Osaka 201603

Exchange rate: 100 yen to S$1.24

Touch down at airport 
We touched down n was following the signs to the train station. And wham! We hit outdoor and the wind is blowing! So cold!! Ok la cross a bridge and we reached the train station le BUT e train station also v cold. :’) Bought our Nankai train tix at 920 yen. This train took us to Tengachaya where we have to exit the train station and buy a subway tix. There gt wind while we buying subway tix! V cold again!! Hahah … Heng when we reach Kitahama; Daiwa Roynet Osaka-Kitahama hotel is like a stone’s throw away from the subway exit 6. 

Our hotel is amazing! Upon checking in, they ask us take a bag of toiletries each. Inside gt bath salt, hair band, hair clip, cotton pads and I can’t rem what else. They also gave us 2 different flavours of drip coffee. When we asked what’s e diff, the recept says they have different taste. Laugh die us. 

Room is abit small Cuz 1 luggage open near e bed while 1 luggage open at e open closet area. 

Bathroom is surprisingly decent size and is spotless clean!

 

Hehe as expected frm all Jap hotels, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, slippers, shampoo, conditioner n shower foam all provided. But no body lotion haha Am I asking too much?

However, they did exceed expectations when they provide….

A charger for different phone types!

After we checked in, we went to 7-11! Hahha I bought this cheese baked pasta tat jz taste awesome and 1 stick of oden Hahha so Shiok! And they helped us microwave wan. no nd to figure out how to use the microwave.

Our connectivity
Our pururu (mobile wifi device) is supposed to b delivered between 10 and 12.

So we decided to sleep in abit since. Such good slp! When I wake up… It’s 9.30am liao. Then PL n I brushed teeth n dress up then we called e other 2 girls and they bestest Hahh they jz woke up :’) Anyway we offered to help them buy breakies. Hahaha breakies is frm… 7-11! Hahah I had a mentaiko Onigiri which is like a bit spicy so v Shiok. 

By the time we reached back hotel at ard 10.30am, our pururu arrived le! Power!

It comes with charger for the device, simple instructions on how to on it and a return envelope for us to post it back when we r done. Costs us 6588yen for 9 days and 10gb of data. PL keep worrying abt exceeding the data -.-||

Anyway, the setup of pururu is super idiot proof. Jz on e device, and on Ur phone’s wifi then connect n key in password and we r gd to go! The connection seldom drop; quite stable n fast! All 4 of us are usually connected to the mobile wifi.

The device can really last 1 full day out even with 4 devices connected to it. Normally we leave hotel ard 8,9 am and returned ard 10pm . By then, the device will be flashing low batt. Apparently this is quite an impt consideration cuz another fren was telling me theirs only lasts half a day so they nd to bring mobile charger out.

Kyoto – Friday 26 Feb 2016
We set off for Kyoto from Daiwa Roynet Osaka-Kitahama which is like 10 min walk frm the Kitahama station of Keihan Railway. This is awesome cuz we r lugging our luggage to Kyoto and to move the luggage frm subway to train is gonna be tedious.

Keihan railway took us to Shichijo station which is a gd 15 min walk away to Ryokan Shimizu, our stay for 1 night. 

Ryokan Shimizu is down this quiet alley; almost like their residential area. Gd thing is there is a big sign telling us its Ryokan Shimizu. Check in is at 4pm so off we go to buy our bus passes and have lunch. Kyoto has this 1-day bus that has unlimited rides for 500 yen. 1 bus ride cost 220 yen.

Lunch is some japanese pasta which aren’t v nice. Then we go Fushimi Inari Taisha by JR as recommended by our ryokan host. Only 2 stops away and cost 140 yen. VERY touristy haha the place is packed.

This is the famous red gate of Kyoto and yeap 人山人海。

It was with great difficulty to take this shot haha. Like just so happen at that instant no one and i jz snap liao

I didnt really like this temple cuz there are just too many ppl and dun have the zen feeling. TL said there is no tranquility of e temple feel. We are in and out of this attraction in 40 min.

Our next temple is Kiyomizu for sunset! This is the entrance to Kiyomizu.

Like look the same as Fushimi hor but its a totally different feel here. The grounds here like more spacious; not so overcrowded feel le. We have to climb up a flight of stairs to this deck where there are ppl selling those talisman.

