10 days Japan Sakura Trip March 2016 (Part 2/2)

There you go, here comes the part 2 of our journey, which is apparently the better part of it. A lot of people, including me, tends to think that the place that can show us more of Japan would be the Tokyo area, the big city area but I was so wrong. I made a mistake to book the accommodation first before starting to plan for the itinerary. Which then made me realise that most of the attractions are actually located in the Kansai area-Osaka & Kyoto.

Therefore, if you all are planning to go Japan next time and you've got only a few days, do not hesitate, just go to Kansai area. I can guarantee you it is better than Tokyo.

Day 5 - Osaka (Kuromon Market, Dotonbori, Shinsaibashi)

Ok back to our trip, there are actually a few ways to get from Tokyo to Osaka area, one of them is taking overnight bus, or if you can book early, a flight. Or Shinkansen (新干线) High Speed Rail, or normal old and slow train with discount tickets.

Previously we had arrived at the Osaka bus terminal located in Namba ICAO. Had a bad night sleep and slightly in zombie mode when we arrived, we unloaded our baggages and walk towards where we are staying.

So the most happening area in Osaka is apparently along the river of Dotonbori (道顿掘) and you wouldn't want to stay too far from these places. After some survey, we had decided that the most suitable area would be staying around the Nippombashi (日本桥) area. It is located in between the Dotonbori area and the infamous Kuromon market (黑门市场).

We booked an Airbnb along the Kuromon Market with just 2 minutes walk to it and it had proved to be the best experience one can get as you would pass by Kuromon Market everytime you are going out or coming back from somewhere.

So we carried our luggage and walked in the underground mall towards the direction of Nippombashi station. The time was only around 8am and most of the shops were still closed. However, we can sense the enormousness of the underground mall as it stretch from the Namba Station all the way towards the Nippombashi station and that's around 500m in length!

And after some time we had arrived in Nippombashi station, knowing our Airbnb wouldn't be available for check in until around 1pm in the afternoon. We decided to leave our luggage in the locker in the station and get ourselves some breakfast in Kuromon Market.

Kuromon Market is located just outside of Exit 10 of Nippombashi Station, take a left turn from the exit and the first junction on the left will be Kuromon Market.

Kuromon Market also known as the kitchen of Osaka, where restaurants owner from all over Osaka will come here and purchase their ingredients. We were at around 8.30am and to our surprise most of the shop were just preparing to start their business. So it is better to visit here after 9am.

The first thing that came to our sight is an old shop selling soy milk, it was thick, like real thick. But it was that kinda soy milk that had no sweetening. Not my kind of thing but some of you may like it.

Then we came across a shop that was preparing their business, a sashimi and sushi shop to be exact. The owner was cutting a big piece of Salmon in to a eatable size and put them onto some ready made sushi rice base. 700 yen for this 5 pieces of sushi. Don't expect too much off the rice but the salmon was definitely in tip top freshness, retaining some saltiness the comes from the sea. Yummy!

Clams and oyster like this are everywhere, price can fluctuate greatly from shop to shop.

The best of the best in Kuromon Market. 石桥关东煮. The radish (大根), the beef, the tofu and so many things were just too much to handle by our tongue!!! Remember to drink all the soup as that was all the essence! Besides, there is also 豚角煮, braise pork!

Sashimi were at a very good price as well, but a few days down and you will have some sashimi fatigue comes in.

After our breakfast we went ahead to look for Dotonbori (道顿掘), and found that it was just so so near to our place. From Kuromon Market just walk across the street on top of Nippombashi station and the next junction on our left is the end of Dotonbori already.

Dotonbori was easily recognisable by its' big crab on either end of the street. This street is the heart of Osaka with hundreds of food eateries and also souvenirs shops.

While our stomach was still full, we saw this stall here selling what they called themselves the No.1 Takoyaki (章鱼烧) in Osaka, knowing that Takoyaki was originated from Osaka, this must be the best in Japan if not the best in the world already! Haha.

