11Nov2017_Kyushu-Preparation

Once again it’s our annual pilgrimage to Japan. Last year around this time it was Osaka and Kyoto. This year we decided something new:driving in Kyushu,Japan.Before setting off for  Kyshu we have to make sure the following items are prepared

1. Air Ticket
2. Accomodation and Car Rental
3. Planned Itineraries

(1) Air Ticket 

For popular destinations in Japan, it is important to book ticket half a year in advance especially when there is still airline promotion.For SQ direct flight to Fukuoka, we booked the tickets in June for Nov departure. It only costed us SGD976.20 per person and with mileage discount, the net price was SGD790.35. If you book a few months later, the price shoot up to around SGD1400.


Click here to see the air ticket

(2) Accomodation and Car rental 

(2.1) Accomodation

Similar to air tickets, accomodation must be sourced at the same time. Normally, Japan accomodation is opened only 6 months before. We usually booked via Hotel.com or booking.com.For Hotels.com one night free can be redeemed for every 10 nights that you have stayed based on the average price of 10 days stay. These are the confirmed ryokan and hotels booked for this trip:

Date	Hotel	Price	brfast	Booked via	Link
18,19Nov	Yufuin Inakasou田舍村いなか本館	SGD373/2 night	No	Hotels.com	Click here
20Nov	Tairoukan 旅館大朗館	SGD183/night	Yes	Booking.com	Click here
21Nov	Imakuni ryokan 今國旅館	SGD180/night	Yes	Booking.com	Click here
22-Nov	The new hotel Kumamoto	SGD127.64/night	Yes	Hotels.com	Click here
23,24Nov	Dormy Inn Hakata Gion Natural hot spring	SGD359.79/2 nights	Yes	Hotels.com	Click here

(2.2) Car Rental

We read that it is relatively easy and joyful to drive in Kyushu where the road and countryside along the way can be quite picturesque, we decided to give it a try.

We have experience renting from budget-rent a car when we were in Melbourne in 2015, we decided to rent again from budget-rent a car in Fukuoka. Most navigation system that comes with your car comes with both Japanese and English. It is important that you have to ask the car rental staff to set it to English. Also, in Japan you normally enter the telephone number or mapcode.However,sometimes telephone number of your destination could have changed or there is no telephone number in the destination you want to go. Then it is important to know the map code. You can get the map code from this website.
Click here for Japan mapcodes
Click here for budget rent a car website
Click here for email confirmation(only authorized)

