Posted by admin on Jun 18, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 It was really surprise that we could finish our 15days trip to Japan. We departed to Japan on 1 Apr, but due to flight delay, e get to board the flight only on 2 Apr, and we return from Japan on 16 Apr. I am sure everyone curious how much we have spend for the half a month holiday in such high living standard country. Excluded the shopping, and our international flight ticket, we only spend about 6k per adult. Well, basically baby is free for the trip, except the international flight ticket.
We travel to Tokyo, Hokkaido, Kyoto and Osaka and the trip also covered the 3 large theme parks in Japan, which is Disneyland, DisneySea and Universal Studio. To be frank, 6k per pax is freaking cheap for such a trip, especially when you compare it with the tour from travel agent!!!
After the spring trip, initially I wanted to plan for a summer trip to Hokkaido, but seems like the gap between the trips was too closed, so I decided to change the plan to Autumn Trip!! Yes, we will go for another trip to Japan in another few months later!!!! LOL
Posted by admin on Jun 17, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 We woke up pretty early in the morning, (about 5am). It was time to go home and we have to do some last minute packing after getting ourself ready! We have to rush for the train to Kansai Airport which departs at 0803!! If we late for the train, then we have to take another train which require transit at another station. Better don’t take the risk.
Trying to wake the gal up after we all get ready, but I think she is just too tire and don’t bother us. Anyway, we just put her on the stroller and start our journey to airport. We manage to catch the train and the journey is really smooth without any disturb from the gal! She woke up only at about 5 mins before we reach the airport.
We first go to collect our luggage which we store in the airport locker room. After that, of course is go to collect the strawberry mochi (おしゃれ（いちご大福）)which I have reserved few days ago. The strawberry mochi (おしゃれ（いちご大福）)was nicely packed with icepack and we were given some extra paper bag. How nice of Japanese. 
I still have some Yen with me and I don’t have the practice to bring home any foreign currency, so I just simply spend on the cheese cake from the same shop. Surprising, their cheese cake is yummy too!
おしゃれ（いちご大福)
After the immigration and customs clearing, immediately we proceed to ANA Lounge for breakfast. The lounge is small and not many variety of food available. We have some snack and Onigiri, and also ‘bring’ home some white wine & red wine. The Lounge was just outside the boarding gate, so we spend our time rest in the lounge till the last minute. lol
See, these are all from us. Gosh… we need 2 cars to fetch us and the luggage!!!
Hmm… I simply like the new cabin of business class, the seat was more advance and nicer, although it is not flat enough!!
Posted by admin on Jun 16, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 We have dinner at one of the famous local ramen restaurant, 神座拉面 at Doton-bori after the shopping spree. Doton-bori is a famous ‘food street’ next to Shinsaibashi, a great place to stuffs our stomach after spend in Shinsaibashi! Surprising to see there is porridge available at the restaurant, immediately I order 1 for the gal. It is porridge cook with ramen stock, and it is yummy!!! The gal finishes the bowl of porridge while I just get to eat the leftover from her.
After dinner, we rush back to Osaka station as I want to continue shopping at GAP, Hep Five. Yes, I am not satisfied with my shopping at GAP Shinsaibashi. Glad that we went there, I got a few kid’s T shirt from there at about 500Yen to 700 Yen per piece, and the best bargain is the cardigan at 900 Yen each, about RM27, cheap huh!! I bought 2 cardigans in different size, which is also the last 2 pieces in the store!!
Since it was the last day in Japan, so we got to rush to pack all the stuffs!! It took me hours to pack it!!!!
Posted by admin on Jun 15, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 
Finally it comes to the last day of our Sakura trip. 
And it was not a good day though, it was drizzling since morning and we have to cancel our trip to Kyoto. Instead, we spend the day to shopping at Shinsaibashi 心斎橋. Shinsaibashi 心斎橋 is a covered shopping street which is long and has a lot of shop.
We lunch at one of the recommend restaurant located nearby Shinsaibashi 心斎橋. The restaurant serves rice wrapped with egg. At first, I thought it was something similar to our Nasi Pataya, but I was wrong! It was totally different, the Japanese version of ‘rice wrapped with egg’ is plainly a plate of hot curry rice with a raw egg on top! hmm…. I would said, our Nasi Pataya is much tastier than Japanese’s!
Japanese version of Nasi Pataya
Anyway, forget about the lunch and enjoy shopping in the shopping paradise. There are Uniqlo, Muji, GAP, Disney Store and so many other shops, as well as department store along the street!! Let’s the picture tell how much stuffs I have bought!!
Posted by admin on Jun 12, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 
After lunch at Saga, we continue our journey to
Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺) by taking train and bus. Hmmm … quite troublesome actually, especially we are not familiar with the route how to get there.
