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November 06, 2017

October 2017 - Japan trip 2017

October was so hectic for some unknown reason it is just a blur to me now. I did all my usual duties and tasks. But somehow I have forgotten to create a post for October in Blogger and Medium platforms. For the second half of October, my sister and I went away to Japan. Part of the trip had interference from typhoon Lan. Other than that we did managed to see and experience a few new things and new places, such as grilling rice crackers and getting scared various ways in haunted houses as part of Halloween.

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19 October

The Alien: Covenant movie has tarnished my knowledge of what I know about aliens from the original trilogy. Communication seems to be an ongoing issue through out each film. But I never knew, David was the scientist who created alien. He used humans as vessels to breed them. He was lead to believe he can be creator from his talks with his human creator back on earth. Worst form of farming. Ever heard of electronic incubators.

The other movies I have also watched on the airplane were:
  • The House;
  • Ghost in the shell;
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2;
  • Baby Driver;
  • Japanese film - - In this corner of the world (based around the bombing of Hiroshima in WWII).

At check-in desk, they told us we will need to go to the transfer counter at Hong Kong and collect our boarding pass. Something about it has not been sorted out. We have told them we don’t mind sitting apart. In the end, the counter staff kindly pushed the manager to arrange two seats together for us. Upon arrival at Hong Kong airport there was a sign highlighted in yellow for us. There the staff asked for our passport and handed us our boarding pass. Sweet! When we got to the transfer station, the security check took a good hour to through. It was very, very, very slow. So, be aware that this point could be your crux for your transfers.

The airplane ride went smoothly. We managed to watch a few movies. Frequently, I would nod off midway. The congee was a refreshing breakfast though. Loved the choice of ice cream on offer: raspberry and cookies and cream.

The KIX airport was delightful. I got my prepaid SIM card without a fuss, JR pass, and topped up our ICOCA smart card. We then dropped off our bags at the hotel near by the airport and went for a stroll to Rinku town and this store called Cosmos Rinku. Which sold discounted skin care. Only accepts cash. Yay!




20 October

We went into Kyoto for a late lunch. Light rain today. The green tea merchandise has up the ante. There are facial mask in green tea, shochu mixing with green tea, and chocolate liqueur in green tea. Wow. Purchase two of the three.

The lockers at the train station can now be locked using your IC card. How handy. No more paper receipts. Cool.

The footpath has widen in Karasuma meaning less space for cars and buses. So you can expect delays and moving at turtle speeds. Daimaru food basement had Halloween themed wagashi and baked goods. Yummy. The Yojiya skincare store had yuzu lipgloss, sakura wax perfume, and moisturiser that can be sprayed over makeup. How wonderful. The gift stores along Karasuma are same as always. Lots of Made in Japan goods. I have found some well wishers sticker/bookmarks for my colleagues.

Isetan had Halloween accessories for us to take selfies with (photographs). How nice of them. They sold music with autumn leaf cards that played Japanese traditional melodies. Gosh. That’s perfect. On the top floor we had four cheeses pizza and crab tomato sauce green pasta for dinner. Then proceeded to the outdoors stairs of Kyoto Station that lights up. With the aim of watching a short show called Rainbow Halloween.

Sis went to the loo at the train station and came back with a long umbrella. How did I not see that one coming.




21 October

Kobe Animal Kingdom was an indoor place with exotic animals. Well trained one at that. No cages. The animals obediently do not go beyond the ceiling or exit through the automatic doors in between each area.

We played with guinea pigs, rabbits (mighty big ones too), dogs, cats, turtles, and big capybara. Mind blowing really. Three toucans flew over our heads. We waved to beavers, who were swimming in a glass tank, it said hi to us. Sis totally went wild and bought up a storm of red panda merchandise. We watched the zoo keeper feed the red pandas. Then Sis got the chance to feed a red panda apple from a stick.

