Japan - Day 2 - Nara, Osaka

Summary of itinerary: Todaiji in Nara, Namba area in Osaka

I opened my eyes and the sky was already bright. The plan was to wake up at 8am, so it should be any time soon? Go back to sleep, wait for the alarm...

...

Not yet? Continue...

...

Still got so long meh? Japan's sun rises so early? Maybe, alarm haven't ring what...

...

"Wake up, it's already 10 o'clock."

Last night, for unknown reasons, my brother didn't want to set the alarm and instructed my sister to do so instead. She didn't catch it or what, but the result was that no alarm was set. This was the second day that we didn't follow the itinerary. So much for plans!

On a brighter note, we had 2hrs more rest.

Our breakfast bought from 7-Eleven last night. Love MSG~

Still didn't dare to wear contacts yet. I shall see how things go.

Couldn't believe that we had accumulated 1 bag of trash in one night. We bagged it and threw it out on our way out. O yes, we had to take the trash to a collection centre near the hotel on our own.

11.30am - Tennoji station
Actually, there is a direct train to Nara by Kintetsu line from our hotel, but we had to fully-utilize the JR pass. So here we were, at Tennoji to ride the JR Yamatoji line. Alighting from the train at subway Tennoji, the station immediately looked unfamiliar. The lift exits are different for different directions. There was a way to an underground mall, but there was no sign saying it led to JR. Further convinced that JR and Subway definitely are not friends! We went around in circles but couldn't find anything.

Ok, stop wasting time trying to figure things out on our own and start asking for directions. First target was a guy who looked like a security guard. Surely security guards must know the layout of the station at the back of their hands?

But we were so wrong. First of all, their English was so poor that they couldn't understand what we wanted. They pointed us to a lift finally.

Which was going to the subway platforms. Damn.

Frustration penting up. Come on, there must be a lift! We were going to be here for days!

Last attempt, an office. Thankfully, we had come to the right place. We had to go through a passageway of shops before reaching the secluded lift. Geez, who would have thought it would be so indirect?


We finally made it! YAY! First achievement! We crossed the road, passed the same spot where the bicycles collapsed, confirmed on the right track!

Went to the Green Window to make reservations, but were told that there was no reserved seats for this service. We just obtained the time of the next train and headed for the platform.

At the gate, we asked for directions for the lift to the platform. The staff pointed to the right... which was escalator -_-. Duh! Another staff pointed to the left, where there was a ramp. That's more like it! We thanked the guy and said we would be fine.

So happy to see tracks that we started posing for photos.

Quiet with a retro train.

"So which platform?"
"15. Which is... *looks around*.. NOT HERE!"
"What! WHERE!"

And so began the mad run to find our platform. 15min to do that, don't get lost now! Turning a corner, we saw yet another corridor of signs pointing to different platforms. My goodness, how big is this station?! 12, 13... 15 spotted at the far end! Run! And it better have a lift!

And the lift was right there. Phew. If not, siao liao.

Check the signboard before boarding! But this time, if we were to blindly jump into a train again, we would still get to Nara, just later.

36min nap ride to Nara.

First packet of Japanese sweets, from 7-Eleven yesterday.


1pm - Nara 奈良
Temperature felt like 16°C-20°C.

All the ultra popular attractions had been slotted on weekdays to minimize crowds.

Nara, the first permanent capital of Japan. At first, I wasn't certain if I really wanted to put this in the itinerary as I was only interested in Todaiji. But, at the end of the next day, I was thankful that I came.

While my brother went to look for a washroom, my sister and I looked for lunch. I thought Nara station would be busier, maybe like Bishan, instead of looking like Marina Bay from the past. There are a few restaurants, but I wasn't so hungry yet.

Mos Burger's signboard is green in Japan. Smoking allowed indoors. Not again!

Check out the menu. But we didn't want to have fast food. The menu didn't look too exciting too. We'll have street food then.

To get to Todaiji, we could:
1) Walk for 20min, slight uphill.
2) Take a cab for about ¥1000. Will take about 10min. Conserve energy for the day and the rest of the trip.
3) Take a bus. No way, I know.

We decided to walk so that we could see the town.

Outside the station, there was no sight of either Todaiji nor the uphill road. Orientated ourselves on the map and made an educated guess on the direction to take.

Looked like there are things to see! *excited* I still didn't see any uphill. How puzzling. We were sure we were on the right track... shall just walk and see what happens!

Cool weather, blue sky, warm sun makes for a comfortable stroll. According to plan, we were supposed to be in Todaiji long ago. I guessed we could still follow the flow, sans the time.

First stop, a spacious pharmacy for sister's and mother's shopping list. We came out empty-handed except for...

...our perk-me-up. Thumbs up to this first canned coffee!

Cakes that are in vogue now. They are EVERYWHERE.

Local produce. I seriously wanted to buy the jam. I really should have.

Walked past a shop selling unagi rice. Wow, a display made of real food!

"Our unagi are freshly roasted over charcoal."... I think.

After standing around for at least 5min, debating whether to dine in or not (one of my sister's holiday agenda was to eat unagi rice), we decided on take-away as it was already getting late.

Our unagi onigiri. We ended up savouring them all outside the shop, standing. Should have just dined-in comfortably...

Just to mention, there was a dustbin, which is a rarity in Japan. By now, I had a plastic bag hanging from my wheelchair handle to house trash.

Barely 50m down the road, we came across a shop selling honey products. The friendly saleswoman gave us samples of their honey drinks, which of course, we had no intention of buying. I was more interested in the honey softee cone (¥400). Ice-cream on a cool day, experienced!

Walking was a bad choice. there were too many things to make us stop and see.

2pm already, accelerate! Skip the shops with clothes beckoning to us, or else we might never make it to Todaiji!

Continuing along the lengths of tourists traps. We were walking for so long that we constantly checked the map to ensure that we weren't straying. When we came to the end of the shops, we were at a forked road. Left up a road, or right to a park with a pond, and risk running into stairs?

