Wintery Japan Travel Itinerary

Sharing my recent Japan #pwinsesCariSalji trip.
As requested by some in my instagram.
Everything done by my travel expert buddy Nadiah, who got our tickets and planned for our itinerary.


Monday 3rd Feb 2020
Arrived in Tokyo Narita airport - morning.
Went to Tokyo Haneda airport to catch the flight to Odate-Noshiro located in Akita province.

Then, we took the Odate airport shuttle bus to Takanosu train station & then hop onto the local JR train to Hirosaki.
Stayed 2nights at Hotel Toyoko-Inn Hirosaki - will write more about hirosaki, in another post.

Wednesday 5th Feb 2020
Started using our 7-day JR pass to Hakodate.
Via Tohoku-Hokkaido Shinkansen, passing through the world's longest undersea railway tunnel, the Seikan Tunnel, with a 23.3 km (14.5 miles) long portion under the seabed crossing the Tsugaru Strait.
Spent 1night at Smile Hotel Hakodate.

Thursday 6th Feb 2020
Moved from Hakodate to Chitose.
Stayed 3nights at the Wing International Hotel Chitose, and explored Sapporo Winter Festival on Friday 7th Feb, and Asahikawa Winter Festival & Asihayama Zoo on Saturday 8th Feb.

Sunday 9th Feb 2020
Moved back down from Chitose to Hakodate.
Stayed 1night at the Smile Hotel Hakodate to attend closing event on sunday for Hakodate Winter Festival.

Monday 10th Feb 2020
5hrs journey straight from Hakodate to Tokyo.
Stayed 4nights at Smile Hotel Tokyoayaseekimae, and explored the Izu Kawazu Sakura Festival on Tuesday 11th Feb, trip to DisneySea on Wednesday 12th Feb, and explored Kawasaki on Thursday 13th Feb.

Friday 14th Feb 2020
Stayed 1night at the Narita U-City Hotel.
This is due to our early flight back home the next morning, hence we wanted to make sure we arrived on time at the Tokyo Narita airport. This is crucial information because if you stayed in the Tokyo town, you need to be aware that the trains operates earliest at 6am and it took an hour to reach Narita Airport from Tokyo station via train, and an hour an a half, via bus.  Thus we stayed here in Narita, about 10mins via train - only 1stop away.

Saturday 15th Feb 2020
Depart to KUL Malaysia on 9.30am flight, arrived KLIA2 4.30pm Malaysian time.

May this helps those interested to explore the winter in Japan.
Let me just remind you that this was tiresome for us to keep repacking our luggage, and moving out of the hotel every 2days, and dragging ourselves up and down the trains and buses.  But this was our plan and we made the decision to do as such in order for us to utilize the most of our trip.

Some things to highlight to all:

• If you are traveling during winter, do ready yourself for flight turbulence for it happened to us as we were arriving at Narita Airport.  And while we were at the airport, we noticed that the flights to Sapporo were forced to turned back to Tokyo airports due to massive snow storm in Sapporo causing them not able to land. We were lucky that our flight to Odate were as scheduled, although it was not a smooth flight. #jelita78traveltips make sure you bought a flight ticket that covers you in situations of flight delays.
• I bought my JR pass via Klook and it was so worth it especially when the offer included a free 8day-data simcard. Take note that when you are filling the online form, your information during sign-upmust clearly state your correct delivery address because the JR voucher will then be posted to your mailing address. Yes, FREE postage! Be reminded that when purchasing online must click to input more details and put name as same as spelling and read exactly as your passport. you will get the JR voucher form, posted to your home address by the express courier. DO NOT loose this JR voucher! You need to bring this to Japan and exchange it for the real JR pass to be used later, at the JR ticket office located on the ground floor of the main building Narita airport ( if u landed at Narita that is) date selection on the website doesn't reflect the date of the JR pass. You will have to confirm the exact date of when you want to start using the JR pass at the JR ticket counter when u exchange it to the real JR pass to use later.  Free simcard offered in this package can be picked up at Narita Airport, 2nd Floor arrival terminal klook/easyGo counter.
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• I bought another extra simcard access (because our adventure total up to almost 2 weeks) via tuneTalk, picked up at KLIA2 terminal airport and i have no doubt that the tuneTalk data simcard works well and mine was still able to be used on the 9th day, even though it was said to be active only for 7days.
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• I bought my Tokyo Metro passcard train for 1day and 3days passes, via Travel Recommends. Cheapest deal ever encountered, it was a buy 1 free 1 offer. Used the 1day pass on 3rd Feb and used the 3day pass starting 11th Feb. Also picked up at Narita Airport, 2nd floor klook/ easygo counter next to Drug Shop.
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• I bought my DisneySea tickets via traveloka. The cheapest deal I have seen online. Make sure when purchasing you have to enter the date to enter the park. It is not an open ticket. Picked up at the Maihama Station, the only train station to Disneyland Tokyo Resort. Super easy.
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Visiting the dead

