{travelogue} Japan 2009 [part ONE]

WARNING : This trip contains stalking of handsome guys, excessive picture taking of people and unnecessary objects.

^ I like that. (:

PS/ THIS IS ONLY PART ONE.

So I'm back from my 1 week paradise. Will write a full recap. Not only for the readers, but for my own sake of memory as well.

Information about the trip:

Duration : 7 days, 5 nights. (a night is spent in the plane)
Date : 16th November 2009 ~ 22nd November 2009
Type of holiday : Tour.
Weather : Cold, but not snowing. High : 18°C, Low : 8°C (somewhere around there)
Season : Autumn
Currency : Yen, ¥. 1,000 ¥ = RM40. 100 ¥ = RM4 (With 1,000 ¥, you only can buy a magazine, a bowl of noodle. With 100 ¥, you can spend it on their gachapon machines.)

Recap starts from ;

Day One (16th Nov 2009); KLIA ~ Kansai


The flight is on 11.55pm. In the morning, we went out to Bukit Tinggi AEON, Klang to fix my sister’s PSP problem. Bought last minute “winter” clothing with my mum. Thank God she took leave.

Long johns, gloves, a “beanie”. [Don’t know what a long john is? It’s actually a clothing where it’s made of wool (well, mine is) and you’re supposed to wear it under all your clothing. It keeps you warm.]

 We ate dinner at 7.30pm as usual, then did last minute check on our luggage.

 Pink & Black ; Mine, Green &Pink ; Sisters, Black ; Mum's.

Our luggage. (:

Before the taxi came.

Taxi came on 8.30pm.

Taxi :D

Reached the airport on 9pm. Checked in, and met the tour leader, Wendy. We joined the tour whose company name is “Apple Holiday”.

So anyway, we passed immigration, took the Aerotrain to another terminal.

 Aerotrain terminal.

in the Aerotrain

 Then to kill time, we went to Coffee Bean and got a Ice Blended Chocolate for my sister and I to share. My dad and mum ordered a tuna sandwich for themselves. Beside the Coffee Bean was a newly opened MPH bookstore.

the Coffee Bean

the tuna sandwich.

 So we walked there, while my dad sat at Coffee Bean guarding our bags. My sister bought the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid : Dog Days” (the 4th book).

Then when we went back, there was this guy, he sat beside our table. At first look, I thought he was Byung Hun (my favorite Korean actor~) as his IRIS drama character. My sister and I went to fan-girly mode.We actually thought it was him.

hahaha. stalker mode.

We had to leave then, so we took our bags and bid farewell to the Byung Hun look-a-like. (fan-girly mode still on that time) We then walked to the the boarding gate and wait for it to open. During that time, many families were there at the gate as well. My dad said; “I think all these families are also in our tour. These apple pies.”  (He’s referring to the people who joined the Apple Holiday tour as apple pies. LOL.)

By 11.30pm, the gate opened.

Boarded the Boeing 777, Malaysia Airlines plane, and it took off at 12am. 5 hours 50 minutes to Japan, yeah! I took the window seat, my sister took the seat beside mine. They showed G.I. Joe during the flight. Really cool. Keep on spazz-ing with my sister when Storm Shadow came into the screen. (;

the in-flight entertainment magazine

our location before taking off.

 

view of KL from the airplane.

 selca~

after few hours.

 storm shadow on the screen! wooot~

 the airplane's wing.

 

sister and I PSP-ing. (:

 

Slept for 3 hours during the flight. Not much, but bearable.
 

Day Two (17th November 2009); Kansai ~ Osaka

By 4.30am, they started serving breakfast for us. There’s this weird air steward who suddenly came beside my sister and asked ;

“This is the naughty one?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.” I replied.
My sister kept quiet.

Ever since then, he kept on annoying my sister. Like what? -___-; Is this how you call “Malaysian Hospitality” from what you Malaysian Airlines keep stressing on? LOL.

Anyway, I also met this another weird air steward. This is our short and stupid conversation.

Air Steward: “Do you want coffee or tea?”
Me: “Do you have anything else?”
Air Steward: “It’s breakfast.” (said in a matter-of-fact manner)

Hmm, so it means breakfast can have nothing other than coffee or tea. :/  I ended up choosing tea.

So we reached Kansai Airport at 6am Malaysian time, but 7am Japan time, and met the other “apple pies”. Wendy, the tour leader, guided us on the immigration. We had to do fingerprints and picture taking to get through the immigration. You have to look into the camera, which is like those webcams on the laptop type of camera. I practically smiled so much for my picture. 

kansai airport.

all nippon airways (ANA) plane.

 

taking a train to the other terminal.

When we got out of the immigration to the “lobby” of the airport, my sister and I went to the toilet to brush our teeth, and freshen up. 

at the "lobby".

 

We then met up with the other “apple pies” and Wendy then led us to the bus. When we took our step outside, it was raining and it was really cold. Raining, yeah. What a way to start our journey. ):

And we had to wear at least 4 layers of clothing.  Long johns, Clothing, Casual Jacket, Winter Jacket. 

The bus ride took at least an hour to our next destination, Universal Studios (it's Christmas theme now). During the ride, they introduced the main guide for this trip, who is a Malaysian Chinese as well, but he lives in Japan for quite a long time.

in the bus.

