.Bla bla Things About Me.

My photo
I thought I'm just gonna say that I'm a simple girl in this complicated world, but I think it's just what I want to be - a simple person.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

.Purity.

.Dusun Bambu, Bandung 2014.

.Butter.

You're the butter to my bread :)

Thursday, December 25, 2014

.Japan Trip - Day 6 - Kyoto.

On our 6th day, we moved from Tokyo to Kyoto. We were using shinkansen, thanks to JR Pass, we can use shinkansen (except NOZOMI and MIZUHO trains) anytime and anywhere we want for 7-day yayyy! You just need to buy your JR Pass before you arrived at Japan (you can not buy it when you in Japan), and activate it in any JR station. 

My advice is activate it several days before the first day you're planning to use it, as the station can be very busy in the morning, especially for a big station like Shinjuku or Tokyo. So when it's the day, you just need to show it to the officer on the gate and off you go :) If you're travelling in high season (Sakura season or Golden Week), I think it's better if you reserve your seat in the train,  just to be sure. 

Do remember if you reserve any seat that means you'll be taking the train from that station. We activate plus reserve our seat in Yokohama station, but we are taking the train from Ueno station so our reservation are not valid and we need to take the non-reserved seat. I think this is the only shinkansen reservation we made. But even if you don't reserve any seat I think it will be very easy to get a seat because (usually) car no 1-5 are for non-reserved seats, and each car is large enough for about 60/70 persons.
Coin Locker
If you happen to need to drop your luggage for a while, coin locker are available everywhere. For bigger station, they have more coin locker with various size from small (hand carry/cabin size suitcase) to extra large. I happen to need a locker for several hours when I reached Tokyo station on our last day, but we couldn't find any available locker. Thank God they had cloakroom service (at Gransta) so we can drop our luggage for several hours. I think Kyoto station also had this kind of service, but I don't know about the other station. Remember, always have plan B! :D

Shinkansen
Shinkansen

Shinkansen

Our luggage

The shinkansen is very neat, much much much better than Indonesia CL (of course!), and I love how spacious they are. We are using 2 suitcases, one is cabin-size suitcase and the other one is medium-size suitcase. I can put our medium-size suitcase in front of me! 
buying bento before leaving
Of course, one of my must to do list is eating bento in shinkansen! Been watching this scene so much in the manga, I wonder how it feels. Truth to be told, I don't like it very much since the rice is cold. I'd rather having some sandwich instead hehe...
bought an onigiri, DELICIOUS!!
Btw we were seating next to a middle age lady, who barely speaks english. I offered her some blueberries, so that's how our conversation started. It's one of the beauty in travelling I think, to meet new people and heard about their culture and language. Even though she can't speak English (but can heard some), and I can't speak Japanese, but somehow we understand each other. Even Mr Chubby doesn't understand how can I communicate with this lady, I think this is girls language? haha! 

Well anyway, she told us that in front of her mother home,  there's a bluberry tree and she had a daughter and a grandchild, and so on. She also asked about our itenary and I showed her, she kindly giving some recommendation to eat in the places we were planing to visit. When we were passing by a mountain I asked her is that Fuji-san? She said no. After that, she showed me a custard-filled chiffon cake. She pointed to the brand, Fuji-ya co, and then gave it to me. It was surprising, as it's not common in Indonesia to give food to unknown people, when you do it in Indonesia, people will get suspicious haha! 

I eat it right away, and it was soooo sooo sooo good. The chiffon cake is very fluffy and the custard is very good, it's creamy but not so sweet. OMG! I think it's the best cake I ever had in Japan haha! Thank you so much for the cake miss! If only we had it in Indonesia :( we only found one store that sold this baby (only 100 yen!) in Osaka, next to Tempozan Wheel. 
Memorable cake!
My lunch box
Mr Chubby's box, sorry for the messy photo hehe
So it's lunch time already and we opened our bento. It was okay for me. The lady next to us also eating bento, accompanied with a small bottle of red wine. Wow, Japanese women are very classy! When I'm old I want to be a classy lady like her, eating lunch by the window, sipping some wine, and enjoying the day :)
Kyoto Station
Hana Hostel
When we arrived at Kyoto station, it was a bit snowy. Very little actually but it was the first time I'm seeing snow , so horray! :D The station is very modern and I love the architecture. We were staying at Hana Hostel, so we need to take the underpass from the station to the hostel. I am amazed with the underpass, it's so clean! haha! 
Left : Kyoto Station ; Right : the underpass to hostel

