Journey to Japan (Japan Trip - part 1)

Konnichiwa!

I'm back from awesome 10 days in Japan.  At first I only know everyone said that Japan is really good, everything there is better. Japan's food is to die for. At first I don't really get them, what's is good about seeing some shrines/temple. When I googled Japan tourist places, only temples all came out. And I'm not really into Japanese fashion, so I wasn't that excited to go to Japan and actually I even only do the itinerary very last minutes, like 3 days before. I didn't plan to buy much thing and just want to go there to eat.

We went there all by our self, no travel service, We're really against travel, we I just don't get the idea to wake up really early in the morning and sit on the bus/coach for a long time, and they bring you to the place that you have no interest, and just be there for a while, only enough to take photos and then must rushed back to go to other places, the worst is the one with provided meal, even you can't choose what you want to eat?! That's like taking my human right away. NO to travel!! Just do some research and you'll survive. We survived even we talk zero Japanese.

We didn't bring so much money, we only bring S$1,500 for our pocket money (excluding plane tickets and hotels). Oh forgot to mention. The reason we go to Japan is because Scoot had a very cheap promo, S$650 for 2 ways ticket Sg-Tokyo for 2 persons! Who can say no. Even if you never intended to go to Japan, just buy the ticket and think later. I bought the ticket since November last year.

We book the hotels via booking.com. Tips: do your booking early, because most of the not expensive and strategically located hotel sold out very fast. We ended up with not so much selection. I think it's because April is the time when everyone all around the world go to Japan to see sakura.

The Journey
The flight is 8 hours with 1 stop over at Taipei. And it's red-eye flight, so mostly We slept all the way on the plane. The aircraft itself is very big, 3 rows seating 3-4-3. We only bought the fly+bag. So we didn't get any meal on board. But don't worry, you still can purchase the meal on board ($18 for a-not-delicious-plane-meal-i-think-i-will-skip).

When we reached Taipei, it's 5am in the morning, all the shops at the airport still close. There's free wifi at the airport. We just walk out from the plane, go to toilet (their toilet is awesome, even they have shower cubicle) then walk through security check and go to our gate. By the time we reached the gate, they already invite us to board the plane again. Tips: Bring an empty water bottle and fill it from the water fountain at Changi waiting room. There's water dispenser at Taipei Airport too, for your water supply for the next 4 hours.

And the journey continue….

Arrived at Narita Airport
Narita Airport is just a normal airport, still cannot beat Changi Airport. The immigration queue is super long because we arrive together with other plane from South Korea. First thing we do when we arrived is looking for food go to JR Office and exchange our JR Pass Voucher with actual pass and book the Narita Express and Shinkansen to Kyoto. All tickets business is done, then it's time for breakfast. I'm super hungry until almost fainted. There isn't much options for food around, and we only had 20 mins to eat, so we just walk to the nearest store, it happened to be Doutor (just find out that they have one outlet in Singapore, at Marina Bay Financial Centre). They only sell sandwiches and coffee. My plan to have a fulling beef bowl breakfast failed.

first meal in Japan! Amazed by the green tea latte.

And the "Free & Easy Difficult" journey begin…

We head down to the platform and wait for the Narita Express which will take us to Shinagawa Station. From Shinagawa then we board the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Sounds easy peasy, i imagined it's like from changi, then change line at tanah merah and continue the journey. We just wait for a while then a train approaching. We quickly prepare to board the train, and when we're already inside we panicked because we cannot find our seat even though we're inside the correct car (compartment). Then after a while the train stopped. Everyone going down, while our brain still try to digesting, what's happening here. Then a cleaning aunty go in and we show her our ticket. With some body language and japanese words that we cannot understand she told us that we board the wrong train. The train tab we boarded is going to Terminal 1. And I was like what?! How come? We were at the correct platform. And that time I realized that the Japan train is super duper punctual. There is no train that comes too early, even 1 minute early.

while waiting for the train, take photos!!

Pretty tumbler from Starbucks at the Airport, they have tumbler from all city in Japan.
Buy now! You won't find Osaka tumbler in Tokyo. They only sell Osaka tumbler in Osaka.

 All printed in special paper, either got hologram pattern or in gold foil
 

The Japan Airport special edition only being sold at the Airport

inside Narita Express

the have luggage storage

Onigiri from Narita Express pushcart

No need to worry, luckily we got the JR Pass, all trains expenses had been paid. Just need to go to the nearest JR office and book for the next train.

