Day 2 - Osaka and Nijo castle.

Osaka Osaka - well, we figured that since it is the third largest city in Japan, we should make an effort to get on the convenient train and travel a whole 20 mins (maybe more than that, someone can correct me if I'm wrong) to see it. Jin, having read up on Osaka has confirmed that there is food there, so we decided to go. :)


Fell in love with Osaka once I got there. Stepping out of the train station itself was quite an experience. It was vert spacious and very beautiful - (it also had the cherry blossoms on their side!) Plus, the weather was PERFECT so we knew that we were going to have a good day.



Kok Siew and Jin Lee have been raving about this thing called the Takopachi - some octopus balls that were sold in Singapore. Apparently it was very good and had originated from Osaka, so it was a must try for me. Upon stepping out of the station, we were not only confronted with the lovely picturesque surroundings, but lo and behold, a takoyaki stall. (It's really name is takoyaki). Jin Lee ran over and bought some and we all dove in and had a bite each.



First reaction: HOT. HOT HOT HOT HOT. I think Kok Siew burnt her tongue. It was burning hot.


Second reaction: BLEAH. What the hell was this?

For those who don't know, the takoyaki is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, green laver (aonori), mayonnaise, and katsuobushi (fish shavings). Did I steal that from somewhere? Yes, now that you mention it, I stole that from Wikipedia.


What I can say about it though, it's NOT MY CUP OF TEA. Jin Lee, Kok Siew and Yvonne tell me though, that it was horrible. It was not just me, but that stall's takoyaki was extremely not up to standard. Even the Singaporean takoyaki surpassed this. They were determined to redeem the takoyaki in my eyes.


Whatever, let's just head to Osaka Castle. On the way to Osaka castle, we got to walk through the loveliest park, which was also filled with sakura (is it me, or is it just EVERYWHERE in Japan?) There was a little train that went through the park, and I'm sure that if we understood Japanese, we would be on that train. However, we don't, so we continued walking on.

First glimpse of Osaka Castle.

Von leaned over and asked "So what are we meant to look for here?" To which the answer that Jin (or was it me? Whatever it was, it was quoting the guide book) provided was "Osaka Castle is famous for its stone walls". OK then - we are going there, look and the stone walls and scoot. I'm getting hungry. :)

The weather was perfect, clear blue skies and the atmosphere was amazing! Underneath all the cherry blossom trees, and in perfect sight of the castle, people were having a good time, picnicking and laughing and enjoying the warm weather and the pretty sakura. Why didn't we bring a picnic basket? Honestly....

While walking, we had a catch up on what was going on with the people we used to know in high school and somehow that lead to Jin and I (eventually pulling Kok Siew and Von into this) plotting to scale the Osaka Castle walls. NINJA style. See, some things don't change!!! The end result of that was that we needed ropes and bow and arrows to do it, and as I left my crossbow in the hostel that day, it was not do-able.

Yes, this is us trying to figure out how to scale the Osaka castle walls...

By the time we got to Osaka castle, we were a little hot and bothered as it was a long walk and the weather was beating down on us. I was complaining of the heat (I do not like the sun) and rested on the cooooooool stone walls! It was awesome! Of course we then decided to spend 10 minutes taking photos there - just so that we were in the shade and so that we could lean on the stone walls. Plus, you know, since the castle was known for its walls, we thought that we would how it the respect that it deserved. :)

After taking our modelling photos, we proceeded to look at the front of the castle. Apparently I was staring at this dog that was dressed in a Sailor Moon outfit, I think the owner thought I was thinking HOW CUTE (because the owner stopped and waited for me to take a photo of this thing) But in actual fact, for the record, I need to say, that I FREAKING HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE DRESS UP THEIR PETS!!!! What is the point of that??? Anyway, because I felt obligated to, I took a photo of that dog. How embarassing. And looking at this dog, you would think that the owner was a little girl - NO, it was a big fat man. Not anyone that you would expect to dress a dog up!

