Travel: Japan - General

[MyPillow]

Estéema:

MyPillow:

My Jap trip is winter ,

yes i will based Osaka -

ok noted the shopping eating street in bamboo grove
HOw abt kyoto station area?

Is osaka factory outlet worth visit? anyway i have time for rera outlet in chitosea too -more to look at sports brand

The Kyoto station where we took the 'Romantic Train' actually forms a big loop to Bamboo Groove. We timed it such that we had the train ride, then the river boat trip to reach Bamboo Groove. That's where we discovered rafting & fill our tummies with goodies before ending our walk into the Bamboo Groove. If u don't time yrself, u might end up doing all these in 2 days coz think they do limited rides per day.

We did Philosopher's Path, Nijo Castle & Nishiki mkt on 2nd day. For us the fast JR train ticket helps save lots of time & trouble of changing hotel.

We've never tried winter.

We didn't visit the Factory Outlets.

Do u mean Chitose? That's I. Hokkaido?

edit to add: what is the romantic train ticket ,include train to kyoto bamboo grove?

yep, going hokkaido , may have some time to go outlet near chitose airport
to choose Osaka Rinku or chitose rera outlet ( any comments which is good ?) see from online shop directory both seem similar & so-so only.

[schweppes]

MyPillow:

i m not keen to see shrines n temples, not a fan of Jap castle too
still contemplating whether to go Fushima Inari - do u all recommend, wats there to see beside red n black poles?
will do a day trip to kyoto, maybe just bamboo grove n shopping /eating at kyoto station -any comments?

We went Tokyo-Koyto/Osaka in winter few years back. Enjoyed the experience immensely.

My family and I enjoyed our visit to Fushimi Inari. Those Torii gates do get crowded and hard to get nice photo opp. But if one is quick enough, sometimes can sneak a nice family or selfie pic in. Still, we liked the vibe and ambience of the place. There's a food street and some souvenir shopping along the way.

If anything else, there's this yummilicious ramen shop facing the train station. We chanced upon this place as we stepped out of the train station. It was lunch time and we decided to pop in this place when we saw a queue. And you know lah... for Singaporeans, got queue means got good food.

The ramen is soooo amazing!! One of our best meals in that trip. :drool: :drool:
Was trying to recall the restaurant name for you but could not remember. So I randomly keyed in \"best ramen at fushi inari\" and Google search agreed. It's called \"Ren\". Here's the link for easy reference.

https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Restaurant_Review-g298564-d7007795-Reviews-Menkobo_Ren-Kyoto_Kyoto_Prefecture_Kinki.html

Oh... and must visit Arashiyama bamboo forest. It was raining hailstones when we came out from the bamboo forest. What an experience!! We took shelter under the huge umbrellas provided by these vendors manning food carts by the roadside. We had some simple udon, Jap snacks and sake. Oishi :drool: Talk about simple pleasures.

Missing Japan now...

[schweppes]

MyPillow:

can share where to find good eat (small eateries) or buys in osaka city ?
my elder one into jap animation now , he was thrilled in tokyo akihabara last yr-
any tips for Uni Studio theme park, which to q first etc ? which is must ride ride
unlike tokyo disney, uni studio fast pass must pay

If your family are Harry Potter fans, then run to that area first. Go early coz long long queues. As we were at the park entrance about 8.30am, we ran to the HP area first and the wait time was about 30 minutes to get on the rides. By 10am, the wait time was 2-3 hours for the HP rides :yikes: :faint: So go early!!

[Estéema]

Just before boarding train, we thot we’ll eat sth & just head in to one of the shops near the train stn. Unfortunately, we didn’t like it bcoz it’s all vegetarian & tasteless. When our train stopped us near the food street, we decided to complete our fun & rest of time walk the food street.


This time we were grateful for enormous choices & avoided those vegetarian food.

[Zeit]

Bag lovers can check out Daikokuya and Komehyo. I'm going to some preloved stores in Osaka that this vlogger recommends to look for discontinued luxury items. They have outlets in Tokyo too, but I'm just going to the ones in Shinsaibashisuji, Osaka, to look see.


There appears to be a remarkably WIDER range of H designs in Japan than anywhere else in Asia. I was also told that the Japanese are very clean bag owners and the established stores don't sell fake stuffs.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAfz8eZeFwQ][/youtube]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J2sAd4fB3I][/youtube]


Foodwise- I want to book Sushi Jiro at Ginza cos I'm staying in Ginza. But no kids allowed, so I might have to go to his son's branch in Roppongi.

