Funneh face fo you.

Touched down in Singapore early this morning at 1am and by the time I finish this blog post, it'll be the next day already. Decided to quickly blog because history has shown that when I delay doing a travel post, it just never materialises hahaha.

So since my memories are still fresh, let's get started!!!

6th-15th December, my first ever trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. It was a great trip albeit thinking about work half the time, but family time at Japan the past week was so precious and I kinda regretted not taking more pictures of the 4 of us together in Japan. My brother was the happiest amongst all of us on the trip, and that's great because he is the most important person to please on this trip - it's his grad trip. He loves everything Japan and.. I've really never seen my brother so happy before. If he's happy, I'm happy ; )

Oh and fml coz even though my brother is 2 years older than me, he looks like the younger sibling. Cheekennn. Blessed with my momma's youthful lookin genes.

Also, it was a special trip for my parents. They had been to Japan for the first time together as a couple in 1984. Then they went to Japan in 2008 again as a wedded couple. This year, my mom especially, was happy that she's finally got to bring her kids to a very special place. Everyone was happy lah. My dad did all the planning, no tour group for us no sir-ree coz we pro.



Well me, I'mma lump've larddd hahaha. That's me before take off to Tokyo.

Whenever I say Tokyo, I can't help but sing the phrase, "FROM L-A TO TO-KY-O"

Anyway, first thing we ate upon our touch down??






FYEAHHHH. Sushi, sashimi, shabushabu, WAHLAU EH PARADISSEEE






It helps when you have 2 chefs in the house ; )
My cousin and jap uncle work in restaurants in Japan. Top grade stuff bro.
Their house is real lovely as well. A lil squeezy, but very cosy.
They placed the sashimi and sushi outside of their house coz it's a natural refrigerator outside yow. Don't rmb how cold it was but I rmb I was freezinnn.

Said our goodnights before heading back to our hotel and travelling out the next day to explore Japan on our own. Don't worry we'll see them again on our last leg.

The next day we travelled all the way to rural Nagano. It's a quiet town.



As you can see... layers and layers of thick snow.
I love this picture btw... sunset at about 5pm. Yes, the sun sets earlier in winter so we always started early every day.

Saved this gorgeous picture for my blog. Tempted to Instagram once again but NO. This is for me & you ; )


A pilgrimage through Shikansen train rides that lasted about 3-4 hours to get there from Tokyo. Listened to my podcast along the way as I was greeted with layers of snow~




Looks gloomy but I must say, this was one of my favouritestttt places of the trip although we only spent one day here. It was my brother's favourite place. It's just so chill and tranquil, different from everything else.


One of the reasons why I loved it so much was because of...



THE SNOW MONKEYSSSS
You scratch my back I scratch yours.

The main attraction at Nagano. These monkeys would be having saunas like humans, they look HILARIOUSSSS. I love them!

And I went CRAZY over them. Took videos of these cute furry things, granted since I was born in the Year of the Monkey. These animals are MY ANIMALSSS.



They were having onsens here hahaha cuteness overload. Like shiok only I swear. And all these humans just snapping pictures of them like they don't care.




Awww just look at that cute little moooonkey. Momma and child just freezin in the cold. I wouldn't survive with just that amount of fur on my body.



I loved them so much, I had to take a selfie with it. But I was afraid they'd scratch the hell out of my beautiful face so this was the closest I dared go to a monkey.
Btw, this monkey's checkin out its wee wee yeah. The monkey on the left I'm talkin about. I'm human.

These are monkey Gods ok coz us humans set off on a 30 minute (1.6km) hike up just to see these little whatsits sitting and enjoying themselves soaking in the onsen with their red asses and faces.

But, at least it was a beautiful walk up~






Here was the first monkey I saw on the way up and I wanted to snuggle him so bad. I don't usually go crazy over animals, so you can prolly guess how cute they are :')


We stayed at a Ryoken - a traditional Japanese inn and... it's everything you would imagine a Japanese traditional house to be.





(there's a heater below the table so it was like... awesome sitting at that table)



It even has a cute obasan to boot! I tell you her husband and her are just the cutestttt and everyone there was so warm and friendly.

If there's one thing I would commend the Japanese for, it would be their service standards. Seriously, nobody can beat the Japanese. They would go the extra mile for service. This ryoken even catered a taxi for us to bring us to our snow monkey destination where we were to begin our hike on foot.

And when we left, the old uncle shook our hands so sincerely, I felt... bad that he was thanking us so profusely... Never has an old man shown such courtesy and politeness to me by bending so low and thanking me with both his hands. Granted he was a petite old man, and granted it is Japanese customs to bend to greet/bid farewell to someone, but it still made me feel something and it touched my heart greatly.

