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 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 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.