[Zeit]

schweppes:

MyPillow:

can share where to find good eat (small eateries) or buys in osaka city ?
my elder one into jap animation now , he was thrilled in tokyo akihabara last yr-
any tips for Uni Studio theme park, which to q first etc ? which is must ride ride
unlike tokyo disney, uni studio fast pass must pay

If your family are Harry Potter fans, then run to that area first. Go early coz long long queues. As we were at the park entrance about 8.30am, we ran to the HP area first and the wait time was about 30 minutes to get on the rides. By 10am, the wait time was 2-3 hours for the HP rides :yikes: :faint: So go early!!

This was in summer or winter? Winter should be less crowded right?

[Zeit]

Estéema:

I agree with Zeit that yr itinerary will be very tight to try cover everything.


We visited Tjushiki mkt in Tokyo & Kuromon mkt but find Nishiki mkt a watershed, not worth the trip. We've been to Osaka castle but found Nino castle boring. Guess we're just not castle lovers & we skip all the temples. Do visit the Bamboo Groove & the stretch of street shops for its festive feel & food. DH & kids found interesting subj in shooting camouflaging spiders.

Select the places based on yr priority of choices & leave this non-priorities to the end to achieve if u hv the time & energy at the end.

ESteema

I went to Tg Pagar the other day. They said come back in Oct. Too early to buy my passes!

I think Imperial Palace is worse than Nijo Castle. Nishiki looks boring to me on Youtube, but will drop by for a while.

[schweppes]

Zeit:

schweppes:

[quote=\"MyPillow\"]
can share where to find good eat (small eateries) or buys in osaka city ?
my elder one into jap animation now , he was thrilled in tokyo akihabara last yr-
any tips for Uni Studio theme park, which to q first etc ? which is must ride ride
unlike tokyo disney, uni studio fast pass must pay

If your family are Harry Potter fans, then run to that area first. Go early coz long long queues. As we were at the park entrance about 8.30am, we ran to the HP area first and the wait time was about 30 minutes to get on the rides. By 10am, the wait time was 2-3 hours for the HP rides :yikes: :faint: So go early!!

This was in summer or winter? Winter should be less crowded right?[/quote]Winter, around mid Dec. It was the start of the Jap school hols. Really people mountain people sea!! Dreaming of butter beer now!!

[Zeit]

OK, good to know I must wake up earlier! But we’re more Jurassic fans than HP fans. Will try to finish USJ by dinner-time. Thanks!

[MMM]

MyPillow:

Estéema:

i m not keen to see shrines n temples, not a fan of Jap castle too
still contemplating whether to go Fushima Inari - do u all recommend, wats there to see beside red n black poles?
will do a day trip to kyoto, maybe just bamboo grove n shopping /eating at kyoto station -any comments?
i plan 6 days for kansai then domestic flight to hokk on day 6
1day-kyoto
2 - USJ
3- Nara
4- Kobe
5 - eat and shop in osaka dontobori, shimsabashi, denden town
any place to add for eat, shop reasonably price stuff?
Is osaka factory outlet worth visit? anyway i have time for rera outlet in chitosea too -more to look at sports brand

Hi, we did Tokyo/ Kyoto/ Osaka in Nov last year... 10 + days in total.

Fushima Inari - our 2nd visit there but first for the kids and my mum. We climbed to the peak the first time round so we didn't bother the 2nd time. The kids tried it. When we went last year, there was \"pasar malam\" food stalls on the path leading there, so there was lots of shops on the way there and we sort of soak in the atmosphere and enjoyed it. Unfortunately it was our last day in Japan....

For bamboo grove, we brought them there... apparently mum wasn't very impressed as she saw some graves here and there and left the grove shortly after. But we did explore the shops outside.

We did enjoy Nara with deer feeding. It was kind of fun. We traveled all the way to Hiroshima too.

We did Osaka outlet few years back, it was ok. But think the Tokyo premium outlets has more stores. My teenage kids bought many sport shoes during the Nov trip as they said the same in Singapore cost so much more. Luggage space became a concern as we were travelling by trains so we need to ensure it is manageable.

For dotonbori, my dh always insist on going to the famous crab restaurant. We will also do the takoyaki. We are not particular about food, we will usually dine at those shops that we see along the street where you order through buying tickets. In our case, we based out of Kyoto - Citadines and there was a couple of such eateries near where we stay. Yoshinoya was good in Japan too vs Singapore. But during our last trip, standard seems to have drop.