My colleague was there for autumn in November and the whole deck was filled with ppl haha.. From the deck, we walked to this bridge that has a perfect view of the sun and the temple. 

Totally love the framing of the barren trees too. haha… And I felt so lucky! We really did saw a perfect sunset that day. the round round salty egg and no fog at all.

After the sun sets, we descend towards the exit and pass by another small shrine with a very nice skies as background.

Frm this shrine here look over to the main shrine and with the orangey sunlight, the leaves look… pink! 😀

Our descend seems v long haha but we pass by tis very beautiful place too. Everybody was just walking pass but no one stop to look at the place. Only when I stopped, then the ppl behind also stop to snap pic haha

hahah After descending for so long, we finally reached the exit hahah and just nice they started to make public announcements that they are closing le. After you left the temple, there is this row of shops which are also closing le. But we saw this Hello kitty shop and I almost bought like the whole shop. Everything in there is so kawaii!

From Kiyo-mizu, we took a bus to Gion. We asked the directions from the Hello kitty shop and with the help of Google maps, we got on the right bus! Gion was…. quite a disappointment. It didnt have the rustic look that I had in mind. In fact, it looked very commercialised. There is no tall buildings just 1 street of mayb 15 min walk frm end to end. This street of shops have been renovated to have a blend of traditional Japanese architecture with the modern looks.

This main street branch out into small streets. These small streets still retain the old ryokan’s looks. I think these are night activities streets. Saw quite a few cars with darkened screens drove past. There were a few tourists milling around like us; hoping to catch a glimpse of geishas. Lol… Sadly we didnt get to see any. And we purposely chose to come Kyoto on Friday hoping to see more actions along this Gion street. :p

After wandering a while, we decide to go look for Gon Bei which is supposedly famous for soba and udon. We walked into the street that houses this Gon Bei through the help of Google map. Haha so we r like peering at our screen and following the blue dot then the blue dot says we walked past Gon Bei. Then we retrace our steps still no see so in the end I used the street view feature of Google Map to find the place. This is when I realised the dark dark doorway of the shop we stopped in front is Gon Bei le! hahah

But this Gon Bei is…. jialat. First when we are seated, we requested for English menu. The waiter already brought along a Chinese menu when sitting us so he asked us “Chinese ok?” This already surprised me cuz Japanese are usually bent over backwards accommodating. Anyway, we tried reading the Chinese menu and the translation is like jz weird la. So we gave up and asked for English menu again. 

The food… mine is like the all-in claypot soba. Not very nice. The soba soaked up the juices v fast so became v soggy. I tried the duck soba of the rest and it was better tho jz normal. All the bowls of udon/soba there are rather salty.

Here comes the amazing part. When we r done w our noodles, they start clearing the table le. Its like almost immediate after we r done. So I sorta get the hint. As we drink our tea, I glanced up and told my frenz “wah I nvr felt prettier! so many pairs of eyes on me!” haha They r like using their eye power to chase us out of the restaurant.

K then its time to call it a night hehe and we … horland on the way back to our ryokan. Board the wrong bus haha heng PL’s 6th sense v strong and we checked the Google map to found that we veered off track le :p

A shot of Kyoto tower on our way back! I like the seeing double part :p

Kyoto – Saturday 27 Feb 2016

Rise and shine to… Check out! then Nishiki Market! Took bus from a bus stop that is like 7 min walk frm our ryokan. But once again, we tink we horland so… we got off abit earlier and walked like 10 min to the market haha… 

We are pretty early so not much ppl yet.

Nishiki Market is slightly different from Kuromon Market in terms of merchandise. Kuromon market is more touristy so sell more sashimi, sea urchin, scallops etc. Nishiki sells more dried goods, less live seafood.

The most surprising thing we had here shld be warm senpei ie rice crackers haha…. Warm rice crackers are quite shiok in the cold weather sia and they taste more flavourful and more crunchy!

And the most “expensive” food should be the 700 yen tamago that we were all attracted to. hahah …

They were making the tamago at the shopfront so we got hooked.

Hahah we had quite a few “snacks” here. Like a super yummy warm onigiri which TL then bought the rice home, green tea rice cake, black sugar donuts, grapefruit juice, preserved cucumbers i dunno if got forget anything :p

After Nishiki, we went back to hotel check out, took our luggage to Kyoto station and stored them at the luggage deposit there; costs us 420 yen per piece till 8pm that day.

