Escapism : Japan + Turkey

This year I went to Japan for the third (or forth?) time and I also went to Turkey for the second time. 

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We went to Japan again for Midsummer Design Festa, our first summer and typhoon experience. It was all about the bad weather. We had to stay indoor a lot, we didn't explored as much as we wanted, the mini hikes we did were tough, the typhoon attacks were super scary. So we were pretty much disappointed because Japan was not as friendly as we remembered. 

But we made a zine out of this trip, called Summer & Typhoon, a collaboration of Af and I. The pictures he took on films and the doodle notes that I did during the trip.

This is a picture of me with the umbrella that Af broke because of the super wind.

Huge reminder : Don't go to Japan during odd season. We went there during the transition between summer and autumn, so a lot of too hot to function and random windy scary typhoon attacks. This was in August. 

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Things I wrote in August :

About the 8 hours bus ride from Tokyo to Osaka :

There are many ways to travel from Tokyo to Osaka, one of the most affordable one was an 8 hour bus ride. The ticket was 7,200 yen (RM 260), we booked it 5 days before the date at Shinjuku Bus Terminal with a guide from people working at the bus station.

The bus ride was super fancy, we each got dedicated private and comfortable seat, with thick blanket (it gets cold), personal space (with private curtains for each seat), can lower down the seating, and rise-up the legs section, individual USB charging deck, free unlimited WIFI and toilet (AirAsia seating is far from comfortable - the 8 hour afternoon ride in the bus was much better than the 6 hours night flight).

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About mini hikes in Nara & Kyoto :

Apart from the bad weather, we had several fun times in nature, we did some mini hikes away from the hectic crowds and summer heat. I did planned to do nature walks in the forest (in Japan), but the weather was not friendly throughout the week, so we had to cancel most plans. 

These mini hikes weren't planned, it was just something that happened during our trips. It was a nice surprise. The first one was when we arrived in Nara, and we already visited all the listed places, so I suggested that we visit the farthest point in the given map, that is Kasugayama Primeval Forest. We had a nice several hours walk, no one was around, just the calm forest silence and old tall trees.

The second one was in Uji, Kyoto.
We hiked to the Daikichiyama observation deck. It was a fairly easy mini hike, I was trying to avoid the sun and suggested we walked towards the place. Not sure how long did we took to hike up because we stopped several times for photos. The observation deck had a nice panoramic view of the Uji City.

In nicer seasons, you can also enjoy lines of sakura (spring) and maple trees (autumn), among all other tall old trees.  

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In Nov, I went to Turkey, just less than 2 months after the Japan trip and without Af.

This was with a Muslim group tour along with my older sister and her friend. Although Turkey is a friendly country, I don't really feel like it is possible for me to do a backpack travelling in Turkey (and those random riots are normal there). Turkey is a huge country with a lot to offer. It even takes up to 12 hours bus ride to reach to the next cities during our trip. So although I hated the group tour experience, I enjoyed the cities we went to during this 10 days trip and it was only for RM 3,250 including flights, hotels, foods and transportation. The last time I went to Turkey in 2014, the flight ticket alone was RM 2,700 :F

I like this photo because I look tall - I am short in nature. 

We went from Istanbul - Ankara - Cappadocia - Pamukkale - Kusadasi - Bursa - Istanbul, covering around 2000 km area on bus. So there was a lot of sitting for long hours in the bus. It was also the starting of winter (again, about the weather - I can't function in cold weather). Most days were below 10°C. I'm thanking God for the decision I made in buying my own winter coat (so I have at least 3 layers of thick clothes all the time). 

We also survived long flights. The worst one was on our way back home, we went to the airport on Sunday morning (at 10am) and finally arrived in Malaysia on Monday morning (at 10am). That is one whole day ! So around 3 hours from Istanbul to Iran, around 6 hours transit in Iran, and around 8 hours from Iran to Malaysia, missing around 5 hours in between continents. 

Lesson : Don't go with a group tour again (I hated the experience) and don't leave your husband (it was tough on me - I never left his side for the past 3 years :F What is the meaning of these travel trips and escapism without my own travel partner? )

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I think I spent less than RM 7k in my 2018's international trips :F

Osaka - Kyoto 9 : The Videos

Can't believe it's already 2 months since we went to Japan. I think I already wrote almost 10 posts on the last trip, I'm not sure whether I want to elaborate more detail on that escapism (because I'm already planning on a new escapism project for the end of this yeaaar) :D

Af compiled the part 2 for our Osaka - Kyoto - Nara trip last weekend. The video started with some shots in Nara, Expo 70 (Bampaku-kinen Koen) and Kyoto (on our final day), all taken after my family went back home and we got extra days to explore together. A lot of green and nature walk than usual walks with my family. Here is the video :

Note : 

• I noticed the doves in Japan were almost twice bigger than those in Malaysia (not sure whether if it is because of the cold whether), but they were all huge, chubby and adorable.
• Garden, parks, and forest are accessible everywhere. I think the Japanese tries to utilize the nature as much as they can. So people can get their dose of nature all the time. It's therapeutic. These places are soothing, calm and very clean T^T I was so happy I could cry T^T

And here's for the part 1 :

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Osaka - Kyoto 7 : Halal Restaurants in Osaka, Kyoto & Nara

Compared with my previous Japan trip, this time we tried so many halal Japanese foods. We clearly spent below budget after the first week stay, so in the second week after my family went back, we hunted for as many halal restaurants we could cover. I wanted to taste the original Japanese ramen, sukiyaki, udon, soba, syabu-syabu, mochi, and takoyaki. So we did! 

I dreaded to write this post, because I had to do my research on the location & find images from my phone =.= I am so lazy...

