Japan Trip October 2018 - Day 4 - Hiroshima & Miyajima Island

8th October 2018 (Monday)

So it turns out that a few weeks before our departure to Japan, I accidentally checked the Public Holidays for Japan and guess what, they have the National Sports Day on the 8th (which we originally intented to go to USJ, LOL). So I switched our itenary and decided to go to Miyajima Island instead. 

Today was our first day of the Japan Rail (JR) Pass 7 days pass, and the JR included the Miyajima Island Ferry. So the total transportation, is FREE! Let me show you how the JR Pass looks like. 

So this is how it looks like, I'll share the steps on how to change the JR Pass in some other post okey.

Read the travel terms and conditions when you're planning your trips. 

We started off our day by going to the shinkansen. Let me show you how to go take the Shinkansen. So we're from Kohama Station (since we live near there), using the google maps direction, just follow the instructions. To take the Shinkansen, we went to Shin-Osaka Station. If you're using JR Pass, it is totally worth it, the total cost to go to Hiroshima (one way) is already 10,930 Yen (approximately RM405 one way). For those who wanted  to take a day trip to Miyajima Island, it is recommended to stop by Hiroshima since there is no DIRECT train from Osaka to Miyajima. 

This is the Shinkansen Track in Shin-Osaka Station. 

And, it is recommended that you pack some foods to eat in Shinkansen (since Shinkansen routes are normally taking a longer time than subways, Japanese tend to pack some bento to eat). But since its hard to find Halal bento there, we cooked some fried rice to eat in the train. 

Hello ❤

And here's another tips for you guys, when we're in Hiroshima, we found out that there's a free tourist bus (for JR Pass holder) that stops by every tourist attractions in the city! (Say about luck!) The bus is called "Hiroshima Meipu ru-pu". 

However, if you don't have the JR Pass, they offer an affordable price of 400 yen for one day pass. 

Link: Hiroshima Loop Bus

You'll see a lot of tourist taking this bus. 

There are 3 types of routes, and you can take any bus that suites your itenary. 

For us, we took the Orange Bus. 

Our first stop is the Hiroshima Castle, so damn hot!

Infront of the Atomic Bomb Dome.

Hiroshima Peace Park

Atomic Bomb Dome. 

Around noon, we decided to continue our journey to Miyajima Island. Its around 30 minutes from Hiroshima

The view from the ferry. 

On our way to the large orange shrine.

Accidentally found a cool house (read: instagram-worthy pictures) 

omg they have starbucks on the Island.

Yayy finally, its quite a walk from the ferry port to the shrine.

The cute shops on the Island. 

We bought this Momiji (Maple) Manju, there's only one flavor that is Halal (I really wanted the chocolate flavoured bread, sobs)

On the inside.

Cute Momiji Manju. 

I'll write about my trip to USJ in the next post ❤

❤, 

Aiesya

Japan Trip October 2018 - Day 1 & 2 - Nara Park - Dotonbori, Osaka

Let's do this, reminiscing the good memories in Japan!

So Alhamdulillah I finally got a chance to go to Japan this year (bought the ticket using my first pay - been broke since then). This trip is for 10days, covering OSAKA and TOKYO, using JR Pass and our accomodation is fully using AirBnb.

5th October 2018 (Friday)

Our flight was at 2pm, and supposedly to arrive around 9pm in Kansai Airport. But we touch down at 9.30pm, and the custom check was really a long queue, all we want is to check in quickly since its already late and..you're at a foreign country! Since our JR pass is only for 7 days, we decided to use it on our third day in Japan, and just use normal ICOQA card for the first two days in osaka (its like our malaysian touch and go, but I borrowed from my aunt, buying that would cost you around 2000yen - if I'm not mistaken).

Excited to see Japan!

Since we live close by Kohama Station, so we took the metro straight from the airport station. Took us around 50minutes + 10minutes walking to our Airbnb and cost around 1000yen. Clearly the in flight meal is not sufficient, we decided to go out to the nearest Family Mart and purchase halal Onigiri! (Do some research to help you find out halal foods at convenience store, clearly helps us in case of emergencies - read: lapar gila)

Edited: Our Airbnb : https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21520505?s=51

I realised that rooms or houses in Osaka is bigger than those in urban areas such as Tokyo. We really love our accommodation in Osaka. They have a common room and also the kitchen, which we fully utilize (we even cook nasi lemak there).   

6th October 2018 (Saturday)

So the next day, we decided to go to Nara, as per my itenary. I'll share my full itenary after I've posted all okey? Mind you, cook some foods peeps, halal food is hard to find here.

Our nasi goreng sardin + serunding mama! Life savior!

We took the normal train (not shinkansen) to Nara, took us around 1 hour 50 minutes. 

Let me give you some tips here:

1) Use Google Direction Map. Just google your destination, click direction and put in your exact location - for us, we will always put in the train station name, easier. 

2) This navigation is the BEST! forget waze, unless you're using a car. Other than that, use this. THIS! It is so accurate it helps us a lot. Plus Japanese train has soooooo many platforms you'll get lost and confuse. Fret not, by using this, you'll also know the platform you need to go. 

When we arrived, its already noon. Since we took our time that morning, cooking and all. Considering its saturday, its not packed with tourist/local. Its totally free to enter the park, you just have to spend for the deer's food (optional). 

 

Hello N A R A ❤

Tips: They're aggressive, put the biscuits in your bag and just take out one at a time. 

They bite, careful! My shirt was bitten, and mind you....their saliva eww. 

There's a lot of attractions near the park, just prepare a comfortable shoes. 

Nara Park is behind me, see..its uphill. Good luck walking guys. 

We decided to eat our nasi goreng in front of the lake. 

We bought this at the store near Nara Park, its around 200 yen. 

Limited edition coke, around 250yen (don't remember). 

That night, we went to Dotonbori. It was lit, somewhat like our Jonker Walk in Malacca. 

With the famous Glico Man. (Nampak mcm takde orang kan, haa actually ramai gila!)

Takoyaki Checked!

Actually I wrote a longer version towards the end of this post, but the damn internet got cut off and I couldn't save a whole lot of my babbling here, so so so tired to write again. But feel free to leave a comment if you got questions, will answer them late.

xoxo,
Aiesya ❤