Then its onwards to Arashiyama! We took the train to Arashiyama and reached at 1.15pm. Quite a walk frm the train station to the tourist area; but ok la. Just follow the crowd and check against Google map. 

The Arashiyama area is quite a big area. Tho its meant to be a tourist area, but the feeling is not as bad as Fushimi. Along the roads, there r small shops selling croquette, ice cream and…. my favourite dessert! haha

But I prefer those with the strawberry encapsulated inside wan haha then I wun end up eating them separately haha.. The streets in Arashiyama is not as commercialised as Gion’s. Still can see nice Japanese style houses.

Our first stop is the bamboo forest! Haha its…. smaller than expected. The open area to the public is more like a garden. At the entrance, there is a sign to say no bicycles allowed in the bamboo grove. but….. rickshaw can come in?

1 rickshaw come in and we all hav to stand aside le cuz the pathway doesnt really allow us to walk alongside the rickshaw. My very obedient travelmates hehe

1 round ard along with all e jump shots n photo shoots took us no more than 30 min ba. We then exited to the grove to go Tenryuji temple. Along the way, we saw this crowded tiny temple. 

I went to read the description. Its a princess temple. The olden day emperor will send their single daughters here to pray or something. So its something like a 姻缘 place. TL went to check out the tailsman store and we realised… that the boy selling the tailsman quite cute! hahah…. Oops… :p Naturally all of us bought 1 tailsman here. hehe

Tenryuji Temple is not just 1 temple. It actually consists of some small alcoves, big garden, lake and ya of course some temples haha…

1 small and peaceful alcove and yeap there was no one.

There are the first blossoms of sakura liao. Like the random 1 or 2 trees.

There was this guy wearing orange and reading this sign in front of this temple. So PL and another person was waiting for him to read finish then take pic of the temple. The orange guy read finish and… sat on e front steps of the temple hahaha

So i jz took the side view in the end. Bought tix to enter the garden. Here is the big lake!

V scenic hehe… Walked right in and there is this flight of steps to go through the garden. I think in spring, this will b a very pretty garden with lotsa flowers.

At the top of this stairs, u can see the panorama view of the place.

And yea! got 2 trees with sakura le! hehe Secretly took the back shot of the tourists dressed in kimonos :p

Their hair are done up so nicely! haha… 

And then i see my own pic and… i tink… ok la my hair also quite nice! hahah

Lol… We finish touring the garden went out to enter another part of the temple and… nd to take off shoes n wear their slippers! urgh… Alot of temples require you to take off shoes and I was in my high cut sneakers. So its tough to remove and tough to put on zzz… And their slippers dun look… sanitised wan hahah so A was saying come Kansai area must cfm wear socks otherwise u sharing slippers with strangers liao lol….

This is like the walkway of the temple.

One side of the walkway has new scenery.

The other side oversees the sakura tree that we pass by just now.

There is another famous sight at Arashiyama: 度月桥. 

Mayb cuz its still end winter, i tot it looks pretty barren. Its quite windy and with some drizzle here so we were abit cold. Brr…. This area has quite a few stalls selling those triangular pancake with fillings. I tasted 1 chocolate one and its not bad so I bought 2 as gifts. I forgot to check expiry. haha Japanese snacks has no preservatives and this kind of freshly made stuff dun last long. So the stuff I bought expired on the day i touch down in SG. I… jz ate them myself then haha…

Our dinner was at Hirokawa along the stretch of Arashiyama shops. The place opens at 5pm and we reached at 5pm on the dot. Its already full house le! Our waiting time was like 40 min so we jz wait lo and i fell asleep while waiting haha… nice nap. By the time we were seated at 5.45pm, its getting dark outside and the queue has extended to outdoor! There are ppl queuing in the cold!

The menu of this place is quite simple. Small, medium, or big eel. With set or without set. haha this was like our first proper meal of the day so I picked a medium one with set hehe… 3900 yen.

It tastes quite good. I like the sashimi there but A didnt like so I helped her finish haha… By the time we finish dinner, its totally dark liao. The sun sets close to 6pm.

Along the way back to the train station, we pass by these pillar lights.