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Places we ate in Osaka :

1. Bulls - Sukiyaki & Syabu-syabu

• Type of foods : Sukiyaki, syabu-syabu & steak 
• Rating : 4/5
• Location : OCAT building, Naniwa-ku, Osaka

We went here with Ishijima Sensei, so she ordered all the foods, several sets of syabu-syabu and sukiyaki (it was my first sukiyaki). I've never tasted meat so nice, all cut in really thin slices, put inside the syabu-syabu for several minutes and dipped in raw egg before eating. It was the best syabu-syabu experience - we've done so many syabu-syabu at home, but it never tasted this nice. It was a different kind of taste. Note : It's near the JR Namba Station

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2. Halal Ramen Osaka Honolu

• Type of foods : Ramen 
• Rating : 5/5
• Location : Motomachi, Naniwa-ku, Osaka

This is a 'must-go' place for a ramen lover. All the energy spent on walking so far away from Namba City in windy coldness was worth it. I ordered spicy ramen from the machine, waited at the ramen bar (there's only around 8 seats so first come first serve) and got the best halal spicy ramen Osaka had to offer to me T^T I felt like crying, because it was so spicy like how the Malaysian likes it and it was so delicious! I don't mind coming here again for a hot spicy ramen during winter.

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3. Cafe Bintang

• Type of foods : Indonesian Food 
• Rating : 1/5
• Location : Chuo-ku, Osaka

Oh my god, it was such a waste of money. 

Af spent around 1,000 yen for Ayam Penyet set that didn't taste anything like what we have here or the one I eat in Indonesia. The set was just white rice, small skinny fried chicken, salad and tasteless spicy sambal (?) - it was expensive even if I compare to all the other Japanese food restaurants we tried there. While I ordered a tasteless Bakso for 850 yen - there was 4 beef balls, glass noodle and plain soup (I think he forgot salt?). Isk isk isk. I hope the owner will improve their foods, or lower down the price for food sets. It doesn't resemble Indonesian food at all. 

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4. Mithilia 

• Type of foods : Indian Food 
• Rating : 3/5
• Location : Chuo-ku, Osaka

Oh, we went here secretly without Ma & Aja, the night we went to Dotonbori for a nightwalk with my little sister. We tried to find halal takoyaki in the area, but I couldn't speak that much Japanese to converse in a food stall. So we just tried to find any halal restaurants near us using Google and we found Mithilia. After some consideration and discussion, we finally settled in a cozy packed Indian restaurant. We ordered some rice set, cheese naan and matcha lassi. The food was nice, sure it wasn't Japanese food, but it was still nice :) I loved the environment and the matcha lassi !

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5. The Soba Dining

• Type of foods : Udon, soba, Japanese food
• Rating : 4/5
• Location : Expo City, Bampaku-kinen Park

Oh, we found the place by accident ! We were at a shopping mall called Expo City after spending one whole day in Expo 70' Park, didn't even thought we would find any halal restaurant because it was quite far from the main city. But there it was, right next to the escalator, the 'halal' sign on the glass door. I was so excited. I ordered a Clam soba set, and it was so good T^T I shall remember each moment I found a great Japanese restaurant. 

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6. The U-don

• Type of foods : Udon, soba, Japanese food
• Rating : 4/5
• Location : KIX Airport

On our final day we slept over at the airport for the second time. 

There were several restaurants in KIX that offer halal foods, and after several discussion on which one to choose, we decided to go to The U-don. For 920 yen, I ordered Niku Soba (beef) at the counter, waited for my order and tasted another nice Japanese food T^T Well, I love anything with good soup so the Niku Soba was really good (for me) ; just a simple hot soup, udon, slices of beef and leek.

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Places we ate in Kyoto :

7. Naritaya Ramen

• Type of foods : Ramen Japanese food
• Rating : 3/5
• Location : Gion, Kyoto
• Facebook

It was one of our first meal in Japan and we didn't quite like it. We tried different meals so that we could exchange and taste everything. Unfortunately we didn't like any of it. For me, the miso ramen was too salty - too salty, and I just can't. I personally think because of our bad first experience, we spent our lunch money on onigiris everyday afterwards. None of my family suggested dining out after this restaurant :F Note : The friend chicken was nice though.

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Places we ate in Nara :

8. Jinnayyah Ramen

• Type of foods : Ramen, Japanese food
• Rating : 3/5
• Location : Nara
• Facebook

We found the place after we got lost in the maze of buildings. It was so cold and we were so hungry. We walked several km before finding it T^T We were the only customer during that time, maybe because it was one hour before their closing time. I asked whether the ramen would be spicy - 'spicy' and he nodded yes, passing me an Indonesian chilies powder for extra spiciness. 

Unfortunately I didn't like the taste. It was between curry and spicy soup, not sure how to write this down, but I just didn't quite like the taste :(

Pictures of us :D



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Ways you do to find halal foods in Japan :

• You can refer to Halal Japan
• You can download and use app : Okashi Checker for a list of halal foods that you can buy in kombini. They will probably update the list from time to time.
• Or try Kansai Muslim Friendly guide app on Android or iOS
• Ask people to read the ingredients (preferably vegan/all plant based to be safe) - if you can speak Japanese, or simple English + visual from smartphones (be creative, they are very helpful, don't worry)
• Note : Even some drinks like instant coffee got non-halal animal fats/emulsifiers so it isn't that hard to check before you buy. There was this one coffee we really liked when we went to Tokyo, and after consuming almost daily, we found out that it got pig-based emulsifier. That was after we got back from the trip (because I did random checking). I didn't feel good about it later, so I learned from my mistake. 

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Yeay for writing these post!

Hopefully it will help you find great halal authentic Japanese foods in Japan ❤

Note : 

We usually cook our breakfast and dinner at home.

You can find affordable raw foods in market (like eggs, tofu, veggies, fruits, rice, mushroom) and do bring instant cooking ingredient from home.

Osaka - Kyoto 6 : Nara & Places You Should Go :D

We only visited Nara once, bought the train tickets from Osaka straight to Nara because we didn't know better. The train ticket without any travel passes is twice more expensive. This was the day we learned to buy all passes for the whole week after my family went back home. Tourist passes can be bought in Tourist Infomation Center in the city center or the airport, so yes, please buy passes if you want to travel smart :F

True, the city didn't leave a big impact on me - probably that is why we only went there once (while we visited Kyoto 3 times). But looking back in my album, I noticed that I have as much beautiful photos in Nara as Kyoto and Osaka.

