Japan Honeymoon: Day 3 - From Hakone to Osaka

On the 3rd day of our honeymoon, we travelled to Osaka via Shinkansen reserved seat, which is covered under our 14 days JR pass.

The ride took almost 3 hours and we reached our Air bnb stay around mid afternoon.

Above pictured grabbed from airbnb site. The place is about 10mins walk from subway. The room was spacious for 2 pax with ensuite, kitchen (with appliances), bathtub and washing machine.

Overall, the hubby loved the place so much that for our upcoming Seoul trip, he wanted to stay with airbnb again.

There is convenience store about 5 mins walk from the apartment, and we bought breakfast and prepared it in the apartment the next day.

After settling done, we went to Den-Den Town for some toys and electrical goods window shopping. Not much photos for the day, but we had Buta Don (grilled pork don) at a random shop and it was sooo good!

Also, we came across a shop that sells retro games and it brought back alot of memories.

Picture taken from taiken.co

At night, we went to the famous Shinsaibashi & Dotonbori area for dinner. The place is a food paradise, you can find the osaka specialty here, from takoyaki to Kushikatsu (fried skewers) and famous Pablo cheesecake here. Where to eat? Just follow the queue!

We were too full, on all 3 days we were at the street, so we did not managed to eat any of the foods there :( even Pablo,  but luckily we did had our taste of Pablo Cheesecake in Tokyo (I will share in another post).

We got confused, as there is Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori, even up till now I am confused. But, after some research, Shinsaibashi is for shopping and Dotonbori is for food and where the famous landmark, Glico running man is located.

We spent about 10mins looking for this o.O

Also, if you are near the area, remember to drop by Don Qoijote (it's a one stop shop where they sell everything from food to appliance. Just look for the 'penguin'!

Picture from google.com 

We did nothing much on our 3rd day, just explore Osaka and back to our apartment to rest.

The next few days at Osaka, we went for buffet (IKR, go travel, die2 also must eat buffet) & visited Kyoto! Stay tuned!

Japan Honeymoon: Day 2 - Hakone (Part 2)

As we are trying for baby, we went to the famous Baby Tree at Hakone Jinja Shrine. After reading about how Cheeserland and QiuQiu touched the tree and got pregnant, we die2 have to go and touch also..but alas, I only have food tummy post 6 months of touching the tree :(

We alighted at Motohakone-Ko and walked for approx. 10mins to Hakone Jinja Shrine.

There is a place for you to wash your hands before entering the shrine, I think you start with holding the ladle with your right hand, then pour the water to your left, then switch and lastly use your right hand to wash your mouth. Voila, instructions from a noob :)

Another flight of stairs to reach the baby wishing tree...

Another wash before the mighty tree..

BEHOLD...the mighty 'Baby Wishing Tree'...

Looks just like an ordinary old tree, but I supposed we did not managed to absorb the 'baby making power' from the tree.

After purchasing some amulets, we went to tour the place. Zen is the only word to describe the place. 

Overlooking Lake Ashi.

Overall, both of us really love the place a lot as it is really peaceful and beautiful, will definitely be visiting again!

We rushed back to our Hotel - Mount View Hakone for dinner.

Dinner spread wasn't impressive, there was udon, sashimi, crab claw, tofu, fish, rice and some veges. But I guess for RM990+ per night, it was ok as there's dinner+breakfast+futon bed :)

Fresh sashimi for dinner.

We prepared for our private onsen (hot spring) session, priced at 2000yen (RM76).

There's a nice view from the open onsen. The tub is basically a small round tub with milky hot spring water. The water was hot, but with the wind blowing, you will get used to the temperature very soon.

Breakfast the next day. Loved the pork sausage, crab soup and the coffee...

The ryokan was spacious with nice fluffy futon beds. The only cons is there wasn't any shower in the room, so we had to go to the public hot spring on the Lobby level.

Apart from the public hot spring, there is also a private hot spring for family (no charge), and the difference with those that you have to pay is that there is no view. So, use the onsen as much as you can during your stay!

And that's the end of our Hakone 2d1n trip. We will definitely include Hakone in our next trip to Japan again, or at least any other place in Japan with Ryokan + hot spring experience!

Japan Honeymoon: Day 2 - Hakone (Part 1)

Woke up early as we need to catch the train to Hakone. Reserved our seats with the JR pass, reserving seats is easy, just walk in to the ticket office and show them your JR pass. There are few different ways to get to Hakone, but since we have the JR Pass, we took the 'by JR way'.

We bought the Hakone Free Pass once we alighted at Odawara. Priced at 4000yen (RM152) / pax, the Free Pass provides unlimited usage of transportation (bus, ship, cable car, train) at Hakone.

We took a bus to our ryokan, Mount View Hotel from Odawara station, journey took about half and hour. And it was a fun uphill ride, with view of foggy forest, it feels like we are on our way to find Totoro :)

We left our luggage at lobby and also reserved for the private open air hot spring, 2000yen (RM76). We wanted to reserve for a better looking one, but it was fully reserved.

We walked down the street, about 5 mins walk to take a bus to the nearest Hakone Tozan Railway.

Pretty-looking flowers on the way to the bus stop.

