Japan Trip 2016 – Kissa's Japan Travels

All posts will be missing photos as I don’t plan to upload photos anymore… Most of these older travel journals were originally written with photos embedded, and I don’t plan to re-write them, so please ignore some of the weird sentence structures… (or you can visualise the photos yourself – I’m not stopping you. :D)

Japan Trip 2016 Day 1 (13th Dec 2016)

After months and months of planning, the day had finally come for a proper overseas trip with Bruno (the Manila Major doesn’t count since it’s solely to attend an event), and the destination was none other than Japan!

Japan is a country where I’ve always wanted to go, but somehow I always ended up holidaying in some other countries – just not Japan. So finally, FINALLY, I got to go! It’s like a dream come true…

Before the trip, I’ve already reserved a pocket WiFi from Changi Recommends for my internet connectivity in Japan. I’m so glad Changi Airport had this service. The pocket WiFi device for Japan actually has unlimited data, so it’s better than those Japan prepaid data sim cards which has only a max 500MB of data per day before it’ll get throttled.

Right, so well, knowing me, I always love to hit the airport hours before my flight, and it’s the same this time too. The difference is that instead of just going for cafes hoping for an empty table at the transit area, I got complimentary lounge access this round, thanks to the Priority Pass that came with the DBS Altitude card which I had applied almost a year ago. We chose the SATS Premier Lounge at Terminal 3 to spend our 3 hours there before our SQ red eye flight to Narita Airport.

The lounge is quite a nice, quiet place. There’s some hot food (for example, Chinese wok-fried veggies, Indian curry, etc) and salad/sandwiches. Just some light bites, but it’s just like buffet style, so if you like any of the food, you can just keep going for more till you are totally full. There’s free soft drinks and coffee/tea too! Every seat there is very comfy, and there’ll be a charging port next to you to charge your gadgets. Bruno and I had some light bites, and we just relaxed at the super comfy chairs, scrolling through our Facebook/Reddit pages with the free WiFi provided in the lounge. What a nice way to spend time while waiting for our flight – definitely better than trying to beat the crowd and securing a table at the eternally-crowded Starbucks or Coffee Bean.Then we went off to board our SQ flight to Tokyo. I didn’t take any photos on the plane – I only remembered I tried to nap but I couldn’t. Seriously, this will be the last time I’m taking red eye flight. I always felt terrible during the day after the flight…

Anyway, the first thing we did when we touched down at Narita Airport was to purchase the Narita Express ticket that will take us from the airport to Shinjuku. So while Bruno was busy ogling at the vending machines there (he loves vending machines for some reason), I went to queue up to purchase the tickets. I did not go for the JR Pass this trip, because there is no need to. It’s only worth it when you take a return shinkansen (for example, from Tokyo to Osaka, then back from Osaka to Tokyo). We arrived in Narita Airport, but we will be flying back from Osaka airport.

Before the trip, I was still worried about the timings of trains in Japan, but actually, it’s really quite easy to navigate around in Japan. Or should I say – it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.

So I’ve got the tickets, and off we went to the tracks to wait for the train. As it’s gonna be quite a while before our train arrived, I took random pics of the station. It’s so nice that you can totally eat and drink in stations and trains – they even have kiosks on the platform that sells snacks! And many, many vending machines that sells cans… some cold, and some hot! I love their hot beverage cans in vending machines. Such a life-saver at times…

Our shinkansen came, and off we go! We were initially so charmed by the views and sights, but at some point while the train just sped ahead, Bruno and I started dozing off.. and before we knew it, we reached Shinjuku!

I’ve done enough research to roughly know how to get to our hotel, but really when you are there at Shinjuku station yourself, you’ll just find yourself at a loss. I thought I knew the way – but nope! I was even quite confused which exit I should be taking! We ended up going to one of the many information kiosks in the station to ask, and the very friendly staff gave very detailed directions on how to get to our hotel. It’s definitely not what was described online by many people! My guess is because the exit that the staff told us to take was actually a new exit.

And good thing we asked and followed the instructions given to us, because our hotel was really just a 5minutes walk away from the station (not counting the wait at the pedestrian crossing). It’s so convenient! And the hotel that we were staying is no other than Hotel Sunroute Shinjuku. The site itself offers a very attractive rate, and it’s one of the cheaper options around that’s still within easy walking distance to Shinjuku Station. I actually grabbed a rather cheap rate off Japanican website, so I guess I’m really lucky! As our trip was near the Christmas period, most places in Tokyo has Christmas decorations already – and so did our hotel! We arrived too early before our check-in time, and knowing the hotel has a really strict check-in timing, we left our luggage at their concierge and went exploring the neighbourhood, as well as grabbing our first meal in Japan.

We went back to the hotel at around noon, and it was still too early. We sat around the lounge area, and Bruno fell into a deep sleep as he was really sleep-deprived. I took out my laptop and started checking some of work emails, until it’s nearly two in the afternoon, before I went to the counter to ask if the room is available. Finally we were checked in proper, and the first thing we got into the room is – SLEEP.

I couldn’t really sleep in the afternoon though, so I just closed my eyes and rested a bit. After a couple of hours, we got up and went over to Takashimaya to look for our dinner. It was really windy and cold… but we were too distracted by the pretty pink sight near Shinjuku station! IT’S SO PRETTY.