Af said that on the day we visited Nara, it was a cold and very windy day (and I probably complained a lot about that because I can't really tolerate winter) - plus we couldn't find kombini so we were starving and when we were heading to the Halal ramen shop in Nara, we got lost in the empty maze-like roads and it was sooooo far, plus the train tickets were so expensive. Maybe these excuses are the reasons why I didn't quite like the experience in Nara?

Anyway, places you should go in Nara :
Note: We didn't really explored Nara as much as we hoped, so there's not so many things to cram into a one-day visit. So there are more to this place than my short review.

• Deer Park - the famous deer park where lingering deers ask for deer crackers openly without shame, they will probably nudge you, follow you, and smell you. They are harmless, but they are still wild creatures so you shouldn't try to hold or ride them. The deers were all around the main city, around temples and museums, and there are so many old people (cleaners) sweeping off their wastes on the road all the time. So you can expect a very clean road even though it is full of wild animals walking freely. Deer is considered a sacred animal in the city, so they roam freely.

• Yoshikien Garden - we found the garden by accident when we were lost in the area. It is a private garden, free entrance for foreigners :D The area is divided into Japanese Pond Garden, Moss garden, Tea Ceremony & Flower Garden. I love the little moss garden and the ancient Japanese old house in the garden. We were the only two visitors when we went inside, so we had the big private garden to ourselves. Lucky we got lost, or wouldn't have found the garden.

• Todaiji Temple - Where you can see the largest bronze statue of Buddha, and the great south gate (in the picture), as you can see, I can't even take the whole picture of the gate because it was so big. During our visit, there were a lot of renovations so some of the places were closed for public. Honestly, we didn't visit the huge Buddha statue - I didn't know ! We were so hungry, cold and walked for hours since the morning so we just decided to find the nearest halal restaurant in the area. After we took the photo of this huge gate, we headed to the restaurant =.= If I had known better, I would have walked inside !

• Halal Ramen Naramachi Jinniyah : Here is a photo of our late lunch : the extra spicy ramen. More detailed post on foods in the next post :D

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There are so many temples, icy ponds, beautiful rows of houses and zakka shops in Nara that I didn't mention but worth the visit.  Plus the maze-like roads was definitely something, but I was a bit too grumpy, too tired, too cold during this time =.=

So check out my Flikr album for the full photos ya!
(I just uploaded more phootos inside the album)

Osaka - Kyoto 5 : Kyoto & Places You Should Go :D

I looooooove Kyoto. 

So much more than Osaka or Nara. We went to Kyoto 3 times during our 2-weeks stay. That means we specifically bought extra passes just so that we can spend more time in that beautiful old city.

Places we went to in Kyoto :

• Gion 
• Yasaka Shrine
• Maruyama Park
• Hokanji
• Arashiyama (Bamboo Forest)
• Nishiki Market
• Fushimi Inari Shrine
• Inari Mountain Top
• Shimogamo Shrine 
• Kyoto Imperial Palace
• Kyoto Manga Museum

I'm sure Kyoto will be much nicer in spring and autumn, because the changes of colours. But we went during the transition from winter to spring so there's not as much colours. The moods were mostly grey and blue. Our third trip to Kyoto when we planned to walk as much as we want, it rained almost the whole day =.= We spent time in kombini for random lunch because we were stranded. 

Places you definitely should visit in Kyoto :

• Fushimi Inari Shrine & Inari Mountain : There are so many shrines and temples in Kyoto so we can't compare - but Fushimi Inari is one of the famous one in Kyoto, the one with red tower-like gate (torii) as long as it can reach the mountain top. We did hiked until the top of the mountain and got back down before the storm. We took around 3 hours, Ma and Aja waited in the main shrine at the waiting house because I didn't want her to walk so far up. There are a lot of sleek looking kitsune statues as well. Not many people hike up until the top of the mountain on that day, so it was easy for us to take the empty path photos :

• Nishiki Market : Of course, the old market in downtown of Kyoto. Where pasar can be seen as clean as market in the mall. The market is beautiful, all in colours, varieties of fresh seafoods, and things we didn't even recognize. You can even eat some fresh food right-away, like the small octopus' leg for 200 yen on stick (see this image below). I think my little sister and brother went on buying weird stuffs on the market just to try it out, they are a bit daring =.= The octopus smelt like blergh, and even the after-smell is eurgh. But hey, that's how the Japanese eat it :F Other than fresh tuna and some other raw fishes, I don't really eat stuffs like octopus or squid, tried several times, didn't like it. 

• Gion : One of the oldest district in Japan where you can see old buildings turned into nice artisan shops and rent kimono (if you like those stuffs). There are a lot of teahouses and cafes, mini and huge temples, private garden and all those beautiful camera-worthy place T^T It was extraordinary. We had our lunch at Maruyama Park, supposedly famous for cherry trees and sakura but during our visit it was nothing but branches of hibernated trees. We also saw the 5-storey pagoda on Higashiyama Hills, huge and magnificent! No real maiko was seen on that day. 

• Arashiyama Town : Should spend half of a day in this small town to visit all the places they can offer. You need to do a lot of walking, from the train station towards the Bamboo Forest, walk through the famous main bridge called Togetsu-Kyo (fullmoon bridge) passes the Katsuragawa River. If you are with an elderly or your parents, I think you should take the bus - because ma had a hard time walking too much on that day. Oh, there are 2 train stations in Arashiyama, you can see a kimono forest with 600 poles of colourful yuzen in Randen Arashiyama and even try out their 200 yen foot spa or the classic Sagano Romantic Train Ride. There's also Iwatayama monkey park in the area (it was closed when we arrived). We only spent around 3 hours before night fall, so most of the places were almost close - and we were dead tired for walking the whole day (it was our 2nd day in Japan). So I personally feel like we should have spend more time in the area.

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Kyoto is a nice city, I wish to spend more time here - seeing we already spent a lot of times in Osaka and tried almost everything they can offer from the travel passes tour :D Maybe we will be back in different season in the future ! 

