Japan Trip Day 9 (AM): Odaiba

I had another fucked up start of the day again thanks to fucked up sister. We were supposed to drop our luggages for Airporter luggage transfer by 9am and she was still taking her own fucking sweet time with waking up late, showering, etc. Jeez..

Anyway I would like write a short review of Airporter (https://airporter.co.jp). Yesterday I mentioned about the price which I find quite expensive. After today, I can say that perhaps the pricing is the only negative thing to say. By the way I got a 20% discount upon checking out yesterday so that helped with the cost somehow. The brochure states that the delivery would be by 4pm. In the physical labels that I filled, there is a field for check in time. I put 3pm and tadaa... the luggages were dropped at Disney Celebration Hotel before 3pm. I am impressed. Their updates and communication are also fantastic. When they picked up the luggages, they also sent photos of the luggages and the physical labels that I filled. When the luggages were delivered, they also sent photos of the luggages at the signage of the hotel name. I will definitely use this service again if needed. Fantastic!

I was contemplating to go to Akihabara this morning but in the end I decided not to exhaust myself. My sister wanted to return to Odaiba so I decided to just get all my shopping there since yesterday I already confirmed that the souvenir shop there have Tokyo Banana Kit Kat that I want.

We found the photo spot that we missed yesterday. Initially my sister still said that it was already gone as it was only for Christmas. Stupid... don't want to find info.. I have nothing to say.. After that she really wanted to queue for the Doraemon store. We reached there just before 1030 and the queue outside was estimated to be at least 2 hours. I passed and I went to Gundam Base instead.

The photo spot missed yesterday. The ironic part is that yesterday we were like only 10 steps away from this place.

With smaller crowd, I managed to take picture of the giant Gundam head. The Gundam Build Fighters statues that I did not see yesterday are now at the 'factory' section. Now they are also behind the red ribbon so lucky I took pictures with them before. As I already decided not going Akihabara, I would have space for toys. I was contemplating between buying or using the space for food. I decided NOT to get the Gundam Base limited edition hangar since I do not even have the time to build the normal editions that I already own for a few years now. I decided to buy Vayeate and Mercurius. I have been wanting to get them as my current Vayeate has broken horn and my current Mercurius' Planet Defensors are ugly (I built it when I was still a newbie for Gundam building and I think I built the Planet Defensors wrongly). Previously there were always 1/100 models that I did not have yet and hence I bought. Now I already have everything from Gundam Wing that I want to own (except for the clear versions of the 1/144) so I can finally buy Vayeate and Mercurius.

As the shop was not as crowded as yesterday, I could explore more carefully and I saw 40th anniversary artbook that I missed yesterday!! Artbook is a no brainer for me and it is an instabuy. I bought 2 since I was thinking of selling the other one since this is a limited for the 40th anniversary. 2200 yen for a 54-page book is expensive but heck liao. Some more there is an original illustration for this 40th anniversary project of Heero Yuy meeting Kamille Bidan (who is from Zeta Gundam a.k.a different universe), although Heero is backfacing. There is a big poster with this illustration around the shop but I am only aware of this illustration when I was browsing the book. There are 3 other illustrations with different pairs of Gundam pilots meeting another from a different Gundam universe.

Big but only the back view (Heero) or tiny but front view (Kamille)?

Yesterday my sister told me that there are already more than 1000 photos and each photo is at least 6-7MB. I am a noob and it did not cross my mind that since my new camera has higher megapixel, the size per photo is bigger. I only bought 16GB and now I am not going to risk running out of memory for New Year at Disneyland. I found the microSD to be expensive as they all came with the SD card adaptor. Sigh... Since I already decided that I would not be going to Akihabara, either I bought it at Diver City or I tried my luck to check Aqua City. I passed by the Unicorn Gundam but the 40th anniversary signage is full LED and hence is only visible when lighted up after dark. In the morning, the panel only appears full white. So I have no picture with the 40th anniversary logo huhuhu T_T

Surprisingly Aqua City only opened at 11am and it was not open yet when I reached. I went to take photos of the decorations at JUMP shop. I just learnt that this shop is not permanent so I really will not have photo with Goku.

Goku statue at JUMP shop

I was not expecting to buy anything but ended up buying a double-sided eye mask. I thought it is Kuroko on one side and Akashi on another side but I am wrong. It is actually Kuroko (from Kuroko no Basket) and Robato (from Robot X Laserbeam) since both are creation of the same mangaka Tadatoshi Fujimaki. I thought Robot X Laser beam was the producer or something and this eye mask was based on Kuroko's last movie. Lol.. If I realised that this is not Akashi but a guy whom I do not know, I would not buy.

In the end I bought the expensive microSD since there was none without the adaptor. After that I wanted to have lunch at the burger restaurant that I passed by when entering the mall but there was a long queue. That led me to exploring the mall more to check out the eateries. I discovered noitaminaA Shop and Cafe. noitaminA is an anime TV channel so the shop and cafe are having things based on the anime shown in the channel. The only one that I know is Banana Fish but there was no merchandise that caught my attention. I also found a nice cluster of 'atas' looking restaurants. I was interested in pasta in one of the cafe but there was noone at the door so I was not sure if the shop was already open for business.

I ended up checking the food court which I never knew Aqua City has. As much as I was interested in Wendy's, I went for Coco Ichibana instead. I needed rice at least once a day since in Disneyland later, I would unlikely be eating rice. Although the food was just for sustenance, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I found a souvenir shop which is better than the souvenir shop at Diver City since it has senbeis, noris, and more options. The souvenir shop at Diver City mostly has cheap souvenir mochis, which after I tried once, I swear I won't buy again. I bought senbeis because how bad can senbeis be? They should be okay. They also have seafood crackers which will be good as more personalised souvenirs for my aunt and landlady. At least I will not have to think too much about souvenir shopping at Disneyland later.

That was the end of the day as after that, I decided to go to Disneyland to check in to the hotel. I had to walk all the way back to Diver City as I would take Rinkai Line. I deliberately delayed my reply to my sister as I did not intend to wait or see her. I left the area at around 2pm thinking that I would reach the hotel by 3pm. I was completely mistaken with my estimation due to unforeseen circumstances along the way.

