Day 4: Tokyo rediscovered!

Day 4: On the road again! MasyaAllah! Dah makan tahun dah dia punye delay update entry hihi.. well since i have time..and suddenly going through the pics when I was travelling to Japan in Feb.2013, here comes Part 4 - Tokyo edition.

Celebrating Malaysia Tourism 2014 - Klang valley version 1.0

owh i so love this!
there was once time when me and my bestfriends were looking for a nice weekend getaway spot around klang valley, one that has a nice swimming pool, a little pantry/kitchen and that doesnt put a hole in the pocket.
and while we ended up in the not-too-bad The maple suit in bukit bintang, it lacked authenticity and attractions - although the pavilion was a 30 mins walk away. Yes we did walk half an hour, 3 adults + 3 kids under the streetlights of KL  :p
Pool session was superb though as we had the pool to ourselves heh. And of course, the main was achieved succesfully - to bond between us bestfriends and spend some time with the kids as well..owh and to let the kids bond between them as well~

But this list below has even more interesting places to stay for similar reasons at even more competetive rates.
I am so going to refer to this the next time I am planning a weekend getaway around KL.

#Credit to Lolaloot#
6-fantastic-staycation-spots-in-kuala-lumpur-for-under-rm250-a-night

Revisiting My 2nd Home - Japan! (P:art 3: Strawberries picking & the best beriyani in town!)

Day 3.

Morning started just like day-2.
Sent the kids to school
@daycare then off we go to the train station.
A short ride of about 30mins brought us to a little town of
Shibukawa.

Two main targets,

Strawberries picking
&

Lunch at my favourite pakistan
@indian place
!

Strawberries are seasonal in spring..but by february many farms are already in business.
Strawberries picking is already available, but at quite a price.
We took the cab to one of the farms, took abt half an hour to arrive.
There are quite a few, but we decided on this one.

Entered the farm and checked out the price. Yep a bit expensive -1500yen per pax.
But a little tips, when in japan,dont always convert the rates. you'll feel like killing yourself if you do!

We spent the next 40 minutes picking and munching on strawberries! There were a few types..and contrary to popular perception, the biggest ones are the sweetest. Juicy and fresh!

After our time is up, we lepak outside just a while, taking some pics while waiting for our taxi to arrive.

From Shibukawa, we then took the train to Isesaki. Another small town nearby. We just took a walk from teh station to our next destination - teh mosque. It was friday and just time for Jumaat prayers so there was quite a turn up. After prayers, we walked just a few steps a way to this pakistani restaurant. Ok not really a restaurant. More like a small eating place.

This is where for me the best beriyani is. Been back in Malaysia for more than 10years I still havent found beriyani that good.

So I wanted teh lamb beriyani but it was sold out..so made do with chicken beriyani. Still delicious. And some bread and lamb stew.

A poster on maulidurrasul

Madeena Curry House

Ironically the best beriyani..for me~

So now with full stomach and hapy heart hehe...walked back to the eki and back on the way back to Kiryu. Took the cab to Gunma u ampus, where we parted ways and promised to meet up later. Rosa had some errands to run..while I wa ready to walk down some memory lane  :D

Gunma U engineering campus is just a small campus. Every faculty has its building, then there's the library, main hall, office bulding, canteen and coop..and thats it.

The mechanical ENgineering building stood just the way it was. Nothing much has changed. Actually it was newly renovated just a few years before I left. 

It was getting late..and so getting a bit cold. So i just made a quick tour, took a couple of pics. Met up with rosa before dark, pick the kids up and went to a senior's house nearby. K.aja is one of the most senior here, now following her husband, bujin (the one that came to fetch me at the airport) doing PHD.

It was a little reunion for us. I remember 11 years ago in our first year, we always crush K.aja's place whenever we came to KIryu. That time as first year students we were in a different campus.

the main gate

Mechanical System Engineering lobby

..those glory days.

refreshment corner - just outside the building. livesaver during the busy days!

alumni building just beside the main gate..some old historical building.

a normal sight - bicycle dominos!!!! 

