Hii there!!
Its been a while. or verrry long time. sorry for that. i was very busy on 2014 and i really dont have spare time to blogging. and now i have, because.. i just resign from my company and i make my own shop called @lacesandribbon on Instagram so please check this out just in case you like it. I sell vintage home decorations anyway.
Okay, lets back to the main topic, shall we? ;)
In 2014 i visit Japan for three times.
Its kinda blur since its long time ago. But i will give many information's that i know.
What is the first thing that pop in your head when you heard about Japan? Sophisticated? Exactly.
Japan is so sophisticated country, when it comes to the tech.
Well, certainly its one of some reason why we have to visit Japan. Japan is well known of its sophistication nowadays, but beside that you will love many things about this country.
1. FOODS
If you love foods, just like me.. you will love here, because all of my guests and my friends that been here always love their foods. If you cant eat something raw like sashimi or doesn't like sushi, don't worry. Because there are many foods that you could eat just like any Asian foods. Most Indonesian people like sets menu it consist of Tempura, udon etc, and also eggs, there are ramen too. and surely if you fans of the okonomiyaki or takoyaki. You will find them almost everywhere.
Here are the websites that you have to open when you visit Japan especially for culinary.
http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/eat/40-tokyo-foods-we-cant-live-without-090648
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/top-10-foods-try-japan
Dont ask the price, in Japan most things are quite expensive including foods.
Dont think street food are cheaper. because sometimes foods at the mall or store are cheaper than street food. How to eat affordable foods? you could go to supermarket over there or just go find Yoshinoya. Trust me, its even cheaper than in Indonesia and the portions re bigger too.
2. SNACKS AND BEVERAGES
Well, i am snacks lover. Are you?
Every time i visit countries, either its for holiday or work i always try all the snacks that i could found. lols. and Japan is my fav country to find the snacks especially the cute ones. Its getting overwhelmed. There are hellokitty snacks, and you could find many character snacks, many kind of KitKat, not just greentea but also wassabi and also many kinds of Potato Chips and rice crackers. There are also POCKY, since GLICO is based on Japan so you could many kinds of Pocky here.
Well, these are the websites if you wanna look some snacks:
http://candysumo.com/japanese-snacks.php/
Anyway, you could find them anywhere. just go to the small of big market, you will find them. But i have told you something. Japan isn't like any other country who sell a same product all over the cities. Even in the same city like Tokyo for example, when you find another flavor of Pretz Takoyaki (just like when i found it) you hardly could get that same flavor again in another shop. So, when you find something that you want just grab it or you will regret it.
Well, one of my guest wanna bought a kind of snack that i forgot at Osaka and she think she will find again later at Tokyo or any other cities or at airport and it comes up that she get nothing. she kinda very gloom about that sop thats why i told this to you.
How about the drinks?
There are too many drinks there, beside the cute packaging absolutely. You could try the beverages, but its better if you buy them at the store not the vending machine. I know its kind of fascinating and cool buy from vending machine, but it also more expensive. but if you just wanna drink water, i suggest you to bring your own bottle like Tupperware or Lock&Lock which won't leak out, because water in Japan are drinkable. :)
3. TRANSPORTATION
Hmm... when you want go to Japan, you must be think all of the expense including the transport, right? Firstly are plane. If you want something convy and good meals you could took Singapore Airline (SQ) but you have to transit first at Changi for a few hours, but if you look for something fast and easy you could pick Garuda Indonesia or Japan Airlines because they will directly bring you from Indonesia to Japan. Well, GA and JAL also have good meals, i said that because im not a picky and greedy but mostly people said that SQ have a better meal, so i said that. If you want something affordable, you could find GA cheap price at GATF, mostly held at JCC. There are two bach a year, and there are many travel companies are in, including my former company, Panorama.
Well, when you already arrived at Japan you could use subway or just simply a bus that going to the city. The transport there are easy, even theres no 'ojek' or ' bajaj' or anything but you can find bus and subway are easy and convenient but for the first traveler i suggest you to took a subway and don't ever taxi if you have limited budget because it will ruin all of your itin. the taxis argo there are just beyond crazy.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e627.html
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/transport/getting-around/local-transport
4. WHERE TO STAY
Japan have many offer to give you places to stay.
There are many kinds of hotel here, there re the luxury one, or just ordinary, or like LOVE HOTEL that you can rent just for two hours, and it just accept couple which is Male and Female, not gay or lesbian. They will display many kinds of costumes that you could try. there re soooo many, trust me. since Japan is famous with their comics, harajuku, lolita and anime. and yeah, even they have theme rooms and the bed could be up and down.
