Another adventure await for us during this 10 Days 9 Nights Free & Easy Trip to Japan with the families. The group is quite big with total of 10 person including my 80+ years old grandmother. It was a big challenge for me, my brother, Angela and Florence, as we did not rent any car unlike the Taiwan trip. We had warned the elderly beforehand that the whole trip will be walking and taking subway.
Day 1 (22 June)
The flight was 6am, so we assemble and check in at Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 2 at 3.30am. As usual, after check in we went McDonald to have breakfast. We took ANA and the ticket cost S$654.80 per person. We reached Japan Narita International Airport at Japan time 2.10pm, the flight duration takes 7 hours 10 minutes.
After clearing customs and collect our luggage. We found a sitting area for the elderly while the youngster go and exchange the Japan JR Pass. The exchange process was quite easy but as we had total of 10 persons we had to fill in 10 forms. We had problem connecting to the WIFI we rented from Changi Recommend, lucky the Japanese at the Roaming Centre was helpful.
Thanks to Klook, we were able to rent 2 airport transfer to reach our accommodation easily. Our accommodation is at City Hotel Lonestar and only booked 4 rooms (2 person per room) as we wanted to save money. We were being caught by the hotel staffs with 2 extra person with no rooms. No choice we had to book another room but they do not have empty room left, so we had to go to the nearby hotel to find. After settling everything, it was already 7.30pm and everyone was hungry, so we quickly went out to find dinner. Restaurants in Japan are small and we had to split up. Our first dinner in Japan is at Osaka Ohsho and lucky the elderly like the food.
Day 2 (23 June)
We headed to Tokyo Station to depart to Osaka. It’s a must to buy bento and eat on train. The bento are so nice and appetising. The duration from Tokyo to Osaka takes 2 hours 33 minutes. The train are really on the dot, thumbs up for the accuracy.
Our accommodation was booked through Airbnb as we wanted everyone to stay together. It’s a few minute walk from the train station to the accommodation. It’s has 3-4 convenient store nearby and McDonald. The disadvantage of the accommodation is that the elderly had to climb up and down the stairs and there is only 1 bathroom and 1 toilet to share among the 10 persons. The rest were fine and we had a great time at Osaka accommodation.
We rested for an hour and headed to Minami (Namba). The elderly had proper meal for dinner and the youngster went to eat all the famous snacks. There is Uniqlo over there and we went craze over the cheap prices and bought lots of apparel.
Day 3 & 4 (24-25 June)
Our accommodation is 15 minute walk to Osaka Castle. We spent half a day exploring over there and headed home after that. We rested for 1 hour and headed out for dinner and shopping at Shinsaibashi Shopping Street.
Day 4, we explore around Osaka, eating snacks and shopping. I can’t remember where we went as it was last minutes planning. We cooked our dinner as Japan food does not suit the elderly.
Day 5 (26 June)
Thanks to xiao yi zhang who so use to wake up at 5am, bought us McDonald for breakfast. It’s a day for my parents, small uncle and grandma to rest, while the rest went to Universal Studios Japan. My brother and I leave later as we can’t wake up so early in the morning and don’t play rides, we just wanted to stroll around USJ. The crews at USJ are really professional and great actors/actress. For example, at Jurassic theme, the photographer and assistant will make dinosaurs and scared sound to make the photo session interesting, even though we don’t understand their language. I love their turkey leg, it’s really delicious.
Day 6 (27 June)
We went 1 day trip to Kyoto. My plan was to go there for 2 days but the train rides is too long and tiring for the elderly so we try to squeeze everything in a day. We managed to go Fushimi Inari Shrine, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove and Nishiki Market.
Day 7 (28 June)
Depart back to Tokyo. Our last accommodation is located at Ikebukuro. We had a hard time looking for the place, the map is not clear as provided by the host. We took almost 1 hour looking for it and along the way we noticed there are 2 shops selling/renting Rated video. The house is dusty and we hate the feeling. The toilet is run down and we don’t like showering over there. We can’t make noise over there as the neighbour are very calculative. My small uncle is a heavy smoker, he keep going out to smoke and the auntie came over and complain. On our last day, she specially came over and told us to keep quiet when moving the luggage to the car.
We went Ikebukuro area for dinner and shopping. Groceries shopping as the elderly wanted to cook their own meal.
Day 8 (29 June)
As we were complained by the neighbour because my uncle keep smoking outside, we had no choice but everyone had to go Tokyo Disneyland. We rented a wheelchair for my grandma, my small uncle is not happy with the arrangement but we do not have 2nd choice, he can’t expect my grandma to walk till late at night as we plan to stay till the fireworks and last parade. My grandma had a fun time at Disneyland and an eye opener for her.
There is turkey leg selling at Disneyland, bought 1 for my parents to try but it does not taste as great at USJ.
Day 9 (30 June)
We had money left at the common fund, so we book 2 car (8 hours) to Yokohama. We only went to Ramen Museum and Cup Noodles Museum. We went shopping at Don Quijote Dotonbori before the end of the 8 hours car. Angela, Florence and I wanted more shopping so the 3 of us went Shibuya and Harajuku.
Day 10 (1 July)
The last day of our tour. We had to check out at 10am sharp as requested by the host. So we re-arrange the airport transfer to 10am. We were still worried what we can do at the airport. It turns out that it’s more fun shopping at the airport. We bought many famous snacks, souvenirs and apparels at Uniqlo.
Our flight back to Singapore is Japan time 5pm, reach Singapore at 11.15pm. I miss my bed.