First obstacle was at NewDays at Shin-Kiba. This was the first NewDays that I found the Conan stuff to be on sale. After hesitation, I just grabbed one of each of the things on the Conan shelves and I spent more than 15000 yen there. Crazy... There is NewDays outside Maihama station so that became another unplanned pit spot although sadly there was no Conan goodies. Then I mistook Maihama bus terminal for Disneyland bus terminal so in the end I only managed to get on to the 245pm shuttle bus. I should not be complaining and should consider myself lucky still. I arrived at the 'golden window' since not long after I queued, the queue just tripled. If I were late by another 5 minutes, I would end up taking the next bus.

Now I have 20 sets of this as one set is given for every 800 yen purchase

The weather had been reasonable in the morning but midway while queueing for the bus, it suddenly got very windy. Die.. how to survive overnight this way. I was so tired and fell asleep on the bus. I did not pay attention to the announcement and all that so I alighted at Disney Celebration Hotel Wish. I should have alighted at the next stop since I am staying at Disney Celebration Hotel Discover. Discover is just across Wish but the wind was crazy that even walking that short distance was challenging. The good thing about this mishap is that I learn that the decorations at Wish are based on Disneyland and its attraction while the decorations at Discover are based on Disneysea and its attraction.

The check-in queue was long and only at 4pm that I managed to check in. My sister pissed me off again. Knowing that check-in time is at 3pm, she only reached hotel at close to 4pm. I don't care what the reason, it just shows irresponsibility. If I also arrived at 4pm, what time would we end up checking in? Luckily she arrived before my turn to the check in counter because both passports were required. Otherwise, I don't want to imagine what I will do to this idiot.

As the hotel decorations are mostly based on Disneysea, I find only few things that I am interested to take photos of. I do not know if that is a good or a bad thing. My plan for afternoon nap time before tonight is already shortened. If the hotel is so nice and make me going around to take photos, maybe I will not even be having time to nap at all. Hahaha.. I will have afternoon nap now to prepare myself for the overnight experience at Disneyland and Disneysea tonight. Yay... Anyway I will write about the hotel, vacation package, as well as New Year's Eve and Day experience in a post after tomorrow. It will be scary to imagine how long that post will be.

Japan Trip Day 8: Caretta Shiodome, Odaiba

I still cannot master the art of balancing the room heater temperature with outside winter temperature as last night I woke up repeatedly again. I was also honestly worried about waking up late because I thought the sun was already high when I saw the brightness behind the sliding door. It was actually the light at the sink that was deliberately left on.

I took a shower in the morning and they flipped around the onsen i.e. the one designated for male last night was for female in the morning and vice versa. I saw some people were already checking out. People usually do not shower in the morning so I got to enjoy the onsen all to myself. This morning onsen was slightly bigger than yesterday with 3, instead of just 2, showers. Although I was in a rush, I still soaked in the actual onsen just for the sake of utilising it.

The male ryokan owner, whom I did not meet yesterday, was the one checking me out and he was promoting the Monkey Park again hahaha.. Sorry uncle.. We have to rush to Tokyo already. He drove us to the station and somehow the train was already there earlier than the schedule that I checked yesterday. Maybe the timetable that I saw yesterday is an outdated one.

The initial plan at Tokyo is to drop our luggages at temporary luggage storage at Tokyo Station and then to go to Caretta Shiodome since it is too early before hotel check in time. I think as it is getting closer to the end of year holiday, the station is just getting busier. The temporary luggage storage at JR East Travel Service was so full that they did not accept anymore. So we had no choice but to go to our hotel to drop our luggage first.

People are excited Caretta Shiodome for the winter illumination but I went there for the Aladdin exhibition to promote its Disney MovieNEX release. The area for the winter illumination was cordoned off.

Could not get any closer to take a photo. In case you wonder why I did not take photo from closer, the 'thingy' at the foreground is actually a water fountain so I could not step on it.

I thought we could just spend about half and hour there since the exhibition was only the magic carpet to take photo and a few things at the 46th floor. My sister took stupid photos at the magic carpet so after going up to 46th floor, I went back to re-take at the magic carpet. Anyway there were only few people and mostly no queue for that so I could afford to be more thick skinned. There is a bubble tea store facing the carpet so I tried bubble tea in Japan for the very first time.

The troublesome part is having to remove shoes before getting on the carpet

The lift that we used to go up was decorated with Aladdin stuff. As the lift went up directly to level 46, it was quite fast. I wanted to take photo in the lift without others so we waited for an empty leave to go down but we ended up with the non-decorated lift. I gave up on taking photos inside the lift with my face.

The whole floor of the lift has the magic carpet design

Stills from the movie on the walls of the lfit

Anyway, at level 46, there are only these 'attractions':

Magic Carpet design on the wall

These are the clothes worn by the Japanese dubbers

Magic Lamp

Out of the things that can be chosen for display, why is it the snake? Meh -_-

There is a stamp rally so we were also distracted by that and ended up going around the mall.

The counters at various levels for the stamp

The final product of all the stampings. No prize to exchange to for completion though.

As we were going around the mall, I even found Toy Story 4 things to take photo with.

I think can step into the ball area but I did not dare :( I don't know if it is only for kids.

I want to rest to prepare myself for the next two days at Disneyland. Akihabara, Nakano, and the usual anime stuff are not in my list for this trip. Odaiba is an exception not because of the Gundam but because of the souvenir shop. I sort of regretting not getting the sarubobo cloth at Shirakawago as even yesterday at Nagano, I still cannot find any reasonable or better souvenir compared to sarubobo. Previously I could not find Tokyo Banana Kit Kat except at Odaiba so that was my main reason.

The pre-new year crowd was obvious at Odaiba. Diver City has never been as crowded as today in my past visits. A new Doraemon Shop just opened in Odaiba and there are few Doraemon statues. These are the main pull factor for my sister to visit. Despite that, she did not even check where the statues are located. The hell... The queue for the Doraemon shop was crazy and according to signage was 3 hours. No way I was going to queue there. The Doraemon statues are at Diver City exit/entrance nearest to the Tokyo Teleport station. The statues are only Doraemon sitting on a bench, Nobita and Shizuka sitting on another bench, and a clock in between. The size is comparable to the statues at Otogi no Mori park so nothing was really impressive. There were queues (~ 5 people in the queue for each statue) to orderly take photos.

