Hakone: Lake Ashi and Mishima Skywalk

I don’t remember if I have visited Hakone in the past with my family, but the scenery looked so nostalgic but new at the same time when I visited with my friends this winter break.

We visited Hakone from Gotenba. We bought a 3-day tourist pass that covers most of the transportation fees like buses, cable cars, and even the ferry. Unfortunately, some of the city trains were under maintenance so we couldn’t experience that. But that’s OK.

The main iconic attraction is the lake where the ferry runs on, Lake Ashi. It brings us close to the red torii gate where you can take pictures if you’re lucky enough. Most of the time, the ferry is always full of passengers and it’s hard to take a good shot. I was unlucky since it was also extra windy that I couldn’t even hold my camera properly without shaking.

Once we landed at the Moto-Hakone pier, we immediately searched for lunch. Mind you that most of the restaurants there have their prices jacked up since it’s a tourist site. The cheapest meal we could get cost us $10 per serving. Mmmm.

From there, we decided to take a walk up to the shrine. It takes 15 minutes by foot from the pier, so it’s not a bad exercise after a meal. However, I underestimated the path there since it’s uphill and there’s a set of stairs you need to climb to get up there. I decided to go up just for the sake of going up since I’m already there. I wouldn’t go up for the second time, though. Lol.

From the shrine, we went down the same staircases, this time all the way down to where the famous torii is located. If you want to take a picture, you would have to line up for hours and our group decided it’s not worth the wait so we just took a random picture from afar.

Mishima Skywalk was our next destination. It takes around half an hour to get there by bus (also covered by the pass). It’s your typical suspension bridge, just longer. They also have zip lines and other entertainments. I’m scared of heights and I hate going fast sooo … no.

The view from the bridge, though, is majestic. My camera and skills can’t do justice. It’s really worth going there once in your lifetime. People who get dizzy and nauseated easily like me should be careful, though, since the bridge is really wobbly with all the people going through. But I would say it’s worth the experience!

Schaumburg, IL

The event ended in the afternoon so we had a couple of hours to explore the city. I decided to visit Woodfield Mall, which is the biggest premium outlet in the area (apparently). My newly made Korean friend decided to join me since she had to do some shopping as well.

The shuttle bus (but they call it ‘trolley’)

We took the free shuttle bus from the hotel to get to the mall. Once again, this transportation system had no announcements indicating which stop we are at currently. Are all public transportations like this? Lol.

We had our late lunch at the famous Cheesecake Factory. The food was good but the waiting time was just horrible for us especially because we were starving. It’s nice that they provide us bread for free service.

And shopped at Sephora for the first time

After our meal, we headed out and did a conquest for our bucket list. My friend got a sweater from Abercrombie for her boyfriend but was unable to get the new Airpods Pro since it was out of stock. I was grateful that they had a Fossil store in the mall and that I was able to get my hands on the smartwatch that I have been eyeing for a while.

We made Sephora as our last stop. Actually, I’ve been into one in Indonesia but I just never shopped there since the price looked ridiculous in our currency. The variety in this particular shop was wider and we spent a good one hour just looking at things.

We decided to go back to the hotel afterward since the mall closes at 6 PM. We ended our day then and said our goodbyes since both of us will be staying at separate hotels for another day before flying back home the day after. I told my friend that I am planning to go to Korea (one day) and she said she’ll gladly be my tour guide. Lol.

That ends my log for the Chicago trip!

Chicago, IL

I was in Chicago (to be exact, Schaumburg) for a week from 29th of October to the 4th of November to attend the Global Leadership Summit held by Beta Gamma Sigma.

Obviously, the event wasn’t the highlight of the whole trip. It was more about the places I visited and the new friends I made, food eaten and window shopping experiences.

The hotel that the event was held had a pretty lobby with a huge fireplace in the center to warm up. It’s quite fancy, I must admit. However, I don’t know about paying $150 a night to stay here. It’s a very steep price.

A day before the event starts, I and my friend decided to explore downtown. Since the hotel was in Schaumburg, I had to take the metra to reach my destination (Union Station). Ordering and paying Uber to get to the station itself already posed a lot of problems for me since I had no sim card and credit card. In the end, I had to rely on Paypal and free Wi-Fi to survive. It wasn’t the most exciting experience ever since it was also snowing really hard and I was underdressed.

The weather was horrible and my legs were freezing for an hour and a half inside the train before I got off at the last stop. I met my friend at the nearest Starbux and headed for Willis Tower despite the shitty weather.

Of course, we couldn’t see much. It was just all white. $25 for nothing, anyone?

