Japan Day 0-3: Haneda, Osaka, Shinsaibashi, Kyoto

Day 0-Haneda

We took advantage of a SIA promotion and managed to book our flight to Haneda Airport at 699sgd per pax! The flight journey from Singapore to Haneda Airport was around 7hrs, quite a long flight so I highly recommend taking a better airline. Our flight was really punctual and there was an assortment of in-flight entertainment! The only thing I wasn't too happy about was their food, which was really quite mediocre.

Tired faces after a 7hr flight

As our arrival time was quite close to midnight, we decided to book a one night stay at the capsule hotel (First Cabin) at the airport. Even though it's slightly more expensive than the hostel/hotels in town, we thought it was a safer choice as we didn't want to rush for the last bus/train and risk getting stuck at the airport. And it was hell of a good decision, because by the time we got out of the immigration area (it took about 45min?!) and collected our luggage, it was already close to 12am.

Shuttle bus to our hotel

Our hotel was located at the domestic terminal, so we need to take a shuttle bus there. We didn't know it at first (such noobs), luckily Marvin went to ask the airport staff, if not we'll probably miss the last bus there. And the lady was super kind and enthusiastic! She totally ran with us to the shuttle bus area.

Guys checking in.

1: The girls rooms!

2: My First Class room. Slightly more expensive than the Business Class room, but there's extra space for luggage. 

3: Hotel's corridor with airline theme

4: Guys' Business Class room. No space for luggage, but you can leave your luggage at the reception area.

Us donning the PJs provided by the hotel.

First cabin is definitely the more 'astas' version of capsule hotels. They have everything you need for an overnight stay. The hotel provided basic things like toothbrush, towels, shampoo (by Shiseido!) to makeup remover and even curling iron for the ladies. But because it is a capsule hotel, the walls are really thin and they don't have a proper door, so we could hear snoring all through out the night. At 3-4am, some people started packing their luggage for their flight, and we could hear everything super clearly. The bottom line is, I don't think I'll choose to stay at a capsule hotel again. But it was good to at least experience it once.

Day 1-Osaka!

We started the day with a hearty brunch at the airport!

Beef bowl with a raw egg.

Probably one of the best beef bowls I've had so far. I especially love the raw egg! I like to mix it with the beef and rice so that the whole thing becomes a gooey mixture.

The JR pass!

The JR Pass can only be collected in Japan, but we had to purchase it in Singapore first. I think it cost us 360sgd per pax for the 7day pass, which was freaking expensive. While we were collecting the JR pass, we also bought a 2day metro pass for our last 2 days in Tokyo. It turned out to be completely useless because the package only allows you to travel using the metro system and it wasn't very convenient for us.
After changing a few subway lines, we finally made our way onto the bullet train which took us to Osaka!! The entire journey took about 3hours, so by the time we reached our hotel, it was already close to 4pm.

We stayed at Hotel Kinki (funny name, but this hotel has very high ratings on TripAdvisor!) in Osaka for 4 nights and made day trips to Kyoto and Nara. It's about 10-15min away from the Osaka JR station, and the area surrounding the hotel was always filled with young people! Very hip area I think!

Our room was just the basic western style with a private bathroom. I think they offered traditional Japanese style rooms as well, but it was more expensive. By the time we were ready to head out, we were all super hungry. We decided to follow the advice of the hotel staff and try out a ramen place called "Mannen". Ippudo was around the corner as well, but the staff highly recommended Mannen!

It was quite a small restaurant, very cozy place. I don't think there was an english menu, but the staff could speak simple english.

The ramen wasn't amazing though. We thought it was too salty for our liking and the egg wasn't the gooey kind. 

But no joke, I had THE BEST GYOZA in my life. Firstly, they serve bite-size gyoza. Somehow food just seem more appetizing when they come in mini size, don't you think? The crust was crispy and not too thick. I especially like how the fillings were all minced up nicely, but not to the point where they become mushy. When you take a bite into the gyoza, you taste perfection. Juicy meat and crunchy cabbage, omg, I miss it soooo much:(

Since it was already quite late after our meal, we decided to just roam and walk around our hotel area. We headed back to the Osaka station, where there were a few big department stores and shopping malls. By the way, the department stores in Japan close very early-830/9pm, unlike Singapore. We bought quite a few food items to munch on from the basement of the department stores.

Green tea muachee

Macarons by Pierre Herme

Over-rated Strawberries

I also did a bit of hauling at a beauty store.

The highlight of the night was when this happened.