Anyway, we wandered around Osaka Castle and debated whether we should go in. This is how it went:

Jin Lee: Should we go into the castle?

Ness: Are we that cultured?

Kok Siew: No.

Yvonne: OK, let's go then!

:)

Still got a photo out of it though!

So onward to Dotomburi, which was the Gourmet street! We were slightly lost and finally found it, and YES, it looks like a GOURMET street for sure! We decided to have lunch at one of the restaurants though - it was one that we saw in Ginza the night before and it had heaps of people, so surely the food must be good. And it wasn't bad at all. I was so full at the end of it, I could barely walk!!!

Coming out of the restaurant, the girls were still keen for me to try the takoyaki, which I was sure I would still not like it, not because I was not open-minded about it, or that I already had a bad experience. I KNEW that if I were to put anything else into my mouth - I was going to cross the line into UNCOMFORTABLY FULL.

Eitherway, I sampled the okonomiyaki AND the takoyaki. Both of which, I can't say that I enjoyed. Oh well.

Walked around a little bit more before then deciding to head back to Kyoto to Nijo castle to see what the big dealio was about. Got some bento boxes (yes, I know we were full, but you never know with later) and made our way to Nijo castle.

Now I understand why people rave about Kyoto. Nijo castle was all lit up and they had cleverly placed lights underneath the cherry blossoms. I have always liked the night and night time activities (even though I'm afraid of the dark - go figure) so this was very exciting to me! The whole castle was beautifully lit up and the trees seem to be almost dancing with the shadows of the THRONGS of people that were there! Unfortunately, the colours would not translate into pictures, so for now, you might just have to take my word for it. :)

After walking around Nijo castle, the girls and I came to some stalls selling food and souvenirs. We quickly found a couple of benches to eat out bento boxes and just generally enjoy the night. And that's the thing about Japan. Even though it's crowded, there always seems to be a quiet corner to sit and gather your thoughts.

After another immensely enjoyable day, the four of us wandered back to the hostel, celebrated the fact that it was our last night in Kyotokko and had a very good night's sleep.

Thought that I had to add this pretty piccie of me outside Osaka Castle!

Kyoto Day 2

Woke up and had had HAD to take a shower in one of the dreaded shower stalls on the ground floor. Only three bathrooms between the however many of us in the hostel. GROSS. It did smell gross and I was quite please when I was done with my shower and out of the hostel.

Realised that it was Good Friday and as a devoted (not) Catholic, I was not meant to eat any meat.* So we went for a wander and found a nice modern breakfast place near the Kyoto train station. It was very clean and little AND more importantly, it had a vending machine which dispenses little tickets that you had to take to the counter so that they know what meal to cook for you. The food was very good and cheap, and we left feeling really quite satisfied. I had a clear udon broth with some inari. BARGAIN.

Anyone who has been to Kyoto will tell you that you have have HAVE to see the Golden Pavillion, or as the locals call it, Kinkakuji. So Jin Lee, Kok Siew, Yvonne and I made the journey to see it. Only one thing we overlooked. We decided not to listen to the nice Japanese lady who told us that it was "far" - she seemed to be saying that it was too far to walk. But did we listen to her? NOOOOOO.... :)



The upside about walking that much was that you got to see a lot of things on foot. We stumbled upon what I think is Hirano Shrine, girls - correct me if I'm wrong! But it was breathtakingly beautiful. I'm not sure whether breathtaking is the correct word for it, hell, I'm not a wordsmith! I always thought that breathtaking would be something grand and majestic. This was more dainty and beautiful, but nonetheless, it took my breath away. Rows and rows of cherry blossoms providing a bursts of pink throughout the whole area. There were stalls everywhere and gathering from the banners and stuff, they must have been selling food! The stalls were closed because it was too early in the morning, but that provided Jin Lee and I the rare, once in a lifetime opportunity to duck behind one of them and pretend that we were selling! Of course, I will give the credit to Jin Lee for the great idea - even though it may have been borderline illegal, but hey, whats another overseas offence, hey, Jin? ;)


There were two little girls who were dressed up and LOVING the attention that everyone showered them! They smiled for the cameras and posed for photos. Eat your heart out Paris. There were also some interesting characters dressed up and typical tourist style, I asked for a photo. :) Including some guys in their samurai looking get ups.



