Time to finally blog about my Japan trip? :D
Day 1 - 31 May 2013, Osaka & Hiroshima
After my 6 hours of flight, I arrived at Kansai International Airport in the morning. Bought a sausage bun while waiting for my brother to pick my parents and I up from the airport. It sucked not knowing a single word of Japanese in the country. The conversation between the counter girl and I was like,
Me: *Points at the food*
Girl: Blah blah blah
Me: Huh?!
Girl: *Points at the food* Blah blah blah
Me: Oh okay... *Hands over the money, took my food and walked away with an awkward smile*
No matter how polite they are, I cant understand a word they say :/ But anyway, I had my bun! (:
Ahh I know it's nothing special... But I was just fascinated with my first food over there :/
Breakfasted at a random restaurant in the airport when my bro arrived. I concluded that airport food isnt fantastic. Oh well...
Just fascinated with my food again... Hahaha.
Took the Shinkansen (Japanese Bullet Train) towards Hiroshima, our first stop in Japan! (:
Ticket stubs.
They actually have a culture of switching on the phones to silent mode on the trains. So considerate to other users!
Just to show how fast the bullet train was!
After another 4 hours of travelling, we finally arrived at our first hotel, New Ikawa!
It's a really cozy place, my first time sleeping on a futon. The first thing it reminded me was Doraemon. Hahaha. Very pleasant looking, isnt it! (:
Ate again after checking in. Lol. Bro introduced us to this sushi restaurant which sells relatively cheap food.
We cleared 28 plates of sushi, a bowl of udon, a bowl of chawanmushi and desserts! Hahaha. *Slurps*
As many of you may know, Hiroshima's one of the two cities that USA dropped the atomic bombs during WW2. We explored the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to discover more about the bombing.
A picture of a model of the city a night before the bombing.
The city after the bombing. Almost everything got burnt down. Such a scary scene ):
This, the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, was one of the few buildings that did not collapse after the bombing.
Random lake. Haha.
And then... It was time for food again! Please bear with all my food porn, cos I just love taking pictures of food. Hahaha. Had some simple udon around the neighbourhood.
This was my food. Decided to try something new. The pink thing was actually some fish roe. I couldnt quite appreciate it though, it was too salty for me. But well, interesting experience.
My mom's beef udon. Much better than mine! Lol.
Day 2 - 1 June 2013, Hiroshima
Every country has got at least 1 special type of meal unique to the country itself. So it's a must to try out McDonalds at least once when you're overseas. Haha. So here's my doze of McBreakfast (it's shared between my bro and I btw):
Hehe! Tuna Muffin was good! Bacon potato pie tasted kinda weird though. Haha.
We headed to Mitaki Station in the morning, it's a quiet and peaceful place. Fresh air, cool breeze. Visited a temple and trekked the slopes (or was it actually a mountain/hill?!) behind it. Japan's temples are so unlike Singapore's. A temple dont only make up of a Chinese-looking building, it includes trails around it too. So temple visits include appreciating the scenery around it, enjoying your surroundings.
One of the groundwater washing basins they have around the temple. This one's at the entrance of the temple
The weather was so good I could lie down in the hut and nap my day away. Ultimate peacefulness.
Another washing basin
Bonggggggggg~ Having fun ringing the bell haha.
Trekking to nowhere.
Picture-ception haha.
And after trekking halfway we realised that there werent anything to explore. Lol. We couldnt even get to the top cos there wasnt any clear path. We were trekking to nowhere. Had to make a u-turn after all those climbing. Returned to our neighbourhood after that.
Spicy Sesame Ramen or something like that for lunch. The sesame taste was overwhelming. I didnt quite like it, my family did though.
The bakery near our hotel. I love Japanese pastries!
Walked around and shopped at Hondori Street after chilling in the hotel for awhile. Shopping in Japan is sooooooo expensive ): Only their house brands like Uniqlo and Muji are slightly cheaper than Singapore's prices. They've got hugeeeeeeee arcades. The one my family went into had 5 or 6 storeys, the top 2 levels were like gambling dens, they've got machines that allow you to earn real money. But it's really smelly in there cos people were smoking. One thing I cant comprehend about the Japanese culture: They seldom (or dont) smoke outdoors. They smoke indoors, in specially assigned smoking rooms, arcades and even restaurants. *Pinches nose*
We stopped by at our favourite past time - Basketball shooting machines! Which explains why I'm quite good at it *Winks*
Returned to the neighbourhood and had okonomiyaki for dinner. It's one of the best food I've tried in Japan! Super yummy and very filling. So fascinated with the making of it, I actually took down pictures of every single step of the cooking. Hehe.
