Do you guys realise how much less I blog now that I'm certified healthy (I didn't blog about my doctor's appointment did I..) and back to work at full speed? I do! Being a corporate slave makes your daily life so uneventful...
Anyways!
I realise I haven't really blogged about my Japan trip with my family that we took towards the end of Q1 this year. That was pretty hectic.. So lets blog about that (while I wait for my laundry to be done)
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Sometime in March this year I made a trip to my second kampung (as I'd like to call it), UK. I promise I will blog about that soon, but let's shift the focus to Japan first shall we?
My trip to UK was fully sponsored by me, which was something I was damn proud off. Leading up to my UK trip, Mummy was already planning on a Japan trip for her, Daddy, my brother and my cousins. She asked if I wanted to come along. But considering that I'm spending my 6 months worth of salary on the UK trip, I have not much left to spare for another trip that's a week away after coming back from UK.
So I told her to count me out.
While I was still in UK, she texted me
"Are you sure you don't want to go?"
"Nahh, it's okay. It's out of my budget for the year"
"Okay lah, we'll pay for you"
"Lol, thanks. But even so I don't think I can get a leave"
"You can just go for a weekend... Don't have to follow for the entire stretch"
She really wants me to go guys..
At one point she was even sending me pictures of Sakura flowers and reminding me almost every night to ask for my boss' permission. #whatMummywantsMummygets #persuasivemother #gotitfrommymama
So after my UK trip, I went back to work for about a week and then I asked my boss if I can get two days off because my parents wants me to follow them to Japan for over a weekend. My boss was kind enough to give me the green light, and off Mummy went booking my ticket.
After a 7 hours flight, we arrived in Japan.
Upon landing, I desperately needed to go to the ladies, and when I went there I was so amazed by the toilet!! Not only you have the water sprinkler thing inside the toilet bowl, the seat also goes up and down by itself (so you don't have to touch it!!!) and the seat was heated. DO YOU KNOW HOW AMAZING THAT IS IN WINTER/EARLY SPRING?!
I said to myself, "it's official, I love Japan" hahaha.
Then I realised one thing I hate about Japan - there are barely any English signage!! So unless you speak the language, it's pretty hard to navigate yourself around and you'd spend hours using that translator app on your phone.
See what I mean about non-English signage?! If it weren't for the typical toilet symbol, I wouldn't even be able to find a toilet myself...
I've heard about how much Japanese love their culture, but experiencing it yourself is a whole different thing guys!
I was so grateful for the tour guides that we had. They are a group of Malaysian students in Japan that provides you a tour guide in each city that you're travelling to. So say today I'm in Tokyo and I'm going to Osaka tomorrow, I'll have one tour guide in Tokyo and another tour guide will be waiting for me at the train station in Osaka.
So cool right?! They don't have that sort of thing in UK..
And since they're Malaysians students, they not only speak Japanese, but they also know which halal places to go to and what not.
In that picture above is our Tokyo tour guide (whose name I've forgotten) but his wife and him was so lovely! They made us breakfast :D I like it when people feed me when I'm hungry. Bless the couple!
Our first stop from Tokyo was Osaka.
We took the bullet train (called shinkansen), and it was so cool!
Not only it was super fast, but you hardly feel it. And it the seats were packed but it didn't feel too cramped it you get what I mean.. And the toilets were super clean too! #vivalaJapan!
The train station.
Lemme tell you how the train works, basically they have three different "lines" - if I'm not mistaken the red is the fastest one, followed by yellow and then blue. You can get use this train to get from one of Japan to the other in a day, and you won't even get motion sickness!! I'd know, I sometimes get motion sickness from KL-JB -.-
See the men in suits?
People use the shinkansen to commute inter-cities for work, so expect a lot of people during peak hours (i.e no chance of not having people sit next to you so you can just take all the seats to lie down flat and sleep, teehee)
People use the shinkansen to commute inter-cities for work, so expect a lot of people during peak hours (i.e no chance of not having people sit next to you so you can just take all the seats to lie down flat and sleep, teehee)
Our first stop at Osaka was the Castle. You can read more about the Osaka Castle here.
You wanna know why Japanese are so kurus?
The use the stairs everywhere!! -.- We rejoiced everytime we found an escalator at the train station. Hahah
That green roof is the castle's roof and the tembok is well, I guess to keep unwanted people away from the castle.
The castle grounds is also filled with lots of sakura trees as you can see. Perfect for photo-op session!
It was quite a walk to get to the castle from the ground. And on the way we found this little stall that sells Japanese soft-serve ice cream.. They had strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and green tea, I was spoiled for choices!
Settled for strawberry instead and thus began my addiction to the soft-serve ice cream.
Mummy said: "Come say hi to Atok", lol
Finally made it to castle!! Ice cream pun dah habis :(
Hehehe, isn't he so cute?!
Lemme tell you the funny story about this photo.
So we spotted this cute little samurai uncle on the castle grounds, and everybody was intrigued by him and apparently photo with him was free (I guess he dresses up like that for fun? But I'd like to think he enjoys making people's trip to the castle more memorable).
Anyways, at first Daddy and I were the only one who wanted to take a photo with him. But he insisted having the whole family for the photo-op. Then Daddy asked him if the sword was real.. And then he took it out and it turned out to be tongs (as seen held by Daddy).... Ahahahahahahah! But yeah, cute lil uncle!
Anyways, at first Daddy and I were the only one who wanted to take a photo with him. But he insisted having the whole family for the photo-op. Then Daddy asked him if the sword was real.. And then he took it out and it turned out to be tongs (as seen held by Daddy).... Ahahahahahahah! But yeah, cute lil uncle!
After the castle we went to the Kaiyukan Aquarium.
Next it was shopping time, because I insisted on getting a pair of sneakers - walking in Japan is no joke man. What with no escalators and all..
I can get around UK in my ballet flats, but for Japan...... Gimme me my Nike! *waves white flag*
I can get around UK in my ballet flats, but for Japan...... Gimme me my Nike! *waves white flag*
So our Osaka friend (travel guide) took us to Shinsaibashi, a famous shopping centre (though I'd like to call it more of a street) in Osaka. It's basically a long stretch of road with shops left and right of the road. There were a lot of things to see but even a whole lot more people x.x
We also went to see the Glico man. But camera's lighting failed us.
It's supposed to look like this, replicating NYC's billboards.
Anyways, after a good 12 hours in Osaka (give or take) we bid farewell and thank you to our Osaka-friend and went back to Tokyo.
I slept so soundly in the shikansen ride back to Tokyo, somemore with the two pillow I my parents bought for me from the aquarium. Come to think of it, its been almost 8 months and I haven't named them!!
See the otter and seal pillows?! Aren't they cute?!!! They also makes a super fine travelling pillow, so my Opti (the star shaped pillow who was in the wash when this photo was taken) has more friends now!
That marks the end of my Osaka trip. Shall continue with the rest of my Japan trip later on k!
Have a good weekend everybody!!
xx, A
