chance, I hope I can come here again!

4. 3 July 8 th Ishiya Chocolate factory Today we went to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory in Sapporo. From the outside, it looked like a very old- fashioned building but it was very modern inside. We first went to the Chocolate Time Tunnel. The tunnel showed us how chocolate was made. First, farmers need to harvest the cocoa pods. Inside the coco pods are cocoa beans. Next, farmers send these cocoa beans to chocolate factories where the beans were melted. Sugar and milk were then added to the melted chocolate. Next the melted chocolate were put into moulds and frozen. Finally, the chocolate has to be tasted and inspected for any contamination. And if everything is alright, the chocolate can be packaged and be sold. I enjoyed going through this tunnel because I am very interested in how different kinds of food are made. We then went to watch the actual manufacturing process of the Ishiya white chocolate biscuits. The processing area was very big and clean and the staff had to cover their hair and wear gloves and face masks. There were many different types of automatic equipment which looked very complicated. I couldnt understand any single step of the process but I still found it very interesting. I also learnt that it took 2 days to get from the first to the last step. We all could taste samples of the white chocolate biscuit. Delicious! After that, I signed up for a short session for decorating a big chocolate biscuit. I made use of many ingredients including milk and white chocolate sauce, smaller biscuits which were shaped like apples, rabbits and stars as well as star candies. I had great fun and I think I did a fantastic job!

5. 4 July 9 th Furano Cheese factory We drove to Furano today and went to the Cheese Factory where I learnt how to make extra creamy vanilla ice-cream. I also saw many cheese products and even milked water out of a fake cow. I was very excited because I have never done anything like these before. I enjoyed making the ice-cream but I would have enjoyed it even better if I could choose the flavour. To make the ice-cream, I mixed milk, cream, powdered skimmed milk and sugar together. Then I put the mixture into a freezer. I was very eager to try out the ice-cream while I was waiting for the ice- cream to freeze. When the ice-cream was finally ready, our instructors told us to place the ice-cream on to a piece of crispy waffle. When I tasted the ice- cream, I was overwhelmed by how sweet and smooth it was. This was the first time I tasted Japanese ice-cream and I think I will enjoy other flavours of Japanese ice-cream too! After visiting the cheese factory, we drove to a villa in Furano called Cottage Yu Yu. We stayed in a large unit with one living room and one huge tatami bedroom which could fit more than four people. Before we went to sleep, we had to lay mattresses on the floor and put pillows and blankets on them. I quite like tatami because we could make our own bed! Although Cottage Yu Yu was in the countryside and there were lots of bugs in the area, I still enjoyed my stay because we could play with the cats and kittens owned by the staff. They were very friendly and reminded me of my cats back in Hong Kong.

6. 5 July 10 th Lavender Farms The next morning, we drove to the lavender farms. We hiked up some lavender hills and saw lots of different colours of lavenders, including purple, blue, red, white and yellow. The lavenders were beautiful and they smelled extremely nice so I wasnt surprised when I saw lavender perfumes in the souvenir shops. We then went to a nearby park called Flower Land. The flowers there were also beautiful but my favourite place was the animal corner. I patted goats, dogs and a horse. The horse really enjoyed my company, but I could only feed the dogs and goats. When my mom told me that we could even walk the dogs, I was very thrilled. There were four dogs and I chose to walk a white Japanese shepherd. It was a big and strong dog and wanted to run away but I managed to hold it still. The dog then followed me and we had a very enjoyable walk. After some time, my cousin and I swapped our dogs but she lost control of my Japanese shepherd so her mom had to help her to hold the leash. After we have finished, I really wished that I could adopt my own dog because I believe it would become another really good friend of mine.

7. 6 July 12 th Noboribetsu Marine Park Today we went to the Noborebetsu Marine Park. Although it was a bit like Ocean Park in Hong Kong, I still had an enjoyable time there. We first went to watch the Dolphin Show. It was amazing. My favourite part was when two dolphins were swimming backstroke and another two walking on their tails on the water. I found the show even better than the one in Ocean Park. After that, we went to an enormous aquarium. There was a huge variety of sea creatures, many of which I have never seen. There were many types of sharks, rays, coral, crabs, sea spiders, krill/shrimp/prawns, starfish and of course, fish. We were even allowed to touch stingrays, starfish and crabs. The crab shells were very hard and some crabs were just a bit smaller than my fist but they had big pincers. The starfish I touched wasnt as soft as I expected. Instead they were very spiny as if they had bones outside their skin. We also shook hands with stingrays. I was very surprised to find that they were quite friendly towards humans and liked interacting with us. They felt very soft and I loved patting them. My favourite sea animals there were the stingrays we petted and the tiny baby clownfish, measuring only 0.3mm in length. The aquarium had left me awestruck. However, what I saw next wasnt so interesting. The penguin parade was only a group of African and Emperor penguins dawdling inside the park. The penguins looked quite cute but they couldnt perform any tricks. I had expected to see something just as good as the exciting Dolphin Show but it was a big disappointment.

8. 7 July 13 th Mount Usu / Bear Farm The next day, we drove to a volcano area called Mount Usu. We took a cable car to a place where we could see the volcano up close but we still had to go up lots of stairs and down a few hundred again. The walk was very tiring so we decided to stop and rest. However, my dad, aunt and Woody kept on going further to take pictures. When they returned, we trooped up the stairs, back down the other few hundred, and then rode the cable car back to where we parked our car. That was the first time I had seen a volcano in person, and the sight was breathtaking, but I found the visit only a bit exciting because I thought we could see the inside of the craters. After visiting Mount Usu, we went to a bear farm, which was next to the volcano area. The bear farm was a place where people could feed lots of bears. The bears ages ranged from 1 year old to 10 years old. Since this was only the second time I had fed bears, I was very excited. The bears loved eating the treats and very quickly devoured the snacks we fed Consequently, my sister, Clara and I each had to buy one more packet of bear snacks! This visit to the bear farm was definitely very enjoyable.

