Hope this will help..

http://www.hakodate.travel/en/things-to-do/

blogwh0re alert!!!: http://look-see-eat.blogspot.sg/2015/11/ho...et-seafood.html

- eat at lucky pierrot
- eat kaisendon
- eat crab
- eat uni don
- eat more stuff

lol

Took train all the way to Nagano yesterday just to see snow monkey and the park was close😭😭😭😭😭

walau so bad luck 😭😭😭😭😭
why was it closed? bad weather?

u nv check before u go?
at least la ask hotel receptionist

i normally flirt with them.... oh wai

Bad weather was one thing but it was still quite ok.
Apparently the bad weather gave some problems to the pipe towards the onsen. And hence no monkey in the onsen. 😭😭😭

I did check. Everything was ok.
Staying at Airbnb unit. No hotel receptionist.

We even bought the day pass already at Nagano station. A lot of others also bought. Boarded the express bus heading to the park. We were on the 2nd 9am bus as the first one left for the park already. 5 minutes on the bus, the bus driver park at the road side and spoke to everyone in Japanese. Basically saying park close and whether we wanna go ahead to the mountains or we can get off and walk back to the station.

A few of us decided to get down and walk back to try to get a refund for the day pass. And we did get a refund. 😬 But still Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagano 😅

Lots of snow though. And the weather in Nagano town was quite pleasant even though snowing.

Refer above in blue.

Thanks so much for the info. So I think i'll use the Haruka discounted tickets route from KIX-Kyoto and also Osaka-KIX. Any suggestions for a similar cheap route from Kyoto-Osaka?

I tried searching through Google and got this route which uses the Tokaido-Sanyo Line.
https://goo.gl/maps/kcKpkfdSbqs

Depends on your itinerary. If you are not going other intra-city (e.g. Kobe/Himeji/Nara/etc.), most likely you will not purchase any JR Pass, hence, just use Icoca to travel between Kyoto-Osaka using normal rapid trains.

Otherwise, for example, if you purchase 2 day JR pass (there are varieties of passes), then 1st JR day pass you travel to Nara. Then 2nd day to Osaka.

Tokaido-Sanyo is shinkansen and is the most expensive, but fastest. There are other rapid trains (JR and non-JR) or slowest but cheapest using bus as well.
Also depends which station in Osaka is your next destination hotel/hostel.

Here's a link after quick search.

Again, thanks so much =D Btw, just 1 last question. On the ICOCA-Haruka website, I saw that there is the ICOCA-Haruka pass set as well as this Kansai One Pass. I'm not exactly sure if I'll still get a discounted Haruka pass if I buy the Kansai One Pass card. Since from what I undertsand, the Kansai One Pass is an ICOCA card as well?

https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/icoca-haruka/

Kansai One Pass is an ICOCA card as well. The condition for Haruka discounted ticket is to present an IC card with ICOCA logo. Hence, it is valid.

So would you say its better for me to get the Kansai One Pass currently?

It depends, there is no right/wrong answer. Check and compare the normal vs Kansai One Pass ICOCA and see which you will utilize.

e.g. Kansai One Pass may have more benefits but will you utilize the benefits ? What if you or your partner wants to collect the Hello Kitty design ?
What if later on, Kansai One Pass promo over ? What if later got better promo ?

Guys any suggestion for onsen around 4000yen - 5000yen in kyoto/osaka?
Thanks!

Last year, there was Rakuten big sale and I ordered via the internet. I think it was like 200gm for 10,000yen. Best thing is that it came with a certificate. In it, it has the cow breed, where it comes from, the rank and some other information.

japanese prefer rakuten > amazon.jp?

Yeah. Personally I shop more at Amazon as its normally cheaper with free delivery as I have a Prime account. But if there is rakuten sale, its really cheap. New cars can go for half the price but normally only one available and you need to be real quick.

just a quick question ,

i planning to visit tokyo end of this year ,

roughly how much i should prepare for 10 days trips including travelling agent bawak saya jalan jalan + flight ticket ( pergi and balik )

just wondering =p. thank you

AA flight ~rm800++ ?
MAS / JAL / ANA flight ~rm1.4++ ?

is your transportation covered (free) by your travel agent ?

for me i budget ~rm200 per day excluding shopping + accommodation

Since you have a travel agent, why not ask them directly??