Anyway, we manage to find the place after checking out the bus route from bus station. It took about 5 min to walk to Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺) from bus station. Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺) is a temple plated with gold, located at lakeside. Nothing special about the temple, to be frank, it is not really worth to visit purposely.
We return to JR Kyoto Station by bus and have a fruitful shopping at Isetan which located inside the JR Kyoto Station. We bought two Burberry Black Label sling bags, Burberry card holder purse and some branded handkerchiefs as souvenir for friends. The handkerchief was cheap, it was about 500 Yen (RM15) each, for the brand of CK, DKNY and others. and not forgotten to claim the tax refund since our purchase is more than 10001Yen.
Posted by admin on Jun 11, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 
Our itinerary for the day is visit to Sagano area (嵯峨野) by taking the Sagano Sight-Seeing Tram aka Torokko Romantic Train (龜岡小火車) and Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺).
Sagano is a bit outside from Kyoto. Firstly we took the train from Osaka to Kyoto (Since we are staying at Osaka), then change to another train to Umahori Station (馬堀駅). Umahori Station (馬堀駅) is about 5 mins walk to Kameoka Station (亀岡駅), Kameoka Station (亀岡駅) is train station for the famous Sagano Sight-Seeing Tram aka Torokko Romantic Train (龜岡小火車).
We were a bit late for the scheduled train, but lucky that the kind station officer allow us to take the next departure train.
The train ride across the famous Hozugawa River (保津川) and the scenes along the train ride was just simple beautiful, although there are not much of sakura. We even saw the Hozugawa River Boat sail slowly on the Hozugawa River. We get off at Arashiyama station (嵐山駅) and here begin out walk trip in Sagano area.
I am a bit confused with the map I have, so we just followed other and walk through the Bamboo Garden Walkway (竹林步道) before reaching天龍寺Tenryuji. I lost my way again after visited to the historical 天龍寺Tenryuji. So, we just simply walk around and finally we saw the JR Saga Station (嵯峨駅) and a post office too. I decided to mail the postcards from this post office. lol
We have our lunch at one of the recommended restaurant (嵐山豆腐葵) nearby the JR Saga Station (嵯峨駅). We have tofu lunch (豆腐料理), and yes, it was delicious!
The Bamboo Garden Walkway (竹林步道)
some photo ….
Our Tofu Lunch
Posted by admin on Feb 17, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 13/4/2006
Before we left hotel for Kobe, I grab 2 Kaikukan discount coupons from the hotel front desk. It took us about 20 mins train ride from Osaka to Sannomiya Station (三ノ宮). Mind you, most of the kobe beef restaurant was located at Sannomiya Station instead of Kobe Station, don’t get it wrong. Oh ya, we planned to have kobe beef lunch at one of the recommended restaurant. We order the recommended set lunch which is very worth compare to other. The kobe beef was served in teppanyaki style and it cost us about 2980Yen per set lunch. Anyhow, it worth the money!
After the delicious lunch, we then proceed take the train to visit Himeiji Castle which is one of the World Heritage of Japan. We grab a map and also check with the tourist information counter for the correct direction to Himeiji Castle. We were welcome by the beautiful Sakura after a 20 mins walk. The scenery of the place is simply beautiful and amazing. The gal was sound asleep in the stroller, so we didn’t go up to the castle, but just snap photo around and had ice-cream as snack.
We then rush to Kaikukan before the sky turns dark. Kaikukan located at Tempozan which has a giant ferris wheel next to the shopping mall, Market Place. Entrance fee is 2000Yen per adult, which is a bit pricey but I think it is worth it. The gal enjoy exploring the fishes in the Kaikukan.
Our dinner is the famous ‘egg wrap rice’ which is similar to our Nasi Pataya here. For the taste…. I think our Nasi Pataya much tastier. Nothing much to do at night so just returns to the hotel after dinner.
Posted by admin on Feb 9, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 12/4/2006
Happy Birthday to Hubby!
Yes, it is my hubby birthday and we decided to celebrate it at Universal Studio Japan (USJ)!
We collect our ticket after presenting the reference number and the credit card which I use to charge for the fees when I bought the birthday special ticket (cheaper than normal rate) over the internet before we fly over to Japan.
We were greeting by Winnie Woodpecker, Woody Woodpecker, Elmo and Zoe right after we enter the park. KW is the happiest person when she saw all the mascots, she not afraid of them at all instead she play with them.
The first game we play is the Sesame Street 4D Movie, and follow by Spiderman! Surprising there are not many people queuing for the game and it took only 20 minutes waiting for our turn! How lucky!! Btw, KW is having her sweet afternoon nap while we are enjoying ourself with Spiderman. We manage to play back to the future, backdraft and ET before she woke up. We then return to the 4d Movie studio for Shrek movie with KW, and of course my mum.
