Hey guys! Today's post will be a tad different because it will be about my 10 day trip to Japan, and being the adventurous little kids we are, we undertook an unconventional itinerary and decided to explore the many faces of Japan. And thus, most of the time we were walking, trekking and hiking. It will be a lengthy post filled with pictures and my detailed thoughts on the trip, so I'll be breaking this post into 3 parts.
And before I begin, I will tell you the total expenditure of our trip, and that is about $2,500 (for myself). We booked our flight with United Airlines at an unexpectedly cheap price of $437.60, bought our 7-day JR Pass for $347 at PriceBreaker and paid $700 for our accommodation through agoda and booking, but note that we stayed in different hotels each night (except for the last 3 nights). You can take a brief look at our hotels taken from our itinerary:
The remaining approximate $1000 was converted in yen where I put aside $200 for entrance fee and miscellaneous transport tickets, $400 for food and $400 for souvenirs and etc.
Day 1 22/02/16
So yes, it was winter and the weather forecast read single digits. Pfft, how cold could it be? Having never experience travelling in a cold country, I couldn't begin to fathom how bad a winter gets. I got my winter coat and gloves, I'm all covered, right...?
Bad wasn't even the right word. It was horrendously cold, to the point I was shivering at times. Honestly, I could take the cold, but when the wind starts, it was freeeeeezing. Verlin and I had a thermal shock when we went outside of Narita Airport. We looked up at the bleak and dreary skies and wondered where the hell is all the cold coming from??! Surely, there must be a giant aircon hidden beneath those layers of gloomy clouds.
When we landed, we activated our JR pass and bought a 14 day prepaid card that is only for data (100mb/day, which is quite a lot for me) for about 4000 yen. Man I swear to you the activation of the prepaid card pissed me off so much, because I needed internet in order to activate my data. What kind of logic is that? To make things sour, the wifi at the airport was not even working.
I got the exact prepaid card as this, although I bought mine directly from the counter at Narita Airport instead of buying it online.
Anyhoo, we got onto Narita Express and headed for Tokyo. The ride was about an hour and we used our pass for this (if not, it'll be a hefty $35 for a one way trip!). By the time we reached Tokyo station, it was dinner time and we had ramen at Ramen Street. It was my first time eating a bowl of ramen but it wasn't anything spectacular...
And then straight to find our hotel. We alighted at Shimbashi station, it was raining, the winds were crazy and it was terribly cold at night. Not to mention, we were carrying our backpacks with no GPS because I could not activate my data yet.
We were LOST. We asked around for help and the people were really nice, they were genuinely concerned and thought hard about the directions. And although they were not fluent in english, they tried their very best to use hand signals and basic english phrases.
But it was to a point we were desperate, because we were really not used to the cold. We resorted to a taxi although many people said it's damn bloody expensive but heck it, we had no choice. It turned out I got my directions wrongly written in the itinerary and the capsule hotel was really near Tokyo station itself. We were so thankful for the taxi driver because he stopped the meter and took some time to figure out the location, it was indeed a $10 very well spent.
And it was funny, because at the sight of our hotel, I shouted out "Ureshii!!!" and he thought it was really hilarious at how desperate we were, he was chuckling away.
We stayed at Tokyo Nihonbashi Bay Hotel, a capsule hotel which far exceeded our expectations. It was exceptionally clean and well equipped with all the facilities you'll ever need. We were really impressed given that it was relatively cheap! Just so you know, I didn't take any photos on the first day because boy was I busy trying to adapt to a hectic and cold country.
Day 2 23/02/16
We got up early and were headed for Kyoto, but not before popping by a random store (or probably the only store that was opened at 8 in the morning) to have curry rice for breakfast.
We took a 3 hour train ride using the Shinkansen (also known as, bullet train) and most of the time, I was napping on the soft cushioned seats.
Cool fact: all the transportation vehicles, be it a train or bus, are all cushioned seats.
Japan 1
Singapore 0
Kyoto was beautiful, the dull weather made it much more. It was a really different take from the streets of Singapore, because the buildings are squarish and aligned in a straight row, they also like to use a very standard choice of colour that is pale and monotonous. But I like that very much.
We left our baggage with our second hotel, that is Kyoto Shijo MyStays Hotel, and ventured out for lunch. It was a really nice walk, exploring the streets and trying out a random ramen store.
Ok, and even though it was random, it was heavenly. This is it guys, I'm about to show you the very ramen I fell head over heels for.
Oh my HOLY! This is how I wanted my ramen to be: thick flavourful soup with thin noodles on the hard side, LOTS OF GREEN ONIONS. This was honestly, the best I've tasted so far. I was even plotting with Verlin on how I should bring the soup from this store back to Singapore.