There was this foot spa by the water lilies that had tiny fishes in it. We got ourselves a 30 minute session for ¥300. The fishes would suck our feet. It felt like tiny vibrations. What a treat. They cleaned up Sis’ callous. Ha ha. Not so much for me. Still a very pleasant experience. My feet felt relaxed after it.

We hopped on a private railway line to Juso station. Then bus 97 to this hedgehog cafe. The lady handed us a hedgehog that had a swollen toe, dark circles, tired, and hungry. No food or toys were given to us to feed it or entertain it. She just showed us to how to hold it. This hedgehog does not want to be held period. We decided to play peek a boo with it. Swing it in it’s bucket. Then I insisted it has some food at the very least. Boy, did the hedgehog love the meal worms. It couldn’t get enough it, even stucked its head in the pot. 45 minutes later we decided we best let it get some sleep.

Umeda still has it. Pokémon center! kapow. I found many cute things. Especially, fluffy smart card passes. It is all the rage at the moment. I got myself a Magikarp pass holder. Three days now and still I cannot find FarFetch’d in Osaka. Sigh.




22 October

Light rain. Arrived pretty late in Niigata. I went off to join a legendary raid battle (Pokémon Go game) and left sis back at the mall in the JR station. 10 people came to play in person. Pretty rad. Later that evening Sis and I had dinner at Mos Burger. There are so much to see in Niigata. Of course, before 4pm at best. We did not have enough time to visits the various museums, not even the manga museum.

The mall has many hidden food outlets, but we decided to rummage through Big Camera and Maruren book shop. I brought myself a few picture books from the Rilakuma collection. I find that if I had to translate sentences of interest to me, then maybe I would retain more of the language.




23 October

Crazy winds today and heavy rain. Unfortunately, the 10:05am train to Yahiko was cancelled due to stormy winds. Apparently, one of the local train was derailed, hence the cancellation. There was a possibility of the 12:18pm train, but there was a probable chance that it won’t show up as well. So, we were stuck at Tsubame-Sanjō JR station for a while until the next Shinkansen train came by.

We have managed to preoccupy ourselves. Thank god there was a indoor tori gate, a souvenir store, an arts and craft display case, a hot drink vending machine, and a warm waiting room to entertain us. We have found a packet of crab rice crackers (locally produced), and boy, do they taste delicious. After filling out a survey we were given free nail filers (made in Japan). Wow.

The area flies giant kites in summer. Um, I wonder how fun it would be to come back to see them in action.

Back in Niigata we had a kaiseki lunch at Isetan Eat Paradise. Stuffed alright. There was even an Italian fiesta on, but I could not stomach anymore food. I have found cards, stickers, USB-c adapters for bro in Loft.

We went to Uniqlo to buy more thermal clothing. Sis went to Axes to buy a skirt. I ran out into the main street and was greeted with gusty winds, that tried to blow me onto the road. I held onto the rails to cross the bridge. I hid under every eave in the residential area until I have reached my first FarFetch’d in Pokémon Go. W00t! I caught it in this crazy weather. Once I have caught it, the wind and rain have stopped altogether. I then strolled into H&M to dry off and met with Sis. Sis found a glow in the dark skeleton jumper. For dessert we had a Halloween themed ice cream sundae at Baskin Robins. We had a late dinner at Mos Burger in Bandai City.




24 October

Sunnier this morning. When I scrolled through my Twitter did I find out about the cause of the strong winds. Typhoon Lan has hit Shizuoka on Monday. Category 5! It died down to category 2 by Tuesday but still. It impacted the middle areas of the Honshu island all the way up to the north areas - where we were based.

The rice cracker museum at Niizaki was absolutely fun. We learned the traditional method of grilling a rice cracker. First, you pick the shape of your rice cracker. At the grill, you flip the big rice cracker till fluffs up. Remember to flatten down the bubbles. Use soy sauce to draw on it. Take it back to the grill. Rest it. Then glaze it with soy sauce. Go back to the grill, but this time you hover it over the grill. Last step, take it to the vacuum tray. Once cooled you get to bag and box it. Yay! The lesson was the process requires patience and confidence to work with open fire.

