it was an enjoyable 7 days trip in japan, though it was not exactly 7 days considering i spent 1 night onboard the plane and the last day was actually just half a day. i think i will want to go back to japan again next time, but probably the next time i go there i will be with my wife and kids haha.
shall update according to the days. probably this will be the longest entry in my blog.
Day 1
Reached the airport at around 10. I thought we were too early as the flight was at 11.50pm, but apparently we were the last family to check in. didn’t have anything to do after checking in, so i decided to log in to msn and used the ebuddy to chat. i only knew abt the ebuddy after seeing a girl using it ha.
I think JAL (Japan Airline) serves pretty good food. I like the Japanese tidbits that they served as snacks, and I tried the yuzu drink, which is actually a pomelo drink. I didn’t watch any movies or played any games. I tried sleeping but couldn’t fall asleep cos I felt the plane was hot and stuffy. I sat in between my parents and the movements of both of them woke me up occasionally. The cramp seats didn’t help a lot either. This was the first time I felt like I was going to die on the plane. The stuffiness + cramp-ness nearly killed me. I was so glad that I reached the airport safely, though I didn’t have much sleep that night.
Oh btw the plane took us to Osaka. The first place I visited was to this place called Osaka castle. Apparently it was some olden days castle etc etc. the prob with this tour is the guide didn’t really explain to us the history of the place. Basically we just went there to take pictures and walked around. Aft that we went to this place called Shinsaibashi-suji. It’s actually a shopping street and there are a lot of shops along the street. We had lunch there and I had this nice chicken chop rice. This was probably the nicest meal I have had for the whole trip ha. The last place we went for the day was Universal Studio. The rides there were pretty lousy and only the Spiderman ride was enjoyable. I seriously cant stand queuing up for the rides, and the place was quite cramp and stuff (again), and there was this occasional fart smell when we were indoors.
The hotel we stayed in is called Hotel Keihan. They have this woody Woodstock (not sure if it is called that) design everywhere in the room. I was pretty amused by the toilet bowl in the hotel. They have this button that will help clean ur ass aft u are done with ur business. I wanted to try the toilet bowl but didn’t wanna shit, so decided to just press the button and see what will happen. The first time I tried nothing happened so I guessed probably I gotta press down on the toilet bowl to simulate the weight of someone sitting down. I did that and pressed the button, and yea I saw a tube coming out from the toilet bowl. The next thing I know, water started coming out from the tube and I got wet -.- . well it was still a pretty good experience.
Dinner was buffet style. I ate a lot!
at osaka castle
at the hotel room
the confusing toilet bowl
Day 2
Breakfast was buffet again. It was at the same restaurant where we had dinner. I love the Japanese noodles. Anyway we set off at ard 8 so I woke up at 6.30am which was ard 5.30am Singapore time.
We went to this place called the Rokuonji Temple (Golden Pavillion Temple). Not exactly a very exciting place. We went to watch kimono show aft that at this place called the Nishijin Textile Centre. I took several pictures of the kimono girls and my mom noticed that I kept taking pictures of this particular lady. Haha yea I thought she looks quite pretty..but her kimono looks nice too. Lunch was this tempura set lunch, which according to the tour guide, was the safest thing to offer for someone eating Japanese cuisine for the first time. I thought it was just for convenience sake considering that all the other tour groups eating in the same restaurant had the same set lunch that we had. Oh well cant complain much since we are in a tour group. I will definitely visit japan again in the future!
Went to this place called Kiyomizu Temple in the afternoon. Oh I simply love the scenery there. The guide told us Japanese don’t cut down their own trees that’s why we see so many trees in japan. I thought the love and relationship section of the temple was quite interesting. There’re 2 stones on opposite ends there and people are supposed to close their eyes and walk from one side to the other. I am not exactly very sure of what’s the procedure but I saw many school students there buying amulets and stuff to “improve” their love life. I found that pretty amusing, but I guess it’s better to believe it than to take the risk haha. I tried this black bean ice cream there and it was delicious. My mom tried the tofu flavour which I thought was quite blend.
Went to this place called 爱之县in the evening where our hotel was. We stayed in Toyohashi, which was a place inside this 爱之县. The place is more like a rural area and there weren’t many shops around. I walked around the place myself at night as my parents were feeling quite tired already. And guess what..i met my primary school Chinese teacher when I was about to cross the road! I was quite surprised that she could recognize me as it was already quite dark at that time (like 9+ pm). She came from Tokyo and was heading towards Osaka, while I was going from the opposite direction as her. Toyohashi became our mid-way point actually. It was quite amusing that people we don’t meet in Singapore we end up meeting them overseas.
To be continued..
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