Category: Travel

Morning Osaka. Time pasts so fast when you are having fun. Its already day 8 and we are returning home tomorrow. We did not really know what to do for lunch, what is the Japanese version of the morning food? In Singapore its the soft boiled eggs with kaya toast, Prata, Chwee kueh, etc? we’ve got no clue what a typical Japanese breakfast is, so Starbucks sounds good. lol…

My Japaneses wife looks so gorgeous this morning, she is actually Singaporean, but in Japan, she is my Japanese wife.

Free and easy means explore, so off we went in separate directions, she went towards Daimaru while it was Den Den Town for me.

Den Den Town is like the Osaka version of Akihabara Electric Townin Tokyo. Filled with electronic goods, manga, toys, etc. As compared with Daimaru… totally no comparison.

I went into a huge Gundam store and it was quite amazing. With models all well painted, books, comics, videos, toys, clothes, etc… it was really a boys wonderland.

Also walked past a few Maid Cafés which is kinda Otaku thing which i still don’t quite understand.

Time ran out quite fast as i walked quite far knowing that i still needed to walk back to meet Pearl. I spent most of my time walking around and soaking up the Japanese environment rather then going into shops to shop, cause in out internet age i kinda feel that there is nothing we can’t buy off the net or by ordering. However, walking around is an experience that can’t be bought. Ok, there is Google Street View, but still it can’t replicate the experience.

Met Pearl up for lunch cum tea, but after making her order, she had to visit her Diamaru again as she felt that there are a few more things to get before we say bye bye to Shinsaibashi shopping. So I ended up eating all by myself.

She came back, had to gulp down the food and we had to head back to the hotel as we are meeting our Japanese friend Aki there. Without a 3G phone it did not help that we were a few minutes late + he knew me as Nick Pan, but the hotel had my name like in my passport name which is slightly different, hence the reception told him there was no Nick Pan registered in the hotel.

My friend Aki works at SAN-EI and we went to his office to pay a visit and also to see the Showroom.

The TOH faucets designed by Yasumichi Morita and manufactured by SAN-EI are definitely the most exquisite range of faucet in the world. Each piece has a hand crafted porcelain layer which makes it truly one of a kind.

You can find it selling in Singapore too.

After a short tour in SAN-EI’s office, Aki, together with Sasaki brought us back to Shinsaibashi where we met Ikawa San for dinner. I knew all of them when i was working in my parent’s bathroom business.

Ikawa San and my dad goes a long way back. If i’m not wrong for at least 30 years now. Ikawa San have since retired and the joyful man is still enjoying life. Don’t he look like an actor.

Aki and Sasaki both manage export markets, hence their english is really good and we all had a nice time catching up and chatting.

They all read my blog a few days before meeting up with us and knew that this trip was because it was our 10th Anniversary, hence Ikawa San suggested we take a picture while making a 10 with our fingers. What a good idea. So i think we will be back in Osaka again 10 years from now to take another picture with all our good Japanese friends too if possible.

Aki ordered an excellent meal for us and apparently its a Korean cum Japanese styled dinner. The food was really yummy and we even tried Chiken Sashimi… yes you heard right, Chicken Sashimi and it tastes kinda like frogs legs back in Singapore.

We went for alfresco coffee after that while watching Japanese girls walk by.

Sasaki and Ikawa went back after coffee and we said our goodbyes and thanked them for their hospitality. Aki then walked with us.

For the past few days when we passed by this clown, we did not understand why is everyone taking pictures with it, so we asked our Japanese friend.

Aki told us its Kuidaore Taro. According to Wikipedia, Kuidaore means roughly “to ruin oneself by extravagance in food”. The clown which was installed in 1950 symbolises that “eat till you faint” spirit and because Osaka is like the food capital of Japan, this clown can also be said to be a very apt symbol for Osaka.

So now, we had to take a picture with Kuidaore Taro.

So whats to do after dinner and coffee in Osaka? you will never guess it. RAMEN!

Aki brought us to the best Ramen restaurant in Osaka. The restaurant was quite narrow and it even had a one way sign inside as there was just no space for customers to walk around. One door in, one door out. There was also a hanger for us to hang our coats.

All across the walls there were autographed tiles and apparently all of them are some sort of celebrities or famous people who have eaten here. Very cool indeed.

The cooks had coloured scarfs and they were all moving very swiftly in a Japanese Ramen flow which was beautiful to look at.

Pearl and I could only share one bowl, but Aki the Osaka Local had no problems with one full bowl of ramen himself.

I asked Aki how could Japanese eat Ramen after dinner and some even Ramen with Rice. I mean its like carbo + carbo right. He laughed and gave me the puzzled look. “I don’t understand why are you asking me this question” he said and we all burst out laughing. Ok this is like the way of the Samurai thing… Its the way of the locals… this is just the way it is.

So what should we do after Dinner, Coffee and Ramen? you will never guess it. Okonomiyaki! OMG! we could not eat anymore! Kuidaore! Kuidaore!