The Shibata Castle and garden was beautiful. There was a wooden walk way down to the pond. We got the chance to enter three watch towers and each one was built differently. Do mine your head when going up and down steps. The stairs were very narrow.

Once we were back in Niigata, I went off to join another raid battle in Bandai City. 10 people again.




25 October

The post office staff were in shock and in a state of confusion. They have never sent an international package before. Especially on behalf of an foreigner — me. They thought I have packed an electronic mask, an electronic toy with batteries, and commercial clothes to be sold somewhere. I have ticked the box — gift. Does that not mean anything to anyone anymore? Anyhow, between several exchanges and the use of Google translation app did they understand these objects I’m shipping back home are clothes I have worn yesterday, fluffy stuffed toys from Pokémon center, and paper Japanese eye masks (which the staff have never used themselves). Quite the morning session. But I had to list them in the declaration form like so:

Non electronic eye mask;
Stuffed toy (no battery);
and clothes (personal use only).




26 October

Curled my hair. Well, tried was the word. There was this mentally challenged boy that kept knocking on all the doors on our floor in the hotel. Including ours. Then the house keeper knocked on the door and asked what does “do not disturb” mean. Oh! The number of retards seems to be on the rise.

Once I was done, we dashed to Harajuku like mad, but the Yamanote line was slow. Instead we jumped off at Shibuya and took the Hanzomon line to Q-Pot Cafe for high tea. The Q-Pot main concept store was stuffy. Sis ended up with a headache.

We headed to Harajuku and went in search of the Alice on Wednesday concept store. The entrance to the shop was interesting. It had a small door. Where everyone bends down to enter through. Each floor was different in colour, lighting, and decor. The stairway had decorations from the classic book. Sis and I had fun exploring it. The cookies were bland Sis said.

The Sailormoon concept store was a disappointment. However, the Laforet Harujuku building did house very unique shops. The floor numbering was weird and off putting: 0.5, 1, and 1.5.

At Sky Tree Tower we went to Q-Pot and Donguri Kyowakoku shop. Nothing much there we liked. We saw more kitchen ware and play cards on sale than usual.

Sky Tree Tower has this new pop up cafe called Witch Sand. We have never been to an anime or theme cafe before. They always had plain food and plain drinks. Well, well, this one has magic rainbow Soda that transformed in front of our eyes. Sis was instructed to a blue liquid, put this ball of candy floss on the glass, before pouring the last liquid on top. It changed from plain liquid to into frothy bubbly drink within seconds. I had the sandwich set and Sis had the feast meal set. We both had the Halloween honour of eating the edible broomstick and a black cat cookie. We also, had dessert, a parfait and a bowl of ice cream. Which came with more black cat cookie.

Sadly, I missed three FarFetch’d by the Sumida River.





27 October

Enoshima Island was full of surprises. Not much of a cat island. More Chinese tourists than anything else here. Sadly, the Iwaya cave closed due to typhoon damage.

We found a cafe near the steps o cave which had cats. We purchased green tea drinks and patted a cat or two. It felt so nice.

The Ryuren Bell of Love was where most of the young people headed to that afternoon. Posing and posing. The odd one would ring the bell. Sis loved the bell very much. I posed with Magikarp. in my photograph. My best companion so far. Holds my IC card and coins so, so, well amongst crowded trains.

We sat in a prayer session at Enoshima Daishi temple. They burned blocks and blocks of wood. They chanted. The audience sat on their knees and chanted too. Their hands changed shape as they scrolled through their pray book. The drums would strike indicating time to move the chant to the next stage. Some of the monks came down from the stage to bless us with a golden wand laden with bells. I felt spiritually cleansed. Sis felt much more at peace too, after so much disappointments in one day.

The best cliff view point was at 山二つ bridge back of the island. Looks so like a painting.




28 October

Once we got off the train, I went off to join a raid battle instantly. The nearby office staff came out in droves to participate too. It must be tough on them since raid battles finish at 5pm.