Thur 12122019 : Pergi Makam Mahsuri tak?

Opkoz laa.

Dah sampai Langkawi kot.

Takkan lerr tak pegi ziarah kaklong kawassn.

Tapi just the three of us lerr

Yang lelain dah pancit from the island hopping trip and tak larat nak ikut we ols tour the Kota Mahsuri afterwards.

Ticket rate

Adults : RM12

Kids : RM6

What's there to see here apart from her grave?

Well, there's basically the historical section of her parents, her childhood, growing up, adulthood and story of her life incidents bla bla bla. Also about the island and state of Kedah cultures.

Convenient enough they let tourist such as myself to pailed the water from the telaga Mahsuri - the well. Both Bangcheeky and Zz were so impressed to see the well.

We were fortunate enough that during our visit we managed to catch 2 live shows. One was at the traditional kedah house whereby they're having a marhaban, folklore chanting for newborn baby.

The other performance was at the entrance of the place, the gamelan instrument.

The whole area is not that huge.

We could finished tour in less than half hour even if it wasn't for the performances.

Review : oklah dah alang-alang sampai sini. But it can be much much better and interesting. Only wish the whole area be made wheelchair and stroller friendly because it is currently not.

Langkawi Island Hopping

Thur 12122019 : Must do for all visitors.

And why is that?

It's because that's the only way for you to visit the famous pulau beras basah and tasik dayang bunting, of course. Just took the boat from Kuah jetty, nothing confusing here because it's the only place operating the island hopping activity. Pretty much standard package really. 

#jelita78traveltips : Please wear your swimming gear terus sebab confirm the speedboat will get you wet, hahaha.

Swimming attire

Water shoes

Sunglasses

Sunblock

Topi prata neelopak utk bergaya hahah.

.

First stop was the Pulau Beras Basah whereby all the tourist will mandi manda because the beach is beautiful and the water is clean i tell ya.

Beware! There are tons of monkeys here so please do not bring your stuffs in a plastic bag because the monkeys will be attracted to snatch any colour kind of plastic bags. Please use propper normal picnic totes satchels or backpack, preferably any ordinary bags with zipper closure so they can't see your water bottle of food containers.

Best to bring own beach mat because there might not be enough chairs and tables to accommodate the crowd.

Frisbees and kites are welcome!

You will have a blast here.

Your boat ride will leave you here for an hour and pick you up later for the next destination which is the Pulau Singa Besar.

But you will not spend time on the island, only from boatview to witness the eagle feeding session.  Your boat tour guide will drop chicken skin onto the water and flock of eagles will sweep down to the water level to grab it.

It was such a NatGeo moment for us.. haha. Seriau je tetiba burung tu terbang dekat ngan boat. Dah laa laju swosshh swisshh ke air.

Last stop is at the Tasik Dayang Bunting.

A freshwater lake in the middle of an island.

This, my friend, is one very challenging vacation i tell ya. For my parents, I mean.

Because they need to climb up and down the stairs to reach the lakeside. There's no ramp for disable people on wheelchairs nor to wheel the kids strollers.

What do we have here? Besides the lake?

Well there's the kayaking activity, paddle boats and kiddies pond.

Babang was super excited for this but suddenly Bangcheeky got scared and we had to go back to the dock and into the kiddies pool. Hahaha babang la paling besar dalam kiddies pool tu!

And for my dear parents yang sakit kaki tu, tadahal, kat sini ada tempat urut kaki. RM20 for 30mins massage. With free shoulder and head 10mins massage.