This is at some quaint Arashiyama train station with sakura theme trains wan. Its not the station we arrive from. After some cuckoo pics here, we walked back to train station and take train back to Kyoto station to pick up our luggage and its back to Osaka lo!

Nara – Sunday 28 Feb 2016
Today we go Nara, which is like 50 min away from Osaka! Saw this teacher bringing a grp of girls to e park. The girls were like so excited at e deer coming to them. The teacher was in suit and kinda cute :p The kids are like really excitedly scared abt the deers hahah … and so is A!

We bought biscuits to feed the deers and this 1 deer was rather aggressive. Keep biting at A’s jacket hahah

TL is like super pro at feeding the deers. Still can ask them to nod first!

The deers are all free roaming but the males have their antlers sawed off. This is good cuz some of them will head butt the people wan.

Hahah the kids there are so daring. They dare to go feed the deers. I try to stand far far away during feeding haha…

Its quite amazing… They can roam anywhere! There is no cordon or enclosure.

‘

This is at the entrance leading to Todaiji.

 

With so many deers free roaming ard, i do wonder if they will run onto the roads anot. :p

This is the external gate of Todaiji. Really looks very old. When we are standing there, this gate feels huge.

 

Todaji require a ticket to enter.

The size of the buddha is the uniqueness of the place; guess that why all the dimensions are listed on the ticket. The Buddha statue is really gigantic! It feels like its 3-4 storeys high. I didnt take any pics of the Buddha statue. There is this pillar in the temple and there is a hole in the pillar and kids are like climbing through the hole and take pics. haha I wonder if … there is any significance to it.

 

See the long queue behind? That’s the queue to go into this hole. Weird eh?

After Nara, we went to Osaka castle. We reached there close to 4pm. And there seem to be a Minion event there hahah We saw alot of girls and families dressing up in the Minion costume!

Like so cute right! hahah We shld hav more of such events in Singapore. They will look so cute! But most prob the humidity and heat will shagged out the participants liao haha….

Anyway back to Osaka castle, entrance fee is 600 yen.

The interior has totally been renovated to become a museum. So only the exterior looks like a castle. Inside is just different levels of the shogun history. Cuz we not familiar with the history so its not v interesting to me hahah

There is lookout area at the topmost level. And we saw the minion activity!

hehe another angle from the lookout area!

I didnt really blogged much abt food for this trip cuz I find Osaka food so so only. In fact, quite a few things r rather salty. So anyway, tonight we have 1 of the better meals! Yakiniku M! Grill beef slices ~

It’s a very tiny entrance behind Houzenji temple hahaha see how the entry can only stand 2 ppl.

We actually got a room to ourselves! So cool right and there is a cupboard to store our coats and bags to prevent them from smelling like our beef.

Our waitress was a Caucasian. Think she is on her gap year and from UK. She recommended us to take the platter so we can try a variety of the meats.

We have to cook the meat ourselves but its very easy cooking cuz the beef slices are of the just nice thickness. PL likes her meat very cooked while TL likes her medium rare just like me! Then A didnt really like e fatty bits which I love! So all is well!

The beef is really those melt in mouth kind. Totally not tough. Each of us got 2 slice for every kind of the beef. I tot the meal is v good but after we finish eating A commented that the meat is abit gelat for her cuz of all the fats haha oops.

This platter of meat came w a bowl of veggies which we can grill too.

This meal is of course not cheap. Came up to 36514 yen. hahah… but ok la really melt in the mouth kind of beef. yums! 

Himeiji Castle – Monday 29 Feb 2016

Today we finally had a proper breakies! Haha at 松屋 n I blur blur order a bigger set haha… cuz I scared the default set doesnt come with rice. :p All I can say is…. I m sufficiently fed! 

Himeiji is quite far away; close to 2 hour train ride so yippeee we can slp :p From the Himeiji train station, we still have to take a bus to go to the castle. This bus is apparently not covered under the Kansai Through Pass so we gotta pay separately. 😦

Himeiji castle grounds are rather big. Its not just the park that is big but they retained quite abit of the castle so it sprawled over quite a big area as compared to the Osaka castle.

At this very scenic viewpoint to capture the castle with the barren branches, this obasan is standing there while her husband is figuring out how to use e camera -.-|| totally inconsiderate i tell u

Himeiji castle is so much nicer than osaka castle. It’s like a proper castle with e interior wooden kind. This is the walk way leading up to the castle. Quite authentic looking eh?

