Tips: Japanese Currency

Assalamualaikum, Konnichiwa and Hi!

Let's rest a little from the trip entries. This entry is like an intermission in a 3-hour-duration Bollywood movie (If you have seen one in any movie hehe)

This is actually something I want to share because one of the things that I forgot to read much before I went there is the Japanese currency. Not about the Yen value in term of currency conversion, but the usage of the bank notes and coins.

Mostly, if we convert our own money (Ringgit Malaysia in my case), we will only get the bank notes, and of course it will be in 10000yen or 5000 yen or at least the 1000 yen, with no coin, right?

And when you are already in Japan and start to use those bank notes, you will start to get the change in coins. And, to tell you this, one of the Japanese coin brought a mystery to us hahahahha....

So, let me introduce you, the Japanese currency (image I took from Google Image, if the real owner sees this, you may claim your credits ^_^ )

yeah, and the one that was so mystery to us, of course the 5 yen because there's no value stated on the coin. We took almost 3 days until one of us decided to ask a convenient store staff what was the actual value of the coin. So I hope, with this, there will be no mystery in your trip hahhaa (Jangan biarkan hidup anda diselubungi misteriiiiiii).

Oh, one thing I learned there. They used so many coins. We at 1st were a little afraid to use the coin, in reason that we may slow down the staff, waiting for us to calculate and search for coins (as we did not really recognize the coins by heart like RM coins), but I think, the best is, just take your time, slowly, to count and give your coins accordingly, than keep paying with bank notes and having sooooooooooooooooooooooooo many coins in your wallet haha. So, use it wisely, as some say, get rid of 1 yen as soon as possible. That means, whenever you need to pay 243yen or 33 yen or 781 yen, use that 1 yen coins before you get another dozens of 1 yen coins hehe.

Another thing that unfamiliar with us in Malaysia but widely practiced in Japan is the usage of cash tray. Whenever you go to the counter and see a cash tray, count your money and put in the tray. That will be good enough if you don't really know about Japanese etiquette (pay with both hands if you want to give the money on hands, etc).

(source: google, if the owner sees this, tell me and I'll credit you)

So that's all for today. See you in Part 4!! xoxo

Salam Ramadhan to all my muslim readers. May this year of Ramadhan will be better than the previous ones. May it brings more blessings, improve our Imaan, and help us to be a better Muslim, a better person, insyaAllah..

Japan Part 3 - The Magnificient Mt Fuji.. Subhanallah

Assalamualaikum, Konnichiwa and Hi..

1st of all, all that I share here are only meant for sharing tips and to give some ideas for people who want to have a budget trip to Japan, and don't mind backpacking without a tour guide. If you have extra money, or you want a trip that's fully guided with full-course of food, you can hire some good and reasonable tour guides. There are many options nowadays.

2nd, I write my experiences here not only for you people who read my blog, but also for my own self, because eventhough the memories last forever, but the brain isn't ^_^ so the only way to carved it out is by blogging about it. I hope you can bear with me haha.

So, let's continue!!!

As in the end of Part 2, I told you that we took the overnight bus to Kofu (If you choose Willer express, choose Yamanashi as your destination then choose Kofu Station). We arrived in Kofu around 6am, and seriously it was sooooooooooooooooooo cold there. Huahh, we didn't really expect for this extreme weather because we should be in spring season there, and we thought that the lowest it can be was around 10 degree celcius (it was raining in Osaka when we had our 6 degree celcius night). From Kofu station we need to go to Otsuki station by JR Chuo line, but we didn't know which way to go for the Kofu station so we just followed other bus passengers and turned out they also didn't know which way to go. We stop at a convenience store to ask for direction and luckily, the kind staff told us the detailed directions with some limited English.