Cool fact: I don't eat meat, so for every single meals, Verlin and I have a 'food exchange programme' and for this, I dumped all my meat into her bowl while she dumped all her green onions on mine. Sweet.
After such a fulfilling meal, we were ready to explore parts of Kyoto and for this day, we toured around East Kyoto. We took a bus down to Ginkakuji, where we began our walk.
Since it's the traditional side of Japan, you'd find a lot of people walking around in their Kimonos and Yukatas. Well it sounds a lot of fun, until you remember the fact that it was FUCKING COLD. I kept questioning how do people even do this, wearing such insubstantial clothing under 6 DEGREES. Oh, there were even people going for a jog in shorts and oh my I can feel my legs no more.
After Ginkakuji, we followed the Philosopher's path, about 2km alongside a canal with so many withered trees surrounding us. Honestly, I really love trees in Winter better than in Autumn. I love how it's all withered, so beautifully haunting. It was an easy peasy walk, no sweat, literally.
Then we passed by a horde of cats living in the area. And this is really interesting, because their faces are distinctively different from the cats we have here in Singapore. I swear this is evidently genetic divergence, where cats in Japan remain in Japan and breed in Japan and have japanese faces, all while cats in Singapore do the same thing to result in both cats to have very different features.
We continued our walk back down to Kyoto station, passing by temples and interesting buildings. We were supposed to pass by the Higashiyama Streets and the Gion area but unfortunately I took a wrong turn and we missed out all of that. It was getting really dark and we decided to head back central for dinner.
Cool fact: It gets dark at 6PM Japan time, that is, 5PM Singapore time. Naturally, it gets really bright at 6 in the morning.
This was disaster day for Verlin (which was also my birthday) because the Yakiniku store she had been wanting to try out was specially closed on this date. It was all cool still, until we decided to try out another random Yakiniku store where she had a nightmare of her life. Technically, she ordered a plate of meat none of which she could barely chew on, and she ended up not eating a single thing during dinner. Poor thing!
Day 3 24/02/16
We were exploring the West of Kyoto this day and took a train headed for Arashiyama. One thing I really like about Japan is the pride they take in their jobs. Whether or not a construction worker, a security guard or a train captain, they are all properly attired as you can see, just a mere train captain is wearing a hat and gloves. And they take a lot of pride in their work, making sure they keep up the yamato spirit and ensuring everything they handle goes smoothly. I think that it's really respectable.
The views were spectacular! I was in complete awe of how scenic the mountains were before my very eyes. This part of Kyoto caters more towards the foreigners, which explains the nicely decorated restaurants and souvenir shops, and even the Ninja-looking rickshaw pullers out to sell their tour rides around Arashiyama.
The first agenda was to visit the Monkey Park Iwatayama located at the top of a hill. It was quite a steep climb for a start, but got gradually smooth at the end.
I'd say Japanese kids are so fit and healthy, even at such a young age they're brought to scale this hill and they were still left with so much energy.
Cool fact: I was told that Japanese students have to attend their 'CCA' EVERY SINGLE DAY AFTER SCHOOL.
We were quite high up on the top and the view was amazing. At this point, it was really windy and cold that it started to snow a little. This I personally think, was one of the better climbs we did.
Going back down was much easier, and by then, it was lunch time! We were quite worn out from the cold and were looking for a warm place to settle down. We decided to eat here because there was Verlin's favourite Syabu Syabu, and also, it looked really inviting.
It was about $70 for both our meals, but I'd say it was worth it. I appreciated that the place was really traditional, including the food, because most of the time I had no idea what I was eating albeit it was nice. I suppose the food you find in areas that are less modernised, would have food that have retained much of its roots. Great experience nonetheless.
Our next stop was the Tenryuji Temple, a temple that was built and dedicated to an emperor. Here in this picture above is a tree named the Weeping Apricot. I thought it sounded really beautiful.
I have no idea who she was dressed up as! But there was a really strong aura coming from her, she was stunning.
We entered the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, it was a dream come true! I've always wanted to see the bamboo forest, sadly, it was packed with tourists and I was unable to properly witness the tranquil forest. It was cute seeing the bamboos sway in response of the winds, because they were all thin and tall, they swayed together in a funny manner.
We continued with a lot of walking and popped by Nisonin Temple.
And more walking as we passed by the Saga-Torimoto preserved street to get to the Adashino Nenbutsuji Temple and the Otagi Nenbutsuji Temple.
Both temples have several hundreds of mini stone statues, some are sculptured while some are plain rocks, dedicated to Buddhists disciples who have passed on. It was truly a long walk in but it was enriching, having to know what kind of things and beliefs exist in places that are so uncommon. It got so cold here because we were climbing the slope upwards, thus it started to snow as well.
We headed back to central where we were supposed to be staying at Kyoto Uraraka Guest House for the night. It was a decent guest house allowing you to experience what's it like to stay in a legit japanese apartment. It was indeed crammed but it was snuggly for two.
