it’s all about my foot print

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.

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.

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!

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.

4/4/2006
Today, we will check in to the Hotel Hilton Tokyo Bay which is nearby the Disneyland. We leave our luggage to the hotel concierge. We first take the monorail to check in and dump our hand luggage to the hotel after we reach Maihama Station. We bought the 2 days Disney passport at the hotel as passport bought in Disney official hotel come with admission guarantee. It cost 9600 Yen each for the 2 days passport.

Disney Sea is beautiful with European style. It definitely a great place for photo shooting. Since most of the ride and attractions are more to adults, so we spend most of the time in the Mermaid Lagoon which is a paradise for kids. However, we still have some fun time walking around and play some rides like the Indianna Jones. Also, we bought two bucket of popcorn in strawberry and black pepper flavor.

We didn’t wait for the firework; instead we went to Daiei supermarket which is one station away from Maihama.

It is a tiring day as we traveled a lot.

3 April 2006
Finally, it comes to the day where we could see the blooming sakura. What made the day brighter is, it is a sunny day!!

We have a simple breakfast at 松屋 and headed to the Ueno Park which is just opposite the restaurant. There are blooming sakura along the pathway in the park and it made the park even prettier and romantic. A lot of Japanese picnic under the tree. We spent about nearly 2 hours in the park and snapped a lot of photo.

After exploring the sakura in Ueno Park, our next destination is the Asakusa for the “浅草观音庙” aka “雷门”. This is a famous place which included in all the itinerary of every travel agent. So, could you imagine the crowd? Anyway, since it is not my first time here, so we just spend some time to walk around the 仲见世通. We settle our lunch at a famous tempura restaurant nearby the temple. Their tempura is a bit different from the tempura we usually eat, it is yummy and tasty when it is served in hot.

We went to Shinjuku after lunch. Bought a battery pack for my digital camera at Bic Camera and applied their point card at the same time. The battery pack is about RM100 cheaper than Malaysia’s price. Shinjuku is really a shopping paradise, I have my first shopping spree at GAP, they are really cheap with the discount given. We didn’t stay long in Shinjuku and return to hotel at about 8pm.

2/4/2006

Morning call at about 5am and we check-out at 6.30am. We didn’t go for the free breakfast provided by the hotel. Instead we have our simple breakfast at MAS Golden Lounge.

Business class is business class, not only the service is good, the cabin is spacious too. We have a short nap after taking the light breakfast and the famous satay.

Reach Narita airport at about 5pm. After collected our luggage, we headed to the train station and take the KEISEI limited express to the Ueno (1000 Yen per adult), the journey tooks about 71 mins. It was raining when we reach the Ueno, so we buy 3 umbrellas and headed to the hotel after asking the direction from Japanese. We stayed in Hotel Marutani, a business hotel at 10000 Yen per night.

After settle down everything, we had our dinner at the famous chain restaurant -Yoshinoya, which is nearby the hotel we stay.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a good sunny day!

1/4/2006

The scheduled 11.30pm flight was delayed due to some technical problem. Damn… But, luckily that I bought the travel insurance (and I able to claim RM750 for flight delayed)! MAS arranged us to stay a night at Hotel Pan Pacific which is next to KLIA. But, before we check in to the hotel, we had an expensive dinner at KLIA as we don’t know there is free dinner available at the hotel restaurant. *cursing*

I paid and booked the air ticket about 6 months before i confirm the travel date.

My target for the trip is “sakura”. Since I am going to bring along my mum for the trip, so try to arrange more sight-seeing places and hope to cover more interesting places for the trip. Hence, i decided to put in Hokkaido in my itinerary instead of just Tokyo and Osaka only.

The weather in Hokkaido during early April (early-spring) is quite chilly and cold, some of the skiing resort even open for early-spring skiing, so i got the chance to see “sakura” and “snow” for the holiday, it was great, one stone kills 2 birds!

After searching and reading the forecast of blooming sakura, finally i decided to depart on 1 April and return to Malaysia on 16 April. Yes, we going to spend half a month in Japan.

