Universal Studio Japan – Osaka : Day 5

been a while since i posted about our Japan trip.. been busy latelyy.. huu..

since 4 of us like theme park quite a lot.. we decided to go to USJ as well.. it was Friday and we are afraid that USJ will be darn crowded. so we decided to go there earlier.. *dan pas nyampe, ya bener aja dongg.. ruame buanget*

It is so crowded over there, so we qucikly find the way to Harry Potter Castle, since it’s one of the major reason that we go to USJ. haha.. they limit the amount of people who’s going in to the Harry Potter castle. so we must go to one corner to get our entry ticket first. our entry time is from 12.45-1.45pm.

it was still around 11 by then. so, we quickly find the Biohazard to get another entry ticket. this Oka was really really eager to shoot some dead people. another one major reason that we go to USJ. and just nice that we got the entry ticket for 3.45-4.45 pm.

after getting the 2 entry tix. we walked around to see what we can play before we enter to Harry Potter Castle. since we only have around 1 hr left.. we decided to grab a quick lunch first, which is a Pizza store beside the Spiderman rides.

The food there is expensive.. i only ordered 1 slice of pizza + soft drink and it cost about 700 Yen? if im not wrong. haha..

after eating, we saw the single rider in Spiderman only took 30 minutes. so we decided to Q for the single riders. *ceritanya mau memanfaatkan waktu sebisa.nya. jadi sendiri2 juga gpp dehh. haha*

Actually i ride this Spidey before in Universal Studio Orlando few years back. it’s the same exact thing.. but it’s still cool tho. for those of you who already ride Transformer in Universal Singapore.. it’s quite the same thing.. just way much cooler i may say. haha.. so basically it’s a 3-D rides where we are the hostage of Doctor Octopus, Electro, Hydro-man and etc, and Spiderman come to the rescue. haha..

after Spidey’s we need to rush back to Harry Potter Castle.. but first, let us take some picture!

Harry Potter Castle 

  

Feel so magical, right?? How i love Harry Potter Castle.. haha.. and it feels like you are in the Harry Potter movie.. i grew up with Harry Potter. i watched all the of their movies.. and the feeling when you are in it is like surreal and unbelievable. haha.. *lebay*. The place is so amazing and breathtaking yaa. hehe..  They only have 2 rides if im not mistaken. the 4-D rides and the roller coaster.. since the 4-D rides is the must thing to ride.. then we sacrifice our 2 hrs time to Q.. below are the pictures while we are q-ing. hehe.

i’ve ride this 4-D rides in Orlando too. but the excitement is still there.. i love the feeling when they fly us with the broomsticks and bring us to the quitddich game. And it’s still scary when you face the Dementor and went in to the spiders cave.. it’s just feel so real deh pokok.nya.. the best and the longest 4-D rides ever.. so it’s really worth it for the Q.

after the 4-D rides, we just stroll around for a while, because we need to be in Biohazard soon!

This game was the scariest game among all.. i think i rather go for 30mins non stop roller coaster. haha..

Biohazard itu sama dengan Resident Evil. Im sure all of us know what resident evil, right.. i love to watch zombie movie like Resident evil and walking dead.. haha. but to put it in real-life.. hmmpp.. makasih deh. hahaha.. its just very daunting.

sumpahh ini game serem banget. haha.. basically they put you into a situation whereby you need to shoot the zombies. they already equip us with a big gun and all we need is to kill the zombies.. they formed us to a group of 8 to enter the rooms. there will be an ‘Umbrella’ office who lead us from room to rooms. so at least we know here are we going. but again, all the instructions are in Japanese.. so we dont even know whats happening.. all we know is just to kill all the zombie.. haha..