Day 4 25/02/16
We woke up early to head back to West of Kyoto again just to sit the Hozugawa River Cruise which was 3900 yen per pax. We alighted at Kameoka Station, further up of Arashiyama and I remembered it was a lot colder.
We were reluctant to leave the station although the station was itself already very cold, but had to venture out to look for food. Another desperate moment, it was quite a rural area and most of the stores were either closed or not selling food.
But thank God we found a donut shop which sells RAMEN. All we wanted was a really piping hot bowl of ramen down our stomach and who would have thought, in a donut shop? How timely.
This bowl of ramen may be your mediocre bowl of instant sloppily-made ramen, but I'd tell you, it can save lives.
It was a great experience riding this and is probably one of the best activities we took. The ride was a comfortable 1 and a half hour journey travelling from Kameoka down to Arashiyama. We were surrounded by trees so tall and benign, it was surreal. The people however could only speak japanese so the whole talk was conducted in Japanese. Thankfully, we were onboard with 2 other locals and 2 tourists from Hong Kong. It was a lively commotion because the japanese were engaging and knew how to speak some english.
You can check out the history of the river here.
We headed back to central Kyoto and since we had time on our hands, we had an impromptu visit to Higashi Honganji, which was sadly, undergoing a lot of construction, but we managed to roam around the huge territory.
The structures were massive! Just look at how tiny those humans are next to the buildings, I had to stand really far away for the entire building to be in the picture. And also, we spotted this cute little crane just contemplating about life by the canal. I'm not sure if cranes eat Koi fishes? because there were quite a few Kois swimming about a particular spot it seemed to be eyeing on.
It was time to leave Kyoto for Nara and again, we began travelling using the rapid local train that was also covered by the JR Pass.
Cool fact: when they tell you the japanese are punctual, they are not shitting you. I have decided to prize this country for being MERCILESS, in a somewhat good sense, because they will shut all doors and leave on the dot.
There was once we were on the wrong platform, but we didn't realise until Verlin started to get skeptical about the train. We decided to ask a local and he jumped right on it, checking out the almost illegible board of train information in alien signage and informed us it was platform 16! He panicked for us and shouted "Isoide! Atto San-pun!" meaning to say, "Hurry, only 3 minutes left!" and we fled for our lives while carrying all our bulky bags. We were running, and people were looking at us because we looked like a happening little ball of commotion hurrying somewhere.
Just so you know, we made it for the train.
WE WERE IN DEER PARADISE!
Just a general rule of thumb, when you feed one, be ready to feed many. So, be like us and buy 900 yen worth of deer crackers (it's 150 yen for a stack of 10) (*^▽^*)
So ok, when it's about 5PM, this particular japanese man whom I presume is the store owner of the shop opposite the horde of deers that were oddly gathering together, comes out with a bucket of powder (I heard it was corn) to feed them dinner. We were fortunate to catch this scene because we were actually lost and walking back, and happened to chance upon this.
It's funny because initially, the deers were all resting, but as soon as he pops out of the store, the deers immediately get up and eagerly await the delish corn.
Cool fact: when you walk close to a deer, it will start doing a bowing action, and if he knows you have crackers, some will begin to nudge you or bite on your plastic bags (a deer bit on my burberry scarf and left all its slimy saliva on it oh my goodness), most would just wait patiently.
Can you spot the raven in the tree?
Cool fact: Ravens are the common birds in Japan and they are HUGE. About twice the size of our ravens here in Singapore.
At this time, I guess the deers knew night was falling soon, so we witnessed groups of them running into the forests and many were getting comfortable, as though ready for bed time. We thought it was a good time to talk a photo with a deer and it was when we found ZEN DEER.
Zen deer is zen because he doesn't give a shit about your existence. It just sits there rooted to the ground and it was the only deer we managed to get really close to for a picture. We could even pet him!
We headed back to the inn and this was how it looked like. It was really homely and had an english cottage feel to it. The people there, especially the inn keeper, were very friendly. The dinner table in the kitchen was actually huge and while we had dinner there, we were accompanied by the inn keeper, her japanese friend and a couple from Australia. We had a good chat and it was nice knowing that Vancouver goes down to -30 degrees (I instantly felt numb throughout my body upon hearing this).
We ordered pizza and okonomiyaki for dinner by the way, it was the Pocket Pizza delivery and man, the okonomiyaki was super sugoi!
I had a really bad sleep though, because the foreigners staying that night were quite inconsiderate, talking really loud and laughing at midnight, plus I absolutely cannot sleep under thick quilts because it gets unbearably hot for me so I was constantly putting on my blanket and taking it off throughout the night.
That's it for Day 1-4, look out for Part 2 for Day 5-7!
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