Japan Trip '08 - Part 5

Day 14

Ah... This should be a simple day to write on. Because we spent the whole morning travelling. First approx. 2 hours from Takayama to Nagoya 名古屋 on a limited express train, another approx. 2 hours to Mishima 三島 on Shinkansen, and another approx. 2 hours to Kawaguchi-ko. 6 solid hours on travelling, not including those transit time.

Luckily, Kawaguchi Station Inn was very near to the station. Walked a bit and we found our accommodation place. Checked in and went back to the bus terminal. We were going to Gotemba 御殿場 and catch the free shuttle bus to Gotemba Premium Outlet. That's another approx. 2 hours gone. Quite a waste of time right?


Basically the rest of the day was devoted to the Premium Outlet. Our first stop over there was the Gap store. WOW!!! Imagine jeans going for 30-40 SGD, a polo tee going for 20 odd SGD, berms going for 20 odd SGD too! Daji grabbed 1 polo tee and a pair of berms, and I bought one polo tee myself too.

The rest of the Premium Outlet was mainly more of just window shopping. Bought a Lego keychain for Seng at Lego shop. Another shop worth mentioning was FCUK. Daji once again grabbed a pair of jeans and a pair of flip flops overe there. Overall Daji only spent 100 odd SGD on these 2 stores. Can't remember what the rest got for themselves, but this shopping trip was quite fruitful for us guys.


Took the shuttle bus back to Gotemba and had our dinner there. We split up for dinner again. The girls went for pasta/steaks dinner, while we guys went for ramen dinner. After dinner, went over to Mac to grab my favourite McPork again! McPork!!!!!

After reaching back @ Kawaguchi Station Inn, Zy discovered that the washing machines here were used by some brainless and inconsiderate buggers to wash their flirty shoes. So we couldn't use it to wash our clothes. The washing machines were dirty!!! So we informed the counter staff, and asking if there were laundromat nearby that we could visit. The time wasn't early and there was curfew @ 11pm over here. The counter staff offered us the spare key to the main door so we could visit the laundromat and come back anytime after the curfew. That's so nice of him!


Okay, packed our dirty laundry and went to the laundromat to wash our clothes. The washing and drying time was damn long. My virgin experience @ laundromat. Zy went back earlier to settle some issue, and Daji followed along to help. The rest of us waited. When we were using the dryer, Zm said hoot the high temperature. Can dry faster. Okay lor. So it was @ high temperature for 40+ min.

Time's up. Crap. Had we grown fat, or some of the items seemed to have shrunk. My socks went from 7 inches down to 4 inches. And Daji's pre-shrunk Giordano polo tee seemed smaller too! *Glaring @ Zm*

Never mind... Let's get back. It was almost 12mn. And so we headed back.

Special Episode - Zhenwei's Birthday @ Kawaguchi Station Inn

Well.. The birthday cake surprise didn't really work very well. We came back into the room in staggered timing. So couldn't have a grand pincer attack of "Happy Birthday, Zw!". So we did a "scene 1 take 2" after everyone was ready.

Here's the operation that was going on since we reached back @ Gotemba in the evening.

The cake was bought when Zy and Cui went to the pasta/steak cafe for dinner. We spotted that they sell cake, and after some eyes and hands signalling, the girls went there and the guys went ramen restaurant.

When we arrived back @ Kawaguchi-ko, I asked pulled the guys along to visit the convenience shops, while the girls went back first and request the cake to be put into fridge.

Next was @ the laundromat. Zy and Daji went back earlier on the account that Zy's having some female issue and Daji was needed to be translator in case. In actual fact, she needed to get back early to retrieve the cake from the counter staff before they go sleep. And set up everything nice nice until we came back.

Don't know if Zw was surprised by our effort or not. If he's not, at least he's doing fine by acting he was. =) Did the normal singing of birthday song and blowing of candles. Now came the cutting of cake. Crap. No knife. So we did it in an innovative way. Instead of cutting the cake and serving it out, the birthday boy scooped a spoonful out and fed the everyone! Then everyone gotta eat directly from the cake. First time doing such barbaric way of eating a big cake.