(3)Planned Itineraries

Date	From time	From	To	Address	Tel	Mapcode	Drive hrs	Link
18Nov17(Sat)	0930	Fukuoka In't Airport	Kokonoe Yume Otsurihashi(Sky walkway)九重夢大吊橋	1208 Tano,Oaza,Kokonoe-machi,Kusu-gun,Oita,879-4911 879-4911 大分県玖珠郡九重町大字田野1208番地	+81 973(73)3800	269 012 156	1hr42m	Click here
	1330	Sky Walkway	Yufuin Station(Yufuin Area)	Location/8-2, Kawakita, Yufuin-cho, Yufu City, Oita, 879-5114 〒879-5114 大分県由布市湯布院町川北8−2	0977-84-2021	269 357 117*80	36min	Click here
	1500	Yufuin Station	Kinrinko lake金鱗湖	30mins walk from Yufuin station	-	269 359 671*17	walk	Click here
	1700	Yufuin Station	Yufuin Inakasou ryokan 田舍村いなか本館	440-19 Kawakami, Yufuin-cho 大分県由布市湯布院町川上440-19	+81977845282	269 389 825*66	8min	Click here
19Nov17(Sun)	0930	Yufuin Inakasou ryokan	Beppu sand bath别府市营别府海滨砂汤	874-0023　別府市上人ヶ浜	0977-66-5737	46 525 014*22	36min	Click here
		Beppu sand bath	Beppu Hells	874-0045　大分県別府市鉄輪559-1	+81 977 66 1577	46 521467*28	14 min	Click here
		Beppu Hells	Kintetsu Beppu ropeway		(0977)22-2278		13min	Click here
		Kinetetsu Beppu ropeway	Back to Yufuin Inakasou ryokan		-		23min
20Nov17(Mon)	0830	Inakasou ryokan	Kurokawa- Tairoukan ryokan(旅館大朗館)	Manganji 7130,Minamioguni, 869-2402 869-2402 熊本県, 南小国町, 満願寺7130	096-744-0908	440 570 369*85	57min	Click here
21Nov17(Tues)	0830	Tairoukan ryokan	Aso Daikanbo	Kumamoto Prefecture, Aso-shi, Yamada 2090-8 熊本県阿蘇市山田2090-8	0967-32-1960		25m	Click here
		Aso Daikanbo	Takachiho Gorge 高千穂峡	882-1101 日本宮崎縣西臼杵郡高千穗町大字三田井809-1	0982 73 1213		1hr30m	Click here
		Takachiho Gorge	Imakuni ryokan(今國旅館)	882-1101 Miyazaki, Takachiho, Mitai 803-4, 三田井803-4西臼杵郡高千穂町, 882-1101	+81 982 72 2175	330 742 700*36	7min	Click here
22Nov17(Wed)	1000	Imakuni ryokan	Kumamoto-Budget rent a car		+81 927 35 8886	29 427 508*03	2hr1m	Click here
		Budget-rent-a car	The new hotel Kumamoto	1-13-1 Kasuga	-		walk 3m	Click here
		hotel Kumamoto	Kumamoto castle		-		Train 22m
			-Shimotori shotengai shopping street		-		Train
			Suizenji park		-		Train
23Nov17(Thu)	0930	Kumamoto Station	Fukouka-Dormy Inn Hakata Gion	1-12 Reisen-cho Hakata ku (taking Kyushu shinkansen)	-		49min	Click here
			Ohori Park(autumn leaves) - Tenjin Central Park n city (chic shopping area) -underground shopping in Tenjin -visit Dazaifu demangu shrine		-
24Nov17(Fri)	1000	Dormy Inn Hakata Gion	- Fukuoka castle		-
			-visit  kawabatadori street		-
			- visit Kushida Shrine (red tori)		-
			- walk along Naka River to love bridge to red light district		-
25Nov17(Sat)	0600	Fukuoka Int'l airport (departure 0950)	Singapore		-

10-Feb2016_Osaka Universal Studio

(1) At Universal Studio ground

   (a) Waiting to enter Universal Studio

   (b) Walking towards Spiderman ride and saw long queue for 'Attack of the Titans'.
         Thought that we might have a chance on this event but alas the last queue was
         at 5 pm and we couldn't make it for this event.

(2) Spiderman 4D ride

   (a) Queue for 90 mins for the Spiderman ride
Our 1st ride was the spiderman ride. We were told this is a must have ride so we quickly ran towards the queue. The queue was 90 mins long without the express pass.

(b) Model of Spiderman ride car

(3) Harry Porter Ride

     (a) Harry Porter Castle

    (b) Queueing for 2 hours for Harry Porter's ride.



   (c) Train that Harry Porter used to travelled in

(4) Other interesting points

    (a) Interesting medieval architectural building

(b) Had a nice butter beer while queueing
   

(

12-Feb2016_Kyoto Nara Park( 奈良公園)& Fushimi Inari(伏見稲荷大社)

(1) Nara Park 奈良公園

      At 9 am we took a morning JR train from Osaka station straight to Nara Park instead of going to
      to our Kyoto hotel. We can do that because we were allowed to leave our luggages with Osaka
      hotel kinki as we would return back to this hotel the next day for another night stay.
     So, we only took just a backpack of toiletries and clothes for a night stay in Kyoto.
   