We took left, where many people were also heading. Should be correct then, if they were going to Todaiji too, haha. And this was probably the "uphill" as mentioned...

Rolled along the pedestrian pavement, just wide enough for my wheelchair. Cars built up along the single-laned road. If we were on a cab, we would be so broke!

The Sign - We have finally reached the land of deers! We went around the gravel path. Didn't want to break my wheelchair on day 2!

Time for Japanese lesson. Bite is kamu. I kamu you! Even warning signs are so mangaish.

Flying deer? They were all lazing about, munching on senbei. Doubtful.

The trees from which these came from were common in the area. No idea what it was though. Maybe it's something deer like. I guessed this must be Nara Park, with the greenery and deer roaming about. O, it also doubles as carpark for tour buses. Lots of tour buses were around the area, worrying! I thought it's Thursday?!

First close encounter with local deer. Shy creatures. Ignored us. Probably because we didn't have senbei.

Roadside stalls selling deer senbei are very common. ¥150 is a ripoff for deer feed. Perhaps it would be better if it's suitable for human consumption too, but definitely not for me, when it looks dry and tasteless.

According to my brother, the map said we must cross 2 traffic junctions, so when we came to this underpass, he was going to cross it. Todaiji could be the many 古色古香 houses on the opposite.

However, I didn't think so, because I thought it was supposed to be inside Nara Park, and the opposite side didn't look like a park to me. But we could just go and see... I'm not the one walking anyway heehee.

The underpass is a T-junction. Todaiji was on neither of the signs for the 2 forks. Did that mean we were still far?

A man saw us looking lost (do we really always look lost? :|) and asked where we were heading. He pointed at where we came from. We were on the right track! Go-stun now...

Very expensive sweet potatoes! Found in Singapore too, not exotic enough.

There was a massive queue at the Nara National Museum. Not just that cluster on the left, but also folding along the length from left to right. Wonder what the mega exhibition was? Free?

Rickshaw, ridable for a fee. Only the angmohs would ride it.

Wonder if this is the public bus? Cute!

We really had no idea what these 2 deers were up to. Suckling? But this deer really looked too old for it o_O. Unless it's like 溥仪, drink breast milk until his teens...

O yeah goal was right ahead! No looking at the tourists traps!


2.30pm - Todaiji 東大寺

We saw angmohs take a photo at a bridge above a tiny stream and we monkey see monkey do.

This lady had just finished giving away her senbei and the deer were licking her hands.

Navigated through the obstacle course of adults, lines of jumping school kids on excursion, deer droppings, it's in front of us now! Todaiji, a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well as the world's largest wooden building.

Nandaimon.

We were wondering if my brother really had to carry me up the steps to cross this structure and enter the temple. We sent our sister to recce and found that the barrier-free access was just to bypass the structure by continuing on the footpath curving to the left. Talk about 旁门左道！It's amazing that all 3 of us were so blind.

Bambi! Very noisy, contrasting with the silent adults. Very attention-drawing. Japanese were gathered around it, exclaiming "kawaii!" and spending lots of memory space on it.

We came to another wooden structure and this time, there was no going around it. The ticketing counter was inside and rest of the area fenced in, of course. When my sister returned with the tickets (¥500), she said the barrier-free access was on the left side. There was a ramp, but we had to get past a gate first. No lock found. Pulled and pushed but it didn't bulge. Ok, we needed someone to come open it. Then we spotted the English instructions... yeah what brutes we were, using force as the first resort!

Following the instructions, we pressed the intercom. A lady's voice spoke in Japanese, but of course we couldn't understand and hence just stated our request.

"Can you please open the gate?"

"Chee-kay-to?"

Huh? Ok ask again. "Can you please open the gate?"

"Chee-kay-to?"

No response from us, so the intercom hung up. So now how?

Forgot how we knew, but most likely we sent our sister back to ask for help.
Actually, all we had to do was to:
1) Press the intercom
2) Show our tickets to the camera. So the person was saying chi-ke-to, a.k.a. "ticket". And there's a camera! Gosh!
3) The gate will be remotely unlocked.
4) Open the gate, diy.
5) Pass through the gate.
6) Close the gate. It would be locked remotely.

Trust the Japanese to come up with this!

Our entry route bypassed the courtyard and took us straight to the Main Hall. No need to remove our shoes and we could wheel the wheelchair right in.

Japan's largest bronze Buddha statue, Daibutsu. In Japan, it seemed like they sell candles instead of practicing 香油钱. That doesn't encourage people to donate more wor...

I spoke too early. Here are the additional sources of income! Tourists trap right in the main hall, doing brisk business from school children.

Charms, bags and etc merchandise! Various forms of buy-a-wish, such as ¥600 for a wooden block that blessed you to pass your exams, ¥1000 for a tile to write your wishes, with suggested wishes for consideration, in case you didn't know what to wish for! Looking at that bowl on ink, I think must write yourself ley, better not get someone with repulsive handwriting that repels the gods!

Wa... how to climb...

This is the famous pillar which has a hole in its base the same size as the Daibutsu's nostril. It is said that those who can squeeze through this opening will be granted enlightenment in their next reincarnation (source: Japan-Guide.com). This kid could barely move already...

Monkey-lookalike status dressed in what seemed to be a shower cap?? We asked our sister to rub the statue, then run her feet. Maybe it will help stop her from always kicking into things. The bars in front of the statue are used for tying bad lots. So I guessed this area is where all sad people gather.

We were pretty much done with the paid section, which was really small. 3pm only.

On our way to explore other areas in the vicinity. Giant senbei for human consumption, finally!

A schoolkid was teasing a deer by pretending to offer it senbei, only to raise it out of reach when the deer tried to bite it. Pissed off, the deer pissed on the kid. 好样的!

Up a long gravel path we went. Really worried for my dear wheelchair. It arrived new and would probably age rapidly after this trip. Hard work for my brother too, but it's a great cardio workout!

