I'm in airport now and will fly soon to Tokyo. Excited and nervous because didn't do homework.

I'm in Narita Express now. The people in the JR East counter are so friendly and speak good English. The lady attended to me was so good and considerate. Purposely chose the car which is near to escalator so I don't need to walk far.

1500 yen well spent.

Yes. Cold like hell. Snow welcomes me though. Keeps raining but drizzling la, now stops already.
I'm in Harajuku now, was a bit late and Meiji Shrine didn't allow visitors anymore. So walking around and too sleepy and cold, now in one cafe waiting for time to pass a bit. Will meet my friend at Shibuya later.

Went to Roppongi and the top floor restaurant in Mori Tower is unexpectedly closed... Anyway, I was supposed to be able to see Tokyo Tower and Mount Fuji from the office if the weather is good. Unfortunately, it's so foggy that I see nothing.

Hopefully Hakone on Monday will treat me good.

No. Despite have data plan but still need to save. 2 days here and used up 744MB already.
Main reason is my friend's house doesn't have wireless router... So, only LAN.

Edit: haha. Actually my friend has and she doesn't know but I'm also lazy to upload now. Will try later.

This post has been edited by fruitie: Feb 1 2015, 12:15 AM

Guys, can I buy 2xKansai Thru Pass together? I plan to buy 3-day and 2-day pass for my 5 days in Kansai.

I will activate the 2-day pass after 3-day pass' validity is over. The reason I asked is it may not be easy for me to find it to buy later.

Even when I tried to read from its website, I can't seem to guess if Shin-Osaka has the counter for me to purchase or not.

At Kobe now, very near to Himeji.

Will go to Osaka Castle tomorrow and so far other things in Osaka don't attract me. So, just spend for a while and will go to Kyoto.

Yes, I hope so.
In the end, I still spent a day in Osaka.
Tomorrow will go to Kyoto.

I didn't visit any of the shrines when I was in Tokyo.
I like those buildings.

Oh ya, so far I'm enjoying my stay in Kobe. Maybe because my friend's house is bigger here compared to my another friend's house in Tokyo. Cannot blame her because it is more expensive in Tokyo and the one in Kobe is fully paid by company.

So far I like Osaka and Kobe's weather compared to Tokyo, it is freezing cold in Tokyo with the constant cool wind.

Most of the time I'm using Google Map to show me the correct train and platforms, so today I didn't see it clearly and it actually guided me to take a tram to Sumiyoshitaisha Shrine. Luckily I made it despite with very minimal English. I didn't know Kansai Thru Pass also covers that, my mistake for not showing it to the driver when I disembarked. Anyway, it is only 210 yen compared to the loss I encountered for my Pasmo card. Lost it somewhere in transition when I took Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka. It was in my pocket all the while and before I left the seat, I checked if I left anything behind. Nothing was left behind. Yet, I couldn't find it anymore. I reloaded 1k yen before it went missing... It still has 1.5k yen.

Anyway, luckily in Osaka, I use KTP all the time. I bought a 3-day ticket and still thinking if I should buy another 2-day for Friday and Saturday. I'm only going to Nara and travel back to Kobe on Friday and Saturday will be in Kobe before I leave to KIX at night. Worth for it? 4k yen... For my travels from Osaka to Kobe, it costs me around 500-700 yen per trip, so it is 1.4k yen max for daily return trip. Or else, I just get an Eco card. At least there is some discounts on Saturday.

Any advice?

This post has been edited by fruitie: Feb 4 2015, 11:57 PM

Today Kyoto keeps raining on and off.

Tomorrow Nara and Kobe on Saturday before I go back at night.

Friend is taking me out for a drink tomorrow in Kobe as she will leave office at 5pm and she's treating me Kobe Beef this Saturday.

Time flies, it's time to go back Malaysia soon. Not to say I didn't enjoy the trip but I certainly don't enjoy exploring myself and got lost alone. If I were to come back to Japan again or travel to any other places, I will definitely drag someone along. I always travel in a pair and this is the first time I tried to explore myself.

This post has been edited by fruitie: Feb 5 2015, 06:38 PM

I have umbrella though. I know theirs is much better.

Hehe. My travel partner is a Chinese and busy with work so can't accompany me.
Also needs visa for Chinese.

This post has been edited by fruitie: Feb 5 2015, 07:02 PM

Long story short, I'm very bad in reading map and even I turned on Google Maps with voice navigation, I still lost my way.

I think Tokyo Banana can only be bought in Tokyo...

Oh is it. I should have waited and buy in KIX tomorrow.

I'm back! Reached KLIA2 at 05:40 this morning. Dead exhausted. Nearly didn't make it on time to the airport.

However, I must praise Japanese's punctuality and efficiency that made my whole trip smoothly. Without these two elements, for sure I will miss my flight last night.

All in one, I miss Japan's advancement but not the language. Pretty difficult for a first timer like me. Sometimes the signboards have no English version and I have to guess based on Kanji.

Will I return to Japan in the future? Yes, why not if I'm on business trip as it's very expensive to spend in Japan.

Not for me, will not purposely go back unless necessary. Time for other places.

Kind of. Will whack all the food tonight.

Honestly speaking I hardly took JR line when I was in Japan. Most of the time was non-JR Line. I cannot deny when I was in Tokyo I took Yamanote Line most of the time but that's also for me to change to other lines. In Kansai, I only use Kansai Thru Pass, I highly recommend this card if you plan to go to Kansai, for e.g. Osaka, Kyoto and etc.

I survived 9 days in Japan with just Pasmo and KTP.

For credit card, I went shopping and used my AmEx to swipe. No issue at all and I was amazed by the speed to process my payment via cc, almost instantly and the bill will be generated.

You are welcome. Just reread your post again that you plan to go to Hakone too, I went to Hakone as well. Recommend you to take Romance car and Free Pass. The free pass here means unlimited times for their rides and not percuma. You can Google about this. It's kinda a long journey and going through the pain of stopping every single stop is not fun, so top up 890 yen per trip per person for Romance car is really worth for it. The total journey was around 1 1/2 hours, non-stop though. I bought my tickets from Odakyu booth in Shinjuku station. You can reserve seats and if you can't get the so called panaroma view, please get the right side window, you can see Mount Fuji during the journey. I only paid for one journey, and coming back I used the normal Odakyu line.

About credit card, I always call banks before I leave for overseas however I was too busy this time and totally forgot about it! This time I only used my Maybank credit card and Maybank did try to call me after my first swipe in Japan. To cut story short, call banks and inform them before you leave.

I just came back from Japan on Saturday's night and reached here last Sunday's morning. I think my memory still serves me well.

This post has been edited by fruitie: Feb 12 2015, 12:20 AM

Well, to me it is only RM 26.70, worth the time saved and at least I'm guaranteed with a seat.
Certainly don't want it to stop every single stop and packed like a sardine in the train.

Sunday to me is fine maybe my time was OK. However, I avoided Hakone on Sunday due to larger crowd, so I went on Monday instead.