Firstly, lay a layer of crepe. Then add cabbage and beansprout onto it.
Secondly, add some pork belly onto the veg.
Thirdly, flatten the ingredients and flip it over.
Meanwhile, another chef prepares the soba/udon.
Fourthly, crack the eggs!
Fifthly, mix the egg yolk and put the ingredients (both the crepe and the noodles) above the egg.
Lastly, add the magical sauce.
Tada! This, is okonomiyaki! It's super yummy and it's got all the nutrients you need - Carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins... *Drools*
End of Day 2. Look at my Muji loots! So happy~
Day 3 - 2 June 2013, Hiroshima
After checking out the bakery the previous day, we decided to breakfast here! :D
First stop for the day: Miyajima, one of Japan's three most scenic places.
We had to take a ship over to the island!
Was greeted by this deer upon reaching the island (:
More deers. Hungry deers.
My retarded brother with street snacks.
Highlight of Miyajima: Giant torii gate. Blurred image cos I didnt dare to go any nearer. The ground's all muddy :/ At high tide the torii gate would seem like it's floating on the water.
Views from the Itsukushima Shrine
Torii Gate souvenir. Cos my picture wasnt clear enough. Hahaha.
View from a higher altitude on the island. The day I discovered panorama shots from my phone. Hahaha.
Some huge wooden hut on the island.
Its interior.
Views from the hut.
Tower beside the hut. So pretty!
#deer #chill #lol
Grilled oysters! I'm not a fan of oysters, but this is damn gd!!
Lunch time! I forgot what rice this is! It's similar to unagi but not unagi :/
The menu. Yes this restaurant only sells one type of food!
Second stop for the day: Kintai-Kyo Bridge, a 5m long bridge with 5 wooden arches
From below and beside the bridge
On the bridge
Views from the bridge. The waters were so clearrrrrrr.
Third stop for the day: Back to our neighbourhood. Lol.
Ahh look at their cakesssssss. So pretty!!
Shabu-shabu dinner! I was so happy to discover English menu! Finally something that I understood. Loved the food. There wasnt any base for the soup, it was just plain water initially. But somehow after we added in all the veg and meat the soup became so flavourful we finished the whole pot of soup. Hahaha. We must've looked like aliens.
Reason why we were at the cake shop. It was 2 days away from my brother's Birthday! We had an early Birthday celebration for him cos we had to leave Hiroshima the next day while he had to stay there for work. He's such an old man - a super childish old man.
Day 4 - 3 June 2013, Kyoto
My parents and I left Hiroshima in the morning and headed to Kyoto. We had a hard time trying to get to our hotel cos we did not have Japanese directions and the cab driver did not know how to get to our hotel. In the end the cab driver had to drive to a nearby hotel to ask for Japanese directions. But thankfully we arrived at our destination after all those hassle (:
We were at Hostel Haruya Aqua. It's a really small hostel, we were living in a big house with different rooms of tourists. The room was really small and cramped and we had to share a common toilet with the rest. Sounds bad, doesnt it? Nah, because it's so small the wifi connection was actually available in our rooms, unlike most hotels, which only had wifi connection at the lobby. The common lobby allowed the different tourists to interact with one another and share about our trips. It was where I got some itineraries from the other travelers. Hehe.
Our room.
The lobby.
Alright enough words about the hostel. The hostel manager (the only person in charge of the whole place) introduced us to this ramen place, said to be the best in Kyoto. We decided to try it out.
Yes, English menu! (:
Mom's shoyu ramen.
My tsukemen, it was sooooooooo good :P
There's sooooooo many temples in Kyoto! Clueless of where to go, we decided to visit Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion). Golden, should be nice right. Lol.
That's about it. Lol. Okay la it did look pretty, but there wasnt much to explore in the place. What's worse? We paid for it :/
But anyway, dessert time!