In the evening, there will be some light show and puppet show in the 'glass cabinet' thingy. Not sure exactly what as I only saw it as I was walking to Tokyo Teleport station on my way to Maihama

Took photo with the other bench with Nobita and Shizuka first so I forgot to take the picture of just the statue without me.

To commemorate the opening of the Doraemon store, the decorations within Diver City are also full of Doraemon. Previously for Gundam, the decorations were only on the lift doors. For Doraemon, the escalators and the pillars also get huge makeovers. Not fair :(

Just one example of the plasters on the pillars. There are many other designs.

I went to Gundam Base and realised that Gundam franchise is celebrating 40 years this year. It was too crowded to take a photo with the giant Gundam head there. There is also a Harry Potter pop up store with Newt statue in front. We went to a beef restaurant for lunch but the menu was mostly beef tongue. Eeew... I ended up having my first oden in a restaurant ever as well as fulfilling my gyoza cravings from yesterday.

Not sure what project this is about but this replaces the 3 Gundam Build Fighter statues of Iori, Seiji, and Mao. I did not see them just now but I already took pictures with them 2x so it is okay.

Newt Scamander at the Harry Potter pop up store

My sister bought her Owndays snap while I was mesmerised by the Gundam Head Scale 1:7. It is a limited edition item (1979 pieces since Gundam was first released in year 1979) and I would never own. Owndays is having a collaboration with Gundam 40th anniversary. The Gundam spectacles are not for me as they are all slim/thin frame which will not mask my thick lenses. The Gundam Head (which is actually a spectacle case for 6 spectacles) is more appealing for me. The price is 39980 yen (excluding tax).

You can snap a photo of the Gundam Head and post it in SNS to get a glass wipe with Owndays x Gundam collaboration design. I did not say anything about it but somehow my sister just said she would do that and I got the glass wipe. Today I learnt that SNS means Social Networking Service a.k.a social media. All these while, I always think SNS is a Japanese-only social media app. That is why I never bothered with anything that has SNS in the advertisement. Yeah I am quite noob with technology.

At about 5pm, we left Diver City to walk over to Aqua City to check out Disney Store. To commemorate Gundam 40th Anniversary, there is a light panel to show the 40th anniversary at the foot of the Unicorn Gundam. It was too crowded and I was not prepared to take photos there. Too bad there was no official photographer like they used to have when Unicorn Gundam was just unveiled in 2017.

It was already as dark and the lighted up Odaiba Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower at the horizon looked beautiful. My old camera was completely useless at this spot when we went here in 2017. My new camera is able to capture some images so this is definitely an upgrade compared to the old camera i.e. it was a justifiable purchase lol.

No way I can get this with my old Canon camera. At the same time, this is not according to reality (the sky was actually pitch black). It shows how over processed the photo is but at the same time how powerful the Sony camera for low light.

There was nothing interesting to buy at Disney Store so I proceeded to collect Vacation Package for tomorrow. On the way out, I found the JUMP shop. I only knew that there is a JUMP shop in Odaiba today after seeing some people carrying shopping bags of JUMP shop. As mentioned, I was not in the mood for anime stuff so I did not really try to find where the shop is. This was an accidental finding. I already split with my sister so noone helped me to take photo with Goku.

Hokuriku Arch Pass did not cover the trip to Maihama fully as I had to pay 140 yen when I showed the pass to the office. Something new to learn everyday. On the way back, I used normal Suica to compare the cost (more than 300 yen) so for tomorrow I will use the Pass. Before collecting the Vacation Package, I checked out Bon Voyage and Ikspiari Disney Store first and found nothing to buy. I walked through the smaller shops at the sides of Ikspiari and found a collectible shop where I succumbed and bought Aladdin collectible cards. So childish... It is not cheap (660 yen per pack) but I bought 5 packs to round off the total to 3300 yen instead of having 50 yen or 10 yen coins as change.

I bought Paopao at Shinagawa station for dinner and I am pleasantly surprised with the room. This is my first time staying at Keikyu EX Hotel Shinagawa and I will prefer here to Prince Hotel just next door. The room is big for Japanese standard and also bigger than Prince Hotel. The internet is also faster. The only downside is the konbini which is not the usual chains and hence the spread is more limited and the prices are more expensive. The konbini at Prince Hotel is 7-11 by the way.

My sister is still having fun shopping at Akihabara and here I am possibly just injured my fingers a little bit from pushing our luggages by myself. While waiting for the luggages at the guest service, I picked up a brochure for Airporter which is a luggage service transfer. The price is quite high (2000 yen for one piece of luggage, 1500 yen if cabin size luggage) but I am going to use this for tomorrow rather than dragging my luggage. As I have to make the reservation tonight by 11pm, I asked my sister if she wants and how many luggages. Instead of quickly giving a yes or no, she still irritated me with stupid comments that it is expensive bla bla bla.

That was the final straw for today because earlier she sent me an instagram picture of a Doraemon decoration at Diver City that we missed out earlier. Like what the hell... Although I am not a fan, since I was already there, might as well take pictures with everything ma. Stupid..

Japan Trip Day 7: Takaoka, Yudanaka

Because of dubious (or perhaps I should say 'non-existent') plan, instead of going to Nagano early morning, we explored Takaoka until our checkout time. We took photos at Doraemon no Sampo Machi just outside the hotel, Doraemon post box at Takaoka station waiting room, walked to the Takaoka Great Buddha and finally the Takaoka Castle Park.

Takaoka Great Buddha is about 10-15 minutes walk from the station. Regarded as one of the three Great Buddhas in Japan (the other two are in Kamakura and Nara), this one pales in comparison to the other two. The statue somehow seems smaller although the actual size is actually comparable to Kamakura and Nara. I visited Kamakura Great Buddha in 2018 while I went to Nara in 2017 when I was still a dumb ass. I was outside the Todaiji Temple but did not take any photos of the temple as well as the Buddha as I was not aware that I was at a significant landmark. At that time, my dumb self only knew Nara meant deers. The temple is very small although there was no crowd as we were there in the morning.

