Back from Japan already :)

Had a 5-day holiday in Japan, starting from the 20th to the 26th. 20th and 26th is mostly traveling while the days in between is when we were there.

First day: Tokyo Disneyland :P
Very very nice place to be. Too bad have to queue up for almost everything!!! The place was very very clean as well and very very well maintained. My parents went there before i was born, so this is disneyland is quite old, but the stuff inside are all new. Stayed at the Shinjuku area.

Day two: Asakusa, Ginza and Toyota's Megaweb.
Visited the Asakusa temple then proceeded to visit Megaweb, Toyota's theme park where all the toyota models are there. got to Toyota Passo there and managed to obtain the Passo catalouge. Why passo? coz Passo = Myvi with some cosmetic differences and also the passo has a lot more hi-tech stuff that can be installed from Toyota somemore. Makes our myvi like crap and P2 very kedekut. After that went to Lake Kawakuchiku (very very hard to spell) near mount fuji. The best part was that it was beginning to snow heavily as we arrive there.

Day 3: Lake Kawakuchiko, Mount Fuji, Hakone, Shinkenzen
First thing in the morning head over to the visitor centre of Mount fuji to buy some souvenirs and play with snow. Since we arrive early got a foot layer of snow in the adjacent road near the car park to play around with. The snow is still very very fresh after the snowing heavily the night before. But cannot go up mount fuji coz the road is covered in snow and visibility is very very bad. No matter, got snow to play with :P

After that went to the Hakone area to eat the black egg which was cooked hard boiled by a nearby hot spring. The hot spring is located at the top of a hill with an incredible view of mount Fuji in the background. too bad the peak is covered with clouds. Then proceeded to go around lake Ashi for cruise and lunch.

At night sat the Shinkenzen bullet train to our next destination, a small city of Hanabashi (sp correct?). I tell you, when waiting at the station the other bullet trains whiz by VERY VERY fast. No wonder it is called a bullet train.

Day four: Kyoto
Visited a kimono arts center to see a kimonos being made there as well to buy any souvenirs. My bro bought a very nice yukata (summer garment) for his gf; green color with cranes. Costs about RM 100++. Sorry girls, didn't buy any yukata or kimonos :)

Then head over to the Kiyomizu temple to drink its spring water and look at its architecture. Also ate in a small japan restaurant where you have to sit on the floor. The ones you see in japanese restaurants here with the sunken area for your foot is for our convenience, the real thing don't have that luxury. Very hard to get up after that :P

Day five: Kobe, Osaka, USJ, Kanzai
Stayed in Kobe coz no hotel room in Osaka (supposed to be Osaka), but quite near Osaka. In osaka when to the shopping district where there is one sushi bar with the kaitan belt with one special feature, all you can eat sushi. Imagine Sushi king where you pay a flat rate and eat your heart out and the belt is always FULL. All for 890 yen per person. Yes, the plates were piled high:P

After that went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) to sit a few rides and buy some stuff. Again, long queues are a norm. Luckily got an express ticket which costs 50% extra over the original ticket price. Can get in in under 5 minutes one time :P But Disneyland dun have such a feature, so have to queue the old fashion way.

Then we head to the Nikko hotel Kanzai international airport, located right beside the main terminal coz the next morning we need to fly back in the morning.

Several things I noticed in Japan:
1) The place is clean, very very clean.
2) Safe; almost everyone dun lock their bicycle or moto at train stations or outside shops. Outside the shops no one jaga the goods, they assume you will enter and pay for the item
3) Small: Kelisas, Kancils, Myvis, Kenaris,Jazz type cars thrive here. The number of Camrys on the road can count with 1 hand, Accords... have not seen a single one. Oh, alot of Passos. At Disneyland lots of MPVs like Alphards, Streams etc. The buildings in Tokyo are build soooo close apart. The highways are double decker over roads and several feet from the nearest tall buildings.
4) Courtesy: Everyone greets each other, no one is rude. Everyone queues orderly, even though they may dress like a punk. The bus driver and everyone has pride in thier work (funny thing was, the taxi we took back in M'sia has its speedometer totally broken and was always showing 0 kph)
5) Hi-tech: In all the hotel toilets, got an electronic toilet seat. heated heat? yup Oscillating water jet? Yup. Automatic odour removal? Yup. Press button and it will wash your butt? yup. Flip phones there makes our flip phones a toy. Almost everyone takes photo using a flip phone (making our SLR a big dinosaur from yesteryear). Everyone I see uses a flip phone. Ticketing machine can accept 2 tickets in one go and able to read both of them (1 big, 1 small).

and many many more.

Will soon upload the photos.

in the meantime, meet my new soft toys :P

From the left, Hello Kitty dressed up as the volcanic black egg, cool relax guy and mount fuji.