Spotted a woman tending to her kiosk, sleeping. Business was really slow around here huh. Repeatedly told my sister to take a photo, but she refused, because she didn't like to take photo of people (???).

The reward is a spot away from the crowd, with a bronze bell. Sorry, the photo looks weird because sotong was under it and must be cropped! My sister had a hard time taking this photo due to backlight.

The rope looked very inviting. What would happen if I rang the bell?

Seeing the kiddy items hung here, it's a deity for children?

We took the tar road down although we were not supposed to. Tight bends might pose a danger to us when vehicles drive too fast, but spare me the gravel!

One street snack that didn't seem too exorbitant at ¥100 per skewer. But as you can see, it's just soy sauce-coated mochi (I think it's called yaki dango), so it got tasteless soon.

The deers followed and chewed anything white, paper and brother's white shirt included. Poor them, their antlers had to be removed. Not so man already :(


3.50pm - Other attractions in Nara Park
Have daylight = still early! Wandering around looking for more things to see, we saw this building which looked like it housed exhibits.

But it's paid entry. Next... Rock on along the gravel! Ouch~

There were still people queuing to enter Nara National Museum. Last entry now, give up already! Would they still have time to see anything even if they got in?

Today was actually a special openhouse for at least most of the temples here, thus explaining the number of people.

Demure~ If only she had witnessed the evil deed by its relative...

The various structures all within the same compound.

Where devotees cleanse their hands and take a sip before praying. I didn't want to touch the icy water ^_^;;

Displayed prominently opposite the water tub(?) were the names of people who had contributed to the temple (I assumed).

Passed by what seemed like an exit from the area. No go!

Write your wish on a candle. When it burned out, your wish will come true. My guess!

And they the candles were shielded from the elements. Our wishes absolutely needed that to have a chance to come true in this windy place!

This looked like it's built for me.


4.15pm - Walk back to Nara Station
For our way back, we took a different street to see different things.

Boy, what a good choice we made! Shop your way home~ (to the tune of "Sing Your Way Home")

Adorable rabbit figurines. Nara has a thing for bunnies. Or just preparing for the Chinese New Year?

Nara is a land of pickles. Any fruit and vegetable we usually eat can be pickled. Check out this tourists-orientated shop!

Top right: Palm-sized watermelons. Curious about how it tasted like, should have bought!
Bottom left: From the back, persimmon, brinjal (why are the even the Japanese vegetables small, round and cute?), <don't know>, ginger, carrot (they call carrot 人参?? So what do they call ginseng? O and the carrots are shorter, fatter and cuter.)
Bottom centre: Brisk sales!
Bottom right: The greens still looking green.

I almost got something, but my brother said it's too expensive :(

Fresh, giant greens at another shop. The white portion of the 大白菜 was the length of my sister's hand, can make a lot of kimchi!

The hungry man walked right into...

Superb fried chicken and the apparently global standard palm-sized beef burger.

5pm, night fell.

Further down the street was a smaller-scale shop selling pickles at a better bargain. I insisted on buying pickles despite not being a fan of them prior to the trip. I'm a tourist today!

With so many fruits around us, we got our holiday fibre here.

Mini apples. We also bought 巨峰 grapes and mandarin oranges. Mandarin oranges because I saw that they were from 和歌山 Wakayama and I heard that the place is famous for its fresh produce.

This rounded off our visit to Nara. It was more enjoyable than expected for me!

We walked about 5.5km!


6.30pm - Namba, Osaka

Plan - start from JR-Namba, walk and shop along the way, looking out for dinner (which hopefully would be fugu!). But Namba station has a massive underground mall, so we had to go to the surface to avoid being trapped down there the whole night! But of course we did not leave empty-handed.

Hado Labo, popular brand currently. The facial foam is good!

My sister and I bought a dorayaki 铜锣烧, the thing Doraemon loved, for breakfast.

We passed by a 立食 (stand and eat) roadside stall selling very fragrant bbq. Dinner?

Salivating~ but alas, it's inconvenient for me.

Seen 戎橋 Ebisubashi, 金龙拉面, 相合橋筋...

Sightings of food increased in frequency. Of course, we were in 道頓堀 Dotonbori, Osaka's street of gastronomic adventure and oversized signs.

Not to forget the numerous fashion stores geared towards the... winter season :( Nevermind, not in shopping mood, strangely. Must be because I bought pickles.

I was thrilled to see the giant pufferfish and crab signs, but I thought they should be bigger?

How about takoyaki okonomiyaki?

"Eat me!"


7.15pm - Dinner: 河豚 Fugu
And so we did! Fugu dinner (yay!) at Zuboraya.

That towel is hot! Slap it on our faces now! How soothing after a day out in the cold. I have never appreciated hot towels at home and never understood the purpose of their existence. I do now. Nevermind my mother's horror story about how they wash restaurant linen in washing machines stuffed with more linen than detergent and water. What's more important was to enjoy as much as we could before it cooled quickly. Newton's cooling curve, it is.

After enjoying the hot towel, my sister detected whiffs of stale cigarette smoke. Upon inquiring, to our horror, we were seated at the smoking zone. Immediately, we requested to change to the non-smoking seats. The waitress directed us to the second storey. They probably earn a lot of money, because they had a lift! Just a bit tiny...

When we got to our new table, there was another hot towel waiting for us!! So mega touched can! But the next thing we did was erm, downright cheapo.

We ordered the 大黒 set costing ¥7350

1 set for the 3 of us...! *coughs uncomfortable* But the waitress was so nice as to bring 3 sets of everything, the tea, plates and all. Don't ever let them find out our nationality!

They even have their own cups.

Somebody 3m away from us lit up. The smoking zone was just there! Now instead of stale cigarette smoke, we got fresh one. Worse off lor.

The cold dishes were served.

てっさ tessa, thinly sliced fugu. Despite the lack of thickness, the meat was still chewy with a hint of sweetness. On the sides, are cooked fugu and fugu skin. It tasted tougher when cooked, but in a chewy way. Fugu skin was all bounce, makes a great snack!