Osaka - Kyoto 4 : Osaka & Places You Should Go :D

I've been wondering on how to write in detail about things that happened in my latest Japan trips, the places I went to, and the foods we ate. Compared to all my previous travel posts, this trip was the longest - so I wouldn't want to write day-per-day stories (14 posts only for the days, not including all other extra posts around it are a bit too much). I decided to write it by places : Osaka - Kyoto and Nara. This way I can focus on the stuffs that worth mention on each places. So people who are planning on their own trip can use these posts as reference as well :D

Images are usually auto-compressed in blogger, so I don't quite like it. You can check out my Japan photos from my Ig or Flickr album here.  I'm not much of a person who keeps my own portraits these days so I hardly have pictures of myself anywhere lah :p Who wants to see my faces in all my travel pictures (like what's the point?) So this is an album of my Japan trip, the things that I found interesting and were nice to my eyes.

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On Osaka & its places, using the Osaka Amazing Pass (3,000 yen). All ticket passes accumulated were supposed to be around 4,200 yen and the train rides for those 2-days supposed to be several thousand yen more. But we used the Osaka Amazing Pass, so we only spent 3,000 yen for those 2 days full of activities, places and train rides !

There are a lot more places listed that we can go for free, but there wasn't much time to cover all.

• Osaka Castle (600 yen)
• Museum of History (600 yen)
• Museum of Housing & Living (600 yen)
• Ferris wheel ride at HEP5 (500 yen)
• Osaka Science Museum (400 yen)
• Tempozan Pier and Marketplace (free)
• Tempozan Ferris Wheel ride (800 yen)
• Tsutenkaku Tower (700 yen

Not using Osaka Amazing Pass :

• Kaiyukan Aquarium (2,200 yen) - (discounted : 2,100 yen)
• Tennoji Zoo (500 yen)
• Shiseiki Alley (free)
• Dotonbori Street (free)
• Joypolice ride at Hep5 (800 yen) - (discounted : 600 yen)
• Namba City (free)
• Expo' 70 (250 yen)
• Expo City (free)

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If you buy the pass, make sure you use it fully in those 2 straight days. 

Among all the places I went my favorites were :

• Kaiyukan Aquarium

• Tennoji Zoo

• Expo' 70

• Tsutenkaku Tower

• Museum of Housing & Living

I didn't like most of the ferris wheel rides because it was a bit too scary - too high and it moved when people in the cart stood up or changed sits :F All the museums are nice as well, it's more interactive and we can do a lot of things as well : especially Museum of Housing and Living where you can experience the real-size old Japanese town and 4-level Osaka Science Museum where you can play around like kids :D

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Extra note :

Kaiyukan Aquarium and Tennoji Zoo were my idea - because I really wanted to see their zoo and aquariums, the last time I went in Tokyo, it was super fun! Although the aquarium ticket was a bit expensive, it was worth all the money spent. I saw a lot of new sea animals that I could never think of, and most of the animals were just a glass away. Kaiyukan Aquarium was so big, we spent almost half of the day inside. It was nothing like all the aquariums that I went to before. You'll be walking around the biggest tank with so many sea creatures swimming inside. It is one of the biggest public aquarium in the world - so it is a must go spot. I collected almost all the stamps here - they have stamp stations at so many corners with different animal design.

Tennoji Zoo - even thinking about it makes me smile. Maybe some people are against the idea of locking animals in the cage when they are supposed to be wild and free. But without zoo, I can't imagine seeing wild animals in real life and without actually seeing things in front of my eyes, it's hard for me to feel connected. I'm the kind of person who needs to experience and see things in front of my eyes to 'feel'. So zoo and aquarium are my happy places, I love animals, I love looking at them. The difference between these zoos and the local ones we have here is how they made the barrier between human and those animal as small as possible. We were only separated by thick glass so you can look the animals as near as you want. One of my favorite was floating hippopotamus' butt - we went down to the tank separator down to the fake pond that you can also see from above, and the hippo was showing its huge butt to us. But even how hugeee and heavy it is, the hippo's body keep on floating in the water not reaching the floor. Those big feet with tiny high-heel like feet were hopping and I felt so happy.

Expo' 70 - I don't think people travel to Osaka and have extra time to visit this place. It is located at the Bampaku-Kinen Koen station, you have to take the monorail to reach here. It was quite far from the city. The reason we visited the place was because Af wanted to see the Tower of the Sun. For me, the statue looked a bit odd. The statue is located inside the Expo '70 Park so you can buy an entrance ticket before heading inside. We were of course greeted by the huge statue, it was around 70m high so you can see it lurking from all over the park. We walked all over the park - to the blooming plum garden (I thought it was sakura) so we finally experience the blooming season before we went back home, to the Camelia garden, looked over the budding tiny tulips on the ground and some bamboo tree mini forest. There are many garden without green leaves and flowers as well - because it is still considered cold and too early for spring.

So that's what I felt about Osaka.
Sure, Osaka is a busy city, with buildings and huge crowd of people compared to Kyoto & Nara. But Osaka got a lot of commercialized attraction spots worth visit.

Anyway, Af compiled his take on the Osaka x Kyoto part 1 video :D

ESCAPISM #12 Osaka x Kyoto - PART 1 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

Osaka - Kyoto 3 : The Days, the Activities, and the Places

So like I mentioned in the previous post, we went to Japan for 14 - days : many days spent in Osaka, 3 days in Kyoto and 1 day in Nara. How did we planned out the days? We actually planned the night before, every night after dinner we'll have a small gathering to discuss the plan for the next day. It's a bit hard to schedule it properly because we don't know how long we will take on each places, or how far each places were located, so we just have a rough idea of what we are going to do. That way it won't be like a rush tour, we were trying not to do the tour hopping thing, instead, we waited for the right moment to let everyone finish up what they wanted to do (or tried to-lah, at least).