The Sunshine City has many events! To get to it, you catch a Yurakucho subway line and get off at Higashi-Ikebukuro station. One minute you are learning about flower arrangement, next you are posing with famous Japanese cartoon characters. If you had kids, they get to make paper lanterns for trick or treat night, then you can get frighten shitless in the haunted house at Sky Circus (level 60).

The haunted house does not start until 6pm.

We did take a break, by jumping over to Roppongi to hold some hedgehogs and boy, oh, boy these ones are the cutest ones. So easy to hold too. They enjoy sleeping on your hand. A bonus. Tiny feet and paws. Sharp teeth though. We watched a couple feed one. It was ferocious that it even bites the tweezers holding the meal worm.

This year the haunted house theme was the Zombie Museum. Oh boy, were we frighten, and laughing at the same time. We got up close with a zombie at the beginning and even took a photograph with it. Upon entry Sis nearly banged into a mirror in the red light filled hall way. Then we had to wait again. I got Sis to pose eerily with some hanging umbrellas. We touched a zombie corpse. Also, we had a good group of people in our session. They genuine felt scared. Sis was asked to be the leader. I was occupied with laughing to notice it had happened. I was happy to watch our backs while Sis guided the girls through the body bags. The boys proceeded ahead of Sis, so she swung one of the hanging bags at him and that frighten the hell out of him. I laughed my head off. Sorry. I guess, I have become too desensitised from visiting various haunted [fun] houses over my life time.




29 October

Ochimachi station Halloween event came to a halt when the rain bucketed on the audience. No one came dressed up. The rain was unbearable. Sis and I came dressed as witches. Walked around the areas listed as part of the event. There was no one at each location. Then we nicked off to Decks at Odaiba. There we ate most of the Halloween special foods. We had lunch at the Osaka Takoyaki Museum. Which was so so. Insufficient seating.

We went through a haunted house with the theme of an abandoned school. The premise was a school boy hanged himself and now haunts the place. It was called お化け屋敷/ Daiba Kaiki Gakko/ Tokyo Haunted House. Sis couldn’t stop with the commentary. She was scared alright. She rushed through the many parts where dolls are meant to pop up, but you have to give a few seconds to crank up. Oh well. We did see three actors at least. Not bad.

The restaurants on the 5th floor were so so. Pricey. At 6pm, we decided to enter the Sega Joypolis entertainment park. It was fun as hell.

Pirate plunder. 
You sit on barrels and shoot skeletons. You get ranked in two separate rounds. Sis came fifth on the second round.

Fortune forest. 
Where you place your crystal and swirl some runes around digitally. The crystal sets off music and instruct elves to do dances. Somewhat cheesy though.

Biohar7ard. 
Oh. This one was scary. You have a host, who guides you through the rooms and puzzles. You had to solve the puzzles in order to get out of each room. Find a key. Find the passcode. Stay quiet. Run fast. Kinda like an escape room with a zombie theme.

We lined up for The Room of the living dolls. Here you sit in the dark. Listen to two people talk through the head phones. Smoke is then blown into your face. Out of the blue your chair collapses. The host doll then comes alive with lights. Then it all ends. The room light comes on. Sis and I didn’t understand much of the chat, but if you have a bad knee or spine do not go to this one.

Mystic Mansion was part 3D and 4D.
You can feel wind and heat upon you. They spin you around. All the while they tell the tale of how to battle a hoard of skeletons. You had to tap a button in front of you to defeat the skeleton boss. Wow.

Shooting games here are remarkably amazing fun. The Transformers Humsn Alliance special had you spinning 360 degrees, while The House of Dead 4 special spins you back and forth. Sis and I came silver in the Transformer's game, and tanked in the House of Dead game. We didn’t make it to the justice stage.

We went on many rides as we can that evening and the rides ends at 9:30pm, but the park shuts up shop at 10pm.




30 October

To change train from Yamonate line at Tokyo station to Keiyo line is 400m of foot pain! Talk about major foot traffic too. Lack of oxygen. Carbon dioxide pollutes these connecting tunnel. We got on the JR line alright, but not without some confusion. The arrows were everywhere.