We weren't so kiam siap actually. A sushi platter to fill in the blanks. But we had to split each piece into 3. We just bite.

3 types of appetisers. Fugu skin, pickles and boiled fugu. I think I really love the skin. Must be full of collagen haha!

Salad in black vinegar and fugu skin. Yum yum.

ふぐ揚げ物 Fried fugu with potato wedges. A lot of bones :( but otherwise, great when fried too. Actually anything will taste good when fried, as long as the batter is good.

Steamboat next! We requested the waitress to cook for us. See for yourself what we have inside:

The soup was flavored solely by a piece of 昆布 seaweed.

The waitress forgot about the 白子. We asked her to confirm whether we were supposed to eat it raw or cooked XD.

She divided the food into 3 portions for us, despite it being a set for one...

Ok this is the 白子 a.k.a sperm sac, to my siblings' disbelief. Nope, it's not egg, egg is 玉子 and pufferfish's is too toxic. Confirmation required from the waitress! It was hmm... creamy.

Really shiok to have steamboat in this weather! I stopped my brother from drinking all the soup because we were going to have...

雑炊 tecchiri! Pour cooked rice into the remaining stock and throw in a beaten egg.

Lastly, spread some seaweed on top. The waitress expertly distributed the portions with the seaweed staying dry throughout.

There, a very sweet porridge!

Dessert. Huge, sweet and juicy fresh orange.

Objective fulfilled!


8.40pm - Eat Our Way Home
We were in between stations. To save the hassle of finding a station and getting down, we decided to walk our way back to our hotel to see more of Namba and buy street food at the same time.

Nice fish-shaped snack from 浪花堂. I think we got the custard filling. Heard the takoyaki from the stall next to it is nice too, but I only realized I missed it when I returned and viewed the pictures!

Dotonbori canal! Take pictures!

We continued down the street and saw a minimart. Supper and breakfast shopping~ My brother put me at the ice-cream section and told me to choose one. I promptly chose the exotic Haagen Daz cookies and green tea.

Billboards with contents that belonged in the classifieds of Lianhe Wanbao are openly displayed here. Looked like some online girlfriend website.

Passed by night clubs. The bouncers were dressed neatly in a suit and tie. Here's an example.

Actually not sure if he was a bouncer or the Babu Singh who opens car doors lah! I'm certain he would slaughter us if we asked.

Plenty of carparks in the area, but not filled. Perhaps too far from the happening area?

Takoyaki from the back of a van!

After walking for about 10min, we started doubting that we were heading in the right direction. We should be seeing the Nippombashi station along the way... better ask around because we were tired already.

Stopped a random guy and asked him in where Tanimachi Kyuchome was. He dunno. Ok nevermind.

Saw a mata at a road junction. He also dunno! Omg is the place we were staying so ulu?! Jialat liao lor! But mata got duty to help people one. He whipped out what looked like his phone and started Google Mapping. Thanks ah!

We walked along a main road that was rather quiet save for the sporadic open shops and passing cars. Uphill now, there goes the dinner!

Passed by another supermarket, albeit a bigger one. Went in for more shopping! But we were there for something healthy... fresh greens and miso soup for flavor. But of course we couldn't walk out with just 2 items...

A few vending machines appeared at the most appropriate time. Piping hot Pokka corn soup!

And we made it! Hotel sweet hotel! But cigarette smoke smell again. Wondered where it came from :(

After bathing, we were still not ready to sleep yet, for there's still a daily ritual.

That's right, the s-u-p-p-e-r (with tv in the background)!

Kirin beer, 巨峰 grapes best eaten fresh, the jelly I bought last night, Jagabee and Hokkaido milk. Special mention, the milk was delicious!

The apples tasted powdery. Precisely the type I hated. Thumbs down.

Only then we could sleep. Past 12 midnight again.

Surprisingly, I didn't have as much trouble with my specs as I did in Singapore and Taiwan. It's a blessing that the weather was so cold that my pores were tightly shut, making my nose less oily and harder for my specs to slide down. Can continue.

Japan - Day 1 - Tokyo, Osaka (and a bite of Kyoto)

Summary of itinerary: Tokyo-Osaka, drop luggage at hotel, go shopping at Umeda

I didn't sleep long before I was roused due to the stewardesses asking for our breakfast preference. Crap.

I saw a fellow passenger with a curved headrest. Ooo so we can bend it! Didn't know!

I forgot what I had for breakfast. Must be really traumatic. I only remembered that I didn't take the caffeinated beverages, still harboring the hope to continue sleeping.

I shouldn't have bothered. The city lights were too good to be missed.

5.15am - 羽田空港 Haneda Airport, Tokyo

While waiting for all the passengers to alight, we had the chance to witness the army of cleaners that chionged in to clean up the plane.

My brother transferred me to the aisle wheelchair and wheeled out to my waiting wheelchair. Now, that's what I'm paying for!

Time to unload body waste materials.
The impressive, spotless, have-all barrier-free washroom. There's a bidet, basin with showerhead complete with heated water, a board beside the bed for people to change without stepping on the floor... awesome! The only thing I wasn't happy with was the singly-ply toilet paper.

Walking towards the immigration in Haneda's new international terminal. Doesn't have the spacious feel like Changi.

Changi's control tower is nicer heehee. It's worth it to spend some effort to build a symbolic one.

At the immigration, we had to fill in the place we were staying in... so troublesome. Let them take a photo of us (say, what would happen if people had plastic surgery during the stay?). Other than that, we cleared immigration very quickly, nothing like the stories of long queues at Narita.

Airport staff patrolled, looking for lost-looking passengers to offer assistance. I have always thought we looked like we knew what we were doing, but I guessed the contrary was true because we got approached. I asked if there was a JR pass exchange office here, but looked like JR still hadn't thought of doing the same they did for Narita.