I actually went to Japan thinking that their warmth and gestures were based on superficiality, but throughout the trip, I felt their sincerity from their service staff and I tell you, this isn't going to be my last time raving about it in this post and probably in the future as well. Just imagine, they don't speak English well so they actually bother to do their best through actions.






After a good night's rest and breakfast served, it was enroute to Kyoto! (if ya want the ryoken's name, just leave a tag I'll get back to you - they serve both brekkie & dinner in a package how awesome)

Oh btw, I had my first onsen at the ryoken too. Naked. Lucky there was no one else except my mom so it wasn't too bad. I was blind without my contacts so I didn't see anything hahaha. It was also, the cleanest I've ever felt in my life wow. Throughout the trip, I just felt so cleannnn.

Back on the Shinkansen. It's the high speed railway line that's taken when passengers move across cities.



I have a lot of nice videos of my rides on the Shinkansen. I like quiet, comfortable, scenic train rides.

What's even better about these rides is that.. WE SPOTTED MOUNT FUJI A COUPLE OF TIMES!!!!


Snow capped top



Full view!
My dad went crazy about the mountain coz the past 2 trips to Japan, he never had a chance to see Mr. Fuji coz apparently it's too "shy". I would say, it's too cloudy. My parents say that it's us, kids, that brought them luck. All right, if you say so, folks.


My parents have very fond memories of Kyoto. So we spent the most time here. 3 days. My mom got so excited the moment we landed. When she's excited, she's realllyyy excited.

By the time we reached Kyoto, it was nightfall and had to find food to eat.




The whole LANE was filled with food stores. And as a stranger in a foreign land, you're spoiled for choice and you don't know which is da best.

So my mom spotted locals coming out from a particular shop and we decided to just chuck ourselves in.



Straight out of Japan Hour hellooo.

Honestly, it was a bit intimidating entering this shop though. Because they knew we were foreigners and somehow, I felt everybody just staring at us? And the inability to communicate with one another made it harder.

But again, service standards never fail and the waitresses did their best to speak with us in English. One was considerably good and she was just an excellent waitress.

Another thing I noticed about the Japanese is that... they take pride in everything they do. Service jobs in Singapore are for some reason looked down upon, but in Japan, people take pride in their work whatever the job may be and it's bloody admirable. From the hotel staff to the bus and train conductors, everyone puts in their all and you can tell when they serve you and listen to you with such earnesty. I really don't know where they get their tenacity from.

I guess one reason could be because jobs are hard to get over there. So a job in the service industry is considered a darn good job already. And they hardly have any foreigners doing these jobs for them.


Anyway, we were rewarded with crazy good sushi here.



I don't edit my pictures so uh, I tried to make this look instagram worthy but nah. It's very delicious though I must tell you!!! Argh so good, I don't think I'll look at another sushi the same way again....



Here are our satisfied facessss.

--

On our second day in Kyoto, my dad rented bikes and we swooped the streets of Kyoto along Philosopher's path. This was also one of my favourite days. The path that we were on was absolutely beautiful and we also visited three temples throughout the entire day. Pictures ahead~

I swear Japan has so many temples/shrines, you can never finish visiting all of them.

I won't bore you with too many temple pictures, but here's the first one. It's quiet and serene. I got a chance to venture the temple grounds on my own without my family coz time alone is exploring time.

I ventured deep into the woods where nobody else was and found a spot where I stood for quite a while to soak in the atmosphere.



Looks slightly creepy but I wasn't scared at all. In fact, I ventured and hiked even further into the woods up ahead. I walked for a good 30 minutes or so and decided that it was a bit too dangerous coz there really was no one around and it was a trail that was leading me elsewhere lol. I could be a Gone Girl for all I know. It was a designated hiking trail though... makes me wanna go on an adventure trip!







The actual temple grounds. Truly majestic, these structures.



My dad enjoyed the autumn trees, shades of red, orange and yellow. He had never seen any of these leaves before.

And here's one big, bold and beautiful red tree as we were cycling along Philosopher's walk! No edits or enhancements to the photo whatsoever.







Beautiful, just beautiful eh? It was so... quaint, this place. So....... I can't really describe it. But the pictures do the atmosphere justice. Just look at the sunlight and the trees that line the path~
Would've been just as nice if we took a stroll along.





Along the way, we stopped by this cafe and it had one of the best hot chocolates I had ever tasted. Seriously.
Since I don't drink coffee, I become a hot chocolate expert at cafes. It was thick, yet not too sweet, it was warm and just right in all proportions.

My parents were happy because.. they were in the exact same cafe 6 years ago and were so happy to have found it again. Very quaint cafes everywhere. Loved it.

I'm gonna skip the second temple coz I wasn't impressed by it. It was a World Heritage site but it was so bloody cosmetic and touristy that the essence of it was lost.