Onward to the famous Kinkakuji - I have been told that the Silver Pavillion was more stunning, Ginkakuji, but we found out that it was under construction and therefore, decided to give it a miss. Finally arriving at the Golden Pavillion and while it was pretty (big disclaimer there), I think the common reaction among us girls was "Is that it?" I have to say, that it was not as big, grand or as stunning as what you see in the photos! Oh well, we did a famous landmark and when someone says Kyoto, I can say that I saw the Golden Pavillion. Although having completely bagged it out, I will say that it was nothing like I've ever seen before, so I guess that is a plus!

After Kinkakuji, we made our way to Kiyomizu-dera. I must've read about it somewhere because it is extremely popular tourist attraction, but I did not have that much expectations for it, after the sort of disappointment of Kinkakuji. Anyway, it was BEAUTIFUL. The temple was set up a little higher than anything else, so it gave us a fantastic view of the Kyoto skyline (and the ugly Kyoto tower - yech). On the way up to the temple as well, the streets were filled with souvenir shops and food places, which we did not even STOP to look at to start with (upon hindsight, that was a BAD idea!) Took plenty of pictures even before entering the temple. Typical tourists!!!


The theme for that temple (and I find out later that it was a SUB-temple called Jishu-jinja was love. There were love charms everywhere and more importantly, there were 2 love stones. If you are able to walk between the two stones (which were 18m apart) with your eyes closed, then you will be lucky in love. Well, so we thought. But it turns out that being able to complete that task would confirm your loved one's affection (once again, after some research - AFTER the trip!). WELL, because we thought that it was going to make us lucky in love, we decided to do it. And cheat. And here is how we cheated:

Yes. We are not former ASEAN scholars for nothing. :)

Saw a couple of geishas (or were they maiko?) on the way out. Could NOT find anywhere to eat as it was already 3pm and we had decided not to eat at Kiyomizu (stupid decision - I think I was the person who thought that we shouldn't eat there - oops!) So we searched and searched for somewhere to eat and finally found somewhere to eat (they ran out of spoons that's why they decided to give Jin a ladle! ;))






Then onward to the famous Philosophers Walk – on the way, I was told that we are meant to be “one with our thoughts” there. (Which one of you girls said it to me – admit it now!!) THOUGHTS? THOUGHTS????? I don’t have any thoughts. I have ONE…. Maybe. :)

But you know, when I got there, it was so beautiful, the canal (which did in fact look like a giant longkang, but a clean and non-smelly one!) was strewn with fallen cherry blossom petals and the walk itself was once again lined with cherry blossom trees – very very pretty.

There was one occasion where the wind blew and all the petals came tumbling (ok floating) off the trees and it looked like it was snowing petals! Absolutely amazing.

Instead of going back to the hostel to rest and whatnot, we decided to then head to the Gion region for some food. Found this restaurant and I thought that I should try the tempura. Never really liked it when I tried it in Australia, it always had very thick batter and very oily. Nevertheless, I thought that I should try it, because let’s face it, you can never go wrong with something fried.

Heaven. Absolutely heavenly. I love the tempura in Japan. Really light and fluffy batter, and the tempura sauce that was drizzled over the rice was absolutely AMAZING. Thoroughly enjoyed that dinner, although I think Jin Lee might not have enjoyed hers so much. :)

Walked around the Gion region, which was interesting in itself. What was more interesting was walking in a lonely, dark back alley (who’s fault was that!!!). Managed to asked about English books in a bookstore, (there were a total of ZERO books that I would have bought).

