I was so excited for my spring
trip to Japan with my friend, Fanseptiani. My departured flight was 11.30 pm
via Garuda Indonesia. The flight was good after some hectic things happened
during the flight, Fansep, you know what I mean :p After 7 hours flight, we
arrived at Osaka around 8.30 a.m. local time. Felt so happy at that time. The
cold wind welcome us and our tour guide Mr. Acong, Chinese Malaysian, greeted us
warm good morning. The bus fetched us, then we started our first visit place.
The Osaka Airport was at other island, that’s Japan dude, built airport on
made-island. First place we visited was Osaka Castle Park, this place was
stunning in the spring, beautiful sakura everywhere, just got an hour more to
walk around here, took some photos. But unlucky thing happened, me and Fansep,
got lost in this large park. We took around the park once again to find way
back because no Japanese know English even we just asked for “parking bus”. We
were late for half an hour and whole bus nagging. That was really unlucky thing
for the first day with people you would spend time for a week ahead. Those
aunties keep nagging and talking about our lost. Hello, auntie? We even didn’t
mean to get lost, that’s because when we asked Japanese for the way, they told
us wrong, we didn’t mean to be late. I just wanna scream that statement when
they keep nagging, Thanks God, my mom isn’t talkative like those aunties haha.
We really didn’t take care of those bla bla things. :p We had lunch at Chinese
Restaurant which had so so taste, then we were dropped to hotel (Aka Namba
Washington Hotel Plaza) for rest and free time. Across our hotel was Doutonburi
Street and continued to Shinsaibashi which was hectic shopping street in Osaka.
We ate till drop there, lots of street food at Doutonburi Street and we shopped
lot of Japanese snack at the supermarket because it costed cheaper then tourist
center :p First we tried octopus okonimiyaki 550 yen but the taste was damn
good. Second, we ate the famous snow crab costed quite high couple bite of
crabs for 700 yen. The next one, we tried the well known crispy shrimp burger
at Lotteria for 290 yen, so cheap :p. Then we took around the street for
sightseeing. Becuse of cold wind, we decided to have dinner at Yoshinoya. I
ordered set of Salmon and beef teriyaki for 545 and Fansep ordered beef suki
chili bowl for around the same price, cheaper than in Indo haha. Then, as said,
there’s always room for dessert, we had dessert, chocolate ice cream parfrait
for 640 yen at local coffee shop near Doutonburi Street. Then, we went to
supermarket hunting for Japanese snack. When we were on our way back to hotel,
we saw a local Osaka resto, can you guess, we continued to eat the unagi
satays, duck satays, and several kinds of satays which was baked with olive
oil. Osaka made us a little bit fat I think for the first day :p
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| I was here! Osakaaaa |
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| Kenrouken Garden |
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| Kiyomizu Temple |
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| @ Osaka Castle Park |
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| Osaka Castle Park |
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| OSAKAAAA |
After the good morning greeting
from Osaka, we continued to another town, Kyoto, via Shinkansen the most speedy
train. Distance between Osaka and Kyoto is around 75 km and it took only 15
minutes. First visit was Kiyomizu Temple, the big and well known temple in
Kyoto. We prayed and bought the amulets at that red temple. Along was to
Kiyomizu area, we found small shops selling souvernirs and snacks both side of
our way. But we prefered to take photos with the temple and sakura, sightseeing
made our time up for shopping. But lucky me, I bough matcha ice cream cone to
try and that’s yummy. I always love ice cream. We had lunch at local buffet
restaurant, then went to Lake Biwa which was the largest lake and had a love
sign :D Then we spent the night at Kanazawa, Kanazawa New Grand Hotel Annex.
The hotel was good and they served delicious western food for dinner. After
dinner, Fansep and me walked around the city,the shopping centers was closed at
8.00 pm, so we just had sightseeing of the city. The small city that had lots
of branded shops like fendi, lv, salvatore, and others. Wow, Japan :D Before we
went back to hotel, we bought hot green tea at Starbucks, the green tea was
much better than Indo :D
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| The Shinkansen |
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| Selfie with Sakura @ Kiyomizu Temple |
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| Kiyommizu Temple |
Konichiwa from Kanazawa! The
first for today was Omicho Market, one of the famous fish market in Japan. I
bought several ingredients here like seaweed, miso soup, and etc. :D The second
we visited one of the largest garden in Japan called Kenrouken Garden, lots of
sakura here and the atmosphere was awesome :D I tried sakura ice cream here,
never forget ice cream on my trip, and we tried egg filled with octopus at
street stand near the garden. After that, we continued our trip to
Shirakawago,ancient Japanese house, one of the world heritage, UNESCO, this
place was awesome and so damn beautiful. The view made me so speechless and
lucky us, we had lunch at one of local resto here. We got beef miso traditional
Japanese set for our lunch and the taste was damn delicious. After lunch, we
moved to Takayama, small city, saw the castle town Takayama. We prayed at
a Buddhist temple here, thank you for
the chance :D The last stop was Ramen house, we saw the process of making ramen
and tried their homemade ramen. Of course I bought several packs :D We spent
the night at Hei An Hotel, Yamanashi, which has traditional Japanese home, no
springbed, just tatami for sleep and we tried onsen, the hot water bathe for
tonight, felt so good.