Headed to Shijo-Dori at night. It's a shopping district in Kyoto, but somehow there werent many people around. There wasnt much to shop either, cos they've only got high-end shops ):
It was so hard to find somewhere to dine in, cos all their menus were in Japanese ): Attracted by the sashimi, we decided to dine in some Japanese seafood restaurant.
What I came for. Hahaha.
We really had no idea what else to eat, so we pointed at a few rice sets on the menu. This was what I got - Steamed rice with raw octopuses. And they actually gave us a pot of green tea to be poured onto the rice. The meal just tasted weird to me, I couldnt quite appreciate it, but I had to finish it :/
And this concluded my first day in Kyoto. I was feeling rather miserable that day. Navigating in Japan without my brother was so hard with the language barriers. My parents and I were so clueless about what to do in Kyoto cos we didnt quite do research about it. The thought of staying in Kyoto for the next 2 days made me so sad. On the brighter side at least our neighbours were good enough to share about their journeys with us when we were back in the hostel :')
Day 5 - 4 June 2013, Osaka, Hiroshima
We were really clueless about what to do in Kyoto so we decided to travel to Osaka and visited Osaka Castle.
The moat.
Crossing over.
Below the castle.
Haha and I believe this bunch of kids were out with their teachers for a field trip and they thought that they were rock climbing.
Look at the castle... And the ants below it haha.
Tada, Osaka Castle (:
Some random building beside the castle.
Lunch. We took the train to some random station that was supposed to have good shopping, but there werent many shops and there were only 2 restaurants, so we settled down at this overpriced cafe. Boohoo.
Cos it's my bro's actual bday and we didnt know where to go, we took the shinkansen back to Hiroshima to look for him. Lol. It was a looooooooooooong 4hrs ride, but well I dont mind, cos I enjoy train and bus rides as long as I get to sit down. Hahahaha.
Oh ya this is how the shinkansen looks like!
This was dinner for us. Bro introduced us to this spicy ramen place. Yummy!!
My bro was disappointed that we didnt like Kyoto, cos he loved the place. He claimed that the places that we have been to werent the fun places (oh well) and so he drafted a Kyoto itinerary for us \o/ hahaha. Spent another 2 hours on shinkansen back to Kyoto. Spent most of the day traveling. Lol.
Day 6 - 5 June 2013, Kyoto
So after my brother enlightened us about the supposed "more fun" places in Kyoto, we arrived in Arashiyama in the morning. I think that's the best place I've been in Kyoto!
Oi River
We took the boat ride. The scenery was so pretty, and it was so enjoyable in the shade of the boat under a sunny day. Hehe.
A hut along the riverside!
The man controlling the boat (idk whats the actual term for it) was so admirable, he's of quite an old age already, but he's so fit to be only pushing the boat forward for 30 minutes with only a stick (Y).
Macho man! Took a video of him (: My new idol. Haha!
View of the river from a bridge.
We walked to the Arashiyama Monkey Park after the boat ride.
And before we get to see the monkeys, we had to climb up rough slopes like this.
Climb made worthy when I first spotted a monkey! (:
More monkey! Sleepy one!
Emo monkey.
So cuteeeeeeeeee! (:
Monkey vs fish! :D
View from the top of the hill!
We had to enter the hut to feed the monkeys. So we humans were the one in the cage actually. Lol.
Hungry monkeys.
The monkey on top was actually pushing the other monkey down just to have food to itself. Mean monkey.
Dad feeding monkey! (:
A video of monkey feeding! (:
Look!! Baby monkey! Damn cute! (:
Random pathways in Arashiyama. They actually look pretty in pictures! Hehe.
Beef udon for lunch! I love udon (:
Headed to Ginkakuji Temple after lunch.
I dont know what were they aiming the coins at and why they do it, but I joined in too, for cheap thrill lolol.
We then visited the Fushimi Inari Shrine. It's pretty, but I was really sick of temples by then :/ Cant really appreciate them, but I've got to agree that this shrine is really pretty.
Spent our last night in Kyoto munching on supermarket food. They said that there'll be discount for supermarket food after 9pm, so we waited til then in hope of getting sushi and sashimi at half price. But to our disappointment there werent much food on discount, but we still bought quite a lot of food anyway. Just didnt really have pictures of them. Haha. Supermarket food, nothing much!