Susah betul jadi planner and trying to make everyone happy =.='

Here's our rough schedule :

• Day 1 : Arrival, check-in at Namba near Dotonbori
• Day 2 : Kyoto ( Day 1 Kansai Thru Pass ) 
• Gion-Shijo
• Arashiyama
• Day 3 : Osaka
• Tennoji Zoo (supposed to be our resting day after the extreme 12 km one-shot, Kyoto exploration the day before so I suggested we spend the day at the zoo) 
• Shiseiki Alley
• Day 4 : Exploring Osaka ( Day 1 Osaka Amazing Pass )
• Osaka Castle, 
• Museum of History
• Museum of Housing & Living
• Ferris wheel ride at HEP5
• Joypolice ride *not recommended
• The top of Tsutenkaku Tower for a sunset view
• Day 5 : Exploring Osaka ( Day 2 Osaka Amazing Pass ) 
• Osaka Science Museum
• Kaiyukan Aquarium
• Tempozan Pier and Marketplace
• Tempozan Ferris Wheel ride
• Day 6 : A whole day with Ishijima Sensei in Namba
• Day 7 : Resting day, but we explored Dotonbori at night, we found Mithilia restaurant at Dotonbori for dinner
• Day 8 : Kyoto ( Day 2 Kansai Thru Pass) 
• Nishiki Market
• Fushimi Inari + hiked to the top of Mount Inari
• Day 9 : Check out day, we spent the day waiting for our other Airbnb check-in time because the bag was super heavy - we found the Honolu Ramen near Namba City - highly recommended
• Day 10 : Nara 
• Deer Park,
• Kohfukuji Temple
• Yoshikien Garden 
• we found Naramichi Jinnayah halal ramen *not recommended
• Day 11 : Expo' 70, Bampaku-kinen Koen & Expo' City (Osaka Unlimited Pass)- we found Soba Dining - recommended
• Day 12 : Exploring Kyoto one final time (Osaka-Kyoto Keihan Pass) 
• Shimogamo Shrine
• Kyoto Imperial Castle
• Kyoto Manga Museum
• Day 13 : Check-out day, exploring Namba and slept at the airport - dinner at U-don, KIX - highly recommended :D
• Day 14 : Flight home

Images were shared in my Instagram multiple images by days during my stay. I don't really feel happy sharing images in this blog anymore, knowing the ugly auto-compression Blogger uses that I don't like. 

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So as you can see, our days were packed with activities and each place wasn't near to one another. We had to do a lot of walking. 123km in 14-days means we walked around 8-10km per days, almost every day. By evening, our feet usually ached/sprained so we had to soak our feet in an icy-cold water bucket to let it heal faster for the next day activity. It was that tough, I soaked at least 3-4 times in those 2 weeks. We usually walked for the whole day, with a short rest for lite lunch and tea-time and train rides. Kesian ma :D I already told her, we are a bit hard-core in exploring but she insisted in following so sometimes she complained - we let her rest in several resting spots (like cafes with wifi) so she'll get the heat and wifi and she'll be happy (lol).

The reason I tried to put all activities as much as we can is because honestly, I have a lot of places in mind that I want to go to in this world and I'm not sure when I'll reach this part of Japan again. So I really wanted to cram every single things inside, plus this was a family trip so I hardly got my silent moments where I can reach out to the solidarity of new places. The feeling was different than all my previous trips, but the experience was still nice :)

Osaka - Kyoto 2 : The Tourist Passes

In this trip, we played tourist - I wanted my family to experience everything Osaka & Kyoto got to offer without thinking too much about the money - because Japan can be a bit expensive if you don't plan it properly. So by the time we reached the airport that morning, I searched for a tourist information center to choose which passes we might need in our trip. It was a long discussion in a long queue, and my siblings gave me the power to decide on which passes to buy. So we bought this passes in the first week when we arrived :

Osaka Amazing Pass ( 2 days - 3,000 yen ) Where to buy ? *****

The pass to go to all the visitor's attraction in Osaka and the train/subway rides. It was a value for money, thank God we bought it because we didn't have to pay most of the ticket fees afterwards. By the second day pass usage, we already almost finish up all the listed places, we tried everything they offered because we already paid the super-discounted price. I urge you to buy this if you are exploring Osaka. We went to the castle, to the Tsutenkaku Tower, twice on different ferris wheel ride, awesome museums, discounted huge Kaiyukan aquarium, the zoo, etc. Too bad we didn't have more time for a cruise ride - I think that's the only thing we missed from the guide book. 

Kansai Thru Pass ( 2 days - 4,000 yen )  Where to buy ? **

A pass to use all the train, subways and buses in Kansai (Osaka - Kyoto - Nara - Hyogo - Wakayama - Shiga ). You'll get a guide book, map and coupons. But we just went to Kyoto twice, because we didn't cover most of the Kyoto parts we wanted on the first day. If I knew we didn't have time to explore the other part of Kansai, I would have bought the Keihan 2-days Osaka-Kyoto pass for only 1,000yen.

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After my family went back to Malaysia, we went to Nara without any passes and I spent over 1,600 for return train ticket (which was too expensive - almost 3 times more without any passes). So the day after, we searched for a tourist information center to buy more passes for our remaining days. We still wanted to go to Bampaku-koen, outskirt of Osaka and another one-time exploration in Kyoto. So we bought :

Osaka-Kyoto Sightseeing Pass ( 1 day - 700 yen ) ****

When you buy the pass, you'll get a book of coupons you can use. So you still need to pay to enter certain places but with discounted prices and free gifts. It is way cheaper than buying without any passes that might reach at least twice the price. We went to Kyoto again for the third time and it rained (ha-ha).

Osaka Unlimited Pass ( 1 day - 500 yen ) ***

We bought it because we wanted to visit our final spot and that is Bampakukinen-Koen where Expo' 70 is located. It was quite a long ride as well and without passes, it might be a bit pricy, so after we discussed with the lady at the tourist counter, we just bought the Osaka Unlimited Pass. But we had to add more fees afterwards because to go to Bampakukinen-koen, we need to change to a monorail that was not listed in the pass. This pass is useful if you want to travel in main parts in Osaka - not including any free passes, just discounted coupons.