Yup! That's how we celebrated Zw's birthday in Japan. And Cui even specially prepared for it by bringing along the "Happy Birthday" candles from singapore. Well done!

Filler Episode - 耀仔正传

Day 15


Kawaguchi Station Inn stay came with a breakfast set. So 7am we went down for breakfast. And yuppie! Mt Fuji was out there greeting us! Eating breakfast while viewing Mt Fuji was quite an experience.


Our first stop was to go up Mt Fuji fifth station. 2000 yen for a 2-way ticket. Expensive shit. When we reached the fifth station, there were lot of pple sitting around. It was around the time that those climbers returned back to the fifth station
from the submit. There's a food cart here selling grilled stuff. Quite nice food they selling.

Walked around a bit, and always waiting for the clouds to clear up a bit to reveal the shy Mt Fuji for us to snap. Went to the shrine at the back. Bought some charms there for my family members. Back to Kawaguchi.


Time to pay Lake Kawaguchi a visit. Had sukiyaki for lunch. A birthday treat from our beloved Zw. =) Wanted to take the ropeway, but it looked lame, so we not taking. Zy had always wanted to take the Swan Boat. After discussing a bit, Zy, Cui and Zm going for it. While me, Daji and Zw anyhow walk walk around.


There's lot of ducks wondering around the lake, esp near the swan boats area. When we met up again, we saw the three of them feeding ducks. Quack quack quack~ How about roast duck for dinner?

Ended the day early. Oh ya. We felt a tremble at night. Feeling better than thrill rides, as said by Zw. Okay, onwards to Tokyo tomorrow. Finally.

Day 16

Although we were going to Tokyo, but Day 16 was actually a visit to Kyoto 京都. So first half of the day spent on travelling again. Took train from Kawaguchi-ko to Otsuki 大月, took JR train to Shinjuku 新宿, and finally transit over to Yamanote 山ノ手 Line to Ikebukuro 池袋.


Our accommodation here was Kimi Ryokan. When we arrived, one of the rooms was ready for us to move in. So barang barang all into that room and off to Kyoto. But before that, the girls packed their Yukata and brought along to Kyoto. The sun was hot, no way to ask them to wear that all the way to Kyoto. I think they would die before reaching Kyoto in yukata.


When we reached Kyoto, the girls changed into their yukata. Let's skip the part on how they managed to put it on perfectly. Long story. We only had time to visit one place, and i suggested Kiyomizu Dera 清水寺. During my previous visit here, I liked Kiyomizu Dera a lot. So felt like visiting it again too. Our girls were pretty popular. Quite a number of people requested to take photo with them.


After that, here came our highlight of this Kyoto visit. During this period, it was Gion Matsuri 祇園祭り. A float parade and performance, something like our Chingay, on the 17th of July. However, as what I've found out online, the night stalls would only be set up from 14-16 July. We were more interested in the night stalls than the "Chingay" parade. That's why we came here on the 16th instead.


As we approached the main street of the festival, we started to see crowds moving in a general direction. With that, we knew we were in the right direction. Following the crowd, walking for quite some distance, we finally spotted one of the floats. The floats will be stationed all over the streets until the parade day. Shortly after that, we saw the night stalls! FOOD!!!! MORE FOOD!!! AND SOME MORE FOOD!!!! Takoyaki, yakisoba, meat skewers, okonomiyaki, choco banana, shaved ice, grilled squid, candied apple, etc. We bought a lot to eat. Yum yum~ *burp*


We ate too much and walked too long. We almost missed our train back to Tokyo. =Þ If we didn't decide to take the subway or spend more timing eating and looking around, we will miss that train. But we made it. Back to Kimi Ryokan. Everyone was too tired. So we decided to postpone the fish market trip to Friday instead of the next day. Alright, sleep.

To be continued...