The structure n all reminds me of Chillon castle at Montreux. Guess all castles look alike? Within the castle there are rather steep stairs. So we get to climb all the way up to see this view of the Himeiji town. 

I must say it look quite nice with the mountains as the backdrop.

Now the stairs that we climb up (and down) are no ordinary steep. I really have to hold on to the rails to come down. Saw some old ppl w walking canes; I wonder how they did it. 

I think the going up n down the stairs were hindered by the fact that we were wearing slippers. At the entrance of the castle, we have to change our shoes to slippers. There are some parts of going down the stairs that A and I took off slippers to walk down hehe…

There was this big field right in front of the castle thats very good for…

jump shots! heheh… 

We were waiting for the other 2 girls who went to the Ladies. Then this gate keeper tapped me on my shoulders and act out camera action. He then took the camera from me and helped PL and me took this pic. I was jin amazed la! The framing is so good! OK i got double chin but well… thats not his fault. 

After A and TL came out of the Ladies, I insisted on helping them take the same angle haha So funny…

We bought the combined castle and this Koko-En garden tix, after the castle, we went to the garden. It was a short 5 min walk away but the wind was like so strong and I was so coldddd brrr…

I tink its worth it tho. Its a pretty quaint garden. Not very big but there is those tiny lake and I can so imagine sakura filling up this garden in a few wks or so.

 

This is more zen than the Fushimi Inari temple lo! hahah mayb cuz there were like only a handful of visitors besides us hahaha

We can start seeing some blooms of sakura le. I totally ❤ how the sunset light up the flowers in such a soft romantic tone.  

A actually asked all of us to take pic next to a red sakura tree and she said everyone take and she will make a collage of it. And… she really did! I didnt even know she got collage making app hahah She so dislike taking pics wan. :p

 

The garden is our last stop of the day and its time for us to take the close to 1.5hr hour journey back to Osaka lo!

Universal Studios – Tuesday 1 Mar 2016

We chose Tuesday for Universal Studios cuz the Express 5 Pass for Monday is sold out. We arrived at Universal Studios at 9.15am or so and there was like a huge crowd at the gates le.

It’s mayhem there! There were different queues. 1 for those going to buy tix; 1 for those who purchase on internet; another long winding queue is for…. i dunno who too haha

At 9.30am, when gates open, they slowly stream ppl in. There were some hardcore Harry Potter fans who started running once they clear the gates haha… We see liao very stunned so we also moved towards Harry Potter world first even though our Express 5 pass will guarantee us entry at 1205hr. haha…

The walkway to Harry Potter world was done up very nicely. There is this row of coniferous trees that provided the feel….

 

And there was the car that Ron Weasley crashed! hahah There were this grp of Japanese girls in front of us taking pics and they were doing all the kawaii signs so…. TL and I also follow suit haha

There was no queuing or wat to enter the Harry Potter world so I asked the rest of the girls whats e Express pass for. They explained to me that they will stop entry if it gets too crowded inside.

The Harry Potter fans are really hardcore. I saw this guy in full wizard robes and with the hat at all.

Our first stop is at Ollivander’s shop. hehe it doesnt just sell wands; there’s a show!

haha Basically Ollivander is in and he picked someone from the crowd to find her wand. The girl he picked is dressed in the wizard robes too. And he start to ask her name, age etc and he will ask her in Japanese but will repeat the same qns in English. Then she tried 3 wands and there are flowers that wilt etc. haha At the end of e show, I saw the staff approaching this girl and start to sell her the wand that “chose” her. haha 1 wand is like 3000-4000 yen. The shop contains Harry’s, Dumbledore, Sirius, Voldemort’s wands.

The Hogwarts castle looks just like the one in the movie!

This pic is taken by… my iPhone haha… For daytime photography, iPhone really suffices. The castle contains the Harry Potter and Forbidden Journey ride. This is like THE ride for the Harry Potter world. The queueing time is like 120 min or so but we have Express 5 pass so we can go in at 1230hr without queuing.

There is a locker deposit area so we just lock all our bags away. Then we walked this stretch of pathway to the ride. This pathway is like amazing! They re-enacted the setup of Harry Potter. I am most impressed by the moving portraits. They dun look like screens at all. They really look like moving ppl on paper. So cool!