*makin lama zombie.nya makin aneh2 lagii.. pertama si zombie2 biasa.. terus masuk ke room yg lain ketemu zombie yg kyk lizard gt.. trus di room yg terakir ktmu nemesis yg guede bngt.. horror deh pokok.nyaa.. haha.. ada 1 room yg ada jendelanya. dan gw berdiri pas bngt d depan jendela itu.. gw pikir. shark man pasti ada yg aneh2 bakal kluar dr jendela ini dehh.. ehh. bener aja dong.. pas bngt pas gw minggir.. ehh ada kepala zombie yg kluarr.. uanjirrr.. kalo gw ga minggir sihh udah bs kecium zombie.. hoekkk.. hauahua..*

they have several rooms inside the place. each room have different zombie. so lets say the first 2 room are just normal zombies. then the 3rd room is the lizard zombie then the last room you will meet the nemesis. it’s just getting scarier and scarier. well. maybe to make it clearer.. you can watch the video below.

*ini game sih super seru sbenernyaa.. cuman yaa super serem juga. hahaha.*

after this mentally exhausting game.. we went to Back to the Future, just another 3D rides.

 and Finally i got the chance to ride the Hollywood Dream. It’s a roller coaster that really worth the Q as well. since im a roller coaster junkie. of course this ride is a must ride! haha..

*last picture taken from mycars.guru*

We Q-ed for this roller coaster about 2 hrs as well. but it really worth the Q.. this roller coaster considered long, the thrill is there and the best of all, you can play your own music.. yes.. they have 5 songs to choose. and you can listen to the song while you ride and scream on the roller coaster.. haha.. *pokok.nya fun abis dehh* The only thing that made us quite scared is their safety harness. they only have one safety harness around your waist.. normally the safety harness will be on your shoulder right? so you can hold it as well if you are scared.. *yg ini.. kagak ada coyy pengaman yg kyk gt. jadi cuman 1 pengaman di dket perut. haha* but it supersafe.. just that it bothers me a bit, since they have the 360 degree turns. haha..

the most happening thing is.. this roller coaster have a Backdrop ride. so, if you want to experience riding the roller coaster on the other way around. you can re-Q for it. they are still using the same rail, so after 2 times of normal ride.. they will change the track to the other way around. and it’s very veryy fun!! *seru bangett bangett deh pokok.nyaa* it’s a different feeling to ride it backwards.. and a very fun-thrilling feeling to experience the backdrop. for roller-coaster lover, you should ride this when you visit USJ-Osaka.

This backdrop Q takes longer than Hollywood dreams. so we decided to take the single rider that only took about 45minutes only! what i like about universal studio is that they have the single rider Q, so at least we can save some of our time..

since it was already quite late and we were super hungry (only eating 1 slice of that expensive pizza. haha), we decided to go back and try some random ramen along the Dontonburi area.

The gyoza and ramen was just normal compared to Ichiran.. but it was not bad at all.

They said Osaka is very famous with its Takoyaki, they have a lot of Takoyaki stores along the Dontonburi road.. so, we just grabbed which ever that looks nice to eat. and we decided to buy the Takoyaki from this place..

The Takoyaki taste is gooddd..just that we already quite full, so we couldnte enjoy the takoyaki to the fullest. =(

and we ended the night with taking pictures with the most well-known ‘Glico’ signboard. they said they just changed the Glico signboard to a woman.. so previously was a guy and they put light on the signboard.. not sure why they changed it to a woman and no more shining lights on it.. but since we are there already.. of course we must take some pictures with their signature pose right. haha.. *ya masa udah sampe sana ga jadi voto gara2 signboardnya ganti jadi cewek. hahaha*

stay tune.. because tomorrow we are going to Kyotoo!

cheers..