Aki told us Okonomiyaki is Osaka’s contribution to Japanese cuisine so being in Osaka we should try it, more so when we were standing at the door of the BEST Okonomiyaki outlet in the whole of Osaka. Cannot cannot… We surrendered and thanked our kind host for his wonderful recommendation.

He sent us back to our hotel and we said our goodbyes. Aki is such a wonderful friend and his warm character will always have a place in our hearts.

If anyone out there is looking for a handsome, honest and wonderful Japanese husband who speaks excellent english, drop me a note, i believe i’ve got a great candidate.

The last night of the tour itinerary we stayed at the Hotel Nikko at Kansai Airport. So with our 2 day extension, we had to make our way back into Osaka city. We were suppose to take the Nankai Main Line, but when we tried to buy tickets, we were told that there was an accident, hence the line was suspended till further notice. We had no choice but to take the JR instead which ended us up at Tennoji Station.

We walked around to explore the place and it was quite an amazing underground network of shops. We came across Japanese rice at a supermarket and were really tempted to buy a bag home as we came to learn the best Japanese rice were usually not exported. But then again, thinking about our baggage weight limit, we dropped the idea.

The station was a mega junction of sorts and it had so many platforms that it makes Singapore’s MRT look like child’s play.

We ended up at Mc’s for lunch and we both had Shrimp burgers. Being Singaporean, the pork burger definately caught our eyes.

We finally reached our hotel in Nipponbashi, dropped our stuff and headed out to explore Osaka. Pearl headed for Shinsaibashi while i walked south to explore Namba and Doguyasuji area.

Apparently i managed to walk pass a place for comedy and later found out that Osaka is the capital for comedy in Japan and that this place that i passed by was the main place for Japanese humor.

I spent sometime at Muji only to later meetup with Pearl and come back to this Muji where were expressed our love for well designed functional items.

It started to get late, hence we headed back to Dotonbori for dinner. There were just too many restaurants and with out the local lore, there was no way we could decide. So we looked at places that were not extremely extravagant and yet had substantial locals waiting to get in. We ended up at a place where they served burger patties as a dish with rice.

Although half the day was kinda wasted as we had to make a long detour due to the train accident, we were glad we still had a full day tomorrow to do what ever we wanted.

We are starting to love Osaka.

Osaka. The second most busy city of Japan. Our traveling in Japan stops here and Osaka is where we will be for the next 4 days. Today, we start of our tour by visiting the Osaka Castle.

The path up the castle are all cherry blossom trees, but we were just a few weeks late to view the magnificent view.

There was also a time capsule near the castle and it contained many Japanese technological advancements. This is a serious thing as they plan to fully open it only in 5000 years. omg!

Can you imagine a moat this wide It will be a real challenge to siege the castle.

After walking around the castle, we moved on to Universal Studio.

We were excite to take the rides and seeing Spider Man having almost no queue, we ventured in. Apparently there was a queue, but it was in this big hall indoors. It felt like there was almost 300 – 400 people in there. Darn! We walked out for sure. Apparently the queue time for Spider Man was 160mins. There was absolutely NO WAY we are going to spend that long in that hall waiting for a ride.

We entertained ourselves and walked around the theme park enjoying the setup and taking pictures. The best part of cause was both of us enjoyed theme parks the same way. It would be a big problem if one of us really really wanted to queue for the rides and the other did not. I can so imagine the sparring of words already… “We came all the way here and don’t take any rides???” I’m glad we did not have such verbal sparring.

Yes she was standing on a weighing scale and her candid pose reminded me how much i love this girl.

This pose is so funny.

We came across a digital board and it showed the queue times of all the rides. WAH LAU!

However we did take one ride, as there was no queue. It was the merry go round for kids in the Land of Oz. lol…

Did not get to meet the famous Tokyo Storm Trooper, but still manage to get a picture with a trooper. lol…

Pearl met Shrek and Princess Fiona.

We did not fail to find Starbucks once again.

If you think the ah bengs in Singapore are very beng, what do you call this? I can understand the coolness of it, cuz when my friends were coiling copper wires around their Tamiya cars, i was busy decking it out with all sorts of decoration. Who needs speed when its looks freaking cool. lol…

After Universal Studio, we went to the Black Gate Seafood Market. Everything looked big, beautiful and fresh.

As we were already in Osaka Shinsaibashi area, we walked pass the main bridge. This IS Osaka, you did not come to Osaka if you have not walked this bridge. Everything was colourful and loud. We are so so so glad we extended our tour for 2 days of free and easy to explore this place.

Dinner was at a indoor BBQ place and the place was packed. Apparently there was a junior base ball league team in the restaurant and all their parents were there too. Each of the boys came up to do a short intro for themselves and the parents came up too to thank the crowd.

Later i found out from my Japanese friend that its not easy to stay in a baseball team in high school. If you’ve made it past 1 month, its a good reason to celebrate especially its the time of the year when a new team is formed.

We definitely enjoyed the day.

Its Sunday and we are off to Kyoto today.