9. 8 July 14 th Ninja Village On the day after visiting Mount Usu and the bear farm, we went to Ninja Village. Ninja village was a peek for us into Japan in the 16 th century (the Edo Period). We first went to the Practice Dojo - a place where we could do ninja training. The first activity Clara and I did was throwing Shuriken (ninja fighting stars) at a target. One of the Shuriken I threw went very close to the center of the target. At first, we all thought it had hit the middle, but the instructor told us it was just outside. Then, Woody joined us when we did archery. Unfortunately, none of our arrows hit the target. After that, we rushed to watch an awesome ninja show. That show was full of action, excitement and unexpected humour! Although I could only just understand some of the words the actors said, I still loved that excellent show!!! Next, we went to the Ninja Maze. This maze was full of tricks, and these types of tricky mazes were used to train ninja. You had to be smart and quick to escape from the maze in time. One challenge included us needing to walk in a simultaneously moving room against gravity. Clara, Woody, Chloe and I all enjoyed it so much, we went through the maze 3 times! After going through the Ninja Maze, we went to the House of Ghosts and Monsters. We did see lots of ghouls, ghosts and monsters, but they were definitely not scary. Instead, they were strange and funny!

10. 9 July 14 th Ninja Village (Contd) After visiting the weird House of Ghosts and Monsters, we went to the O-Nyanko Cat Temple. This temple is definitely unlike any other one in Hong Kong. The first room is normal. But from the second room to the last room, it is dark, filled with cat-zombies, cat-monsters, giant rabid cats, that sort of stuff. It was freaky, and a little scary…

11. 10 July 15 th Otaru Music Box Tower The next morning, we went to the Otaru Music Box Tower. In that building, I saw millions of music boxes, (Im not exaggerating) all with different sizes, shapes, and colours. There were way more music boxes than I could imagine, so I was astounded by the quantity of the music boxes the moment I came in. But what we really had come to do was to make our own music boxes. To make our own music box, we had to choose a piece of music, a base, and other decorations including animals, trees, flowers and hearts. My music box was for my mum, and it played the music Für Elise (For Elise) by Beethoven. It had a dark brown wooden base, and on it was a ginger tabby cat, a dog, green white and translucent pebbles, an owl sitting on a tree stump, and two hearts. This was only the first time I had made a music box so I was very proud of myself and I enjoyed this day very much.

12. 11 July 19 th Universal Studios, Osaka After spending 10 days in Hokkaido, we took a plane to Osaka on the 16 th of July. On the 19 th of July, we went to Universal Studios. We watched and went on several rides and shows including Shrek 4-D, Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Snoopys Great Race, Back to the Future and Space Fantasy. The theme park was overcrowded and burning hot. Even without the crowds, it would probably still be very hot. In Spiderman The Ride, we sat in a moving vehicle, wearing 3-D glasses and watched a 3-D animation show of Spiderman fighting evil villains while we, in the vehicle, tried to escape from the baddies too. At the end of the ride, as usual, Spiderman was victorious, and he had the villains tied up over a pool of poisonous acid. I thought that ride was great. All the effects were awesome including when our vehicle drove down a building, and the real fire that nearly burned a brick wall, which was the effect of one of the villains throwing a fireball at us. When I went out of the exit of that ride, I decided that Spiderman The Ride would be my favourite ride of the day.

13. 12 July 19 th Universal Studios, Osaka (Contd) After going to the Spiderman ride, we went to play Jurassic Park The Ride. We knew the ride was a bit scary we were going to get very wet, so the only people who went on this ride in our group was my cousin Clara, my aunt, my dad and I. I had wanted my mum to come instead of my dad, but she had to stay with my little sister. In this ride, we went down a fake river in a boat, like Raging River in Ocean Park. I saw lots of herbivores while sailing down the river. When we had reached a fork in the river, we accidentally went into a warehouse full of dangerous carnivores on one side. It was very dark and a little bit scary. Suddenly a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared out of the darkness and we had no choice but to sail quickly between the T-Rexs legs and plunge down a mini waterfall 29.6m in height. Luckily, that plunge was a controlled one but it was still very exciting. I think if that plunge was not controlled, our raft would have sailed out of the current and capsized so we would have got to swim 10m and get even more drenched!!! Remember what I said before about the Spiderman ride being my favourite one? Forget that! This is my favourite one!

14. 13 July 19 th Universal Studios, Osaka (Contd) After travelling through time at Back to the Future- The Ride, we went to travel through space at Space Fantasy. This was a ride a bit like Space Mountain in H.K. Disneyland. It did have sudden stops, occasional free-falls and very sharp turns. One difference about Space Fantasy was that it had a story: One day, the Solar Princess Cosmia sends us humans an urgent message about the Sun running out of power and only humans can save it. So thats why we were in our spaceships, journeying to the Sun, collecting energy sources on the way that could heal the star that weve always relied on for light and heat. Like most other rides, that one ended with a happy ending. So, we did save the Sun in the end. What we did get to do was that we got a certificate for saving the Sun. I found this ride quite enjoyable so I would like to go on that ride again. Back to the Future -The Ride was a simulator ride like The Simpsons Ride in the universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. We were in a time- travelling car, trying to chase a man who was in another stolen time-travelling car. In order to capture him, we travelled through many different times including the late Cretaceous and the time when human beings were still evolving. I loved this simulation ride because it seemed so real and it also had sudden lurches. On the screen, we also had to avoid crashing, or other dangerous stuff like lava waterfalls, (or should I say lavafalls) and dinosaurs. I did enjoy this simulation ride so I would like to watch the movies too.