Anyway, after ogling at how pink everything was, we went forward in search for our dinner. After a quick walk around the restaurant levels in Takashimaya, we settled on Cafe Moana, whose price seems pretty reasonable. We both ordered the steak slices with waffle fries, and while he ordered the Mojito cocktail (which he said he couldn’t taste any alcohol content at all), I ordered the banana milk shake with chia seeds. The steak slices tasted really good with the gravy, but it’s just a tad tough. The banana milkshake was good, but I really dislike the chia seeds. But overall the prices are decent, so we weren’t complaining!

As Tokyo’s businesses close really early during winter time (at 8pm – even for major shopping malls), we got back to the hotel at around 9pm. On the way back to the hotel, we went to the Family Mart opposite our hotel to buy some snacks and breakfast for the next day. We bought the 野菜汤 (direct translated to be wild veggies soup), which we both ended up loving and got addicted to for the rest of our trip. It’s quite an experience drinking hot instant soup while working overseas!

Japan Trip 2016 Day 2 (14th Dec 2016)

Honeydew bun! This was our breakfast, and it’s soooooo good. The filling was thick and taste just like real honeydew. So very nice! Anyway today’s a very important day for us – Bruno finally get to visit Ghibli Museum! We’ve requested for the tickets in advance at Airfrov, so we were super stoked that we actually got them and were able to go. These tickets sell like hot cakes the moment they are released, so initially we were still quite worried that we won’t be able to get any tickets. But anyhow, we did, so yay!

We took the train to Mitaka, but to be honest it was really absolutely cold. And since we were rather early (we managed to get the 10am time slot tickets), we decided to hide in Starbucks after we reached Mitaka, just to get some warmth first. Poor Bruno did not have proper winter clothings, so he was really cold. Nevertheless, for Ghibli Museum, he’d do anything! LOL. So as the time nears, we left Starbucks and braced ourself for the cold as we embarked on the long walk from the station to the museum. It’s a good thing that we decided to walk though! We walked past a park and we saw koyo! How could there still be koyo in such cold weather?! But there they are! We were so excited that we started snapping photos and forgot all about the cold, haha!

Anyway, after like a 20 minutes walk, we finally reached Ghibli Museum! As we queued to get in, we were told that photos were strictly not allowed (but I still secretly took one of the catbus… and promptly got a warning from the staff T_T). So, sorry no photos there, but the museum itself is really a must-go for all Ghibli fans. Must-go! Trust me! XD

For lunch, we decided on a simple Yoshinoya beef bowl meal. Although we have the same thing back here in Singapore, the taste is just different there in Japan. The beef is much fresher, really. Singapore’s Yoshinoya just sucks.

On the way back, we dropped by some indoor market and walked about a bit, exploring random spots.

We then went back to Shinjuku to go to their Uniqlo to buy a fleece jacket for Bruno, and I got myself a Blocktech jacket, because the wind was really too strong and it felt way colder than it should be.

We walked around a bit more, and went to Isetan food hall at Shinjuku to take a look. We went to the fruit section in hope of buying Kyoho grapes, but unfortunately I guess they are not in season. However, it’s strawberry season and there’s just strawberries everywhere! And their strawberries are just so perfect! No blemishes at all.

We finally got hungry enough for dinner, so we went to search for Ichiran ramen. The queue was horribly long, but we braved the wind and cold to queue! And it was worth it, at least for Bruno. He claimed its THE BEST ramen he’s ever eaten. He’d give it a perfect 10 score! As for me…. I think it’s good! One of the best ramen that I’ve tried for sure. But perfect 10…? Maybe… not….

So that sums up our second day! We have one more full day in Tokyo the next day, before we head to Shirakawa-go.

Japan Trip 2016 Day 3 (15th Dec 2016)

Today is the last full day we have in Tokyo. While having our lunch at Yoshinoya the day before, we actually saw on their menu that they have some interesting breakfast sets. One that caught my eye was a bowl of tofu + egg on top of rice. I love tofu, and I love egg, so in all honesty I found it really hard not to order that one. There is a Yoshinoya that’s on the way when we walked from our hotel to Shinjuku station, so we popped in to the outlet. I was contemplating whether to order the small bowl or the medium one, as I was worried that I couldn’t finish it if it wasn’t good if I ordered the medium one. But I ended up still ordering the medium one – can’t blame me, I’m always hungry in the morning! Bruno ordered the same as me, but the smaller sized version as he’s not a morning person.

When our set came, I was totally intrigued by how it looked like. I just can’t figure out what exactly is on the rice… doesn’t really looked like tofu, doesn’t really look like proper egg… just looked like a mixed mash of… stuff. Nevertheless, I gingerly took one mouthful with my chopsticks (they don’t provide spoon there even for rice), and was subsequently blown away by the taste. Yes, blown away. It was THAT GOOD. OH. MY. GOD. My brain totally cannot comprehend how does simple ingredients like onsen egg, tofu, barley (I think?), bonito flakes and rice could taste SO GOOD together. I gave up trying to think about it, and just focused on feasting on this superb breakfast. It’s, hands down, the best breakfast I’ve ever had in my life. And I’m being absolutely serious here. It’s a dish that I would really specially fly to Japan just to eat it.

After the absolutely satisfying breakfast, we then went on our way to find Shinjuku Gyoen. You know, it’s not even easy to find it if you don’t go from the Shinjuku front gate. We ended up going a bit in circles, before we went into a random 7-11 to ask for directions. The guy who asked spoke PERFECT English (he looked like he’s from Mainland actually) to us and PERFECT Japanese to his co-worker. I was impressed!

