there are free seats available:



http://www.jrhokkaido.co.jp/train/tr003_03.html

If that day alot people taking the Train. The reserve Seat will take over non reserve seat section.
Left only one cart of Free Rerserve which normally should be 2 cart.

These only on Golden Holiday Season

If you holding JR Rail Pass...Best is reserve the seat for all Limited Express and Shinkanshen.

This post has been edited by RegentCid: Nov 28 2013, 11:47 AM

I read from website that the reservation can only be made on the station itself. In this case, how to make reservation when I am still in Malaysia, or I should not be that kiasu?

During Bon Odori Season & Golden Holiday Season. Seat Reservation can be done 1 week early before you departure.

Only for these 2 Season. And these 2 season also seat reservation for Japanese only. Foreigners only can get free seating.

This post has been edited by RegentCid: Nov 28 2013, 12:48 PM

Still only able to make reservation at the station right? If during these 2 seasons only for Japanese, foreigners with JR Pass also no choice but to sit on unreserved seat. Understood.

From Kansai Airport (KIX) to Kyoto, I find that the best way is to use the Airport Express HARUKA since can use JR Pass and it only takes about 75 mins with no train change needed. Why I can't find this info at Hyperdia?

The downside is, unable to take shinkashen from Shin-Osaka to Kyoto Station.

http://www.kansai-airport.or.jp/en/access/.../index.html#_04
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruka_(train)

During this 2 season. Foreigners also no seat .

Almost can say This 2 season...All Japan Flight and Shinkansen & Limited Express will be Fully reserve to Japanese.

Foreigners have to take Bus // Flight First Class or Train Green Class

This post has been edited by RegentCid: Nov 28 2013, 03:01 PM

wahhh thanks guys @RegentCid & @ ahpaul82 ... everything is clearer now... can't wait.. 21 days to go.

Shibuya Walkabout

Shibuya can be considered as one of my favorite districts in the Tokyo Metropolitan for the night life, well at least for the limited places that I covered here. It certainly is one of the liveliest place to be in Tokyo at night compared to the other cities. Having said that, most shops here closes around 9.30pm which is quite a pity. It's only in Malaysia (& Singapore) that you really can see shops only closing at 11pm and some 12am during the weekends.It's a bit frustrating at times when you want to do last minute shoppings. :/


Shibuya crossing


For my part I returned to this place twice. First was after the cultural night at Club Camelot during the APPS 2013 conference. I decided that it was too early to go back to my hotel and decided to stay on instead of following the bus back.So there wasn't anything planned for this trip we wandered around aimlessly around the Shibuya area to have a better look. For the 2nd night here it was just a brief walk around since I was rushing to get to Shinjuku as well.







Generally, the stuff in Shibuya are expensive. We walked into the famous Shibuya 109 building and walked out after exploring a few floors, knowing the price range is completely out of our budget range. Imagine a simple shirt costing almost RM400. @@ To be fair, shopping in Japan isn't cheap to begin with.




I wanted to find a shop that sells tempura since we haven't had any yet after being in Japan for a few days already. After circling the area for awhile we still could not find any tempura shop (for a decent price) and we settled for a restaurant specialising in agemono (Japanese fried food). I ordered the ebi-furai set which costed ¥720 for a huge proportion of prawns. Now this is relatively cheap even for Malaysian standards.







We also went to try out their budget conveyor belt sushi. Needless to say, the quality is miles away from the expensive sushi that we had in Tsukiji Fish Market. The fish, the rice, the flavouring, are all of sub-par quality. :/ It's apparent now that I can truly differentiate quality sushi and cheap ones. Bad for my wallet though.






One day I will be back to enjoy coffee at this place and slowly watch the crowd go by....

You are most welcome.

oh, you going on Dec,

hopefully snowing won't delay your whole schedules...

safe trip.

How do you compare the conveyor belt sushi there than the ones here, say Sakae Sushi?

if you're still there and looking to buy some men's wear, i adore the shirts at http://www.perfect-s.com/ ... they're actually pretty competitively priced and the quality is nice!

G.u., an offshoot of Uniqlo, albeit, cheaper than Uniqlo, is quite a bargain. Example, a pair of skinny denim jeans is 1490-1990 yen.

After Dinner eat Yokan

price wise it's almost the same. i think quality also almost the same. i won't be going back to sakae sushi now that's for sure >.< at least rakuzen or similiar level japanese restaurants otherwise i'd rather save the money =X

thanks for pointing that out. shall add that in. i got a cardigan from uniqlo at osaka cost about rm130 only. probably the same price here i guess

I am trying to find low cost carrier from KIX / ITM to HND but unable to find any. Budget is around 5000 yen. The next best option is KIX to HND and I found 2 options, Peach and Jetstar. Fares are comparable and both offer 10 kg hand carry. Jetstar has 4 flights daily while Peach has only 2. But why Peach name keeps popping up ?

Jetstar reputation in Japan are very low.
Japanese people hate late // delay aircraft.
Jetstar first flight in Japan from Narita to Sapporo already delay 1 hour behind schedule. Newspaper and forum powerhouse people give low marks and high critics on it.

Peach so far still in good name. Peach on flight menu food are very delicious.
Kansai T2 are Hub of Peach Airline.

This post has been edited by RegentCid: Nov 29 2013, 09:05 AM

Hehe, just came back from Japan!!

Really enjoyed the trip!!!!!!

News:

Start tml, whole Japan will snowing. Except Shikoku Island and Okinawa Island Chain.

Osaka City will be snowing since 24 years ago.

This post has been edited by RegentCid: Nov 29 2013, 08:06 PM

wah !? how come? autumn wor..will be in kyoto this time next year

Aiks, i'm just miz it