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chatchalita · 5 years

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I feels like writing something, since I rarely write things these days and I feels like my English will go down the drain soon, if I’m not writing.

Since I impulsively bought a plane ticket again, it’s time for me to summarize my other two trips I had this year as like a build-up for my upcoming new adventure the Taiwan trip in November.

This first post is about my side trip from business trip...I guess

I don’t know how I usually start my traveling post, I guess I start with a disclaimer that this post is not informative at all, just me writing about my trip for future me to reminisce about it.

It has been 2 years since I last visit Mikawa Anjo, the last time was for internship purpose, (which I happened to not write about the experience :/) I was greeted by the familiar feelings, I missed this place. I finally semi-ly made it back. I worked hard in this company for the past 1 year and I feels like it paid off a little.

This trip was my 6th time in Japan and took 14 days (Aug, 18th- Sep, 1st). Since this is a business trip, I’m able to ride Thai Airways, finally something that not low-cost and I’m able to load my luggage lol. The flight is TG644, I arrived at Japan around 8am, I decided to stop by my hotel for luggage storage, then go on an adventure to Okazaki Castle.

Before Okazaki Castle, I visited about 6 Japanese castles, so I know what I should expected from the castle. And spoiler alert, it was disappointing for me, I don’t know why, maybe because I’m burned out from visiting castle, or maybe because I saw a greater castle? Or maybe because I expected something from the castle that said to be the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu? The Evangelion exhibition saved this castle from a total disappointment, at least there are something interesting.

After the castle I went back to my hotel and then meet up with my boss and some Japanese co-workers for a little nomikai. Alcohol intake, not that much.

The second day, which is Monday, it’s the old atmosphere everybody was as welcoming as ever. I only spent half day there because I had to visit other supplier factory in Gifu, I’m still cursing myself for not taken any photos in my phone (for the location purpose), then that night another nomikai, and this time I drunk so much sake that actually made me drunk and made me worry for tomorrow. I’m not the kind of person to have hangover, so I didn’t worried about that, I was more worry about how much alcohol I will have left in my blood, since Tuesday, I will have to attend welcome party.

Tuesday, another nomikai, thank god my body can handle another round. That day, I was not drunk whatsoever, but I did drink Calpis sawla for at least 5 glasses, and other other things...overall probaby 15-20 glasses of alcohol. Those are nothing to sake I previously drunk on Monday though.

Wednesday, nothing worth mentioning ohh except I walked 2 km for Matsumoto Kiyoshi to get the stuffs ppl asked me to buy for them.

Thursday, yakiniku with my co-workers.

Friday, actually nothing?

So one week has passed, most the weekdays activity either hung out” with my co-workers or went to grocery shopping, my co-workers (in Thailand) asked me to buy kimono for them, and they keep called it yukata. It was a short kimono that you wear with hakama, these people want to wear them as “fashion”, these really culture appropriation *sigh*

Saturday, Saturday, where did I go on Saturday...oh Meiji Mura...again. I actually went there two years ago to dress in Hakama while this year is to see very small fireworks with actual same age people. Because I already went there once, not many pictures were taken

Sunday, the manager in charge of me took me to Iga, MIe to see some ninja. Iga Ueno castle is actually in the list of castle I want to visit. If you talking about Iga ninja, Hattori Hanzo, probably the famous ninja from that “school”?

The ninja demonstration was interesting, idk what I expected, I guess I did low-key expected movie stunts ninjutsu, but it turned out to be just ninja technique.

I do loves Iga Ueno Castle since I could see both the life of ninja and samurai in one place. The ninja village is really fun place and touristy.

So far the day went very well and pretty much free since the manager paid for everything, but my dumbass has to be extra and went to Nishio to see lantern festival (alone). And you know what, the taxi cost 6000 yen round-trip just for the station to the festival ground. And this is what 6000 yen gave me...

It only 8pm and the festival already over. I learned something new every time I went to Japan. Apparently, 8pm is late for the festival. I live in the city, 8pm is still early for me.

Monday, kaiten sushi with the same age people

Tuesday, in the afternoon I went to Toyohashi to see printing factory and the person asked me what is the food that I want to eat but have not eaten yet, and I replied “unagi”, which is something very expensive.

I think this was about 5000 yen for a set. In the evening, he treated me tempura like in actually tempura shop, where the chef actually fried tempura in front of us.

As a nekojita, I was suffering but it was so delicious.

Wednesday, I got stood up by the manager that took care of me 2 years ago. No biggie.

