Hey people, I'm officially back from Japan. I landed safely in Singapore @ 4.40pm yesterday, 28th October 2010 (: Kind of miss Japan, since the weather there is fantastic. The temperature there is 3 times lower than Singapore's temperature. The breezes there are simply great! I seriously miss Japan, and not only that, but my tour guide Miss Naomi Kuroiwa. as well.She's the best tour guide ever. She cared for us so much and tried her best to make each of us understand the Japanese culture, along with the beautiful scenery and their history. Even though her English is not that fluent, however, it's still understandable. I really miss her a lot, especially her headcounts, which has a rhythm. All of us were busy trying to count like her on the tour bus too. Yeah, she coming to Singapore next year and hopefully, we'll get to see her and have fun too. Each and every joyous and touching moments with her will remain in 26 people's mind, and never be erased. She teared a lot at the Airport, along with Clarissa. Looking forward to see her next year.
Now, let the picture do the talking. (: A picture tells a thousand words.
Day 00. ( 22nd October 2010)
Day01. ( 23rd October 2010)
Flight @ 0100-0847
SQ 672- Terminal 3
Duration: 07 Hrs 47 Minutes
Didn't really slept on the plane. Only closed my eyes for 3 hours.
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| The Chubu Centrair International Airport |
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| The Flashing Boards hung on the walls of the Airport. Bought our first bottle of mineral water. |
My seat ticket for the Japan " MRT". Sat with Mr Yong, and he talked about Japan (: See clearly at the top of the ticket. It says first class (: It's linked to the next photo!
Look, it cost 8500Yen. That's around 135 Singapore dollars. But, it's worth it. You get to have a comfy seat along with an area to place your luggage. Not bad right?
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| This is after we alighted, at Nagoya. The inner part of the MRT. You don't get to see this in Singapore. In Singapore, you have to rush for a seat or ask someone help you reserve your seat. In Japan, the seat is only for you! |
After alighting at Nagoya, we went straight for the Shinkansen, bullet train.
This is the route of the Shinkansen. It looks short on the map yet very long in distance.
Picture of other bullet train while we were waiting for ours, which is arriving at 1130.
A shop at the Bullet train station. It's very cool. Passengers can actually exchange their tickets through a machine for like a coupon or something for food, if I'm not wrong.
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| The types of buildings surrounding the station. I specifically love this blue one. It looks very beautiful. |
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| The tracks of the bullet train actually looks just like the ones in Singapore. However, the bullet train actually also have a cable attached to two other cables on top of it. |
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| Japanese Vending Machine. All sorts of drinks can be found! |
The vending machine for fruit Juice & Mineral water. In Japan, you can see Vending Machine everywhere, selling things ranging from Mineral water to ice cream, to cigarette and even umbrellas. They can be found within 5m from one another, and are usually placed in pairs and triplets.
Yay, the bullet train is arriving into the station.
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| A view from the inside of the bullet train. It simply looks so beautiful. The mountains and hills are like everywhere around in Japan, with their summits buried in the clouds. |
After arriving in Kyoto! The first shop that we saw was this Bakery. The cakes all belong to them! It's very beautiful isn't it?
Another view of it.
This is the close up view of one of them. It looks fake but it's real.
Another cake here. I bet they must be expensive to eat. (:
It's lunchtime! First day lunch looks cute.
Mine, Mine, Mine!
Ta-da! The food being revealed. There's tempura, fried leaf(?), Fish, fishcake, Shrimp, Miso Soup and various unknown food. The pale yellow bowl below contains a watery sauce for the shrimps I guess. It taste a bit salty with fragrance. :D
After lunch, we headed to the Gion corner I think. This is where the traditional Japanese costumes like Kimonos, are manufactured. Kimonos are mostly made of silk and guess what? The price can range from 100,000 Yen to 1,000,000(+ don't know how many zeros) each. This means the cheapest is like 1,600 Singapore dollars. The reason being, it is made of pure silk. The silkworms are actually fed to mulberry leaves which they love a lot I guess. (: The lady above is actually using some wood machines to make silk. It's not very easy actually.
The fine silk, each line of silk done by hands of the old lady.
After the silk is made, they are coiled around a wooden rod. It looks very beautiful isn't it?