We reached Nara Park pretty early around 10 am. There, in the street of Nara, you can see ladies in kimono and tourist walking towards the park.





















                                                                             

Outside the station there is a walkway where souvenirs, goodies, cafe, convenience stores abound.

In one of the souvenirs store, we saw the strawberry mochi. This is a must have in Japan.
Look at it. It is a full strawberry fruit covered with red bean and wrapped inside mochi. It is called daifuku

(2) Kyoto Hotel

After roaming Nara deer park, we went straight to Kyoto Dormy Inn hotel to check in.
The hotel is just a 5 mins walk from Kyoto station. How convenient!! We told ourselves that the next time we were to travel to Kyoto we would book this hotel again.. The hotel served free ramen from 9 to 11 pm and has an onsen that the guests can use free of charge. How wonderful.

(3) Fushimi Inari Shrine

We rested in the hotel briefly and decided to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine even though it was already
                       

4 pm. The sunset for the day was at 5.30pm.
Nevertheless, we decided to proceed ahead as the place is only a few train stops away which takes about 15 mins.

The shrine is on top of a hill and would take about 2 hours to trek up the hill. Leading to the numerous shrines and the main shrine were rows and rows of red beams called torii. We didn't count them but we believe it could be in several hundreds if not thousand.

We only managed to reached the mid of the mountain. It was getting dark so we decided to go down via another way. On our way down, we met a Taiwanese lady who was lost in the mountain and we thought we can help her down
the mountain. But the deeper we ventured into the forest

13-Feb2016_Kyoto Arashiyama 京都嵐山

This is the mochi with full strawberry and red bean that is a must have in Kyoto.It is called daifuku.



















(2)  Arashiyama bamboo grove (嵐山竹林)

(2）Togetsukyo bridge

11-Feb2016_Osaka Castle

(1) Osaka Castle

(a) Posing in front of the castle

(b) View from Osaka castle top

06-Feb2016_Hakodate函館

(1) On JR train to Hakodate

(2)

05-Feb2016_Sapporo Snow Festival and Otaru 小樽

(1) First day of Sapporo Snow Festival

07-Feb2016_Skiing in Sapporo Mount Teine

(1) Leaving Hakodate in the morning train



(2) At Teine Station bus stop

(3) Skiing in Mount Teine

28feb2015 Sydney Fish Mkt_Opera Hse_Mamak

(1) Sydney Fish Market

       

On this day, we went to the Sydney light rail at the Central Station to catch the light rail to Sydney Fish market. However when we were at the platform we were told by an official that the light rail for that day was not working.

We were told to take the replacement bus opposite of the central station.

I ordered a standard cooked lobster platter at $68 per platter thinking that it was worth the price. But to my horror, it consisted of a cooked lobster as shown in the pic above, some big prawns, and the rest were filled with fried squids ,which I do not eat, some scallop, calamari and lots of french fries. In other words, more than half of the platter (in a box) were filled with fries and seafood that we did not like. The cooked lobster meat was small and was not to our liking. The price of $68 was not worth it.

(2) Sydney Opera House
         The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Situated
         on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, close to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the facility is
         adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens, between Sydney
         and Farm Coves

         Identified as one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings and one of the most famous
         performing arts centres in the world.The Sydney Opera House became a UNESCO World 
         Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.

(3) Chinatown Mamak Cafe
      We were told there was this famous Malaysian food in Sydney Chinatown by Robin. We went
       there twice but was not able to try it as the queue was so long that we went to another not so
       popular Malaysian hawker food restaurant and a Vietnamese food restaurant.

      We finally managed to make it on our 3rd visit where the queue was shorter. We waited for half
       hour in the queue.

We ordered roti canai, mee goreng, nasi goreng and satay.

Hmm. All of us felt that the taste was just ordinary. The canai was not as crispy as we expected. The curry was salty. We agreed that there were prata in Singapore that tasted better.