My underdressed self and my friend took another 30-35 minute walk from the tower to visit the Bean. My hands and legs were freezing but still, we marched forward. It was a bit annoying since it was drizzling and it just ruins the field of view from my glasses and my friend was taking pictures of everything every 3 seconds.

We had a great but overbearing lunch at Giodarno’s, a famous deep-dish pizza chain. It was a mistake for us to order appetizers since we ended up finishing it but couldn’t touch the pizza at all. We only ate one slice each and brought the rest of it home. We developed a trauma for cheese for the next 3 days.

My friend wanted to go to Trader Joe’s in order to get his acquaintances a bunch of shopping bags. Apparently, it’s a thing in Japan to give shopping bags from the States as souvenirs. While we were searching for the ambiguous entrance, I stepped on a steel railing and slipped, falling knee first to the ground while everyone was just staring at me. After that, “FML. It’s gonna be a horrible bruise. Oh, fuck it hurts.” was the only thing that I kept thinking about for the rest of the evening.

We tried going CVS for ointments dealing with bruises, but apparently they didn’t have it. In the end, we spent the last two hours just going around Target and Best Buy to search for something to buy and ended up going home empty-handed since the items we wanted weren’t in stock. We just decided to give up and go home.

Going home from Union Station was a scary experience. The trains didn’t have any announcements of which station they’re currently stopping at (unlike the train I took before) so I had to stay alert and count the stops. At some point, I just fell asleep and luckily, I woke up one stop before Schaumburg. God does exist.

To be continued next post.

Tokyo 2019 Pt. 2

On the second day of our stay, we visited Hamarikyu Gardens. I must say I had a pretty bad experience here since it had rained the day before and the paths are all muddy.

Aside from the muddy roads, the view and weather was actually very nice. The garden has a lot of tea houses floating on top of the lakes. They still use these tea houses to conduct tea ceremonies. There were a lot of tea ceremony events for foreigners to try out as well, but I wasn’t that interested so I didn’t go for it.

The garden itself was humongous. We took around one hour to go around it. Our last stop in the garden was this flower field. However, since it’s October, there weren’t a lot of flowers blooming. Most of the fields looked sad and dried up.

We then made our way to Odaiba, an artificial island that was once used for self-defense force. We took the yurikamome train to get there from Shinbashi (330 yen-ish). The train goes through the Rainbow Bridge and it looks exceptionally nice at night. We originally wanted to visit a light show exhibition but the lines were too long and we gave up. In the end, we decided to just go inside the Unko Museum (lit. Poop Museum).

Even though it’s named Unko Museum, it’s actually not a museum at all. There’s nothing much to do here other than taking pictures of poop shaped decorations and play poop themed arcade games. In my opinion, it’s not worth 1,800 yen to enter this place. But eh, it’s once in a lifetime kind of thing.

Our trip ended with a visit to this poop museum. It was anticlimactic, but the whole two days we spent to go around was fun. I would definitely go to more places and attractions in Tokyo if an opportunity arises in the future.

Tokyo 2019 Pt. 1

Last week, I visited Tokyo for the first time in 11 years. I have no recollection of what it looked like in the past, but I’m sure a lot of things have changed ever since I visited this city a decade ago.

I originally came to apply for my US Visa. I could’ve just came and gone back on the same day I applied for it, but my friend suggested that we could stay longer (and skip some classes *cough*) and enjoy the city more. And so we did.

View from my capsule room at Nine Hours Akasaka

I decided to stay at a capsule hotel for the first time in my life. I’ve always wanted to try it out since the pictures look nice in those promotional web articles. However, in reality, the hotel is really small and overly congested with visitors. There’s so little space to put your items and so little room to move around. It’s definitely not a good place to stay if you like chilling in your room for a long time since they have a mandatory checkout each day at 10 AM. It is, however, good for people who love going out and exploring and need the hotel as a place to sleep only.

We visited a lot of places on the first day including the famous Ginza Loft, Uniqlo, and Muji. There were so many things to look at and I was really tempted to buy a lot of items as well (*cough* Hobonichi *cough*). For someone who lives in the countryside part of Japan, the amount of people in Tokyo is insane.

Luckily, we visited these places on a Friday, meaning it’s not as many people compared to weekends. Even the Asakusa temple was actually visitable. I don’t remember if I actually visited this temple 11 years ago, but it still looks majestic and nice.

Getting my daily dose of bubble tea at Gong Cha

After visiting the temple, we went around to search for Gong Cha. Surprisingly, the number of customers at this particular branch was small so we were able to get our hands on the bubble tea quite quickly. I really recommend getting bubble tea from Gong Cha if you do visit since their tea is out of the world delicious!