Tokyo Disneyland does not welcome scary make up, especially sugar skulls. We were told to remove our make up. There barely was any Halloween decorations. 90% of it was plain old Disneyland, that you already know. The fast pass here have a limit of one per every 2 hours and ends at 3pm. They seem to be short of actors dressed as official Disney characters in Tokyo. Unlike USA where some corner was a dressed up person whom you can take photographs with instantly or in 15 minutes or so. In Tokyo, it was a 75 minutes wait at Mickey's house.





31 October

DisneySea Park staff were nicer to us. We went on several rides and watched two short acts.

Two official characters came by the town square and took photographs with the public. Not us though. No proper line either. Staff did not carry a DLS camera or cards with the photo gallery barcode. People just surrounded the character. I take it, people in Tokyo do not like to pay for official photographs (momentos).

Sis loved all the rides. We went on: 20,00 League Under the Sea, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jumpin’ Jellyfish, Blowfish balloon race, Indiana Jones Adventure: temple of the crystal skull, Jasmine’s flying carpet, DisneySea Electric railway, and Tower of terror.

Sadly, the fast passes ended at 3pm. Luckily, we grabbed one fast pass for Tower of terror upon arrival at noon. While as for the rest of the rides, we just stood in the regular standby line. Luckily, many of the rides had waiting times of 5 to 30 minutes, only Indy ride took an hour to wait.

We had lunch at Vulcania. Chinese food. We ordered spicy mince meat with tofu, mix dumplings, cinnamon cake, almond jelly in the shape of Mickey’s face.

We saw the Triton concert were they used puppets, digital screens, and props coming out from the centre of the stage, and a human Ariel gliding above us. They played three songs from the cartoon movie. Part circus, part mime.

We also caught the last act of the night The Magic Lamp. Where we wore 3D glasses and got the chance to see the genie sing. The prelude was odd. People stood there staring at the puppet snake yet the screens at the back played a short snippet cartoon movie. At times, you are not sure where to direct your attention. No chairs for old or tired folks, and you cannot sit on the carpet. Apparently, you will get in the way of potential traffic. The actual stage had two actors: one magician and one assistant. The genie appears on an screen above the props on stage. The chairs would up and down when the genie passed us. Quite good fun.




01 November

Platform staff at Ueno Shinkansen tried to usher my sister and I to the non-reserve seats carriage, despite I have reserve seat tickets and our train was about to come in 5 minutes. I stood my ground. I stood by my carriage number 8 and boarded it. Tokyo has such racist and sexist of a human being. Not once did the staff ask to check my ticket. Well, I insisted that I know better. I have been to Japan 9 times now. Boarding shinkansen was no challenge for me. I know the rules like the back of my hand.

On board in the reserve seat a man sat in our reserve seats, oddly, he does not have reserve seat ticket. No staff checked him. Must be due to his suit. It looked more official than my jeans. Who says Tokyo is not class based is lying to you. A man in a suit always gets away with crime. Typical of society to always turn a blind eye towards such ill behaviour from a suit.

The transfer was a success. Persistence pays.




02 November

Sis woke up late again. We arrived at the diner at 11am instead of 10am.Sis insists on eating late brekkie at her fave place. So we never had time to go for a hike up north east Kyoto. Then she complains of a stomach ache. Yet she orders green tea dessert drink and a green cake with cream filling. She then goes and insists we purchase the green tea pudding too. Ah… why stuff yourself knowing you are ill and that we have a reservation for dessert buffet in Hilton Osaka. Really.

The buffet was well decorated. Ideas for the theme were there, but the shape, taste, texture was non-existent. It was either it was too bland or too many were filled with cream. The flavours from one piece clashed with the other one. You felt like chucking up. Cost $8,000-ish in total for two people.