Anyhow, we followed his directions (which was rather like a shortcut somewhat that involved walking in backalleys and small streets in a residential area in front of people’s homes), passed by several vending machines that were randomly erected on the streets (I really had no idea Japan had so many vending machines everywhere), and finally we reached Shinjuku Gyoen Sendagaya gate. We paid for the admission (yup, it’s not free), grabbed a complimentary map in English and proceed to stroll along the pathways. It was still quite early in the morning, like around 9.30am when we reached, so there really wasn’t many people around. It was cold (as usual) and windy, but it was a rather surreal experience walking in this huge national garden. They’ve thoughtfully curated slightly different themed gardens and landscapes, but all still rather “Japanese”. I had thought initially that since winter came early in 2016, we might see all dreary and leaf-less trees, but lo and behold, we saw koyo! Autumn leaves! It’s just a small part of the garden that still have koyo, but the vibrant colours still blew me away.

We then wandered to the rose garden, which I read previously in Tripadvisor that some visitors complained was empty due to the early winter. However, I still saw the roses bloomed nicely! I’m starting to wonder if the visitor did visit Shinjuku Gyoen at all?!

We spent almost the entire morning at Shinjuku Gyoen, something which surprised both of us. I thought we’d be there for max an hour or two only, but we were there for nearly four hours! We just simply love their ponds, their zen gardens and wood bridges, and to be honest we would love to spend more time there, if we hadn’t had the rest of the day planned. Here’s some of the many photos I’ve taken, but do check the link below the post for the whole album of today’s pictures.

After leaving Shinjuku Gyoen from the main gate, we popped over to Sekaido to take a look at their art supplies. But Bruno was generally not that enthusiastic about buying art supplies from there and bring it back to Singapore, so we just walked one round on the ground level and left. There are more levels (it’s the whole building!) to Sekaido, but we didn’t look at them. For lunch, we went to a random ramen shop in one of the alleys next to the main road, but unfortunately it wasn’t really good. I mean well, the ramen and broth are good, but the egg. It’s a hard boiled egg! Oh what blasphemy is this?! =(

This trip, we actually decided to skip Akihabara and head straight to Harajuku, because we thought the shops at Harajuku might suit me instead. But eh…… probably the crowd just simply put me off. I wouldn’t even want to step into the alley if not for the fact that we wanted to check out the Calbee+ shop!

We managed to find Calbee+ after walking with the crowd for quite a while, and we just joined the cashier queue straightaway while picking up the various boxes of potato chips along the way as the queue moves. LOL! Calbee potato sticks/chips are sooooo nice! Especially those that you buy in Japan, omg the potato taste is so fresh! It’s not cheap but… nothing’s really cheap in Japan anyway!

After Harajuku, we went on to our final stop in Tokyo – Nikinokashi. Do a google check, and you’ll find that all websites that talk about Nikinokashi would be – cheap tidbits! I tried my best to google for proper directions before our trip, but I still kinda screwed it up when we were there. We alighted one stop away, and had to walk quite a bit of distance to finally get to the shop at Ameyoko. But golly, their prices for Japanese tidbits were really cheap! We ended up getting a lot of food souvenirs (mostly mochi) from this shop actually, because they are just so cheap! I’d definitely head there again if I ever come back to Tokyo. I need to buy more of those Moonlight cookies for my mom!

Our dinner was at a disappointing tempura soba small restaurant next to Ueno station. Meh. Burh. Bad experience. So bad that I don’t really want to talk about it. Ugh.

Anyway, we bought more wild veggies instant soup before we went back to the hotel. Hot soup for the night in such chilly weather – yes, please!

Japan Trip 2016 Day 4 & 5 (16th-17th Dec 2016)

Today, is a day of travelling. Today, we are going to Shirakawa-go, a place that I wouldn’t think of specially making a trip to, until my cousin managed to convince me to make the trip. You can’t possibly imagine just how much work I have done, just to get us from Tokyo to Shirakawa-Go, but I can tell you, it is all worth it.

We woke up very early in the morning to check out at around 6.45am. We went to the hotel concierge to arrange for luggage delivery from Shinjuku to our boutique hotel in Kyoto, which we will staying at the next day. Japan is one of the few countries to offer such a service, and all visitors just love it (or at least those who are aware of this service) because it’s just so convenient and there’s no need to lug any luggage around the train stations. After everything’s settled, we then proceed to catch our train to Tokyo to take the shinkansen out.

This was my initial planning, which we somewhat did follow all the way:-

16/12/16 (Friday) Shirakawa-go trip

07:00 AM Check out & arrange for luggage delivery service to Kyoto.

07:45 AM Leave to take train to Tokyo (latest)

08:36 AM Board Shinkansen Kagayaki 505 (Departure track 21) to Kanazawa station

11:08 AM Reach Kanazawa station, search for Nohi Bus boarding point at east of station / explore station for food

13:10 PM Board Nohi bus to Shirakawa-go.

14:35 PM Reach Shirakawa-go Omiguchi bus stop. Check in to Shimizu

17/12/16 (Saturday) Go Kyoto

10:30 AM Check out

11:25 AM Board Nohi Bus back to Kanazawa Station.

