[Fushimi Inari Taisha] Budget Journey to the Land of The Rising Sun, Japan. Day: 4 – Kyoto

I was always excited to face another morning in Japan, I woke up without any hesitation and even before the alarm rang. I checked my blister from yesterday snow storm, and it got better. Suddenly, i remembered yesterday was a blizzard, so i also checked out the street from my window. it was decorated with snow!!! (the kid inside me is literally screaming).

(snow piled up)

We had breakfast at Lawson to save up some time today, my pick was onigiri set and Sakura latte with crushed strawberry from Starbucks. It was dope!! out of the nice line of foods galore, i chose the onigiri set, why? it was convenient and cheaper than one onigiri (lol). 

(there are 2 lawsons nearby my hotel)

Budget Journey to the Land of The Rising Sun, aka, Japan Day: 3 – Osaka – Himeji – Kyoto

Waking up at early of 6 AM in Japan time (4 f-ing AM in Jakarta time) was really hard for me normally, especially when you had a sleepless night before and only got 5 hours of sleeping, but the holiday’s endorphin really kicked in and made me wide awake. We only had one bathroom for a room occupied by 4 persons, when I did the math (which I really do) we only got 15 minutes of bathroom time. After some of us had finished our bath time, we rushed to go to the cafeteria to redeem our free breakfast meal (yess free food!!). we had to choose, whether a Japanese or western meal, and guess what? No one chose western (we’re in Japan of course we have to try the local dishes). The Japanese meal looks like this:

(Japanese breakfast: Seaweed, Vegetables, plum, miso soup, tamago egg, salmon and rice with apple tea)

After we finished our delightful breakfast, the rain started to pour hard in front and none of us dared to go through. We unfortunately decided to ditch one attraction and Shintenoji was the one. Rain was still pouring outside but passable, we stored our baggage and borrowed umbrella from the hotel and rushed to the shin-osaka  station. It took only less than 10 minutes to arrive. We used our JR Pass to go from Shin-Osaka to Osaka and Osaka-Jo Koen station.

(Osaka Jo Koen)

Journey to the Land of The Rising Sun, aka, Japan. Day: 1-2, Jakarta – Kuala Lumpur – Osaka

The Big day had finally come!! 27 February 2016. It was Saturday and we already prepared to go to airport. We scheduled to meet up before the flight to have dinner in Soekarno Hatta Terminal 3.(excited)

(Jakarta's Crew: L to R: Henry, Me, Robbin, Echa, Vivi)

Every Airasia long haul flight will transit in KLIA 2, and probably you’ll have to stay overnight there. It is newer and better airport than the LCCT, but it’s such a pain in the ass when you have to stay overnight in airport. What can you say, good price comes with good quality, but there are some tricks to handle it and stay fit for the journey:

• Check the transit airport whether they have a sleeping bench, shower and drinking water. It’s essential to you for keeping you to have a good night sleep in airport. Most airports have a website you can check about their facilities
• Check the hotel inside or nearby the airport. If you are no good with sleeping in bench or carpet, you maybe wanna try inside capsule hotel for travelers, some may be rented for hours. Note: book before you fly
• Check your credit card promotions for free lounges. Lounges sometimes provide travelers with comfy seat and foods
• Bring your armors if you chose to sleep in carpet. Most airports are covered with carpet, so sleeping will probably easier, but probably better if you bring 2 blankets (1 for covering the carpet and 1 for your body since the air conditioner could be colder at night). Beside blanket you might want to have head pillow, eyes cover and some padlocks for your belongings

Some tips if you have to stay overnight in KLIA2:

• Find a working drinking fountain. Some drinking fountains might be out of service but the secret hidden one just near the bathroom across the sama sama hotel was working at that time
• The best sofa is in the cafeteria. They have a long and comfy long sofa for you to lay down, but the numbers are limited to only less than 10 sofas, so be quick and grab one
• The second best sleeping area is in the sport lounge. Sport lounge is located one escalator away from the cafeteria and to the right. This lounge has cushion you can take down for you and it’s plenty
• The third best one is the Movie lounge. Movie lounge has a comfy seat but its cushion can’t be take off
• Lock your valuable things inside your bags and put it close to your head
• Set your alarm at least 2 hours before your flight to be prepared.