We passed by the bus ticketing counter, so I thought of buying the bus tickets to Kawaguchiko now. While struggling to read the routes available, the same airport staff offered to help. Her English wasn't so proficient and ended up explaining the ways of getting to Kawaguchiko from Tokyo. Thanks, but we had already decided lah...

Our first challenge - buying Pasmo and getting our asses out of the airport. We didn't quite know how to operate that vending machine, but there was the friendly airport staff. Fed the machine ¥10000 thrice to get small change instead of buying 3 Pasmos together, yeah!

The Keikyu line station was a convenient 0m away from the tickets. While we were passing through the gates, the station staff saw us and led the way carrying a ramp, without us having to ask. She pressed the lift for us and asked us which station we were going to. Very helpful, but we were not used to attention...

The train platform, with doors to prevent people from jumping onto the tracks.

The train came and as expected, we didn't need the ramp. Thanked the staff and we went on our first Japanese train ride!

The train's interior. Handlebars even horizontally!

On the way to Shinagawa station, 7am. We were damn sleepy but had to be on alert, because it was an express train that didn't stop at all stations shown on the network map. Worse when I didn't have a map showing exactly which stations it would stop at or skip...

2 men boarded the train and sat opposite us. One had what looked like blood splatter on his pants, or was it mud? Then my sister said it was puke, judging from the odor coming from them and how they were sleeping like they hadn't slept the whole night. Eee stay away!

Pulling into Shinagawa station. Rusty, aged structures wasn't what I was expecting for a major station. Life After People came to mind... man-made structures rusting away and finally crumbling in a cloud of dust. So how far along is it now?

A double-decker?

7.12am - 品川駅 Shinagawa Station, Tokyo
Our first breath of un-air-conditioned, fresh COLD Tokyo air, with wind! It was about 13°C. Shiok for my brother, but I was shivering as soon as the air moved. Ran for shelter and dug out our jackets. Phew!

Can keep the Pasmo for now, couldn't use it in Osaka.

Objective - to while our time until 9am, when the JR pass exchange office would open. Few shops were open at that hour, so our only option was to eat. Exploring the building opposite, it didn't take long for us to discover that all eateries there permit smoking indoors and the non-smoking corner was just feebly segregated by a sign. We could literally see the carcinogenic smoke diffusing over. The place that best met our requirement was...
Japan is a place where non-smokers ate in the cold while smokers enjoyed the heated air. We were still not totally immune to cigarette smoke, which invaded our airspace whenever the glass door opened.

The menu was very similar to Singapore's. Try something new! I was still full from the force-feeding on the plane, so I just had the Bacon Potato Pie and shared tea with my sister. They should have branded it as bacon BITS...

Back to Shinagawa JR station. JR pass exchange office was still shuttered, on the left. Explored the station further, and ended up getting stuck in a toilet.

We weren't the only ones waiting for it to open. We had to first fill in forms. Mafan ah...
7 days of unlimited JR train rides, starting NOW! We reserved seats at the reservation counter (みどりの窓口, literally "green window"). Non-smoking car, we must ride!
Our very first train ticket. Hikari is the fastest train type we were eligible for. It was only 9.20am now, with 50min to the train. Not enough time to go somewhere with all our luggage, so we just hung around. Today was Culture Day, a public holiday. Was that why the place looked so quiet.


While waiting for our train on the platform, we observed that the train door of the train before ours was actually rather narrow. It would probably just fit nicely... hope I wouldn't get stuck!

I wasn't expecting a height difference between the train door and the platform... I imagined it to be more wheelchair-friendly. We didn't get stuck at the door, but at the aisle. It had not crossed our minds to ask for seats near the door and the staff had not reminded us. It's a time that we wished we had detachable wheels like the aeroplane's aisle wheelchair... With difficulty, my brother nudged me to my seat.

2hrs and 53min to Osaka. We fell fast asleep.

My sister was sitting by herself with a friendly old lady. She was chatting with my sister so much that I wondered if my sister didn't actually want to sleep... I could hardly keep my eyes open. The lady shared some nuts and sweets with my sister:
I don't think much of nuts, but the sweet is really good!

... And even pointed this out to her:
Mount Fuji, while going towards Shizuoka, snow-capped!

1pm - 新大阪駅 ShinOsaka Station, Osaka
Bade goodbye to the old lady. Out into the cold again!

Already feeling happy looking at a well-stocked kiosk.

Rikuro Cheesecake, said to be highly popular with snaking queues everyday. My sister die die wanted to buy, so granted her her wish since there's an outlet at ShinOsaka station.

The place was very happening for a train station. Restaurants and shops populated the area beyond the gates, as if people purposely buy tickets to come in -_-;;

Next step, to take a limited express train to Tennoji station. As its name implied, the train frequency is low, so we reserved seats again to be on the safe side. By the time we found the platform, the train should be arriving any minute. To our surprise, a train was already stopped on the tracks. Jump in ah!

According to my itinerary, the trip should take only 15min, but 20min later, the train didn't seem to have the intention to stop. I looked at the marquee for the next stop... Kyoto...?

We were on the wrong train, going in the opposite direction. Congratulations. Shit.


2.10pm - 京都駅 Kyoto Station
Fortunately, Kyoto was just 25min away. We took the only lift at the platform, which took us straight into the heart of a department store's electronics section. It was all quiet inside the gate and once we cross the boundary, we were bombarded by uncountable sales pitches blaring from loudspeakers. Very stressful for people who had been traveling for the past 17hrs. It's lunchtime and there was supposedly good food in Kyoto station, but we didn't want to get lost in yet another station. So we checked the next train and went down the lift again, nevermind that there was still a wait. All we wanted was to get out of that madhouse already.

First and most important lesson learned for Japan F&E travelers - Always check and double-check the signboard before boarding trains. Each track is not exclusive to one service in one direction. For our case, it was the same type of train, the Limited Express, but apparently, they come onto the same track for both directions! Too pampered in Singapore, can close our eyes and walk to the opposite track to go to the opposite direction!

O and of course we were so thankful for the JR pass for allowing us to make such mistakes at no additional cost.

