Day 3! UNIVERSAL STUDIO JAPAN (12/2/18)

Magical Day 3!

If anyone of you know me wellll, you would totally know that I’m a sucker for theme parks! So Universal Studio Japan is a Hell Yeah On my to do list!

We got there about 10am in the morning, the subway station literally opens to the Universal City Walk. So it’s super easy to find.

We went there on a weekday and a slightly chilly day. So using my theme park gut, the crowd was really considered small. So I think that would be the best time to go to USJ! If you go on a weekday with no public holidays near by, I wouldn’t find it necessary to buy express pass. The main big attractions flying dinosaur and Hollywood dreams, Both have single riders lane! So please use that to get through the crowd in almost HALF the time!

It was a wonderful experience! Note to not go to all the shows here. Because it’s all in Japanese. So you wouldn’t understand it anyway. We had much fun! Worth it!

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Travelogue: Day 2: Osaka Namba-Dotonburi

Day 2! So, we actually headed back to the airport. Kansai Airport Washington Hotel was actually a mistake on my part when I booked our Airbnb on the wrong dates. So our travels were a bit messy. But no matter! We manage to hop on a free shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport again. 

So we got back to the airport because we needed to settle our WiFi rental and catch the train (that we booked) to NAMBA where our Airbnb accommodation was at. 

Mum literally said: Go kids, picture. And we just walked there straight. I really think she bore us so that she could take embarrassing pictures of us like this.

Had our first Ramen at the airport. It was good, but the end part of the soup was super salty which wasn’t too good of an after taste. Found it strange to have a lemon in it, but the taste worked. Couldnt wait to be trying AWESOME ramen later in the day! The pork katsu curry looked AWESOME though.

We then took the train to NAMBA! Bought the train ticket + day pass for unlimited use of subways and buses. It only costed 1500yen for that deal per person, which I thought was a good deal. It took only 40 mins to Namba. And it was super on time. Very amazed that the rumors were all true about the timeliness of Japanese transportation. 

We took a few subway lines from Namba to Tanimachi where our Airbnb was at. The instructions of our accommodation was very spot on! So was super grateful for that. Traveling around Japan/Osaka is really not too hard when you have google maps! It’s super accurate and updated with the train times.

After settling down and taking a nice LONG nap. We headed to Doutonburi in search of a greaaaat meal day 2 night meal! The weather was hormonal though. When the wind picks up t can easily go dowwwwn to like 2degC. Especially during the night, chattered my teeth off. 

The street is literally filled with all sorts of restaurants and street food stalls. It’s like food haven there! Recommended area to get your ramen/takoyaki/grilled meat fix. The beef steaks especially Wagyu and Kobe cut meats are just mouth watering.

And this is just coming from some random restaurant with no queue outside. Can’t imagine the ones with a crazy long queue. Look at that sear and the perfectly marinated piece of art.

We also had the chance to line up for the best ramen in town. Ichiran Ramen. Recommended by my best friend. And it was a coool Japanese famous ramen shop experience. It was a personal cubicle dining style! First we queued up outside with a menu given to us to choose how we liked our ramen personalized, EG. Intensity of the soup, onions or no onions, spiciness level. We then were put into a room where we stared at lights that indicated whether the seat was vacant or full. Totally like some theme park ride! 

We then got put into those private dining space where it’s just your own personal eating area. But you can take down the partition la if you wanted to. 

The flavor of the ramen was really very rich and tasty. The pork was not fatty but just nice and soft. Really worth the wait. 

Super cool experience! Would totally be brave enough to eat alone in these settings. While lining up for the ramen (approx 30mins), we got the chance to order the best takoyaki in town too! 

Right that’s all for tonight! Off to USJ tomorrow! 



Travelogue: Day 1 – Osaka Kansai (10 Feb)

GOOOOOOOD DAYYYYY!

It’s been way too long since I’ve done a [Travel with Aly] blogpost! So this is going to be something new this time. I’ll be updating live on my travels everyday for the next 14 days!

The featuring country of these two weeks, as you all know from the title of the post: JAPAN!

0950 – 1215:

Flight from MYY to KUL on airasia. It wasn’t delayed, so that’s a good thing. A few things I learnt though. Apparently, if you’re traveling on a connecting international flight from Miri, you have to check in at the counter and not print the bag tag from the machine like everyone else. This is because they need to check your passport from Miri side, so make sense. ANOTHER THING. If you buy VALUE PACK from airasia, the FOOD CHOICES are default and the same for everyone in your party. The pasta Arrabita wasnt appetizing at all.

Miri Airport Food, overpriced.

1415 – 2030:

Flight to Osaka was pretty empty flight, which was nice 🙂 Think not many would take the afternoon flight because it really does waste practically the whole day! The in flight meals seemed pretty standard for airasia. Not much to comment about the flight because I slept through 75% of it..

Me playing around with my new toy

OSAKA KANSAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

The immigration line for one is super long. According to peers, they did not experience an HOUR of waitline 😦 but maybe our fault for dilly dallying around taking pictures –

Was totally enjoying looking at Nintendo posters around

We made it through the immigration counter and the baggage collection with no problems (just the wait in line). 

FOOD. There are only 2 stores that are opened after 11pm. MCD and SUKIYA. So naturally we avoided MCD (for now) and went to some local-ish rice store (sukiya). It was my first ever raw egg dipping meat experience ever. Apparently it’s a thing to dip the meat into the raw egg like sauce and eat. It’s interesting… but not too much of it, scared my tummy would react. The beer was interestingly fresh tasting. Asahi at its best

Food was gooood. Probably to mediocre for Japanese standards, but good enough for this small town Miri girl like me!

Now, the time is 12am. This little Maiyor clan thought it was a great idea to get a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Boy, were we so wrong. In 1 hour, only 3 Taxi showed up. And then silence for the next hour. Tips for the rest, either book a taxi before hand. Or trust the bus system. Because it’s close to impossible to get a taxi at that hour 😦 but we made it!

Kansai Washington Airport Hotel:

SUPER PRICEY! One night for 5 of us, we booked 1 double room and 1 triple room. And it cost around 1.5k for ONE night. The rooms were also super tiny for a double room. The triple room had 2 beds and a couch. Despite calling it a triple room, it did not have all the necessities of a triple room etc, towels, blankets. But other than that it was a pretty clean and comfortable room for the price. Just note that their double room bed size is like SLIGHTLY bigger than a super single. So if you’re planning to share a double bed with a friend (2 girls maybe), it would an awkward size.