Overall it tasted quite good, size was a little bit smaller than what we usually have in Malaysia here, with a big piece of Tako in it.

The west end of Dotonbori is connected to one of the best shopping spot there, Shinsaibashi (心斋桥).

We went there twice in the few days we stayed in Osaka, but we were not managed to finish the whole street! The length of whole street is 1.4km! Holy Moly!

Basically you can buy anything here from any brand and things without brands were quite a lot as well. Prices of things here are generally at a normal range. We walked for a while and then we went back to Nippombashi station to get our luggage and get ready to meet our Airbnb owner, Ivan.

He is a Bulgarian resided in Japan for 16 years already. He was very charismatic and travel to a lot of countries in the world before. Different from other Airbnb owner in Japan, he came to meet us and lead us to his unit and leave after explaining all of his apartment. Thanks very much for that and definitely we will stay again in there when we visit again next time.

We had some sleep in our room (we were exhausted by the bus night) and did not went out until night fall.

Weather in Osaka was suppose to be slightly colder than Tokyo at that time but due to the cold front that stroke Tokyo, it was more or less the same at Osaka, which is a bad news.

As mentioned before, sakura blossom starts as soon as the weather turn warmer, which that was not the case when we were there, bad luck. Therefore, we can only sees certain species of sakura that blossom in colder weather during our visit.

That night, we went to Osaka Castle for a little walk. It was 9pm already when we were there, the garden had closed. But looking at the cherry blossom condition there, it was not worth the price as well.

Finally we had some peace for our mind. For the whole trip we had there had been full of tourist and people, queue-ing everywhere even at toilet also. The night at Osaka Castle was calm, with a few people there walking around. It was much better without the crowd.

So we walk for around an hour before we went back and sleep.

Day 6 - Universal Studio Japan

The long await part of our trip, the Universal Studio Japan!!! I bought the ticket way back while we were still in Malaysia from JTB. Turns out to be one of the best rate offered in town. 6300 yen with RM36 to a thousand yen while everywhere are offering RM 36.5 to 37! Yay!

Early in the morning we took the train and depart to Osaka station on subway for the special train servicing only USJ and Osaka Station and off we go!!! Wooohooooo!!!

The park opened at 9am and we were there at 9.05am already packed full of people!!! Damn!

Grabbed a park map and first thing first, there are only 3 really thrill rides here in USJ, the Hollywood Dream, the Backdrop and the newly officiated Flying Dinosaur. We went directly at the Hollywood dream and it was already with 90 minutes of queue time. WHat?!

The Backdrop was at the same place as well but the rides was departed in a reverse manner, not so suitable for those that was more susceptible to dizziness. Overall rides experience was ok but definitely not to the upper end of thrill scale, ride length was long and lasted well over a minute.

Ok, by the time we were done it was already 10.30am, we move directly down the street there and reserved our slot for the Wizarding world of Harry Potter, between 3pm to 3.30pm. Ok done and we go straight to the second rides!

The Flying Dinosaur!

And immediately we noticed something, 190 minutes of waiting time! You are gonna be kidding me!

Well, what can we do? Without express pass, things get exciting only after 3 hours!

The Flying Dinosaur was a hanging coaster opened for only 10 days when we were there, but it was definitely not for faint hearted. The ride was thrill with plenty of intense flips accelerating round the corner unlike normal coaster! For the first time in my life I felt the intensity of a coaster ride. This was one of the must try Coaster in Japan if not in this world!!! Highly recommended!

So we went around taking photos while waiting for our turn to get into the Harry Potter world after the ride. Not into taking other rides because of the crowd and queue time. Average queue time was around 90 minutes.

Look at the Turkey Drumstick we were holding there, don't buy it. It was tasteless, we were tempted by basically everyone in Jurassic World holding the drumstick and got excited and went ahead and bought 2 and regretted it. It was 970 yen per drumstick! God that's expensive!

