travelerberlalu: Japan.. A trip to remember...Part 1

It's been a while since the last time I wrote in this blog. This year had been a hectic year, busy with works and trips as well.. But till today, year of 2013 indeed is a good year for me.. :)

10 days and 9 night trip to Japan was indeed one of the best trip that I had ever been. November 1st, 2013, me and my travel buddy, boarding on the midnight flight to Kansai International Airport and started our journey exploring Japanese culture, history and beauty.

How to survive when travelling to Japan?

1. Internet connection

The internet is a must when you are travelling in a country that you will have a language barrier with the local. We rent a mobile wifi router from Japan-wireless ( http://japan-wireless.com/products.html#mobilewifi router ) during our 10 day trip to Japan. Japan-wireless offer the cheapest price among other competitors and provide good coverage in almost all the places that we went. You can check the coverage area on the website before you make any decision. It is indeed very convenient to be able to connect through the internet all the time during travelling since you will need them to check on the train schedule and the train route.

2. Subway and train map.

You can get the map from the tourism center available in an international airport, main train station in every city and most of the hotel provide a city map guide (subway, tourist attraction, etc.) for their guest.

3. Travel light

If you plan to cover a lot of places in a short time, you can make use of the locker storage that's available at the train station or you can post your luggage to your next destination in order to make your travel easier.

4. Transportation arrangement.

Decide on transportation arrangement before you travel. I personally prefer to travel by train cause it is cheaper and convenient. You can refer to http://www.japan-guide.com/and http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/ before choosing the ideal transportation mode for your trip. You can check the train (Shinkansen, JR, subway, private railway) schedule, cost, travel duration, and route by using http://www.hyperdia.com/en/.

For this trip, we went with JR 7 Days Rail Pass (¥28,300),1 Day Osaka Unlimited Pass (¥2,000) and 2 Days Kansai Thru Pass (¥5,000).

The JR Rail Pass was really convenient during our trip. We booked the seat for almost all seated train/ bullet train for free at the JR train station. Travelling in Japan by train is really simple (despite the super confusing train route in almost every city). Once you get to the train station, you can just ask any of the staff about the train departure platform number and the time of departure. Even though not all the staff can speak English, they will try to help you to get on the right train.

Places that we covered during our 10 day trip

Day 1

We arrived at Kansai International Airport (KIX) at 8am. We took a train to Weekly Green in Namba. Check in to the hotel. Then, we left for Osaka Castle. We spend our evening in the Osaka Bay area, had dinner there before going to Minami (Namba) and Dotonbori area until midnight. Dotonbori area famous for its food stall. Your trip to Osaka will not complete if you aren't going to this area.