some flower pictures taken while walking to Kofu station

We planned to buy our Suica card in Kofu station, so 1st thing that we did was trying to buy the Suica from the machine. But, after struggling for few minutes, we asked help from the station staff. It was a struggle at 1st to explain to him what we actually wanted to buy, but finally he understood and helped us. He was so kind, at 1st I thought he would show us how to buy once, and he would let us buy the others on our own. But, he was so kind, he helped us to complete all the procedures and after we succeed to buy 3 cards then he went back to his office (plus, it was not a pack time yet).

this is how the Suica card looks like 

yeah..we did not study about this machine beforehand :p

(source: google image)

we may be tooo surprised if this man suddenly came out from the machine ahhaha 

(thiswas taken from google image, you can find the video in youtube 

how the staff came out and helped this guy)

Some pics taken while on our way to Otsuki Station,

you can see there are some holes under the seat, they have heater there,

helped us a lot in that cold weather hehe

After arriving in Otsuki Station, we took the Fujikyuko Line towards Kawaguchiko to get to the Fujisan station. It was another good experience. Students were going to school and salarymen were going to works. I even felt like watching a japanese drama where many school students chit chatting and doing homeworks in the train coach.

We arrived in Fujisan station around 8am if not mistaken, and we took a Taxi to bring us to our guest house. the taxi driver ojisan didn't really know the address that I showed him, but he called his headquarters and after waiting for few minutes the headquarters gave him the direction. Sugoi ne!! Butttttttttttttttt, honestly, that will be the 1st and last time we took a taxi in Japan ^_^ because it was so expensive. The trip was only around 10-15 minutes (we even enjoyed Fuji-san on our way), and that costed us around 3500yen, that was around RM100++  hohohooo.. even our guest house owner said that we were tooooo 'pemurah' and rich to take the taxi hahhahaha...but the service was good. No doubt! Just, if you want to save your money, try to avoid taking the taxi. Bus was much more affordable and cost-saving.

Our guest house was ZERO-Project Japan Guesthouse. It was situated just few minutes walking from Lake Yamanaka, which is the largest lake among Fuji 5 Lakes.

When we arrived, we were welcomed by an obasan who is the mother of our guest house owner. She invited us in while waiting for his son to come back from his morning-walk. It was so cold, and the house temperature showed -3 degree celsius. No wonder we felt soooooo cold. The guest house owner arrived few minutes later. We introduced each other and chatted for a while.

He's a kind and good looking man, and once stayed in Indonesia, so he can speak Malay/Indonesian a little, and that was interesting for us. He told us that we were so lucky because it was actually snowing that night(yeah, that's why it's soo cold) but that morning the weather was so nice and good for us to enjoy the Mt Fuji view. But one thing he did not tell us was the spring has not arrived there yet, or maybe he thought that we knew about it when he told us about the snow, which meant that it's still late winter there huhu.

So, after washing our faces, brushes our teeth, had some breakfast, we decided to walk to the lake and enjoy the good weather, or should I say, enjoy the sun because it was sooo cold. Yeah, too cold till we forgot about something important...we walked out in that sunny but cold day without any cream or sunblock! worse, we wore our shades, so we did not really realize how sunny the day was :p clever huh!

So here we were, strolling on the walkway beside the Yamanaka Lake..

Alhamdulillah, Fuji-san was not 'shy' that day.. clearly seen alhamdulillah

pic at the right was Exile Tribe (not so sure but they wore the 24 karats brand jumper)

we met two groups actually, 1st wore 'Exile tribe' jumper and this one wore the '24 karats' jumper.

We did not actually know EXILE or anyone in EXILE tribe, so we can't really identify who were they, but they were jogging with cameras recording them from a van. We just took this picture in case they're actually popular haha

Can't imagine if it was Arashi. Pengsan kottt!! hahaha

Yeah, the 2 last 2 pictures were proofs that we actually touched the snow hahaha *Jakun* 

Alhamdulillah, we only hope for Sakura, and Allah gave us the chance to feel the snow too..

But no sakura and other flowers around Mt Fuji..