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The Love, The City, The Food – Osaka : Day 4

Ga berasa banget ternyata udah lewat begitu aja 3 hari di Tokyo.

and finally it’s the time to go to Osaka.. before we left our apartment, we need to check a lot of things.. from the simplest thing like dont leave anything behind.. folding back the sofabed.. clear our things from the fridge.. put all the things back in their place.. and throwing our garbage.

i really want to share with you on how Japanese throw their garbage.. so, the owner of the place gave us some handbook to read.. like how to turn on the microwave.. how to use the washing machine.. the dos and donts.. and 1 particular page on how to throw our garbage..

so, basically all Japanese differentiate their garbage to several types.. like the burnable, non-burnable, recycle, batteries, etc etc.. if you have plastic bottles, paper waste and anything burnable, you must separate it to one transparant plastic bag.. and so does the non-burnable , and the re-cycle ones.. *pokok.nya tiap jenis lu harus pisahin tempat sampah.nya* And if you wanted to throw batteries, you must throw it in black plastic bags.. and you can only throw it once a month..

and the thing that ‘wow-ed’ me the most is.. you must know WHEN to throw your garbage.. example : Monday, Wednesday, Friday is for Burnable. Tuesday, Thursday is for Non-burnable. and the rest of the day is to pick up the other type of garbage. Let’s say you put Non-Burnable on Monday.. they wont pick it up for you.. they will just pick it up when the schedule is there.. *gila banget ga si? haha.. gw ga tau saking teratur.nya sampe begitu bangett.. kita sampe pusing gt pas mau cabutt.. pertamanya msh mikir ini burnable apa bukan.. sampe akhir.nyaa.. ahhh. sudahlahh.. buang aja semua dalam 1 kantong. hahahah.. mudah2an semua burnable. hahahaha..*

Thirza, the friend of mine was also so confused when she first moved to Tokyo.. finally she created special alarms only to remind her which garbage to throw away today. hahaha.. *gila2ann dehh*

That’s why if you go to Japan, you will not find so many trash bin, she said the government encourage you to bring back your own garbage home. faint.. haha.. so different with Singapore, where there’s trash bin in every 10-15 meters. haha..

okay.. now it’s time to go to Osaka! *eggciteddd!*

we went out from the apartment as per planned. 1 hour before our Shinkansen schedule.. and you know what? we almost missed our first bullet train.. we thought 1 hr is more than enough.. since from our place to Tokyo station only take 20 minutes time..

what make us almost late was.. we did not expect the long walking distance in Tokyo station itself! it took us about 25 minutes just to figure things out and walk our way to the Shinkansen platform. so, Tokyo station itself have many many trains.. from the many lines of normal trains.. tokyo metro and the shinkansen.. again, we thought how far it would be from 1 platform to another platform? *dan ternyata.. panjang aja dongg jalannya..* the walk is like from ION Orchard to Somerset Station with a lot of escalators.. up and down.. and it’s still in Tokyo Station..! its just unimaginably BIG !

Finally. we reached the Shinkansen platform by 11.00am.. our bullet train supposed to go by 11.03am.. we rushed to find our Car number, quickly go inside the train and put our luggage on the top. Just nice when we sit down, we can feel that the train is already moving.. when we saw the time.. it is already 11.03am.. another ‘Wow-ed’ moment.. they are reallyy ON TIME !

*pas kereta.nya tiba2 jalan.. kita semua lngsung liat2an gitu dong.. untung bngt ga ktinggalann.. every minutes counts bngt disana.. temen gw cerita juga.. dulu pernah ada kejadian dimana Shinkansennya telat beberapa menit doang.. trus si masinis.nya minta maaf sambil bungkuk2 gt ke semuaa car / gerbong di shinkansen ituu.. gila bngt yaa.. cuman bbrp menit doang loh. haha.. mungkin kita orng indo kebiasaan telat kali ya.. jadi klo tiba2 on time bngt jadi kaget gt. hahaha. sesuatu yg harus di tiru banget sih kalo soal on time*

*you can turn the seat if you want.. seru bngt yaa..hehe.. sayang bngt ga kburu ambil penampakan luar.nya si Shinkansen.. huu.. tampak.nya sama sih sama yg kalian liat di tipi2.. putih doang aja gt.. hehe*

BTW, we took Hikari Line from Tokyo – Osaka. if you wants to travel to many cities. we really recommend to buy the JR pass.. eventho i know that it is freaking expensive (about SGD 350), but it’s really worth it than buying normal tickets.. and this JR pass is not sold in Japan itself. so you must buy it online or go to some travel agent to purchase it.