The hostel is also very neat, it's ryokan style hostel so each of us must change our shoes with indoor shoes they provided. What I love for being staying in the hostel is how much information they give to us, unlike staying at the hotel. And may I say, it's very detail. Here's the map in the dining room, you can check which area you want to visit and how to going there! They also had promotions, if you stayed more than 2 nights, you can choose between snack or free bicycle rent. As we don't have time to use the bicycle, we choose the snack pack :) 
Snack Pack
Hana Hostel
The main room
For the first 2 days we booked the double room, as for the last day we chose the twin room, because I want to try the futon in double and twin size.  The room was very spacious compared with our last hostel ^^ As for the futon size, let's say I'd prefer the twin size, more room for me hehehe...The hostel staff was very kind, they'll move our suitcase from the double room and twin room if you already prepare it in the corner. Their facilities are complete, from fully equipped kitchen to the common room and fast wifi everywhere! :) 

Since this is a hostel, you need to pack and unpack the futon by yourself. Sleeping using the futon is very relaxing, compared to what I expected. It's so fluffy and comfy :D
Mr Chubby diligently preparing the futon
The bath room
The twin room
Fushimi Inari
After check in, it was already 3 PM. We rushed to the Kyoto station again and took the JR to JR-INARI station, to visit the Fushimi Inari shrine. If you ever seen the Memoirs of Geisha movie, this shrine is used for the scene where little Chiyo run in happiness after seeing the love of her life. Ever since seeing the masterpiece, I've been meaning to see it in eyes. 

The Inari station only took 15 minutes from Kyoto, and it's located next to the station. When you get off from the train, you'll see the bright red torii in front.
First torii
Map
very calming landscape
the famous tunnel in Memoirs of Geisha
The ema in this shrine is shaped like fox, because of the fox believed as Inari's (God of rice) messenger 



It's quite a hike to visit until the top of the mountain, we only managed to hike halfway since it's a bit rainy and it's getting dark, too bad. But the view we got is amazing! Again, I don't know if it's the euphoria or it's the spirit in the air but the situation is very calming. It's quite yet serene.

After the hike, we were already famished and freezing. There's some souvenir shops around the shrine but we straight to the food stall!
Takoyaki
The takoyaki wasn't so special but damn it's cold and all we need is hot food! We also spot many places sell kitsune udon (it's believed to be fox's favorite food) and kushiyaki, but we had another plan at our next stop, so we hop on train as soon as we can!
Kushiyaki
 Btw, the shrine is located in rural area but as you can see, the digital clock is there and the train arrival is still precise. wow.
Train in rural area
Nishiki Market
The market was said closed at 5 PM and it's already  more than 5 PM when we arrived. Most of the shops were closed :(
Nishiki Market
Scored some Senbei, yumm!
Shrine inside the market
We also found another shrine inside the market. We don't visit it since we were super hungry (again). Cold makes you eat more than ever! T^T Quick dinner at First Kitchen, it's a fast food chain that has Japanese-Italian menu. I loveee their sauce, they had about 6 choices (I forgot) and one of them is spicy mentaiko. It was so goood and rich! As for the food, it's like Waraku japanese dining but with pork menu, tasty and cheap! :D
First Kitchen
So that's it for the first night at Kyoto, hope you enjoy!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

.Japan Trip - Day 5 - Ueno + Shibuya.

