Finally I am blogging a proper post!

My family and I are off to Kyoto and Osaka for a week!

I am not really a fan of Japan (other than the food) but it's still good to spend quality time with my family =)

After catching a midnight flight, we had brunch at Yoshinoya-lookalike!

You have to place your order at the machine which will then spit out small pieces of paper for the staff at the counter to prepare your food.

So dirt cheap, it's only 270 yen (approx S$3.70) per person!

Check out my family's happy faces coz they were all famished after the flight.

Sooooo much beef in a bowl! By the time I finished the beef, I was already too full for anymore rice.

Shopped around at the souvenir shop near the airport while waiting for our train to Kyoto.

We bought the Haruka-Icoca card at 4,000 yen per person.

This includes the train ride to Kyoto and from Osaka back to the airport.

It also has a stored value of 1,500 yen and 500 yen (refundable deposit).

The stored value acts like our EZ link card. You can use it for most train lines, including the JR and subway!

You can find out more about it here!

Spot my dad and my pink luggage cover in the picture below. LOL

The chairs will turn around automatically so that you don't have to worry about facing the back!

Quite cool, in my opinion.

The train ride is about 1hr 20 minutes. Very smooth and the train is quite empty.

We arrived at our hotel (one stop away from Kyoto main station)!

This hotel is ranked number 2 in Kyoto on TripAdvisor and it's really quite good!

The price was about S$100+ per room (twin sharing) per night.

Best of all, it's directly outside the train station.

Gojo - the station where our hotel was situated.

We went to Shijo to explore the shopping malls.

After resting a while, we headed to the departmental store's basement - where all the food is!!

They gave out generous helpings of samples and I was really quite full from all the sampling.

At the traditional food street.

Dinner time!

For friends who know me really well, I think it's not hard to guess which of the following 4 dishes was mine!

(Answer at the end of this post, hee her)

It has been a long day and we went back early to catch a good night's sleep to prep for the next day!

============

A little morning snack that we bought the night before.

There is something similar at Takashimaya in Singapore.

But this is exclusively sold in Kyoto and it has two flavours - matcha and yuzu!

The taste is really rich and soooo good!

If not for the short shelf life, I would have brought it back to Singapore!

My outfit for the second day!

According to my dad's itinerary, we are gonna do some cultural tour today!

The temple that he wanted to visit is about 40 minutes' walk away from our hotel.

But the weather was quite okay and we were in for some very relaxing scenery along the way!

This is the first temple we went to.

The second temple and the largest one in Kyoto!

My dad was really excited about this. hahaha

It was quite a hot day but the beautiful scenery made up for the weather.

The picture below is really hilarious.

There were many scoops there and you were supposed to use the one that you want. Like 厄运 to ward off bad luck and 恋 for those seeking love.

My dad knows very little chinese and so I told him to pick one for safety while he is on the road.

He saw 安产 and was about to use it! Luckily I stopped him and told him that was for pregnant mothers who want a smooth delivery!

He thought that was 安全!!!! 

And so, this is why he was laughing so happily in the picture. 

My dad's command of Chinese really creates lotsa jokes. hahahaha

We had cold cha soba at one of the pavilions around the temple and this is the first time I enjoyed cold noodles so much! Thanks to the hot weather.

Lunch time!

After lunch, we continued to browse the traditional streets of Kyoto.

It was really quite nice to look at the traditional food snacks like mochi. But after a while, you will find that almost all the shops sell the same thing!

Loving my shades from ASOS!

We went back to the shopping area near our hotel and shopped at BIC Camera (this huge electronics store that sells everything from headphones to handphone covers to air purifiers and luggages) for at least 2 hours!

I had to drag my family out of the shop before we miss the last opening hour of the supermarket!

But everyone paused to take picture of the beautiful Kyoto tower.

My family loves taking pictures, as you can tell.

So this is the best time to buy quality food at discounted prices!

We had our dinner in the hotel room, after all the mad rush sourcing for the best offers. (It was already 7.45pm when we finally reached the supermarket and almost everything was sold out!)

My first time trying fattiest tuna and boy, was it delish!

The drowsy medicine is kicking in and I am gonna sleep now!

Keep watching this space for Part 2 of my travelogue!

(Answer: Mine was Nabeyaki Udon!)

