Japan Trip '08 - Part 3

Alright. After a long period of procrastination, it's time to continue. Firstly, recall from the previous post that I've mentioned 3 things.

1. "Zy starting to feel sick."


2. "My left knee was starting to give my a slight problem for now."


3. "The Lord of Destruction's coming!"

Yeah, these 3 points will be the continuity for Part 3 - Day 8.


Day 8

Day 8 was a start of terror for me. Not because the Lord of Destruction was coming, my left knee was giving me real problem now. The night before, the knee's pain was still pretty bearable. But by then, the knee was unable to support much weight anymore, and considering that I'm HEAVY. Oh well... Only myself to blame, who ask me never go exercise, then all these problems always surface.

Anyway! Leg got problem, but the trip still had to go on. Couldn't possibly ask me to stay back at the room and do nothing for the whole day right? And it wasn't like the leg will miraculously get healed the next day. So let's struggle on! Endure! Oh yeah, and thanks to my considerate mates! Despite me dragging the whole group down by walking super slowly, they had never abandoned me! Or maybe they were just too shy to do that. Or they did tried to kick me off the cliff when my back was facing them, but failed. In any case, I'm still alive, thank you, mates!

Originally Day 8 was to visit USJ instead of Day 7. Originally, Zm, who was arriving on Day 8, was to join us @ USJ on Day8. But after planning his route from Narita Airport to USJ, the earliest he could join us was around 2pm. No point, he missed half of the day already, so we swapped the itinerary between Day 7 and Day 8. And hence, the start of the day, we were going to Ikeda to visit the Instant Ramen Museum! WOOT! Sound interesting right? Inside should be able to try out some special instant ramen too right?

However, Zy was feel even worse than yesterday. She gotta gave the morning a miss. Okay, so we went Ikeda without Zy. Bought her some food and milk for her brunch. "Take care, Zy!" And we left for Ikeda.

Took the train to Ikeda. Then as we were trying to get our bearing and figure our way to the museum, an uncle approached us. This uncle, some tourist association people, asked if we need any assistance, and so we told him we were looking for the instant raman museum. Guess what. UNCLE TOLD US THE MUSEUM CLOSED ON TUESDAY!


This one was my fault. I was the one who suggested the swapping of Day 7 and 8 itinerary and assuring that everything will be okay. Shucks! Some more the night before I even visited the museum's webbie to find its location and stuff, everything, except its opening days. I'm so sorry!!!!!!!!

It was a pretty start for our day. We took a photo outside the museum, with disappointed look on our face to show that we did try to go. Someone up there sure didn't like us, or maybe just me. Heavy rain came pouring down. I couldn't run, only could limp hastily to the nearest shelter. We made a dash to the 100 yen shop which we passed by earlier on. Bought an umbrella each there. Okay, all set! Let's move on.

Saw a shopping arcade nearby, so went in and see. Ah! Lots of shops closed too. Then we realised something. Tuesday was this area's rest day! AHHHH!!!!!! Basically the rest of the stuff we did there was just to waste time. So skip, next back to the train station.


At the train station, if I'm not wrong, that was our first time spotting such a cheap noodle bar! 300-400 yen could get you a decent bowl of soba/udon. Since it was close to lunch time, why not have our lunch here! Okay, something not nice happened here again. After consuming my stuff, sat around a bit, suddenly I felt I was going to black out. Didn't know was it because of the pain I had been enduring since the start of the day, the rain, or the stuffy noodle bar. So I told them I needed to go out to get fresh air.

Breathe in, breathe out. Trying to control my breathing properly. Trying to focus as black spots were starting to invade my vision. Just then, they came out of the bar. With the magical hand of Cui, she helped mi to do some massage on the neck. Ahhh.. Starting to feel better. Gaining my vision back. Thank you! Now, thinking back. Did I accidentally offended "something"? Hmmmm.. That day did really seem bad for me. *shake shake head*

Went back to Umeda, but the time was still too early. There was still about 1/2 to 1 hour before Zm arrived. So we went to the Gyoza Stadium to have a mini-feast. This Gyoza Stadium was something similar to Takoyaki Museum, many stalls selling gyoza. So we did the same, everyone chose one stall and ordered the smallest set available. Ah! The winner was Zw again. His gyoza was the best!

Met up with Zm, brought him to Hotel Kinki. Zy feeling better already. So full force, whole 6 members, moved off to our next destination - Osaka Castle. Oh! At Osaka-koen Station there, we first spotted the selling of Yao Zai. It was the mascot for JR West, a platypus. But Zy said it looked like Wy, so Zw gave it the name Yao Zai. Daji bought the small version of Yao Zai. Zy didn't buy any because she claimed that the small one looks ugly and the big one too bulky.


