Japan Part 10 - Our last day here!!! Tell the world I'm coming home..sob sob sob....

Assalamualaikum, Konnichiwa and Hi!!

Phewwww~ just one last entry for our Japan trip, but it took few weeks for me to have the mood to write huhuhu. Sorry for the delay. My life has been so busy, and even if I have some free time to write, my mobile broadband did not give me good co-operation.

So, as usual, this is only meant for sharing. I am an amateur backpacker, and all the experiences shared here were only to help other backpackers who dream to go to Japan but with some limited budgets or those who love to be adventurous without a tourist guide. If you're none of those two, you have the option to hire travel guide, and I know some with Muslim-friendly services that can guide you in Japan. And of course, there are more blogs from more experience backpackers out there, mine, again is just from an amateur, who love to share some tips for the 1st timers, and at the same time, carving my memories here. So feel free to choose ;)

All the budget and costings will be at the end of each entry. Feel free to read, or you can just skip all those long bla bla bla, and just look at the summary. hehe...Enjoy!!

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For our last place on our last day may not so worthy to be waited for haha, but we decided to spend our final day in Japan just by strolling around the Chubu Centrair International Airport. Yeah, for a first-timer, even the airport itself was pretty interesting. There was no moment that we regret about. You can have some info HERE.

It took only around 5 minutes from our hotel to the airport by walking. The hotel also provides shuttle bus to the airport, but as we don't really need it, we decided to walk and enjoying our last fresh air there. I really mean that 'fresh air'. Honestly, I can not deny that the air there was much fresher than where I come from. But I still love home more..:)

We put our luggages and backpacks at the Short Term Baggage Storage and went to the convenience store for some food and some more souvenirs. We bought some natto-rolled-rice and almost buying pork takoyaki (the staff realized that we're muslims so she told us about it and showed us what food that we can consume). So then we bought some sushi and few other food and drinks. But, well, it's from a convenience store, so I don't really recommend it if you really want to try an authentic japanese food.

After those munching and tasting and drinking, hehe, we went to the Sky deck to enjoy some views on departing and arriving planes. 

Selfie and wefie!!

look at how burnt my face was hahahahahah

Then we went to all the shops there. The airport has 2 themes, western and japanese themes called as Renga-dori and Chochin yokocho. You can shop and shop and shop while waiting for your departure time here.

As you can see, there is a picture of my sis at the door of the prayer room. Yes, Chubu Airport has prayer rooms for Muslims (or any other religions who need it). I see that as something veeeeeeeeeeeeeery touching, very considerate, very good. You see, Japan is a country with very minority of muslims. But, as nowadays there are more and more and more muslim tourists come to Japan, they don't mind providing us facilities and services that are muslim-friendly. And I really appreciate that. Seriously, hontouni arigatou gozaimasu!!!!! *happy tears*. Till the day I wrote this, there have been few more prayer rooms were opened in Japan, near the subway stations that I've been informed, and that's so cool!!!

Oh, that delicious guy posing for Meiji chocolate? that is my boyfriend ^_^ *dreaming, I know!*

And because of him, we bought some Meiji Chocolate that we have googled its 'halal' status. Hoho..

just sharing a printscreen of the website info on prayer room hehe

before entering our departure hall, we bought some more souvenirs like keychains, fridge magnets and Green tea Kitkat. Why? because only here that we were really convinced that no more cash was needed, so we can just spend it as much as we had haha.

Oh, justttttt a reminder. If you want to claim all those taxes, there is a blue box in the airport and make sure you settle it BEFORE you come into the departure hall. I'm not so sure about the procedure because we got some wrong informations that costed us to just forget about the tax-claim huhuhuhuhu. Well, will study more on that for Japan 2.0 insyaAllah.

Yeah, seem so happy, but we were actually crying in the inside. Too many kind strangers, too many wonderful experiences, too many beautiful sceneries that we enjoyed, too many wonderful moments that we carved in our memories, and yes, all that made goodbyes became harder. But, thinking about home, and our beloved people, that's what made us strong to walk into the plane and said goodbye. We'll be back insyaAllah.......

Thank you, ALLAH The AlMighty for the chance and opportunity

Thank you sis and cousin for being together

Thank you Japan and your very nice people

Thank you family and friends who supported and prayed for us

Alhamdulillah....alhamdulillah...alhamdulillah....

Time for final costing!!!! Souvenirs are not included. 

Day 1 : 10,040 yen

Day 2 : 7200 yen

Day 3 : 23 420 yen

Day 4 : 5550 yen

Day 5 : 23 200 yen

Day 6 : 3600 yen

Day 7 : 8010 yen

Day 8 : 6700 yen

Day 9 : 6760 YEN

Day 10: Baggage storage 500 yen (percart) and food and beverage ~500 yen/pax = 1000 yen

Flight perpax RM 919.70

(KUL-NGY + Food + seat) + (NGY-KUL + Food + seat + baggage 20kg)

TOTAL GROUND (Food + Accommodation + Transportation + Tickets fee inc. Disneyland/sea)

= 95 480 yen (I should round this to 96 000 yen, just to be sure if I forgot/miscalculate anything)

To be fair, I'll calculate according to the highest currency rates (price that we bought yen in Mid Valley) that was 100 yen = 3.30 (Now it was around RM 3.00 for 100 yen)

That means,

TOTAL GROUND IN RM = RM 3168

TOTAL (+ Flight ticket) = RM 4087.70 +/- RM 100 (my sis and I decided at the last minute to add baggage in our departure ticket, that was around rm60)

Tadaaaa!!! We made it!!! 10 days, plus with Disney Resort hotel for 1 night, plus 2 days ticket, all for 1 pax was around RM 4000 only. You heard me right!!!Seriously you can save more by NOT staying in Disney Resort Hotel (you have many other options to stay near the Disneyland but still in low budget), grabbing promo tickets that you can get ad low as 500, or not taking food in flight if your plane is at midnight where most of the time you'll only be sleeping haha, and many more options of cheaper but good hostel/hotel with one condition, book early!!!! Then, you can spend your extra money on authentic Japanese food, even for Muslims, there are halal food in certain big cities.

But, seriously guys, if money is never a problem, you can consider hiring travel guide, so that you don't have to study anything, just pack and pay haha.

But for those who love to backpack, or being adventurous is your forte, or you're somebody who don't really like to follow tight schedule, then I hope my entries can help you in planning for your wonderful trip to Japan!!!

Anyway guys, all the places that we went are the places that we really want to go first and we chose the most reachable, most convenient for us as first-timers, and most suitable to visit in Spring. There are many other attraction places that we did not visit, and have to pass them to our Japan 2.0 plan. I'll share them with you after this insyaAllah. So, plan your trip, study more, maybe you'll reach all those places first before us!!! Mine was only for you to have some ideas, but it's always free to plan your own too!!! 

Thanks for reading!!! xoxoxo!!

Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.

~Mary Ritter Beard~

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..