12:50 PM Reach Kanazawa Station

13:56 PM Board Thunderbird Limited Express (Departure track no.2)

16:09 PM Reach Kyoto / buy ICOCA + Haruka bundle / Recharge ICOCA / buy one-day Kyoto Sightseeing pass for 2 adults

You have no idea how much work goes into planning this, which train to catch, which bus timing to book for, etc. You have no idea how stressed I was to adhere to those timing, because the shinkansen seats were reserved in advance, which means we HAVE TO catch that particular train at that particular timing. But in the end I’m so glad my planning was quite all right (except for the long wait the next day to catch the bus back to Kanazawa), giving us plenty of buffer time and didn’t have to rush around like headless chickens.

We didn’t get to choose our reserved seats, as it’s randomly chosen by the JR station staff whom we bought our shinkansen tickets at on our first day in Japan. But thankfully he gave us the seats on the left, and because of that, we get to see Mount Fuji as the shinkansen went on its merry way to Kanazawa!

We finally reached Kanazawa, and since we had an hour or two free before we catch the Nohi bus that I’ve booked online, we went in search of lunch after we determined where the bus stop would be. We ended up at Pomme’s for their omelette rice, which was nice, but nothing much to shout about.

After lunch, we just lingered about in the shopping mall, before heading to catch the bus that will bring us to Shirakawa-Go. The journey there was pretty uneventful, but I still enjoyed the scenery very much.

I’ve been monitoring Shirakawa-Go’s temperature for quite a bit before the trip, as I wanted to make sure we would be warm enough for the trip. Bruno was a little excited about the snow in Shirakawa-Go’s live cam, but it always seem like it just snowed lightly during the night and it’ll melt away during the day. So I told him to manage his expectations – it may not snow during our one night stay. It seemed to be that way as our bus passed through Kanazawa – there’s snow on the ground, yes, but it’s not snowing when we were there.

The bus finally reached Shirakawa-Go, and we alighted the bus excitedly – just to get my shoes drenched in melted snow. ARGH. Apparently it snowed quite a bit overnight and the snow was all piled up at the side of the roads, and they were melting! Ahhhhhhhhh wet shoes and socks in such cold weather were a no-no! Geeeeeez! I started cursing myself for not wearing the uncomfy North Face all-weather shoes for the trip. What’s worse is that I have no idea where Shimizu Inn, the inn which I booked one night of accommodation in Shirakawa-Go, was. I mean, yeah sure, I have a paper map…. but it’s not really drawn to scale, and the whole village looks the same – all gassho huts! Damn. So we tried to walk according to the map… further and further away from the bus terminal… and then we started to wonder if we were heading the wrong direction. At one point, I was even contemplating to call the inn because I was getting a bit frustrated and felt that we were lost. Suddenly Bruno pointed up a small hill and asked if it could be there. Then, a small sign caught our eye, and it says Shimizu Inn, with an arrow pointed up where Bruno was pointing. Thank goodness! We finally found the inn, and the owner quickly let us in to the warmth of the hut.

She showed us to our room, and gave us some directions to the points of interest in the village. I then asked if she had some winter boots to lend us, as we wore only normal sneakers which were obviously not suited to walk in the snow. She cheerfully told us that she would dig and bring some to us from her shed, which she really did. Big thanks to her, I had proper winter boots! I stepped out of the inn with the winter boots, and saw that it’s snowing! It’s snowing heavily!!!! And it’s SO quiet where the inn is at, because it’s almost towards the end of the village where no tourists would come. It’s so peaceful, so quiet, so surreal just standing there and watching the heavy snowfall. Bruno was so excited and happy as it’s his first time experiencing snow, and he kept asking how did I chose the date/day to come so that it snows when we arrived. I don’t know really, but I’m so glad I chose this day for him to experience snow for the first time.

It was already a bit late by the time we set off from Shimizu Inn, and we missed the last bus that would bring us up to the observatory point. Bruno insisted that he wanted to go, so we ended up walking on the stroll path up to the observatory. It says stroll, but…. it’s just honestly an uphill climb. Who’s the person who came up with the term “stroll path”?!? Ugh. What’s with me and uphill climb in snowy conditions? Once in Lapland isn’t enough… now again (albeit a less strenuous climb) in Shirakawa-go. Meh.

We managed to reach the observatory after about 20 minutes or so, and the view was so breathtaking! For some reason all the photos I’ve taken there had this blue tint, so it doesn’t look that pretty but trust me, the view in person was really very good! We spent quite a bit of time at the observatory, before going down just as the skies turn dark at around 4.45pm. We decided to stop by a small supermarket to browse their items, and we noticed a takoyaki food truck parked in front of it. Out of whim, we bought the takoyaki from the food truck and omg, it tasted so good! Soooooo good!

We then slowly made our way back “home” to Shimizu Inn, where we were informed that dinner would be at 6pm. We went into some souvenir shops and bought some souvenirs for Bruno’s friend while walking back. By that time, most of the buses that were heading back to the main cities were gone, and the whole village was very quiet. It was such a nice slow walk back to the inn, enjoying the silence and the cold air around us. It started snowing a little again as we walked back – which was nice. =)

Dinner was like an extravagant affair, so many things to eat! We had another Singaporean family of four in the same inn, staying overnight as well, so it was funny just hearing them chatting and the parents nagging their two kids while all of us ate together. The food was so homecooked, so everything was fresh and tasted marvelous. After dinner, we retired to our room and simply just spent like 3-4 hrs on the futons, surfing facebook and reddit and playing mobile games etc, until we got too tired and slept. There really wasn’t anything else to do, LOL.