We have our late lunch at Snoopy Café and get an expensive tiny snoopy cake for hubby. The cake cost about 1500 Yen. We spend some time playing with the Snoopy mascot and also the Snoopy indoor park as outside was too cool for me.
At night, we went to dinner at Dōtonbori for the delicious ramen. Hang around at Dōtonbori before we return to the hotel by subway.
View Photo
Posted by admin on Feb 6, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 11/4/2006
We took JR Rapid from Sapporo to New Chitose Airport. New Chitose Airport is huge and has a lot of shop selling Hokkaido famous snack/food. I feel like so wish to buy all what I saw in the shop!!! Grrrr…
The flight departs on time at 12.00pm. The flight landed at Kansai International Airport after the 2 hours flight. I go to search for the stall selling the strawberry mochi after collecting our luggage and get it store at the locker, but couldn’t get it. I decided to check out the store from the internet and manage to get it finally. The stall was located at the hidden corner of level 2, no wonder I can’t found it. Immediately I buy a pack of it and place an order of 5 boxes to be collected when I am leaving Osaka.
The strawberry mochi is so nice and the strawberry is so sweet!!! Although it is quite pricey, but it is worth the money!!! We leave to Osaka Station by train after that and gosh, it took us quite some time to search for the right exit to our hotel!!! Oh boy, the Osaka station is so huge and we get lost almost every time we are in this station for all of our Japan trip!!!!! O_O
The weather is not good in Osaka, it is raining. Lucky we don’t have any plan for the day!! We went to ‘takeaway’ our dinner at Yoshinoya and rest in the hotel after dinner. It is a tiring day after so many hours of train ride and flight.
Zzzzzz……..
Posted by admin on Feb 4, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 10/4/2006
Finally it comes the day which we are long wait! Our plan for the day is playing snow at Kiroro Skiing Resort. But….. I think both we are too tire and woke up late! We missed the bus to Kiroro which depart from Sapporo. Well, there are not many busses has the trip to Kiroro that depart from Sapporo. So, alternately, we decided to take the bus which depart from Otaru, there are quite a lot of busses from Otaru.
Immediately we heading to Otaru by JR and buy the bus ticket right after get off from the train. We reached the resort at about 3pm and the skiing slopes are going to close soon, so we just play the snow and snap photo around the.
Being the first timer, we all are very happy to be surrounding by snow and the weather is just so nice, not cool and not windy at all! KW enjoys herself very much and she even lay down on the snow!!
After snap the photo crazily, we leave the resort at about 4.30pm. Although we didn’t spend much time in the resort, however we all still very happy for getting so ‘close’ to the snow!!!
We got to go back to the hotel early to pack the luggage as we will fly to Osaka on the next day! Yes, this is our last day at Hokkaido!
View Photo
Posted by admin on Jan 24, 2009 in
Spring in Japan 2006 9/4/2006
We go to Otaru by JR Train and get off at Minami Otaru. The beautiful view of snowed mountain was just in front of us right after we step out from the train station. The view is simply beautiful, especially for the first timer seeing snow like us.
Station JR Minami Otaru
We reach the famous Marthen Square十字街 after walking for a few minutes. The Orgel-do Music Box Museum音乐管风堂and the steamer clock was just beside the road. Btw, it is snowing by that time and makes Otaru look even more romantic and beautiful!!!!
After visiting the Orgel-do Music Box Museum音乐管风堂, we head to Sakaimachi-dori for the famous Le Tao Café, Kitakaro Sweet Shop, Kitaichi Glass house and others. We have our simple sushi lunch at one of the sushi restaurant which located at the street.
the restaurant we have our sushi lunch
We reach the famous Otaru Canal at around 3.50pm and boy, the temp was 2.2C!!! I feel like I am going to freeze anytime…. Immediately we hide ourself in the Otaru Canteen after snap some photos, the Otaru Canteen is located nearby the canal. Although it was named as Canteen, but there are a few souvenir shop too. I spent 2 postcards with beautiful Otaru scenery and rush to the post office nearby to send it to my friends. I think I was like run to the post office… LOL
After spend some time at the canteen, we decided to complete another mission for our journey in Otaru, which is try out the famous ice cream! Yes, eat ice cream at 1.7C, it changed to 1.7C already….. Tell you, there are lot of customer waiting in the 北のアイスクリー 屋 to buy their ice cream!!! Crazy…
read the time….
We didn’t wait until the sunset and light up at the Otaru Canal as we can’t stand the cold and chilly weather! We decided to call it a day and return to Sapporo by taking the JR Train at Otaru Station. Oh, there is one 100Yen Can-Do shop at the JR Otaru Station.
Our dinner for the day is the expensive ramen at 味之时计台.
Drooling ???