We enjoyed the lake and the view of Mt Fuji as much as we can (not realizing that our faces 'enjoyed' it too). Then we innocently searched for the Flower Park. While we're on our way, we stopped at a big mart for my cousin to search for gloves. I told you the weather was so cold, even there's sun, but the wind was sooooo cold. My sister and I even bought muffler to cover our face from that cold wind. Unfortunately, there were no knitted gloves sold there, so my cousin bought a box of strawberries that were so sweet and yummy!!! (no pic, too delicious so quickly 'disappear' from the box hahahaha)

We managed to find the flower park, but of course, no flower at all huhuhu. So we changed our plan. We thought that we wanted to try the Tour bus, so we searched for the nearest bus stop. 

walk in line!!!

here was where something interesting happened. We stopped at a place where they had this one pole with the tour bus schedule. While we were trying to decide which place should we go, and what time the bus will come, a lady stopped her car few metres from us. She came to us and ask "Daijobou??" ("Is everything Okay??" and other questions in Japanese that we could summarized that she was trying to ask us what she could help. So I explained to her (with my minimal Japanese mixed with some English) that we wanted to go to the Teddy Bear Museum. She looked at the bus schedule and told us that we have to wait for a while (Chotto matte) around 30-40 minutes more. We said that we would wait, and thanked her for her help. When she was already at her car, we decided to walk (konon2 dekat laaa muzium tu), cause we did not want to waste our time waiting, when suddenly that lady before, stopped her car again, came to us and ask us to ride with her. I asked her again and again is it ok for her, and she really insisted for us to come with her, so we did, gratefully!!

and.....it...was......veeeeeeeeeeery far for us to walk actually! hahahah.. and we felt a little bit guilty for her, but she was so kind and seemed so willing to help us. With my very minimal japanese mixed with some english, again, I try to converse with her about Arashi ahahha.. (the only topic that I could think of at that time) and fortunately she's a fan too!! Her ichiban is Sho Sakurai, same with my sister. Our conversation actually more japanese from her side and more english from my side, but miraculously, we can understand each other haha.. Seriously, we were veryy much grateful for her help and also so touched by her kindness.

doumo arigatou gozaimasu, very-nice-stranger-san!!!!! 

I always pray that Allah grant you health, prosperity and wonderful life 

^_^

So, that's how we arrived to the Teddy Bear Museum hehe..

The admission was 900 yen, and it's more like a museum of private teddy bear collection. But it was unique as there were many teddies from the old time and also limited edition teddies. They have Winter Sonata Teddy, the old and new Pooh, the old and new Paddington Bear. We even bought some souvenirs there.

then from the museum, we thought that we wanted to visit another musem, but we could not find the route. So some no-motive-pictures were taken.

We decided to walk back and stop the tour bus if we find one, but unfortunately, because of our poor japanese skill, the driver did not understand us so he didn't allow us to ride. So we need to continue walking and walking and walking (I told you, it was not in walking distance to our guest house). We walked and stopped at a souvenir shop, bought some and kept walking until we found Taxis. Here we did not mind the money as we were exhausted from the walk haha. I think we paid around 1000~1200 yen for this time.

We arrived to the guest house and our bags were already been put in our room. This time also we booked a japanese style room with heater under the japanese table (just like in Doraemon). Everything was cleand and comfortable. 

this was how our room looked like..

and our dinner looked like :p

Sambal Tempe Jawa + Brahim's Chicken Curry + Japanese bread

+ free tea and coffee from guest house

So, after dinner, solat and some Japanese talk show, we slept soundly on our comfortable japanese futon.

It's time for cost summary!!

Suica card for the whole trip : 5000 Yen (4500 to be used, 500 for the card)

Otsuki Station - Fujisan station (Suica card can't be used for this special line) : 1020 yen

Taxi : ~3500 yen

Teddy museum : 900 yen

Taxi : ~ 1200 yen

Food : ~1000 yen

One Night at ZERO-Project Japan Guesthouse : 10, 800 yen

Total Day 3 = ~23 420 yen (yeah, it was a little costly here, but worth it! except for the taxi huhu, you can save around 3000 yen if you take the bus, ahaks!)

