It's Time To Change: January 2009

this is the first time following my mother go outstation.. staying there for a week, went to several major cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe..

15th of December 11.30pm
departed at KLIA.. taking MAS Airline Business Class to Tokyo, takes about 6 hours 45 minutes.. first time taking business class, quite interesting for me.. inside the cabin there's a small TV and music player on each seat.. you can order whatever drinks you want, free magazines and newspaper.. but it's midnight, who cares about those stuff when you really want to sleep already??!

16th of December
arrived at Tokyo about 7.00am Japan Time, meet with the staff from the overseas brach office.. we went to the Tokyo Imperial Hotel and check-in.. they start their very first meeting at the office while i sneak inside a room to have a nap.. we have our lunch at a Japanese restaurant, served us with tempura and double layer’s cold noodle with soya sos (it’s like one bowl of noodle put on another bowl of noodle, when you finished the ‘upstairs’ , there’s another at the‘downstairs’). On my first day here, I just walked around the hotel at night while my mother went for meeting.

17th of December
One of the stuff from the office will be my guide… she bring me to a place name Shibuya. It’s one of the busiest places in Tokyo, and similar with out Bukit Bintang where you can find many branded shop… there’s a road junction where each time the traffic light turn red, around thousand of people crossing the road at one time… I didn’t manage to take a photo during that time cause it’s raining and there’s really lots of people walking around me… then she bring me back to Yurokochu and we had Italian food as lunch…
On the evening, a Japanese guide brings me to浅草. There’s a temple named Asakusa Sensoji Temple. It’s a temple where Japanese will pray and celebrate their new year there by wearing their own traditional costume. 我还在那用100yen摇了一支签, 是一支“大吉”的签. Then we went to Ueno market where people are selling fresh seafood. There’s all kinds of fish, abalone, long leg crab, short leg crab, prawn and the unique one – octopus. Next stop is Akihabara (秋叶原), also known as Electronic Town. any electronic stuff that you can think of it, you can find it here… we had Japanese tendon as dinner before going back to Yurokochu.

18th of December
We went to 100 yen shop, all stuff inside the shop cost only 100 yen (RM4). This is the cheapest shop you can find in Japan. Saw lots of teenager around that area, some with the cosplay costume and some with the school uniform… nothing to do on this day, just walked around hotel area and at night I watched Manchester United match against one of the Japan’s league team inside hotel.

19th of December
Today will be going to Osaka 大阪 by riding bullet train called 新干线. It takes about 2 hours 30 minutes from Tokyo to Osaka and during this journey I saw the Fuji Mountain. It’s beautiful and the upper side of the mountain is cover by snow… arrived at Osaka and check-in at Ana Crown Hotel. The director of the Osaka’s branch office brings us to a Japanese restaurant, having Japanese Sushi with Tempura, first time having sushi in Japan, very nice…
At night went to the function organized by TM… French buffet and Malaysia food, with unlimited Sake… nothing to do except eating non-stop…

20th of December
Went to Kyoto (京都)… visit several world heritage places like 三十三间堂 Sanjusangen-do (means a hall with thirty-three spaces between columns). Built in 1164 and reconstrusted in 1266. this temple has 1001 statues of Buddhist plus 30 different stutues of god.
Then we went to a small restaurant, which only serve 10 person at a time for tempura lunch. It’s quite famous in Kyoto since the tourist manual did mentioned about it. The chef is surrounded by a long table for 10 person, then he will cook the tempura in front of you. The ingredient are fresh and it’s delicious.
The next destination is Nijo Castle (Nijo-jo), also an UNESCO world heritage site. Built in 1603 as the residence of first Tokugawa Shogun ( Japan warrior as the emperor – military government). Beautiful scene inside here as the garden was well decorated and maintain, just like the original one.
Then is The Golden Pavillion – Rokuon-Ji Temple (金阁鹿苑寺). It was the comfortable villa or known as holiday villa for the Shogun. It’s a three-storey building with 2nd and 3rd floor are covered with gold-leaf and there’s a Chinese phoenix settles is attached with singles.
Then is the Ryoanji Temple 龙安寺 – a simple rock garden, consisting only of white sand and fifteen rocks. Its simple beauty will inspire philosophical meditation. Now I still not really understand what is the guide trying to explain about.

Since today is the last day of the trip, the Osaka’s branch office director bring us to a Indonesian style restaurant to have a Indonesian style dinner. I also saw a pair of japanese couple having their Bali style wedding inside this restaurant, wearing traditional malay custume.

21th of December
We went to Kansai International Airport and ready to fly back to Malaysia at 11am. But unfortunately the flight had delay for more than 7 hours, we had no choice but to walk around that area. So we went to Kobe (神户), do some shopping here, enjoying the sea-view and took some photo. We had a Pakistan style lunch here in Kobe and visit a mosque, which it survived from the world war 2 and the Kobe big earth quake few years ago.
Finally the flight departed from Kansai International Airport at 8.30pm and arrived in KLIA at 2.00am in the morning…

After the Japan trip, I see so many new things and understand that it’s great to learn other’s country cultural . it had widen my mind and I really appreciate every moment in Japan. Thanks to Nurul and that japanese lady for being my tour guide!! I would love to say that: “Japan, I will be back!!”