Another funny incident. We were quite lost and were trying to make our way back to the hostel. I saw the Pig and Whistle bar and said to the girls – we can ask them in English and they will understand (you know, being an English pub and all). The guy at the pub spoke perfect English and proceeded to give me instructions. But I must’ve had a blank look on my face, because he then decided to TAKE me to where I needed to get the bus from. We walked PAST the girls, who were looking at me, quite amused, and proceeded to take me down to the subway station. By the time I got back, it was a good 10 mins that I had been gone and the girlies were teasing me about it. That I could’ve been raped and killed. IF THAT WAS THE CASE, WHY DIDN’T ANY OF YOU FOLLOW ME???? Biatches. :) But that was Japanese hospitality for you – always willing to go the extra limb to help someone out. Amazing.

Thus was the end of Day 2.

Kyoto. DONE.




*Well, not intentionally anyway. I did eat meat on Good Friday in 2004 and again in 2008. 2004, the boys and I were hungover as all hell. Biggy got a call from Timmy (or was it Brendon) to pick them up from wherever they had passed out. Paddy and I got Biggy to get some Maccas on the way back. Halfway through breakfast, Timmy said "F**king good lot of Catholics we are - eating meat on Good Friday!" To which we were horrified (for the record) but figured that the damage was done. The other time was in 2008, when we were in Canberra and Nicole had made us beef tacos, quite forgetting about Good Friday too! Oh welll.....

Kyoto - Day 1

As previously mentioned. Arrived in Japan and hopped on the shinkansen to Kyoto. To my absolute HORROR, Kyotokko Cheapest Inn was called CHEAPEST INN for a reason! We were quite quite lost when we first arrived not knowing how to walk to the hostel. But luckily, Jin Lee pulled aside some people who were staying there and they took us straight to our LOVELY accommodation. *bleah*.

Anyway, I had 21 roomies. No SHIT. TWENTY ONE. Or were there more Kok Siew? It was insane. All the beds were bunkies and had drapes over them - there was absolutely NO privacy. What was worse was that there were three bathrooms for showers downstairs and they had a weird smell! EEEWWWWW.....

To drown our sorrows, we decided to go to a nearby izakaya (Japanese for "watering hole") or in other words, a typical Japanese pub. It was lovely!!! The food was AMAZING. Even though we didn't understand a word of Japanese, we managed to point to what we needed on the menu and it was all brought to us in all its hot, steaming goodness and Japanese hospitality!!!

Japan day 1

So landed in Japan. After months and months of talking about it, have finally landed in Japan. For starters I was met with disappointment because for some reason, my phone didn't work in japan. International roaming bullshit. Oh well, I guess that I would enjoy my holiday better if I didn't check my phone every 5 mins.



The immigration and visa side of things went fairly smoothly. Went to get out japan rail pass exchanged for an actual ticket, which seemed to me a little silly because they still insisted on looking at ur japan rail pass even though you have a ticket. Oh well.



Anyway, am currently in the shinkansen on the way to kyoto. We took the train from narita to shinagawa. Now from shinagawa to kyoto. And then another one kyoto to nijo. Can't wait to see the country already!



Xoxo

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Singapore - reminiscing the good ole days..

Flying to Singapore. So so SO excited to see the Lion City, which had been my home for four years. It has been 9 years since I've last been back in Singapore- it was the time I had to collect my O-level results.



Anyway, it was much more exciting this time. The EIGH gang and I were heading to Japan for our 10 year reunion. Ten years since we've graduated from high school. Ten years since we stopped doing everything together and started doing our own thing.



We were called the EIGH gang (by no one else but us) because Jin Lee had once worn a shirt that had a goblin/elf/something looking completely drunk that said EIGH. Thus the EIGH gang was born. Not that we weren't friends before the shirt.



We all had arrived in Singapore on the same ASEAN scholarship. The ASEAN scholarship was a full scholarhip given by the Singapore government to the brightest students from Malaysia, the Phillippines and Indonesia.