My havaianas decided that it had enough of my abuse and it broke off while we were leaving the shopping area. They say 患难见真情. Real one. Damn lucky to have the best traveling partners. Su and Marvin took my broken (and smelly) slipper and ran off to find me a new pair of slippers. Raymond took me to a Macdonalds nearby and went off for 15mins on his secret mission to find me a cup of hot matcha latte because Mac'd didn't have it. THANK YOU Su, Marvin and Raymond!!!

The best matcha latte-we went back for more!

Alas, Su and Marvin didn't manage to find a cheap pair of slippers (lol, not going to pay $50 for one). But they bought scotch tape! It was quite funny, the 4 of us trying to tape and secure my slippers. Looked like a scene from FOC, you know, like some teamwork game. Too bad we didn't manage to take a photo of  the process.

And that's the end of our very eventful 2nd night in Japan. Headed back to the hotel with my 'new' slippers for an early night. The hotel provided traditional bath robes for us, which was quite sweet. Only wore it once lol.

Day 2-Namba, Shinsaibashi

Shinsaibashi is the largest shopping area in Osaka! It's located near Namba and Umeda station, and it is seriously so big, we took one full day to just walk around the area. I think shopping wise, Shinsaibashi is the best in Osaka and Tokyo! It has a lot of variety (much more than Shibuya/Harajuku), the prices are slightly more reasonable, lastly, everything is located along the shopping arcade, so it's very convenient and you just gotta keep walking!




This is the first Lush we saw in Japan. Mad love, so much cheaper and the staff are all SOOO polite and nice! I mean the Lush ladies in Singapore are already quite nice and friendly, but in Japan, it's a totally different level. They're so enthusiastic and just very very genuine, plus 2 of them kept commenting that my handphone case was KAWAII. I went to 2 other Lush stores during my Japan trip, and seriously big thumbs up for their service.



There's Takoyaki store which looked quite popular. Raymond was craving for Takoyaki the entire time, we so had to try it! It was not bad, very crispy crust and if I remember correctly, it was quite affordable as well.




Oh and they have 2 HUGE H&M and F21 there. We didn't go into H&M, but the F21 there was awesome. Somehow I think the selection in Japan is slightly different than Singapore.




This is one of the touristy sight- the giant crab. It's actually a restaurant that sells crab dishes, i bet it's pretty fresh.





And of course, another main attraction- THE RUNNING MAN!

We didn't take a lot of pictures after that because we're basically just shopping, walking around and stuff.

But I thought this is a very 'Japanese' picture-Giant sushi, the Jap high school students in their uniforms, and Japanese signboards.

Lastly, this was probably one of the BEST meals I've had in Japan.

Curry Rice with Fried minced meat balls.

Sounds and looks like it's nothing much. I was sooo wrong. The main reason why we chose this place was because of the crowd. We used the number of people in restaurants as a proxy of the food standard lol. More popular means better food right? From experience this almost always works out. Anw, this little restaurant is not on the main street, but it's pretty near Namba station. 

For something so ordinary and simple, I think the chef did an amazingly good job. Firstly, the minced meat balls were extremely crispy and JUICY. By juicy I mean when you bite into the meat, there's literally juice/soup spilling out of the meat. It was that good. I don't think I've ever eaten something like that before. 

The main dish at the restaurant is the curry rice. This is no ordinary curry rice. It came with brownish looking rice (rice coated with curry) and a fresh raw egg on top. The way to eat it is to mix some soy sauce and the raw egg with the rice. and VOILA~ best.curry.rice.

Pictorial instructions for curry rice.

Their curry rice was so good, we saw some customers just ordering the curry rice, without any sides. Somemore once we went into the restaurant we realized this place is actually quite famous. They have tons of celebrity photos.

And here's how the restaurant looks like. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend. Oh the lady is the store owner, I think she's probably quite famous, normal people won't have a life size cut-out of themselves in front of their shop right?

Lastly, my haul of the day!

Day 3-Kyoto!

Kyoto was the imperial capital of Japan. There are a lot of cultural sites and shrines, so I thought it will be good if we have a local to bring us around and explain the historical significance of the heritage.

Our Japanese guide was from the Good Samaritan Club in Kyoto. They're a group of volunteer guides from various universites in Kyoto. Basically, you just have to make a reservation with them and they will arrange for a volunteer to guide you around. The volunteer will contact you and help to plan your trip. There are no charges for the guiding services, but of course, you will need to pay for any entrance fees, transport costs and meals for the guide.

Our itinerary for the day: 

Kinkaku-ji (golden pavilion) → lunch (near Nishiki-street) →Nishiki-street →Gion area (including Kiyomizu-temple)

We met our guide at 10am near the Kyoto bus interchange and he already bought us our bus tickets! So efficient la. The bus journey from the interchange to the Golden Pavilion took around 40mins I think.

With our guide!