Along the way, we passed by many typical Japanese houses. The beautiful yet monotonous sights slipped me into a drowsy mood, especially knowing that the trip will take about 2 hours and the fact that we are on a holiday and its only 8+ in the morning.

The tiled roofs made me think that ninjas skipped on these roofs with the full moon lighting their paths. We are indeed in Japan and we are well deep into our holiday.

It was the Golden Week in Japan and being a sunday, the inbound traffic to Kyoto made us travel an extra 3 hours. So the 2 hour drive, became a 5 hour drive.

It was not in our itinerary to visit Nijo Castle, so what we could see was only one of the entrances when we drove past.

Our first stop in Kyoto was the Nishijin Textile Center where we viewed fine textiles, viewed a Kimono show and had our lunch.

Next destination, the Heian Shrine where we stopped for a short time to take some pictures. This shrine also houses the largest Torii (Traditional Japanese Gate) in Japan.

After visiting the Shrine, we were off to the famous Kiyomizu-dera.

It would take the coach too long to go up the hill, so we got off at the foot and walked up.

The crowd was amazing, the whole place was colourful and you can clearly feel these streets were never built to take this kind of crazy tourist traffic. But i could imagine it would be really charming if there were less people.

Some places in this temple reminded me of the Japan trip i took when i was a child. I remembered clearly the two metal staff and the waterfall.

On the way down, we went into the small shops, tried some of their local snacks and of cause took many pictures.

Even spotted a Golf GT Sport. lol…

It was time for the Shinkansen. We got on from Kyoto and the one stop ride brought us to Shin-Osaka.

We took the local train and ended up at Shinsaibashi where we had Shabu Shabu for dinner.

After a short walk in the main shopping area, we were off to our hotel.

The day was generally tiring as it started with major jam on the expressway, then with all the long walks and commuting, i wonder how much we have traveled today.

Woke up at 4:15am today. The plan was to catch sunrise from our hotel window and try my chances at seeing Mt Fuji. The view from my room was not to fantastic, so i creped out of the room, took the lift and went to the top level where the dinning area was.

As you can see, the morning is starting to get bright, but there the direction where Mt Fuji was suppose to appear was obviously foggy.

I was not terribly disappointed as its kinda predictable that it will be foggy in the morning. So it was back to the room to get a bit more snooze.

The breakfast spread was good and its nice to see many locals also staying in this hotel and having breakfast. There was a table near us, where the husband sat down and instructed the wife to go get food. She came back with food only to be ordered again to go get coffee. Interesting culture.

Today’s plan was to try and get up Mt Fuji and take the bullet train + two other stops. We left the hotel early, we left at 8am.

On the way up, we manage to spot some wild Sakuras, so we got off our coach to take pictures. I think this picture is the best picture to represent this Japan trip. Its beautiful.

On the way, I also spotted lone fisherman fishing. It feels almost spiritual just looking at men dedicating who knows how long alone on a small raft fishing. I mean, there is absolutely no one to talk to. Its a pretty cool sight.

We stopped at an old village and was told this was how some of the villages lived in the past in this area. The roofs were made of grass apparently. Its also cool to see vending machines everywhere in Japan, even in such secluded places.

In this whole trip I felt we would not be able to go up Mt Fuji, cuz when i was 13, my parents brought us to Mt Fuji and due to weather, we could not go up. Then just a few weeks ago when my sister’s company’s incentive trip brought them to Japan, she too did not manage to go up Mt Fuji.

On the way up, i feel asleep on the bus (i woke up at freaking 4:15am and slept like 1:30am), Pearl nudged me and asked me if the white stuff by the side of the road was snow or not. After a while, it was clear, we are going up and its full of snow up there.

We stopped at one of the 5th Station and we should have went up about 2300meters above sea level.

This is Pearl’s first time seeing snow and i’m glad i could give her this experience.

My camera’s batts were dead, hence i had to change to my phone camera. What a time to die on me.

There were of cause very touristy souvenir shops and i could not resist but take a picture of this very cute packaging.

I bought a simple fridge magnet and a plate of BBQed squid as the smell filled the whole place which made it irresistible!

On the way to our next stops, small provision shops sat quietly beside the busy tourist route and this cigarettes vending machine caught my eye.

We arrived at Owakudani Boiling Valley to see hot sulfuric water oozing out from the ground. The people there used the water to boil eggs and the result was black hard boiled eggs due to the sulfur.

The smell there was really WAH LAU!

Anyway, we did buy the eggs and tried them out. Same lah, it tastes like how normal eggs would. Apparently the story is such that eating these eggs will extend your life for a max of 7 years. I think some people actually believed it as i can see tons of people consuming the eggs like if their life depended on it. lol…

A Mt Fuji sits along the horizon, our coach drives away to our next stop which was a hotel in Toyohashi (i think).

After a simple steamboat dinner at the hotel, we went to the roof deck to look at bullet trains passing by the hotel. We were suppose to do the bullet train today, but due to time, we had to try it tomorrow.

Day 4 was definitely nice.