Here comes the final temple of the day,






The Kiyomizu temple.
Sorry for the blurness, my dad took most of the shots on the camera HAHAHA.
Anyway, although it's not my fav temple, I have to say, it's the most majestic.
I tell you, these pictures don't say anything. Being there in the presence of these majestic structures, is awe-some. Really. I could feel the depth of the history in these things and I would always imagine people from ancient times walking in these vicinities. Now, they are places of attraction. Strange.

I would kill to travel back in time though... all these temples naturally give off an effect on me.

As you can see, the sky was starting to turn dark and I was cold as hell, I think coz of the sweat from my earlier hike. I was freezing and miserable lol.

And so, the most logical thing to do is.. MAKAN!!!! What else on a cold evening but my bestfriend, the ramen.




You know, ramen in Japan and Singapore are actually not different at all. Like, Singapore actually has pretty good ramen standards. In fact, hardly any difference at all. Maybe the pork is a lillll more tender in Japan but that's the furthest I would say. The only difference would be the price but only for a few dollars, not much. But their spring onions and the weather just makes eating ramen better in Japan haha.

Later on that night, my bro and I ventured into Gion shopping district on our own because the parents were old and tired haha. It's true. And it was my bro's last day in Kyoto because he had to go back to SG to take an exam. If you were following my posts, long story short, he had dengue, postponed paper and the date landed right smack in the middle of our Japan trip. So anyways, he wanted to make sure he had a good time in Kyoto before leaving. He came back after his exams to join us in Tokyo so that he wouldn't miss out. I know, the px of the air tix... but it's supposed to be his grad trip so all for him.

I enjoyed shopping with my bro, surprisingly. Maybe coz he's so liberal with spending haha. Well at least it's sibling bonding time : )

Coz the next day when he left, I realised how miserable it was to be left with the old folks ahha.

But before he left, we made one more temple visit: the Golden Temple - Giyomizu Temple. Although it was kinda cosmetic like the second temple before, I really liked this temple. All that glitters is Gold. Maybe that explains why I luvvit.



At this point of the trip, I realised, my family hadn't taken any proper family photos and I panicked. So I forced everyone to take one here, at this golden shrine, where moments shall be forever Golden.





Whatta rare family photo.
Don't really like to share my family photos on social media or any kinds of media because I draw lines between family, friends, and public. I like to keep certain things private to myself but hey, what's a blog post of a family holiday without a family photo man. Rude.

When my brother left for SG, my mom and I did more shopping at Gion.
By the time she said she was tired, it was only 7pm and I was thinkin hellll nooo am I gonna waste my last night in Kyoto in the hotel room!

So I got out on my own and walked in the dark all the way back to Gion. I didn't even know how to get there, but I just walked straight ahead and guess what, I made it to Gion.

Walked around for a good amount of time and I really like to spend alone time overseas too coz you can just walk aimlessly and enter places at the spur of the moment, whenever wherever. I listened to a busker belting out "Stand by me" and entered darker alleys that my mom didn't want to.




See that long stretch of road? I walked along it in the dark once I reached Gion. Good times and cold times lol.


On our final day in Kyoto, it was rainy and drizzly but my mom and I still wanted to sightsee so we went to (yes) yet another temple hahaha.






Heian temple. Kinda special for me coz it was a temple I went to with just my mom.

And check out what was happening when we got outta the temple?



FREAKIN WEDDING SHOOT IN THE RAIN. No, just no.
Cancel it lah wah what is this man. No backing out policy or wet weather contingency plans??? Goodness. I'd demand for my money back.

On our way back to our hotel, we chanced upon a shop selling some of these jelly like, moichi things.




Green tea, peanut and charcoal.

THEY WERE SO GOOOOOOOD. They're like moichi but not so chewy, inside. It's more jellyish and it melts in your mouthhhhh. My mom got green tea and charcoal. Really, so so so good. What's great about these food is that they expire within a day. So you have to eat them fresh. Isn't that awesome? Everything's just so fresh and good...

I definitely want a taste of this again on my next visit to Japan.

Also, these two ladies were so so friendly. The longer haired one happily chirped that she gave "one more" of the charcoal jelly things to us. Must've known that I really liked it.


In the afternoon, we made our way back to where we were first at: Tokyo.

Train rides once again, this time with beautiful sunsets..




Love these Japan train rides~

At our final hotel destination at Intercontinental... I must say... this one was hmm, my favourite hotel rooms of all.

Coz we were granted with a SPECTACULAR VIEW OF THE CITYYYY.



This doesn't look much, but... my God when you're there looking at all these beautiful twinkling night lights.... you will be amazed by the view. Not just that, we could see so many important Tokyo monuments like the Tokyo tower, the tip of the sky tree. It was magnificent and I spent a good amount of time staring out the window, wishing I could always remember how it was like atop the entire Tokyo city.

I loved it so much and this was how excited I was,






Plus, I had the whole room to myself on the first night coz my brother was still in SG.
Shiok.



