Last day before I have to go back to work, disgusting!!!
Leaving Sydney
The stupid lift was broken, which meant we had to carry our luggages down the stairs and by the time we arrived at the station, we were both sweating and exhausted, disgusting! It was so crowded at the airport, and as usual, I hate flying.
Brief stopover in Singapore
Had my fishball noodles, cai tao kueh, and iced lemon tea, sat around for awhile and papa suggested why don't we drive back home, take a quick shower and nap and then return to airport... that turned out to be a brilliant suggestion, becos I was so tired, my eyes refused to open when it was time to drive back to the airport.
Osaka
Another 7 hours from Singapore to Osaka... more flying... Arrived in Osaka KIX International at about 0900 Xmas Eve. It was freezing cold... Managed to figure out our way to the train station where our accommodation supposedly is at via train... We got lost trying to find out way from the station to the accommodation, we had to ask people along the way, and try and figure out these maps written in half Jap and half English... it was not fun lugging our luggages through the streets... took us quite awhile to actually find the place, luckily there was this kind restaurant person who directed us there... so we decided to eat there out of gratitude, turns out the food sucks, and people were smoking in there... that's one thing I did not like about Japan, people are allowed to smoke indoors... the accommodation itself was pretty good, situated in a pretty good location surrounded by food, apparently it's meant to be a dodgy area, but it turned out alright, even when we arrived back in the hotel late...
It rained the first 2 days we were there, and also on our day tour to Kyoto, Nara and Kobe... that was a long day... the tour to Kyoto and Nara was good, except the traffic from Kyoto to Kobe was a nightmare, which meant it took us 2 hours to get to Kobe and all we did there was eat and then came back... did not get to walk around the shops or do anything else... we found a yummy and relatively cheaper unagi restaurant near our accommodation, and went there to eat a few times...
The next day we just walked around the city area, and went for this famous buffet at this hotel, which was alright, and then checked out the night scenery at Umeda Sky Building... it was freezing cold and windy up there...
The other good thing about our accommodation was it had coin laundry, which meant that we could some washing.
Kyoto
Caught the Shinkansen to Kyoto which only took 15 mins... again, we got lost trying to find the accommodation, and it was damn far from the train station, approx 20mins walk, and it started snowing... it was not fun lugging our luggages through the streets, lost and when it was snowing... we finally managed to ask for directions and arrived at the accommodation, it was alright, but too far from the station, and the closest shopping centre for food was approx 10mins walk...
We decided to catch the Shinkansen to this Himeji castle... luckily for us, the weather was great that day... climbing the steps up and down the castle was painful and tiring, cos it was quite high and steep stairs... luckily it was not that crowded when we were there... the same afternoon, we paid for this walking tour of Kyoto, which turned out to be a mistake, becos we were already pretty tired from walking the castle in the morning, and then more walking to temples x2 and to Gion, which was famous for its Geishas... Pongie was not impressed... at this stage, we are gradually realising that we are not really suited to Japanese food, and we ate alot of Macdonalds whilst we were there in Japan actually, cos food was expensive and did not suit us...
The next day, we booked a tea ceremony, again it took us a while to locate this place and stumbled upon this food place, again side note here, never visit Japan during Xmas and New Year cos everywhere is pretty much packed, and queues for everything, food, toilets, public transport... pongie really liked this teppanyaki place that we decided to try... it was expensive but good... the tea ceremony was an eye opener, the only thing was that the place was meant to be like a sanctuary, and meant to be peaceful and quiet, but unfortunately somewhere nearby, there was construction works going on, hence all I can hear is drilling...
Again, there was coin laundry facilities so we managed to do some laundry...
Tokyo
Again caught the Shinkansen to Tokyo from Kyoto, which was about 2.5 hours ride... we decided to catch a taxi from Tokyo station to our accommodation instead this time, and I did a boo boo, and forgot to pack the address with me, needless to say, pongie again was not impressed, and it got worse when we actually found the place, and it was pretty much a shithole... I was so not impressed as well, it was like a backpackers place in a dark alley, and it was not cheap... and the futons were uncomfortable, and the place was not the cleanest either... and we had to spend 2 nights there, including New Years Eve, so needless to say, my New Years Eve 2017/2018 was not spent happily...my review for that place was stinging. And the washing machine looked disgusting, we did not even bother trying to do some laundry.
Anyway, the next day, we decided to make our way to Shin-Yokohama, where the ramen museum is located, again we got lost, and after asking for directions and spending lots of time getting lost, we finally found the place, and it was already crowded with people, again queues everywhere... we managed to try 2 different stalls of ramen... the first one was much better than the second one... it snowed that day, but only briefly and we were in the train so did not get snowed on...