At least there's something for them to sooth their legs for the journey back to the jetty.

Oh there's also an area for you to just dangle your feet to experience the free fish pedicures. But this no ordinary small fishes like they have in spas. These are big healthy fish! Another natGeo moment!

i am ticklish so just let Babang braved himself.

Tapi kejap je laa Babang nya letak kaki tu sebab dia pon penggeli orangnya. hahaha.. oh well.
Oklah, up next, let's go visit the dead.

Visiting La La Lang

Wed 11122019 : KUL - LGK - KUL

Finally, set foot in Langkawi for the very first time in my life. Yes. Blame me for not travelling local as much. 

Took the morning flight via Malindo at KLIA1.

Awal lagi dah challenging for my mom with her knee problem to walk to the aeroplane. Should have taken the wheelchair along.

Same thing happened at the Langkawi International Airport, kena jalan also from the runaway point.

Alhamdulillah, made it safely.

Introducing, the Rocky-clan.

First order of business was to go on the cable car rides up the Mount Mat Cincang at Patai Kok. #jelita78punyareview best that when you see the weather is clear, you should make plans to do this first because Malaysian weather is unpredictable like London, nanti hujan petang, spoiled terus.

Apa ada kat atas gunung tu?

Well, lookout view point je.

Ada laa cafe to eat but nothing special pon.

Ada the bridge glass walk whatsoever tapi that one kena bayar lagi extra walaupun tepi situ jer.

This i feel is way too much and inappropriate to charge visitors extra because it should be included in the original rate.

The Langkawi Cable Car located in area made as Oriental Village. Ada laa bende lain selain daripada just the cable car rides. There's several restaurants, cafes and food stalls set up in this area. Which I seriously do not recommend you to come here to eat because they are at super expensive rate. 

Most expensive nasi lemak and iced-tea i have ever paid in my entire life.

There's a two storey building of 3D art museum here. Definitely a place to surfs up if you plan to go for cable car ride, because the entrance is free for all who purchased the cable car ticket ride.

Geram sangat sebab we all tak dapat cover everything here due to time constraint. So please check your timing. Elok lah singgah after turun dari the cable car.

The rate per person was as below

Adults = RM60

Kids = RM35

Veterans = RM30

Which this includes the 3d art museum entree. Depa takde jual tix just for the cable car. Mesti combo dengan bende lain.

#jelita78traveltips please search for cheaper ticket deals at klook for example. Sometimes they might have better deals.

And, make sure your parents showed their identification card if you are buying tickets at the counter booth, for they get the cheapest rate of all.

But then, please note that to get to the viewing deck after the cable car rides will require them to climb stairs and there's no ramp for wheelchairs nor kids stroller either. I am rating this attraction low on the disable facilities for such an international tourist attraction as they said.

The Devil wears PRADA!

Sun 01122019 : Finding PRADA

Finally I have discovered the most compact wallet feminine enough, ever made by mankind!

I have always loved compact wallet and this Louis Vuitton compact wallet from trunks & bags collection, has been my go-to travelling wallet.

So when I saw my SIL's Prada Vitello Grain compact trifold wallet last month, I knew I just have to have it.

You will not believe it, until you see it for yourself. It fits coins, notes and even 6 of my cards, and still feels slim!

Dah alang-alang bawak kids to Legoland, I was so lucky to get this at JPO for RM980.

It came in Saffiano leather too but feeling the hard texture of saffiano, please bare in mind that it will not be as slim and compact feels as it is with this stress grain leather.

I actually made a target to get myself next year, the LV victorine wallet, ever since I saw NanaMoz's, because it was slimmer than my LV compact wallet. But this Prada beats me to it.

Although my Prada doesn't have the zippered compartment like victorine LV, the buttoned front flap still able to prevent any coins from getting out.

Check out the similarities between their designs. So much alike! Ohh I just had to make #jelita78punyareview when I went for lunch with Nana the other day. Sabar je lah kan, abaikan the table mat Alexis tu, if you might noticed.

Conclusion, I'd say the Prada vitella compact trifold wallet is like the Mini-Me of the LV victorine wallet. (And cheaper too)

Ohhh aren't they the cutest!