It is very common for Ramen restaurant / eating house to have a vending machine outside to take the customer order. All the customer has to do is to chose the Ramen, put in the money and the machine will produce a ticket for the order.  After which, the ticket is given to the chef or owner, and the Ramen will be served shortly.

Order Tickets ↓

There are also lots of vending machines for drinks, cigarettes etc along the streets, parks, etc.  We saw a whole stretch of these machines in one of the steets in Ginza.  Amazing!

And if you select a hot can of tea, it really produce a HOT can of tea.  I had never seen a vending machine here in Singapore which provide hot drinks in a can, usually they will dispense a cup of hot drink instead.

A close up on the cigarette vending machine ↓

Most of the toilet bowls in Japan has this “control panel” at the side (1st photo).  Yes, even the public toilets.

It allows you to wash your butt after the big business or for the women to keep clean after pee.

So after the big business, one can press on the “Shower” button.  A tube will be extended out and WARM water will be sprayed out from it (2nd & 3rd photo).

For the women, the button to press is “Bidet”.

Done with washing? Press the “Stop”  button!

The knob on side is for adjusting the strength of the water.

For the toilet seat in Mercure Hotel, the seat temperature can be adjusted.  Inside of sitting on an ice cold toilet seat (which can give you a shock), it is a thoughtful gesture from the Hotel to have this.

In the public toilets, at least 1 or all of the cubicles in the ladies’ toilets will have a baby seat (as shown in this picture ↓).  This is especially useful for mothers who are alone with their baby and need to answer to nature’s call.  I didn’t see such seats in Singapore’s toilets at all.  I still can remember I did not dare to go shopping with Dawn alone when she didn’t know how to walk yet as I was afraid that I can’t go toilet when I need to.  The toilets are too small to push the pram inside and I don’t feel safe putting her outside while I shut the door to do my business.

Can we have these in Sinapore please?  If there is so much hype about trying to provide clean public toilets, please also look at what a first class toilet should be!

I was surprised when I saw queues form on the boarding platforms. Such orderly queues…

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What can I do for you Master?

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OPS!

Anyway, I decided to post some pretty cherry blosom pictures because they are just so pretty to look at.

Pardon me for not writing much words here because I am worn out now and can hardly think to write a good sentence.

↑ I did not pluck any flowers to take this photo! They starting dropping on the ground when they still look so good! A pity

After many many years of waiting, many many years of wanting, I am flying to Japan tonight!

Update with photos there, if we have the time to log in with dear’s lappy

Blessed, safe and fun trip!