Breakfast part 1 : Mister Donut
The morning was windy and cold, we were planning to visit the Ueno Park in the morning, but we couldn't resist to have our morning coffee intake! The doughnut especially cruller was a bit hard to chew, not my kind of pastry :( Btw, I think I didn't found any Dunkin Donuts in Japan?

Well anyway after that we proceed to Ueno but it's still early and I don't know why we ended up having another breakfast haha!
It's just a random small stall around the station. They have standing area for customers who want to have a quick meal. I still don't get if standing will make any difference in total time needed in eating. 
Fried stuff aaaa~ me want!
Order placed using vending machine (as always). This morning we chose the udon theme, Curry Udon for me and Kakiage Udon (udon with vegetable fritters) for Mr Chubby. Eating hot soup from the bowl + windy day = Bliss! ^^
Kakiage udon 400 yen and Curry udon 400 yen
After breakfast, we start entering the park. Inside the park there are 4 temples, 5 museums and 1 zoo, so you can imagined how big the park is! The entrace fee is free except for some museums and the zoo. 


We're wandering around the park which is very beautiful, even when there's no cherry blossoms blooming. 

But on our way to Shinobazu pond, we found this!
Sakura! 
Sunny + Sakura = perfect!

Shinobazu Pond

The pond were filled with lotus, but all of them were dry at that time :( The area itself was very calming. I don't know if it's the spirit in the air or anything, but seeing this calm pond with city background was really relaxing. There's only few people there, some were feeding the bird, and the rest were like us, sitting and wandering around our mind. I want to have this kind of afternoon when I'm old :)
the birds (why the sparrow isn't fear of human, unlike in Indonesia?)
feeding the bird
After that, we dragged ourselves to the other area of the parks. Anddd we found this again, they were blooming by the vending machine ^^ After captured this beauty, there're few people in queue, also want to capture this beauty! :)
see the coca cola vending machine logo? :P 
I feel lucky to finally see sakura this close :)
another picture

Now I understand why this is one of the most popular cherry blossom spots, the cherry blossom tree are so many! I wonder how beautiful it is when all of them are blooming... :)

Around the park, there's Ameyoko market, which is our next destination. 
Charging station in front of Ueno's Yodobashi
Cleansing glasses station in front of an optic shop, free to use! :D
The market was big and it's so far the cheapest market I ever visited during our trip! It feels like visiting Pasar Baru in Jakarta ;)
Ameyoko
Above : fresh seafood; Below : Japanese Snow Crab woooww *drooling*
Left : Ama-ebi ; Right : Octopus
Most of them are selling fresh seafood *drooling* Stopped a bit for some pan-fried xiao long bao.
Pan-fried Xiao Long Bao
The bao was juicy, very juicy to be exact, as the juice burst out to our camera and to my coat huaaaa T^T Ended up buying new coat (excuse excuse) but thank God we managed to save the coat , all hail to laundrette :P Lesson learned that day : be careful when eating this kind of bao!
Inari Sushi
Green Tea Mochi
I think it was the cheapest mochi I ever seen in Japan! 1 box of mochi only for 300 yen? wow! If only Mr Chubby likes mochi... 1 box is too much for a girl :(
Aoyama Flower Market, too beautiful!! ^^
Next stop, Shibuya! We don't do much in Shibuya actually other than shopping hehe...but we managed to visit the Hachiko statue!
Hachiko

Yoshinoya
Late lunch was at Yoshinoya, just for the sake of their pork bowl. Chikara Meshi is definitely the winner!

If you are visiting Shibuya, do visit the Don Quijote if you found it! It sells anything, from groceries, electronic, to clothing. You can find anything! I never though I'll found this kind of costume.

need to look like a shaolin old man?
OMG almost buy it haha
Radishes costume
Cabaret "ladies"
Okay I don't know what it is -__-
Japanese marketing is surely crazy haha!
Btw, found this thing. It was by the cashier, I though it was for tips / charity. But it's the opposite, you can take the money if you need it! (Maximum 4 yen) Wow nice service! 

So that's it for Tokyo, will be posting about other cities on the next post,so stay tuned! :)