The next morning, we had a sumptuous breakfast again, before we paid the very nice inn owner and left to catch the Nohi bus back to Kanazawa, to continue our trip to Kyoto. I had overestimated the time needed though, we spent about 90 minutes in the bus terminal waiting for the bus that I’ve booked for. Well, it’s better than rushing here and there I supposed…

After we reached Kanazawa, we had a bit of time to grab lunch, and we opted for a nice looking pork bento set to eat on the train. We also grabbed some freshly made onigiri (no photos though sorry) for the long journey (it’s a 2 hours journey from Kanazawa to Kyoto), to our last leg of the trip. And yup, that’s a can of coffee. Hot too – from the vending machines haha. I had to drink sweetened coffee during my whole Japan trip – they were okay-ish, but I just wished there were non-sweetened milk coffee too. Sigh.

After a good couple hours on the shinkansen, we finally reached Kyoto! Kyoto station has such awesome design. =D

After marveling for a bit at their design, I immediately switch my attention to the task at hand – to purchase our ICOCA card and the Haruka bundle. ICOCA was initially the prepaid transport card (something like Suica in Tokyo) in Kansai, but in recent years they’ve been accepted almost everywhere in Japan, just like Suica. We could actually have used our Suica cards (since we did not return them), but there is this bundle where you get to buy Haruka ticket (the shinkansen from Kyoto to Kansai Airport) at almost half price if you produce an ICOCA card. So I decided to get the bundle instead of using Suica in Kyoto and buying Haruka Express ticket separately. After spending a good amount of time queueing, we finally got our ICOCA and the Haruka Express tickets! Time to find our way to the hotel!

Google Maps really helped a whole lot in our Japan trip, as we rely mainly on it for normal commute. We found a few buses that will bring us to our hotel, so we just pick the fastest route. Thank goodness we’ve already arranged our big luggage to be forwarded to our hotel in advance, so we don’t need to deal with lugging big bags up the buses. True to the schedule (as with all Japan’s transport), the bus arrived and up we went. The interesting procedure about Kyoto buses is that you board from the rear door, and you alight at the front door. You only pay the fare when you alight. So different from our Singapore system. The super nice feature of their buses is that every stop is clearly indicated on the LCD screen at the front of the bus as it approaches the next stop, so everyone will not miss their stop if they are alert. The announcements are made in Japanese and English, and they will even inform you that if you want to go to certain main tourist attractions, you should get down at this stop, etc. Very tourist-friendly!

By the time we alighted at the stop that’s near to our hotel, it was already pitch dark, and it was only at around 5+pm! Kyoto was windy, but not as windy as Shinjuku, so we were still able to bear with the cold. So with the help of Google Maps again, we found the nice little red building tucked into a small “hole” along the street. The hotel that I booked for us is Hotel Mume, and it was actually suggested by Bruno because he was wow-ed by reviews and articles about this hotel. This is a small boutique hotel, not those typical chain hotels. There are only 7 rooms available in this boutique hotel, so yup, everything is VERY personalised here.

So we knocked on the door (like I said, it’s a very “personal” hotel), and the staff opened it for us, greeting us with a HUGE smile on their faces. They asked how was our stay at Shirakawa-Go (they remembered EVERYTHING I mentioned in our previous email correspondences), whether if it’s hard to find the hotel, etc, and promptly led us to the dining area to seat us down for some welcome drinks and snacks (and also because it’s still well within their “happy hours”).

Everything is free (well, in the sense, paid for), including whatever alcoholic drinks that you order. So while we munched on the nuts and sipped our drinks, they came over to get our payment (which I prepared in cash), and one of the staff promptly came to us with all maps in his hands, and asked where we intended to go for the next few days, where we intended to go after checking in, etc. Then he drew arrows on the city maps, showing us the best route to get to the place – where we get to see interesting sights instead of just going the main road (which Google Maps will suggest). He made sure we definitely won’t be lost, and had no questions for him, before he left our table. And guess what? They’ve already put our luggages in our room even before we got there!

After we were done with the drinks and snacks, we were then being shown into our room – which was… very very pretty. Even that, was an understatement. The room’s decoration was so tastefully done, and the room seemed small on the first glance, but we somehow managed to move around pretty well with two big luggage for the next four days. The King bed was so plush and comfortable. Their toilet / shower room just looked so sparkling clean and new, and the toilet bowl was totally automatic. And when I meant automatic, I don’t mean just the flush. Heck, the toilet bowl will open the lid on its own when it senses movement! After awhile with no movement detected, the lid will close on its own! Gosh, talk about toilet technology! The only thing we had issue was with the room heater. They did not have “aircon”, so we had to make do with switching off the heater and opening the windows just a little bit for the cold air to come through.

After rearranging our day bags a little, we went off to Pontocho Alley in search for our dinner. Mume had kept asking me months before our trip, whether if we want them to help with bookings of any restaurants, but I kindly rejected their offer because well, I don’t think we can afford such high end places, and besides, we don’t like to be tied down with reservations and appointments. So, we stick to the advised path by the Mume staff, and that was a cobbled path, with very very old-style Japanese houses at the side of a small river. I didn’t take any photos while walking to Pontocho (because I was hungry!), but I did took quite a few while we were walking back.

Anyway, we reached Pontocho Alley in no time and started down the alley for our dinner hunt!

There were so many choices, that one can easily be undecisive what to go for. For us, the main thing is the price. Unfortunately, a lot of restaurants in Pontocho Alley are either Izakayas (sake bars with finger food) or very high end Japanese restaurants. I almost gave up, until we came across a shop that sells fried beef cutlets. Uh huh, they call it Katsugyu. Katsu being fried, and gyu being beef. No, it’s not a blasphemy. Who says beef must only be grilled for it to be good? Take a good look at my photos below.

