Japan 2014 - Highs and Lows

I have been such a busy bee and it’s been almost a year since I last wrote a blog. It’s also almost 2 months since my Japan vacation but this very rare time in my hands might be the perfect opportunity to write about this unforgettable (and 2 month hangover worthy) trip!

This is my second major vacation with the boyfriend (long story why we ended up with just the 2 of us) but not going for this trip (after the flight was booked and visa approved) was never an option for us. We will Japan ourselves whatever happens :)) I don’t know how I can fit everything I want to say in a single post so let me just start with my Japan Highs and Lows.

JAPAN HIGHS

1. Home Stay

Home staying with my boyfriend’s best friend was a definite plus for us. Since it’ll be just the two of us now, staying at a hotel was not an option for us anymore. Also, Tokyo is relatively pricier than other cities and staying for 8 nights would definitely burn our pockets haha. We stayed at Motosumiyoshi, 45 minutes away from Tokyo and 2 train rides away from Shibuya. I also like it because we had the chance to see other parts of Japan aside from busy Tokyo. It was a quiet residential area although all of the people still moved pretty fast hehe.

2. Pocket WiFi

We did research about how we can stay connected and we read a lot of good reviews about Global Advanced Communications. Well, they did not disappoint. First, their website was really helpful and gave step by step instructions on how we can reserve a unit. Second, the prices become cheaper as you stay longer so we had a good deal for our 9 day rental. Last and definitely not the least, it was super hassle-free. They delivered it directly to our friend’s house and we just had to drop it off at a post before our flight back home.

3. Weather

It was 10 to 20 degrees lower from our Philippine scorching hot summer and we definitely enjoyed it!

4. Food

I really love Japanese food and to experience authentic Japanese cuisine is a dream come true! I just felt happy crossing out my personal must-try foods in my list every day, and happy to know that I've tried almost everything you can see in the Japanese emojis hahaha.

5. Convenience Stores

I think there wasn’t a day when we didn’t visit Lawson or Family Mart. Their meals were good (unlike the really cheap ones we have here in the Philippines but aren’t really filling) and it saved us a lot of money also. From vitamin drinks to comfort room emergencies (yes, some had CRs!). From printing needs (yes, we printed out our boarding pass and plane tickets at 711!) to buying bread and coffee for breakfast the next day, they were really convenient and worth your money. We also bought 2 clear umbrellas (which I love! But had to leave with my friend since it wouldn’t fit in our luggage) for one rainy Tokyo day. Their convenience stores also had, aside from refrigerators, heat-gerators (haha) where teas and other drinks remain hot. How cool (or hot) is that? Haha.

6. Vending Machines (and other helpful machines hehe)

Japan has managed to make life so convenient for everyone. Vending machines are everywhere – most are for all sorts and types of drinks. Some have energy bars, train tickets, ice cream, even cigarettes. They also have self-help machines / computers for stuff like printing, user friendly toilets, menu in restaurants (where you have to order and pay from a machine, sit down, and they’ll just serve your order haha), even foreign exchange vendos located in some malls! Super duper convenient!

7. People

The Japanese people may be the most polite and helpful people in the world. Even with the language barrier, you can see that they genuinely like to help and assist you with whatever you need.

One standout experience we had was when we were already running low on Yen and had to find a foreign exchange accepting Philippine Peso. We had a flier from a bank we recently asked, which contained a map to the forex but it was all in Japanese so we couldn’t decipher what it said. We also searched the net and tried to look for the place but can’t seem to locate it. We then asked a maintenance staff for help, showing him the map and hoping he could at least direct us which way to go. Although he didn’t understand what we were saying, he got that we wanted to find that place. Without saying a word, he grabbed our map and started walking. We found it weird at first but decided to follow the man. He walked, walked further, turned here, turned there, turned back, walked even more. It seems he also couldn’t find the place but we really appreciated how he left his current task and got himself in the hassle of finding the forex place with and for us. He got to an information booth and asked. The guy in the booth figured the maintenance guy was asking in our behalf so he answered back in English so we could understand it. I thought the maintenance guy would leave us from there since we already knew where to go, but he still didn’t, and brought us to the place. When we finally found it, he just stepped back, bowed, and left. I wish we had a chance to thank him more and even get a picture with him for being sooooo helpful and selfless. We would even give him a tip if we could. But we understand that that’s not a practice in Japan because they just normally do helpful stuff to other people without expecting anything in return.