The train wasn't filled just now and Kyoto is the terminal station, so we decided to try our luck by not getting a reservation. Also, Kyoto to Tennoji would cost ¥1830, so I guessed not many people would be taking it unnecessarily.

And so we calmed our shaken minds by eating Rikuro's egg pudding, watching the train seats flip over on their own and cleaners cleaning out the train.


3.30pm - 天王寺駅 Tennoji Station, Osaka
We were now done with JR for the day. Next, to switch to the subway Tanimachi line 谷町線 to get to our hotel. I had never expected this to be a challenge on its own, because after we exited the station, we looked left, right, outside, but couldn't see any sign of the subway station. Ok... I thought they were supposed to be next to each other? The map was unhelpful - seemed like JR and Subway aren't friends?

Buying Icoca for subway rides was on the to-do list, so let's do that first. We fed the machine 3 ¥10000 again heehee. More small change! *V* It's so cool that purchasing a stored value card was automated. I'm sure a human would be very mad with us.

We went through the Mio mall, looking for a lift to go down to the station, but the lifts seemed to be serving the mall only. Lost again... We asked for directions and were directed to the outside. Outside! :O Like the Taipei Main station, lift is outside lor!

Once we got out, my sister promptly knocked over a bicycle and the rest fell in the domino effect. And she didn't realize.


4.30pm - 谷町九丁目駅 Tanimachi Kyuchome Station
Getting to our hotel's stop was a breeze. So was getting out of the station. Of course, it's a simple station with only 2 lines in a housing estate. Peanuts compared to the massive and convoluted stations we had encountered so far. To be fair, it's simple for an able-bodied, when there's no mazes to navigate to find a lift.

Finally, finally, we arrived at ウィークリー上本町 Weekly Uehonmachi. Just a minute's stroll from the lift, so touched! After a simple check-in procedure, squeezing into a tiny lift, we set foot into our home for 6 nights.

The room smelled of cigarette smoke. Bleah.The previous occupant had been smoking?

2 single beds and 1 double bed, more than what we had asked for!

Tiny bathroom. Dehhh.

Kitchenette. Can cook vegetables, yay! The refreshener was leaking, so we put it in the ashtray. The airpot's cover was falling off, but no big deal.

Cool, our luggage would love it here.

No cleaning for less than 7 nights' stay. 2 rolls of single-ply (again) toilet paper provided, more available at a cost. Ok everybody 省着用! A sample-size hair and body wash was provided.

After the detour, we were just off the itinerary by 1hr. Looks like I had enough buffer.


5.30pm - Umeda 梅田
Free of our luggage, we continued on the Tanimachi line to Higashi Umeda Station 東梅田駅. It was again a maze to the lift bound for the surface. Wow, it was all dark already, like 8pm!

Target: Hep Five. It's supposed to be obvious as it has a red ferris wheel sticking out of the building, but unfortunately, it's probably blocked by the high-rise buildings all around.
Only realized Ippudo was here after coming back and looking through the pictures.

Don't understand how to play.

Found Hep Five! Famished! Food first! The restaurant floor had a dazzling array of food. Western fusion seemed the fad now. But we were super cold and craving for something hot.
Nothing beats a bowl of piping hot, oily and salty ramen! It's not outstanding (the egg was overcooked), but very therapeutic. Loved the idea of having our own water jug. Didn't like the waxed serviette.

By now, we had already noticed that smoking in restaurants was the norm. Japanese sure practice 饭后一根烟 religiously huh.

Sega Joypolis was accessible by escalator only. Don't understand why a modern building would be built with such inconsideration. My siblings went to check it out and concluded that it was not worth a visit.

Dozing off while waiting for my sister...

Not in the mood to shop, so we just wandered the streets.

What an innovative design! Japan has a thing for ferris wheels.

Pachinko staff patrolled the floor to slot encouraging signs into the patrons' winnings.

Takoyaki in tangy plum sauce. It's been a long time since I had proper takoyaki, after the standard in Singapore fell. No mucky, grainy texture in the centre.

Pretty drain covers.

Battery-operated soft toys placed next to UFO catchers, sending subliminal messages of "Take my friend in the machine home!". If we were to do the same in Singapore, surely only those on the floor would be taken home.

Horse-racing game in an arcade. The seats looked so comfy.

We thought we should go back earlier (definition: shops still open) since we had a long day. Finding our way back to our subway line was no easy feat for beginners, further complicated by needing to find the lift.

9.30pm - Tanimachi Kyuchome 谷町九丁目
Not going to retreat into bed without visiting the 7-Eleven first! My brother was on a quest to try all the Japanese beer. My sister resolved to sample all Japanese egg pudding.

While it's still fresh! It has a light sweetest that's not too sickening. Light and fluffy, but I preferred denser cakes. But if not for the name, I wouldn't even realized it's cheesecake. No cheese taste at all! Overall, disappointing. Don't understand why it's so popular.

Passed out on the bed.

Japan - Day 0

Stayed in office till damn late the night before and ended up sleeping late. Now got to crawl out of bed early for my engineered doctor's appointment. Bad start. Please let the appointment be over quickly!

But it was not to be. The doctors got diverted to some emergency case and I got delayed by what, 3hrs I think? Seriously, do all the doctors need to be there when it happens? Still have to go pharmacy... but luck was on my side when a staff member put me on express queue when I merely asked how long the wait would be! :D

Rushed home and still have WORK to do. Aiyah... I forgot something lah... now got to conjure some documents. But bathe first, because I wouldn't get to bathe for the next 30hrs. Had to trouble my colleagues for help, got it done in the nick of time and I'm good to go!

My brother and sister had some misunderstanding while calling for a cab. But the worst was somehow, none of the cab companies had a 7-seater available. Ok screw it, we had to move, before the peak hour set in. We went in 2 cabs instead. End result? Combined receipts was still cheaper than the $45 flat rate for 1 7-seater!