There were also various setup along this walkway which was like totally wow so in e end I walked abit slower to take it all in. Sure regret not having my camera/phone w me sia. But I scared it fell out during the ride ma. I dunno how is it like haha…

But A brought her iphone in! So I got this shot of the seats of the ride. haha

The most memorable part of the ride is when we were flying through the Quidditch field; we felt like we r dropping to the ground (or mayb we really are). And at this part the Snitch was like so close to us. I wanted to reach out and grab it BUT i was too scared so I was hanging on to my seat. Haha… Oh and the dialogue from Hermione and Harry Potter are all in Japanese. We were really quite impressed by the ride but it could have been better if the dialogue was in English. This should be the most scary 4D ride that we took that day.

Within the Harry Potter World, there is another ride named Flight of the Hippogriff which is a kiddy roller coaster. Very much like the Enchanted Airways in Universal Studios Singapore haha… I didnt want to take cuz…. I scared the cold winds on my face haha but the rest going so ok la go then. Turn out that the winds are not as biting cold as in my imagination tho as usual I screamed abit :p

This Harry Potter World is a shopping heaven for fans also. The night before I was telling A that she should bring a haversack then whatever she buy can stuff into bag and no nd carry many bags ard haha. Heng she did that lo! She really went mad and bought like 2,3 t-shirts for her family. haha All 4 of us got a scarf each and 3 of us immediately don it on! Haha…. 

The scarf costs like…. 5,300 yen :p But its really really v warm hahah 😀 I didnt take it off the whole day haha….

We tried the Butterbeer!

There is a cold one and a warm one but the weather is like so cold (< 6 degrees C) so we bought 1 cold and 1 warm haha…. They taste totally different can! The cold one is fizzy and tastes abit like Sarsi. The warm one is more buttery, more creamy and I prefer this but mayb cuz of the weather haha

There is no FireWhisky in Harry Potter World; they only sell normal beers. How can right! Like if totally no alcohol, I can understand but got beer no firewhisky sad 😦

There is this centrestage with various performances…

but…. there are nothing magical abt the performances hahah … Jz some twirling ard :p

There is even a white owl in that world. Really looks like Hedwig.

And of course we must have lunch at Three Broomsticks hahah the girls ordered pumpkin juice but it tasted rather normal haha… The staff here is like awesome cuz… 

She volunteered to help us take pic sia! haha… 

We finally left Harry Potter world at 2.30pm thats like 5 hrs there! We hardly queued for anything haha so mainly jz wander ard, shopping, photo taking haha… But its… difficult to leave when you see a storybook world comes to life 😀

Our next stop is the kiddos’ area. Got Hello Kitty, Charlie Brown and Sesame Street characters. I really like the mascots here. They are very playful! This Charlie Brown is just following the kid around and the kid is like leading him all over e place. The mother was looking abit paisey cuz we wanted to take pic w Charlie Brown but ok lei quite fun to see him play with the kid.

Then Bert was very naughty! He got a couple to do this pose with he himself standing right at the back.

Ernie wasnt ard then then… Bert signalled to the photographer asking her to snap when he sneak away! hahahha the poor couple!

Minion is quite a big thing in Japan so there is a shop just for minions and the cashiers r just… amazing

All of them are carrying the pony!! haha… Near the minion shop is the back to the future ride which is also a 4D ride. Being the scaredy cat I am, I was wondering how scary this ride will be. Then TL said “hmmm they allow wheelchair to sit so shld b ok”. After the ride…. i feel abit wobbly hahah but ok la its really less movements than the Harry Potter ride and less scary too hehe

Still a fun ride and part of our Express 5 Pass too! So no queuing required! hehe :p This Express 5 pass quite good; it really allows us to take more rides in a day. Our entrance fee is 7,400 yen then this Express 5 pass cost 5,200 yen. Pay $$ to save time hehe…

Our next ride is Spiderman! A’s fav superhero. This is the mildest 4D ride of all haha And v much like Singapore’s transformer ride. Got the spiderman jump on our ride and heat from the spurting fire kind. hehe

hehe another selfie after the ride! 