Posted by admin on Oct 17, 2008 in
Others 8/4/2006
We start off the itinerary of the day by visiting to the Former Government Building, follow by the clock tower. These are the famous tourist spots, but not many to see, especially the clock tower. Lucky it is not far, or else sure I am cursing like a mad woman.
We had our brunch at a small canteen located in the wet market, どんぶり茶屋. The sashimi rice was delicious and fresh, especially the umi and fish roe. They are just simply delicious …. although it is pricey.
There is Can-Do 100 Yen shop located not far from the wet market, as usual, how could I miss it. The next stop after is the covered shopping street, Tanukikoji. I grab what I want from one of the recommended shop which offering tax free and 10% discount. Spend about 35000 Yen with that and glad that the shop owner agreed to deliver it to me.
Our dinner of the day is the famous Hokkaido crab. Restaurant 蝦蟹合戰4-2店 was located somewhere at Susukino. We didn’t go for the buffet as we can’t really eat much with an active baby along. We tried the famous Snow crab, hairy crab and the giant 松葉蟹, as well as the tempura crab and crab porridge for my gal. What I like the most is the seasonal prawn which we have to ‘kill’ the prawn at our own, before we eat it. The prawn is so fresh and yummy, without any fishy smell! It cost 1000 Yen for 3 prawns.
Posted by admin on Oct 15, 2008 in
Spring in Japan 2006 7/4/2006
Today is my princess’s birthday and we will celebrate her birthday in Hokkaido. Yeah, we will take a flight to Hokkaido from Haneda Airport. The flight took off on time at 12 noon and landed at Chitose Airport 90 mins later. We store the luggage which loaded with loots from Tokyo at the coin locker in Chitose Airport before left for Sapporo.
It is first time of us seeing snow and we are very excited even the snow on the road is dirty. We reach Hotel Chisun to check in after about 5 mins walk from Sapporo Station. Guess what, it is snowing!!! After settle down, we then headed to the Ishiya Chocolate Factory to celebrate my gal’s first birthday.
Ishiya Chocolate Factory is quite far from town, almost the last station of the subway. We bought a strawberry chocolate at the European style café. The chocolate factory is so pretty, especially the glass house!! We left the factory when the clock close to 5pm. We all shivering right after we step out the café, it was snowing and chilled. And of course, it is so romantic too, like the movie scene. LOL
Our dinner is shabu shabu beef at ‘Hana gyu’ which located at Aoki Building. It was a costly dinner, the plate of beef slice cost us 3680 Yen (十胜道产牛) and 5250Yen (近江牛). Overall, it is delicious and worth the money spent.
We were so lazy after filling up our tummy and decided to take a cab fetching us back to the hotel. It cost 600 Yen for the taxi ride.
And not forgotten, Happy 1 year old to my gal.
Posted by admin on Sep 30, 2008 in
Spring in Japan 2006 6/4/2006
How lucky, we woke up with a sunny day!
We quickly get everything ready and off to Disneyland early in the morning. I feel so excite as though I am first time being there. Anyway, it is my third time.
The first thing we did after get into the park is, snap some photo with the signature scenery of Disneyland and most important is, get the fast past for Pooh Hunny Hunt. The hot cake of Disneyland! We then head over to the Fantasy Land for some baby friendly attraction/game, like Alice’s Tea Party and Haunted Mansion. Okay, Haunted Mansion is not that baby friendly, but it is one of my favourite games, how could I miss it? Lucky that KW has no afraid at all.
After exploring the theme park, as well as play most of the game/attraction, we then head over to the baby center to rest change the gal. We miss the Electrical Parade but manage to catch the fantasy in the sky, the fireworks!
I didn’t get to sleep well the whole night as we have to wash the clothes and also to pack the luggage. Yeah, we are going to check out from the hotel tomorrow and fly over to Hokkaido!
Posted by admin on Sep 29, 2008 in
Spring in Japan 2006 5/4/2006
It is a raining day; however we still remain our initial plan to Disneyland as the ticket was bought. It is not cheap, man!
We keep our luggage in the locker at Maihama Station after checking out from the hotel. At first, I thought to stay another night in the hotel; however they are run out of house.
After storing the luggage, we then off to Disneyland by wearing the expensive rain coat (it cost 500 yen)! Due to the bad weather, KW has to be seated on her stroller for the day!
The rain is getting heavier and the only game/attraction we are able to play is, “it’s a small world’. Well, it is not a good idea to walk under the rain; what’s more it is so cold! So, we made a not so wise decision, which is shopping at the Disney shop which is located at the covered American Street.
After spending a lot in the shop, we leave the theme park early at about 5pm. It seems like the whole Tokyo is raining for the day.
Since there is not much fun in Disneyland for the day, so we plan to re-visit to the kingdom on the next day.