The colourful silk being bundled up.
The models of the machines used to make silk.
A drawing by an elderly. Very beautiful. I can't even do that. The Kimonos are actually manufactured by elderly. This means that it is a dying tradition. Fewer and fewer people are doing it now. )':
A painting hung across the wall.
A fabric antique.
Another drawing!
The wonderful ceiling. It has flowery patterns made of metal along with light bulbs. Kind of cool huh?
A fabric painitng hung along the wall of the staircase.
The Kimono Runway show. Didn't took much photos but video-ed it down instead. The Kimonos have many history behind them. They are also designed according to seasons in Japan. In Japan, some places like Kyoto, provides benefits to ladies in Kimonos. For example, taking the public transport would be free. In some places, you get discounts from shops too.
The path outside the entrance of the path outside the temple. Get it? XD
The beautiful Mirror Lake near the Temple.
The trunk of this tree is very special!
My feet. Look at the path. It is filled with small pebbles all the way. It's so nice to walk on them. The sensation is simply shiok shiok shiok.
The side view of the Mirror Lake.
See the white thing there? The Mirror Lake is actually home of some bird species. The above one is a type of heron.
Some wriggly special grass.
The lamp looks so cool.
There's a tiny stone bridge at the other end of the lake. It is so far away.
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| HEEHEEHEE! This photo is taken by me. 0% Photo-shop /taken from Google. I'm a pro photographer now! Look at the maple leaves, they are turning red. |
Close up view of the maple leaves. So pinkish. I like.
A plant with leaves that have small stalks with beads hanging.
Caught a boat floating near the lake.
A tree that is being chopped.
A stone with a name engraved on it.
This is another non- Photo-shop photo. I took it from another angle.
Maple leaves getting ready to change colour. Look at the edges, a bit of dark red coming out.
A small statue of a buddha.
Xinping with the stairs up to the Ryoanji Temple. look, it's Miss Naomi! The one in white.
A tiny tree.
Taken after I climbed the stairs.
The Rock Garden of the Ryoanji Temple. There's 15 rocks but you can only see 14! That's because the 15th one is hidden behind a larger rock.
It's this rock that's hiding the smaller one behind it.
The side of the temple. Look at the foreground. A part of the tree roots broke the brick structure.
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| Close up! |
Minute tree!
Odd shaped thing found on the ground.
A little door shaped window up on the wall. Hmm. A secret passage?
An old picture of the Rock Garden in Ryoanji Temple.
It's time to go ):
Trying to get the view of the tiny gray bird there. The over-hanging maple leaves over the Mirror lake make me miss Japan a lot!
Togetsukyo Bridge!!!!! So chio. The atmosphere was great and the air is simply refreshing. This is where many couples date too!
Water rushing out!
My YUMMY Melon Sherbet. It's quite sweet but it's yummy. Some more, we are eating it in a cooling day. Coldness + Cooling = SHIOK!
The flavors with biscuit added.
After that, we headed for the Philosopher's road, and it was very peaceful and quiet. A perfect place for couples. Didn't took photos since there wasn't anything that can be seen clearly as the night is falling. In Japan, the sun sets at around 1600. By 1800, the whole place will be like Singapore @ 9pm.
It's Dinner time (: Yipee. This dinner was my Number 2 meal of all dinners.
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| MINE!!!!!!! There's chicken in orange sauce (IDK what is that) and garlic sauce. There's also a salad, udon, along with a bowl of rice and free flow of drinks (: (Y) |
My Table. Ate with Andrew, Weikang, Christopher, Jasper & Krisada.
After dinner, we went to check into our hotel. It's Chisun Hotel Shin-Osaka. The room was kind of small for 2 people. The toilet shares the size of like 2 cubicles only. However, I like the fact that we don't have to use key to open the doors. The hotel toilet is actually cool. The toilet seat has a but sprayer. It shoots a jet of water to clean your butt after you finish you business. It's quite cool actually. Even Madonna loves it when she visited Japan. In addition, the bed have comfy blankets with air conditioners on instead of sudden change to heater in the night, unlike our 3rd hotel. Japan afterall, is a quite advanced country. Alright, shall post more tomorrow (: If I continue here, it'll be super long. (:
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