Deliciously Me
Putting the 'licious' in everything
Archive for the ‘backpack’ Category
I’ve been reading about Arashiyama so much that I felt a sense of satisfaction and tingling of happiness when I was finally there. At the station, one can rent bicycle for Y300 or Y500. Satkuru wanted to cycle but I didn’t want to because it’s cold and the attraction is all walking distance. I even pointed to him that the Tenryu-ji temple is just 8 minutes walk from the station and his argument was because it’s just 8 minutes so we can cycle.
At last we didn’t cycle (and I was happy to save that Y300 or Y500) and we walked towards the left after coming out of the station because the map says so.
On 2nd day, our plan is to get to Kyoto as soon as possible. From Namba station (M20), we took Subway Midosuji Line all the way to Umeda (M16) for 230 yen per person. After clearing the automatic ticket exit gates, we looked at the train lines with the fare besides each station on the white board above the ticket machine again.
In our itinerary, I wrote that we’ll be heading to Karasuma with Hankyu Kyoto Line Ltd Exp for Y690, but in the board we found Karasuma with the fare (Y390). That time we didn’t have any idea on how to differentiate the trains from local, semi-express, express, rapid, limited, etc. We just looked at the board and paid whatever amount needed. So, I was quite happy to save Y300 per person here.
Unsure of which platform to go to, we asked the nice officer in charge and he told us which platform and which train to take. Very nice and helpful they are, always offering help with broad smile. We thanked him and headed to the platform as per instructed by him (I can’t remember which now) and waited for the train to arrive.
When the train came, we went in and I found myself to be sitting at the PRIORITY SEATS. Actually, when I walked in, I didn’t know there are priority seats and quickly gestured Satkuru to follow me. Only after the train moved, Satkuru told me that and I told him no wonder the seats here were empty. I looked at the stickers above the seats and found that the priorities are the elders, pregnant women, handicapped and those with young kid(s). Since we were there early in the morning and it was the rush hour, I’m pretty sure we can secure the seats without any trouble – I told him.
And I was so right. We sat the entire journey and no sight of the ‘priorities’. There was a graceful elder woman in kimono but she sat on the seat in front of me, so there’s no need of me giving my seat to her. Keke.
Earlier I mentioned about being happy for saving Y300 in this ride, little did I know that the Y300 makes a difference in speed. I’m pretty sure we were in this train for nearly an hour because in my itinerary the limited express train would bring me to Kyoto in 40 minutes.
We reached finally and got off the train at Karasuma station together with few working people. Following the map from the guesthouse, we exited at No. 25, turned left upon coming out of the building, passed 4 streets before turning left into the 5th street (Samegai Street).
I came across this hotel when I was googling on capsule hotel in Japan. An article on world special lodging mentioned First Cabin and instantly I clicked on the link.
The website shows a night stay starting from Y4,800 per person but luckily we managed to secure a cheaper rate at Y3650 per person from Booking.com. Without much hesitation, we placed booking for our first night stay in Japan.
When the day finally came, we took exit 13 from Osaka Namba (Nankai-Namba) station as mentioned on the First Cabin’s website. Thankfully I saved the map of our guesthouses in my phone, else we had to dig our bag to take out the printed maps.
We took the left turn and walked towards the crossroad. Unsure of our direction at that time, we asked a Japanese lady for her help. She had a look at the map and then looked up at the buildings around us. Tho she spoke in Japanese, I can tell that she said that she wasn’t sure of the location but she felt it’s in this direction – her hand pointed straight road across the busy road as she spoke. She even asked us to keep left and the hotel is on the left side.
So we did what she said. After thanking her for her kind time in assisting us, we crossed the road, walked straight and kept looking at our left. As we walked towards the end of the road, fear arose as we thought we’ve misinterpreted her. That’s when we spotted the First Cabin’s signboard.
The building looks new and classy. We walked in and to our surprised there are only two lifts on 1st floor (1st floor is the ground floor in Japan). There’s a sign on the left indicating the levels and the tenants of the buildings. We searched for First Cabin. It’s on 4th floor.
When Air Asia X launched its new route to Osaka somewhere in 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2011, we were just trying our luck to see if we could secure any cheap tickets. Little did we know, we did! Without much hesitation, Satkuru got ourselves two tickets.
Then only we were thinking if we could make this trip as dirt cheap as we did for our previous trip. Slim chance, as the cheapest accommodation we could find would cost us at least RM100 per person, not per room! Not to mention a bowl of noodles would cost us RM20-RM30.
Then the proposal came in. With wedding budget coming in our way, we really thought a lot and wondering if we did the right choice of going to Osaka.
While we were still thinking, we proceed with lots reading, itinerary drafting, accommodation booking, visa application at the Japanese embassy, and keeping a close eye on the Yen currency against Ringgit.
The moment Yen dropped, we immediately took out our savings and changed into Yen. During the itinerary drafting, I drafted too on the amount of money we’ll be using for our trip. I calculated that we’ll be using about RM3000 per person, with little souvenir back home. We both know we can’t afford to change more as we need to keep some for the wedding.
Well, the thinking stopped the moment we changed our money. Of course, we started thinking again when I fell sick the weekend before flying. I felt sick during Chinese New Year and it dragged until then. In fact it dragged until now, as I’m writing this post. *cough cough*
Konichiwa! I’m back!
In fact, I’ve just reached Penang today. Boy am I so relieved to see price tag without two zeros – though 100yen doesn’t equals to RM1 but RM4! Not to mention that the price starts from 100yen, so each buying costs at least RM4. @_@
Yet, this trip is one of my finest and most explorable backpacking (or more to trolley-pulling) trips I’ve ever been to and I can assure you that both my legs are in terrible pain now. We totally walked until we dropped; and we ate like no tomorrow – to gain back energy after walking in cold. Yes, it was so cold (less than 10 degree Celsius in the day and negative at night) and it rained on 13th and 14th! Thankfully, the rain wasn’t heavy (more to drizzle) and that didn’t really dampen our exploration spirit, lol!