Information about Universal Studios;

Their mascots are Snoopy, Hello Kitty, Woody Woodpecker, Shrek, Sesame Street, Pink Panther, Crash Bandicoot, Betty Boop, Wizard of Oz.

So we reached Universal Studios at 9.30am (I’ll be talking in Japan time from now. Malaysian time is minus 1 hour). But it only opens at 10am, and there’s so many people already at the main gate. They’re just waiting for the clock to strike 10, and all of them will rush in (literally). 

Most of them are high-school or college guys and girls. And precisely at 10am (you know, Japanese. Punctuality is their priority), the announcers announced that they’re opening. You can hear the crowd screaming away. And when they open their gates, all of them rushed in, especially the high-school guys. They were all like “Whooooo!!” and ran crazily to god-knows-what-ride.

the entrance.

We were curious, so we asked our main guide; “What are they rushing for?”.
Our main guide just replied; “Oh, there’s this Spiderman ride. If you ride it, then everything is useless to ride anymore.” (meaning the ride is the best)

 
My mood wasn’t that good that time. Tired from the short sleep in the plane and what’s more, the weather. Rainy weathers is not good for holidaying. Especially in theme parks. ):  We were supposed stay there until 4pm.

Anyway, when we “rushed” in with the crowd together, we saw many mascots. Took pictures with many of them.

Wasn’t in the mood to really ride the rides, but my mum kept insisting. 

We rode ;

-  Shrek 4D (Japan’s 4D is really good. So real. You wear the 4D glasses, and sit on the chair, and when “rats” come out, your legs will feel the “rats”. When Donkey talks, you can feel saliva on your face. When Gingerbread man comes out, you can smell the gingerbread smell. )

- Terminator 4D {video from YouTube here or here.}  (The woman host for that show is really cute [the lady in red]. The way she talks is like so LOL. The effects is really good.)

- Spiderman 4D. (Now I know why the people rush for, it’s like so freaking real. You sit on the simulator, wear the glasses and see all Spiderman’s villians after you, blowing torches at your face, electrocuting you, making you fall from a 10 storey building. All with the movement of the simulator. They keep on turning you round and round. All of us were dizzy after that ride.)

One thing I dislike was, they only cater for Japanese speaking people. Because everything they spoke there is all in Japanese. They do not have translations or subtitles for the foreign tourists. (I rarely see westerners there though. Most of them are mainland tourists or from Malaysia or Thailand.

Anyway, after that we had lunch. Ugh. The food there wasn’t that good. Some weird European cheesy milky food. :/ I only ate half. But then again, food costs a bomb there. 

don't let the looks deceive youuu~

Went for souvenir shopping after that. Bought an Elmo plushie keychain for 1,000 ¥ + , a necklace, and a keychain.

hahahaha. 

Had Baskin Robbins in a really pink shop (Pink Cafe). Crazy huh? We're so cold, and yet we're still eating ice-cream.

chocolate and chocolate mint ~

Walked around the whole place. Saw many high-school students. Ah, their uniforms are really cute. 

a random Spiderman hanging at the back lane

..and not to mention hot guys as well. Saw one guy who looks like Oguri Shun (Japanese actor), with lotsa piercings though.

Watched the Water World show {Youtube here}. Really good. They did the stunts really well. (:

Okay, so we managed to kill time until 4pm.

the small part of Malaysia in the Universal globe.

one of their convenience store

 

 night view of the streets in the lift.

Then we went back to the bus. The “apple pies” were already gathered there. We then went to check in our hotel by 5.30pm, (the sky is already dark by 5pm. So 6pm is like 8pm in Malaysia.) Cross Hotel Osaka.

their "win" bathroom. (;

Then we went for dinner. Shabu-shabu. Which is just a walk away from our hotel.

 the "apple pies" waiting for the lift.

beef and veggies.

 

some fallen mushroom and leaf from the bowl. O:

Then to the next destination, Shinsaibashi (shopping district in Osaka). 1.5km stretch of shops. Ranging from clothes to CD’s, to pharmacies and night pubs. 

 

bigbang styled shoes !  

(5,145 ¥ = RM205.80)

I like their convenience store, they sell like everything there. Food, souvenirs, magazines. And the best thing is that they open 24 hours, not like shopping centers or shops, which only opens until 7.30pm to 8.30pm latest. But they have this cheesy section in the magazine rack which sells adult magazines. The front cover are those girls who are semi nude or either have very thin underwear and ‘exposing-their-thing’ poses. Whenever I see that section, there are sure after-work-businessman standing there, browsing through the section. *cough*.

Anyway, nothing much for me at Shinsaibashi. All of us were totally exhausted after the tiring walk in Universal Studios. My mum was the only one who really wants to shop. We ended up walking around for awhile, and went to the UNIQLO shop (the clothes there are considered quite cheap compared to other shops. It’s like ‘doota!’ or ‘hello apm’ outlet in Seoul, Korea) 

Went back to the hotel by 8.30pm. Took a shower and watched some Japanese TV until 10pm, and hit the sack. First time I felt so worn out. O:

what I had for supper..  milk! 

 

view of the streets from our hotel room.

 

==

Part two! [x]