It’s really lucky for me to have the chance to visit such a pretty country where it is believed as the Country of the Sun, Nippon or also known as Japan. This post would be more about highlights about Japan, or I can say what is special about Japan (especially my Japan trip), and probably I can give you some tips about travelling around Japan and also prior your departure(especially for those who come from my country, Indonesia). Later on, as the time goes by (since I am quite busy with this summer online course stuff) I will write more about Japan partially. So, here it is highlight about Japan!

First of all, what really impressed me about this country, is…

TOILET!

Japanese toilet is definitely amusing for me, I’d love to have one, if I could. So, almost all seating toilet was equipped with such features. The feature that I like the most is the warm seat. They can even warm the seat, since I really hate to sit on the toilet in the winter time, I need to warm up a bit (lol). So this feature is really works for me, and they also have deodorizer sometimes, and even privacy, if you press the privacy button, they will give you like a sound of water dripping, to make no body else hear what are you doing.

Moving on, I went to Japan for about 9 days and 8 nights. I flew Garuda Indonesia, which is nice in my opinion (biased; since this is my country’s national fleet). The nice things from Garuda Indonesia is actually the service, food was okay, ice cream was quite nice, but the best one was I can ask for extra mixed nuts (lol), the nuts was nice, you can ask for extra in the middle of your flight. I visited Tokyo, Kyoto (+ Mt. Fuji and Hakone) and Osaka! Honestly speaking 8 nights won’t be enough. I’ll be back sooner or later, Japan!

I was travelling with my family, but we didn’t join such group tour that is often offer by tour and travel, we arranged everything by ourselves but we did join 3 one-day tour, which not all of them was worthy, so in the next posts, I will review about the tours.

I spent about 4 nights in tokyo, 1 in Kyoto and 3 in Osaka. Tokyo was quite busy city, well very busy actually.

I began my trip by going to Shibuya, which is actually near to Ginza and Harajuku as well. I started by visiting the national garden if I am not mistaken, so the current season was actually about fall to winter with quite nice temperature around 5 to 15. So, the best thing is actually the browning leaves, well also some yellowing (?) Ginkgo trees.

Finished visiting that garden, I had my lunch at Joejoen, they serves Kobe Beef, (I will write individual post for foods). What you have to know is actually Japaneses are crazy about food, they are willing to queue for hours in order to eat in their favorite restaurant. So what I know is actually the best Kobe Beef restaurant was Jumbo? But I failed to book them, as they were very busy. So, Shibuya and Harajuku, you can say (well not you, I) as the heart of Tokyo? They have so many shops, branded goods, and very busy.

Must-visit store in Shibuya, well, I guess UNIQLO, perhaps or Apple. Well, you don’t have to visit though, but the UNIQLO has 12 floors I guess, and the Japanese Apple store is one of the cheapest store (compared to Indonesia). But, what you have to keep in mind, is actually the Japanese iPhone camera can’t be silent, even you have muted the phone, unless you turn on the ‘live’ feature on your phone. For your information, this is actually required by the Japanese law, to reduce the level of porn (correct me if I’m wrong).Besides, one of my favorite store in Harajuku is the LINE friends store, (I guess only Indonesian, Japanese and Korean know this), they sell cute things, but… in very unreasonable price, but it worth to see though. It’s cute, isn’t it?

Moving on, other thing that I did in tokyo, actually I took a Tokyo Panoramic One Day tour, it was a city tour, I might write a report for it, but I don’t really think that worth to take. The best part of the tour was actually the Asakusa Market. It was kind of market full of street foods, so nice!! You can buy souvenirs here as well.

The other day in Tokyo, I joined the Mount Fuji and Hakone tour, I will write a special post for it. We were so lucky, we managed to reach the 5th station, which is usually  in the winter only stop at 4th, and the weather was so nice, we can even see the top of Mt. Fuji (of course).

That’s all I guess about what I did in Tokyo. Actually, I visited the Disney Sea, but it doesn’t last long for me (?), since I had to meet my friend, she made a Vlog though, you gotta check it out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pmEcTswPQ0&t=5s)!

Long story short, I moved from Tokyo to Kyoto by Shinkansen, it took about 3,5 hours from Tokyo to Kyoto, and Kyoto was kind of smaller city… most of their station ain’t got lift, so you know… We carried all the luggage by ourselves. However, Kyoto was quite nice, it is a quite city, but for me, it is really authentic (?), it really gives you the real feel of Japan. We didn’t do much in Kyoto, but we did take a one day tour, which is I don’t recommend you to join one, it’s better for you to just directly go to the selected spots that probably more preferable for you. I will write a post for this, well I do make soooo many promises, lol I hope I can make it comes true.

I did not spend long time in Kyoto, it was only a night, so the next night we moved to Osaka by Shinkansen, you can take the local train actually which is considerably cheaper. There is not much to do in Osaka actually, other than shopping (I guess). You can also take bus or train to Kobe, which a premium factory outlet located there. Oh, and I went to Universal Studio, quite nice, but an express ticket is highly recommended. I spent almost 6-8 hours only queuing for the 2 most favorite rides, the harry potter and the one in Jurassic Park. And the next day, I went to Dotonburi, I guess it was kinda like street full of shops.

There is not much I did in Osaka, but I promise to make an individual post for this (another promise). So, I guess that’s all about the highlights of my trip to Japan. Hope you got inspired by this. Feel free to ask if you got any questions in mind! Happy holiday anyway!