This was how the view looked like in the morning the next day.
It was cloudy, but I'll tell you later why this view is actually just as spectacular in the day as the night.



But first,



I thought I looked beautiful so please revel in my beauty as you marvel at how alarmingly beautiful I am.

Anyway, I was preparing to meet a special someone as it was D-DAY on the 12th of Dec that I got to meet Yurina!!!!!!! My loveliest Japanese exchange friend whom I was talking about that I met in New Zealand.



Ahhh!!!!!
Her hair is so longgg now and she was totally formal in her formal attire. So different from however we looked in NZ.

We had lunch at Shinagawa and caught up with each other's lives. Reminisced New Zealand days. Granted her command of the spoken English language wasn't strong but I could tell she was actively engaged whenever I spoke and we spoke as if 1 and a half years that we hadn't met didn't even happen. It was like we were back where we left off at our cottage in NZ.

She was a bit quiet at first I believe coz she was struggling to form sentences to speak and she'd always pause to think for a long time. But after a while, her true Yurina nature began to show and there were times when I saw the Yurina I knew. Blunt and a bit crazy haha. "I wonder if he's dead" BIG LOLLLLLL. That sentence totally revealed the true her.

I also asked her a bit about Japanese culture coz after observing the Japanese for the past few days I started to understand a bit about everything. Why they're so obsessed with their looks. Maybe less plastic as the Koreans, but they do take a lot of care with their wardrobe and their HAIRRR. Omg, their hair's so damn nicely set and glossy, really, everyone's hair was so nicely made that... I even felt damn under dressed when I'm there. Give me 3-6 months there and I think I'd be transformed due to pressures of maintaining a nice, good looking image. Even the boys are well-manicured. Their eyebrows are so well kept and arched and... they're more like a girl than I would ever be lol. Pretty good looking many of them I must say ; )

I was also there in the heat of the Japanese elections and asked her if she was going to cast her vote. She said no coz she's too busy. I laughed and told her in SG, it's compulsory! Politically apathetic youth in Japan~~ Can't be bothered about no Shinzo Abe.

She then took me to an observation tower at Tokyo's Government Office at Shinjuku. At first, I was like huh? What's so interesting there. She tried to explain to me, but gave up after a while lol. Then I realised... after we took a lift up 55 storeys.




F w a h .

I saw the entire Tokyo city bruh you wouldn't believe it.
All the major monuments could be seen from above. Even Mount Fuji was supposedly there. But it was a cloudy day, so I couldn't see it then.




After 2 and a half hours of talking and taking me around, it was time for her to leave for her work training at Shinjuku.


Our final picture together~


We hugged our goodbyes, but I didn't feel sad. I knew we would see each other again real soon. She says she wants to go on a grad trip to Southeast Asia next year and I was like "me too!" We could meet at Hanoi or Ang Kor Watt or something, wow. That'd be exciting. And of course, it would be my turn to take her around sunny Singapore : )


Later on, I met up with my cousins once again who took us around Tokyo - Shinjuku, Akhibara and Harajuku.

I'll save you some of the deets. Akhibara was supposed to be Cosplay land and I hadn't seen cosplayers throughout my stay in Japan. I was expecting to see more funky lookin people roaming the streets but I guess it's winter time and ain't nobody gonna be wearing costumes in 5 degrees weather haha. So nope, nothing spectacular there.

I enjoyed Harajuku though. It's like Bugis Street. I think you haven't been to Tokyo if you haven't been to Harajuku. In Gwen Stefani's songs as well haha.

Check out the amount of people~



Famous for their crepes as well so we totally had to get summmmm. Yum.

I noticed how homogeneous Japan's society is. Everyone around me was Japanese. Even at tourist attractions, I see majority Japanese. It's as if they're fuelling their own tourist economy. Strangely enough, when I saw a few Indians there, I felt more at home. Funny huh?

Yurina was quite interested when I told her how Singapore has a lot of diversity and immigrants so it was strange for me to see everyone as Japanese here. She said, everyone's just the same here. All same. Same hair, same face. Haha. Different perspectives I guess.




Check out 5 storeys of Uniqlo dude. It's INSANE.
I took this picture to show it to Yuanyun hahah my Uniqlo girl.


As we walked to our dinner place, we were greeted with trees lit up by Christmas lightings.





So pretty!!! With a huge Christmas tree to boot. The entire atmosphere was lovely. I think it was also coz it was cold and Christmas feels magical in winter.

Couldn't help but take a whole lot of pics there.







Yeeheeee! We were a happy bunch.


Alright, I'm only left with one last day at Hakone for my post. It's an extremely scenic place and I must say.. my absolute favourite part of the trip. Will save that for one last post.

In the meantime, I'm missing Japan sooo much. My cousins too D; Good times unfortunately have to end.

Stay tuned folks for the next post! Promise it'll be soon.