Wednesday, May 13, 2009 For those of you who have been missing me, im currently in china, will be back in singapore by June 14. Havent been updating my blog on the trips coz i was super busy and tired from the 7+3 days japan and shanghai/hangzhou/suzhou trip. It was very fun, but really tiring, coz Japan trip was a free and easy one, and i had to settle a lot of transportation and miscellanous stuff in order to make it a comfortable one for my parents. Very rush, had to wake up at 5plus most of the time to catch trains and buses. Nevertheless, it was really a Learning experience for me as i had plenty of opportunities to practice my Japanese (used it 99% of the time there!!).
Heres a summary of my Japan trip:
Day 1:
Arrived at Narita airport at 930pm (Japan time 1030pm) as the plane was delayed during the transfer at shanghai. It was quite horrible coz i didnt know the airport bus to the nearest metro station ends at 1130pm. The airport was very quite and appreantly all the ticket booths are closes. So i had to ask the airport staff where is the auto ticket station and where the train stop was. That was when i put my Japanese to use as the staff cant understand English at all =X. Then the second challenge came as i didnt know how to use the machine, since everything was written in Jap. To save time, i asked this man beside me for help and managed to get the tickets for the last train. We had to take the Skyliner to Nippori station and transfer to the Yamanote line to Shinjuku station 新宿, where our hotel was. Luckily the hotel was pretty near the station and we managed to check in just past midnight.
Day 2:
Breakfast was included and we were allowed to choose from any of the 3 restaurants in the hotel. Most of them had Jap plus Western style buffet. Western style was all about eggs bacon and bread, while Jap style consists of rice, miso soup and some side dishes. Most of the old Japanese choose Jap food, while the younger generation chose the western stuff. I realized that there are 2 special habits of the Jap people, they always eat scrambled eggs with tomato sauce and yogurt with jam!! After that we boarded the bus to mount fuji, it was a one day tour that i booked online before leaving singapore. Basically it is impossible for a tourist to visit mount fuji on his own without tour groups, coz it was very very far away and secluded. Besides that, transportation is pretty expensive. We were taken to the mount fuji visitor center before arrving at the 5th station of mount fuji. This is the point where most trekkers and hikers start to climb mt fuji, also the highest point that cars can drive up to. It was pretty cold, heard that the previous day the temperature dropped to 0 degrees =X. The air was very fresh and i really like the cooling weather. But mount fuji didnt look like mt fuji from haly way up. Heard that we were lucky coz apparently we managed to see it all the way throughout the trip, normally it will be covered in snow from the bottom.
Following that we had lunch at a restaurant at the bottom of the hill. It was a lunchbox set, but not a bento exactly. There were 16 different kinds of dishes, all in small but delicate servings, arranged nicely in a 16 grid box, together with rice. So pretty that we didnt bear to eat it! After that we took a cruise down Lake Hakone, and took a cablecar up to the top of a hill that i had forgotten. There was a small shrine on the top of the mountain and a Tori gate, this red gate that looks like the word "开". There was almost nothing on the mountain except for the shrine and gate, but somehow i had a feeling of serenity =) Lastly we went back to Tokyo via shinkansen. Not to bluff, it was REALLY FAST!! We wanted to take a picture of the train and before we even pressed the shutter, it went past already!! Floating in the air i will say. It took just 40mins to get to Tokyo. Our tour guide was really good and frendly and told us a lot of stories about Japanese traditions. Such as during weddings, only new notes should be used for the "angbaos" as it symbolises a fresh beginning for the couple, whereas for funerals, only old notes can be used, since new notes symbolises that the person had purposely went to the bank to get the money for the funeral, as if long prepared for it already, which was very rude. Had bentos for dinner, which was not too bad after all =)
Day 3:
The 3rd day was bad then good, as we had originally planned to take a night bus to osaka to cut one night stay in hotels, only to realize that all the buses have been fully booked due to it being the 1st day of the Japan "Golden Week". That left us stranded in Tokyo as we didnt book any hotel for that night, and all the hotels had been booked due to the holidays. Luckily we managed to find a very ulu hotel nearby through the hotel staff. It was pretty scarey as i was asked to explain the situation to the new hotel's staff and book a night there, and i had to use Japanese for the entire conversation!! But really good practice i would say. Luckily the Jap people are super nice and patient, and everything went quite smoothly. So we checked out and in to out new hotel early in the morning.
