Trip to Japan: Part 1

Assalamualaikum.

Hari ni macam kurang busy sikit, so I made an attempt to update our recent trip to Japan. Ni baru part 1 hokay, which I have no clue where should I start and whether these Japan story-telling going to end or not. Well just give it a go since atm I am quite determined and highly enthusiastic to share our experiences in Japan. Semangat waja ok.

Ok. Bismillah~

This is the second time we've been to Japan; MM and I. But it is Sara's first time. Bertuah sungguh anak saya, umur 3y.o dah pergi Japan, Singapore, Indonesia. Alhamdulillah, rezeki dari Allah. 

The plan was made long ago, to return to Japan, to be exact Akashi / Kobe / Osaka area. Our first time in Japan was in year 2008 attending a 3 months duration of training as new officer. So basically we've been there for the purpose of work. 3 freaking months; from August - November 2008. Puasa kat sana, sambut Eid Fitri pun kat sana. How sad. But it was one most memorable period for MM and I. Hahahaha, cinta berputik di negara Sakura la apa lagi. We were still bachelor atm. Dan aku pulak satu2nya wanita bujang di sana, yang lain semua dah kawin. Hehe. So, to cut the long story short, our 'life' started over there, in Akashi, Japan. *wink*

Okay enough of that. Ramblings.

Booked the Malaysia Airlines tickets online during April 2013 if not mistaken. Apparently MAS was having some promotion atm so speaking of how lucky we were having to pay off at the most affordable price. Like seriously murah la aku rasa for a return ticket of 2 adults and 1 toddler. 

And to our excitement, in July 2013 the Japan Govm announced the exemption of Visa for Malaysian to enter Japan for a period of 90 days provided that your passport is the Biometric ones. Wahh, lagi la senang trip kami tak perlu nak susah-susah buat visa. #happy.

*Kalau nak tau biometric ke tak, dkt dpn passport tu ada mcm gambar camera kecik. That's biometric passport. 

Passports

To ease our trip, we bought the JR (Japan Railway) Kansai Wide Area Pass and Universal Studio Japan tickets earlier. The pass covers the whole JR line for Kansai area only for 4 consecutive days, including shinkansen. So we opted for the 4 days pass which cost us around 28,000Yen. Hmm.. in RM, convert sendiri lah. ;)

*Note, if you want to buy JR Pass, USJ Ticket or Disneyland Tokyo Ticket, book hotel, and other packages you can do so at JTB (Japan Travel Bureau). It is located at Amoda Building, Jalan Imbi. Refer to the url for more details. https://www.jtbmalaysia.com/

Image googled

Dah ada JR pass,so what's next?

Well okay once arrived at Kansai Airport, go to JR Office to get ticket for JR. We can start using our JR Pass to the maximum from the first day for 4 days. It is valid for all JR train in Kansai Area sampai ke Kyoto Nara semua tu lah. Kalau beli yang 1000RM tu boleh sampai Tokyo. But we did not intend to travel those far. JR Pass sangat berbaloi and you can save a lot on tickets fees sbb ticket train dekat Japan sangat mahal. 1 station je dah 200Yen which is about 6ringgit lebih dah tu. Tu baru one way. Kalau pegi balik mau 12 ringgit kan?

So don't take the unworthy risk. Get your JR Pass at the first place. This is a friendly advise :)

We booked hotel in Namba area, IL Coure Namba. Very convenience I must say. It is just few minutes walk from Nankai Namba Station, JR Namba Station and Midosuji Subway Station. We didn't knew it was very near to Dotonbori until we discover it on the third day. Oh hampeh kan. Ok back to hotel. Booked the hotel 1 month earlier via Agoda.com. This is the 4th time I was using Agoda.com for overseas hotel. Twice for Bandung, 1 for Singapore and 1 for Japan. Rest assured, it is a trusted hotel booking engine. And the price highly comparable too. The process is easy too. Thumbs up!

*Suggestion for hotel booking, if you travel with kids or infants, try to book hotel which is nearer to the station. I mean it has to be accessible. You don't want to walk miles and hours from your hotel to the nearest transport right? Unless, walk is your thing. But anyhow, it's depends. Lain orang lain citarasa. =)

Untuk duit yen pulak, after been looking for few Money Changer, akhirnya Mid Valey jugak jadi pilihan. We found that Yen is much cheaper in Mid Valley. Tempat lain semua mahal. So the best price we managed to get atm is 33.20, which means 1000yen = RM 33.20. Murah kan murah kan? 

Ichi man = 10,000yen = RM330 

Makcik kayo

After everything has be settled, passport checked, duit checked, hotel checked, list of travel items checked, flight tickets checked, JR Pass checked, hmmm.. semua lah checked, so off we packed our stuff and ready to board. Yeay! 

Boleh tak Sara nak bawak stroller kecik dia tu. Haish!

 Putrajaya-KLIA via KLIA Transit

Our flight was a night flight, depart from KLIA at 23:50.
And..
to be continue in Part 2 :)

~mama sara~