I accompanied my friends on their Pokemon Go conquest after our bubble tea session. It rained really hard nearing midnight but my friend was able to catch a perfect Darkrai! We went back to our capsule hotel afterward feeling extremely drained and tired but it was a nice day spent.

Osaka Pt. 3: Universal Studios Japan

Universal Studios Japan (USJ) was our destination for the third day. We came quite early before the gates opened since my friend wants to get into the newest attraction of Attack on Titan. We thought we’re quick enough, but nope, we’re actually quite late lol. We had to wait almost 45 minutes to get into the attraction. It was quite interesting, though. It’s basically watching a 3D movie of AoT with real live actors and titan mannequins. We visited the special merchandise store and of course, splurged quite a bit.

Our next goal was to visit the Harry Potter World! We had no map since we forgot to take one at the admission gate so we had to look around until we found that tiny Hogwarts castle lol.

The first thing I did was get in line and purchase a Butterbeer. I’ve never actually tried one before but my friend was raving about it, so I gave it a try. It’s actually pretty good, but a bit too sweet for my taste. I purchased the one with a mug souvenir so I can bring the mug home with me as a gift!

I and my friend got ourselves a Slytherin robe and scarf. I was originally planning to buy a Gryffindor scarf but then I thought it’s quite common and mainstream, so I went for Slytherin instead. They look badass lol. The robe was purely an impulsive purchase. I cried a little when I saw how much money we spent on it. Welp, it’s once in a lifetime.

We wore the robe around HP world and the store and attraction staffs always gave us special treatment. It makes us feel good lol. We took lots of pics around but unfortunately couldn’t get into any rides since most of it is not suitable for people who get nauseated easily.

Boo-hoo.

This post ends the Osaka trip post. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Osaka Pt. 2: Kyoto

We visited Kyoto and the second day of our holiday. It’s only around an hour of train ride from Osaka, so it’s not bad. Our main objectives were to visit the 3 famous temples in Kyoto: Kiyomizu, Ginkaku, and Kinkaku.

Kiyomizu-dera

As usual, there are a lot of visitors for Kiyomizu. The weather was especially hot that day. I had to purchase an extra umbrella since I left the one I brought at the hotel.

Kiyomizu temple is so big that most of the pictures in my camera are pictures of this temple. The main temple where people pray is deeper inside and no camera or videos are allowed. Moreover, it’s also dark and it makes it difficult to take any clear images.

When you purchase the entry ticket, they give you a long piece of paper which also works as a charm for your house!

Ginkakuji (Silver temple)

To me, Ginkaku is the ‘plainest’ temple within the 3 temples I mentioned. It was built to mimic Kinkaku. The paths inside the temple were mostly flat and they have a lot of paths that require you to climb or anything. So it was a fairly smooth journey, I guess? I didn’t take any appropriate picture for this temple since nothing interesting caught my eye lol.

The soba that we got just outside of Kinkaku

We missed the bus headed for Kinkakuji since we had to search for an ATM to withdraw money. While waiting, we discovered this small cafe and decided to enter. We ordered a coffee-flavored shaved ice. It was superb.

Kinkakuji

The beauty of Kinkakuji blew me away. It looks so majestic and beautiful from far away. The temple is in the middle of the lake, so no one can really go inside it. Taking this picture was a huge struggle since there were a lot of tourists lining up to get their pics as well. Once we got our spot, we took our time and shot a lot of pics lol.

Near the entrance of Kinkakuji, there’s a famous skincare / cosmetics brand named Yojiya. I saw posts about this brand all over the internet and souvenir recommendation sites so I gave several of their products a try.

Their number one bestseller is oil blotting paper.

Never would’ve thought that I’d spend almost $10 for oil blotting paper… I must be insane lol.

I also purchased a body care line of Yojiya called Mayugomori. I originally tried their body milk and the scent smells divine and lingers for quite a long time. Body soap, shampoo, and conditioner are included in this set. I can’t wait to try it out!

To be continued Pt. 3

Osaka Pt. 1: Umeda and around

My friend and I visited Osaka for our short break. It’s been 10 years since I visited last time. To be honest, I don’t even remember what it looked like a decade ago lol.

We stayed at the center of Osaka. Naturally, Umeda became our playground when it comes to shopping and exploring the city. What’s nice is, everything is connected by train. This is one of the reasons why I love Japan so much lol.

While Japan train stations tend to also be a huge ass shopping mall, it’s very crowded and it’s hard to navigate around it if you’re not familiar with it. I had my friend guide me for the whole trip. This udon restaurant, which is a 10-minute walk from the station, is the first place I was brought to after we arrived.

