started on 26/5/24
My cancer counsellor told me to express myself more, and I find that I've been neglecting putting out any blog posts in the past year or so already so I'm trying to get back into a habit of posting occasionally.
So the japan trip was from 11 apr (arrived @ tokyo 12 apr) to 24 apr, and I went with my parents because it's our first time going to japan together. I've been to Sapporo around nov 2022 and my parents went to Okinawa around 2018 with relatives. In some ways, going in a group has benefits that going solo doesn't, like staying in an apartment versus my dorm in Sapporo. Sure, it's way more expensive for the apartment, but the other options isn't really ideal, i.e. capsule hotels, dorms that separate gender etc. We also opted for apartments near the city centres so it's obviously gonna cost more. Anyway, the apartments does give some insight into the typical japanese home, with 2 of our apartments having tatami mats and futons. Space wise, admittedly things are rather cramped, especially the showers, where it's really kinda hard not to bump into the wall, and with little place to hang your clothes and towel. Facilities wise, only our Tokyo apartment has an accessible balcony, the others don't. Nevertheless, tokyo one is the most expensive (~670sgd for 3 nights) as it's right next to Kabukicho. I don' think there's anything odd about the Tokyo apartment, but finding it on our first day in Tokyo was a nightmare, as our taxi driver (free from booking from booking.com), couldn't find it and we have no idea on how Japanese address work or how it's read. There's a a small supermarket next to our apartment so getting snacks and stuff is easy. My mum's a picky eater, so it definitely is a plus point for staying near a supermarket and konbini.
The next place is Hakone, and is my second favourite apartment. Hakone is generally a countryside town, and the place we're staying is very close to the lake and has an almost perfect view of the lake. It also has amazing wallpapers and plastic plants which really is amazing. Not to mention it's also the cheapest apartment, at ~140sgd for 2 nights. We wanted to stay another night,but not available, so we had to stay a night over at Odawara. This Hakone apartment doesn't have tv and wifi though,but it's fine as we have ICC sim cards, and anyway, I bought a book along too. It even has a small sofa, a deep seat and a small table to have our meals (the Tokyo ones were the one where we had to eat on the side of the tatami mat area with a foldable table). It really truly felt like we're living in the middle of nowhere, but of course, the apartment is in a house, and there's another apartment next door, and i suspect the owner lives downstairs. The only downside, besides having no tv and wifi, is that it's situated on a hill. Walking up the hill isn't an issue, although parts of the road may not be lighted, but getting up the steep stairs just to get into our apartment is a little dangerous, especially with luggage, but it's still worth the money and experience to stay there and definitely would recommend and go back again.
Next is Odawara,which is more like a guest house rather than an apartment. The 3 of us are allocated a dorm room of 3 beds, but there's 2 other dorms as well as shared facilities. It so happens that no one was staying there so we have the whole place to ourselves. It's a great place, worth the money (though nothing much to see in Odawara besides a castle), and the largest bathtub/bathroom ever.
Kyoto apartment is 100% the best in my opinion. It's also the smallest, but gotta consider other things to. This apartment relies on a number code to access rather than having keys, so makes going in and out easier. It's also double bed rather than futon (too small for futon anyway), incredibly modern facilities and finally after so many days we finally have access to the Japanese high tech toilet.
-gonna try to finish this post (31/8/24)
Osaka's apartment is very new, though the shower area is damn awkward. So Japan's apartments are pretty small compared to elsewhere,so they have this curtain to pull to take off your clothes before entering the shower. You can take off your clothes in shower,but either way,you'll have nowhere to hang your clothes. This apartment also has the largest led tv ever plus with a switch set that I never played lol, along with an overhead projector for movie viewing i guess.
As for the trip itself, well, it's all the famous places like sensoji temple,ueno koen,Nara park,bamboo forest and temples in Kyoto and dotonburi bridge in Osaka. I really enjoyed Hakone the best though, and though we had to stay a night in Odawara, we had a walk around a normal japanese town and even had a little beach, as well as a pretty castle to look at (which frankly, is better as Osaka castle is crowded). Nara was a just a stopover between Kyoto and Osaka,so we only had time to walk around and take pics of the deer. Kyoto is easily the city with the most things to see, and taking the scenic train to Kameoka was pretty nice too as an experience of course. Osaka is mainly about eating, and unfortunately we didn't research too much on other things to do in Osaka, so that's that. We did try Ichiran though, and it was worth it definitely.
Overall,a all in one trip to all the popular places in Japan, and my only regret is not using the pathetic little japanese that I learnt, but nvm, I'm still learning on duolingo and now on renshuu.org too,and I'll continue my 2nd JP elementary class soon, as long as there's no important health issues coming up.
