It has been more than 4 months since my visit to Japan, Finally, I managed to
find some time to sit down to log down some of the memories to share?
Since my undergrad days, I have been fascinating about Japan after
watching the JDramas and listening to the JPops. Surprisingly, my generation
did not inherit the hatred for the Japanese from our grandparents who witnessed
the invasion of Singapore during World War II. I even took Basic Japanese Language
module to prepare myself. The irony was that I only made the trip to Japan when
I almost forgot how to speak Japanese
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Our next stop was the Osaka Castle. It was an unlucky castle. Although it was built first in 1583, it was destroyed and rebuilt many times. If I recalled correctly, it was striked by lightning for 3 different times. The current building is a reconstruction from 1931. But the castle really looked impressive and the scenery there was superb. We had our lunch at a restaurant nearby. Finally we got our chance to taste authentic Japanese Bento in Japan. Due to time constraints, we did not have time to explore within the castle.
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We boarded onto the coach and headed for Nara. Nara was one of Japan’s ancient capitals. We covered Todaiji, Nara Deer Park that evening.
Todaiji (Great Eastern Temple) is the
largest wooden building in the entire world and the largest Buddha in Japan
can be found in it. One interesting thing we found there was a pillar with a
hole in it. I just found out that the hole is supposed to be the same size as
the nostrils in the nose of the Buddha statue. If you can pass through the hole,
you are supposed to receive eternal happiness. Too bad, none of us made good
use of the opportunity. I did not do research on the places although I did borrowed
a travel guide.
Lesson #2: Have a good guide or else read up to make sure you didn’t
missed anything interesting.
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Directly outside the temple, is the Nara Deer Park. I have read about it previously in my Japanese texts. There are a lot of deer roaming in the park. According to my post travel research, the deer are considered as the messengers of the gods in Shinto. I also found out that Kasuga Taisha and Kofukuji are very nearby. Too bad, we missed them. There are also shops outside the temple. According to the guides, different area sells different stuff, so when you see anything interesting, don’t wait. I was very tempted to buy the wooden samurai sword but did not buy in the end.
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We were caught in a jam, and finally managed to settle our dinner in a Chinese restaurant. Following that, we checked into Osaka Toyo Hotel. (http://www.asiahotels.com/hotelinfo/Osaka_Toyo_Hotel/) We were determined to make full use of our night time to continue our tour. We decided to go Hard Rock Café to buy some souvenirs. This part was exciting because it is our first time venturing in Japan without the assistance of our guide. We have to make use of our “private limited” knowledge of the Japanese language to navigate ourselves to our destination. Our first challenge was to buy a train ticket from Nakatsu station to Homachi station for ourselves. The rail system in Osaka was pretty complicated and the ticketing machine seemed to be very sophisticated. We were worried that we will buy the wrong ticket or go to the wrong destination. Luckily, with our combined wits, we managed to buy the right ticket and caught the right train and reached Hard Rock Osaka.
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It’s so fun to be on a tour when the rest of the world is working. I was reminded about my colleagues when I saw this crowd, thinking whether how the rest of them are coping.
We were moving towards Kyoto. It was the capital of Japan from 794 to 1868.
Due of its high historical value, it was skipped as a target of air raids in
WW2.
After a long ride, we reached Kyoto Textile Centre where we watched a kimono
fashion show and shopped around for textile goods. The kimonos were too expensive,
so nobody bought.
Our lunch was at a Chinese restaurant. It’s a pity I din not record down where the restaurant was. It wasn’t the food, but the scenery outside. There was a large canal lined with sakura trees with small wooden boats with passengers admiring the sakura also. It was so beautiful that the entire group were tempted in taking pictures before and after our meals.
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The guide had a hard time gathering us to move on to the next destination. Heian Shrine. It is a partial replica of the palace during the Heian Period.
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After that, we went to Kiyomizudera
(Pure Water Temple).
It takes its name from the holy water of the Otawa Spring and is counted among
the top 10 most famous water sites in Japan. It is said that the drinking from
the 3 streams of water will grant you good health, success in career and love.
Another interesting spot within the temple is the “Love-fortune-telling”
stone. If one is able to walk safely from one stone to the other stone with
the eyes closed, his/her wish will be granted soon ;)
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We spent the night exploring the vicinity of our hotel (Hotel
Nikko Toyohashi, guide)
that night. As usual we will hit the 7-11 store to explore the foodstuff. It’s
good to see those common sights of the Japanese life after visiting those tourist
spots. Well, their 7-11 also serve foodstuff in hot soup just like steamboat
with skewers. But I still don’t know why a bun was soaked in the soup.