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So plan properly! They have a looooot of passes to offer, almost every major train line got their own passes that you can buy from. If you are planning on a 1-week trip, for example : maybe you can allocate 2 days for Osaka, 2 days for Kyoto, 1 day for USJ and 1 day for Nara. So for every day you want to explore on certain area, you can buy the passes to get a great discounted price. What you can do is allocate at least 10,000 yen for all the passes to buy at the airport when you arrive there - make an initial plan beforehand and show to the tourist center people, ask for their opinion and choose wisely :D

Note : We didn't go to USJ as my brother and Aja wanted because I'm not so much of a theme-park person. So they probably sulking over it because I managed to drag them along to the huge Kaiyukan Aquarium and Tennoji Zoo, but not USJ :D But I tried soooo much to keep everything under budget and tried not to make any of the family members feel like they are on a tight money budgeting because some of them only brought RM 500 to spend in Japan la weyy =.= How to survive that. 

Osaka - Kyoto 1 : Post-Japan in Words

The reason I was unavailable for the past 2 weeks was because I went to Japan (again), this time to Osaka - Kyoto - Nara. This can be counted as my third Japan trip, if I exclude the time when I was growing up in the country : I grew up in Hokkaido, I visited Fukuoka for a student exchange program in 2000, I visited Tokyo with Af in 2015.

Why Japan, again?

I actually went to Singapore and Indonesia last year, the feeling wasn't as much exciting as we hoped it would be. We are already in love with Japan since our previous escapism so going to a place that I know we'll surely love is fair for both of us. We did gave a chance to travel to other countries during the gap between Tokyo and this trip.

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Pre-planning :
We planned since early 2016 - after a discussion with my family, and we booked the flight ticket on July 2016, so it was a long-awaited trip for all of us =.=' I gave such a long gap so everyone can collect money for the family trip. Airbnb apartment were booked in early 2017, around 3 months before our flight date.

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Differences between this trip and the Tokiyo trip :

• This was a semi-family trip, because Ma was complaining about our trip to Tokyo - that I didn't let her tag along. So this time I did asked everyone to follow us on our Japan trip, but they had a 9-days trip with us while we extended to 14-days. Family trip is different than our usual travel escapisms.
• We went to Tokyo during a transition to Autumn, so it was a bit rainy and the weather was breezy nice - *the big flood in different prefecture was alarmingly scary though. In this trip, it was a transition from winter to spring, so it was cold. Most days was below 10ºc , some places were icy-windy. I don't like winter, never did.
• I brought more money in this trip because we were staying longer than before. In the Tokyo trip, I spent around RM 1,000 during our stay - each day was recorded. In this trip, it's hard to keep track money especially if you are bringing your family members along and 'belanja2'ing others. So I spent around RM 1,500 in this trip but I can't really put in detail like I did before.  
• I doodled in my book almost every day : on things we did, places we went and foods we ate. Compared to my previous trip in which I didn't do the drawing straight away, this time I followed my Bromo & Beijing trip. It is way easier to make a travelogue when you already have something fresh doodled in your book as a record.

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How much we walked?

If you are an iPhone user, there's a feature in Health that you can use to track your steps automatically without turning on any app. It is just there, tracking your steps and that's my favorite free embedded feature in iPhone :D By clicking on the app : Health > Activity, you can see how much we walk + run for the day, and how many steps we took. So that's how I keep track of my walking distance in Japan.

• 27/2 : 6.5 km ( Arrival day )
• 28/2 : 12.4 km ( to Kyoto )
• 1/3 : 8.3 km ( to Tennoji Zoo & Shiseiki Alley )
• 2/3 : 11.7 km ( Exploring Osaka )
• 3/3 : 8.8 km ( Exploring Osaka )
• 4/3 : 10.2 km ( A day with Ishijima Sensei & Dotonbori )
• 5/3 : 5.3 km ( Rest-day & Dotonbori Street )
• 6/3 : 11 km ( to Nishiki Market & Fushimi Inari, Kyoto )
• 7/3 : 7.7 km ( Check-out, Namba Walk, and check-in )
• 8/3 : 10.4 km ( to Nara )
• 9/3 : 11.1 km ( to Expo City, Bampaku-Koen )
• 10/3 : 11.1 km ( to Kyoto )
• 11/3 : 8.7 km ( Check-out day & Namba )
• 12/3 : 3.9 km ( Departure day )
• Total : 123 km, not counting the last day.

Many days in Osaka, 3 days in Kyoto and 1 day in Nara. 

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Return flight ticket :

Like I mentioned above, we bought the ticket over half a year before during Airasia promotion including chosen seat and insurance. The flight was over 7 hours and I didn't bring books - can you imagine that?

Money : RM 794 each person

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Accommodation :

We booked for 2 apartments - 1 with the whole family, and another 1 after the whole family went back home to Malaysia, so we searched for a smaller place to stay.

Airbnb 1 : Namba apartment (wifi) : RM 272 per person, total was RM 1908 for 8 nights

Airbnb 2 : Sembayashi Loft (wifi + bicycle) : RM 229 per person, total was RM 457 for 4 nights

Total : RM 500 per person for 14-days trip (last day were spent sleeping at the airport)

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Camera :

Oh, I finally upgraded. Remember I used to use the iPhone 4S since 2011 and it was slowly dying - I suffered the phone's weak battery, frequent blackouts and so many issues. Before the trip, I went to the bank and took out my savings to buy a new iPhone SE. I did consider to buy other than Apple product though, for so many months, it was almost become a joke between us. But a love is still a love, I'm an Apple user, I'll know I won't feel the same as before if I change to other devices. So I bought it and I'm super happy with my decision now (as I look back to the moment when I was deciding). This is the only device I used to take photos, nice ones, if you agree with my Instagram posts :D I brought along my Lumix but didn't even use it. 

So, one device it is : iPhone SE.