(Sleeping in the sport lounge with chair's pillows)

Preparation to the Land of The Rising Sun, aka, Japan Part 2: Preparing the Itinerary

Hi again, I’m keeping my promise, right!!? (LOL)

After buying a return ticket to Japan (see my previous blog), i surely had to finish my itinerary. Japan is one of the non english speaking country and none of us are speaking fluently. From my ticket booking time i still have at least 1 year but let me show you this time frame to express my excitement to go to Japan:

• Airline ticket: Booking Airasia checked   (12 months before the departure)
• Reviewing blogs about Japan                   (11.9 months before the departure)
• Distracted with Bali                                 (9 months before the departure)
• Listing cities in Japan
• Listing attractions in each city                (4 months before the departure)
• Compiling attraction with time               (3 months before the departure)
• Booking Hotel and Airbnb                        (2 months before the departure)
• Buying JR Pass                                          (1 months before the departure)
• Listing discount voucher
• Packing                                                    (1 week before the departure)

There's some tips to make your own itinerary for beginners:

•  Based on the ticket you bought, search for the nearby cities to visit. You might want to pay a visit to neighbor cities or hop to another cities. Try the cheap budget airlines
• Each City has their own attractions and events, do plenty of research. Some big cities have their own website and at least they will be available in blogs. If you go to Japan, Japan-guide is the best tool research
•  Listing the top rated attraction, second best and will be visited if have time. Classifying the attraction will show your priority and choices, and check for the opening hours, entrance fee and location.
• Compiling cities with attractions and insert the time frame to see if it is feasible. Sometimes, you want to go to everywhere but time limits you, so, arrange your top priority with time to see if your plan is feasible or not.
•  Book you accommodation and transportation once you already know which cities you will be visited. Some hotels provide discount if you book months before. Try Couchsurfing for free accommodation or Airbnb for cheap home like accommodation. Check the transportation efficiency and availability like the bus and train time table to make sure you will be on time. Japan has one of the best transportation line, try hyperdia to check the train schedule
• Check the discount voucher or promotion. Some countries provide you with free tour, or discounted attractions. Try JNTO for Japan free tour guide
•  Check the weather during your visit. It tells you if you need an umbrella, coat or else. Ios weather is pretty accurate for within week range, or accuweather for longer duration
• Packing the right clothes. If you are traveling in winter season, you’ll be likely to bring your heavy big ass coat and will waste a lot of space in your bag. Suction plastic will help you to reduce the air from your wool coat, it can reduce half the space of it

Preparation to the Land of The Rising Sun, Japan Part 1: cheap airfare

Hi guys!! It has been such a long time to write again in this blog (sorry). I know, I’ve been neglecting it for God knows how long. I’ll promise, I’ll be sharing some more travel tips. So, Here it is.. (Enjoy)

Japan has always been in my travel list. I know Japan since I was like 5 years old. Back then, I always woke at 6 am to watch the Japanese anime: Doraemon, Sailor Moon, Chibi Maruko Chan, Kobo Chan, Pokemon and many more to be listed down. It just didn’t stop there, I still watch it until now with less frequent i guess. So, to me, Japan never dies.

In 2015, I heard my friends got a cheap return ticket to Tokyo by Airasia, only IDR 3 millions something ($300ish). They told me that before the good parts, you should endure the endless flying time (almost 8 hours of waiting and 7 hours of flying) but it’s Japan we were talking about, I didn’t give a damn to the long waiting time. After had made up my mind, I began my research on the tale of cheap tickets. I focused my point to Airasia and Airasia alone. My friends told me that Airasia had specific discount seasons, and i should be aware when it came out. Finding a discount wasn’t as long and hard as I thought, they did it every week!!! Week by week they had promotions like crazy, this place, that place or this place again with different prices!!

I waited like crazy for the upcoming Japan discount and finally it showed up. The deal with Airasia is even if they said the discount period is within 9 months, you still have to be smart to pick a date, it ain't like every day is as cheap as they said in promotion. So I picked my date and rough destination.

Introduction: Why am i doing this???!

Hi Guys..

It's the first of August 2015, we already passed more than half of this year and yet still have 5 more months to accomplish of what we plan on the beginning of this year.

At the beginning of this year, i promised myself to have a new routine to do, and couple of months ago i started reading blogs (mostly travel blogs). Yeah, i have a thing with traveling since i started to travel around Indonesia couple years ago. I don't usually go along with travel agencies (because of their budget and destination) whatsoever, i often find information about places through other blogs.

Many months before my college friend asked me to hang out together after office hour. Surely, i never had the will to say no to that (i'm the kind of people pleasure) and importantly, she is the top rated gossiper in college. Of course, i would go to that woman if i need to catch on some issues. So, after 5:45 PM from my old office at Sinarmasland Plaza, i went directly to SCBD's Beer Garden. While strolling around and chatting along the Pacific Place, she offered me to have a join account about travel blog. At first, I'm in shock (clearly, she knew i'm not the kind of good writer but still asked me anyway), but without any second delayed i answered "hell yeah". Why should i turn it off? I'm always into traveling and have taken advantages from other blogs. I think, it might be my time to share mine too.

Those unplanned conversation tingled my sense and 2015's resolution. why don't i start to blog and journal everything i encounter. Since, i have a blurry image about events in past they suggested me to log everything in (yeah, i'm forgetful). So here i am, writing this blog and hoping it won't die young :(

I just wish it won't be too boring for you guys. Have a happy reading. Cheer and peace out people


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