Japan Trip '08 - Part 4

Day 11

Takayama, here we come! Our accommodation here was Zenkoji 善光寺. It was a temple. Not too sure if the temple was still functioning as one, or everything was converted into a hostel. This hostel didn't have a curfew, or we thought so as it wasn't stated anywhere. But, well, we had a little problem here. Will talk about that at the end of Day 11.

Took 2 trains to reach Takayama. As usual, there would be an information counter/center near the train station. Grabbed all the brochures and maps available. They are very useful references. Made our way to Zenkoji. Too early to check in, so left our barang barang at the entrance and started our exploration of Takayama.


Lunch wasn't anything special, so skip. Next, we were supposed to take bus to Hirayu Onsen area. I think most of us were addicted to the convenience and flexibility of driving our own car (because we weren't the drive, of course convenient lah! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA! Poor Zm...). So we were thinking whether to take bus or rent car. As we were discussion this, the bus went off. The next bus was quite some time away. Alright! Rent car! I think we all purposely one. No one wanna make the decision, so all act ai mai ai mai until bus went off, then can happily rent car. Must be!

Toyota Car Rental was nearby, and Toyota's good! I'm a Toyota supporter! Rented a 6-7 seater car, and they gave us a Wish. Make a wish. I wish for a Wish. =.=" Wishy washy. Okay okay. GPS was slightly different from yesterday's one, but no problem for our pro driver and navigator. Oh ya, they were the same people. =) So the rest can continue enter warp mode while on board.

Here's some explanation about this term "warp mode", in case you don't know what is warpping or how is it linked. Warpping means getting you instantaneously from one place to another. So, imagine you are on the car. You close your eyes, and the next moment when you open your eye you realised you are at another place already. That's warpping! Well, in fact, actually a lot of time has passed when you "closed" your eyes, but who cares! So long when I open my eyes and I'm at my destination, that's a nice warp! =) Zy is best at it. She has the best warpping system. Her warp initiating sequences were able to execute in just a few moments. (In short, she can almost sleep the moment the car moves.) Man, is this making me sound geeky? I'm a geek. I'm a geek. I'm a geek.

At the Hirayu Onsen area, there were quite a number of onsens for us to choose from. There wasn't much references we can use, so we could only choose by looking at the name. Forest Onsen, God's Onsen, Onsen blah blah blah. Okay, I can't remember which onsen we chose in the end, but that doesn't matter anyway. Why? Because we overshot, and went further up and found Kami no Yu 神の湯, which literally means God's Bath. It must be fate, and being lazy to turn around and go back, we went to Kami no Yu instead. =\

The place wasn't as impressive as the name was, in the facilities i mean. The entrance was just a normal wood + zinc hut collecting admission fee. Okay lah, close to nature. A fast running stream was just beside the onsen area. Rest assured, although been so run down and close to nature, there were still sex-separated baths. Guys on the lower slope, gals on the higher slope. Prior to coming here, we learned our lesson @ Beppu. Bring your own towel. Yuppie! We had our towel this time.


The hot bath has a sulphuric smell. So this is a real onsen, not just hot water. Maybe it was something good that we chose Kami no Yu. Kami no Yu was located on higher slope. So we got the cleaner water! MuAHaHahAhAhAhAHaHahAHaAhaHAhAhaHHaHahaHAhAHaAaa! Sorry, it's late at night now, and I'll feel higher at night. =D)

On the way back to Takayama, spotted a waterfall. Okay, I don't know how to pronounce this name. The waterfall was splashing so much water, in the mist form, around. Just by being near the waterfall, we already got ourselves drenched. And it was pretty cold. Water was around air con's lowest temperature? Or higher a bit? But ya, it was fun! Zw took off his top and attempted to enter the waterfall zone. But failed. The plungpool didn't look friendly. And followed by Zm taking off his top off. Just to take a topless photo. Pervert... Ero-san...