Went to Osaka Castle before. I personally quite like the look of the castle. And considering that only the castle building itself requires admission fee, yeah, why not? Just visit it! Assuming the interior should be something similar to Himeji, all of us just admired the beauty of Osaka Castle from outside.

Next destination was Osaka Aquarium. We walked to Morinomiya Station from Osaka Castle and took the subway to Osaka-ko. Apparently the aquarium wasn't that near to the station too. Limp, limp, limp, limp~ Ah! I know! Must be because I was being too lame for the whole of first 7 days. Brrrrr~ cold.....


The aquarium was quite a nice place, that is if you like marine life. If you don't really like marine life, okay, there's still other stuff like sea otters, penguins, sea lions, and Zw.. er.. I mean alligator. And you sure won't possibly hate dolphins right? Those dolphins will show off to you by doing leaps outta water. Good showing off. Think the highlight creature of this aquarium is whale shark. Yeap. That's Osaka Aquarium for you.


After that, we took bus back to Osaka Station because they didn't want me to walk that long distance back to the Osaka-ko Station. The bus stop was just nearby. Yah, nice bunch of friends right? I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Sleep... Next day moving to Kanazawa!

Day 9

Everytime when moving from one accommodation to another was quite a tiring thing. Usually we had to move off earlier, so that we will have more time for the day to walk around. Never mind, the time compromised on sleeping can be redeemed while taking the long train journey. Everyone carried a heavy backpack, that's tiring you know? Eh... Zw and I were using the army duffel bag. The new black one with trolley wheels. =D I was still lame on Day 9, btw.

Anyway, the train was @ 8+am and reached Kanazawa @ around 11+am. First thing we always did was to check-in our barang barang first. Our accommodation was Shibaya Ryokan. Not a bad place. Decent walking distance. But no internet and surrounding no unsecured Wifi.


After checking in, went back to the train station and acquired more information about where to go in Kanazawa and how to get there. 3 locations planned - the Geisha district, Kenroku-en Garden 兼六園 and Nagamachi Samurai District 長町武家屋敷. Bought a day pass @ 500 yen for unlimited ride on the tourist bus. This tourist bus' route basically stops @ the main sights of the town, so it would be easier for us to get from point to point. But before that, lunch! Had a nice lunch set. Salad + Dessert + Omu Rice.

First stop, Geisha district. If I didn't remember wrong, we went to the Higashi-Chayamachi ひがし茶屋町. It was near to the river. Quite lost around the around. Geisha wasn't that easy to be spotted walking around. It took lots of lucks to see one, and we had none. =\ So what else can we do here? There was a house opened to public, free admission. There wasn't much stuff inside either. Luckily for us, a nice nice uncle briefed us on the house. Then when we asked him more information about the surrounding, he offered to take us for a short walking tour! And he speaks good english too!

So he guided us around , explaining the districts, and informations about the Geisha. Currently there are 16 active Geishas working there. Only 8 of the houses there are lived by Geishas, the rest have been coverted to normal housing. The uncle taught us how to differentiate between a geisha house with a normal one. A Geisha house will have a sliding door-like window on the second floor, which the normal house wouldn't have.


For an hour session with the Geisha would cost you around 200,000 yen (I think that's the amount. Or maybe more.) , which is 2k+ SGD. That's expensive! But guess what? The Geisha in Kyoto is even more expensive, it's around twice of what they are charging in Kanazawa. Oh! The youngest Geisha in this district is 20 odd years old only, while the oldest is 40 odd. Yeah, thanks to that uncle, we had a meaningful visit @ the Geisha district. If we were to walk around aimlessly, we wouldn't be able to gain so much knowledge about Geisha here.

Moving on to next stop, Kenroku-en. Quoted from Wikitravel, "The most famous sight in Kanazawa, the Garden of Six Attributes is considered one of Japan's Top 3 gardens." Alright, the garden was really very nice. Nice greenery, nice landscape. But perhaps I couldn't appreciate the beauty of it well enough. Maybe it was my fault too that the others couldn't do so either. Because I was walking almost @ the snail pace, it was impossible to fully explore the whole garden. Sadded.


At one of the rest points inside the garden, an uncle initiated a convo with Zy. A funny convo captured with the video cam. He also made a comment on the passing-by Cui, saying she's bijin 美人. Ah! Everyone should be understand to understand the kanji right, so I don't have to translate to english. Cui didn't like that flirting uncle.


Alright, outta of the garden and on to our last scheduled stop for the day, Samurai District. From the bus stop, there were directions guided along the way. So it was not that hard to find the place. Within the district, there was one particular residence which was opened to public, of course with an admission fee. Nomura Residence's admission fee was 500 yen for adults. It's like a mini-museum within the house, showing items from the samurai period. The residence has a small, but very beautiful garden.