Total up to 3 Days cost = 40 660 yen

p/s: We bought 4500 worth of Suica card here. So after this, I will only mention train/subway/bus fares that did not included in that 5000 yen. If no fares mentioned in the cost summary, that means we used Suica card for the trip.

I forgot to tell you that this Yamanaka Lake was actually our plan B to enjoy Mt Fuji view. We actually planned to go for Kawaguchiko Lake but because at the time I want to book hotel/guesthouse, all the rooms that I wanted were already booked, so that's how we ended up in Yamanakako. But still, alhamdulillah, as long as we manged to see Fujisan, it was already enough for us.

If you want to enjoy the sakura and other flowers, you maybe have to come a little bit later, around end of April-Early June..

ZERO-Project Japan Guesthouse: http://www.lei-project.jp/home-english/stay-here/ or FB page https://www.facebook.com/ZeroProjectJapanInc?ref=br_tf

You can enjoy wonderful pictures in the FB page because the guesthouse owner is also a wonderful photographer.

link about transportation in Yamanakako or around Fuji san : HERE (updated 12.07.2014)

some more pictures!!

too grateful for the chance given, alhamdulillah. 

Mount Fuji is beautiful and magnificient!

"Now I understand why some say that Mt Fuji is a symbol of strength. By just looking at it, it gives you some kind of energy, that whenever you feel down, and remember it, the energy will come, and made u keep going..."

-Diyana Mastor-

2nd p/s: Pardon me for my limited vocabulary. Since I started working, I don't really spend time to read English newspapers (I do read English novels, but still can't really remember to use all those bombastic words without repeating 'so', haha). I will try my best to polish my English and widen my vocabularies like I used to love to do in the past.

Thanks for reading!! see ya!! xoxo ^_^

Japan Part 2 - Day 2 - Osaka Castle - Nishinomaru Garden - Osaka Museum of Housing and Living

Assalamualaikum, Konnichiwa and Hi!

So, how was the 1st part? I hope it helps. And again I want to tell, especially if there's any new reader, that I'm just sharing some tips and info regarding Japan. I'm not an expert but I'm just trying to help especially for the 1st timer and at the same time I'm carving my memories in my blog.

I have to tell you that we went to Japan in spring, so most of the places that we went were meant for us to enjoy the spring as much as we can especially the sakura bloom. So if you're going in other season, you may take some tips here but arrange it according to suitable places for you to enjoy that season.

And as usual, if you're only interested in the cost and useful info, just skip to the end of this entry. Every entry will be ended with cost summary and some useful information.

Now, let's continue!!

We woke up a little bit late on our 2nd day, thanks to the Japanese mattress or futon that was sooooooo comfortable, even after Subuh we decided to sleep back because the futon was so tempting. 

These are examples (from Google Image)

left: ready to sleep! right: wake up and fold hehe

We checked out around 9.30 am, one hour late from the scheduled time, but hey, we're on our own so a little bit late here and there doesn't really matters haha.

The Hostel owner was very kind to let us leave our bags in the hostel until end of the day, so that it would be easier for us to walk around and enjoy the sightseeings. She even gave us tips and directions for our next locations. We even showed her our timetable and she was soooooo surprised on how accurate the table was. Credits to my sis for her hardwork!! 

Above: pic with the Hostel owner

below: Pic of us 3 at the balcony, ready to go out!!

1st location for our 2nd day was Osaka Castle and Nishinomaru Garden. Ok, remember the Amazing Pass? We knew that we could get free admission by using the pass, but what we didn't know was, we did not need to queue with the others who did not have the pass. There was a staff who held a board with some pictures of many types of pass but all instructions were in japanese. He kept pointing at the board when he was beside us and all that we can think of was maybe he's trying to tell us that we can use the pass for free admission, so we just nod our heads, where he was actually trying to tell us that we need not to queue and just go to the counter and scan the pass hahahahha...but we just knew about it when we almost reached the counter hohoho...so tips here (Osaka castle only), if you have the Amazing pass, no need to queue, just go to the Pass counter and they will scan your pass and you may save some 10-15 minutes of time haha.