Dried ourselves up a bit before entering the car. Not good to get ourselves sick at this point of time. Day 11 only. Next stop, back to Takayama, Kitayama 北山 Park. Actually it was supposed to Hida Folk Village first. But when we reached there, it was already closing time. So skip.

Kitayama Park there had a stretch of road which had plenty of hydrangreas. Very beautiful. In fact, I think we saw hydrangreas everywhere we went since Day 1. They are all around. Anyway, parked our car outside a coffee house, Ichii. Time for toilet break. Found the toilets further up. Oops. Cemetary just beside only. And the rain came pouring down. Dashed for the toilets and hid around there for the moment. A tiny shelter at the toilet, with the cemetary beside. Not really a good spot eh?


Lucky for us, the rain cleared up slightly after a while. Ran to the coffee house where we parked our car and had a nice hot drink over there. Nice ambience and view @ the coffee house. Funny thing was after we made ourselves comfortable at Ichii, the rain cleared out totally. We suspected the rain was just water sprinkled by the coffee house whenever they saw "potential customers" nearby.

The journey had to go on, couldn't stay too long sitting around doing nothing. A nice park up there and it had a mini playground too. We were suckers for sunset. Whenever we saw orange sky with the sun setting, everyone started to snap fanatically. Know why we were never a sucker for sunrise? Because we are a bunch of lazy people who didn't want to wake up early. XD

After that, we hit back to Zenkoji and parked our car there. Free parking! Hooray! Searched for dinner place. Dined, go back rest.

When we were back @ Zenkoji, we went to the common area to use internet. Met up with some other countries' backpackers and had a short convo with them. Started with some asking of backgrounds and stuff, then we started to exchange knowledge. One of the backpackers told us about Kamikochi 上高地.

Cui originally wanted to put this into the itinerary, but due to the lack of information on it, it was taken out. Now having more information, Cui suggested putting it into the next day's itinerary. Going to Kamikochi will mean a change in our schedule and money issue. We had a discussion back in our room.


Think we were a little too worked up in our discussion that our volume went a little too loud. Zenkoji's walls were all paper wall. So sound leaks out easily. The "headmaster", owner of Zenkoji, came by and had to tell us to lower our volume. =\ That's starting of the issue I said right at the start of this post. No curfew, but you had to really whisper super softly over there. And maybe you have to use super soft Whisper too. Ah... Sorry.. Lame pun joke. =\ =/

Conclusion of the disucssion - Kamikochi's in. Furukawa's out. The rest squeezed to Day 13. Set. Sleep...

Day 12

Kamikochi is a lovely place. It's a very well-preserved area. Nature at its best with minimal alternation from humans. But getting there is a headache. Firstly, private cars are not allowed to enter Kamikochi. The only way in is either through bus or taxi. So even with our rented car, we could only get close to it and take bus in.

With the limited information on hand, we know we had to go to Hirayu Onsen and take bus from there. A 2-way bus ticket costs 1800 yen, 20 odd SGD. Watch out for the bus timing too. There's only 2 buses every hour.


It was a good thing that we reached Hirayu earlier, as the carpark wasn't that near to the bus terminal. You had to walk around 5-10min (as told by Zw) to get back to the bus terminal. Zm and Zw dropped us at the terminal and went to park the car. The parking fee was 500 yen.

As we entered Kamikochi, we were really awed by the scenery that appeared in front of us. Green, green, green, green! Everywhere's so green and beautiful! Man! That was definitely something I've never experienced before. Alighted at the bus terminal of Kamikochi. After a short toilet break and some quick bites (Zy hungry again), we began our hike.


Set a few checkpoints for the time being - Kappa-bashi -> Myojin-ike -> Tokusawa. Noted something special, although this place was quite flooded with tourists doing hikes too, the place was pretty litter-free! Everyone was doing their part in keeping this place clean. And so I did my part. I did help to pick up some litters that I came across during the hike! =) So proud of myself! *Give myself a pat on the shoulder*


We stopped over slightly before Myojin-ike for a lunch break. They were selling this BBQ fish and everyone seemed to be eating that there, so we gotta try it too. The fish was directly taken from a breeding pond (??? I think so), skewed and BBQ at the fire pit. Simple process, but the fish was delicious. Just lightly salted but the fish was great.