Yup, this is our dinner, and I can tell you, it tasted fantastic! The beef still looked somewhat raw (medium raw, perhaps), but it tasted so gooooood! Being the cheapskate us, we ordered the cheapest on the menu, and that’s already so good! The curry that came with the cutlet… O.M.G. I can never eat curry rice in Singapore again. It will NEVER be the same!

After the ultra-satisfying dinner, we slowly strolled back to the hotel the same way, and this time I took some night shots of the lovely path.

We stopped by a Family Mart to get our beloved instant soups, before going back to the hotel to work and rest for the day. Yup, I was still working when I was on holiday… sigh.

Japan Trip 2016 Day 6 (18th Dec 2016)

Today is probably the most “packed” day in our whole Japan trip. There’s quite a few places to head to today – and we couldn’t wait!

We woke up early for the complimentary breakfast – and this was the spread we got.

Home-baked breads with home-made jams, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, beverages, one whole big bowl of fruits, one bowl of soup of the day. Like I’ve mentioned, Mume provides very personalised service, and even before we arrived at the hotel, they’ve already asked for my diet restrictions. I’ve mentioned that I cannot take yogurt, citrus fruits, and they’ve taken all I’ve said into consideration, and on my side of our breakfast table, there’s no yogurt, and no traces of citrus fruits are found in my fruit bowl. How nice! Their strawberries were so sweet!

After filling our tummies with the nutritious and fulfilling breakfast, we set off to our first stop of the day – Kiyomizudera. Mume’s staff had already gave us very precise walking directions (and it’s not the regular tourist route too!), and we just followed his direction, and found ourselves at this very lovely and zen small path among traditional residential lodgings in Kyoto. It’s early, and it’s certainly not a tourist route, so the path is totally empty. It’s just so quiet, so peaceful, and so… so Japanese! (Sorry can’t help it! =P) We can’t take any pictures beyond this long corridor because it’s really residential area, so we respected the rule.

And before we knew it, we were well on our way to Kiyomizudera as we found ourselves at the famous Higashiyama District – one path flanked by rows of quaint shophouses selling souvenirs and food. Like I mentioned, we were super early hence most of the shops weren’t open. That’s good, because we have lesser distractions while going up the stairs to Kiyomizudera. But still, we did get ourselves distracted from time to time…

Finally we reached Kiyomizudera! On the side note, I noticed my knees were experiencing some sort of pain, especially when navigating the steps. Stabbing pain could be felt whenever I rested my weight on the knee while taking the steps. I was alarmed, as I never had that pain before. But I tried to put my fears aside for the time being, and slowly made my way up and down the stairs (and believe me, Japan had a lot of these stairs, especially at temples =( ).

We paid for the entrance fee to get into the temple’s grounds, and the view from the temple grounds was spectacular. It was unfortunate that my phone camera can’t capture just how amazing it looks from the temple, but it was really super breathtaking.

After spending about an hour there, we left and started popping into the souvenir shops that were now opened. My mom wanted a set of five pairs of chopsticks, and it was really hard to find something really nice. I ended up going into EVERY shop just to browse their collection, before I got really tired of it halfway through and stopped trying to find it. LOL. We also chanced into a hidden Studio Ghibli shop!

We were getting hungry, so we started hunting for food. Kyoto is very well known for soba, but Bruno really wasn’t a soba person. He however relented, and we finally stepped into a soba shop. I told him there’s udon option too, if he really didn’t want soba. He really ended up ordering soba, and he liked it! I ordered soba too, and I too have to admit that soba in Kyoto really tasted different from Singapore’s. The texture and taste are really quite different. I’m glad Bruno likes it though! I ordered the beef soba, and it’s really exceptionally good, despite it looking so simple.

We then made our way (via Google map) to Arashiyama – our next stop for the day. The famous Bamboo forest had been on my bucket list for quite a while already, and I was so excited that I will finally get to visit it (and strike it off the list!).Today was also the last day of Hanatouro festival, and I was so glad my planning was not thrown out of the window.

Arashiyama station looks so quaint and romantic…. really. I love it here already!

Koyo is actually still quite visible on some trees, which of course, excite us quite a bit. Whenever we see koyo, we would take out our cameras to snap some pictures of it, haha!

While on our way to Togetsukyo Bridge, we walked along the HUGE Katsura river, both of us being under the Water sign, we were both mesmerised by the river, and well, as usual, took lots of photos of it! As there would be the light up at night, we saw several exhibits on the bank of the river, most likely to be illuminated during the event in the evening.

After crossing the river, we decided to visit Tenryujin temple since we were still very early. We paid only for the entry to the garden, and not to the temple itself. The garden was beautiful, with a huge pond in the middle of it. Even though it was rather crowded with a lot of tourists, the calming atmosphere was still there, and we thoroughly enjoyed the short walk around the garden. My knees were giving me problems, but somehow I still managed to walk up and down the trail (with quite a bit of steps) and enjoying myself while at it.

Finally we left Tenryujin and found ourselves right at the start of the bamboo grove trail. It was only like 3pm in the afternoon, while the illumination will only start at 5pm. We decided to just walk into the forest first, and u-turn out for the event later. The trail was actually rather short, but it was really very calming even though the entire trail was super crowded. Even gentle breeze will cause the bamboos to sway and there’s the gentle “swiiissssshhhh” sounds from above. So peaceful! Totally LOVE it.