We had trouble taking the bus, but there was a friendly obasan, although not being able to converse in English, she helped us on the directions and bus to take.

With her help we managed to reach where we wanted to go. Can't remember where we stopped, but our intention is to experience the Hakone Tozan Railway.

Some warm Hot Spring bun @ 110yen

To fully utilised the Hakone Free Pass, we took all mode of transportation :)

We took the ship last, and there were 2 stops for the ship, we stopped at Hakone Machiko. Do take note the last ship leave at 16.20pm.

Went to a random restaurant for late lunch at 3pm, and the place was empty.

My Chirashi Don was good, with plenty of fresh sashimis, me likey!

His Spicy Salmon Don, abit too spicy but fresh nonetheless!

With a full tummy, we walked around the pier and took some photos :)

Will continue with Part 2 in a separate post..till then!

Japan Honeymoon: Day 1 - Arrival at Tokyo, Narita Airport

As mentioned previously, we flew ANA Air, ticket price was ok, approx. RM1,350 / pax. Departed at 7am (local time) and we touched down at 1500 (Japan time - 1 hour ahead of Malaysia).

The perks of travelling full service airline, in-flight meal & free booze :)

His American breakfast.

Mine - Asian Burger with rice.

Once we touched down, we went to get our pocket wifi and JR Pass. You can exchange your JR Pass at Narita Terminal 1 station - ticket office or JR East Travel Service center. Just walk in, and the friendly staff will guide you in filling the forms and exchanging the pass.

We bought the pass, as we wanted to travel to Osaka and all the way to Hokkaido :)

We took the airport transfer to town and then subway to our 1st night accomodation - Flexstay Inn Higashi-jujo. The guesthouse location is good, situated 2 mins away from train station and there is 2 convenient mart located within 1 min walk.

4,400 yen (RM172) for 1 night stay with private toilet. Small room but with good location. After checking in, we walked to the quiet street nearby hunting for dinner.

It was quite chilly, although it was summer.

Bought some street food from Oba-san. Was too hungry, didn't managed to snap a photo of the food.

The street was quiet but there were quite a number of eateries and we settled down for ramen and fried rice.

The menu - i guess the place's specialty is Tsukemen, but since it was our 1st night, we need to budget a bit, not sure our cash is enough for the rest of the trip. So we ordered the ramen+rice combo at only 600yen (RM22.80) with free drinking water.

Portion a little small, but it was just nice for us. Fried rice was flavourful, ramen broth was good and it was perfect for the weather.

After the meal, we have a short stroll around the old street, and there was a small market by the corner of the street. We bought sashimi back to our room, but ended up cooking it in kettle. Too chicken to eat the raw fish as we are not sure if it is safe to eat.

But found out that if the packaging is with an artificial leaf, by right it is safe to be consumed raw. ;p

We then went to bed early as we need to make a move to Hakone the day after. Stay tune for our 'zen' Hakone trip and also a visit to the 'Baby Tree' at Hakone.

13 days Japan Honeymoon with JR Pass

After our simple & small wedding at the beautiful and peaceful Enderong Resort at Janda Baik, we packed and are ready to go for our honeymoon at Japan!

It was quite a last minute plan (the honeymoon, not the wedding!), as we need to calculate all the budgets accordingly before deciding whether or not to have a honeymoon.

At last, we decided to just go ahead, as money can be earned back, but honeymoon is once in a lifetime....excuses! And as I am writing this, we are planning for our upcoming South Korea Winter Trip!!!

This will be a short & sweet summary of our not-so-summer trip to Japan. Will update in details soon!

Here's a rough itinerary & cost of our Japan Honeymoon in June 2016:

Cost
Based on 100yen = RM3.80
Flight Tickets (ANA Air) for 2 pax : RM2,757.80
JR Pass (14 days) for 2 pax              : RM3,447.48 / 92,780 yen
Pocket Wifi (Ninja) - 4 Days            : Free with ANA Ticket Promo
Pocket Wifi (Pupuru) - 9 days          : RM263.44 / 6,912 yen
Hotel (mostly guesthouse)                : RM3,388.64
Meals, Transport, Souvenir              : RM 7,524.00 / 198,000 yen
TOTAL                                            : RM17,381.36 

Basic Itinerary
Day 1            Arrived at Narita Airport, Get JR Pass, settled down at Tokyo
Day 2            Travelled to Hakone, Pirate Ship, Hakone Jinja Shrine
Day 3            Shinkansen to Osaka, Den Den Town, Shinsaibashi
Day 4            Kyoto - Fushimi Inari Shrine, Arashiyama Bamboo Groove
Day 5            Osaka Castle, Tempozan Ferris Wheel, Shinsaibashi (BBQ Buffet)
Day 6            Back to Tokyo - Akihabara
Day 7            Depart to Hakodate - Red Brick Warehouse, Chinese burger & Omu Rice, Izakaya
Day 8            Sapporo - Susukino
Day 9            Farm Tomita - Lavender ice cream
Day 10          Otaru Canal - Suitengu Shrine, BBQ Buffet Dinner (crab fiesta)
Day 11-13     Explore Tokyo City


Thanks for reading! Till the next update..

Thanks for reading!