Takaoka Daibutsu or Takaoka Great Buddha

With its close proximity to buildings, it feels like a temple for the residents instead of a tourist place.

Takaoka Castle Park is about 5 minutes from the Great Buddha and if yesterday's Kanazawa castle is bad enough with only watch towers and external walls, Takaoka Castle is even worse. Nothing is left of the castle and where the main keep used to stand is only an empty plot of land now. There are random art statues around this empty plot of land. This was an impromptu visit and I had no knowledge of the place. I took photos of some of the art statues but I did not take photo of the most significant one: statue of Maeda Toshinaga. Maeda clan has an important significance in this part of of Japan (the Hokuriku region).

In all, I think Takaoka has been very disappointing and I will not recommend to specially visit here to see the Great Buddha or the Doraemon stuff. Lucky I am a fan of Conan and Hokuei Town (Conan Town) at Tottori is so much better and worth visiting. If I am a fan of Doraemon and make a special trip to Takaoka just for these few attractions, I would be regretting.

Doraemon no Sampo Machi

Doraemon mail box

We took Ainokaze Toyama railway to Toyama to catch the Shinkansen to Nagano. We learnt our lessons and went to book our seats. It was not as crazy and traumatic as the previous Tokyo-Takaoka shinkansen as the shinkansen trains at Toyama are mostly reserved seats. Thus there were plenty of seats available. At Nagano station, I decided that we should reserve seats for the journey to Tokyo tomorrow. The queue for the counter was long so it was a good luck to see a JR staff who just got outside for duty. As I was queueing, I signaled to my sister to try approaching that staff. That guy taught us that we could reserve seats from the machines outside the ticket office. We had to change to Nagaden (Nagano Electric Railway) to reach Yudanaka and this is not covered by JR Pass.

Based on the initial projection, I thought we would have to go to our ryokan to drop our luggage first and catching the next shuttle bus to Ryuoo Ski Park at 2pm. Somehow our good luck continued as we reached just before 1230pm and we saw that the Ryuoo had an office just outside Yudanaka Station where we could leave our luggages. So we ended up dropping our luggages there and caught the 1230pm shuttle bus.

With zero preparation whatsoever, obviously there would not be skiing and snowboarding so I had no idea what I was going to do there. The person who recommended this place i.e. my stupid sister also had nothing in mind and instead of trying to find out what we could do in this place also just walked around and did nothing. Haiz.. How to not get angry -_-" Ryuoo is catered for the locals so English signage is almost non-existent. I had to just ask people and despite the limited English, the staff had the translator to help with the communication.

I bought the access for the ropeway (2500 yen) and was informed to take V1 lift, V4 lift, and the ropeway to the Sora Terrace. After taking the ropeway down, however, we had to walk all the way back to the bottom. It sounded okay since at this point of time I had not really walked in the snow. After walking in the snow only then the "Oh shit!" came. My snow shoes do not grip perfectly: it is helpful but I still have to be watchful so as not to slip. However, they did not get wet so that is the most useful things.

The queue for each lift was about 15 minutes and the view from the Sora Terrace was not as amazing as the advertisement. In the cafe, there was a big signage of 60-something percent chance only of seeing the sea of clouds as advertised. Lol. I played a bit with the snow but after making 2 small snowballs (one with bare hand and one with gloves), I gave up. My hands were too cold and my gloves were wet since they were not made of leather. The cafe was super crowded so again no lunch today. The queue for the ropeway downwards was longer and it took us almost half an hour. I think as it got later, more people were going down as they already had enough time enjoying up there.

So much effort to go up and this is only scene that I think is worth it. The other views from his place are meh.

From here on, my sister finally learnt the hard way from her stupidity of not wanting to prepare for a trip. She wore normal sport shoes so she was having a hard time in the snow while I was enjoying myself. She thought the ski lift would bring us downslope too. There is a reason why it is called LIFT and not ESCALATOR. If people ride the lift to go downslope, they will simply be thrown down because of gravity and the position of the ski lift. In ski resort, the lifts are only to go up and people ski or snowboard downslope. We had neither so we had to walk downslope. To make things more exciting, we had to rush for the 4pm shuttle bus back to Yudanaka station or else we had to wait for the next bus at 530pm. I told her I did not care even if she cried or rolled down the slope but we had to reach the bus by 4pm no matter what. It was close to half an hour of adrenaline rush: some areas had deeper snow (thanks, shoes!), I still wanted to take photos with the ski lifts (otherwise I have no picture that I was in a ski resort), and the last stretch of confusion of where to walk to find the bus terminal. We reached the bus in time and if we reached a few minutes later, we would not be able to board the bus. We were already sitting at the aisle seats by the time we reached.

Our ryokan (Shimaya) picked us up from the station. Honestly, this is my worst ryokan experience compared to my previous ryokan experience at Kawaguchiko or Shiroyamakan. We got a room at level 4 and there was no elevator. I carried my luggage by the stairs but the ryokan actually had a dumbwaiter. When we checked in, only the lady boss was around and she did not inform us about the dumbwaiter. When my sister wanted to carry her luggage, the male boss already returned and only then he mentioned about the dumbwaiter.

The room is quite big and it sort of reminds me of Nobita's room with cupboard where Doraemon sleeps. However, the room gives me an old and haunted vibes rather than a traditional vibe so I am not fully comfortable here. This is also my worst onsen experience. There are only 2 shower stations, and the water pressure of the shower is so weak. I was alone when I was there and when I was showering, there were 2 angmohs coming. As there were only 2 shower stations and I was using one, the 2 guys basically had to queue in the nude -_-". Not my problem but I felt pressurised with myself taking too long to shower thanks to the weak water pressure. I did not soak as the onsen is too small. If the 3 of us went in, we would be too close for comfort under the water.

The room is big because it has a seating area (indoor 'verandah') and sink and toilet i.e. the area behind the sliding door in the photo. From the position where I took this: behind me is the Doraemon's cupboard, there is another sliding door on my right which has a private onsen (with notices all in Japanese that I don't know if it can be used or cannot), and on the left  side of futons (cut off in the photo) there is another cupboard.