Yeah, we were excited when this view was sighted. Sakura tree with full bloom flowers, and fresh air, very fresh air. As you can see from the picture, the day seem like a little bit dark, and wind was quite strong sometimes. But we pray hard that there will be no rain.

Pictures along the way to the castle

You can choose to take the elevator or the stairs, and as we did not want to wait long for the elevators, so we took the stairs (plus all us 3 are young ahaks!). It has 8 stories, so be ready to climb the stairs. It is advisable to start from the 8th floor, then going down floor by floor.

Top floor will be the observatory place where you can see beautiful views surrounding the castle. And going down you will see museum exhibitions. The exhibits were quite interesting. Some also use hologram to reenact the history events happened there. It was very interesting and interactive, even for me who is not really into history subject. 

Some of the views. The blue things that you can see in the pic were plastic cover for hanami (flower viewing)

The holograms. What amazed me more was how good it was maintained for years.

Some more exhibits

After buying some souvenirs, we walk to the Nishinomaru garden to enjoy Sakura more. The garden was just in front of the castle and the scenery was so beautiful, Subhanallah. I am still very grateful for the chance that Allah gave to us. Again, admission was free with the Amazing Pass!

As you can see, though the day started with a little bit dark cloud, but it turned out it was only for a while. The weather for the day was amazing and beautiful. Alhamdulillah

Again, funny story. We used our monopod to take some pictures and it surprised us on how much people amazed with our monopod. You can hear applause, given two thumbs up and cheering, even some 'ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh'. And it's not only the Japaneses, but also some foreigners from other countries. Is it only Malaysians use monopod???

One of our picture taken with monopod and gathered many crowds cheering and thumbing up hoho

Tips: if you come on spring, maybe you can prepare a mat and some food so you and friends/families can enjoy the hanami that is 'flower viewing'. You can google the term and see the images. I love to see how happy people are, socializing with families and friends while enjoying the sakura under the tree.

We were a little behind of our schedule, much behind actually *LOL*, but we enjoyed every moment that passed, so nothing really matters hehe. After fully satisfied with the time spent in Nishinomaru garden, we departed to the Museum of Housing and Living. The ultimate reason why we chose this museum to be included in our trip was, we want to try the kimono and strolling around in them and this place offer you that service with very affordable price. The admission fee is 600 yen, but free for those with amazing pass, but for the kimono, you will have to pay 200 yen (you can enjoy wearing the kimono for 30 minutes).

When we got there, there were not so many people. I think maybe because it's not a large attraction, still, for us, it's worth our time there. Love it so much! You can stroll in the streets that was re-creation of the Edo period. You will also experience a fast day-to-night experience, including some rain and thunders (with no 4d water) while strolling in your kimono there hehe. We were actually too excited to notice the changes between day and night, and just thinking about it again after we went out from that place. Silly of us! haha.

While waiting for our turn to wear the kimono, selfie kaki! haha

you can choose your bag and slippers to match your kimono (and to put small things in there like phone)

An uncle was sooooo kind to offer his help taking pictures for three of us, but after 5th trial, the best that he could get is this picture below

still, thanx kind uncle!!! 

Then after 30 minutes of strolling, and playing (you can find some traditional japanese toys like kendama), we returned our kimono (sadly) and proceed to the exhibitions.

You can learn the differences of 'Old Osaka' and 'New Osaka' through the interesting exhibitions. Some are interactive even attract the adults to learn. 

As we need to catch our overnight bus to Kofu (for Mount Fuji) in Namba OCAT, so we depart to our Hostel to fetch our bags and hurriedly go to Namba OCAT. 

While waiting for the bus, we went for shopping including some food and water as the station located in a shopping Mall. From Namba OCAT, Willer express provided a shuttle bus to bring us to the Umeda building, and wait for the overnight bas to depart to Kofu.