Finally I am blogging a proper post!

My family and I are off to Kyoto and Osaka for a week!

I am not really a fan of Japan (other than the food) but it's still good to spend quality time with my family =)

After catching a midnight flight, we had brunch at Yoshinoya-lookalike!

You have to place your order at the machine which will then spit out small pieces of paper for the staff at the counter to prepare your food.

So dirt cheap, it's only 270 yen (approx S$3.70) per person!

Check out my family's happy faces coz they were all famished after the flight.

Sooooo much beef in a bowl! By the time I finished the beef, I was already too full for anymore rice.

Shopped around at the souvenir shop near the airport while waiting for our train to Kyoto.

We bought the Haruka-Icoca card at 4,000 yen per person.

This includes the train ride to Kyoto and from Osaka back to the airport.

It also has a stored value of 1,500 yen and 500 yen (refundable deposit).

The stored value acts like our EZ link card. You can use it for most train lines, including the JR and subway!

You can find out more about it here!

Spot my dad and my pink luggage cover in the picture below. LOL

The chairs will turn around automatically so that you don't have to worry about facing the back!

Quite cool, in my opinion.

The train ride is about 1hr 20 minutes. Very smooth and the train is quite empty.

We arrived at our hotel (one stop away from Kyoto main station)!

This hotel is ranked number 2 in Kyoto on TripAdvisor and it's really quite good!

The price was about S$100+ per room (twin sharing) per night.

Best of all, it's directly outside the train station.

Gojo - the station where our hotel was situated.

We went to Shijo to explore the shopping malls.

After resting a while, we headed to the departmental store's basement - where all the food is!!

They gave out generous helpings of samples and I was really quite full from all the sampling.

At the traditional food street.

Dinner time!

For friends who know me really well, I think it's not hard to guess which of the following 4 dishes was mine!

(Answer at the end of this post, hee her)

It has been a long day and we went back early to catch a good night's sleep to prep for the next day!

============

A little morning snack that we bought the night before.

There is something similar at Takashimaya in Singapore.

But this is exclusively sold in Kyoto and it has two flavours - matcha and yuzu!

The taste is really rich and soooo good!

If not for the short shelf life, I would have brought it back to Singapore!

My outfit for the second day!

According to my dad's itinerary, we are gonna do some cultural tour today!

The temple that he wanted to visit is about 40 minutes' walk away from our hotel.

But the weather was quite okay and we were in for some very relaxing scenery along the way!

This is the first temple we went to.

The second temple and the largest one in Kyoto!

My dad was really excited about this. hahaha

It was quite a hot day but the beautiful scenery made up for the weather.

The picture below is really hilarious.

There were many scoops there and you were supposed to use the one that you want. Like 厄运 to ward off bad luck and 恋 for those seeking love.

My dad knows very little chinese and so I told him to pick one for safety while he is on the road.

He saw 安产 and was about to use it! Luckily I stopped him and told him that was for pregnant mothers who want a smooth delivery!

He thought that was 安全!!!! 

And so, this is why he was laughing so happily in the picture. 

My dad's command of Chinese really creates lotsa jokes. hahahaha

We had cold cha soba at one of the pavilions around the temple and this is the first time I enjoyed cold noodles so much! Thanks to the hot weather.

Lunch time!

After lunch, we continued to browse the traditional streets of Kyoto.

It was really quite nice to look at the traditional food snacks like mochi. But after a while, you will find that almost all the shops sell the same thing!

Loving my shades from ASOS!

We went back to the shopping area near our hotel and shopped at BIC Camera (this huge electronics store that sells everything from headphones to handphone covers to air purifiers and luggages) for at least 2 hours!

I had to drag my family out of the shop before we miss the last opening hour of the supermarket!

But everyone paused to take picture of the beautiful Kyoto tower.

My family loves taking pictures, as you can tell.

So this is the best time to buy quality food at discounted prices!

We had our dinner in the hotel room, after all the mad rush sourcing for the best offers. (It was already 7.45pm when we finally reached the supermarket and almost everything was sold out!)

My first time trying fattiest tuna and boy, was it delish!

The drowsy medicine is kicking in and I am gonna sleep now!

Keep watching this space for Part 2 of my travelogue!

(Answer: Mine was Nabeyaki Udon!)