One thing you cannot miss in the USJ is the parade started around 3pm, the whole park will be playing musics and people will be waiting along the street, sitting there and get themselves a nice seat for viewing.

However, we found that sitting there was not the right way round to get involved! So, we waited for the parade to come out and followed it! It was fun and it was exciting especially when you are in the mood! Woohooo~!

And then the much awaited, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!!

OMG, look at the crowd!

Look at the Butter Beer! It was signature in the movie and it was signature here! A must try and it is not alcoholic! Nice to drink in any weather! Wow!

Look at the queue time for the Forbidden Journey, forced to abandon this ride as it could be 9pm already by the time we got on to it if we waited.

The Hogwarts Castle there was simply stunning, located beside a lake just like how it was being illustrated.

We roamed around in the Harry Potter world for a few hours watching Frog Choir and the Triwizard Parade as well. Grabbed a pair of wands before leaving, one for 3800 yen. (Harry Potter's & Voldemort's)

The Happiness Cafe, you can custom yourself a Coca Cola Bottle with your name on it here.

Starlight Parade was starting at 8pm to 9pm but we left at 8.30pm to beat the crowd.

One thing worth mentioning is that food inside the USJ were darn expensive with little portion and you are advised to bring your own food into the park as you are probably gonna spend a whole day there. It is also worth noticing that the1 day pass is valid for a day but not multiple entry, just stay inside the park until you are done. Price and variety of souvenir are basically the same throughout every shop in the park so you may skip it until the end before you leave.

That marked the end of our day at Universal Studio Japan. What a great experience!

Day 7 - Osaka (Kema-Sakuranomiya Park, Osaka Castle, Shinsabashi)

We were tired~

After 7 days of walking in Japan everyday, averaging 15km per day, we were genuinely tired. Soaking our feet into hot tub every night was the best thing to do by now.

Still, we were on vacation, although it was not a particularly adventurous day. We started the day with breakfast at Kuromon Market, then we moved on to Sakuranomiya (樱宫) Park located along the Osaka River at the North of Osaka Castle. It was one of the park with most Sakura trees planted along the river of Osaka, maybe thousands of them. So we were trying our luck there as the temperature around the river are generally warmer than other places.

It turns out we were half correct, Sakura along the river were in half blossom. Still fine if you look from far, but there are still a big percentage of it was closed.

Walking along the river was calm and relaxing, there are some locals jogging as well as walking with us as well. Further south of the river brought us to the Osaka Castle.

We came here on the first day and things had apparently became better as a few of the Sakura there had been in Full Blossom already! Took the photo above and I have to say Sakura blossom was definitely one of the best thing in Japan that you can see. However, outside of this photo was packed full of tourist taking photos at the same spot. Sigh!

There are also a few souvenir shop in the Osaka Castle area and we bought some pendent for our car with blessing for traffic safety (交通安全) on it.

Then we spend the rest of the day walking around Shinsaibashi, honestly Shinsaibashi is just too much for a short vacation, you wouldn't be able to finish it anyway. In twice of our visit here, we only managed to cover about 1km of the street and it was already 10pm by the time we walk until there. Shops were closing already so we save the rest for next time.

We had our dinner in Ippudo (一风堂) Ramen Shinsaibashi, had their signature ramen as well as the extra hot ramen. And then we knew that actually Ramen in Malaysia was actually not that bad compare to what they have there. Big names like Ippudo here actually make their ramen the same everywhere, just that it is not the best. The one we had in Shibuya was the best so far.

For dessert we went to queue for the infamous and always crowded Pablo, that was almost 10.30pm already and the queue is still as long as usual.

We chosen the Pablo Mini over the original size, and also medium rare over rare. We tried the chocolate as well, but it was just not as good as the original flavour. The cheese tart can create smiley face on anyone's face. Haha, yes it was that nice. No wonder with all the queue.

And that's how we ended the day.