We did not cover all attractions in Osaka because our plan was to travel from regions to regions in 10 days. Maybe in Japan 2.0, more time will be spent in Osaka. InsyaAllah.

Other attractions that we did not go, but recommended to you in Osaka

1. Umeda sky building - It has floating garden and you can enjoy sunset with beautiful view from there

 (info: HERE and HERE)

2. Universal Studio Japan - we cancelled this place few days before we depart for Japan because there were some reviews regarding restrictions on people with hijab to ride the roller coaster. Even if that's not the issue, we also thought that one day will not be enough for USJ, so we will put it in our Japan 2.0 schedule. Plus, Harry Potter rides will be opened this July. Yatta!!
3. Osaka Banpaku Park : refer HERE
Updated on 26.6.2014
4. Osaka Aquarium : info refer HERE. We passed this Kaiyukan becasue we planned to go to Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium

Tips again: We recommend you to search for halal Japanese food in Osaka because it's easier to find it in Osaka and Tokyo than other regions. We forgot to search one because we were too busy enjoying the sceneries and only felt hungry once we're in Namba OCAT, so we just bought our food in the convenience store.

Another Tips: Whenever you want to go to places using subways or trains, one thing that you need to alert is which exit that you should take after you arrived at the station. Take your time to read the sign after you are out of the train (don't forget to not disturbing people's path, go to the empty space and read the signboard). And if you want to confirm, before you go and scan your pass, ask the staff 1st whether it's the right exit or not. Every place is easier to find if you take the right exit.

Cost Summary for the day:

Subway and train for transportations to all the places: all included in the amazing pass, so yeah, FREE!

Osaka Castle admission : should be 600 yen but free with Amazing pass..again!

Nishinomaru garden : should be 200 yen but again, free!!

Museum of Housing and living: 600 yen, but free for Amazing pass holder.

Kimono for 30 minutes : 200 yen

Overnight bus from Osaka (Namba OCAT) to Kofu : 6000 yen per/person (we could get cheaper but because I was late a little in term of booking, only seats at this price were left. But it was way cheaper than other mode of transportation)

Food and beverage from convenience store : less than 1000 yen per pax

Total for Day 2nd: ~ 7200 yen (Kimono + Bus + food)

Total up to 2 days cost: 17, 240 yen

Japan Part 1 HERE

As usual, souvenirs were not included in the cost here. Questions are very much welcomed.

Some useful links here..

Osaka castle : http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4000.html

Osaka Museum of Housing and Living: http://www.city.osaka.lg.jp/contents/wdu020/toshiseibi/english/museum.html

Osaka Amazing Pass: http://www.osaka-info.jp/osp/en/index.html

Our favourite picture with the monopod (got some oooooohhhhh from a group of Japanese girls)

See you again in Part 3. xoxo ^_^

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” 

~Pat Conroy~

Japan Part 1 - Day of Arrival (Malaysia-Nagoya-Osaka)

Assalamualaikum, Konnichiwa and Hi!

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (In the name of ALLAH, God with Most Merciful and Most Blessings)

I was a little bit nervous actually to write this entry. I'm not an expert, but the experiences that I got from my Japan trip made me so thrill to share it with anyone who care to read. I hope it will benefit people who needs it. ^_^

p/s: you may skip to the end of the entry if you're only interested with the cost and don't want to waste your time reading my story hahaha..No hard feeling at all. I'll put the cost summary in the end of each entry insyaAllah.

So, our flight was scheduled on 5th April at 12.45am from Kuala Lumpur. We touchdowned  (is there a word like touchdownED?) in Chubu International Airport, Nagoya around 8 am Japan time (we arrived earlier than the time stated on our tickets, miracle right?). We were so thrilled as it was our 1st time in Japan plus my sis and I are big fans of Japan (and Arashi). It was a very touching moment, I even had tears in my eyes when I heard the announcement that we had safely landed in Japan. Alhamdulillah, all praises for Allah, only for Him.