Finally we reached Osaka!

we must take another local train in order to reach our Hotel that is Located near Osaka Namba Station.

reached Osaka-Namba Station that is very very confusing and doesnt have escalators and lifts at all. ~.~’.. *semua underground gt.. bingung bngt cari jalan ke atas.nyaa.. ternyata bnyk exit di samping2.nya cuman pake nomor gt.. kyk b21.. b22.. ya mana tauu yahh itu exit ke jalanan.. huu.. semuanya kyknya lagi laper gt. jadi ga bs berpikir jernih. haha*

after we got out from this station.. we must walk about 3 minutes to reach to this Dontonburi road.. and pass by one bridge before we reached to our hotel. 

because we felt very starving.. we just put our luggage and quickly go to below restaurant, that we dont even know the name. haha.. *jelek.nya gw kalo lagi laper tuh bawaannya jadi short temper. jadi kudu cepet2 makan. muahahha*

 

They are only selling deep fried Yakitori or Kushiage. Actually we wanted to eat Matsusakagyu Yakiniku (the one above this restaurant), but they are only re-open at 6pm. and we cant bear any longer. haha..

i dont know if we are so starving or the kushiage are just damn good or all the food in Japan are good. hahaha.

we finished this things in only 10 minutes time. haha..

how to eat this?

just dip once to the sauce and you can enjoy the kushiage..! *yuumm.. the sauce is like normal soya souce.. only much nicer.. i cant decipher what else that they put to the sauce. haha..

we were in Osaka for 2 and a half day only. so much things to do, yet so little time..

wanted to go to Osaka Castle, but too bad.. we could not managed to catch the timing. =(..

so we just go to Yumi Katsura lovers sanctuary. *aka kuil cinta kalo kata si Ivan Prakasa. haha..  pengen ktmu Ivan waktu pas ke Jepang. tapi sayang bngt kaki dia lagi bengkak gara2 main basket.. lain kali yaa vann kalo gw ke Tokyo lagi.. hehe..*

This temple have no opening hours. you can just go there whenever you want to. The place is quite secluded somewhere in Umeda neighbourhood.

They have their steps to pray.. so we tried to follow the customs:

1. Wash your both hand and mouth with the water running water

2. Throw a coin inside

3. Ring the Big Bell three times.

4. Pray

5. And lastly, you must bow down after you finished your prayer.

This temple is a remembrance of a couple who really deeply in love for each other.. Ohatsu was a prostitute and Tokubei was a simple guy who was a soya sauce seller. like Romeo and Juliet. Like Sampek and Engtay, their love end in tragedy, where both of them committing suicide. =(

Now, it’s a very famous place for the young couples to pray that they will have an unwavering love. muahahha..

below is ‘Ema’ – a wooden plate where you can write your love wishes..

*just a random shots. hahaha* centil .com

we just went there for a while, and quickly went to Umeda Sky Buidling to see Osaka for above.. the admission fee is 700 Yen (about 8 SGD).

and here are some pretty pictures from Above.. =)

*lumayan cantik ya? hehehe*

after this pretty viewing. we went back directly to Matsusaka to eat our dinner. so starvingg after only eating few sticks of Kushiage. haha.

