Hanami in Kyoto, Food Trip in Osaka

While I am a self-confessed Francophile, I must admit that it was the Japanese culture that first captivated my interest. Firstly, there was the NHK TV series , Oshin during the 80s that exposed me to the fascinating traditions of Japan in the Meiji period; then there were my rich classmates who made me realize how kawaii Japanese stuff are with their cute stationeries and notebooks from their Japan vacay. Add to that Kumiko's tea ceremony in Karate Kid II. Then I met my husband who introduced me to the delectable Japanese cuisine and Channel News Asia show, Japan Hour, which intensified both our desire to travel to the country.

Finally in 2013, after 26 years of waiting, our dream to visit Japan became a reality! But our fare this time was six times higher than our 2009 unused ticket, that was when Cebu Pacific 1-peso seat sale was really PhP1; that is PhP3800 for 2 roundtrip tickets! After buying our ticket (to our own risk) and scouting and booking hotels online, we then applied for visa.  Although we are used to applying visas on our own and without any assistance from travel agencies, the case was different for our Japanese visas.  The Japanese Embassy in Manila requires applicants to lodge applications through their accredited agencies. We submitted the basic requirements  through Rajah Travel  and paid PhP 2500 processing fee per application (note that this fee is not charged by the embassy but the travel agency so this may differ from one agency to another).  After a week, we got our visas and a month later, we were in Japan!!!


Cherry blossom spots in Kyoto

We were actually worried about not seeing any cherry blossoms because of some low pressure or typhoon that hit the Kansai region a week before we arrived. But look at what welcomed us inside the Kyoto Imperial Palace...

 

 

 

Magnificent flowers everywhere! 

We were lucky to be in the palace that day since we were able to tour around without advanced reservation, as often required by the Imperial House Agency.   

This used to be the residence of the Imperial Family in the 19th century. 

culturally contrasting but both kawaii!!!

Our hanami experience had not ended for the day. We visited the ancient weeping cherry tree at Maruyama Park, lit up in all its glory.

 

We also passed by Gion, the famous Geisha district.  But we were unfortunate to take a photo of the elusive Geishas.

 

There are many restaurants in Gion but we ended up eating at a fastfood resto.

We booked at Highland Shimabara - Guesthouse in Kyoto, a 2-star apartment but offers clean and spacious room, with kitchen and private bath that's more high tech than the 3-star hotel we stayed in at Osaka. The place is secured but there was no reception; after booking, we were provided with a code by which we can open our deposit box upon arrival to get our key for the building and room. 

We checked out the following day as scheduled and walked towards Nijo Castle (2.8 km) to continue with our flower viewing.

truly kawaii, isn't it?

 

 






The Ninomaru Palace with its nightingale floors that squeaked scandalously everytime my 140-lb body stepped on them.

More interesting gardens and flowers surrounding the palace.

 

Coming from a low-tech third world country and unable to read and understand Japanese (although I took a Nippongo class in the university 14 years ago, lol), we were saved by the gracious waitress so we could place our order through the machine.

We were on our way to Nishiki Market to buy dried bonito but stumbled upon this shopping arcade where we bought some packs of green tea and green tea sundae.

Our last stop in Kyoto was the Hokan-ji temple, built in the 6th century.

 

While waiting for a ride at the Kyoto Station,

Kyoto Tower

 hubby was busy viewing this very creative LEGO replica of the station itself,

while I was busy buying these lovely Furoshiki cloth!

Oishi (and earthquake) in Osaka 

Although there are a number of tourist attractions in Osaka, my memory of it relates to food. On our way to Osaka Castle, we ate negiyaki for lunch,

 

and some yakisoba.

I wanted to take a shot of the castle without obstruction but the girl wouldn't go away!

On the way back to the hotel, we grabbed some snacks from Family Mart.

I was disappointed with our dinner of maguro (tuna) at a nearby resto. The tuna that we bought from Family Mart earlier looked and tasted better! At this moment, I also didn't understand why the Japanese love their tuna more than salmon.

But I liked their pickled mackerel.

The following day, on our way to Shinsaibashi-suji

it was carb overload for lunch.

 

But high-protein, high-cholesterol for dinner!

            

 

 

OISHI WAGYU!!!!

We still hadn't gotten enough of fat so the next day we had more oily stuff -- tempura and tonkatsu,

MOS burger (a Japan original)

and okonomiyaki.

To recover from the trauma caused by a terrible magnitude 6 earthquake around 5 o'clock that morning (another reason that made our Osaka vacay memorable), we feasted on seafood the whole day!

For only Y3600 (note that lunch is cheaper than dinner in many restos in Japan), we enjoyed the following:

 at this resto

 

By 3 o'clock, we started walking from our hotel, crossed  the Yodo River to look for this kaiten sushi at Umeda. 

and more raw fish at the airport. YUM!

Was it worth the trip despite the earthquake? Of course! With the super delish cuisine, very polite citizens and cute stuff, we will keep on visiting Japan, just as long as we have the moolah!

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This was our room at Hotel Claiton Shin Osaka.  It's a 3-star hotel and conveniently located in the middle of a business district and very near the train station. It is far from night life and shopping so I would not recommend it to those with active social life.  Room is kept clean everyday. Staff from the hotel are kind and English-speaking as well.

These are our cute ICOCA cards that we purchased from the airport upon arrival.  These can be used in various mass transit systems with discounted fares. It can be reloaded in train stations and convenience stores.