Amongst all the historical sites/shrines that we visited that day, I think the golden pavilion was the most magnificent one! The entire pavilion was covered in GOLD and you can see the reflection glistening on the surface of the river. Really impressive. If you're thinking of only visiting one shrine/cultural site in Kyoto, I would highly recommend visiting the golden pavilion. 

Tree that has the shape of a ship

Su: Oh it's a rooster!!

Guide: It's actually a phoenix.

Su so entertaining.

Throw all your coins!!

Area where people could toss coins into the grey bowl for good luck! Childish people like me will throw all their 1yen and get more 1yens from their partners. Was quite fun though!

These are 'bad luck' charms. According to our guide, people will bring home the good luck charms and if they get a 'bad' one, they will tie it on the rope and leave it there.

We also bought some candles for good fortune/good luck. There was a variety of candles to choose from, like '学业进步(excel at your studies)' and '身体健康 (good health)'. But being the typical Singaporean, we thought we should get the most valued for money one - '心想事成  (may your wishes come true)'. I think Raymond took the health related one. All three of us Kiasu people bought the all encompassing 'may your wishes come true'.

Need to get our green tea ice cream before we leave! 

Bonus unglam shot

After our tour at the pavilion, we took a bus and went over to somewhere near the Nishiki-street for lunch. It was a traditional restaurant and they have really good tempura dishes. I ordered a katsu set because you can't really go wrong with Katsu right?

WRONG! Worst meal in Japan-.- Raymond gave me some of his tempura, which was really good! But my Katsu pork was just really tough and stale? I don't know how to describe it, but it was bad.

The Nishiki-street was sort of like a marketplace dedicated to the sale of preserved food and traditional ingredients. The merchants there were very generous with sampling, but none of us were adventurous enough. lol

The good thing about having a local guide is that they know the best route to get to different places. Our guide brought us from Nishiki to Gion to the Kiyomizu-temple by foot. I think if we were to travel by ourselves, we'll probably get lost.

We passed by this temple on the way to gion and they had a 'lucky' well? It's not really called a lucky well, but our guide told us that Japanese will rinse their hands and mouth with the water from the well for good luck. 

Temple cat

And we arrived at GION! The buildings looked very traditional, majority were restaurants I think. Nothing super interesting, but i thought it was beautiful.

We went passed this little shop that sold tons of quirky candies and snacks. The shopkeeper was an old lady and she was super cute! She took out a chalkboard (those small ones for kids) and wrote down the price of my purchase, cos we couldn't communicate. And after I bought my candy, she kept bowing to me, super polite one. I also want to be that cute when I grow old.

We didn't get to see the legendary Geishas at Gion, but Su and Marvin saw them when they went to Kyoto on a separate day. SO LUCKY!!

It started raining quite heavily when we were at Kiyomizu-temple, and we were quite tired from all the walking. Anyway, there was a dungeon/room inside the temple which was supposedly pitch black. According to our guide, the room simulates the environment of a mother's womb, so if you manage to walk through the entire route, you're considered to be 'reborn'. I think quite scary to walk in complete darkness.

From the entrance of the temple, we had to walk quite a long trail up the mountain and then down again. It was quite an intense hike in the rain imo. I think Day 3 was one of the most productive day in terms of sight-seeing. And thanks to our guide, we didn't have to look at maps, or worry about getting lost. Just chill and follow his lead. Hahaha! 

We ended our Kyoto trip around evening time and went back to Osaka for dinner! 

Train back to Osaka!

We wanted to try out IPPUDO for dinner! The Ippudo near our hotel was located at some ulu corner, but there was already a queue when we reached. We didn't have to wait for long though, I think it was around 20min wait?

GOOEY EGG!

Not bad gyoza

Mentai rice

Verdict???

I think I'll rate Ippudo an 8/10? The ramen was nice, but it didn't leave me wanting for more. The soup base was a little oily and salty. We tried better (and cheaper) ramen in Tokyo imo, which I will share in the next few posts! 

After dinner we went to something like a 24hr store (they don't open 24hrs, but they close really late, like 3/4am). Andddd, we saw this!!!!!

Green Tea Galore~

I think it's very easy to go crazy and buy a shitload of things in that store. They have EVERYTHING. At first we grabbed like half a basket full of green tea stuff. But we only bought 1 or 2 to try out since the shop is quite near our hotel, we thought we could just go back again. It was lucky we didn't chiong, cos we found places that sell the green tea kit kats at 299yen (less than S$4)!

So this is my haul for Day 3, excluding all the food items.

Ended off the night with my delicious mini cup noodles! I bought the usual size back home, but I feel like it's not as nice as the mini one:( Minis always taste better!

Good Samaritan Club-http://www.geocities.jp/goodsamaritanclub_hp/