Long story cut short, we finally arrived safe and sound at Shinagawa station. And rushed to the Shinkansen platform. The first thing that caught me is everyone dressed in suit, black suit and tie. Everyone, young and old. Are they going to some party? And the ladies mostly wear neutral color, like khaki, white, dark blue, grey. I didn't see anyone in red, lime green, shocking pink or tiffany blue. And I was like wearing red sweater and carrying red luggage. Totally wrong dress code, guess i didn't get the memo.

all wearing black or neutral color

Enough about the fashion report, here comes the train. We were amazed by the Shinkansen, and really want to see how's inside look like. We were inside the correct car, and try to find our seat. nut someone already sitting on our seat, never mind, there're still another empty seats. When we still think how to put the luggage, I heard the announcement in english, say more or less like this "Welcome to shinkansen blablabla heading to Yokohama". Oh my, wrong train again. And this time is shinkanshen, I don't think we can change to another train that easy. Don't panic, I just show the ticket to the officer, and he just tell me to change on the next station. Let's hope the next station is not too far.

Luckily this train go to the same direction and our "correct train" will make a brief stop at the same station. Lucky us. Lesson learned. This time we really looks closely at our watch and the train name and number. Apparently in Japan, one platform can be used for several train and several destination. (orang kampung).

Out lunch on the Shinkansen, Omurice which taste just normal.

After 2 hours+ journey and 2 bento boxes, we finally reached at Kyoto Station. We quickly go to our hotel, which is 4 stops away from Kyoto Station. No more wrong train this time.

Ishiyama Station

View from top

The Hotel
We stayed at Reiah Hotel Otsu Ishiyama. We booked from bookings.com It's very near from Ishiyama station. Just 3 mins walk. This hotel is quite new, so everything still in good conditions. Totally recommended. But if you have more budget, you better stay near Kyoto station, it's more convenient at that area to go around Kyoto.

Out tiny hotel room. But it's super clean!

Tiny bath tub, but I can fit in with leg fully stretched. Perks being short.

morning view from the hotel's restaurant

They give complimentary breakfast!! Even if the menu is same everyday, i don't mind at all! Who doesn't love Japan's rice?? And the eggs, super yellow!!

Dinner Time!!
Finally it's dinner time! the time that I've been waiting for. Time to have a proper meal. We just go around the hotel neighborhood, and discover that there're 3 conbini (convenient store) and lots of eating houses. We cannot decide and just randomly go to a yakitori restaurant beside the hotel.

The Yakitori Restaurant

hungry face

Yakitori a la carte menu. No, I can't read it

I wanted to just randomly order the items, choose one each.

But then they offered us set menu, which is 2000jpy/pax. Still dunno what are we going to eat

Frist meal is salad. And it's so freaking nice!!! The vegetables are super fresh!! Even the red pepper taste super crispy and sweet.. OMG, if I know Japan's food is this good I would totally go to Japan from long time ago.

Second dish is tako salad, sotong's big brother is on the plate. The octopus is not hard at all, it's tender and juicy. Realy, i'm not exaggerating.

Next is the main star, yakitori!! The chicken thigh really nice, you don't want to eat Tori-Q anymore. My standard for yakitori has changed from this moment.

Next dish is some chicken part i guess?? My tummy is full already. This one is also nice, i like the sauce, it's savory with a bit of spiciness from pepper. But really i don't know what kind of meat is that, tasted a bit hard to chew.

next is chicken bone. they said it's chicken bone, but how come chicken bone tasted like pork ribs??? how do they do it?! This is my favorite dish so far..

And there's still omelette, omg my tummy gonna explode soon... but it's freaking nice, I cannot skip. Eat while in Japan..

Last one is clear soup with some fried cake. The soup is clear but it's full of taste. Very refreshing.

Finish already? No dessert for me? Are you sure? The 2000 jpy meal was totally worth. And probably it was the best meal we had in Japan.

After eat until our tummy nearly explode, we go to find some dessert to nearby konbini (convenient store). There are 3 konbini near our hotel, 7-eleven, family mart and lawson. We literally go there every night without fail, during our stay in Kyoto.

always amazed by all the frozen food

Dessert!!!!

drinks!!!!

And this is the end of our long day. See you in the next post.... There's still many more to come... Stay tuned!! I'll try my best to blog more...