Chubby Mochi: Xmax Dinner and River Safari Tour!

This year's Xmas celebration is kinda different for me and wifey. I was really clueless with regards to what should i buy wifey as a xmas gift (i am sure most guys will have the same headache as i did).. And while we were in Japan, Wifey chanced upon this Longchamp bag that she liked! I was like, planning in my head how do i go about buying the bag for her as a surprise until... My mother-in-law who was travelling with us decided to buy it for her on the spot..

for those who play Dota.. The most immediate feeling i had when that happened was..

"RAMPAGE!!!"

Yep... i was once again clueless on what to buy for wifey....

Until i came to a realization! What is the one thing that my wife really really loves?? The answer would be, her family! Therefore i decided to treat her whole family to a Japanese buffet dinner at Shinkei Japanese Restaurant.

It was advertised by Bongqiuqiu before and it looked really really good! That's why i decided to give it a try =) fyi, the photos that you are gonna see below is... pretty crappy, due to the lights at the restaurant, so please just bear with me =)

The restaurant wasn't exactly as big as i thought it was, it looks kinda normal in fact, it's like Suki Sushi or Nihon Mura kinda setting.

How can we not take a group photo? Oh~! I forgot to mention, wifey did not know that i invited all her family members because i wanted to keep it as a surprise for her =)

It most probably would sound kinda lame to you but the idea was that wifey's xmas gift = a nice lovely xmas dinner with her family and love ones ^^

The 3 sisters and an evil monkey!

Everyone "forced" to wear the christmas hat haha.

A part from the usual buffet package, this dish was a christmas special that was made available only during christmas day. The oysters were super fresh! Wasted... we were only entitled to 1 set for every 2 customers... Such a wet bucket..

If not, everything else was actually quite good and well about the standard that i was expecting from a Japanese buffet. The dishes were served warm (not piping hot but definitely not cold) and they are delicious. I would definitely come back again when i'm craving for a nice Japanese meal =) Good quality Japanese Food at buffet pricing! What's not to love? =)

Really wanna take this opportunity to take Mother, Cindy, Elise and Ben for taking time off to help me with the surprise! Here's a selfie of me for you guys! =X i think they are gonna throw up if they see this post hahahaHahAHa!

Oh and it is so so so true that the early bird really gets the worm! I was back in office after a long vacation in Japan and my colleague coincidentally had extra coupons for River Safari! These were 50% discount coupons! I immediately took 4 (which is like the last 4) so that wifey's youngest sister and my mother-in-law could come with us =)

Our very first stop at the Zoo (River Safari, Mandai Zoo and Night Safari are at the same place), we went straight for coffee and breakfast because... Cindy bluff us! She recommended for us to arrive at 8am so that we will not be caught in the queue for the boat ride, but in the end?! The River Safari only opens at 9am lor.. wa lau....

There honestly isn't a lot of exhibits to look at, and to make matters worse, some of the exhibits were either closed for maintenance or those cute little animals were asleep and no where to be seen -.- all you see is an empty backdrop..

Ya.. it was pretty disappointing.. we were like reading those posters and information boards more than looking at the real life animals.. wth right? luckily we had the 50% discount coupons or else.. this trip is so totally not worth it...

Therefore, we decided to start camwhoring =)

Daiyong Sampan~ Daiyong Daiong Sampan~~~~ Oopsss~ For real camwhoring shots please see below =X

Damm... I look like the son of the Panda behind me... T_T

This is how a real roar looks like?

of cos, we can not remain so "yiu siu" (kinda hokkien word for shy shy) LoLxx

Elise's first attempt at silhouette shots, not bad eh~ =)

The standard Korean "Sarang hayo, Hwaiting!" pose heee~

Since we were there so early, there was no queue at all!

*Because we wanted to reach there early.. i didn't had time to style my hair at all because we woke up late LoLx~ And OMG.. now you know why my blog is called Chubby Mochi.... emo...

*peek-a-boo*

The boat ride was o-k-a-y lar~ At least it made me feel slightly better for coming all the way to River Safari.. a bit better... Don't expect to have ample time to take photos though. Throughout the ride we were like swinging our heads from left to right, from right to left because we couldn't find some of the animals that the broadcaster was referring to and we immediately had to look at the other side in order to not miss the other animals...

This "monkey-walk/trail" was kinda fun though. The monkeys as you see above will be running around in the open around you! In total close proximity! They are so small and cute!

Their last attraction would be their underwater world kinda thing. It is pretty nice but.. after going to adventure cove and underwater world at Sentosa.. it really isn't very fantastic..

To wrap up our trip to the River Safari, the best attraction would be~~~~~