I was worried about food yesterday but this place is quite touristy so there are restaurants around. There is a Lawson near the station which is about 10 minutes walk from our ryokan where I bought my breakfast for tomorrow. For dinner, I wanted to just grab anything to eat before people started to eat. My sister still wanted to ma fan and she wanted sushi restaurant opposite the station but it was fully reserved. After that I told her not to be too picky and just choose somewhere as long as we could get a seat or else we would end up eating from Lawson.

We ate at yakitori restaurant which also serves other food. Although I did not get my kakiage, I was quite happy with my shumais and fried tako. I actually wanted gyozas but the picture in the menu which is labeled as gyoza looks nothing like gyoza. My worry came true. It is not the culture to queue and wait for available seats when the restaurant is full. Once the restaurant is full, the restaurant will just tell the coming customers "Sorry we are full". They do not even inform them to wait and all that. Lucky we were already happily having our dinner.

Finally this agony is over. Tomorrow we will be returning to Tokyo and if I am not happy, I can just don't care and split from my sister. She should be able to navigate Tokyo on her own. Today has been a horrible day. It could be worse but by God's grace, we have been very very lucky with our transport since this morning. We reached Takaoka station at less than 5 minutes before the train left for Toyama. If missed that, we would have to wait another half an hour for the next train. If we did not get the guy who helped to reserve shinkansen seats using the machine, we would miss the 1230pm shuttle bus to Ryuoo and perhaps we would not even experience the ski resort and snow at all. If we missed the 4pm shuttle bus from Ryuoo, the Yudanaka station office would already be closed by 5pm. We would not be able to contact the ryokan to pick us up and we would have to drag our luggages from the station. Lastly was the dinner arrangement. If any of these was late even by a few minutes, our day would be so much worse. Really really thank God for today.

Yesterday's sentiment still remains: I won't go with anymore overseas travel with my sister. She still had the cheek to say that we actually still had the time and should have just returned to Nagano and stayed there. You did no shit for the planning at all and still dared to say that. Our ryokan actually offers free trip to the Monkey Park but we do not know this before hand so we did not cater time for that. Even tomorrow we have to take the train leaving Yudanaka before 8am. I am not interested with Monkey Park so I am okay to skip it. My sister wants Monkey Park so it was her loss.

Japan Trip Day 6: Shirakawago, Kanazawa

Despite heater in the room, I woke up a few times at night because of the cold as it was snowing through the night. I should not be complaining because if it did not snow through the night, I would not be able to see snow-covered scenery this morning. I intended to wake up at 6am in the hope of going around the village before the tourists started arriving but it was still very dark. Eventually I got up close to 7am and then breakfast was served at 730am.

The website is not exaggerating that the highlight of the breakfast is the miso paste. It was *THAT* good that I was willing to have additional servings of rice. I still wanted to go around the village and take a shower before leaving Shirakawago. I was a bit pissed with my sister who still took her time to enjoy her breakfast instead of speeding up a bit. Haiz.. there is not a single day without her pissing me off.

The miso paste (the top most thingy on the leaf) looks little but I had 3 bowls of rice to finish

This morning made all the money spent to stay one night at Shirakawago worth spending. I am really blessed to at least see the snow (although not as thick as those amazing pictures online) and to enjoy it at Shirakawago for about an hour plus before the tourists started arriving. Some more the snow started to melt on our way back so the window of opportunity to enjoy the snowy atmosphere was really short. We walked all the way to the iconic 3 houses and it was really nice to enjoy the peace, the scenery, and the photo taking opportunity without photobombers along the way.

Shogawa (Sho River)

The Three Houses.. should have zoomed to make it look as nice as advertisement photos

We reached the ryokan back at about 930am and check out time was 10am. Thus I had to take a quick shower and I skipped soaking in the onsen. What a waste since in the morning, the onsen was empty so it was like having a private one. The ryokan's hospitality continued until we left and it was really mind blowing. The owner got us to take a photo in front of the ryokan and he prepared small snow sculptures for us to hold. Our bus to Kanazawa was at 1025am and to our surprise, the owner and 2 daughters were waving goodbye to us. No wonder they asked where we were going next and the time of our bus. That small gesture was really touching.

Anyway, the name of the ryokan is Shiroyamakan (official website: http://shiroyamakan.jp/). At the start when I was looking for potential accommodation, I was considering gassho-zukuri houses but I encountered reviews that some of the owners may be unfriendly and rude which may be worsened by the language barrier. Shiroyamakan stood out among the places that appear in the Shirakawago official website (http://ml.shirakawa-go.org/en/) with the most informative website, ease of booking (can be booked directly through the website), and the free tour. Do not get discouraged because of the age of the building because the ryokan is actually well maintained. It maintains the traditional design very nicely without the feel that it is old and poorly maintained. At the same time, it does not feel overly modern as if it is a hotel. The most modern part in the ryokan is the shared toilet which is a very good thing for me. Pictures and advertisements usually tell a thousand lies but after staying, the photos and the information in the website are truthful. Even the family who is running the ryokan is really as smiley and friendly as the photos. It has been really amazing stay and the next time I visit Shirakawago, I will definitely stay here again.

We arrived at Kanazawa at close to 12pm. Sitting in a normal temperature bus somehow reset my body cold tolerance. It does not make sense that I felt colder for the rest of the day at Kanazawa while I was not really bothered with the snow Gokayama and Shirakawago yesterday. I wore the same exact layerings as yesterday.

Kanazawa station is comparable to the big stations in Tokyo and I felt as if I was back to modern civilisation. I could not find empty coin lockers so I ended up carrying my hand carry luggage throughout. It was kind of irritating but not as irritating as the shoelace of my left shoe which kept coming off.

Honestly I did not really enjoy Kanazawa as the attractions were quite boring and not that interesting to take photos. We had a miscommunication with our guide so we ended up not eating lunch throughout. Haha.. Our "okay" for lunch was interpreted as okay to continue with the tour. Quick review of the places visited today:

1) Omicho Market: Something similar to Kuromon Market in Osaka (which I already visited) but is smaller so I was not that impressed.