We reached the end of the trail, and were debating whether to continue or u-turn already to wait for the event. But it was still really early, and I needed the loo quite urgently, and we suddenly discovered there’s another garden Okochi Sanso right next to the trail. We checked the entrance fees, and holy molly it was expensive. No wonder so many people turned back after they saw the prices! But well, I really need to release my bladder, so I thought what the heck – just pay for it and we’ll have a small garden to explore till 5pm anyway. Bruno kept laughing at me for “the most expensive toilet trip”, until he saw just how big the garden was – and how lovely the trail was! Due to the steep admission fees, there were very very few tourists and most of the time we felt we were the only ones in the huge garden! Here are some photos we took while on the trail around the garden – absolutely breathtaking!

The admission fee also included a complimentary cup of green tea and snack, which we enjoyed in their small and simple teahouse. We were also given a very nice postcard in a sleeve which has some info of the garden printed on the paper. Very elegantly done. The matcha was so good – thick and just so very slightly sweetened. And the snack was so airy on the inside, but so crumbly on the outside – it’s hard to explain the texture of it but it’s a good pairing with the matcha.

We reluctantly exited the garden at around 4.30pm, and went back to the start of the bamboo forest trail and sat on the curb to wait for the Hanatouro illumination to start. Many tourists (and locals too) were waiting at the start of the trail too. At 4.59pm, everyone started pointing their cameras/phone/video recorders high up at the bamboo forest, and at 5.00pm sharp, the bamboo forest lit up and a collective gasp was heard sweeping across the crowd. It was beautiful! We started moving into the trail. Bruno was capturing the whole walk as a video, so I was walking slightly behind him so that he won’t get bumped at from behind. It was getting really cold, and I found myself starting to shiver quite a bit. Nevertheless we reached the end of the trail, and we just followed the crowd to continue moving along the path, and found more illumination exhibits.

We finally made our way back to Togetsukyo Bridge to find dinner, and we saw that there’s a HUGE crowd on the opposite side of the brdige, coming from the train station and they had to queue to cross the bridge! The crowd was really so huge, but everyone behaved in an orderly fashion – so that was nice to see! We randomly picked a restaurant, and went in to get our tummies filled. I ordered a tempura udon – which wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t super fantastic either. Decent, I’d say.

Finally, we’re done with the most packed day in the entire trip! Satisfied that I finally get to strike the Arashiyama Bamboo forest off my list, we slowly made our way back to Mume. Tiring, but absolutely satisfying day.

Japan Trip 2016 Day 7 (19th Dec 2016)

Today, we only planned for a quick morning trip to Nishiki Market, and then a day trip thereafter to Osaka. So we had our breakfast a little later than yesterday at Mume, and it was another round of home-baked breads (all flavours different from yesterday’s) and home made jams again. Didn’t bother to take photos this time.

We reached Nishiki Market at around 9am, and actually that was still a little too early. Most of the shops weren’t open. But we just slowly strolled through the market and browse those that were opened. We noticed that the vegetables in Japan are all so pristine and perfect looking! ZERO soil on them. Not even on root vegetables! Are they amazing or what? O_O

Some kind of cauliflower+broccoli @_@?

After walking through the entire market (which was actually just one long stretch of path), we then made our way to the nearest train station to catch a train to Nippombashi in Osaka, as we were both interested to visit the Kuromon Ichiba market. (Yes we are both fans of street markets and supermarkets). I mis-navigated a little, but we still find ourselves at where we wanted to be in the end.

The first thing that we queued for – Okonomiyaki, of course! Okonomiyaki, takoyaki and yaki soba are famous in the Kansai region – of course that’s what we’d want to eat in Osaka! This stall is supposed to be famous, and there are quite a few people queuing for it, so queue we did! And it’s really good!

We then meandered down the various stalls, looking for more finger food along the way. Got some kobe beef cubes (extremely expensive but they are da bomb! SO TENDER AND JUICY!), and scallops which weren’t very sweet actually. Had some beef yakitori as well, but we forgot to take photo of that before Bruno just wolfed it down. Eeeps.

We were actually still not really full, so we went to the shopping streets in Namba to find a proper lunch. We picked one basement restaurant, not noticing that it says Izakaya. We were shocked when we saw a group of people smoking IN the restaurant the moment we stepped in. I was contemplating to change our lunch place as both of us were really sensitive to cigarette smoke, but then we just decided to stay, eat and get it over with. I ordered the steak for myself, and the ika to share and he helped me eat some of the fries too. We then quickly just leave right after we finished eating – I HATE CIGARETTE SMOKE. I still don’t understand why would any country allow smoking inside an establishment. Argh. Bad experience.

By the time we were done, it was only about 3pm in the afternoon. It was really still too early for us to head to Dotonbori for dinner, and besides we just had lunch! We both didn’t really like shopping, so we decided to find a place to drink coffee while waiting for the time to pass. Bruno kept wanting to try Tully’s Coffee, so we decided to head to Yamada Denki as they have a Tully’s Coffee joint there as well. It turned to be something like an electronics mall-building, and Tully’s is on the second or third floor, can’t remember that clearly now. It was good that it wasn’t a major shopping mall though – there were significantly less people, and we were able to sit there for almost 2 hours, chatting randomly and surfing on our phones. Finally at around 5pm, we left the building and head back to Namba station as Dotonbori was just around the corner of the station.