That night, while Rosa and family stayed in, doing some last minute packing, they were going to NZ the next day for a conference.

K.aja and Bujin brought me to Papermoon - an italian restaurant, another most go place on my list. OK in case its not that obvious yet, gourmet hunting is part of this trip theme. When it comes to pasta, i had to come here and ordered this --> 魚風パスター＠fisherman's style pasta, a brothy delicious seafood pasta dish.Among our favourite back then.

favourite seafood pasta  :D

Nice dinner with good companies, a little catch up and then decided to call it the day. Before dozing off did some packing up myself as the next day will be on the road again - tokyo here i come!

Tips: When and where you go should be the outline of your itinerary. Each place and each season has its own trademark. Spring means strawberries, sakura, tulips etc. Summer is delicious time for unagi! FAll is for pessimons(pisang kaki) and oyster and of course yellow and red landscape. Nikko and other places with beautiful sceneries are best visited during this time. Winter, well is the best for white landscape and probably...pretty night landscape in the city, pretty lights for christmas and new year celebration.

So research, research and research so you dont miss out!

Revisiting My 2nd Home - Japan! (Part 2: Kiryu to Kusatsu)

Day 2: Onsen & Snow!

After a few hours of sleep, i was awaken by the sounds of kids chatting and playing. No, actually 4y.o umar kun and 2 y.o little hasya came into the room and woke me up.
Umar saying were saying "ummi, kakak 寝ているよ～" (=ummi, kakak is still sleeping!)
ok, thats my clue to get up heh!
Yep the kids mainly speak japanese. So cute!
Said hi to the kids..i think umar does remember me. Hasya was just a baby when i last saw her.
Rosa was busy making breakfast for the kids and preparing them to go to the daycare@school.
I went out for a while just to take in the 'feel' of being there, and seriously nothing has changed! Even the smell of the place was still the same. Almost like the place just frozen for those ten years!
I quickly took a shower - too cold even with hot water so yeah, it was real quick!

international student house of gunma university(engineering campus) - stayed here during my 2nd year(2003)..what?10 years!

the kids are trained to be independant at the daycare.

abang umar & adik hasya on the way to school ~

We got ready to drop the kids at their school and then fakri dropped us off at the train station of Kiryu.
Plan of the day was taking the train all the way to Kusatsu - a famous onsen and ski resort area further north of Gunma.
It wasnt so practical taking the train actually as we had to transit for almost an hour in shin-maebashi before taking a train heading to kusatsu. It isnt a frequent train. The whole one way trip took is nearly 3 hours including transit time. The train can only bring us to the last station possible for railway, then we had to take the bus to the town of kusatsu. 30mins on the bus then we arrived to the lovely classic onsen town.
By then the surrounding had changed dramatically into a white landscape!
We then took the shuttle bus to the onsen resort we had reserved for lunch and a few hours of 貸し切り風呂付き旅館(= japanese room with private onsen bath)
pheww...like i said it wasnt a practical method to go to kusatsu. But it was soooooo worth it!
One of the reasons i chose winter was because i miss the snow. And here in kusatsu, thats what i got! Snow everywhere!

Kusatsu bus terminal

Here we are in kusatusu town!

The resort area- there were quite a number around the area.

the road to our ryoukan@resort.

We cancelled our plan to take it further to the ski area..once we got to the resort we could see the area itself was already a field of snow, and i wasnt gonna ski or snowboard anyway. So the resort area was enough for me.

   

A snow park right in front!

All for ourselves  :p

Subhanallah!

Had some really good time playing at the snow park. We practically had it for ourselves!
After an hour or so..we had enough of it so we went back to the resort for our lunch, a simple hot chinese style meal - we had to opt for that one as all the japanese sets had meat in them.
after lunch we went to the resort counter and were shown our room, a superbly nice traditional room with an onsen bath facing an open area of snow! So nice wehh!
we didnt have much time left due to the bus and train schedule so we quickly changed and took a dip into the very HOT tub! It was soooo HOT! I really just never got used to this...took a few minutes before the body finally settled and then we got to just enjoy it. Hot onsen and cold air from the snow outside was just a perfect contrast!
Did our jamak prayers in the room and then off we went tp check out. We actually took the 3 hours package but too bad only got to use it for an hour or so.