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Useful stuffs :

• Learn about their tourist passes offer because they are super convenient and a super value for money. There are so many passes to buy from the Tourist Information Center at the airport (be ready for a long queue) or in Shinsaibashi if you are already in the city. Read here for the passes we bought.
• Know your budget. My budget was RM 1,500 but I brought RM 2,000 for emergency usage. We activated the debit card use outside of the country (just in case). 
• Halal foods 101 : take the pamphlet at the airport (with all reachable listed restaurant in Kansai area), OkashiChecker to check ingredients in kombini foods (especially snacks and chocolates - hope they will add more into their database when I visit Japan again), Citymaps to download offline maps of the cities I wanted to travel to (and they have Halal food spots!).
• I always use Airbnb to book apartments online - never tried hotels or backpackers hostel, just affordable small apartment to live in a house like a local, cook, and free bicycle (+pocket wifi).

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People :

We are just a bit too reserved to mingle around with other travelers or even locals, can't seem to grab the idea of being friendly whenever I travel just because I was travelling - we are both introverts and aren't good with new people. So I don't mind being quiet because we are quiet-beings whenever we are with strangers. Not like unfriendly-kind-of-way, just quiet and won't simply chat with random people without any strong reason. Just pure introverts by heart. So not chatting with people all through our travels doesn't seem odd, because we just don't do it here, ditto anywhere else.

Japan is a great place to feel isolated and we can get the quietness we longed for because they are as reserved as most introverts. Plus, all introverts love other introverts - they give the right amount of space :D 

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Note :
It will going to be a super long series like my previous Tokiyo Trip - because I'm detailed as that :D But I will also post other stuffs as well alongside of the escapism stories. Hopefully this written travelogue will help any first-timers/planners that are planning on going to Japan soon.

Singapore Trip 3 : Things I Bought from the Trip 02

This time I managed to wake up before 4.30am. I went to our small kitchen to make hot Neslo that smells so nice in the morning and ate a banana. It started to rain. Early morning, hot drink and rain, a great combination to start a day.

I'm continuing to list things that I bought in the previous Singapore trip - because all items deserve the mention :)

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NoemoArt/Pooi Ning Chia postcard :

Her booth was located right behind my booth, so I went to look around many times. She is an illustrator from Johor. One postcard that caught my eyes was a printed illustration of her hand-drawn Pekan Nanas (1950-1960s) map. She mentioned that it wasfrom an old map of her hometown - I'm guessing in Johor. I really love hand-drawn maps so I finally bought one from all the coins I collected during the first day of the event. The postcard costed $2. 

I also asked her to sign the card and took her cute little namecard as well. She packed it in a nice transparent matte envelope. Loooove.

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Evangelione's postcard :

When I walked past Evangelione's booth before the event started on the first day, there were rows of her cute little hand-sewn dolls lined up. The next time I walked past by again several hours later, all her dolls were sold out :o This happens several times already as I met her in other previous events.

So there's nothing else for me to buy except for $1 printed postcards. I bought one as a support, 3 small ladies in teapots. It is so adorable I love it. I asked her to sign it in the back of the postcard :

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MiniFanFan namecards :

I met her ! She stopped by at my booth and told me that she recognized me T^T I was at the verge of crying + sweating nervously. She told me that she already joined the event several times and chatted with me for a few more minutes, but I can't quite remember what she asked or said because I was too nervous.

I didn't managed to buy anything at her booth because I didn't have the budget :F But because I already bought her postcard from her previous event, I guess that's okay then. I took 2 of her namecards though, because it was so nice to see and collect.

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Other links :

EEChing's Handmade (Malaysian Crafter) | Chris Chew Yi Wei (Singaporean Illustrator)

Heimlo (Indonesian Designer) | Dodolulu (Hong Kong Illustrator)

Mossery (Malaysian Planner) | Paper Therapy (Indonesian Crafter)

Muffinsaurs (Illustrator) | HappyDoory (Malaysian Illustrator)

Tiny Supplier (Singaporean Crafter) | When I Was Four (Singaporean Illustrator) 

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I saw/met a lot of illustrator/designer/doodler/crafters in this event. Quite an impressive crowd. The event was not solely focused on design + arts, but more to various of things that we can do ourselves : independent clothing lines, pottery/ceramic makers, personal coffee maker, hand-sewn items, jewellery makers and so much more. 

If you want to go to the event, please do. It's quite an eye-opening experience for me to see how many people from Asia came down here to open a booth together :)

Singapore Trip 1 : Public Garden, Suntec Convention Hall

The decision for my 25th booth :

I've booked for the event so many months ago when I was still working as a freelancer. Along the way between my new job and Bromo run, Zika came into the picture. It hit Singapore in September and it was spreading slowly, calmly. My mom was worried, Af's mom was worried. So I couldn't decide on whether I should go or I should just cancel the trip. Every day I checked on the news  about Singapore : Zika, it was there, slowly spreading, not like wild fire. But like a really old lady trying to cross the road. Alarmingly slow, but it was there nonetheless.

I finally decided on going 4 days before the event. I booked the flight ticket and hotel for Saturday morning - the event day, and to get back home as soon as possible after the event ended on Sunday, that night. The original plan was to drive to Singapore on Friday, after work with my siblings and Af. But I decided to cut everything short and just go to Singapore for the event instead. Af wanted to join me in my first international event, so he booked the ticket as well. 

The flight costed around RM 200 for return ticket and addition of 20kg to bring all my doodle items in a huge luggage. As for the hotel booked nearest to where the event took place in Suntec City, I spent around RM 300. There wasn't any places cheaper than that, other than hostel - which I'm trying to avoid in this trip. 

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The event's day : 

The weekend started fast. We woke up at 2.15am, and by 3.00am we were both already in front of Ma's apartment, waiting for Ma and Aja. They sent us to KLIA2, by 4.00am we already checked in and sent my luggage. Our flight was scheduled to board at 6.00am, so we had a quick breakfast at Mc'Donald inside while waiting. I will forever hunted by the cancelled flight to Cambodia because of my own recklessness and I'm avoiding that to happen again the best way I can by being several hours early.

One hour later, we arrived at Changi Airport. First thing first, I took a free map at the customer service. After my previous backpack trip in Tokyo, I have a habit of collecting city map at the airport. It's always free, and it helps a lot. Studying the map was pretty easy, especially their train system. It is exactly like what we have here in KL. 