The satay was a disappointment. They were very dried and the mutton smell was strong.All of us did not like it.

Both nasi goreng and mee goreng were average.

But we were curious why the queue was always so long and while in the queue there was this Indian couple who kept praising the food and recommending us some of the items.

We were wondering if we could set up a similar cafe in Chinatown with tastier food than Mamak.Even our local QiJi franchise would have at least a similar queue if not longer than Mamak.

Other Platypus link:
20feb2015 Melbourne Chapel St n Fitroy
21feb2015 Melbourne South Melb Market, DFO n St Kilda
22feb2015 Melbourne Dandenong Ranges n Tom's house
23feb2015 Melbourne Great Ocean Rd 1 day self drive
24feb2015 Melbourne Sunny Ridge,CBD n Casino
25feb2015 Sydney-The Rock n Sydney Bridge
26feb2015 Sydney Blue Mountain
27feb2015 Sydney Botanical Garden n Bondi Beach

27Feb2015-Sydney Botanical Garden_Bondi Beach

(1) St James Train Station

         Our plan for today was to go Sydney famous Bondi beach. However, it was too early and would

         be too hot for a swim. So we decided to roam around St James station area, particularly 

         Sydney Royal Botanical garden.

         We took the train from Central train station to St James station.

 (2) Sydney Hyde Park

       Out of St James station, we came across the iconic park in Sydney, the Hyde Park.

       One of the most notable monument in Hyde Park is the Archibald fountain. Opposite the

       Hyde park is the beautiful St Mary's cathedral.

(c) Sydney Royal Botanical Garden.

      Sydney Royal Botanical garden is located in the heart of Sydney, positioning near the Sydney 

         harbour, adjacent to Sydney CBD, the Sydney Opera house and the Domain. It is one of the 

         most visited attraction in Sydney.

(d) Swimming at Andrew Carlton pool
      A short walk out of the botanical garden was the Andrew Carlton public swimming pool. We
         were sitting on the grass turf opposite the pool, enjoying the cool air and admiring the view
         of the naval ship and the pool.

        Out of a sudden, Robin decided to take a plunge in the pool. The rest of us decided to take our
        lunch at the pool cafe while Robin swam.

(e) Bondi Beach

     Bondi Beach is one of Australia most famous beach and among the world's most well known
     beaches. The beach is about 1 km long and patrolled by lifesavers who ensure that the swimmers
     swim between the yellow and red flags.
   
     It is located at the east coast of Australia and is a suburb of the city of Sydney.
     It is well served by public transport.

    We took bus 333 from Bondi Station to reach directly to Bondi beach pavilion.

(f) Bondi Coastal Walk

           A cliff top coastal walk, the Bondi to Coogee walk extends for six km in Sydney’s
           eastern suburbs. The Bondi to Coogee walk features stunning views, beaches,
           parks, cliffs, bays and rock pools. The beaches and parks offer a place to rest,
           swim or a chance to eat at one of the cafes, hotels, restaurants or takeaways.

           The Bondi to Coogee coastal walk is a medium grade walk but there are some
           steep gradient paths and several staircases along the track. There are rest stops
           with great views and seating along the Bondi to Coogee walk. It takes about two
           hours to complete the Bondi to Coogee Beach section of the walk.

           Due to our limited time, we only covers about half an hour walk. Also, we stopped
           at certain scenic spots to gaze at the stunning views.

           The first stunning view was this swimming pool in the sea where sea water kept
           splashing into the pool as swimmers continue their swim.

          This coastal walk from Bondi beach has pavement for both strollers and joggers where 
          one can stop at certain points to take stunning pictures of the coast and the sea.

        At certain section, we walked out to the cliff edge and took great pictures. We had to be
        very careful as we were precariously perched at the edge of the steep drop down cliff.
       One wrong move and you can be tumbling down the cliff into the sea.