Matsusakagyu Yakiniku

1-1-19 Namba, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 542-0076, Japan

when we went there, the person told us to come back tomorrow since it’s all fully booked for the night. we did not know that it was that popular and wasnt thinking that we need to book. gahh.. feeling blehh.. but suddenly there’s another waitress that told us that we can use a private room. not sure if someone cancelled or what. haha.. *thank God*

and this was our most expensive meal for the trip.. we already prepared the money, since all blogs and reviews told that the average spend is about 6000 yen / person (about SGD 70).. thankfully it’s still much cheaper than Singapore Gyu Kaku. haha.. *terhitung murah di banding yakiniku singapore walopun harganya berat di kantong.. tapi since sampe sana.. kyknya sayang aja klo ga di coba.. hehe*

but it was all worth it! the beef really melts in your mouth, so juicy and tender and sweet and makes you tipsy.. haha.. it was just too good to be true.. the best beef we have ever tasted. *sumpahh, kepala gw sampe pusing gara2 uenak.nya poll! hauhaua..

*the magnificent beef tongue with salt*

*The Best Beef BBQ set i have ever eatenn. we ordered set for 4 person*

And that night, we slept with a very happy tummy. hahaha.

Thank God for creating such a great beef for us to consume!

Major Love.. ❤ ❤

Japan Trip

Very excited for the Japan Trip!

me, my brother and 2 of our friends will be going to Japan on 28th September.. *yes, yes, exactly 1 more month to go* woohoo..

actually i never think that Japan will be my next travel destination. since Japan is not that appealing to me, except the Ramen. haha

but since my brother wants to go there so bad for his graduation trip. as a good sister *hoekk*, i decided to accompany him to go. hahaha. then we start to find travel mates for this trip.

after finding our travelmates, it’s research time!

gosh.. suddenly i got huge desire to go to Japan after a few days of research. haha..  not sure if Japan is that good, or it’s just because i need to go for holiday badly. hahaha *mungkin panggilan si ichiran ramen yg merayu2 aku untuk pergi, since it looks very good. haha*

i heard from 2 friends that JTB (Japan Tourist Bureau) is quite good for their flight and hotels package.

so, i came there 1 month ago to compare the price.

going to Japan with ANA air + 8 nights hotel cost us about SGD 1500, which is quite cheap, since ANA itself cost us about SGD 950. so, top up about SGD 550 more and you got quite good accomodation.

i went back and tell them that they offer us a good deal. but we must confirm within 2 days, because left a few seats with ANA. and suddenly 1 of our friend told us that she cannot go on our said date and time, because her colleague already took the leave.. *kalah cepet* hahaha.

so we re-arrange the date and ask JTB again for our desired date (which is only 1 day different). and you know what, they quoted us much much more expensive.. =(

same arrangement with ANA air + 8 nights hotel cost us about SGD 1800. hey, 300 dollars different is quite huge, right?

then we ask the sales girl why they have huge different. then the girl said, SGD 1500 is too cheap. i think my colleague quote you wrongly. gahhh..

since we dont know who is correct or wrong, then we decided to book everything ourself. haha.

after 2 weeks of comparing price, finally we booked following flight and accommodations :

– Delta Airlines : SGD 684.20

– Tokyo AirBnb (Shibuya) for 3 nights : SGD 207.25

– Hotel Vista Grande Osaka for 2 nights : SGD 194.85

– Hotel Almont Kyoto for 1 night : SGD 92

– Hotel Tokyo Dome for 2 nights : SGD 247

– JR pass : SGD 347 *this is freaking expensive for 7 days train pass, but what to do, they said if we buy individually

– Tokyo Disneysea (1 day pass) : SGD 78

– Universal Studio Japan (1 day pass) : SGD 90

– Visa Japan : SGD 39

so, Total per person is SGD 1979.3 / person, which is much more cheaper than buying the package in JTB. some more the SGD 1800 that they offer is a package for 3* hotel and not including the JR pass and the amusement park tickets. =(

actually we can go cheaper for the accomodations, but some airbnb apartment that we like is already full or have minimum nights for booking. so, we just go ahead with the hotels.

after all the booking, it’s time to make itinerary.. *yeay.. hehehe.

we already have some rough itinerary, but still not fixed yet.

if you have any great place to go in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Please let me know ?

Thank you before.. =)