We took the train from Terminal 2 to MRT and to get to Promenade, we had to change 2 times. At Tanah Merah and Paya Lebar. Simple as that. Everything was nicely labelled and pointed to the location. We just had to follow the arrow.

  

And so we arrived at Suntec quite early, the shopping malls weren't open yet. Except of Giant, where I bought several things to eat like bread, biscuits and boxed juice. We found a foodcourt afterwards so we decided to stay there for awhile, to wait until the convention centre open. I sketched that morning's story in my sketch book while Af read Haruki's novella, After Dark - until 11.30am when the hall opened.

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The event :

The hall was big, packed with rows and rows of tiny wooden desk and 2 chairs. I was excited, full with energy. My very first international event ! I thought to myself. And so Af helped me getting ready for our booth and I took several stories to be shared in my Instagram - because yes, I was super excited. I haven't feeling like this for quite some time. 

The business later was a bit slow, getting my first customer took some time. The hall was really cold, packed with a lot of human all around and I was again, like the person I am, I began to feel awkward and out of place. That's the price of being an introvert. Things were tough for both Af and me, these two awkward Malaysians trying our their luck in neighbouring countries. It was even harder for me to make decent conversation with people. I managed to nod, and smile and answer gibberishly.

Those 2 days of coldness, packed with human like tinned sardine, barely any sales - just a decent $150 collected in 2 days. All by selling stickers only - which was impressive. I met fellow Malaysians : Minifanfan, Eeching, Evangelione, Noemo, HappyDoory, Mossery, also famous Indonesians : Heimlo and Naela Ali from Asobi. Most of the names that I've been stalking in my social media platforms. 

My highest point at the event was when I met Yellowmushmellow for the first time, in person. She was with her sister, she stretched her hand to give me a handshake - which I reached awkwardly. I hardly remember what I said to her, I think I answered to her questions, I was being awfully shy and awkward. Like I never wanted to meet her in person or something - padahal I've been wanting to meet her for so long, I am her biggest fan. Ever. I don't think that was even possible, for anyone to be so unpleasantly shy in meeting their idol in person. Haiyooh. She later gave me a pack of present, the one she was supposed to send during last Raya on her random Eid gift-away. I opened it gleefully after we bid goodbye to each other. 

She has no idea how highly I think of her.
Thank you Aida, I really-really-really like it - A LOT.

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Outside of the event :

We walked in Bugis Street and Bras Basah area on Sunday morning. We managed to find a mamak's small restaurant in near Bencoolen for breakfast. Later using the small map, we searched for any malls with stationary shops for me to buy a pencil lid :D The one I've been using finished the day before so I couldn't doodle anything in my sketch book. The short morning walk turned into a pencil-lid-hunting. After 2 malls, we finally found one in Bugis Junction and then we headed to the event's place right away for our final day booth opening. There wasn't any exploration much other than that morning's short walk.

Note :
Everything in Singapore is commercialised and expensive *the rate is times 3, guys. So there's nothing much to do if you go there without wanting to spend much. Plus, I only brought SGD100 in this trip, just for the change when people buy things and foods.

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Thoughts on the event & market :

Based on my personal rough observation I noticed that Singaporean got different taste than Malaysians. I saw what they picked up, how they lighten up when they saw certain objects. Even though at first I thought everything depend solely on each people's preferences, like certain people like certain things just because they feel connected to certain items - this wasn't the case at all. I managed to see an obvious pattern when I saw that they like vectorised-stickers a lot compared to hand-drawn digital illustrations. At first I felt like it was rather odd - because for me, vectorised illustrations are a bit stiff and not so personal. I mean, any designer can do vectorised illustration, right? - so as a designer myself I don't feel connected to my own vectorised works. Or something like that. But they keep on picking up those same stickers over and over again. So I'm guessing they do have a certain taste and style that they all agree to appreciate.

So in my case, I didn't meet the right market. I am a designer, but I try not to sell my designs - I'm more prone to my own hand-drawn illustrations. Outside of my designer's bubble, I like to think of myself as a self-exclaimed illustrator. So, yeah.

I already got an invitation to open another booth in the same event for Christmas and according to other Malaysian independent artists - the sales are much-much better and the crowd will be more overwhelming than this, so they are definitely joining. As for me, I think I need to change my technique for different market. I decided to not join their next event in December.

Note : Booth fees was SGD$200, I managed to collect SGD$150. So minus flights and hotel, I think I didn't really reach my target. Although it was a failed attempt, it is still nice to see a new environment, and new international market. Just to see how deep the lake is. Dip, dip, dip. Until next time :) 

Plus, I really need to think of ways to improve my props and make them all easy to travel and not so heavy and nice to the eyes, because obviously my stickers are expanding like there's no tomorrow :

Bromo Trip 7 : All Link Posts + Video

Here are all the links from our Bromo Trip :

1.0 - Pre-Planning 01
1.1 - Pre-Planning 02
2.0 - Detailed Costs for 5 days 4 nights
3.0 - Airbnb Hostel in Surabaya : Kamariska Hostel
4.0 - Our Bromo Sunrise : Mount Penanjakan
5.0 - Savannah + Whispering Sands + Bromo Creater
6.0 - Bromo Marathon 2016 : Our 10km Run

We had a really short travel and it wasn't even considered as an exploration because it was so hard to get from one point to another in Surabaya and Bromo - so mostly on car, jeep and van. We hardly go anywhere on foot - so I consider this just as a DIY tour travel and run event. 

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Here is a video compilation Af made from the trip :

Please ignore my hormonal imbalance pimply-red face. 

Af refused to delete my part in the video =.=

ESCAPISM #11 - Mt. Bromo 2016 from Farikarim on Vimeo.

Note :
Our next trip is in next February + March again to Japan, this time we are heading to Osaka + Kyoto. Half of the trip with my family and another half of the trip will be backpacking trip with Af. We will extend longer ! Flight tickets were bought early in last August during the AirAsia promo. Woohoo !