Day 8 - Kyoto (Fushimi-Inari Taisha, Keage Incline, Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto Gyoen)

We woke up early today with rested fresh leg and off we went to kick start our Kyoto visit!

So the subway directly connecting Osaka and Fushimi-Inari (伏见稻荷) station took us about 45 minutes.

Fushimi-Inari was a shrine that offers protection to the farmers in Japan, Inari is the God of rice. Why it was so famous is because it was like a headquarters of all the Inari Shrine.

One thing you need to take note is that those Torii (鳥居) is not something like the gravestone for dead people, it is for worship purpose. So don't misunderstood that the whole mountain there is like a graveyard. Judging from the name of company or person carved on the Torii, I'm guessing it is more like an act of worship to the God of rice, like what you normally do in Malaysia here, you donated a certain amount of money and you get some sort of monument with your name on it in return.

The Torii path here are quite a famous spot for couple to take their pre-wedding shots as well, but I'll pass for mine. Haha, it is just not my cup of tea. So we went for a little walk onto the hill, turn back while we were half way, looking at the rising sun knowing it will be getting hotter today.

This is a small river along Kiyamachi-dori, (木屋町通り). While we get away from Fushimi-Inari, we went to Nishiki Market and stumbled across this beautiful small river full of Sakura trees on Shijo-Dori. Just what a beauty.

Alright, back to Nishiki Market, it was not as good as what we had back in Kuromon Market, while Kuromon Market were more of directly consumable food type, Nishiki Market looks more towards catering for tourist who wanted to buy something back to their countries. Nice packaging and stuff but just not as good as Kuromon, which is why we did not stay very long and moved on straight away to our next destination, Kyoto Imperial Palace.

A short walk of 20 minutes from Nishiki Market brought us to this Gyeon that was surrounding the Imperial Palace of Kyoto. We knew that the famous cherry tree in there had been in full bloom since a few days ago from the cherry blossom status website. This is a different kinda cherry tree as most of them appears to be blossom earlier than other species.

Kyoto Gyeon is very large and around 10 minutes walk across the ends, while we were there, the sun had already gone up in the middle of the sky and it had turn quite hot, a bit too hot for us to handle in fact. So we had a lunch at a Matsuya nearby before getting going into the next spot.

The Keage Incline, a new spot for the couples to walk around or take their pre-wedding photo. It was basically an abandoned rail line with Sakura tress plated onto both side of it. A very beautiful place indeed, but again, the tourists is everywhere, so I had to take the photo with the main character blocking most of them. This Keage Incline here apparently had their own set of history as well, it was once the railway with the highest climbing angle. Those who had an idea about the climbing ability of a train would understand it as train are generally not designed for climbing.

Walking down the line lead us to the road to Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺), but because of our tiredness we had decided to not take the hilly road and stick to the bus option. However, the luck was not in our way. We waited for the bus twice and all of them were full. So, for once, we were being rich and take a cab in Japan. But to our surprise it was not that expensive either, starting at only 600 yen for quite a long distance before it started its' count.

And there we go, we were greeted by a scene like this. Oh my god, tourists! This is absolutely ridiculously lots of people there at Matsubara Dori (松原通) that leading us up to the main shrine of Kiyomizu-dera.

And because of we were worrying that the main shrine's 1000 years foundation might failed (just kidding), we actually did not go into the main shrine area that require a ticket! Well, it was basically because of the amount of tourist that brought to this decision. The place was just packed full of people, we were in doubt that were we able to walk in there. Plus also half the side shrine were in renovation, scaffoldings were covering it so we think there is no point going in it, save it for next time maybe.

Because we were already exhausted so we took the train back to Osaka and walk around our area to call it a day here.

Day 9 - Kyoto (Arashiyama)

Day 9 into the trip and with average of 15km walk per day, energy level had been quite low in us lately. Seemingly today will be our last day at Kansai area, we went to the Arashiyama (岚山) area in Kyoto.