 *happy tears*

from left and clock wise; before check in, waiting to depart,

 in the plane and once arrived in the airport. yeah, we looked so calm despite all the excitement,  

the truth is we're just acting cool at the outside :p 

We were welcomed warmly at the airport. Yes, I was amazed by how welcome they were. The airport staffs were waiting for us when we went out from plane. When we arrived at the arrival hall, our bags were already arranged with other bags. And the staffs even helped us to get the bags. 

One funny story, while we were queuing for the immigration, one officer came to the queue and check one by one people's passports and forms (given earlier in the plane). Suddenly he asked something to my cousin who was at the front among us three. My cousin asked him to repeat the question few times, as that was her 1st time dealing with Japanese English, and he was actually asking why we came to Nagoya Airport and not Osaka Airport (we stated in our form that we will stay in Osaka on the arrival day) and my cousin answered nervously "because Nagoya is cheap!" ahahhahaahhahahhahahha.. and he replied "ohh.. I understand cheap". He looked at mine and my sis and as he already knew we're together so he didn't ask again (we heard he asked the same question to some guys at the back haha).

Almost forgot to tell, before we came, my sis (excellently) studied and planned for our schedule. She used Hyperdia and Google Map, and the result is, 

Tadaaaaaaaaaaa...

Awesome kan? That's why I never regret my decision to sponsor her trip. Ahaks!!

That timetable seriously helped us a lot. We changed a little bit here and there so that it fits our trip relaxingly, but most of the time, we sticked to the schedule in leisure of course haha.

From the central airport, we need to go to Nagoya station. This was my 1st time buying tickets from Japan train station, and I was sooooo nervous. Luckily everything went well and my confidence level built up. I even met 2 Malaysians while in queue for tickets. After we changed goodluck wishes, we took our own routes. 

After arriving in Nagoya Station, the 1st thing that we need to do was to find the place where we should take our Willer Express bus. According to the timetable above, it seems so easy right? It was actually. But, as that was our 1st time, we got lost for about 1 and a half hour just to search for that place. But it was a good experience. That's where we learnt on what and who should we search for and what should we alert of when you're searching for a place in Japan. Seriously, at that time, I was a little bit (much actually) worried that we would miss our bus, I even calculated in my head how much I have to pay for new bus tickets) but after 1 and a half hour asking, walking, searching, asking, walking, asking and walking, miraculously, we found it on time, thank you to all the nice people. We even need to wait for another few hours (our bus was scheduled on 12.40 and we got there around 10~10.30 if not mistaken). 

Our mistake: we should search for the right exit and asked the staff for further direction. We mistook our 1st exit door, and just walk out of station without asking first and that's why we got lost.

Yeah, this small pink signboard that we took 1 and a half hour searching for it

haha

As stated in my earlier entry, we chose Willer Express as our main transportation (refer to entry Pre Japan). One of the reason is the webpage is user-friendly and also fully in English. The price of course is affordable (another reason) and you can also choose your seat type, and they also have Ladies policy, where if you choose the seat with that policy, you will only be seated among woman. No man will be next to you, so it's very much preferable for us, the traveller ladies hehe.

The bus arrived, and the trip begins!

We were actually tired a little bit of the flight journey, so I fell asleep about a quarter of the bus journey. I managed to collect myself and stayed awake for the rest of the journey, enjoying all the moments talking with my sis and also trying to record everything in my memory-box everything that I saw. It was also among the 1st moments for us to see sakura tree. Yeah, alhamdulillah, we managed to catch that sakura bloom though we thought that we're gonna miss it.

Thing I regret a little: We didn't go out when the bus stopped at an RnR for people to refresh (and if not mistaken there are rules for bus driver to stop after few hours of driving). We should go out and enjoy the place, but we stayed in the bus. Rugi2!