The soup has a peculiar taste since it’s infused with yuzu peels. I like yuzu tea but yuzu udon? Uh, not so much. The tempura’s good, though.

We got this katsudon for dinner on the first day. To be honest, it’s not the best. There’s not much taste for the katsu itself. But then again it’s cheap compared to other restaurants, so we can’t complain lol.

This gelato shop is pretty famous. There are always people eating inside even though the space is very small. The price is in the middle to high range. I would come back if I were given the chance to!

These two pictures are famous tourist spots to take memorable pics. There are a lot of shops at Dotonbori. Exploring everything didn’t take us that long, though., since there were only several shops that we were interested in. Just beware that there are a lot of people here, so people like me who hate crowded places, better avoid this one lol.

To be continued Pt. 2

Just a few things I bought in Gotenba & other places

I bought a few things I found interesting during my trip in Gotenba which I will introduce to you in this post! This is basically a New Year shopping post lol.

Lululun Yamanashi & Nagano Limited Edition Peach Mask

I saw this in the souvenir store at Yamanaka Lake and had to get it. I got it mostly because my mom said she wanted more Japanese masks and thought this would be a perfect one for her. There are 35 sheets in total separated into 5 pouches with a zipper. It’s perfect for travelling and doesn’t the packaging look so cute!? Japan never fails to amaze me.

Bought in the same store that sold the mask. It was around 600 yen and it comes with the can to store the green tea. I’ve been wanting to buy a tea can to keep my tea leaves and this seemed so perfect I just decided to buy it on spot.

There’s a factory outlet in Gotenba that we went to (twice). My trusty Vans had shown signs of breaking down so I decided to get a new sneaker for the future. It’s really comfortable and has a nice spring when I use it for running. The price was not cheap, but it wasn’t that expensive either. I believe it was around 6000 or 7000 yen for this pair.

I’ve never owned any flat caps but my friend complimented me when I wore his, so I decided to get one myself when I saw it was on discount. It cost me around 1000 yen, which is really cheap for a branded cap. I’m just a bit dissatisfied when I realized lint sticks like crazy on it’s material.

In case you didn’t know, Lucky Bags are now like New Year’s tradition in Japan. People would line up in front of stores really early in the morning to get their hands on them. They typically cost 10,800 yen (with tax) and the contents will have value around 20,000 to 30,000 yen. I’ve never gotten one before and initially gave up when I saw the line for Adidas. (We wanted to get Nike’s but they’re not selling it.) I gave it a try in the end and got my hands on it (took me around 1 hour 30 mins). It’s definitely a steal, but whether you’ll like the contents or not depends on the person.

Literally everything in this picture has been recently bought

I bought the teacup, small plate, and bed sheet (it’s so soft!) from Muji after I came back from the trip. They were on sale and I figured I’d get a new set of bedsheets since my old ones aren’t really comfortable for winter. The snacks are Tokyo Banana bread and cookie that I bought in the airport when I came back.

That ends this ‘haul-like’ post. I’m mostly satisfied with most of the things I purchased here and felt like I didn’t really waste my money for nothing. (Except for the lucky bag, maybe, lol). I guess this means I should refrain from buying things this month since I already bought so much!

10 Day Trip To Gotenba Pt. 3

This is the last post for the places I visited during my time in Gotenba. We visited the Shiraito Waterfalls, which is located in Fujinomiya city. It took us around one hour and thirty minutes of train ride and half an hour of bus ride to get there from Gotenba Station.

For this trip, only me and the fountain pen guy went. The others said they were disinterested so we just left them sleeping in the house. We weren’t sure if the trip was going to be worth it at first, but after seeing the waterfalls, we were just ecstatic.

The waterfalls are so majestic that I’m sure the photos wouldn’t be enough to show it.

The Fujisan Hongu Sengen Taisha (long name, I know)

We stopped by the Sengen shrine on the way home from the falls since we haven’t really got the chance to visit a big shrine during our trip. This shrine is a really famous one and it was once used as a starting point to climb Mt. Fuji.

We visited during day time so the stalls were still being prepared for New Year’s Eve. I would really love to go to this place during new year’s, but too bad it’s so far from Gotenba.

I try my best to visit shrines during or near new years to grab an omikuji (a fortune paper). I got medium luck for this year, which is not bad. I still haven’t read it completely since they use old Japanese phrases inside it. Maybe I’ll ask my Japanese teacher next time. Haha.

This ends my vacation post. I hope you enjoyed reading all three. I’m sorry that it got too long and I don’t have better pictures to show. I’ll keep in mind to take more on my next trip (hopefully)!