Snapped a picture with the departure board as we always did, and hunted for dinner. We were supposed to have Spizza using my Samsung Galaxy S voucher, but... it's inside the Departure Lounge! Argh!

Wow... so grand-looking...

How about Chinese food? No Chinese food allowed for the next 13 days!
Our dinner, Crystal Jade Shanghai. The beef fried rice was especially delicious!

With the eating power of 3, there was no problem chalking up a a minimum spending of $60.
We needed to staple our receipt to the contest form, but none of the 5 staples had bullets. How to be a millionaire wor!

We still had a lot of time. It was suakoo Sotong's first time in Terminal 3, so we took a walk. Nothing super duper interesting. The Slide was not in operation :\ Ended up watching cartoons at a fountain.

Check-in time finally. I could keep my wheelchair until the plane door, yippee! The Departure Lounge was much more happening lor! Not enough time when all 3 terminals are linked, and we had to board early!
It would be fun is the diameter of the mentos were the same as the container. They should do that!

When we passed by our gate, a man approached us and asked if I was Sotong. He's here to assist me! Wa, he could spot us correctly ley! What a difference between full-service and budget airlines! But I think a Sotong and 2 siblings were not that hard to spot eh?

We wanted to go to the washroom first, and he followed us... -_-;; That's what I didn't like about assistance, people following us!

Our plane.

I changed to the airport wheelchair before entering the gate. Then at the plane's door, the outer larger wheels were dismantled to convert into an aisle chair. Then he expertly reversed me to my seat, passing by the really cool business clas section. No free upgrade :( My seat was at the front of the second half of the plane. I will consider getting a seat at the first portion next time.

9.50pm Byebye Singapore! I won't miss you soon!

Yes, the in-flight entertainment! Inception, just out of DVD and I hadn't downloaded it yet!

Flight meal, choice of western or Japanese. The beef goulash was great, but the pasta was dry and hard. The teriyaki chicken was bleah, but soba was fantastic.

My sister and I ordered some strange cocktail and wine just for fun. After tasting, I think I will stick to my all-time favorites in future, thank you.

Slotting my specs in the drinks holder was a bad idea. It took a dip in my orange juice.

It was difficult watching movies with the constant distractions, such as putting on the seatbelt due to turbulence, having to talk to my siblings and the meal. When I was finally enjoying without any interruption for some time, I realized that it was already 2am and I had FORGOTTEN TO SLEEP. I didn't know if the clock on the plane was Singapore's or Tokyo's, but it meant that I'm going to have at most 3hrs of sleep! But I'm not even sleepy yet, gosh!

Sleep sleep...

Straighten-A-Sotong Part II

When I entered the doctor's room, I was frankly slightly disappointed to see a young man. Must be MO. He can advise me meh? Not confident ley...haha. He asked some questions and asked me to lie on the bed. I thought he was going to examine me, but he didn't do anything. He seemed to have run out of questions too, so we just sat there quietly. It was a few minutes before the senior consultant came in from the room next door. When he knew what I wanted to, he said,”No! It's too risky.” More so with my pre-existing condition.

Hmm, so dangerous meh? Thought it's rather common? If it were so dangerous, would my doctor still ask me to do it?

He handed me a sheet listing the complications that might arise from spine surgery. Got loss of sensation, paralysis, incontinence, death, blah blah... scary! There's even a declaration at the bottom that you acknowledge that the doctor has explained the potential complications of spine surgery -_-;;

Doctor: You may want to seek a second opinion...
Sotong: From?

Public hospital said cannot, then got to go private?

Doctor: You can go to another hospital. They might have newer techniques and better equipment than here.
Sotong: O... Like where?

Huh? So not all public hospitals are created equal? Got difference in the standard of care?? DANGEROUS.

Doctor: We can refer you to No Use Hospital.
Sotong: O_O Ok.

No Use Hospital had better not waste my consultation fee by giving me the same answer...

I don't know why, but they still gave me an appointment to come back another time for... I think it was bone density test. What for, when they were not going to treat me? Nevermind, I could use another MC.

Disney Also Need to Plan

My sister had another job - plan the Disney day. She chanced upon the .sg for Tokyo Disney Resort advertising a limited offer of a passport that guarantees admission and last minute decision of the park to visit. The original plan was to locate the Disney store in Osaka and purchase the passports first in order to maximize our time playing instead of queuing, but there is still the risk of the plan failing, maybe for reasons like we couldn't find the shop, despite it being in a building with a gigantic, obvious ferris wheel, so she thought it was a better to purchase in Singapore first.

A check with JTB revealed that the passports are going for a flat rate of S$98. Now, this wasn't in our favor, after we had already changed our money at a better rate, meaning it would cost us only S$91 if we got it in Japan. JTB ah, why don't they sell it in yen like the JR pass??

I was in favor of purchase in Japan because I wasn't worried about being denied entry due to crowd, since we were going on a Thursday and we would be there before the gates open. Moreover, we would have an extra Y5800 each to spend, since the Disney passports were already factored into the budget. And I was pretty confident of finding the Disney store in Osaka.

The planner preferred purchasing in Singapore in case somehow we didn't manage to buy the passports in Osaka, or somehow we still didn't manage to enter the park despite being 30min early. And it is an open ticket with guaranteed entry, which isn't the norm.

Ok, for S$7 for a peace of mind.

The planner has studied the rides, made a list of to-ride and mapped a route. Great job! I really know nothing this time! 靠她了!

Sotong the Researcher

Too many places to go, too little time and money.

After buying the nation-wide JR pass, there is a temptation to go to more places. To assess whether the wish could be turned into reality, some work must be done.

Internet is my best friend. First, I needed ideas on where to go. Trip Advisor was honestly, not helpful. But credit goes to it for introducing me to Japan-Guide.com. So were random online sites. Then I chanced upon 背包客栈, a Taiwanese travel forum. Tips, suggestions, itinerary, more questions asked by forumers than you can think of, what a pearl! It benefits the lazy sotong when the Taiwanese love Japan so much!