We went to watch a Terminator 3d show too but its mainly in Japanese and we not really into Terminator so in e end…. all of us fell asleep in the theatre hahah… tiring la. We woke up very early lei! haha

I saw Attack of the Titans poster but when I wanna go watch at like 5+pm, its close le! I very sad can! So in e end…. I… bought a titan charm hahahah…

Saw these lighted characters which is part of the Magical Starlight Parade. There was no parade on e day we go as its a Tuesday so the park closes at 7pm. Saw from their webby that the magical Starlight show only available at 8pm. Wonder if winter also hav? so colddddd brrrr…

As with Singapore’s Universal Studios, there is a souvenir shop near the exit as well for last min shopping and I tell u… they r good!

Instant noodles with spidey’s head as ingredients! Of course I didnt buy but i tink its super creative la! I tot this charm of spidey with takopachi also v gd hehe

And here are my loots frm USJ! I jz couldnt resist the Hello Kitty cuz its so colorful and cute tho it costs like 2,500 yen. hehe The cashier told me that it just arrived that day only awwwww

Arima Onsen – Wednesday 2 Mar 2016 –  Thursday 3 Mar 2016

As our trip is like 10 days, we decided to spend 1 day at an onsen area. So we travelled like 1.5 hr to Arima Onsen which is on the outskirts of Kobe liao. our last train is this very retro looking carriage …

and it has such cute seats!

This whole town is like 15 min walk from 1 end to the other end and its just for… onsen lo haha… This shld be the iconic bridge of the whole town le ba hahah

This is the front view of our onsen, Tocen Goshoboh! It’s an awesome onsen but their English over email is quite cmi. But when we arrive, the staff speaks quite good English lei. So weird.

Our room comes with complimentary drinks! TL’s limoncello was so strong that she choked on it oops… Tot limoncello is a digestive and meant for after meals.

Got cake!

 

Our “hi-tea” place is in a very quaint setting. Reminded me of Jay Chou’s song 不能说的秘密 

Our room is really huge! There is this living room area, a balcony like area and the sleeping area which doubles up as eating area as well.

We were really excited here and took like tons of pics ard the place! Guess where is where haha

 

We then changed into the yukata for dinner heheh and while waiting for dinner… more pics! hahahha

All settled in for dinner!

Our dinner is included in the onsen room; i tink this area is generally full board. We didnt see many restaurants in the town. The number of courses is jz staggering! We requested for dinner at 6pm thinking that it will b done by 8 and we can rest for an hr then go onsen at 9.

See the number of courses! And ya we had some atas beef again. The plate to cook the beef has many potholes in it. Then we were wondering how to clean it. Our serving staff told us that they will just pour hot water over it for the oil to surface up. lol….

In the end, we only completed dinner at like 8.30pm. hahah Leaving us half an hr to digest food only! Oops… haha

So anyway 9pm came and 1 staff came to lead us to the private open bath. Turns out that it is just vvvvv hot water cuz the water is clear wan. So after we soak a while we find our way to the onsen. hehe… And there was no one at the onsen! Wasnt too stinky tho the water is really murky and cuz its partially outdoor it was pretty dim. I was walking v slowly so that I wun fall down.

There is a low partition between male and female. As it was pretty dark, we didnt really venture out. After we left the onsen and finish showering then we realised that the area we huddled at was just the entrance to the onsen. Still far frm the partition hahah lol… oh well we shall soak again the nxt morning hehe…

During the onsen, A was wondering how are they going to get rid of the food smell and change our dining area to sleeping area. Haha when we are back, we just saw…

All rdy for us to roll in and no more food smell at all! Too bad we didnt see anyone ard so cannot ask how they did it hehe…

This is the slippers that was found in the room! I very amazed that their slippers got brand wan hahaha.. PL was like Renoma v atas? haha But I tot got brand already v atas liao haha

 

Eat full full then bathe onsen means v good to slp lo! heheh so we all turn in very early.

Early morn we woke up and we all go onsen at different timings hahah 不熟 hor… A and I went together tho. I still got 1 fren at least. Hehe… After onsen and it’s in-room breakfast!

And ya our beds disappear le. They folded everything and stuff into the cupboard lining the walls of the room.

After breakies, we checked out of our onsen resort. This wonderful onsen came at ….. 112,000 yen for all 4 of us but oh wells… it was a very comfortable and shiok stay.