Okay, if you wanna pick 3 or 4 stars hotel let me tell you this. Japan's hotel mostly are small, even its 4 stars hotel and the bathroom are really small.
And its hard to find the double room there (one king size bed), mostly are twin share bedroom (two single beds) and because i was a Tour Leader, they just gave me one single bed. urgh.
If you wanna pick somewhere free, just check www.couchsurfing.com
If you wanna pick somewhere with many facility you could try at hostel or just wimdu.
5. TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
There are a lot of attractions in Japan. so it depends which area that you wanna go first. If you are beginner, i suggest you visit Honshu Island first, where you can go to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kawaguchi, Mt Fuji, Kobe.
I won't tell all the objects since google is smarter than me. lol. But i could suggest you the link:
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/06/07/japans-30-best-travel-destinations-as-chosen-by-overseas-visitors/
what i could tell are: Tokyo basically is like a metropolitan city just like Jakarta or Shanghai, but way moreeee sophisticated. you will love the tech and the toilet. as you can see, you also can buy almost everything there. from A to Z, and if you are a freak gamer or cosplayer...congratulation there are tons of game store over there until you have to push yourself to focus what games that you really like. There are Shinjuku, Ginza, etc. If you like branded things, you should go to Ginza. If you like macarons cafe like Ladure, you should go there too, moreover ONLY Ladure Japan who sell make up, and the make ups are way too cute, seriously. the price? you can guess. ;)
so you can hunt games, foods, and shop like crazy in Tokyo.
How about Kyoto?
Kyoto is a nice traditional city where you can find many historical buildings and temples. If you wanna take a prewed shoot or just wanna have a traditional photograph of you while in Japan, you could take photo shoot there while wear Kimono or Yukata, there re rent shop there. And, the mochi are super soft and yummy. i remember that its hard to stop myself eating those mochi. lol. too yum. there re also ice cream, like peach..sakura,green tea, etc.
Kawaguchi...
there re lots of people said that Kawaguchi is creepily because its a place where many people had suicide. like we all know the pressure in Japan are so high so many people were having suicide by mostly hanging themselves. but there re also people who had suicide by jump from high building or crash themselves into train. well, its creepy. First i went there and stay at the resort, i couldnt sleep. its hard to sleep since i read and listen to those horror stories, but you know what..nothing there. haha. just pray and enjoy the WiFi and environment. lol.
well, you can also visit Sanrio land..its like Dufan or another disneyland but there re hellokitty, cinnamonroll, my melody and their friends. so cute!
also, you can visit Fujiko F Fujio alias Doraemon museum there, and also museum ramen~! haha
and yeah if you are hellokitty fans you must be love staying there and hunting all about hellokitty stuff. lalalalaaaaaa....~~~~
Nah, after you visit Honshu island (i suggest you to visit on end of March or early or April. its spring time and its really beautiful. )you can try to visit Shikoku or Kyushu like Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Fukuoka etc. of course, there re lots of objects over there! and last but not least, you have to go to HOKKAIDO. its wonderful!!! i went there in 2014's winter and it was so damned good!!
i love the foods (maybe because i love seafood) and i love the cities. it so beautifull!!! there are Otaru (my fav city, it so magical. the re music box museum and also there lots of cheesecakes and chocolate), Noboribetsu (where you can see the geisha, samurai show), Furano (its also pretty in summer where you could see the lavender everywhere and experience lavender ice cream as well!!), lake Toya, Onuma Park and Jozankei. very nice!!
here are the links:
http://www.japan-guide.com/list/e1101.html
6. CULTURE
Here are the links:
http://www.gojapango.com/culture/culture.html
anyway, japan is well known for its hygiene, you almost never saw any trash there. well.. thats true.. so what things that make Japan is different from Singapore? Singaporean are clean because of the rules, their government..but for Japan the people themselves are clean, they always take care of hygiene..moreover if they go to toilet, they will clean the seat for the next person who come in. so generous right? Even if they are having flu, they will wearing mask. its not like in Indonesia where some people are not bother to cough in a public area without cover with their hands and cover their faces with mask.
for dinner time, they most unimportant person are sit closer to the door, and they will let the eldest to take the foods first.
for the lovebirds..they are so independent. the boys never pick up the girls, they just meet up somewhere and they buy the movie tickets and popcorn together with their own money. the boys didnt pay the bills.
but after they got married, the wife who will took care all of the husband's money and just give a small amount of money.
