This trip was not originally planned for, and made on impulse.
I had thought of attending a Mahler concert in Japan (Yokohama or Saitama) either in May or November this year, but had dropped the idea. These Mahler concerts were part of a cycle-series by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Bertini), held twice a year between 2000 and 2004.
Then in around September, I found out that there would be a Mahler concert in Boston performed by the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Benjamin Zander ) and the timing is closed to the one in Japan. So I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to attend both Mahler concerts in one trip, as the flight from Singapore to the U.S. will stop-over in Japan.
So I did some quick planning and originally decided on 2 destination cities for this trip -- Boston & Yokohama. However, because the concert date for the Yokohama performance was on 29th November and the flight on 30th November was full, I would have to return to Singapore on 1st December and thus would not be able to attend Kwang Pon's wedding on 1st December. So, I decided to attend the concert at Urawa (in Saitama, near Tokyo) instead, as the performance date would be on an earlier date of 27th November. As a result, my Yokohama trip was replaced with a shorter Tokyo trip. Since it would be so short (essentially 2-3 days), I decided to stay at Ueno which is conveniently located for transport to/from the Narita Airport as well as to/from Urawa.