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| Kenrouken Garden |
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Shirakawago Village
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Morning from Yamanashi, today we
gonna visit Mt. Fuji, the giant mountain in Japan. There’s saying, if you’re
lucky enough to see Mt. Fuji clearly, you’ll have another chance back to Japan.
#fingercrossed. The Mt. Fuji was seen so clearly from Lake Kawaguchi but I only
had the chance till first step because of the landslide. When the Fuji erupted,
it produced five lakes with the biggest one Lake Ashi, we took sight seeing
cruise to see the view around Fuji and the lake. I had udon set for the lunch
near Gotenba, hurray. We continued to Hakone Peace Park, peace for the world,
the park was so beautiful of sakura and so peaceful of Buddha statues. I felt I
was so lucky having the chance prayed here though we should take express
praying ya Fan :p The last place was Gotemba Factory Outlet, the luxurious
shopping center, shop till drop here :p We spent the dinner at 48th level in a
resto at Tokyo. Cheers for Tokyo! As usual, after we being dropped at hotel, we
continued to walk around the city, shopped several souvernirs at local
supermarket and ended at local standing sushi bar, Uogashi Nihon Ichi, near
Shinjuku Area. The sushi was so cheap accompanied with sake and we really ate
while standing because it was so small, that’s what they called standing sushi
bar. Fyi, 10 pieces of sashimi costed 1200 yen and for two pieces of sushi
around 160 yen. At Tokyo, the people understand English more or maybe because
wer’re near office area too :p But, no need to worry, if the waiter at resto
knows you’re not local, they will give you menu which has pictures of the food.
How can’t I fall in love with this country, so polite, so care, and so awesome.
We stayed at Sunshine Prince Hotel tonight.
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Standing Sushi Bar @ Tokyo
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Ohayo from Tokyo! Before we left
Tokyo, we visited Asakusa Temple, the most famous temple in Tokyo for praying
of course then last stop shopping at Nakamisme Avenue. Before lunch time, we
already arrived at Disney Sea, the place where your dream comes true. We
skipped lunch, only ate a shrimp bun packed with Donald Duck plastic, so cute,
costed 480 yen. We tried several games here, Storm of Rider, Town of Terror,
Temple of the Crystal Skull-Indiana Jones Adventure, and of course saw the
fantastic parade like Easter in New York and the most fantastic parade the
Legend of Mythica showed at the large lake, the center of Disneysea, so cool.
Last dinner in Japan we had at Hanamasa and we tried Kobe Beef which was highly
cost, 200 gr Kobe beef for 10.000 yen. Wow! But it tasted so good :D anyway
couldn’t try it at other country, so it’s worth. We spent last night near
Narita Airport, Marroad International Narita Hotel.
I only used wifi in hotels to
connect and share my photos during traveling. And for some shopping centers and
cafe, I payed with my creditcard (visa), but for some street shops like
souvernir shops around temple, they couldn’t receive payment via creditcard.
Let me tell you, you should visit Japan, it’s an awesome country and I hope I
can get another chance to visit other cities of Japan. The culture, people, view,
technology, cleanliness, politeness, uniqueness, Japanese snack, Japanese food,
cute things, oh how i miss you Japan J
and the last for the awesome Sakuraaaaa.
Thank you for my traveling
partner, Fanseptiani Wijaya, thanks for our time together, our lost, our
culinary experiences, our shopping time, our adventour time, and everything.
Let’s pray we’ll get another chance to be back to this beautiful country.
Sayonara Japan! See you in
another chance!
PS :
You can see my photos on my
instagram (@liviasalim) or my facebook Livia Salim (https://www.facebook.com/liviasalim97).
Feel free to ask me about
Japan, happy to share with you all.
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