The next day, we decided to head to Akihabara, to experience the maid cafe, needless to say, there were queues again, and it was weird how males of varying ages were queuing at the maid cafe, and seeing these males do cutesy gestures and sounds... it was damn weird... the food sucked, and it was expensive, so it was pretty much more of a once off experience for us... after that, we decided to try going to Harajuku, bad mistake, it was packed with people, along the shopping area, and we must be insane to even decide to visit the famous temple there, Meiji Shrine, we queued for like 1.5 hours before we actually got into the temple and took some pictures and was there for only like 10mins... it was crazy... then we thought we might as well go visit Shibuya since it's like the next stop anyway, food was expensive and not to our tastes, so guess what we ended up eating... it was funny to see other tourists like us stopping to take pictures in the middle of the famous intersection...
The next day, we decided to catch the Shinkansen to Matsumoto, which was like another 2.5 hours away from Tokyo, it was exciting going there becos we got to sit on the new Shinkansen called Azusa, which only debuted in December, and it really looked like a transformer, it was very cool looking... the castle was pretty much similar to Himeji so we didn't actually pay to go in, and just walked around the garden outside... and of course we got lost trying to find this castle, and found Ippudo... I ate ALOT of ramen that day... even pongie was shocked at how much I ate... the trip back was not fun though, it was very long, cos we sat on the slower train... like 3 hours long... the accommodation was so damn small and squeezy, there was barely room to walk, we only could open one luggage at a time...
The next day, we decided to check out Asakusa, again it was packed, queues leading to the famous temple... but not as bad as the queue at Meiji Shrine... we didn't end up going into the temple though, it was too crowded... we decided to hang at the visitor's centre for awhile to wait for the lighting up of the Tokyo Skytree tower... it was freezing cold... and ended up finding out that it does not get illuminated with the blue lighting until much later, so we decided not to wait and left...
The next day, it was time to leave for Hakone on the Romance train, which now I realised I did not have to pay the extra money becos we had to alight at Odawara station instead of Hakone Yumoto station, becos the hotel shuttle service only picks up and drops off at Odawara. Anyway, we decided to treat ourselves to very expensive unagi meal before leaving... The Romance train turned out to be pretty ordinary, and the seat space was not as wide as the Shinkansen, which meant we were squeezed in with our luggages for like 1.5 hours.
Hakone
Ok, the Prince hotel which we stayed in was the best accommodation out of all the accommodation we stayed in during the trip. The only issue was the location, it was pretty isolated, but they offer shuttle service to and from the bus-stop and to and from Odawara station... but which also meant that food was a problem, so we pretty much ended up eating cup noodles for most meals... and paid for buffet breakfast on 2 days only... the other good thing to mention is the onsen, we went twice a day, and for some reason, most of the guests there were Japanese, which was good, in terms of etiquette... customer service was excellent...
The next day, we decided to catch a bus to check out the Hakone Yumoto area, it started snowing when we left the hotel... we caught the bus x2 to Gora station and then caught the railway to Hakone Yumoto station, and found out that the ropeway was closed due to volcanic gases. Disappointing!
The next day, it was the paid guided tour day, it turned out to be a very disppointing tour day for us, in terms of the guide himself, and the fact that that ropeway remained closed, and we could not visit Owakudani, the sulphur springs place... and traffic was really bad as well that day, which meant everything took extra long... so we ended up only experiencing the Lake Ashi cruise and the Mishima Skywalk... it must have snowed the previous day before, cos the ground was covered in snow, at least it was a fine day, which meant we could see Mt Fuji really clearly... I provided some really constructive feedback to the tour operator. It was very disappointing.
Time to catch a plane from Haneda Airport to Seoul Gimpo airport the next day... didn't do very much that day, spent most time in the hotel in the morning until checkout time, then caught the shuttle to Odawara station, then a Shinkansen to Shin Yokohama station, and then a bus to the airport... and then spent the time there until it was time to fly...
Seoul
Arrived in Seoul pretty late at about 2300... luckily we booked a taxi in advance, otherwise we would be queuing the cold for a taxi at the airport... the taxi ahjussi was hilarious, as soon as he head where we were heading, he was like oh I know I know, I know the owner of Dalzip Bukchon very well, and he started playing SNSD videos on youtube on his tablet... by the time we arrived at the hanok, it was pretty late, luckily the manager of the place spoke English, got us settled in, it was pretty small and cozy, and we were very lucky to have the whole place to ourselves, otherwise we would have to share the bathroom and toilet facilities...