Thursday & Friday, spent my last day in Anjo as lonely as ever. (and spent 2 hours try to figure how to pack everything in my suitcase because of what people asked me to buy)

Saturday, I bought a day tour from Klook to Takayama and Shirakawago, the thing about tour is it convenience and probably cheaper than finding the transportation myself, but the downfall always, the time. There are not enough time!! I guess that is something I have to accept when it a day trip. In the bus, I was the only non-Chinese speaking person there.

Takayama...I was eating, so I didn’t had much time to explore, but you know what I feels like if you went to Kyoto, you don’t need to go to Takayama. It has it own charmed, I just didn’t had enough time to enjoy its charm.

The raw beef is the best out of the 3, this Hida beef made visiting Takayama worth it.

Next stop, Shirakawago, the highlight of the trip. The sunlight and everything made the pictures look colorful and amazing. The photos taken there was one of my favorite set of photos of all my trips.

Shirakawago, a place I would loved to visit again during winter and spent more time there. Due to the lack of time, I can only take pictures of here and there instead of absorb myself. I wanted to visit more museum, more historical stuff, but the time is limited :/

After the day tour, I went to Hikone and stay at the hotel there.

Sunday, the last day let’s make it count. I first planned to go see Tonbokiri in western shiga (which I forgot the name of the place), but because it was so far away and I don’t want to wake up early and my main goal was HIkone castle. I ended up with visited Nagahama Castle in the morning. That Sunday probably the day I cursed google map the most because the train schedule in there just not right! I didn’t missed the train, but like the map told me it departs at 9, I arrived at 8:50, the trained in the google map is the train that not stop in this station like what’s going on. And that happened a lot that day, I probably spent like almost 2 hour in (different) train station because the time in google map was earlier than the actual train.

Anyway, back to Nagahama castle, a castle built by Totoyomi Hideyoshi

In my opinion, definitely better than Okazaki, the overall atmosphere made it “feels” more significant than Okazaki castle. The view from the tenshuu is very pretty, in which you can actually see Biwa lake.

I just loves this kind of scenery.

After Nagahama, I went to Omi-Hachiman for some unknown reason. I’m like that awkward person that wouldn’t push the stop button because nobody seem to get off at this stop, and just kept riding the bus until many ppl get off. I mean they are Japanese people, they know what’s good right? Turned out, the popular spot Japanese people are going is like a “dessert park” called La Collina, I called it dessert park because they mainly sell dessert there, and “park” because they have large greenery area.

Their most famous dessert is Baumkuchen, I personally not that big fan of it, so I bought the small size along with macaron.

Then, I followed google map to Omihachiman canal area to find the bus to get back to the station.

The canal area is what I intended to go.

I’m glad I was awkward and decided to follow Japanese people because I got have variety of scenic photos.

Next stop, the highlight of this trip Hikone Castle, 1 of the 12 original castles yayyy.

I love Japanese garden, so first visited the garden in the castle area and just like other garden I visited (except Kokura Castle garden), i was not disappointed.

The Hikone Castle, I loved the castle that I have to work my way to see the tenshu. I love climbing, just to see castle.

The view from the tenshu also amazing.

After HIkone, I went back to Nagoya to see my same age co-workers? friends? comrades? again for the last time, and we ate “Taiwanese Ramen” which just spicy ramen

And then I got back at the airport, which seem very empty at night.

Good bye, Aichi. I hope they will send me there for business trip again next year.

If you read this far, stay tuned for another Japan trip, which is like 2 weeks later from this Japan trip.

#just chatchalita traveling #chatchalita in aichi round 2

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chatchalita · 6 years

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My (almost half) Kyushu Trip

This trip is the most unprepared trip and the trip that “unlike me”

I like to spend more than 1 day in certain place, just to see the city, relax, and sightseeing at my own pace rather than move around every day.

This probably text-heavy rather than pictures heavy due to my laptop not cooperate and the pictures from my phone didn’t import properly and you probably will see pictures I posted before because of the above reason.

I went to Kyushu via Peach Aviation on Jan 15-20, 2018. A first trip of the year, yay. On the 15th, I flew from Bangkok to Okinawa. And wow, I shook a little from cold weather in Okinawa. The plane was so warm. The flight supposed to arrive at 8am, but my flight was 15 minutes delayed. I was in a rush because I have another flight to catch at 9:50am, but it not a connection flight, which mean I have to check-out and check-in again. The immigration person keep asking me what am I doing here this time, I would like to think that he just doing his job to make sure he gives the right amount of days allowed in Japan rather than thinking that he suspect that I would ran away and overstayed in Japan. I was really worried that I might miss the flight since most of the time the international flight and domestic flight are in separate building. When I got out, the check-in counter is right in front of my eyes and the gate is close by. Because the airline is low-cost airline. They have their own separate building that every single one of their flight will be here (to be fair, they share with another airlines). So, I made it in time and once I arrived at to Fukuoka, I rushed to Fukuoka City Museum to find that it close on that day. See So on the first day, I went to Kokura Castle and Moji Port in KitaKyushu and then stay in Kitahama, Beppu.