   This man went out to the rock outcrop when the tide ebbed but the next moment the waves came 
   splashing back into the rock outcrop. He was lucky he was able to hold his ground.

    For us, we would rather go to dry section where the waves would not be able to reach us.

    The Bondi Beach and Coastal walk were a great experience and a must have visit when you are in

    Sydney.

Other links
20feb2015-Melbourne Chapel St and Fitzroy
21feb2015-Melbourne South Melb Market, DFO and St Kilda
22feb2015-Dandenong Ranges and Tom's house
23feb2015-Melbourne Great Ocean Rd 1 day self drive
24feb2015-Melbourne Sunny Ridge, CBD and Casino
25feb2015 Sydney-The Rock n Sydney Bridge
26feb2015-Sydney Blue Mountain
28feb2015 Sydney Fish market, Opera House, Mamak

26Feb2015-SydneyBlueMountains

We booked the grayline tour at $174.60 per person for a full day itinerary for 3 of us (Robin, Fred and myself). It was a promotional price recommended by the staff at Sydney Visitor center at the Rock. The non-promotional price was $194 per adult.

We were told the coach would wait at Rydges Sydney Central at Abion St at 7.05 am. This was about 10 mins walk from our apartment at Cooper St.When we reached there, we were the first and only group to board the coach. The coach then proceed to other pick up points in the city to pick up other tourists. By the time the coach was full, about 40 of us, it was already an hour later. So, in actual fact we had a free city tour.

The coach stopped at a terminal where we were told to alight and change to a different coach. Those going to Blue mountains were told to board the coach marked with blue mountains, those going to Hunter's valley were told board Hunter's valley coach and so on.

 (1) Quaint mountain village of Leura
     

Our 1st stop on the way to Blue Mountain was this quaint village of Leura. We stop here for 15 mins of toilet break and quick coffee.

(2) Blue Mountain Scenic World

          The Blue mountain is a mountainous region in New South Wales, Australia. It borders on
           Sydney's metropolitan area, its foothills starting about 50 km west of the state capital. It is a
           magical place any time of the year. Glowing in autumn, cool in winter, colorful in spring and
           refreshing in summer. The blue mountains is densely populated by oil bearing Eucalyptus
           trees.The atmosphere is filled with finely dispersed droplets of oils, which, in combination
           with dust particles and water vapor, scatter short-wave length rays of light which are
           predominately blue in color, hence the name 'Blue Mountain'.

      (a) Skyway
          To reach the scenic view of the Blue Mountains, we had to take the Skyway across
               the mountain ranges. The skyway glided between cliff tops and there was a glass floor
               where one could gaze to see the rainforest canopy.

     (b) RailWay
                 Our next ride was the Railway to the mountain valley. The ride gave us a thrill of 52
                 degrees incline riding the steepest passenger railway in the world.

  We got to know a new friend, Marcello, from Brazil who was sitting in the same bench as us.
  He told us he was travelling alone and would be going to Melbourne after this trip.We also get to
  chat with an old couple from UK sitting in the first row in front of us.The wife told us her husband
  had businesses in both Australia and Singapore. They enjoyed this railway ride so much that they
  took the rides several times up and down.

 (c) Strolling the valley Walkway
       Discover the tranquility of the ancient rainforest in the valley by strolling along the 2.4km
          scenic walkway. The elevated boardwalk immersed us in this Jurassic rainforest on the    
          Jamison valley floor with minimum impact to the environment.



    (d) Cableway back to top
          At the end of the elevated boardwalk, we came to the cableway station. We took the cableway
          back to the top. The cableway gave us a good vintage of the Three Sisters and
          the orphan rock.

     (e) Echo Point and the Three Sisters.

The Three Sisters is the Blue Mountains’ most spectacular landmark. Located at Echo Point Katoomba, around 2.5 kilometres from the Great Western Highway, this iconic visitor attraction is experienced by millions of people each year.

