Japan, the land of Geisha's, Sumo's and Sushi - what more could a girl ask for! Cherry Blossom, that's what! Our decision to travel to Japan was wholly influenced by Cherry Blossom season but also a great excuse to celebrate Birthday Anniversary double wammy month!
Due to the Easter Monday public holiday we managed to turn 5 days off of work into a 10 day holiday! After extensive research (mainly stealing our friends itineraries) we created a trip which would go like this:
Day 1: Osaka
Days 2 – 4: Kyoto
Day 5: Hakone
Days 6 – 9: Tokyo
Day 10: Flight back to Singapore
Having heard nothing but positive things about Japan, we were aware you could quite easily spend over a month there, however to be as efficient as possible with our time we opted to fly into one city and out of the other, so we didn’t have to spend a day traveling back across Japan (together with a day flying home). Thankfully this turned out to be a viable option and we secured flights to Osaka and out of Tokyo – with almost perfect timings.
Malaysia Airlines
Thursday Evening at 19.50 from Changi to Osaka (1 hour stopover in KL)
Sunday Morning at 10.10 from Narita to Changi (2 hour stopover in KL)
The price was also amazing at c$900.00 SGD for both of us, which for a chartered airline, was quite impressive. The cost definitely outweighed the fear of us getting swept into the unknown.
We left straight from work on the Thursday, and having packed quite efficiently, had one big check in suitcase, and one hand luggage pully between us.
NOTE: It is key to pack light – the hotel rooms we stayed in were tiny (as experienced by many of our friends) so in order to even be able to access your belongings, it’s better to go small and light!
Travelling in Japan
Train travel is the best way to travel across Japan and they offer a transit pass which can be valid for 7, 14 or 21 days. This also provides access to the Shinkansen (famous Japanese bullet train), but not necessarily to the city's individual public transport. The pass can offer good savings, especially if travelling back and forth across the country - but it has to be ordered prior to your arrival in Japan, and they suggest allowing two weeks before the trip, to make an order.
I would highly recommend downloading an app called Hyperdia, before your trip. This app allows you to check the prices of each leg of train travel, together with timings, which can help you decide if a JR pass is worth it for your trip. Because of our decision to fly into and out of different cities, we opted against the JR pass but to find out more about the pass - click here.
1 day in Osaka
Our first stop was Osaka, our delayed (shock) flight saw us getting in at around 8am. By the time we collected our luggage and made our way out of the airport it was closer to 9am and we hopped on a train to Shinsaibashi, which was closest to our hotel, Villa Fontaine.
Hidden amongst the hustle and bustle of Shinsabashi, our hotel was in the perfect location. The room was small but looking back, this was possibly the biggest of all our rooms in Japan. We had arrived too early to check in, but given we only had the day in Osaka, we dumped our bags, freshened up in the cubicles available downstairs and with a few pointers from the staff, head out to explore Osaka.
Food was top of our list, it was almost midday and we were pretty hungry so about 100 meters from the hotel there was a place called Ko Ki Kan. They still had their breakfast menu and on it one thing I particularly wanted to try – Omurice. This is essentially a plain egg omelet stuffed with tomato rice and it was delicious, not to mention well presented! They claim this to be a western food, but the richness of flavours definitely made this a great introduction into Japanese food for us.
After filling our stomachs, we head to Osaka Castle. Thanks it being cherry blossom season, every corner looked stunning, not to mention busy! The park exploded with colour, and it was impressive how well it had been kept. Everything was in prim and proper lines, including the trees, and made for some beautiful photography. The park itself was probably the most impressive part, and the castle was picturesque within the setting. There are stalls set up selling all sorts of street sweets and we indulged a little. The best thing we had were these sweet dough balls, which for the life of me I cannot remember the name of. They were so moreish that it didn’t take long to demolish them! Time quickly escaped us here and before we knew it, we were heading to dinner!
We found a restaurant called Kimukatsu on Tripadvisor sitting in the top 10, so thought we would try our luck. The restaurant had a great vibe about it, and was actually quite romantic, which was great for our first trip away alone together in a year! We went for the signature dish, being Katsu and were not disappointed. Good portion sizes, fairly reasonably priced (for Japan) and some delicious drinks! Great intro into Japanese food for us and somewhere I would definitely pay a second visit, if I was ever back in Osaka.
It had been quite a long day for us, having just landed that morning, so we walked back to the hotel and through the area of Dotonburi. The place was literally an explosion of neon lights, with something weird and wonderful on every corner. We didn’t see it by day but I have a feeling it is better by night – there was lots to see and do, and easy to pass the time just walking along the street, although after about 40 minutes of doing so we altered direction and slowly head back to our hotel.
The last stop on our day trip to Osaka was a small food stall selling choux cream buns, filled with chocolate. You’ll see in the video link below that I got a little too excited and ended up with most of my filling on the floor. Think profiteroles but bigger and better filling. So good, that I’m still imagining them now!
Next stop... Kyoto!
enx