Manage to get up on time and bought the Airport limousine ticket at Brighton Hotel.

I didn’t know there is terminal 1 and terminal 2 in Narita Airport, but luckily that the limousine bus driver is kind and ask me which airline I take when he saw me going to get down from bus. Ok, I admit, I didn’t do any homework about Japan before.

After checking in, I walk around the duty free shop and bought a battery operated nail trimmer from the duty free electronic shop, it cost about 798Yen.

The flight took off on time and being a first time flyer, obviously the meal onboard is delicious.

To be honest, I never thought that I am so daring to fly to Japan alone for my first oversea holiday! It is a great experience….

It is my last day in Tokyo. Also, I found that I need more YEN to survive. So, I take the train to Maihama which is only one stop away, as thought to get the RM exchange into YEN at their customer service counter. But….. they do not accept RM!!!! Shocking me!!

So, I take the train back to Shin Urayasu as I remember that, there is a bank somewhere opposite the JR station. I walked in to the bank and tell them I want to exchange Yen. Another surprise as they do not accept RM too. They are so kinds and tell me I can go to withdraw cash from the ATM machine, but I don’t have the PIN number ler, how to withdraw!

To help me, they make a lot of call to almost all the bank in Tokyo (I think) and come back to me that, HSBC accept the RM notes. What a relief! They draw the map to me how to go to the HSBC which is in Shinjuku. Actually I thought to leave before they got the answer, but I feel so paiseh to leave when I saw they so passionate to help me.

As expected, the exchange rate wasn’t good. I walk around the Shinjuku and Tokyo station and bought some Japanese cigarettes as requested by my colleague.

Return to the apartment to pack my luggage after that and have a great farewell dinner.

How times flies, it has been nearly a month I am back from my 4th Japan trip. LOL

Tell you, till now I still cannot concentrate myself to work and keep on thinking where and when my next trip is. I do a lot of search to check if there is any cheap air ticket to anywhere so that I can plan for a short holiday. After reading from the forum and I finally decide to plan for a holiday to Taiwan.

But… I change my mind again after my friend asking me some information about Japan. I still cannot resist the attractive of Japan. So, I think maybe I plan for another holiday to Japan this coming autumn….

Air ticket is not a problem for me, so what I shall do is, search for the accommodation in Osaka. It will be more convenience if I stay in the hotel that comes with airport limousine bus services and near the train station, so I decided to book the room with New Hankyu Hotel Osaka. According to the search I have made from Hotels Combined, Asiarooms offer the best rate as compare to other like HotelClub.

As for Kyoto, I still prefer Apa Ekimae Hotel Kyoto which is just opposite the JR Kyoto station. Hopefully I have a nice holiday with my two monkeys.

Based on the above calculation, with the different of 13.50, which airline you will choose?

Be frank, the 13.50 is not a big amount and of course if the different is 135.00 then it will be a huge different. If you ask me to choose, for sure I will choose to fly with the 0-Fare Carrier. With 0-Fare Carrier, I can walk into the airplane from the skybridge without worrying how hot the sun is and if it is raining. Also, I am allowed to carry 20kgs of luggage for each ticket I purchase and not forgotten the free drinks and snack on board.

How would you choose? LOL

Since I got no where to go, so I decided to return to Sensō-ji temple in Asakusa. I want try my luck to see the giant Chōchin lantern. Unfortunately, I can’t see it. Anyway, just walk around to explore the place which is also the last stop for the day.

Yes, enough of walking as I am really knackered after walking in 2 huge gardens.

Souvenir store along the Nakamise

A bit like the Imperial Palace, the Meiji Shrine is huge too… and the path to the shrine is not so nice to walk. There is nothing special in the shrine, only the garden and the place is huge. Btw, it is first time I saw the绘马, which people used to write down their wish.

3 ang-moh guy said “arigato” to me after I help them to snap a picture. Cute ah! Hahaha ….

the beautiful 御守