*Note I bought JR North Kyushu pass, 8500 yen for 3 days, I think it worth the money since I don’t have to buy ticket every time and I can ride Shinkansen

Second day, Jan 16.

The original plan was to visit Kitsuki castle and walk around the castle town because I came to love Japanese castle and later visit Beppu Hells, but I’m me, I can’t force myself to wake up early for the sake of sightseeing and ended up sleep in. And I think it was the right choice...if the guide said 2-3 hours in sightseeing, I will took 3-4 hours or even longer than that. I took a bus to Kannawa to see “Jigoku” or hells, the name was taken from that fact that all the hot springs here are too hot for human to enter and probably hot like hell.

I think I visited the place in different order than most ppl do, it seem like they usually walk for 10 minutes to reach the farthest hell first then go back to the same route to visit the rest. Let’s just say I do the opposite...

*all the descriptions taken from English sign*

The first hell I visited is called “Shiraike Jigoku or the white pond hell, whose boiling spouting up water turns blue-white colored when falling down upon surface of the water. There is also a tropical aqurium where a ‘king fish’ of prarucu’ ‘man-eating fish’ of piranha and several other tropical fish have been raised.”

After I got out of this, I was hungry since I have not eat anything yet and it was 11am almost 12pm, and I just walk in the nearest store and order the first food I saw, which happen to be the food of that area

Dangojiru, a ramen made from dango I think and this food is put together with Kyoto’s black ramen in the list of food I will never eat again. It’s very plain and too much vegetable I guess, I rather eat a weird hint of burnt bitter sweet and super salty black ramen more than this. Maybe I dislike it due to its plain taste and the lack of meat...

Next stop, “Oniyama Jigoku (Oniyama Hell), the force of the steam is so strong here that about one and a half train cars can be pulled by its pressure, and it creates ideal conditions for breeding crocodiles.” This place probably a place that I didn’t took a picture of onsen with its name because this place is known for crocodiles, the temperature of the onsen is 99.1 C

And the real hell start here, “Kamado Jigoku (Oven Hell) This jigoku derives its name from the fact that it used to be used for cooking foods long long ago. The great red demon standing on an enormous cooking pot is the symbol of this jigoku” That picture probably more appropriate than this picture, but the tour groups were there, there are a lot of people and they loud. They also have a shop there for souvenirs and I just wanted to get out of this place as soon as possible. Hey, I’m an introvert and I like quiet place.

“Umi Jigoku (Sea Hell) so called because this jigoku looks like the sea, which emerged after an explosion of a volcano 1,200 years ago and because the color of the boiling water of the pond is cobalt-blue.”

Oniishi Bozu Jigoku, it seem like I forgot to take a picture of the sign, but the name came from the fact that the little bubble popping up looking like head of the monk. This place was so relaxing and nobody there, there is a footbath in here, which they put some kind of citrus in it and it was really nice. The previous two jigoku also have footbath but there are too many people around. So these 5 jigoku are the one within walkable distance, the other two is 3km away and riding bus there is the best option

Tatsumaki Jigoku (Geyser), I don’t have a trivia for this because I don’t remember and the sign was cut off otl

Chinoike Jigoku (Blodd Hell), it named after the redness.

Overall, I think the jigoku are pretty interesting, definitely a tourist trap, but it was fun to take pictures with all of them. Not a place I would visit again unless I want more of their skin-care product :p

After I finish journey through hells, I decided to go for a sand bath, which I got covered in black sand. The temperature is too warm, it not like hot like the sand bath in different prefecture that I saw in one of the youtube video, which is kind of disappointment since I expected sauna temperature in a cool weather. Then I went back to my hotel to relax and go out again to find food; I ate seafood ochazuke and Tamayaki (like takoyaki, but use scallop instead), then I finally went to Family Mart to print out Ogo-tan’s conbeni print.

Asahi Tower Beppu Tower is located near my hotel, so I decide to go up there on my way back, I think I got sold because they said the tower was kind of old or something, but it was not worth it, there’s nothing up there, the night view can be seen anywhere, not unique to Beppu.

