Visiting Japan

Japan. Admittedly, I do not know much about its culture and its people. My knowledge of the Japanese language is limited to sushi and donburi and teppanyaki and what not. But indeed, Japan was a place I had always wanted to visit.

We visited a few travel agencies and obtained several itineraries - most 7-day tours cost about RM7000 onwards. Travelling would take up 2 days, with most agencies arranging for visitors to enter via Osaka and exit via Tokyo. Then, many such itineraries would arrange for 2 days to be spent at 2 major theme parks - Universal Studios Japan, Osaka and Tokyo Disneyland. So that meant that visitors would be left with 3 days for the other attractions. 

After doing our survey, we ultimately decided to go on our own. Free and easy. Instead of 7 days, we were going for 11 days and we were going to concentrate on the Kansai area, and maybe its nearby prefecture.

In April, we bought our air tickets to Osaka, and thereafter, started planning our route - we read up on the places we wanted to visit, booked our accommodation online, and researched the transportation network. So over the 11 days, we traveled from Osaka to Himeji to Kobe to Nara to Kyoto to Takayama and finally to Nagoya. We saw so much and experienced so much. It was really enriching.

People tell us that Japan is an expensive place to visit. Well, it is especially now that our ringgit has depreciated so much! Exchange rate was RM1 to ¥0.041 at the time. That meant that everything cost more than 4 times over for us!

But we were adamant to go on a budget travel. And all in all, airfare, accommodation, transportation and entrance fees cost us about RM4600. I spent RM1000 on food and RM500 on souvenirs. And I also splurged about RM800 on a handbag. All in all, the trip cost me about RM7000 as well. I do think it's money well-spent, and I do wish to make a return trip some time in the future. :))

Attractions ... we visited many, and the places were really beautiful. Food wise ... we probably did not eat as much as we would have wanted; we mostly ate buns from the convenience stores - the convenience store food weren't bad, actually.

But as I remisnisce the trip, I'd think of the following and they would top my list:
1) Hida Beef - The sweet and juicy, and tender slices of meat were so good! I do not think I'd get any
                        cuts of beef of this quality in the whole of Kuching!
2) Daifuku - I'd always remember that sweet, juicy strawberry inside the chewy pastry .... very
                     indulgent to eat!
3) Domyoji - I loved the salted cherry leaves on the soft, warm and chewy rice cake!