Central Japan Trip (25 Apr'07 - 2 May'07)
We're back from our Japan trip, refreshed and happy with what we saw and experienced! Yes, Japan is a very nice country to visit and I enjoyed every moment of our 7D6N trip. As always, holidays are never enough :) Anyway, just like to share a bit of what we saw/experienced in the land of all things kawaii and lovely...
Day 1: Depart from SG to Osaka via SQ morning flight. We arrived in the late afternoon and our tour group (consisting of 13 of us) were scooted off to Shinsabashi, a well-known shopping district. It's a long promenade of shops selling clothes, shoes, etc. Daimaru, Takashimaya, Sogo were all located there as well. Hello Kitty shop spotted along the way too :) After some shopping, we had our first Japanese dinner at a restaurant in Shinsaibashi. Very good first meal, given we were pretty hungry! Finally after that, we checked into Osaka Plaza hotel for a good night's rest. Check out the toilet seat..so cool! It has a seat warmer control and butt washer where you can adjust the water pressure..haha..very cool :)
Day 2: Universal Studios Japan in the morning, Kobe City in the evening. Yup, in the morning we headed to the theme park for all the rides and fun. In Japan, they are more crazy about Hello Kitty and even Snoopy, so these merchandise were quite present everywhere. Some of the rides we took included Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Back to the Future, Backdraft, etc. The performance show WaterWorld and the parade of stars on the floats were all quite entertaining as well.
After shopping around, we were taken to Kobe City for a walk around, dinner and a view of the night scene before heading back to the hotel.
Day 3: Osaka Castle, then headed to Kyoto using the Shinkansen (Bullet Train). We started off the morning with a visit to Osaka Castle, though we did not actually enter the castle. After that, our tour group took the bullet train to Kyoto train station (the ride was only 20mins) and had some free time shopping at their underground shopping area + lunch. After that, our sightseeing began and we visited 2 well-known shrines. The first was Heian Shrine and the second was Kiyomizu Temple.
The day ended when we checked in to our first onsen (hot spring) resort for the night and also dinner. Here's where we had to sleep on the tatami flooring and had very Japanese style dinner sitting on tatami as well. Quite a cultural experience indeed. What's more, we both tried out using the hot spring (seperate for males & females) where you had to be totally naked! Quite nervous...hehe...Lucky when I went, no one else was around :P
Day 4: Checked out of onsen resort, headed towards Mt. Fuji. This morning, spotted a sakura tree outside the hotel area. It was a lovely sight to see the flowers drifting in the wind. The rest of the day was spent travelling towards the 5th base station at Mt Fuji, with toilet stops and lunch breaks in between. The rest stops in Japan are really so clean and they've got shops selling lots of stuff too. Interesting :) We tried some grilled unagi in teriyaki sauce and also bought some nice, big, sweet strawberries which were in season. Nice! Well, unfortunately we could not go up to the Mt Fuji 5th station due to the snow up there. It was also cloudy and rainy where we were. We had no choice but to head back to our second onsen resort to retire for the day. Another night of tatami and Japanese style dinner.
Day 5: View of Mt. Fuji, then Yokohama and Tokyo. This morning, we were really blessed with terrific weather after the rain and cloudiness the previous day. Clear blue skies meant we could see Mt. Fuji. The tour guide thus took us to a picturesque spot at Lake Kawaguchi to get a view of the volcanic mountain... That really made our day :) Here's our favourite photo of the trip.
The rest of the day seemed to have passed by quite quickly. In the morning we saw Mt. Fuji and before we know it, we were in Yokohama (which is very near Tokyo) shopping, eating and looking around. The main thing we saw there was this Cosmos World which was some outdoor theme park with a huge ferris wheel. Other than that, nothing much. We then ended up in Tokyo in the late afternoon where we had time to catch sight of Tokyo Tower (to me, can't compare to Paris Eiffel Tower) before shopping around in Shinjuku. After a group dinner there, we headed back to the hotel to rest for the night.
Day 6: Tokyo Disneyland + Free & Ez shopping time. We went to Disneyland in the morning and already the renowned theme park was packed with lots and lots of tourists, including Japanese! Not the best day to go to Disneyland indeed. We were partially affected by Japan's Golden Week holiday I guess. Anyway, we tried to play some of the rides but some queues were way too long that we gave up. Even with Fast Pass, some adventures had to keep you waiting 4 hours plus! It was crazy. Well, we enjoyed what we could, queued to have a photo with Mickey Mouse, and left the place some time after lunch for shopping in Tokyo city - Shibuya. Lots of fashionable (but also expensive) clothes, shoes and bags. I wonder where the Jap teens get all the money! Food is quite affordable though. So that was good :) That's it for the day.
Day 7: Asakusa Temple + Ginza shopping. This marks the last day of our trip. In the morning after checking out, we were brought to another of Japan's famous temple, Asakusa Temple. Here's where we had a group shot taken (1 of the families is not in. They were pretty weird and aloof so did not even bother to join us in the photo-taking). There's also a street with 2 sides sold many lovely souvenirs and gifts. Some last minute shopping here! After which, we were taken to Ginza area for some final shopping (more of all the branded stuff) and lunch. With a bit more shopping after lunch, it was time to say Sayonara.... Off to the airport to wait for our flight back to Singapore....
Well, that about wraps up our Japan trip. I really liked the place for its cleanliness, orderliness, very good service culture and great food. Looking forward to another Japan trip perhaps next year? Hokkaido maybe...Haha..anyway, that's for us to dream for now.... Back to Singapore, back to reality!