Its been a while. or verrry long time. sorry for that. i was very busy on 2014 and i really dont have spare time to blogging. and now i have, because.. i just resign from my company and i make my own shop called @lacesandribbon on Instagram so please check this out just in case you like it. I sell vintage home decorations anyway.
Okay, lets back to the main topic, shall we? ;)
In 2014 i visit Japan for three times.
Its kinda blur since its long time ago. But i will give many information's that i know.
What is the first thing that pop in your head when you heard about Japan? Sophisticated? Exactly.
Japan is so sophisticated country, when it comes to the tech.
Well, certainly its one of some reason why we have to visit Japan. Japan is well known of its sophistication nowadays, but beside that you will love many things about this country.
1. FOODS
If you love foods, just like me.. you will love here, because all of my guests and my friends that been here always love their foods. If you cant eat something raw like sashimi or doesn't like sushi, don't worry. Because there are many foods that you could eat just like any Asian foods. Most Indonesian people like sets menu it consist of Tempura, udon etc, and also eggs, there are ramen too. and surely if you fans of the okonomiyaki or takoyaki. You will find them almost everywhere.
Here are the websites that you have to open when you visit Japan especially for culinary.
http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/eat/40-tokyo-foods-we-cant-live-without-090648
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/top-10-foods-try-japan
Dont ask the price, in Japan most things are quite expensive including foods.
Dont think street food are cheaper. because sometimes foods at the mall or store are cheaper than street food. How to eat affordable foods? you could go to supermarket over there or just go find Yoshinoya. Trust me, its even cheaper than in Indonesia and the portions re bigger too.
2. SNACKS AND BEVERAGES
Well, i am snacks lover. Are you?
Every time i visit countries, either its for holiday or work i always try all the snacks that i could found. lols. and Japan is my fav country to find the snacks especially the cute ones. Its getting overwhelmed. There are hellokitty snacks, and you could find many character snacks, many kind of KitKat, not just greentea but also wassabi and also many kinds of Potato Chips and rice crackers. There are also POCKY, since GLICO is based on Japan so you could many kinds of Pocky here.
Well, these are the websites if you wanna look some snacks:
http://candysumo.com/japanese-snacks.php/
Anyway, you could find them anywhere. just go to the small of big market, you will find them. But i have told you something. Japan isn't like any other country who sell a same product all over the cities. Even in the same city like Tokyo for example, when you find another flavor of Pretz Takoyaki (just like when i found it) you hardly could get that same flavor again in another shop. So, when you find something that you want just grab it or you will regret it.
Well, one of my guest wanna bought a kind of snack that i forgot at Osaka and she think she will find again later at Tokyo or any other cities or at airport and it comes up that she get nothing. she kinda very gloom about that sop thats why i told this to you.
How about the drinks?
There are too many drinks there, beside the cute packaging absolutely. You could try the beverages, but its better if you buy them at the store not the vending machine. I know its kind of fascinating and cool buy from vending machine, but it also more expensive. but if you just wanna drink water, i suggest you to bring your own bottle like Tupperware or Lock&Lock which won't leak out, because water in Japan are drinkable. :)
3. TRANSPORTATION
Hmm... when you want go to Japan, you must be think all of the expense including the transport, right? Firstly are plane. If you want something convy and good meals you could took Singapore Airline (SQ) but you have to transit first at Changi for a few hours, but if you look for something fast and easy you could pick Garuda Indonesia or Japan Airlines because they will directly bring you from Indonesia to Japan. Well, GA and JAL also have good meals, i said that because im not a picky and greedy but mostly people said that SQ have a better meal, so i said that. If you want something affordable, you could find GA cheap price at GATF, mostly held at JCC. There are two bach a year, and there are many travel companies are in, including my former company, Panorama.
Well, when you already arrived at Japan you could use subway or just simply a bus that going to the city. The transport there are easy, even theres no 'ojek' or ' bajaj' or anything but you can find bus and subway are easy and convenient but for the first traveler i suggest you to took a subway and don't ever taxi if you have limited budget because it will ruin all of your itin. the taxis argo there are just beyond crazy.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e627.html
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/japan/transport/getting-around/local-transport
4. WHERE TO STAY
Japan have many offer to give you places to stay.
There are many kinds of hotel here, there re the luxury one, or just ordinary, or like LOVE HOTEL that you can rent just for two hours, and it just accept couple which is Male and Female, not gay or lesbian. They will display many kinds of costumes that you could try. there re soooo many, trust me. since Japan is famous with their comics, harajuku, lolita and anime. and yeah, even they have theme rooms and the bed could be up and down.
