It’s an un-plan trip, just want to retreat and go out somewhere so everything is booked and done in one hour from flight ticket to hotels. The whole trip is around one week and visit three cities, Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. After got the ticket, before one week went to JTB Singapore for train ticket (JR Pass). In Singapore, the agent office is at Takashimaya third floor. Other than JR Pass, they also selling tour which you can choose a city like Osaka one day trip or Kyoto bicycle tour. I also got sim card from here but better to get it at the airport. The sim card at JTB is usable but speed is not that fast and some area I cannot go online at all.
I started the trip by flying with JAL airline. It’s ok price, not cheapest not too expensive but after it took off, I founded out it has wifi on the plane too. So this flight I can online most of the time and make it less boring even it’s quite a long flight (8 hours.) The price for wifi is not too bad too, it can purchase on the flight and for whole flight (24 hours) is just $18.80. The speed is ok, cannot open youtube (probably can but it’s very slow to load) but Twitter and Facebook is fine.
I arrived at Narita (some mistake when booking the flight which suppose to be Haneda) on Tuesday evening which 30 minutes queue, not too long and after came out, I can exchange the ticket, get the train ticket to the city (I don’t use JR Pass for first day) everything is done very fast. Everyone in airport can speak English. It’s not so bad from the country that I heard a lot that many people cannot speak English.
First day I stayed in Shinjuku, the area that I know nothing. Actually I didn’t find any information for this trip at all. What’s I know mostly from other people tell me or read from the forum for a long time. So after very impress with Japanese super fast train for 30 minutes, I came out with very confusing station especially Shinjuku station that made me walk in circle for one hour for just finding the exit to my hotel. People there are just keep walking for going out made it so hard to cut for the exit too sometime. After came out and went to hotel, got another surprise (which actually I shouldn’t) is the hotel room here is so small like in Singapore. Only two things that probably better is bathtub, toilet and the receipt.
After throw everything to the room, started walking out and find some dinner and found out one store that has machine with English menu and end up with above katsu meal. Tried talk to the people in store, so chef or waitress mostly cannot speak English but with the machine. This problem is becoming trivial now. The area I stay is separate by the railways and train station, just walk pass the railroad, It becomes the red light district, walk to another way become a shopping area but first day, mostly I walk in the mall because of tiring and will need to go to Osaka next day.
In the morning, it’s almost the same as evening, people keeps walking. A lot of people pouring to exit. I went to Tokyo station which is another big station and many gates also have a gate inside the gate make it more confusing. After get the Shinkansen ticket and run for the train (yes, run. I went to the wrong platform and also wrong car and the train here is very long) I departed for the Osaka.
From Tokyo to Osaka with Shinkansen, it took around 3 hours with the price that almost the same as plane (or probably more). If want to save more time, plane might be a better choice but this trip, I would like to take train more for the country that made the first(and best?) bullet train. I arrived Osaka around 1pm and almost the same as Tokyo station, Osaka station is also big and have gate with in the gate. It’s confusing almost the same as Tokyo station but because people here is a lot less, so not that many people are rushing out. The hotel here is also bigger and cheaper, for two nights room here is almost the same as 1 night in Tokyo.
I started Osaka tour with Namba with a famous sign board, It’s very long shopping street that pass through many blocks of the city and each block also have a small road that can go out and has small shop for food and shopping too. It took me around 1–2 hours for went to from one end to another end. After that I went to Umeda Sky Building, it’s very close to Osaka station just 10 minutes walk. It’s kind of famous because of the top floor that there’s floating escalator connect to the roof top. The ticket for walking around on the roof top is around ¥1,000 and on the roof top, can see the river that flow to Osaka bay and Osaka downtown area. The bad thing is on first day it’s raining for the whole day.
On next day, I took tour. It started with Umeda Sky Building (with a log better weather compare to yesterday) and continue to Osaka castle. The whole area is huge compare to other building in Japan. Inside the wall it consist of few gates, shrine, building and main castle. The castle can go up to the top floor and see city around it. Each floor in the castle is telling the history about this castle, who own the castle and the castle plan from the old time. The current castle is actually just build recently, not the original one from the old time but got fund by the people in the city. This actually similar to the temple and castle in Kyoto that most buildings are not original one but get fund by the people that want to keep the building from the old time.
After castle tour, the tour went to the Osaka river tour from the pier near the castle, The ferry took around 1 hour for going along the river and comes back to the castle. Not so much interesting, only a few surprise thing like the ferry roof can lower for passing the bridge and some nice bridges. I separate from the tour after this ferry tour and walk around castle a bit more.