At first, I went to the English version of the website if there was, but it didn't take long for me to find that the English version was severely lacking in content compared to the native version. It wasn't long before I gave up and relied on Google Toolbar to translate the page from Japanese to English. Things still came out weird most of the time, but it's better than nothing. This exercise helped me to brush up my Japanese by a wee bit too. When I was planning Taiwan last year, I thought reading pages of traditional Chinese was bad. Try dumps of Japanese now! Indigestion! But stared at it long enough and I managed to recognize a few common words to leave out the translation! Window's Japanese input was a great help too.

There are a few websites that can help to plan your route all over Japan, across different methods of transportation and different railway companies. Hyperdia is very helpful for people who really would like to see the alphabet only. But later, I thought I had better note down the kanji names of the the stations as they are bigger on signs and thus easier to spot. Jorudan is in Japanese and also idiot-proof after I learned to use Hyperdia. It could even convert the romanji (the romanticized Japanese) into Japanese as I typed. Cool! But I'm not sure how well it works for buses because I try to avoid them. Find out for yourself!

$$$ considerations. Is that place too expensive to visit? Is it still worth it if we only visited for half a day or less? Do we want to see something there, or just want to be there? How badly do we want to have this thing to justify going specially for it? A consolation is I believe my choice of accommodation has helped to shave a good portion off the potential expenditure and we could spend it on a few luxuries, like FOOD!

Like Taiwan, all the hotels I considered did not require a deposit. This gives travelers more leeway, but I'll still try my best to be a responsible guest.

I didn't bother to plan the must-eat for each place we are going. Read that it's unlikely to locate a specific place on the first try, so I shall not waste my time.

Told my sister to plan the Ninja Museum day since she was the one who wanted to go... but I think I had better plan anyway. Later lost in Iga not fun.

Overall difficulty level: Hard!

Straighten-A-Sotong Part I

Sotong's doctor suggested that she see an orthopedic specialist to straighten her back. When he ”suggests”, it means that he wants me to do it. Ok, go lor. Got an appointment at Took Their Savings Hospital.

Deceit For Comfort

Although my flight was at 9.50pm, I had to be at the airport 2hrs earlier and probably do some last minute preparations in the afternoon. If we wanted to save the deadly 35% peak hour cab surcharge, it would make more sense to take leave from work for at least the afternoon. Moreover, would I still be in the mood to work?

I could afford 1 more day of leave, but recently, my boss came up with a new rule that one cannot be away from work for more than 2 weeks and I have already busted the limit by being away for 15 days. I think I got away with it because I got my leave approve before this new rule. So now how?

MC! Shift a doctor's appointment to that day!

Luck was on my side. I do have appointments that fall on Tuesdays. But the other criteria to be met was that there must be an available morning slot.

No luck with my first choice. Singapore is a nation of people with eye problems.

Struck gold with my second (and last) choice! Looking forward to my 1-day working week!

Life-saving Shopping

The Japanese government had just intervened to rein in the yen with a hyper-growth disorder. That was something to calm down the nerves frayed from witnessing the yen approaching the roof since we confirmed our holiday.

Good time to buy JR pass!

I sprang into action, because I had little information regarding where to buy and all... had been sitting on it! Thanks to M, I learned that JTB sold in yen (and then I heard that the exchange rate was pegged to USD and not SGD) while others are tour agencies which fixed a price in SGD for the whole week. NTA offered home delivery, but it was not keeping up with the rate. Otherwise, the service would be rather attractive. In this case, buying from JTB would be wiser.

If we could pay in yen, we could save a sum from the JPY -> USD -> SGD conversion. Called up JTB to enquire... and of course that was just a pipe dream. Haha they also not stupid lah.

The rate held on into the weekend. Our 7-day ordinary JR pass cost S$448 for Y28,300, meaning a rate of 1.5830. Not bad already.

Next, coldwear shopping at Uniqlo, Daiso and Coldwear. Helps the tropical sotong from freezing, not exaggerating at all!


Tried to change money, but seems like moneychangers don't stock much yen. Good lor, help to prevent locals from going on shopping sprees. Eventually we succeeded, before the yen went on a rocket ride again.

Now to hope the rate doesn't improve until after we return... just to make ourselves feel better hehe.

Insurance

I clean forgot about travel insurance until I chanced upon a friend's facebook status about 45% discount for Tenet. What a timely reminder! With my current workload, I might jolly well forget about it until the day before we departed, or when I needed to be air-lifted back home.

Verified that NTUC Income and AIG were of no match. With Tenet's competitive price, we could even get the plan with more coverage, and still cost less than NTUC/AIG!

This was a good chance to show some support for my sister's new budding career. I tasked her to check if any other insurance company could trump Tenet and hopefully, for a price quote even better than the promotion. So I wouldn't be using my friend's service like last time. Sorry, K!

I think it took about 5 days for my sister to come back with the information. Turned out that she had to ask her senior instead of doing the work herself. Didn't expect that... Well, so, I was already getting impatient with the slow response for something seemingly simple, but nevertheless, I appreciated the information that the Tenet promotion was ending in what, 2 days?? Something I failed to notice while at Tenet's website *sheepish*. Her senior recommended Chartis for the good claim experience... but so ex, don't want lah.

With the limited time and disappointing turnaround time, I felt I couldn't entrust my sister's senior to settle the insurance for us after we passed her our personal information. I felt she wasn't serious about this business at all - the commission was probably negligible. When I asked K the last time, he said he didn't earn much from this, but he could still help me with it. I inferred that he was doing it just to provide a complete service. I guessed it was the same for my sister's senior. I could imagine the commission being a measly $5 or something. Instead of worrying if she could meet the deadline, I could check the task as done in just 15min and not worry about it again.

Initially, I thought my sister's senior would be the one earning the commission, but she said she would still get a cut. But if I were right about the $5 commission, I wondered what would be left for her. Sorry, but her first sale was not meant to be.

Tenet TravelJoy Elite plan, $52.80. Great deal!