After lunch, we went visit the Myojin-ike. Admission fee 300 yen. I swear, it's a scam!!! Or maybe I don't the importance the pond holds. I don't know why we have to pay to visit this particular pond here. =\ Xiao Guilin free admission lor! *grumble grumble grumble*

From this point on, we had to speed up a little. We had taken too much time while walking from Kappa-bashi to Myojin-ike. Kinda overrun you see.

When we finally reached Tokusawa, the time left was not here not there. Go back it would be kinda early, while go up further will be gamble if we can make it back in time. Decided not to go for the gamble, we headed back to the bus terminal. On the way back, we resumed the slow pace and took more photos along the way.


Back to the terminal, waiting for the bus to arrive. But I felt something was quite wrong. Did the last bus just went off? Were the last bus timing what we thought it was? So I went around looking for the bus schedule. Right. Last bus was 7pm and there was another @ 630pm. But the last 2 timing had some special marking. Ah... Only in operation during special season. So we did miss our last bus. We had to take taxi back down to Hirayu, and it wasn't cheap taking taxi in Japan. 6500 yen from Kamikochi to Hirayu PER cab. =\

Because of this incident, our stubborn Cui kept blaming herself for it. We spent god-knows-how-long to finally calm her and convince that it wasn't totally her fault or not even hers to begin with. She's one unique person. But I'm not going to discuss her character here. I'm main lead here, not her! WAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAA!! Keep the limelight on me.

Anyway, that was over. Back @ Hirayu, drove back to Takayama, and dinner! Good night. Not much planning was required for the next day. Tommy came and told us off btw. =~(

Day 13

Our last day in Takayama. Woke up earlier to catch the morning market. 2 of them, Miyagawa Market 宮川朝市 and Jinya-mae Market 陣屋朝市. We didn't really buy the vege and food there, but just to see how a morning market is like. The market was within walking distance from Zenkoji.


Miyagawa Market was along the river. And I think it was more suited for tourist. Beside having the morning market stalls set up along the river, there were shops by the side too. Omiyage (souvenir) shops. Got my sarubobos from here. Jinya-mae was stalls clustered together in front of Takayama Jinya, currently a museum. I think you would be able to buy some cheaper fruits at these morning markets. Fruit in Japan is darn expensive!


Next, back to Zenkoji to get our car and off to Utsue Shijuhattoki 宇津江四十八滝 (Utsue 48 Waterfalls). This place supposed to have 48 waterfalls here, but I didn't manage to count all of them. Maybe each rapid was considered as one waterfall too? But some of the waterfalls were really nice. But we still prefered the first waterfall we came across on Day 11.

The next destination, Shirakawa-go 白川郷 was pretty far away. Took around 2 hours to reach there on car. Potential Initial D routes along the way, uphill, downhill, lots of hairpin turns. But with a 7 seater car, and 5 passengers in the car, Zm was banned from Initial D-ing. =


When we finally reached Shirakawa-go, Wow... It was some kind of disappointment for me. The place was really beautiful, but it was damn packed with tourists! Tourists all over the place! The original houses of this village have very steep roofs. This is because during winter, snowfall is very common around this area. The steep roof will help to keep the snow off. Although packed with tourist, the place was literally litter-free too.

After walking around a bit, we went up to the viewing platform further up on a hill to catch a view of the entire village below. I think our stay in this place was even shorter than a single trip from Takayama to here. Travelling around really took up a big chunk of our time in this trip.


Okay, back to Takayama. Parked our car at Zenkoji, and went to a food street nearby. Chose one of the lower end restaurant there and had dinner there. Ji and me didn't order anything. Because on the way back, we stopped at a Mac and had a happy meal. We were collecting the toys. =D

Back to Zenkoji, sleep. Moving on to Lake Kawaguchi next.

To be continued...