There is a special train connecting directly between Osaka to Arashiyama Station directly at this time of the year due to the Sakura season. The day was in full overcast when we depart, turned into slight drizzle when we arrive which further reduced the temperature.

Upon stepping out from Arashiyama Station, we saw a field full of Sakura on the Arashiyama Park, sadly because of the mountainy location with colder temperature all the Sakura had been in 50% blossom only. Further down the street is the famous Togetsukyo Bridge (渡月桥), spreading across the Katsura River (桂川) with the mountain range on the left, the scene was unforgettable.

We had a walk along the river going towards the Bamboo grooves path (竹林小道), the same amount of tourists was there as well despite the drizzle.

Somehow we found a way to get rid of the tourists in our photos, to block all of them using our body, haha!

And the end of the bamboo path lead us to the Saga-Arashiyama Station, the starting point of the Sagano Scenic Train.

The train runs from Saga-Arashiyama Station to Saga-Kameoka Station alongside the Katsura River. When we had arrive at Kameoka Station, we chose to walk a little distance to the JR station to go back to Arashiyama Station. The railway was actually the old train servicing between Kameoka and Arashiyama but had since turn into a tourist attraction when JR build a new railway to replace them.

Other than taking the JR rail or round trip tickets, you can opt for a boat down the river back to Arashiyama as well, the journey will takes about 1hour and 30minutes.

There are a total of 5 coaches in the train and thanks to the tourist group that arrived just before us, we had to take the 'Outdoor' Coach at the last of the train. Weather was so cold and wet, damn! Anyway the ride was quite scenic even without the main character, Sakura.

We took the train back to Osaka and call it off at Kyoto due to fatigue.

Back to Osaka, we went to Dotonbori to finish off some of the stuffs that we've waiting for but got no time to try yet.

Okonomiyaki Mizuno and 金久右卫门 Ramen at Dotonbori, for the Okonomiyaki, it was one of the most recommended food at Osaka and this Mizuno here though not the best of all but it was good enough for us already. Price was kinda on the higher end of the scale as well. Immediately beside it was the Ramen shop, a special thick soy sause soup base from Osaka. Taste was fine but not particularly to our liking.

We had a walk in Shinsaibashi before we went back to let our legs had some rest.

Day 10 - Tokyo (Tokyo Station)

We booked our flight early from Jetstar back when we were still in Malaysia. Flight ticket was actually cheaper than taking the Shinkansen or sometimes even bus.

Took the earliest round of train at around 5.30 am from Nankai-Namba Station to Kansai airport and got ourselves back to Tokyo in no time. We then bought a bus ticket from airport back to Tokyo and spend some time in the Tokyo Station before we depart back to Malaysia.

Sakura blossom in Tokyo had been a lot better with workers preparing the street for Hanami session later in the week.

Tokyo Station actually had a very big underground mall underneath it, fully loaded with every sort of souvenir shop and food eateries, it was actually quite good fun we have had there.

The ramen in the Ramen Street, the shop is called 'とんこつらーめん 俺式 純', had their Tonkatsu Ramen there, it was basically a Thick Pork Bone soup base ramen. Overall it was quite good, claiming second spot on our Ramen quest.

The infamous Calbee and Jagabee, fried Potato Chips and French Fries, the Potato Chip was good but the French Fries was phenomenal. It was something more than a fries, mixing with some other ingredient, it made the fries feels springy. The Calbee was actually the brand that made the famous Hokkaido 薯条三兄弟.

After roaming around the station, we took the N'EX back to Narita Airport and off we go back to Malaysia.

P.S.: One of the best advice from this trip that we can give is that although Sakura Season is one of the best season to visit Japan with all the good weather and also the good scenery, the enormous amount of tourists had held us back on the idea of a second visit at the same time of the year in future.

Footnote:

Best info for Japan Travel Website:

http://www.japan-guide.com

Airbnb for Osaka

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9624152