Breakfast was prepared by the manager the next day, it was pretty simple Korean style meal, the issue arose when I had to do business number 2 and clogged up the toilet and the toilet overflowed... luckily it was just water, and not crap... but the manager was not impressed... so apparently in Korea, we are not meant to throw used toilet paper in the toilet, how freaking DISGUSTING is that??!! ok side note here, the total number of times I have clogged up public toilets whilst in Seoul was 3 times- one in the hanok, once in Miss Lee cafe and once in Ssamziegil... yikes! That's probably the only thing that I dislike about Korea...
The process of having to drag our luggages along the Bukchon area to Anguk station was painful, it was like approx 30mins walk, and the other thing I dislike about Seoul train stations is the lack of elevators... we had to carry our luggages up and down stairs multiple times... painful! Anyway, we finally managed to locate Hotel Skypark Central in Myeongdong after getting lost again... and decided to make our way back to Anguk where Samcheongdong is... we also found really yummy odeng and this really yummy waffle cafe, and ate at Miss Lee cafe... where they had the kimchi fried rice lunchbox, the ttoekbukki was super spicy! ok side note again, I got sick with a sore throat, cough and cold, and passed my bugs to pongie, which she obviously was not impressed about, and she was pretty sick...
The next day... it's our booked day trip to Nami Island and Rail biking... the tour started early, and we found out that it was only us on the tour, which was good and bad in a way... our tourguide was really good, and it was good that all we had to do was follow and meet at a certain place and time, and be transported everywhere, without having to find our way on our own, becos based on our record for the last 2 weeks trying to navigate maps and find places, we suck. It was so cold but so pretty at Nami Island, it was about an hours' drive from Seoul and then another 15 mins on the ferry... we got there pretty early, so there was pretty much nobody, we found this really yummy cafe, and by the time we came out of the cafe, the place was starting to get crowded... mostly Asians, Phillipinos, and Koreans... we got to spend quite alot of time exploring the island, it would have been nice if it were less cold, it was freezing... pongie and I decided that we might come back when it's warmer and maybe stay overnight there, but the issue would be actually getting there ourselves I think... and we also found another place where they had the kimchi fried rice lunchbox... and then it was rail biking time, again it was freezing and it was really exhausting... and becos it was so cold and with the wind blowing, it was hard to breathe at times... toilet facilities there was gross, there was no basin to wash your hands in, and no soap in some public toilets... both in Japan and Seoul... the final stop was to this ginseng museum, which was awkward becos we turned out to be the only ones there, and I felt like we were being pressured into buying... it started snowing pretty heavily then...
The next day, we checked into another hotel and again got lost, story of our lives, took us awhile to locate this place, asking people along the way, and lugging our luggages up and down stairs and along the streets, finally found the place, great customer service but far from any food or shopping places, although they do offer a shuttle service... the room was pretty good, probably the next best one after Prince hotel... after settling down, we decided to go Hongdae and tried their noraebang... it was challenging becos of the language barrier, and when we finally figured out how to use the system, we only had like 30mins to go... it was a good experience, but the room we got was pretty crap...
The next day, we decided to make our way to Gwanghwamun to watch the royal guard ceremony, it was the coldest day of our entire trip, it was like minus 12 degrees! my face and body actually hurt from being outside, it was bad... and of course the ceremony was outside, it was freezing, we had to seek warmth underground after... we decided to go look for the Baskin and Robbins cafe which we ate at the last time, but I think it's gone... we ended up heading to Myeongdong to browse the shops, bought quite alot of facial masks, and found this little family restaurant selling Gimbap and Kimchi fried rice... and then decided to catch a train to Seoul station to buy pads at Lotte Mart and Baskin and Robbins ice cream, yum! it is so cheap there as compared to Sydney...
Last day in Seoul... decided to go back to Samcheongdong to eat at Miss Lee cafe and at my yummy waffle cafe, and then realised that there is another Miss Lee cafe near the waffle place too... and then it was time to catch a airport limousine bus from our accommodation to Seoul Incheon Aiport which was like approx 1.5 hours journey. We just hung around there, until it was time to fly off, but we did manage to find a restaurant which had pongie's mackeral fish and my kimchi fried rice too... and then it's 10.5 hours flight back to Sydney... the flight back was turbulent, disgusting!
Sydney
Arrived back in Sydney, and the temperature luckily was like 25 degrees, which was bad considering we came from like minus 10 degrees in Seoul the day before... but not like freaking 40 degrees... and touch wood, it 's been pretty cool the last few days since we got back but the weather forecast is predicting that the mercury is soaring again this week...
Dreading going back to work, uni starting, paying the mortgage for the townhouse this year, and what's going to happen between Pete and I, at this stage, it's not looking good.
Mum and papa are visiting again during the Easter holidays... fun times. Not.