We were put in the same hostel. Yvonne and Kok Siew were put in the same toom. Jin Lee and I in rooms opposite from one another. Same school, CHIJ (Toa Payoh), the same class, 1/1. Ever since then, we did everything together. We all woke up at 6am, all had breakfast at the canteen at 6.15am. Ran for the bus, either the 151 or the 154 which would take us straight to school. Sometimes we would take the 156 and change buses at CJC. Went to the same higher malay class which was outside school hours at Bradley, only to have it moved to Bishan. We ran home after higher malay to make it for prep that night.



We attended the same ASEAN functions and had dinner together every night.



I miss those old days. But who knew 10 years later, the four of us would take a trip to the Land of the Rising Sun to renew our friendship and catch up with each others' lives. Can't. Wait.





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KL - day #1

So I had to make my way to the Japanese Embassy to apply for my visa. It was all well and good getting there because mom was lovely enough to drive me. Then I said to her that I was going shopping. In ampang park. Stuff that for a joke, growing up I hated Ampang Park and looking at it now, I don't think its changed very much!



My real love and somewhere that never disappoints me was KLCC. I know, I'll walk to Ampang Park and take the train to KLCC. So as I was leaving the Embassy, I asked the guard for directions. Here is how the conversation went:



Me: Hallo, macam mana nak pergi Ampang Park? (How do u get to Ampang Park?)

Guard: Jalan terus akan sampai (walk straight and you'll get there)

Me: Berapa lama? (How long?)

Guard: (incredulously) Huh? Kau nak jalan? Panas tau!



Basically he was surprised that I was going to walk and told me that it was hot. A LOCAL is telling me that it was hot. That can only mean trouble.



Determined to prove that the Malaysian sun is no where as bad as the Australian sun, I set off to find Ampang Park. I came to a junction that basically said "Ampang Park- straight" and "KLCC turn left" and I saw the twin towers looming in front of me and thought that it would be closer. Unfortunately I forgot to factor in the fact that KLCC was much bigger and even though it looks close, it really isn't. So the walk was extended to 20 and I am burnt to a crisp. Thanks KL, thanks.



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KLCC - revisiting old times

The minute I walked into KLCC, it was like I never left. The bright glare of the stores, Bally, Hermes, Prada, Gucci, Tiffany's, Escada, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs - they all made me feel so excited. And upon looking further into these shops, nothing jumped out at me. When I shop in Australia, I was excited. I can just imagine how awesome a pair of shoes would look, I could see the top, in my mind's eye on the latest episode of gossip girl. But not here. They look dated, and dare I say it - cheap?



Let's hope I have better luck in Singapore and Tokyo.



Xxx

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Delayed flight 2

So its 0349 and I'm still in Tullamarine airport waiting to board. Which is not too much of a problem now that I have had an hours sleep in me.



Best investment: travel pillow and travel blanket. I am so glad I caught the newagents before they shut. Found a quiet corner and lay on the bench, and slept for a good hour. Was awoken by the announcement stating that we should be underway before 5am, which is great.



Oh, and I got that sleep mask as an added treat. The bright lights of the airport were kinda hampering my sleep. :)



Please let this be fixed soon so that I can go home!



Xoxo

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Delayed flight

Delayed flights sucks especially if u're alone. I have been in this airport since 1330 and it is now 0214. There is a "technical error" with the aircraft and frankly, it worries me. So I'd really rather have it fixed so not going to complain that much abt the delay. But I am sleepy and this also means that when I get into kl, its peak hour traffic. Great.



I'm never flying air asia again.





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Day 1 - on route to KL

So I'm now sitting in the airport, getting extremely excited abt Japan! The more I read abt it, the more intrigued I am. No wonder everyone wants to go back, once theve come.



Can't. Wait.



Oh, hope I get my Japanese visa too!



Xxx

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