Went around shinjuku area, which was supposed to be the CBD equavalent in Japan. Most of the shopping centers were places like Isetan and Takashimaya, which of course didnt attract our attention. We proceed to the shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, which had nice little japanese 凉亭s and small pounds. Too bad sakura season was over, but there were other blooming flowers though. Next we went to the so called "red light district" 歌舞伎町for lunch. It was just as crowed during lunch time as night. We found a nice little restaurant for Katsu Teshi (pork cutlet set meal). The katsu was crispy and thick and very jucy!! Together with chewy Japanese rice which really shines in the light!! After lunch we visited the Tokyo Metropolitan govertment office observation tower, where they had a free observation deck at the 45 level. You can see the entire shijuku from there!
Next we took the JR line to Shibuya涉谷, where i did my 1st round of shopping. There was this distinctive mall called 109, i think it was where the term 109辣妹came from. All the shops were very trendy and mostly teenager stuff. Something like Far East, but more trendy. All the gals were sooo kawaii!! Big eyes, fair skin, golden hair, just like those in the comics. Same for the guys!! I think none of them ever stepped into shibuya without hair gels and fake eye lashes. Very 养眼 according to my parents..=P. The clothes are not too expensive, close to those in far east i would say, 20-40 sin dollars, but much more trendy i would say. Bought some clothes there =). It was super crowed at 6pm, hardly had space to walk on the streets. After that we walked to Harajuku 原宿, another shopping paradise for cool guys and ho babes. There was our favourite DAISO where everything went at 105 yen. It was 4 storeys high!! Full of goodies =). Too bad most of the shops closes at 8-9pm and by the time we came out of Daiso, most of the shops had closed already. That was the 1st time i saw Lolita girls, dressed in full pink laces (including shoes!!) and a lacey umbrella, as well as some Cos Play characters. Interesting!! Had bento for dinner again, as we were totally tired from the walking.
Day 4:
Took the earliest shinkansen possible to osaka, it took just 2.5hrs instead of the usual 6. After checking in, we took the osaka subway to Osaka jou (Osaka castle), one of the must-see attractions in osaka. The castle was surrounded by water, and there was a large park beside it. The castle itself was quite normal, like a typical Jap temple, but more grand. There was a tiny shrine beside the main castle where we witnessed a traditional Japanese wedding.
After that we moved on to Osaka Habour, where the Kaiyukan 海游馆 was located. It was said to be the biggest aquarium in the world. Went for Osaka's Okonomiyaki for lunch before queueing for tickets, which proved to be the right decision. We ordered beef, squid and octopus okonomiyaki for lunch, basically there was a hot plate on out table but the food was served cooked. But we were still given utensils to cook the okonomiyaki as we eat. Very nice but a bit salty. I guess that is just the Osaka flavour. Unfortunately we went to the kaiyukan on a saturday, and also the golden week, so we were squised in tons and tons of people and had to queue for a total of 80mins before entering the place. It was indeed very big, about 8 storeys high with a giant cylindrical tank in the middle, where they housed giant stingrays and a WHALE SHARK!! 4metres long i read. Thye had sea creatures from all over the world, and dived according to each continent. Most of the people who went were kids though =P.
After that we went to the next station where there was a nice onsen (hot spring). Actually i didnt know that such a place existed till i read the book that my mum borrowed. I swear that no travel agencies will take their participants to that place, since it was quite hard to find. But it proved that our efforts didnt come to a waste!! It was a public bath which cost mere 400yen, about 6 sin dollars!!! And there was absolutely no compromise on the quality of the hotspring!! Heard that that place was over 100 years old, quite a famous public bath for local Jap. First you have to remove your shoes at the entrance of the shop, where they have free lockers for you to put the shoes. Upon entering the actual shop, it was divided into female and male baths. You have to remove ALL the clothes and store in the lockers, not even a towel!! But anyway everyone was doing that so it wasnt too awkward. Then you can proceed to the bath room, where you are supposed to soap and shower 1st before entering the hot springs. I was totally surprised by the variety of hot springs they had for a public bath!! There was electric wave hot springs, sulphur hot srings, cold water hot springs, open air hot springs(this was really good), and even saunas!! I tried almost all of them, and it was totally comfortable and relaxing. Felt like sleeping for some moments. Spent about 1 hour there, and when we went out of the bath into the locker area we realised there were even underground hot springs that we had missed!! And the room locker room was filled with amenities like hair dryers, massage chairs and even baby cots and tv!! And all these for just S$6!!! It was quite a pleasant experience that leaves us longing for more =) Had Takoyaki (octopus balls) for dinner..Yummy!!!
more to come in the next entry!! =)Labels: life45 japan trip 2009
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