This is where i accidentally dropped off my phone...which was recovered safely an hour later heh.

a big room with attached hotspring bath - for our privacy

the hotspring tub - there's an opening on the other side where we can see the snow.

Ten minutes of waiting, then the bus came to take us back to town. We had about an hour before we need to take another bus back to kusatsu train station. So we walked to the famous onsen 湯葉 area, its a big pool like onsen, the 'main' onsen where all the onsen resorts around kusatsu get their onsen supply from.
I tried understanding the place, i guess they are using some sort of hydraulic system to process and pump out the hot hotspring water to the surface for use.
We were practically standing just a few meters from the hotspring base that the whole area just smell sulfur! So stinky like 10times of a really good fart! Haha.
They must have really processed the one that we took a dip into earlier, because there was no smell at all.
It was during this time that i got a call from Malaysia - ehem, a company i had attended an interview earlier called in to update me. Alhamdulillah i was shortlisted by the hiring manager and now under consideration for the position.
What a timing to be receiving such good news!
There was also some souvenier shops along the street..so we bought some souveniers and food to take back.
In japan, every little place has its own 名物. Something that they are famous for, normally in the form of food. Or also called 名産or お土産,souvenier food made locally in that area.
They are normally chocolates and お菓子like せんべい(=rice crackers) or まんじゅう(=type of kuih made of tepung pulut like kuih kochi!)
Besides those, i just bought a few magnets, cant get enough of those eyh?
We walked back to the bus station just in time to catch the bus.

hotspring base - strong sulfur smell!

Literally holding my breath....so stinky!!!

souvenier shop

random sign

time to go home~

One thing nice about Japan is that EVERYTHING is so punctual we could plan our journey right down to the minute. How i wish Malaysia could be that~

So the bus brought us back to the train station of Kusatsu, and soon later the train took off.
It was already almost 5pm and soon it got dark. It was winter, so it got dark pretty early.

Again we had a transit in shin-maebashi and took the local train back to kiryu.
It was already dark by the time we got there, and we were starving!
So we went to this place,ひょうたん@hyoutan - another one place on the list! It was our go to eating place when we wanted some cheap cosy home cook style japaneae. It is only a few minutes walk from school - and by school i mean the engineering campus - and so as i remember, it was always full of gunma uni students.
That havent changed a bit!
Everything seems to be the same - same おばさん@aunty, same crowd, same menu and same price!
I ordered 海鮮丼@seafood sashimi on rice set that comes with the usual hot miso soup, and an ala carte shrimp fry.
Sedap!!!
*ok now i want japanese food!*

same old menu!

same old price!

kaisendon@seafood sashimi with rice.

ebi fry@ fried shrips in panko.

Hyoutan - a cosy little place i always went as a student

Tips:

1) To go to kusatsu, or in fact any other place in japan by train, one can use the hyperdia website@apps.

Just type in the name of the station where you will be starting the journey and the destination.

It will tell you in details, on which stations to transit and even the exact time of train. Very accurate!

We can choose to pay more and save time, or save money but take a longer route.

It might be a bit tricky to key in the station names due tp translation from japanese to english, but you can use google to check for the correct spelling.

2) Most ryoukan@ onsen resort have packages that allow you to check in for just a few hours, some packaged with lunch or dinner - like the one we took. So we get to use the room, take a deep in the onsen without staying overnight, as sometimes we dont have all day. But you have a day, an overnight in an onsen resort is also a nice experience  :p

Preview Day-3:

Strawberries picking, the best beriyani in town & visiting alma matter  :p

Expenses in Day#2:

Train Kiryu - Kusatsu return, ~2400yen.

Shuttle bus f.o.c.

Lunch & Onsen attached room, 3500yen/pax.

Dinner, ~1000yen.