2) Nagamachi Samurai District: Everything felt too modern here that I did not really feel the samurai atmosphere. I felt like walking through a housing estate whose houses' design are based on the samurai era.

3) Shinise Memorial Hall: Museums are usually not my thing but the entry fee for this is only 100 yen so I think it was quite worth it. The building used to be a pharmacy so it got me a bit excited as a pharmacist. Other than the pharmacy shop front, the other rooms have interesting exhibits such as wedding dowry, temaris (handballs), and other things

On the way to Nomura-ke, I wanted to get a bubble tea at a souvenir shop but it was not available. Since I had not had lunch, I ordered their ice cream with gold leaf. There is nothing special flavour-wise but it coated my lips gold so at least that gave me a cheap thrill.

4) Nomura-ke: For the entry fee of 500 yen, this was a waste of money. The building is smaller than Shinise Memorial Hall and it has fewer things to see inside. The highlight is the garden inside the house but perhaps it is not something that I can appreciate. Comparing to the admission fee for Kenrokuen Garden which is only 320 yen, this 500 yen is really a rip off.

5) Kenrokuen Garden: The garden is huge and nice to walk around to relax and enjoy for people who are into this kind of thing. Although there were a lot of tourists, the park did not feel too crowded thanks to its big size and various features. Majority of the visitors were taking photos only at the lake with the Karasakinomatsu pines at the background which is the most iconic part of the park. The other features are comparable to any other small lakes, small waterfalls, lanterns, trees, etc that I myself was not too excited to take photos of.

My mood was somewhat spoilt because the tour guide dropped my camera and after that I did not really take photos in the park and of the park. Sigh.. Thanks to my useless sister again for not helping to take photos at all that I ended up asking the guide to help me take photos throughout the day. New and expensive camera which was barely bought 2 weeks ago already bruised. Sianz...

Karasakinomatsu Pines: the most famous landmark of the garden (should have taken it from the other side where the lake is). Btw the ropes are not to make them look like Christmas trees when it is snowing. The ropes are to reduce the snow resting on the pines directly as the trees may just collapse from the heavy snow resting on the branches.

6) Kanazawa Castle: Kanazawa Castle is just opposite of Kenroku-en Garden. Shockingly, there is no main keep or main castle building as it was burnt down ages ago. The remaining buildings now are actually the watch towers and external walls (which were the storehouses). Aiih.. disappointing.

Kanazawa Castle

7) Higashi Chaya and Kazuemachi Chaya: The sun was starting get low as we reached here. Somehow, most of the stores were closed so what supposed to be an entertainment district only got me bored and rolled my eyes.

Another good surprise came at the end when the tour guide offered to drive us back to Takaoka. He lives in Toyama and will pass Takaoka on his way back. Hurray!! He also asked if we would like to visit the Takaoka Great Buddha but I declined saying that I intended to do my laundry. Honestly, I was simply too tired. It took about 1 hour to reach Takaoka and I had dinner at the same pasta restaurant from 2 days ago. I could not be bothered with my sister who still wanted to explore because she felt that those shops which were not opened yet when we came 2 days ago would be open now. Puih.. In the end she bought food from 7-11 for dinner so those shops were indeed not open.

I have been wasting the past one hour trying to open my luggage. I thought the code was accidentally changed so I just tried 2 rounds of trying from 000 to 999 to no avail. It turned out something was stuck as initially it opened with the number that I set. It was funny because when I was trying, I always went back to the number I set after every 100 numbers but it did not work.

What an emo end of the day and I am really freaking angry at my sister. I still do not know the plan for tomorrow at Nagano. Just now she asked the tour guide to call the ryokan tomorrow for dinner but the ryokan said no dinner. I don't know how if the area turns out to be like the previous ryokan at Kawaguchiko where the nearest kombini is 30 minutes away on foot. Sigh... anyhow chose a place to stay and to go but not responsible to settle everything. Not to mention my dropped camera, bad photos, not helping to take photos, and not helping when my luggage was stuck. NEVER WILL I EVER GO OVERSEAS WITH HER ANYMORE!! Bloody hell.

Japan Trip Day 5: Gokayama, Shirakawa-go

Before I start ranting about what happened today, I will start with a brief information about Gokayama and Shirakawa-go since I had confusion when I was doing my research before deciding my itinerary. There are 3 gassho-zukuri villages designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Two are located in Gokayama region which is in Toyama prefecture and these are Ainokura and Suganuma. The biggest and most famous village is Ogimachi in Shirakawa-go, Gifu prefecture. In other words, Ogimachi and Shirakawa-go can be considered synonymous while Ainokura and Suganuma in Gokayama are separate places. Today I visited all three.

As usual, the day started with how irritating my sister was. Last night she said she would wake up at 530am but in the end she did not. I woke up before her again and I woke up 'later' than usual taking into consideration the usual time she takes in the bathroom. With that and how I succesfully stimulated my stomach with the yoghurt last night which made me shit 3x this morning, it was a mad rush in order not to be late for the bus ride this morning.

I told my sister to pass the money to the guide for all the transport cost when we met and she did not! I know it is just a small matter but it was embarrassing for the guide to ask about the money first. After all, it is us who 'owed' him money. I already said to give 15500 yen and still she prepared 20500 and expecting to get a change. What a lack of manner.

We boarded the 810am World Heritage Bus and the first stop was Ainokura. Ainokura has about 20+ gassho houses. We only had an hour first until the next bus to continue to Suganuma. The weather was supposed to be snowy today but as the temperature was not low enough, it was water/ice kind of rain. It was quite heavy and made me unable to really take pictures for two reasons: I was worried for my camera and the umbrella ruined the photos. We quickly went to the viewpoint. The timing was good because as we climbed down, tourists started to arrive and walking towards the viewpoint. Due to limited time, we only visited one of the gassho house which was a souvenir shop.

Ainokura from the viewpoint. Without snow, it looks kinda pathetic, doesn't it?

