Day 1 - Fly me to JAPAN!

Our flight was 1am and on SQ 618, we're ready for our Japan trip.

Day 2 - Osaka & Kobe Port

.Osaka.
After a 5hr 50min flight, our first destination was OSAKA Castle. Everything was on a slow pace, I felt that I was actually taking a stroll in the park. The only thing that shocked me was the number of dogs (leashed) I saw being walked. After passing by a few, I realised they were indeed docile and I was fine, walking past them (with a comfortable distance of course).

Just thought its a nice spot to take a picture.

We ended up in a park after a 5min walk from the carpark. Saw these board figures and found them rather cute.

Kenny, our tour guide, insisted that we should take a pic of the castle from this spot. And well being obedient tourists we did. Hmm Esther, why did we do what we did? hahahah

While walking back down, we decided to take another pic with these naked trees.

.Universal Studio.

After the castle, we had to drop a few, er, actually 3/4 of the group at Universal Studio. Esther and I are not quite into rides and hence we chose to head to Kobe instead. But managed to snap a pic with this huge icon. WOo hoo.

At Kobe, we were supposed to shop around on our own and then settle our own lunch. We decided to Ramen cos while Kenny was walking us to the meeting point, we walked past a Ramen look - a-like restaurant at a back alley. However, as we tracked back, we din seem to be able to find it.

In the end, we met Kenny along the way and he brought us for a nice warm bowl of RAMEN. Now this was GREAT. Gravy a little thicker than those in Singapore but its nice cos we were cold.

Just right after lunch, we saw a bakery.. and if you were to read it clearly its a BOUTIQUE ahhhh yes rather classy as I walked in I was very attracted to this cuboid looking cheesecake. Its rather puny approx a thumb's length but its small and MIGHTY. It costs me about 170 Yen ($2.40 plus)
and it tasted absolutely ........superb!

This is Esther taking her 1/3.

Look at the unglam But Satisfied look ha! Its really very nice. Melts in the mouth. *burps* Full.

.Kobe Port.

As introduced by Esther this is Kobe port.

Nothing much here actually... we just basically took another stroll...

Take another pic together...

Then we discovered that behind us was a whole area of SHOPs. However, we actually had to walked briskly past it to go back to our coach. :( The shops looked like they sell lovely stuff. *sigh* Will go back if I get a chance.

.Shimsaibashi & Dotombori.

Looking at this crowd, would you still wanna walk through it? We did! Brave eh?

Had to pause again from the shopping as this cute Lady Bird pastry caught my eye.

This is the other masterpiece in the same shop.

That night we headed back to Rihga Royal Sakai to rest. Before that, we bought real sweet Persimmons from a fruit stall at Osaka Castle, ate it and it was super sweet. It cost about 300 Yen ( $1.60 x 3) for that little fruit. But well worth it.

Day 3 - Nara-Kyoto-Nagoya

Waking up from Nagoya Kokusai Hotel to have a nice warm breakfast. Nagoya is a big city but has relatively a smaller population compared to Tokyo and Osaka. I love the place.
















.NARA.









I'm seriously not a fan of animals but this shrine which I have paid to enter (I din even know) actually had like hundreds of deers roaming FREELY. AHHHHH its a total flooding experience. They are docile but rather fearless. Hmmph.

Behind us is the Nara Shrine which we din enter but ended up taking loads of pictures with the surroundings.

Classic!

.Kyoto.

We next went to Kyoto and I fell so in lurve with the place. All kimono fabric stuff which you wanna buy, you should get it from this place. They sell very pretty things. Prices are very controlled. Not much diff from one shop to another.

This was what we ate for lunc. EBI tempura with another bowl of hot Udon. The yellow thingy was Tamago (egg).

We had to first take a picture with a Geisha and then according to the itinerary visit another shrine. But Esther and I made a wiser move, we went shopping at Kyoto instead. Never regret. There's so much to see and buy, insufficient cash was the only thing that held me back.

There are many shops that sells ice cream but only this sells the black sesame ones. :) Very yummy. It costs me 300 Yen though (3 x $1.60) :(

The street of Kyoto was bustling with people when we were there. It was a weekday for goodness sake. Where did these people come from? But I still love the place.

Walked into this shop and an Obasan was trying to sell me a hair pin. With the language barrier I could only "OUCH" to tell her that she had pushed it a little too near my scalp and was scrapping against it. In the end I learnt the skill of bunning up my hair but did not buy the pin cos think they were far too expensive. But she still bowed and sent me out of the shop. Talk about excellent service here.

.OSAKA.
This was the Nagoya TV Tower.. looked a little like Eiffel eh? Hahah there were plenty of shops underground and I actually walked into this ECO shop which sold lots of lovely items but once again had to think twice cos it was really exorbitant. Self-discipline. Din buy any.













For dinner we went to the place above and we had to first lock out shoes with the wooden keys. Mine was 95. The dinner was quite a spread. A little of everything adds up to be quite a bit.

After heading back to hotel, here comes our sweet dessert - BECKY. :) Meeting her in Nagoya was one of the best things that ever took place. We turned the quiet hotel into.... hahahhah you can imagine.

Day 4 - Mount Fuji

We stayed in Hotel Koryu (Tatami Room) last night and we had a fantastic feast. :) Finally, something that I looked forward to - SASHIMI. But for this we had to pay extra to order it. It was fresh definitely. No regrets.


















YUMMY!







Opposite our hotel was a beautiful lake. One of the more scenic sights, though not included in our itinerary. It was probably 8 degrees when we were up that morning... the air was great and importantly, the vastness of the lake reminded me of the greatness of God.

This was taken from our Tatami room.

Breathtaking!

It was cold definitely! 8 Degrees.

The bench nearly froze our butts. ha..

Moving from our hotel, we were heading towards Mount Fuji. Prior to that, we proceed to Oshino Hakkai to see a crystal clear pond and also rested at the foot of Mt Fuiji is the famous Shirato-no-Taki Falls. I absolutely love that place. I found serenity amidst the gushing sounds of the water fall. We saw a small bow of rainbow on the right hand side of the Fall too. Captivating.

This is the beginning of the waterfall.

We had to walk down a long flight of stairs before reaching the WALL of water fall.

Taken from a bridge at the bottom of the Water Fall.

Waterfall with a bow of rainbow. How beautiful can it get?

Can't be more picture perfect than this!

This was the nearest point to the water fall at the bottom.

On our way up again, we passed by this small restaurant that had this charcoal burning stove in front of it. I wonder why I took a pic with it but I think it goes well with B&W I guess. haha

Beside it was a barrel of WASABI. I was holding one in my hand but I guess its too small to be seen.

To the Mt Fuji, anyone could only travel to the 5th station max. depending on the weather condition. As for us, God is good, the weather was rather fine and we managed to move up to the 4th. Before that, we actually went to look at the OSHIO HAKKAI, its actually just a crystal clear pond haahah hence, Soo Wei did not take any pic of it.

This is the area around the pond. We love the bush more... :)

This water is from Mount Fuji...

Esther's go on it.

There were shops near that area and this one in particular sell all the preserves along with all the local food and souvenirs.













Bought a pan-friend mochi from a stall nearby. Ate it with excitement but was totally disappointed. Haha.

We then traveled as the board says all the way up to the 4th Station of mt Fuji.

I lurve this pic.

"How great is our God!"

Missed Yong Pyeong (Korea) as I stood at this place.
Though as freezing cold but not as spectacular.