Our resort still send us a van to fetch us to the cable car area to go up Mt Rokko. Ticket up Mt Rokko is not very cheap; it was like 1000+ yen per pax. Before going up, the cable car staff told us some garden terrace was closed but we tot the view very nice so still go up.

Go up liao…. actually… so-so only. And really everything is closed! haha no cafes; no souvenir shops nothing.

We wandered ard for a short while and gave it up as gone cause and came down the mountain le. Went to visit this waterfall that is a short walk away from the cable car station. hehe I think this waterfall nicer than Mt Rokko sia.

From this waterfalls, we called our resort who then sent the driver over again to bring us back. Hehe then it’s really time for us to leave this tranquil and relaxing place. 

Hotels

We stayed at 4 different places for our 10 nights stay in the Kansai area.

I really like Daiwa Roynet Osaka-Kitahama for the location and the super duper clean feeling it gave me. Room was comfortable and nice to slp as well. Very value for money.

Ryokan Shimizu at Kyoto was not too good. The bedsheets dun look very clean but the room is kinda dark so the stains r not very obvious. The public bath looks…. dirty hahah… and just too many restrictions. Will not come back.

Tocen Goshoboh is of course shiok for the pampering and relaxing it offer us just before we fly home. But naturally the price tag is pretty steep.

Hotel Kinki shld be the worst hotel; mayb cuz we stayed there e longest. No doubt it is dirt cheap at 6400 yen per room per night. But I rather pay more for a more decent room. Initially when I see the room, I tot e room size was a big problem. That was before i bathed! After I bathed, I realise the bathroom is really a big problem. Its so tiny that there is no way u can get dressed without ur clothes touching the bathtub or the toilet bowl. -.- We tried to upgrade to a bigger room but no rooms available. This is my 3rd trip to Japan and this smallness of the bathroom really put… small in a new perspective .

Train and subways cards

We only bought 2 cards.

First is Kansai Thru pass which cost 5,200 yen for 3 days. It’s supposed to allow us travel on all trains, subways and buses in Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe area. The only exclusion is we cannot take JR line with this pass. In the end we decided to use this pass for the days we go Himeiji and Arima Onsen.

For Himeiji, the 1-way train ride would have cost us 1500 yen. For Arima Onsen, our 1 way train ride cost us 1000 yen. So for the 3 days that we utilised the pass, Himeiji 2-way (3000 yen) + Arima Onsen 2-way (2000 yen) + subway in osaka when we returned from onsen (480 yen) = 5480 yen. We only save like 280 yen. I dun tink the savings justify the effort as google map generally provide JR line as travelling options so we nd to source for other lines. And at Arima Onsen, we found there is a bus that goes straight to Osaka but this Kansai pass doesnt allow us to board tis bus 😦

I tink this Kansai Thru pass will have more savings if we didnt plan to stayover at any places; just a day trip out. For eg, day trip to Himeiji (3000 yen) + day trip to Arima (2000 yen) + day trip to Nara (1500 yen) = 6500 yen. Then savings would be more substantial.

Second is ICOCA card. This card is a stored-value card so works like EZ-link. There is no savings as to whether u purchase tix everytime u take e train/subway or u use the ICOCA. It is just convenient lo; tap n go. ICOCA card can be purchased from the machines at JR station which I tot was very cool haha the machine will just dispense the card. There is a 500 yen deposit. The stupid part comes when you are returning the card. We have to go the JR central ticketing counter to return the card and do it over the counter. -.-|| And if there is balance in the card, you will be charged an admin fee of 220 yen to refund the card. So lets say you use the card until there is no value left, when you return the card, you will get back the 500 yen deposit. But lets say, you use the card until there is 380 yen left inside, you will get back 500 + 380 – 220 (admin charge) = 660 yen. I feel as if I m being penalised for using the card sia! 1st there is no discount and 2nd I m charged when I top up too much! How can!

Quite a few ppl told us to get the JR pass. But for us, there is no benefit cuz we didnt have a long distance trip like from Tokyo to Osaka. 1 JR pass is ard S$300, S$400. Our 2-way tix to Kyoto cost less than S$15 and cuz we stayed in Kyoto so we wun travel to n fro Kyoto multiple times. Our furthest destination is Himeiji and 2-way costs S$37.20.