Suganuma was next and it is the smallest of the gassho villages with only about 9 gassho houses. The weather became very erratic here: it was slight drizzle when we arrived, then it turned sunny so we walked towards a bridge to see the village from a different side. Suddenly it was raining water/ice even more heavily than at Ainokura earlier. By the time we walked back to the bridge, everything already started to turn white because of the ice. What a sight and experience to behold but it was bad for tourists. I really did not dare to take any photos because I worried for my camera. This was also when I finally snapped at my sister. Instead of helping me to take a photo after I took hers, she busied herself with selfies. What the fucking shit! Excuse me, I am not here as her personal photographer or personal tour guide. She has not been helping and now with this, fuck it!

See how the rain dropped as snow/ice on the railings

The entrance of Suganuma village. By the time I wanted to take a photo here, an inconsiderate asshole parked his care on the left side and blocked the view.

Although Suganuma is the smallest village, we had 1.5 hours there until the next bus. Because of the crazy weather, we visited 2 souvenir shops and before having hot tea and some traditional mochi food. The next bus was so full with Shirakawa-go as its next destination. Luckily we still could board as we could open the aisle seats.

As what our tour guide shared, tourists generally skip Ainokura and Suganuma and they straight away go to Shirakawa-go. Ainokura and Suganuma feel much more untouched and enjoyable for the atmosphere while Shirakawa-go feels so touristy. It is impressive that they are able to keep the village traditional as much as possible but seeing so many tourists there right from the start already gives the meh vibes.

It was really snowing at Shirakawa-go!! Yay!! It was different from the water/ice rain earlier which visually still looked like rain drops. Meanwhile, snow still showed buoyancy in the air as it fell. It was quite heavy and we needed umbrella. All the restaurants had long queues so we went to our ryokan to drop out clothes first. It was lucky that we went to a restaurant next to the ryokan and we were the last customers allowed before they closed for lunch. Man.. otherwise I could not imagine how we would settle our lunch.

The snow was still quite heavy and with the crowd of tourists, it was impossible to take photos at all. After lunch, we went to Wada-ke House to explore the inside of a gassho-zukuri house. I usually do not enjoy visiting museum or this kind of thing but I find this walkabout is informative and an eye-opener about the history and story behind these gassho-zukuri houses. Here comes a shocker: my umbrella went missing and worse, it was an umbrella that I borrowed from the ryokan. It is the norm in Japan to leave umbrella at the stand outside shops and this was the first time I ever got mine missing. Obviously a random idiot tourists took it. May that motherfucking son of a bitch got a karma. Umbrella also want to steal.

Because of the weather, I decided that we should just visit some of the shops and then to check in to the ryokan. I am not a keychain collector but I bought one with Conan at a gassho-zukuri house. One small figurine of the gassho house that I have been eyeing since the first souvenir shop at Ainokura turns out to be a pen holder and I dislike the 'hole' in the roof. I still bought it in the end since that is the only coloured one. The rest of the gassho house figurines are just boring wooden colour.

We checked in to the ryokan at about 330pm and I was surprised that our bags were already in our room and we were not even asked to settle the payment first. My backpack is not waterproof and thanks to the water, ice, and snow, I am quite emo that my passport and money are wet. Perhaps it is a sign to invest in a better travel bag.

The ryokan owner provided a free tour around the village with his van at 4pm and it was nice to see the village when most of the tourists already left. We were shown the iconic spots such as the 3 houses but the snow was very heavy that we did not stop to take photos. We also went to the viewpoint and despite it already closed at 4pm, we were allowed for a 5 minute entry. We are very lucky that it has been snowing quite heavily today so at least we can see the village covered with snow from the view point. It is not as amazing as those pictures online but at least there is snow. It has not been snowing that much this year and if it is not snowing today, we will just see the boring view without snow. So yeah, it is a give and take: I have not been taking photos for the whole day because of the snow but at least now I get to see the village covered in snow. The lesson learnt here is to visit here again next time in late January when it is already the middle of the winter. December is quite risky especially during the warmer years such as this year.

From Shirakawa-go viewpoint. When you include humans in the photos, the humans will look so big while the village appears small the background.

We returned to ryokan and while waiting for dinner, we took photos of the room since our room supposedly has the best view among the rooms in the ryokan. As the snowdrop started to stop, we decided to explore the village on foot. We attempted to walk towards to the 3 houses shown earlier but it was too dark that I decided to go U-turn mid-way. After all the tourists leaves (the last bus leaves at around 5pm), the village returns to its original traditional state. The souvenir shops and restaurants already close and in general there is little light. The supermarket was still opened so at least we still could buy water before we returned to ryokan for dinner.

View from our room

This is how little light there was in the evening

I was blown away with the service from this ryokan. They called the room to inform that dinner was ready. Wow.. I don't drink alcohol but because it has been snowing and because dinner was looking fantastic, I decided to get a bottle of sake. I am not too particular about food as I easily forget them like how I cannot remember the last ryokan meal I had in May 2018 so I cannot compare. All I can say is I enjoyed the generous serving of the Hida beef and the ryokan is not exaggerating when they told us not to overeat for lunch since the dinner will be quite filling. Meals were served by the daughters of the ryokan's owner and it was nice that they tried to engage in conversation with us. They thought my sister and I were a couple o_0 hahaha.. Before we started with dinner, they also offered to take a photo. Haha.. I think they know people nowadays like to take photos with food.

This is just the first plate

Just to show the serving size of the beef

Appreciate the personalisation although I am not a Singaporean haha..

After that we went to shower. There is only one room in this ryokan that has attached bathroom and toilet and we do not get this room. So we get vouchers to use in the onsen nearby. The onsen is just across the road about 3-5 minutes walk but since it was snowing again, the ryokan drove us and picked us from the onsen. I gave the normal slippers to my sister and I put on the Japanese slippers so it was lucky that I did not embarrass myself and falling over on it. Haha.. The onsen itself is clean and pleasant although the outdoor onsen is not as unobstructed as the one in Kawaguchiko so I could not really enjoy the evening breeze.

The onsen has a souvenir shop and I am thinking about getting small handkerchief with sarubobo as souvenir. Since I am already going to a far away place that people normally do not visit, I prefer to get something unique. Food is not an option now as I will still be travelling and I do not want to transfer cities with 2 pieces of luggage. This handkerchief is good because it is compact but the price (440 yen) is a deterrent. I think my colleagues may not appreciate it as much as food. Sigh.. let's think about it if I am going to buy it tomorrow.