Did not dared to try it 
Another interesting event of the night, or the trip was our visit to the Pachinko
arcade. I was really keen to try my luck on these gaming machines. According
to the map, there were 2 arcades nearby, so we proceeded to look for them. The
first shop was closed. And we saw the second one with lights on. A large group
of people were waiting outside the door with a few people inside. I went forward
to the door and it slided open. The next moment, the entire group dashed in
with pails, brooms and mops. The next moment, the entire group burst into laughter.
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Our 4th day in Japan is the visit to the world famous Mt Fuji. We will take the bullet train aka Shinkansen from Toyohashi to Hanamastu where we will continue the journey in the coach.
I think the version we sat in was not the fastest version as we only traveled
for one station and the distance was relatively short. We still managed to pick
up some scenery shots during the train ride.
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Compared to the bullet train ride, the journey up to Mount Fuji was much longer. According to our guide, Ah Cheng (not the Taiwan’s Ah Cheng), it snowed quite heavily the last night before, and hence we may not be able to go up to the 5th base station as planned. Perhaps we can only go to the 2nd base station. There are 10 base stations on Mount Fuji and the 5th base station is the highest point accessible by coaches.
We had Japanese lunch midway where we have to kneel on cushion for our meal.
In a bid to follow the Japanese, some of us knelt throughout the meal, and had
a hard time getting up after the meal.
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When we first saw Mt Fuji, all of us are awed by the majestic sight with its top capped in white. Everyone was clicking their cameras and wowing
Along the way up, we saw snows at the side of the road and I was amazed that it could still snow during the spring seasons. Midway, the guide told us due to the sunny weather, the snow had cleared and we can go up to the 4th base station. The 4th base station was partially covered with snow when we reached. Although it was not the 5th base station, the sight at the 4th base station was also beautiful. You could see clouds before you and the impressive summit above you. We spent some time playing with snows and photo taking and even shot a mini MTV there? Melvin also made a cute snowman.
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We then visited the Mount Fuji Museum and a crystal farm before checking in to our accommodation for the night - Kawaguchiko Park Hotel. It is a ryokan with hot spring bath. Unlike hotels, a ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn that the guest will stay in traditional Japanese style room with tatami floor and sleep on a futon. As described by our guide, we re-enacted the typical scene that we will check out the bath room to ensure others are not using it before going it. I think that everyone was embarrassed to bath naked in front of strangers even though it was not a unisex bathroom. In the end, only our group of guys ventured into the bath. The temperature of the water was so hot, that it took me more than 5 minutes to submerge till kneel level. The tip is to minimize your movements, the more you move, the cooled water will mix with the hot water. We were surprised when we saw a Japanese guy who jumped directly into the pool after showering. The hot bath indeed works wonders. I felt different after coming out of the pool. Soon we were sleeping soundly on my futon. We woke up the next morning refreshed.
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Times flies quickly, soon we have to leave. We were looking forward to meet
our friend, Jit Keong who has been posted to Japan for a year already. We arranged
to meet at our hotel
- Hotel Metropolitan.
However, as our coach got stuck in jams before and after dinner, we reached
our hotel slightly late. Thus we decided to explore around our hotel area instead
of going to the Tokyo Tower. As usual, we ventured to the 7-11 store in the
vicinity for the coffee collection exercise. We ventured pass a mini red light
district. Lastly we decided to try some sushi. It will be a pity if we did not
taste the authentic sushi and ramen, so we ordered take-away from an authentic
sushi restaurant to slowly sample it back in our hotel rooms. It does taste
a bit different, but I am more used to the sweeter version in Singapore
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Besides the temple, there is a long street called Nakamise. It sells a lot of
Japanese tibits, cakes and traditional goods. It is a good place to pick up
souvenirs and the red bean paste cakes there are so delicious that it was finished
soon after I reached home.
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Due to the requests from the group, our guide agreed to make a temporarily stop near the Tokyo tower for us to take photos. Following that, we were given some time to explore Ginza on our own for less than an hour. Our itinerary did not cover any shopping trip originally and this arrangement was made under special requests. Later we found out the reason why when they came back with bags of Bulberry bags. There was a We rushed through the shopping malls and managed to found Sony Plaza where the latest gadgets by Sony are displayed. Now Singapore also has a Sony Gallery, but it is still smaller than the Sony Plaza in Japan.
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On our way to Narita Airport, we stopped by at a rest point for coaches to
have lunch. I ordered a bowl of miso ramen. I found soba more common than ramen
in Japan. Perhaps soba is cheaper than ramen? The day was pretty short as we
have to rush to catch our flight (NH901) back to Singapore. Happy time always
fly, but I will always remember this happy, memorable trip.
References: http://www.japan-guide.com