After Osaka, I went to Kyoto. The city is very close to each other, just 1 hour with normal train but station here is somehow is confusing as other big two cities. It has many gates and gate inside another gate (so have to show tickets two times to come out from the station) and when came out and walk around it’s kind of opposite of my expectation. I always thought Kyoto is an old city with a lot of old building like Ayuthaya in Thailand but this city is like other normal city. In the center area has some tall buildings and doesn’t looks like old style buildings mostly like a block home that I see from anime.
After put all my stuffs at hotel, I got a bike and cycling around. Here has a lot of bike rental place and cost around ¥1,000 per day but have to return before 5 pm. My first destination is Fushimimomoyama Castle, it’s below right in the map and took around 30 minutes to cycle there. It’s really empty and a lot smaller compare to Osaka castle. No inner gate, just one and main castle. Around the castle is park and baseball field (seems, many parks here will have baseball field inside and student can come and play) when I arrive the castle it started raining, so I cannot stay long and cycling back to the second one but in the middle, the rain is already pour down and have to stop at a small very nice cafe in front of Kyoto university.
I didn’t know there’s university in front of me in the first time because the area looks like normal city with a lot of trees. The bread at the cafe is really nice (or probably I’m very hungry because of cycling under the rain.) and seems many students and professors here are coming here for the lunch too. After finished my lunch and sitting hoping the rain will stop, it’s become heavier and in the end, got my rain coat at near by 7–11 with very nice cashier gave me towel for dry mine hair and shirt. People here in Kyoto somehow can speak english very well compare to Osaka and Tokyo. Most of the place I can talk with them in English.
I continue the trip to Fushimi Inari Taisha, the touristy place for the red gates but because of the heavy rain, today has a lot less people and because I’m already wet under the rain coat, so getting more wet and walk to the top of the hill seems not hurting me more (ok, I feel a bit sick after that later.) There’s a short way to the main shrine below which if want only picture, can stop here and quite long way to the top with a lot of gates and “waterfall” on the heavy raining day. Along the way to the top, there’re few small shrine for getting bless and second station before walk to the top, there’s empty area that can see the whole Kyoto city but better to come on good weather day.
The rain stop right after I came down which might be a good thing. At the shrine basement there’s market for souvenir and food. The price might be not nice e.g. one Sembe stick cost around ¥500.
I went back to hotel after the shrine and found out the hotel has laundromat, perfect for my wet coats. Anyone want to clean coats in the middle of the trip and save money I would suggest this hotel. The room is nice and new. They don’t have breakfast but provides kitchen for you to cook by yourself.
Next day is same as Osaka trip, I took the tour which went to many famous places in Kyoto like golden temple and temple on the cliff. Will need to come back next time with more time and bike. It will be a lot more fun that come with the tour. After the tour, went to the city center (Kyoto station) eating and shopping and that’s all for my Kyoto tour.
Last city is Tokyo, I went for the first day and keep it for the last because need to come back here for the airport. Same hotel, which I won’t recommend in Shinjuku. I think I don’t like probably because of the area that’s very pack and crowded but this time I found the bike sharing systems and there’s two, Docomo and Cogicogi. (They might be other systems but I found only two.) Cogicogi is operate in Shinjuku area which you can rent and park anywhere in the system station. I didn’t try this system yet because most of the area I travel mostly near imperial palace.
The other system from Docomo is more cover, they divide to three areas, Chiyoda, Minato and Chuo (all these three are in Tokyo) and can park across the area (In the beginning I thought have to park in the area only, but tried out on the last day and works!) All bike are electric and has motor assist (can turn off.) The rental cost is around ¥1,800 for one day which’s better to register online and rent as per trip. It cost only ¥150 yen per 30 hours when you register to the system.
It’s very lucky for me on the first day that they close the road for bike and can cycling freely (actually it seems there’s cycling event on that day) around the palace. I cycling from palace to Tokyo tower, took around 20 minutes. The road is safe for cycling and don’t need helmet here also can cycling on foot path in some area which has a special road for bicycle separate from walking area. Other places that I went to are Tsukiji market, which has a good sushi/sashimi (I’m not a raw fish fan, can eat but don’t feel much different), Ueno park (huge park with many museum inside), Sensoji temple.
Near by sensoji, there’s a walk way to Tokyo sky tree which has small park. I really love this area, it’s windy, has stair for sit and chill with the river sightseeing. The picture when sit there with train crossing the bridge is like come out from manga. That’s area make me stay for hours. Other area I really like is bridge near Odaiba. It’s the bridge connect between Chuo area and Shijo-Mae when stop in between, can see from Tokyo Sky tree to Rainbow bridge. I would go back again to this two areas (with bikes!) next time and maybe stay there even longer.
So this is a whole Japan trip for 7 days, I guess it’s too pack for 3 cities and probably not a good time to visit japan because of weather (it’s rain 4 days for the whole trip) Next time, I might visit in winter season and hope it will be nicer experience. For all the images can see in my Flickr album here.