Okay, end of the day's sightseeing. Went to check out the car rentals which were situated near the train station. Ended up @ Toyota Rental which had a 6-7 seater car for us. Took quite some time communicating with the guy @ the counter. He had to use some online translator and print out to let us see. Okay lah, at least he's trying his best and not pushing us away despite having communication issues. Good service! Reserved the car for the next morning and time for dinner!


Dinner @ a sushi bar. Free flow miso soup! But I only had 1 bowl. I'm not cheapo Singaporean! Tried the Chu-Toro. 500yen gold plate. It's the medium fatty tuna. Woot! So much better than normal tuna! Alright, cannot afford more than 1 plate. Most of my plates that I took were white plate, 105 yen. Save money... Of course got a few other plates here and there lah.

Go back. Prepare route for next day. Sleep.

Day 10


Collected the car at 8am. It was a Toyota Picnic. Driver was Zm, and Navigator was Daji. Zm was the only with International Driving Permit, and Daji had learned how to operate the GPS with Japanese menu. All set! Move off!

We will be visiting mostly the coastal areas of Noto Peninsula 能登半島 first. Due to lack of information of Noto, we had to raid one of information centers in Noto first before planning the exact locations to visit. As Lonely Planet suggested, Wajima 輪島 has a good information center with english speaking staff. So, first stop is Wajima Information Center.

Had a little pitstop at a convenient shop after exiting the highway. Bumped~ A startled way to make all of us fully awake for the day. Zm humped over a high curb. Well, that curb was in his blind spot. Er... Okay, pitstop. Calm down, people, calm it. Toilet break, stock up of water and tidbits for the road trip. Onwards to Wajima Information Center.

The crippled stayed in the car when arrived at the information center. So no idea what was being asked and what information they had and stuff. It was lunch time, and I think they did ask for somewhere for recommendation. It was a restaurant nearby, Onajimiya おなじみや.


This part is interesting. The uncle and auntie inside couldn't speak english, and we had limited capability in japanese. After a long rojak conversation, we managed to have our order made and an assorted sashimi plate. =) I ordered myself a Katsu Don. Yum yum~ The sashimi came first. At first I thought it would be quite a miserable plate as we only ordered 1000yen per pax. I was so wrong! It was pretty good! Sea urchin, tuna, prawn and some other fish which I couldn't identify. Worth it! I LOVE SASHIMI! I LOVE JAPAN! SEND ME BACK THERE!!!


Alright! Let's move on. Wajima port. Wah! Lots of boats docking over there. Quite a sight. But we had to find a place to park, so we went up further. WOW! A nice coast here! Let's check it out. The wind was good. The view was good. I mean, what wasn't good there??! After walking around there, we then found out that area was known as Kamogaura Coastline.

While moving to our 2nd destination, saw a viewing platform along the way. So stopped there for a moment too. I think this is something good about self driving. Anytime you see anything nice, you can stop and see. You have more flexibility in the itinerary. Yeah!

Anyway, I can't remember what was the 2nd destination, but I know it supposed to be some trekking trail. Impossible for me to do in that state. And the trail ends up in another area. Can't leave our car here and trek back right? The distance isn't that short you know. So abandoned plan, move on to 3rd destintation.

3rd stop was Ganmon Kongo. Forgot it was Ganmon or Kongo being a common name, we ended up a bit off from the actual spot we wanted to go. Or maybe the whole stretch was Ganmon Kongo. Along that stretch of coast, there were many natural rock formations by the coast. Quite a sight. Tried asking 2 uncles for directions. Oh man! They spoke with an accent. But both of them really very nice and helpful. One of them even gave us his map that he put in his lorry. He marked the point on the map and gave it to us. Hmmmm... Japanese are nice people eh? SEND ME BACK THERE!!!!


Anyway, we finally got it there. Er... Actually I also didn't know if that was the place or not. But who cares! Got interesting to see can liao lor! The coast here was a little special, the soil/sand looked like hardened volcanic soil instead. Hard and rocky. The soil here made a lot of dents on the soles of my slippers.

Time's up! If the car overdue, we gotta pay a lot extra for it, so it's better if we could return earlier. Luckily because of this thinking, we got some more time on hand to visit the beach which we passed by earlier when we were going to Wajima.


Turning into the beach, and we immediately saw a group of girls playing there already. It was sun setting time. Woot~ Superb! took lots of photos there, though most of the photos you can't really see the face. LOL!

Oh! Daji got asked for email from one of the girls. Because we took a group photo with them, and as goodwill, we wanted to send them the photo too. Our rep was Daji. Well done, Daji!

Time to rush back. Pump petrol along the way. SAFE~ Reached back at the Toyota Rental in time. Dinner time! This time we split up. Those wanted to eat ramen go eat ramen, those wanted to eat Mac go Mac. I went for ramen, but after the meal, I bought another McPork to snack on. McPork!!! I LOVE MCPORK!!! SEND ME BACK THERE!!!!

Sleep... Moving to Takayama the next day.

To be continued...