I am in Taipei now

  

 Good evening bloggers! When you read this, I have just landed in Taipei via Hong Kong on board Cathay Pacific Airways. I will be here on vacation for a couple of days to soothe my mind, body and soul. 

Have a Happy & Great weekend ahead!

My Visit To Japan - Free & Easy Way

 

Note: Ms Elaine From JB - Please re send your email to me as I accidentally deleted it from my system. My apologies!

 Konichiwa! I just got back from Japan 2 weeks' ago. It took me 2 days to tune my head's frequency back to my slow paced Malaysian mode. It was truly a packed and hectic trip of 8 days in Osaka, Kyoto and Nara with my entourage of 10 persons in total. We had so much fun and laughter everyday with over 2000 photos in total. I will need time to post some photos in my coming blogs but I assure you that I will not post 10 blogs talking about Japan only. I will limit it to maximum 4 posts okay.

The downtown Osaka is a crowded city with almost 18 million people living in this region. It was madness for me to see so many well dressed and polite people all over the shopping districts and subways which come in several levels with hundreds of train lines!

The streets were crowded

The Spring weather was perfect and lovely with average daily temperature at 15 degrees and lowest was about 10 degrees! It was very chilly and cold to me in Nara with strong winds. Osaka has the longest shopping street in the whole of Japan which will appease any hardcore shoppers. All of us increased our luggage allowances for our return trip as we bought so much souvenirs and food stuffs!

Many people asked me if food and shopping was expensive? I would say I had to allocate a budget of RM70 daily for 3 simple meals without any raw sushi or sashimi meals. A small bottle of mineral water costs RM4.00! So I filled drinkable water from the hotel's tap into few bottles and carried them whole day. Yes, I had to be stingy in order to be able to shop and shop till I dropped. The items sold were both cheap and extremely expensive, depending on the choices.

If you wish to visit Japan, it is better to go on your own if you are brave and prepared to walk for miles everyday instead of joining an expensive tour which does not allow you to see much of the palaces or castles as claimed by other friends. I saw everything including taking naps in the beautiful gardens outside the ancient Imperial Palace in Kyoto.

My own tips:

1) Purchase your ticket (via Air Asia or Japan Airlines when they are at lowest) 

2) Google out your daily 'Places to Visit' itinerary into a list and book the hotels.

3) Deposit RM10,000 into your bank account (Borrow or share among your friends) and photostat the updated book showing RM10,000 inside.

4) Photostat your company's Employment letter with salary showing.

5) Apply for Travel Visa from Japan Embassy ( Bring items 1, 2, 3 & 4) with your passport. You can apply for Visa a month or latest a week before departure. If successful, you will be issued Visa within an hour. You need all the items above to convince them that you will not work illegally in Japan.

6) You are ready to fly

My Dream Holidays

 

I am on my way to airport now for my 8 days trip to Japan. Tonight I will be having my dinner there with my gang of 6 + 4 persons. We will have a great time walking around different cities to visit the ancient temples, palaces, Universal Studios and try all their delicious ramen by the road sides besides gulping their pork burgers. I will also soak in their traditional hot baths daily and camwhore everywhere! Voila!