I was pretty worried for today in anticipation of the snow and sub-zero temperature. I have been reserving my 2 sets of ski base layers for Shirakawago and ski resort so today was the first time I wore them. I think they have been good investments as I was not really bothered with the cold today. Perhaps the water/ice/snow drop which had me opening umbrella was more bothersome than the wind and actual temperature. Today was the first time I wore 3 layers for the bottom (heat tech + ski base layer + windproof pants) and they were good enough to prevent me from feeling the wetness from the rain. Luckily my choice of clothes were warm enough today. I wore 4 layers for the top (heat tech + ski base layer + fleece jacket + ultra light down) but I did not feel as 'suffocated' as 2 days ago when I wore 4 layers but with 2 fleeces. Ultra light down as the most outer layer is also better than fleece as ultra light down gives a nicer bubbly shape vs fleece reflects the fat layers on my body. Hahaha...

The snow shoes that I bought from Decathlon is also a godsend since water does not go through from the sole or from the surface. The issue is with the way I put on my pants as it enabled water to get into the shoes from the ankle. Despite that, the lining inside the shoes did something magical to the water as I did not feel the inside of the shoes wet or drenched.

So that is a fantastic day at Shirakawa-go. It would be perfect without all the stupidity from my sister but overall I am thankful for the snow scenery and this ryokan. I think I will write a separate post about this ryokan to share how awesome staying here has been.

Japan Trip Day 4: Shin-Takaoka, Takaoka

After 2 days in Disney Resort, as expected we could not stick into early morning plan to change city. We only left from the hotel at 813am and the crowd for the train was madness. It was lucky for us that we were able to board the second train. Otherwise I did not want to think how long we had to wait until the morning peak hour was over. Thank God and at the same time it is a lesson to consider the mad Tokyo peak hours when the holiday includes transferring.

Today is the final straw that makes me really fed up and angry with my sister. Photo-taking aside, she has been extremely useless and not helpful. For example, instead of searching or asking where to exchange for JR pass, she simply joined a queue at a counter simply because there were a lot of foreigners queueing there. That counter turned out to be for making seat reservations. After getting our JR pass, the earliest available reserved seat was for past 1pm train and if we took that, we had no time to visit the Doraemon park. So we decided to take the non-reserved train at 1032am.

Again this is another lesson about shinkansen seat reservation. During my trip with a friend in 2015, we took Shinkansen towards Osaka for a few times and never once we had to reserve seats. We always could get seats and the shinkansens were never so crowded. Today was an eye opener, the queues for the non-reserved cabins were so long. It was lucky that we still could enter and allowed to stand inside the cabin. Gosh.. I was prepared to stand for the whole 2 hours+ journey but thank God people were alighting along the way and after about an hour I managed to get a seat.

I was waiting close to departure time before deciding to buy a shumai bento and by the time I went there, the last box was bought by the person in front of me. Sianz.. I decided to go to the nearest kombini and discovered about NewDays x Conan collaboration. I bought a few of the Conan bread but I did not see any of the merchandises.

One thing that stood out the most during the whole shinkansen journey was Karuizawa. It was the only place already covered with thick snow and as we were passing by, everyone in the train was oooh-ing and wow-ing. That added up another irritation for me as I initially suggested Karuizawa but my sister wanted Nagano over a ski resort that she found in a blog.

It was drizzling when we reached Shin-Takaoka. We were lucky that we were able to find available large lockers for our luggages although it was a freaking hard work to lift up the luggage to the higher locker. Weather forecast was rainy for the whole day and lucky it was only drizzling when we were there. We did not need to open umbrella. Now Doraemon park (or Otogi no Mori Park) is something my sister wanted and again she literally did NOTHING to find a way to go there. The park is about 15 minutes walk from Shin-Takaoka stations and super disappointing. The Doraemon section is just the 6 statues and everything that is shown in the internet is really what the park has to offer. We came at somewhat a bad timing too. The foliage was barren during this pre-winter and the sky was dark because of the rain. Everything looked so gloomy unlike those summer or snow pictures of the park in the internet. It stopped drizzling when we were taking pictures and then it started to drizzle again as we walked back to the station. That was another blessings because at least I did not have to worry about my camera getting wet.

The park is that huge but the Doraemon is just a small section that I highlighted in red

If only I can be as joyful as Nobita and Doraemon. Alas my mood today is as gloomy as the sky and the dying trees.
This is all the Doraemon section in the park.

We had to take JR Johanna train from Shin-Takaoka to Takaoka station. It was quite awkward as I felt that people were not used to see tourists and there were some weird looks. After dropping our luggages in the room, we went to have dinner first. We stay at Takaoka Manten Ekimae Hotel and Doraemon no Sampo Machi is just in front of the hotel. As the sun was already setting, we just wanted to take quick photos before dinner. I did not take photos of the statues and I think I can do it on the morning before leaving Takaoka for Nagano. I completely snapped this time and gave up about good photos with my sister.  I told her to just take my photo with the statues once and then go for dinner. Checking and repeating the photos to keep getting shit photos were just driving me crazy! Haiz.

After exploring the area around station to find the waiting room for our meeting point with the tour guide tomorrow, we realised a lot of shops were not open. We had dinner at one pasta restaurant. After a quick grocery shopping, we returned to hotel. I am currently doing my laundry and thank goodness the dryer is working properly: I put 2 x 100 yen coins and the timing went up to 60 minutes so I did not have to come down every 30 minutes.

I start to get tiring with having to re-packing my luggages daily because we keep changing cities. My body finally starts to get dry and itchy despite moisturiser from the first day (instead of waiting until it gets itchy before applying like what I did in previous trips). Add on the stupid photos and the good for nothing sister, I am starting to really regret this trip.

I 'dressed down' today since mostly we were in the train station and in the train. I wore normal heat tech + fleece jacket and added on the ultra light down for the hoodie because of the drizzle at Shin-Takaoka earlier. I only wore jeans for the bottom. I am still worried about Shirakawa-go tomorrow as it is expected to be colder with it located in the mountains and I am hoping for snow which means the temperature will be minus.