Finally I am blogging a proper post!

My family and I are off to Kyoto and Osaka for a week!

I am not really a fan of Japan (other than the food) but it's still good to spend quality time with my family =)

After catching a midnight flight, we had brunch at Yoshinoya-lookalike!

You have to place your order at the machine which will then spit out small pieces of paper for the staff at the counter to prepare your food.

So dirt cheap, it's only 270 yen (approx S$3.70) per person!

Check out my family's happy faces coz they were all famished after the flight.

Sooooo much beef in a bowl! By the time I finished the beef, I was already too full for anymore rice.

Shopped around at the souvenir shop near the airport while waiting for our train to Kyoto.

We bought the Haruka-Icoca card at 4,000 yen per person.

This includes the train ride to Kyoto and from Osaka back to the airport.

It also has a stored value of 1,500 yen and 500 yen (refundable deposit).

The stored value acts like our EZ link card. You can use it for most train lines, including the JR and subway!

You can find out more about it here!

Spot my dad and my pink luggage cover in the picture below. LOL

The chairs will turn around automatically so that you don't have to worry about facing the back!

Quite cool, in my opinion.

The train ride is about 1hr 20 minutes. Very smooth and the train is quite empty.

We arrived at our hotel (one stop away from Kyoto main station)!

This hotel is ranked number 2 in Kyoto on TripAdvisor and it's really quite good!

The price was about S$100+ per room (twin sharing) per night.

Best of all, it's directly outside the train station.

Gojo - the station where our hotel was situated.

We went to Shijo to explore the shopping malls.

After resting a while, we headed to the departmental store's basement - where all the food is!!

They gave out generous helpings of samples and I was really quite full from all the sampling.

At the traditional food street.

Dinner time!

For friends who know me really well, I think it's not hard to guess which of the following 4 dishes was mine!

(Answer at the end of this post, hee her)

It has been a long day and we went back early to catch a good night's sleep to prep for the next day!

============

A little morning snack that we bought the night before.

There is something similar at Takashimaya in Singapore.

But this is exclusively sold in Kyoto and it has two flavours - matcha and yuzu!

The taste is really rich and soooo good!

If not for the short shelf life, I would have brought it back to Singapore!

My outfit for the second day!

According to my dad's itinerary, we are gonna do some cultural tour today!

The temple that he wanted to visit is about 40 minutes' walk away from our hotel.

But the weather was quite okay and we were in for some very relaxing scenery along the way!

This is the first temple we went to.

The second temple and the largest one in Kyoto!

My dad was really excited about this. hahaha

It was quite a hot day but the beautiful scenery made up for the weather.

The picture below is really hilarious.

There were many scoops there and you were supposed to use the one that you want. Like 厄运 to ward off bad luck and 恋 for those seeking love.

My dad knows very little chinese and so I told him to pick one for safety while he is on the road.

He saw 安产 and was about to use it! Luckily I stopped him and told him that was for pregnant mothers who want a smooth delivery!

He thought that was 安全!!!! 

And so, this is why he was laughing so happily in the picture. 

My dad's command of Chinese really creates lotsa jokes. hahahaha

We had cold cha soba at one of the pavilions around the temple and this is the first time I enjoyed cold noodles so much! Thanks to the hot weather.

Lunch time!

After lunch, we continued to browse the traditional streets of Kyoto.

It was really quite nice to look at the traditional food snacks like mochi. But after a while, you will find that almost all the shops sell the same thing!

Loving my shades from ASOS!

We went back to the shopping area near our hotel and shopped at BIC Camera (this huge electronics store that sells everything from headphones to handphone covers to air purifiers and luggages) for at least 2 hours!

I had to drag my family out of the shop before we miss the last opening hour of the supermarket!

But everyone paused to take picture of the beautiful Kyoto tower.

My family loves taking pictures, as you can tell.

So this is the best time to buy quality food at discounted prices!

We had our dinner in the hotel room, after all the mad rush sourcing for the best offers. (It was already 7.45pm when we finally reached the supermarket and almost everything was sold out!)

My first time trying fattiest tuna and boy, was it delish!

The drowsy medicine is kicking in and I am gonna sleep now!

Keep watching this space for Part 2 of my travelogue!

(Answer: Mine was Nabeyaki Udon!)