Day 7 - 6 June 2013, Tokyo
Enough of sightseeing, I was really excited for Tokyo! The capital, the shopping paradise!
Look, our hotel room! Was so impressed with the room the moment I stepped in! Hotel Sunroute Plaza, (Y)
The menu, our lunch. SO AWESOME! I love sashimi I cant get sick of it (L)
We shopped at Harajuku after lunch. It's like Orchard in Tokyo I suppose? So there wasnt much to take pictures of. And there werent much to buy either, everything was so expensive ):
But this was dinner. Charcoal BBQ! It was kinda pricey, so we didnt order a lot. Food was good though (:
Day 8 - 7 June 2013, Tokyo
I love hotel breakfast!!
Headed to Tokyo Tower. Snapped a few random shots of flowers cos they were really pretty. Hahaha. So we went to the tower and took pictures of it and did not explore the interior of the tower cos... We just didnt feel like paying for it. Lol lame.
Random flowers along the streets~
It kinda looked like a construction building. Ops haha.
Walked around Tokyo station and Shinjuku and concluded that shopping in Tokyo isnt exactly fun cos things were too expensive ): And there werent much pictures to take, so I shall just show off my food. Hahaha.
Lunch. Japanese curry cravings satisfied! (:
Dinner!
Day 9 - 8 June 2013, Tokyo, Mount Fuji
Last hotel breakfast before leaving Hotel Sunroute Plaza!
We alighted one stop after Mt. Fuji, but took a picture of the actual stop anyway!
Back to sleeping on futons!
We spent the whole afternoon admiring the scenery and waiting for Mt. Fuji to appear from behind the clouds cos it was a really cloudy day. After much camping, the skies got a little better and I managed to get the following shot:
Not a very clear shot, but I was happy enough. The best I could take that day. Haha.
Some indicator of the height of the tides. Can u see Mt. Fuji behind? :D
Lavender!
Calming scenery from the beach! (:
Dinner for the day. Super damn lot of tsukemen!
Day 10 - 9 June 2013, Mount Fuji, Osaka
The most rewarding morning of my entire Japan trip. I woke up to get a clear view of the mountain! I was indeed living in Fuji View Hotel. Hahaha.
Awwwwwww :')
The highest level of the hotel, the viewing floor, which allowed us to admire the beautiful scenery around the hotel.
Bought this cute little Mt. Fuji soft toy from the hotel. Too adorable to resist!!
After checking out of the hotel, my brother and I decided to rent a bicycle to explore the island. We entered this oddly shaped structure, it was actually a restaurant selling flat udon noodles called hoto.
Odd building with its interesting curvature!
Retarded me with the hoto. Hahaha.
This huge ass bowl of noodles is frigging gooooooooooooooood. It doesnt even have any meat, the vegetable inside gave the soup this natural sweet taste (:
Actually, 2 hours of bicycle rental wasnt a lot. We only explored one building :/
We spent frigging long travelling again, spent the rest of the day travelling from Mount Fuji to Osaka. Bought bento for dinner and ate on the shinkansen.
Pork bento!
Parted with my brother at Shin Osaka station. The last time seeing him in Japan. It was kinda sad having to part with him and living with only my parents again. It was already 9pm+ at night when we finally arrived at our hotel in Osaka. We didnt even have time to explore Osaka (except for the castle we visited the other day). What a pity ): It was quite a sad night. A part of me was excited to return to Singapore cos I missed my little red dot. Yet another part of me felt so sad cos I had to part with my brother and I felt that I hadnt explored Japan enough ):
Day 11 - 10 June 2013, Osaka
Left the hotel in the morning to head to the airport. Had my lunch and dinner settled on the plane. I love plane food, they always make me so excited for plane rides. Hahaha.
Lunch - Nasi Briyani (If I'm not wrong?)
Beef rice. This was gooooooooood!!
Yep. So that was my Japan trip. I concluded that it was really hard navigating around Japan without first knowing their language. Boohoo. And their train lines were so confusing, there were so many different lines all over the place we always lose our way. I learnt that temple visits can be really boring. Nevertheless I enjoyed the trip, but it could have been better if we knew the correct places to shop. Hahahaha.
Omg finally done with this, after I think 2 weeks of working on this post? Which kinda explained why it took me so long to come out with a new blog entry...