We arrived in Namba Station, Osaka earlier than the scheduled time (again!! sangat kagum sebab selalu kan akan terlewat dari jadual, tapi kapal terbang dan bas asyik sampai awal je walaupun takla rasa laju diorang bawa bas tu haha). So, 1st thing that we did there was searching for the counter where we could buy our 2-day Osaka Amazing Pass. And it's truly amazing! You will know why throughout my entries. hehe. But the search for the counter was a little bit exhausting. I asked at one counter where to buy the pass, and he told me the direction, and when we arrived at the exact spot where he told us, the person there gave us more directions to follow. I think if not mistaken, it was like 4-5 checkpoints before we finally arrived at the right place. No, it's not that we're lost, but it was truly felt like checkpoints. I mean, they gave directions and when we got there, another more directions were told haha. Maybe they don't want to confuse us so they helped us that way hehe. But all staffs were so friendly and helpful. *fell in love with Japan again!*

this is the amazing pass..it came with a guide book 

and free coupons too.. Amazing!!

info here: Amazing Pass

After successfully buying the pass, we searched for the Osaka Hana Hostel to check in and solat before we continue our Journey. (info for Osaka Hana: HERE)

This hostel was veeeeery convenient because it was so near to the Shinsaibashi station, and also in walking distance to Shinsaibashi-suji, Ebisubashi-suji and Dotonbori. We booked one Japanese style room for 3, and it was comfortable enough. We experienced japanese mattress which was so comfortable and made us sooooooooo hard to get up in the morning hoho. 

View from the balcony

After prayer and a little bit of refreshing, we decided to start our sight-seeings with Tempozan Ferris Wheel. The hostel owner was veeeeery kind to provide us the map and explained us the directions. Even though it was raining and cold, we still didn't want to cancel our plan because every moment was so precious to be wasted. Unfortunately, the Tempozan Ferris Wheel was closed for some constructions/improvements, and we just knew about it when we arrived at the location (that disappoint us a little, they should put the notice in other stations too). It was very cold with strong wind, and we had to decide where to go as quickly as possible. Luckily, alhamdulillah, with the amazing pass guide book, we changed our plan to HEP Five Ferris Wheel. There, we met a group of Malaysian students who also searched for the Ferris Wheel. So, we searched it together la hahaha..

the only souvenir-picture that we bought in Japan, after that

 all were taken with our camera only.. cost-effective haha

After the ferris wheel, we made back to Shinsaibashi station and walk to Shinsaibashi-suji, Dotonbori and Ebisubashi-suji, places where you could shop till you drop, hehe..

yeah, cheap things, branded things, food, huge Uniqlo, 

you can find almost everything here

Glico Man!!! A must-take-photo site!

Yeah, that's Nino and Jun from Arashi <3 

and some huge welcome-thingy-board sight in Dotonbori

it was raining, cold, and smoke came out when we spoke ahaks!

It was sooooo cold, and our jeans were wet from the rain, so we decided to end our night eventhough we're not totally finish exploring the streets. Oh, we didn't really eat on our 1st day, due to excitement I think. But we bought onigiris and water from convenience store.

And that's how our 1st day ended.

Cost summary for our 1st day:

Train ticket from Airport to Nagoya station   : 870 yen

Willer express (Nagoya-Osaka)                   : 2400 yen

2-day Osaka Amazing Pass                          : 3000 yen

Osaka Hana (1 night, room for 3)                 : 3200 yen / pax

Towel rental                                                 : 70 yen / towel

Food and beverage from convenience store  : 500 yen (approx. per person)

Total for day 1                                                  = 10,040 yen

(Souvenirs' costs were not included)

2nd P/S: For Ferris wheel and the train/subway tickets for sightseeing were already included in the 2-day pass, that's why it's amazing! ^_^

So, I hope you enjoy this long entry. Feel free to ask anything, if there's anything that I didn't mention in my entry and you need info regarding that. See ya in the next part!!!! xoxoxo

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; 

in the elder, a part of experience.

~Francis Bacon~