The Three Sisters is essentially an unusual rock formation representing three sisters who according to Aboriginal legend were turned to stone.

The character of the Three Sisters changes throughout the day and throughout the seasons as the sunlight brings out the magnificent colours. The Three Sisters is also floodlit until around 11pm each evening looking simply spectacular set against the black background of the night sky.


(3) Featherdale Wildlife Park

         After the Blue Mountain tour, our next destination was the Featherdale Wildlife Park.
         Featherdale Wildlife Park houses the world's premier collection of Australian wildlife, allowing          visitors to get up close to 2,200 animals from over 280 species. Cuddle up to a koala, have a                photo taken and hand feed kangaroos. Located at Doonside, en route to the famous Blue                      Mountains, Featherdale is Sydney's ultimate 'hands on' wildlife experience.

   After the wildlife park, we concluded our day with a trip up the Sydney harbour, unwinding on an
   afternoon cruise along the Parramatta River and dropped off at Darling Harbour.

Other Platypus links:
20feb2015-Melbourne Chapel St and Fitroy
21feb2015-Melbourne South Yarra Market, DFO and St Kilda
22feb2015-Melbourne Dandenong Ranges and Tom's house
23feb2015-Melbourne Great Ocean Road 1 day self drive
24feb2015-Melbourbe Sunny Ridge and Casino
25feb2015 Sydney-The Rock n Sydney Bridge
27feb2015 Sydney Botanical Garden n Bondi Beach
28feb2015 Sydney Fish market, Opera House, Mamak

25Feb2015 First day in Sydney

(1) Arriving at Sydney Airport

As the flight was a domestic flight from Melbourne to Sydney, there was no immigration or custom to deal with.

It was a breeze through Sydney airport.

However, as we were 5 of us with 5 big luggages, we could not fit into an ordinary saloon taxi.

We were allocated a separate lane to wait for a bigger taxi.








(2) Our apartment at Cooper St/Lacey Rd junction

The apartment lies at the junction of cooper st and lacey st. It is about 10 mins walk to the Central Train Station.

Although the apartment was big with 2 bedrooms, living/dinning hall and balcony, there was only 1 common toilet to be shared among all of us.

Also, the air con was only in the hall. There was no air con in the bedrooms. Fortunately for us, the night was cooling, there was no need for air condition.






(3) Pitts Street walkway

We had our lunch at a thai cafe along Oxford St, then proceeded to Westfield Sydney Central Plaza at the juction of Market St and Pitts St to window shop.

(4) The Rocks
      As the museums and art galleries would be closed at 5 pm, Chin and Law decided to quickly visit
      these places. Robin suggested that the rest of us explored "The Rocks" and the Bridge in Sydney
      for the rest of the day.

      The Rocks is an urban locality, tourist precinct and historic area of Sydney's city centre.The
      Rocks became established shortly after the colony's formation in 1788. The original buildings
      were made mostly of local sandstones, from which the area derives its name.

      Now The Rocks is home to The Rock Markets and The Rock Discovery Museum. In the markets
      you can browse through hundreds of hand made items and the free museum tells the story of The
      Rocks from pre-European days to the present

A short walk from The Rock market place is the "Bunker Hills". This was the Bunker family home in Sydney.

As the plague on the gate states, Bunker Hills was named after Captain Eber Bunker, father of Australian whaling.

(5) The Bridge

Other Platypus links:
20feb2015 Melbourne Chapel St n Fitroy
21feb2015 Melbourne South Melb Market, DFO and St Kilda
22feb2015 Melbourne Dandenong Ranges n Tom's house
23feb2015 Melbourne Great Ocean Rd 1 day self drive
24feb2015 Melbourne Sunny Ridge, CBD n Casino
26feb2015 Sydney Blue Mountain
27feb2015 Sydney Botanical Garden n Bondi Beach
28feb2015 Sydney Fish market, Opera House, Mamak