Dotonbori was… crowded. There were many eateries, restaurants and souvenir shops everywhere, and we had a hard time choosing our dinner place. We finally settled on a yaki soba restaurant, and it was an interesting concept. Every table had a steel frying area on it. Basically you order your yaki soba, and the chef downstairs will fry it up, and they will serve it up to you and dump it on the frying area on your table and heat up the plate to keep the yaki soba hot. It’s a nice concept, but it made the whole place hot. Yup, hot. Anyway, he ordered teriyaki yaki shoba, while I ordered shio yaki soba…. not realising that ONE serving serves two. OMG. My shio yaki soba was served first, and we were shocked by the huge serving. The other yaki soba was already being fried up, so we had no choice but to ask to pack the other portion as a takeaway, which we eventually gave to the Mume staff. But man, the yaki soba WAS SO GOOD. It was THE BEST yaki soba I’ve ever had, and I’m not even kidding.

Finally we dragged our big bellies back to Mume, not forgetting to drop in the nearby Family Mart to get my favourite Strawberry Mixed Veggies Juice (I’ve been drinking it almost every day while I was in Japan, because vegetables were so scarce there in their dishes!) to drink while working away on my emails and invoices at night in the hotel room. Yup, I was working the moment we stepped back to the hotel room every night, only taking breaks to shower and work again till my mind’s too tired to continue. Bruno on the other hand, was just playing Steam games on his laptop. What did you think we were doing back in the hotel room, eh? 😉

Japan Trip 2016 Day 8 (20th Dec 2016)

20th December was our second last day in Japan, and the last full day we had in Japan. We did not plan for much, except for a trip to Kokedera (Moss Temple), which was on Bruno’s bucket list. This was a very difficult place to go – both in getting the admission ticket and getting there. To be admitted into Kokedera, one needs to write in an application 3 months prior to the date you wanted to go, and send it together with a return postcard. It was such a complicated process and requiring a Japanese address while at it, that we gave up trying to attempt on our own and asked Hotel Mume to assist. They were such darlings as usual, and had long since helped us sent in application requests, without even asking us for postage cost reimbursements or anything like that.

We woke up a little late for the day because we really did not have enough sleep for almost the entire trip. We ended up almost rushing, almost skipping breakfast, before we decided to settle for a quick brunch at McDonalds’. I ordered their BBQ Pork Burger (you can never have PORK burger here in Singapore) and it was pretty good. Anyway I almost lost my temper with Bruno while deciding for brunch.. lol. He observed that I tend to get really easily irritated when I’m stressed. Which is… pretty accurate.

Anyway we reached Katsura station in time, but we couldn’t figure out really which bus to take from there. We gave up and decided to go for taxi instead. I don’t remember the exact price, but I didn’t really care that much anyway. I’ve got quite a lot of Japanese Yen left anyway, and it wasn’t advisable to be late for Kokedera, definitely not after we went through so much pain to get the visit permit. It was slightly drizzling when we reach – but not very heavy anyway.

We got into Kokedera at 1pm, as per our permit. We were first asked to show our permit, then register and pay the steep admission fees, and then our group was being led into a hall, where we had to sit on the floor in very tight space, watching them perform some rituals and chants. Then, we were given wooden bookmarks, where we would use the brush next to the tables to ink our wishes on one side, and ink our names/country on the other. So interesting. I wrote mine in Mandarin! LOL, just for the sake of writing kanji on the bookmarks. I don’t even remember what I wrote now – but hopefully it’ll come true! After that, we were allowed to roam freely in the garden – no time limit. Or at least until the garden is close for the day, that is.

The moss temple was not exceptionally big, but very meticulously maintained. Good walking trails, coupled that with a very small exclusive group at each timing – it was a very enjoyable walk in the moss garden. It was unfortunate that most of my pictures were overexposed, but nevertheless it was a good, relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Some pictures here, but you can find most of them in the Flickr link below this entry.

We also managed to catch TWO FULL BLOOM sakura trees within the temple grounds! In December, no less! Are we lucky or what? <3

After Kokedera, we took the bus right back to Kyoto station, where we went for KatsuGyu again! This time, we ordered the most expensive set – wagyu! I tell you… after you ate the wagyu, you will never order the regular/cheapest set again. That’s how good katsu-wagyu is… I totally miss this. Would totally fly to Kyoto to eat this again… as well as the Yoshinoya breakfast set!

After the late lunch / early dinner, we went to Kyoto Station to buy some omiyage to bring back to Singapore. We then went up the escalators in the station, and saw that there’s a huge Christmas tree there, with some lighting show going on. We lingered a bit, before proceeding further up to the sky garden. It was such a tranquil view, overlooking the whole of Kyoto.

Reluctantly, we headed back to the hotel to pack as we needed to wake up really early the next day to catch Haruka Express to KIX airport for our flight home.

Japan Trip 2016 Day 9 (21st Dec 2016)

We woke up like… at 4am? Checked out at about 5am, while the Mume staff called a taxi for us to go to Kyoto Station. In the meantime, they passed us their home made bread, specially baked earlier for us to bring along! They even put it in a Moomin paper bag! Awwww… That’s so sweet of them, really. We bought some hot coffee from the vending machines at the train platform, and ate the buns in the train.

And guess what? I finally bought a nice set of 5 pairs of chopsticks… from the airport (in the transit area too). What a waste of time hunting for them in Kyoto… lol.