Next Stop: Japan (Part 3)

Okay okay, so now back to the real story :) Packed our bags, left Manila last January 2. What a way to kick off the new year!

We stayed in Takanawa Tobu Hotel in Shinagawa, which was a few min walk from the train station! :) Funny on how when we got to the hotel, we were looking for the aircon switch and we requested for "cool air" hahahaha. When the only thing coming out is hot air because it's winter. I was actually surprised that it wasn't as hard to communicate in English as expected, I thought I'd have a hard time talking to people. Ian was even texting me the 101's on how to ask for water, when I usually just normally ask for water casually in English.

The train was ultra complicated, there were a lot of lines, it wasn't as simple as riding the one in HK but after a while it's something we got used to :) We had our own Suica card so we don't have to buy tickets every time. It's quiet on the train, people are prohibited to talk on the phone, so you don't hear chatter. The train's efficient and on time. (Oh and riding the Shinkansen or the bullet train, is another story)

We went to Disneyland and Disneysea, one day each. The only caveat on the Disney in Japan is everything, well almost everything is in Japanese. Sometimes the staff would have instructions before the ride, and we're like "What are they saying?" I've only been to Disney in Hong Kong just last year, and people were saying the one in HK is small, and after going to the one in Japan, it really is true. In HK, it's easy to remember the area, in Japan, you really need a map to navigate Disney.

Well, Disney is still Disney, and it brings out the kid inside of us :) Nevermind that Disneysea is really beside a body of water, and we're all freezing while waiting on line for some rides for more than an hour! Disneyland is more for kids, Disneysea had the rides for adults. Didn't get to ride Splash Mountain, I didn't wanna risk getting wet and getting sick.

After Disney, the rest were all tours. We had the city tour, visited the Tokyo Tower, Meiji Shrine, Imperial Palace, Asakusa Kannon Temple. We also had the Sumida River Cruise.

We also had the Nikko Kegon Tour, and the highlight of this tour is the Lake Chuzenji and the Kegon Waterfall. It didn't snow in Tokyo but this area had snow :) We were only ones left outside the tour bus because everyone else was freezing and boarded the bus, the tour guide figured that we didn't have snow in our country hahahaha, it was that obvious. According to the guide, the temp was 1.7 C. Plus add the wind chill factor, it was super cold.

Now for the rest of the Japan Experience, it will have to be the Part 4 of this blog entry, for now I'll just post some food stuff.

A. Different flavors of Kitkat
I tried soy sauce, apple, sesame, strawberry, strawberry cheesecake, soy, green tea, cookie, and red bean. We stop at every convenience store that we pass by because some flavors are just available in New Days, in Family Mart, etc. Green Tea is only available in the Airport, beside Starbucks, near McDonald's. So right after checking in your luggage, check out the Airport mall first. Look it up in the Airport map :)

B. Starbucks
They have good Lavander Earl Grey Tea Latte! Plus if you're like me and you collect Starbucks tumbler, and you forgot to buy the tumblers, the Starbucks in the Airport has the complete one! They had Kyoto, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, etc. I got a Japan 2009 tumbler and Shizuoka which had a Mt Fuji design. This one though, I didn't see in the airport, got it on the way to check out Mt. Fuji. They still give a free drink when you buy a tumbler.

C. Royce Ice Cream
Okay, Royce Ice Cream is found in convenience stores and is the same price as street ice cream! I bought Green Tea ice cream in cone for 300 Yen and Royce Ice Cream in Family Mart for 315 Yen! Times .5 so around P150 for each.

D. Yoshinoya and Pepper Lunch
When we first got there, we were so hungry and saw Yoshinoya right away, since we didn't want to look around anymore, we ate in Yoshinoya. I don't really mind since I get to taste the authentic Yoshinoya beef bowl in Japan! :) After a few days, we passed by Pepper Lunch. And it looked like Yoshinoya, the table/set-up.

Here in Manila, Pepper Lunch is in Powerplant, Rockwell and people line up for it. In Tokyo, it looked like a hole in the wall resto, nothing fancy. In terms of prices, well everything is expensive in Japan!

E. Mcdonald's is so expensive. I checked when I went to eat yesterday, our McChicken sandwich meal is P103. In Japan, it's 620 Yen or around P310! I didn't bother to eat in Mcdonald's while in Tokyo hahaha, I just got coffee once, that's it :)

F. Ate Takoyaki (Octopus balls!), Tempura, Fresh Sushi, Katsu Curry, Katsudon, Eat all you can Yakiniku, Eat all you can Wagyu! Wasn't able to go to Tsukiji :( Writing this post literally made me hungry!

Next Stop: Hong Kong

Last Sept 18-21, I went to Hong Kong with my mom, my cousin Kat, and her mom Ninang Norie. It was an all girl trip :) I treated my mom the airfare (just the airfare though :p). And I've finally seen the Terminal 3 airport which was really nice, but I don't think I'd want to book a 5am ish flight again. (Lesson learned #1) Man, I had to wake up at 2am. Cebu Pacific wasn't late.. at all. Hooray! That's both for our flight to Hong Kong and going back to Manila. Umm they just overbooked, but they offered the next flight for those who can give way, which was at 8am and free roundtrip domestic flight anywhere in the Philippines. There were actually a lot of takers, but I didn't nudge at all because I woke up at 2am for the 5:55am flight, there, it's bold for emphasis.

Moving on.. We stayed in Holiday Inn Express in Causeway Bay which I got for HK $1,080 a night, not bad at all. Few minutes walk to the MTR, and just literally across Times Square. Check in time was at 2 PM, but we were able to check in when we arrived. Good job! There was free breakfast as well :) I only got one room so it's cheaper, declared 2 people staying, but we were actually 4. But the next time we do this, this mom-daughter bonding trip, I'd book 2 rooms because my mom kept on occupying more than half of her space. (Lesson learned #2)

I got good stuff from H&M like bags, got dresses in Mongkok, drank and bought Horlicks (I really missed drinking Horlicks), bought Nougat Candies in Queen's, and got Vitasoy. But crap, after carrying the heavy packs of Malt Vitasoy soya milk, buying the HK$32 nougat candies, there's the melamine scare. I don't know if soya milk's affected but maybe I should stop drinking it until I'm sure. I swear, the same thing happened before, we brought these blueberry cookies from Chinatown in Singapore, then months later the same cookies were pulled out of the market because they contained formaline or something. Maybe we should really stop bringing home food, or just stop buying products that came from China to avoid these mishaps. I wish this whole milk scare will be over soon.

As for collecting stuff from travels, my mom collects the ref magnets, while Ian and I collect Starbucks Tumblers! :) I got us matching tumblers, one from Hong Kong and one from Macau which had similar designs. The tumblers are around HK $90 x 6 = P540. I think our tumblers in the Philippines are sold for around P495 if I'm not mistaken. (I'm not posting the cost for the how-much-I-spent in the trip purposes, but for Google, comparison and posterity purposes :P).
We also went to Disneyland! :) It was a choice of going on a weekday in Disney or in Macau, and Disneyland won because the ticket was cheaper on a weekday, while the Macau ferry costs the same. (I think.) But it was a good choice that we went on a weekday, the line for the rides weren't super long :) We had pictures with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck! :)