Third day,

It’s a day, I actually waking up early (to catch the train back to Hakata) for the sake of everything yay. The plan, was Nagasaki...and I was going to get through with this plan until I ride the train and changed my mind. It was very last minute, I had no plan. I thought that 3 hours in Nagasaki is not enough and not worth it to ride 4-6 hours of train (two-way) from Hakata. I have to hurried back to Hakata before Fukuoka City Museum close. So, I went to Kumamoto Castle, which happened to be under construction due to earthquake, like I said in one of my post before, I knew it was under construction, but I didn’t know it was all the area. At that point, I was regretting the fact that Fukuoka City Museum closing on Monday ruined my plan, I could have ride a ferry from Kumamoto to Nagasaki and actually enjoy Nagasaki until night time, but I have my sword priority. So, I went to Tamana to see Doudanuki since I already in Kumamoto. The museum was really really nice, I enjoyed it a lot despite the fact that I couldn’t read Japanese. The dedication that I rode taxi there because the bus do not reach that place. And the station person in Tamana station was so helpful, what a good place. And then, I rode shinkansen back to Hakata again and finally able to see Hasebe in Fukuoka City Musuem. See I took better pictures of the swords, like zoom in and such, but I’m too lazy to post it so that post ended up with generic sword pictures.

My hotel is in Tenjin, which has Animate there, something I couldn’t find and ended up spent money in Book-off instead. The food that day was Mos Burger during lunch (Idk why I craved for Japanese-western food, don’t judge me) and Oyster tempura-don plus karage.

Fourth day, another unplanned day

I flew back to Okinawa and sat at Naha airport for 2 or was it 3 hours because I don’t know what to do. I was looking at the brochures and tried to come up with a plan for today. My original plan was to go the south and go to Okinawa world and I just ended up too lazy to go. In the end, I decided to go to my hotel and walk around that area. My hotel happen to be within the walkable distance from Animate, I always picked the best location for my hotel eh? The street that I was walking was Kokusaidori street, which is a shopping street for souvenirs.

Although, it’s unplanned it was great, I enjoyed looking in each shop and eat whatever food I found on my way Animate.

Fifth day, each day’s adventure is getting shorter and shorter

I bought a day tour to Okinawa’s aquarium because I’m too lazy to do my research for the bus. This day tour is so rush, I didn’t spend enough time in the aquarium, two hours include lunch is not enough. The taco rice in the aquarium was great though, I can see whale shark while I ate. The other place include in the tours are Kadena, a place where you can see American’s air force plane, Cape Manza, a place that related to Urashima Taro (If my Japanese is corrected, I mostly sleep through the bus ride) and American Village, a shopping place that the tour let people be in for 50 minutes, I cannot do anything during that period of the time. Sadly, it was raining that day and I’m not feeling very happy about it.

Sixth day, visited 3 world heritage

The last day in Japan, visited Shirikinaen Garden, Shuri Castle, Tamadun, and Naminoue Shrine - Beach. Shirikinaen was beautiful, I loves Japanese garden. Shuri Castle was too large and I was too tired to explore all the area, is I visit Shuri Castle on the first day of my trip, I probably able to finish the stamp rally. Naminoue beach is the only beach I went although I went to Okinawa,

Overall, I did enjoyed this trip a lot. There’s a point that I was worn out enough to just want to stay in the hotel and not going anywhere, but it was a fun alone time trip. In all the prefectures I visited, I probably will visited them again some day because I feel like I didn’t see enough, but it probably won’t be my priority since I rather visit other prefectures and complete my bucket list (visit all prefectures in Japan)

Oita, definitely will visit again for onsen-escape, maybe not Beppu, maybe it would be Yufuin next time.

Kumamoto, in 2019 when Kumamoto Castle is complete, let’s do it since it one of Japanese’s greatest castle...and maybe Mt. Aso...

Fukuoka, if I have a chance, might have a proper sightseeing here in the future

Okinawa, if I go there again, I want to stay near Ocean Expo park or something, it seem there’s a lot of interesting place in there. Might go there in Spring because Summer is too hot and probably too crowded.

4/8 Kyushu visited, need to clear the rest the next time.

When I read this in the future, I probably regretted this for writing too little haha. But I’m kind of tired half way through and it ended up the way it is.

#sometimes i pretends that i'm a travel blogger #just chatchalita traveling #chatchalita impulse half kyushu trip hopefully #hopefully it the last time I used that tag

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