Another thing to note is that Japan is really a safe place. It says so much about their people being very disciplined and secure. People can actually sleep in trains and use their mobile phones literally everywhere without having to worry about it getting snatched or anything.

8. Golden Week

Although I’m really considering putting this as one of my lows because of the volume of people we were with in some of our tours (ehem Asakusa, Tokyo Sky Tree, and Kamakura hehehe), I think it’s still more of a high because our friend didn’t have to file a leave from work and was with us for the most part, plus we found some good Golden Week sales!

9. Hiroshi

This vacation wouldn’t be possible without Hiro! It wouldn’t be as fun, we wouldn’t have saved as much, we also wouldn’t be able to go around and toured the way we did were it not for him! Although I already knew Hiro a couple of years ago, this is the first time I’ll be spending a vacation with him. I was a bit worried at first if we’ll get along well. My only consolation then was that if I got along well with my boyfriend, and if he got along well with his best friend, then we’ll be fine. Haha. Turns out, it was more fun than I thought possible! He is officially my favorite Japanese friend!

JAPAN LOWS:

1. High cost of transportation

For one, we never rode a cab. We couldn’t afford one! Haha! Trains also cost a lot but they’re the only means that could fit our budget. One train ride in Japan already amounts to a 15 to 30 minute cab ride here in the Philippines. Also, unlike train and bus services in Singapore and HongKong where you only use one card for all your rides and just top up when it runs out, Japan has different train lines owned by different companies and you therefore have to buy tickets separately for every trip. Here are 2 tips:

Don’t buy tickets yet unless you’re near the platform entrance – we bought tickets and the ticket receiving machine thing kept rejecting them. Turns out we bought the wrong tickets although we bought it in the same station. Companies also have different vending machines for their tickets. The vendos being in the same station doesn’t necessarily mean they’re for all trains in that station. Haha.

·         When you don’t know how much your train ride costs, buy one of the lowest value. When you get to your actual destination, you can adjust your fare and just add the difference from the actual cost. You can either use a vending machine for fare adjustment or just ask an officer from the information booth.

2. Weather

Or the forecast for that matter. We almost never stopped monitoring Japan weather days before our trip. We came prepared, or so we thought. (Yes, this was also listed in my highs but…) Forecast showed that Tokyo will experience 20+ degrees Celsius in our week long stay, a temperature our country also experiences sometimes so we thought it would be manageable. Unfortunately, temperatures dropped for some days and we had to reuse some of our clothes just to add layers and feel warmer. We also already had colds just on our second day. We consumed double doses of our vitamins and also drank energy and vitamin drinks every day. Lessons learned – even if you did your research, you can never be too prepared for a trip. Always bring extra for everything (especially when your baggage allowance permits you to). It’s a good thing we also really brought a lot of vitamins and not just an exact number for our stay so we afforded to take double doses as well. (On the pictures below, I was wearing 3 to 4 layers already. I even wore another jacket I bought while touring under the denim jacket I was already wearing because it even got colder hahaha)

3. Filipino Time in Japan

One definite low for this trip is having to spend again for a one-way plane ticket home because we missed our flight…but this probably deserves a whole new blog post. Haha.

Although there were lows, all of the highs still made this trip so worth our money and  time. Japan is definitely a country I will visit again someday. This time having Mt. Fuji and cherry blossoms in our itinerary!