About Dominique

http://dominiquegoh.com

Singaporean Educator, Coach and Hands on Mom of Three. Connect with me on Google+

Posts by Dominique:

10 Pictures taken at Poppo Town

The kids and me

The kids and me

In December last year we visited a Train Museum while on vacations in Japan. Poppo Town is located at Annaka City near the Nagano border. As we stayed in Karuizawa it only took about an hour’s drive to the museum.  The place was old as compared to the other museum that we have been however the kids did had fun trying out the different rides and viewing the different steam engines.

Doggie boy in a Shinkansen

Doggie boy in a Shinkansen

The kids playground area with the mini train rides were the main attraction in the museum for the kids.  As we were there near to closing time the place was nearly deserted  and there wasn’t any one manning the rides. The kids decided to take pictures of the trains instead.

Tiny Steam engine

Tiny Steam engine

This must be the tiniest steam engine which we saw that day. It ran on charcoal and you could even sit on it and go for a short ride around the track. We gave it a pass at 200 yen a person it would come up to quite a hefty sum if the kids and I rode on it.

A similar black steam engine

A similar black steam engine

This black steam engine was one of those on display . It wasn’t open for viewing so we could only walk around and admire it from the sides.

A people mover train

A people mover train

There was a mini train which would take visitors around the area. However as the area wasn’t that big we decided to take a walk instead.

An orange steam engine

An orange steam engine

This steam engine which we spotted reminded me of the Thomas and Train engines which the boys loved playing with when they were much younger.

A light green steam engine

A light green steam engine

This steam engine had coaches and must have been used to transport passengers across towns back then when it was functioning.

Other passenger trains

Other passenger trains

We saw quite a few different colored passenger trains in the train yard.  Some of them looked as it they were about 40-50 years old.

Monkey boy trying to work the levers

Monkey boy trying to work the levers

We managed to enter one of the cabins of the train and boys had fun pretending to be train drivers. There were many different switches and levers on the control panel of a train.

The boys havin

The boys having fun

The boys had fun on this ride. they had to pull the levers down to get the platform to move in the direction of their choice. It was certainly an unusual mode of transportation.

Have you been to a train museum lately?

 

 

 

 

 

Penguin Pandemonium- Christmas Crackers

Book Cover

Book Cover

Penguin Pandemonium – Christmas Crackers (Awesome Animals) by Jeanne Willis is the 4th book about the quirky penguins which live in City Zoo. It’s Christmas time at City Zoo and the penguins go on a wild adventure when they managed to escape from their enclosure and hid in Santa’s sack. They took a ride on the reindeer pulled sledge to Wheatfield’s Infant School.

The penguins had a whale of an adventure there where they build a snow penguin, made Christmas cards for each others and their friends and decorated a tree.

The penguins learned about the real meaning of Christmas which is sharing with their friends and not just about receiving presents from Santa.

My thoughts

I found this an interesting kids book which Doggie boy and I read together. We read out a chapter of the book each night before bedtime with both of us taking turns to read the pages. Both of us found the story really hilarious and refreshing to read. It really tied into the theme of sharing and being grateful during Christmas.

I will certainly be looking out for the other books in this series the next time we visit the library.

Disclaimer: We borrowed this book from the National Library for the kids to read during the school vacation. This post has a compensation level of 3. Please visit Dominique’s Disclosure page for more information.