Okay, if you wanna pick 3 or 4 stars hotel let me tell you this. Japan's hotel mostly are small, even its 4 stars hotel and the bathroom are really small.
And its hard to find the double room there (one king size bed), mostly are twin share bedroom (two single beds) and because i was a Tour Leader, they just gave me one single bed. urgh.
If you wanna pick somewhere free, just check www.couchsurfing.com
If you wanna pick somewhere with many facility you could try at hostel or just wimdu.
5. TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
There are a lot of attractions in Japan. so it depends which area that you wanna go first. If you are beginner, i suggest you visit Honshu Island first, where you can go to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kawaguchi, Mt Fuji, Kobe.
I won't tell all the objects since google is smarter than me. lol. But i could suggest you the link:
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/06/07/japans-30-best-travel-destinations-as-chosen-by-overseas-visitors/
what i could tell are: Tokyo basically is like a metropolitan city just like Jakarta or Shanghai, but way moreeee sophisticated. you will love the tech and the toilet. as you can see, you also can buy almost everything there. from A to Z, and if you are a freak gamer or cosplayer...congratulation there are tons of game store over there until you have to push yourself to focus what games that you really like. There are Shinjuku, Ginza, etc. If you like branded things, you should go to Ginza. If you like macarons cafe like Ladure, you should go there too, moreover ONLY Ladure Japan who sell make up, and the make ups are way too cute, seriously. the price? you can guess. ;)
so you can hunt games, foods, and shop like crazy in Tokyo.
How about Kyoto?
Kyoto is a nice traditional city where you can find many historical buildings and temples. If you wanna take a prewed shoot or just wanna have a traditional photograph of you while in Japan, you could take photo shoot there while wear Kimono or Yukata, there re rent shop there. And, the mochi are super soft and yummy. i remember that its hard to stop myself eating those mochi. lol. too yum. there re also ice cream, like peach..sakura,green tea, etc.
Kawaguchi...
there re lots of people said that Kawaguchi is creepily because its a place where many people had suicide. like we all know the pressure in Japan are so high so many people were having suicide by mostly hanging themselves. but there re also people who had suicide by jump from high building or crash themselves into train. well, its creepy. First i went there and stay at the resort, i couldnt sleep. its hard to sleep since i read and listen to those horror stories, but you know what..nothing there. haha. just pray and enjoy the WiFi and environment. lol.
well, you can also visit Sanrio land..its like Dufan or another disneyland but there re hellokitty, cinnamonroll, my melody and their friends. so cute!
also, you can visit Fujiko F Fujio alias Doraemon museum there, and also museum ramen~! haha
and yeah if you are hellokitty fans you must be love staying there and hunting all about hellokitty stuff. lalalalaaaaaa....~~~~
Nah, after you visit Honshu island (i suggest you to visit on end of March or early or April. its spring time and its really beautiful. )you can try to visit Shikoku or Kyushu like Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Fukuoka etc. of course, there re lots of objects over there! and last but not least, you have to go to HOKKAIDO. its wonderful!!! i went there in 2014's winter and it was so damned good!!
i love the foods (maybe because i love seafood) and i love the cities. it so beautifull!!! there are Otaru (my fav city, it so magical. the re music box museum and also there lots of cheesecakes and chocolate), Noboribetsu (where you can see the geisha, samurai show), Furano (its also pretty in summer where you could see the lavender everywhere and experience lavender ice cream as well!!), lake Toya, Onuma Park and Jozankei. very nice!!
here are the links:
http://www.japan-guide.com/list/e1101.html
6. CULTURE
Here are the links:
http://www.gojapango.com/culture/culture.html
anyway, japan is well known for its hygiene, you almost never saw any trash there. well.. thats true.. so what things that make Japan is different from Singapore? Singaporean are clean because of the rules, their government..but for Japan the people themselves are clean, they always take care of hygiene..moreover if they go to toilet, they will clean the seat for the next person who come in. so generous right? Even if they are having flu, they will wearing mask. its not like in Indonesia where some people are not bother to cough in a public area without cover with their hands and cover their faces with mask.
for dinner time, they most unimportant person are sit closer to the door, and they will let the eldest to take the foods first.
for the lovebirds..they are so independent. the boys never pick up the girls, they just meet up somewhere and they buy the movie tickets and popcorn together with their own money. the boys didnt pay the bills.
but after they got married, the wife who will took care all of the husband's money and just give a small amount of money.