Sis and I did one last final run in purchasing things we liked from Kyoto. Sis spent ¥460 in bus fares for ¥194 Pokémon charm. Which she should have purchased as a pair yesterday. She always do these yo-yo shopping acts. It cost us a visit to EST. Which has to be postponed.

In the end, I am stuck at malls again. Spent the evening in Aeon Mall. Sis kept saying that I don’t give her money. Yet she never pays for breakfast, lunch, or dinner; and if she did, it was with my money that I handed to her earlier in the day. Again it was over some plastic shit.




03 November

Kani was delicious as always. They gave me tea flavoured lollies as gift. It really has tea leaves in it. Hee hee. I have purchased a packet of crab rice crackers, but they are flat on seasoning and flavour. Niigata does it better. Also, I purchased broiled crab meat for Sis.

The cosmetics shops in Shinsaibashi were more expensive than the ones in Rinku town, but they had huge variety of stock. In the end, one of them has the colour I was after 7D4. Give or take really. The main building Daimaru was closed for renovation. For the time being, it took over the Sogo department store. Laduree has shut up shop in Osaka and Shinsaibashi. They already started selling Christmas decorations at Tokyu Hands.

Sis and I went on joy ride through the suburbs south of Tennoji. Mozu has a shrine which has foxes, tori, a mini shrine in the pond. O’wow. In addition, a section of Daizen park that can be only accessed on special occasion. From the air it looks like a key hole. Opposite of this exclusive park is an recreation park and museum. We got the chance to pat a ginger cat. It was big and fluffy. Very clean though. It loves to eat grass. Too bad we could not hug it. Park security staff watched over the place pretty seriously.

Sis took a JR train to Namba and we got lost amongst the various exits and connecting tunnels. I prefer taking the subway to Shinsaibashi. To get to Tennoji I would rather take the Kansai airport rapid line or Midosuji line.

EST shopping building has cleaned up all of its edge stores. Now every corner was filled with princess clothing brands. I was not surprised that no one goes into any of them. If you ask me, too pricey for teenagers, it was no longer cool looking or affordable as it was 8 years ago. Note the shops in Kyoto station doesn’t sell travel tags. Not the long lasting one. Just this easily removed plastic tags.




4 November

Sis and I had lunch at special sushi joint at the Kansai Airport. The first vendor belt was sushi and sashimi you can pick up anytime, the 2nd vendor belt above had food come to us via a fast zip zip train. To order food you used a tablet and when the food has arrived you tapped the confirm button. So, sophisticated. Also, we sat in a booth, and not stools for once. Wow! We felt like royalty.

We did some last minute gift purchases for ma and papa.

Sis managed to have her umbrella checked-in without any issues. They even boxed it for her. Neato.  The Flight was delayed due engine issues. A good hour and a half later did we take off. They told us to go for a walk. As Sis and I were in the middle of eating real hot food at one the cafes by the gate: hot dog and takoyaki, and they started to call us all back to the plane. Sadly, Sis had to ditch one of the takoyaki balls.

I only managed to watch a few movies, but I felt very tired from waiting.  These were the movies I ended up watching:
  • Cars 3;
  • Baywatch;
  • The Circle;
  • The Beguiled; 
  • Wars for the planet of the apes.
In Hong Kong, we arrived pretty late in the evening. The ground staff said the hotel was outside of the airport, just pass the immigration and to the left. Even though it was a transfer, you still had to fill out the immigration and custom declaration form. No issues there. Done. The bridge connecting to the hotel was on the 5th floor, two lefts from the lifts, through terminal 2.

Sadly, there was no sign giving directions to the airport hotel, but that it was located within the vicinity. So, we decided to walk past a car park and enter the hotel via the side road where coach buses park. The Regal Airport Hotel lacks USB charging ports. It does have an express check out box to drop your room key. Which was handy. As the queue at the reception was slow and long. This time around the security check and immigration at the departure gate were reasonable and fast. In the duty free area, I have purchased a portable ion brush and an another MoMax battery. W00t.

Even before we board the plane there was another security check. Thoroughly going through people bags and carry on luggage looking for any signs of water bottles.


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