OH DEER: a day in the life of a Miyajiman deer

This is Fred. He comes from Miyajima island in Japan. He likes to make friends.

Mainly because his friends always give him food. He loves food. He loves eating food. And paper. Nothing goes better in a rice bowl than some flakes of seaweed and paper.

He spends most of his days sunbathing underneath the Sakura with his pal Carl.

Fred: "Sup Carl?"

Sometimes he and Carl hang out with their human friends, like Haruto-san here.

Having a chat with Haruto-San underneath the blossoms.

Fred: "It's nice to have someone to talk to about M-theory Haruto-san. It's a little too complicated for Carl here."

Fred also loves to go on walks by the coast and urges as many of his friends to go with him.

Fred: "Konnichiwa Mimi! Join Carl and I for a walk to the pagoda?"

And so off they go. The three muskedeers. Yes I did just make that horrific pun.

*trot trot trot*

But Mimi is such a lazy thing. She always ends up slowing the group down. 

"Guys can we not just chill here for a bit?"

Mimi: "Ok guys you just go on ahead. I'll catch up later with my scooter."

Sadly Fred and Carl never make it too the pagoda. They are stopped by a rice-bowl restaurant and the treasures it puts on display have Carl gaping wide-eyed and hungry.

Carl: "OMG"

Carl: "They have edamame and paper napkins. Score!"

So our heroes never make it to the 5-storey pagoda but stuff themselves silly and end their adventure with a siesta in the sun. Nothing better than soaking in those rays Fred.

THE END

Big in Japan ends: OSAKA

The last stop of this epic trip was Osaka, which was about an hour and a half from Hiroshima on the Shikansen. We pretty much used just used this day as a last-minute shopping destination so I unfortunately have nothing to say but sight-seeing and cultural stuffs.

I do however have stuff to say about where to stay and shop if you’re on a budget and review the restaurant Misono, which claims to have the best Kobe beef money can buy.

We stayed in the Floral Inn Namba hotel smack in the middle of the main shopping area of Osaka, near Ebisu Bashi-Suji and Shin Saj Bashi-Suji. The hotel itself isn’t first class flash nor is the service any good (only one concierge can speak English), but it has decent sized, clean rooms, a delicious breakfast buffet and situated in a really convenient location – all for a modest fee of around 50+ USD a night. Ok it’s not a bargain but for its location, its cleanliness, and for Japan it is a pretty sweet deal.

The shopping streets and Namba underground station are just a stone’s throw away from the hotel. You also have easy access to ‘special service’ shops including ear-cleaning or what have you if you’re into that kind of stuff. If you walk through Ebisu Bashi-Suji you will reach the Takashimaya Department store where you can throw tons of money away for a scarf OR (and I recommend this shopping strategy) you can hit the local boutiques down the street for some cheap buys.

You can get your ears professionally cleaned by a lovely lady for only 30 USD per half hour. What a deal!

Ebisu Bashi-Suji’s stores mostly sell cosmetics, toiletries, and accessories. You can get Shiseido and Kosé products for crazy cheap. On the other side you will find Shin Saj Bashi-Suji, which has a lot of local boutiques and caters more towards clothes and hats etc. A lot of the items are priced at around 1500+ Yen but if you look carefully you can find stores that sell for much less than that.  My personal favourite is this store called ‘Mocca’.

Keep a look out for that shop! They sell cute clothes, hats, and bags ranging from 580-980 Yen. That’s under 10 USD guys! I went mental buying stuff there.

Ebisu Bashi-Suji

A ridiculously good-looking Japanese dude walking down Shin Saj Bashi-Suji

AND since you saved oh so much money in accommodation and transport because you stayed in The Floral Inn Namba located in the centre of everything and opted for a shopping spree in Mocca instead of Takashimaya, you can now splurge the remainder of your budget on Misono’s Kobe beef.

And I’m not kidding about the splurge bit. The cheapest set meal you can get would set you back 150 USD a pop (excluding drinks, VAT, and cover charge). Good news is that you will be so stuffed you’ll be unable to sleep. A menu includes a salad, grilled vegetables (onions, pumpkin, garlic, bean sprouts, massive mushrooms), 120g of Kobe beef, and fried garlic rice. I know it doesn’t sound like much but it is.

If you are not familiar with Kobe beef, it’s supposedly the “champagne” of beef cuts. It is really hard to come by as the cattle are bred in certified prefectures and I’ve heard all these crazy rumours saying the cattle are given frequent massages, listen to classical music, and drink beer etc. in order to prevent them from getting stressed.

Misono boasts that it serves the best teppanyaki Kobe steak in the country. To be completely honest, I doubt I can afford another Kobe beef meal in the near future so I can’t compare it to anything, but I did have an hour-long foodgasm. The steak melts like butter in your mouth and has a lower melting point than other cuts. I mean look at the marbling on this thing!

Stuffed full of Kobe beef and Kirin beer, it was a great last day spent in Japan. For those who intend to go my word of advice is SAVE UP. I may have not exactly been travelling budget but regardless a lot of the 'cheaper' alternatives are not all that cheap. Although Japan may burn holes in your pockets, it is worth visiting. I fell in love with the culture, the people, and the incredible food.

No doubt I'll be going back once finances enable me to do so. It may be a long wait so I may just learn some Japanese so I am better equipped for the next visit!

Big in Japan continues: HIROSHIMA

There was a lot of debate prior to our trip as to whether Hiroshima should be included in the itinerary, and I’m glad that the outcome was yes. It was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen and had some of the best food I’ve ever had in a long long time.

Miyajima island

We first headed for the ferry terminal to catch a ferry to Miyajima island. I had no idea what to expect but it is a gorgeous island just off Hiroshima that boasts temples, shrines, the best oysters ever, and as many deer as there are people.

 Seriously the deer are residents of Miyajima as well, walking around eating paper and whatnot. A must-do for every animal lover, as the deer are very friendly and tame. Just make sure to keep paper bags, receipts, or anything out of paper really, out of their sight. They will eat it.

Our new friend Fred. Isn't he cute?

Miyajima is also mainly an island for walking since most of their roads are located further towards the back of the island and not really where the temples and shrines are. First stop is the shopping street of the island where you can find Kakiya restaurant, which has some of the best oysters I’ve had ever. It’s also a really small place but we managed to walk in without a reservation. It’s really affordable as well – a little cheaper than the unagi restaurant the night before and oh my oh my the money is so worth it.

Shopping street of Miyajima island

The chef at work in Kakiya restaurant. See the splatter on the glass? It's because when he grills the oysters they can EXPLODE.

Definitely try the grilled oysters! I had one grilled oyster on the side with my main being boiled oysters on rice. Sounds simple but it is delish. Also FYI I really hate taking pictures of food. It makes me feel like I am giving in to the Asian stereotype and that makes me very sad BUT I just had to on this trip.

I got the boiled oyster set with a grilled oyster on the side. So freaking YUM.

I've developed a lame habit of food picture-taking in Japan. This is a grilled oyster. Om nom nom.

After stuffing ourselves silly we walked through the Shinto temple and shrine and took some more posey pictures with the Sakura in full bloom. Ain’t it purdy?

The 5-storey Pagoda

Shinto Shrine

After strolling around for a few hours we made our way back to Hiroshima to visit the Hypocentre of where the A-Bomb hit and take a look at the Peace Memorial Park. This was a darker and sadder part of the journey but serves as a reminder of the type of destruction we are capable of.

To end the day we randomly ended up in this small teppanyaki place for dinner. I think it was called Hachiya Dining and is somewhere near the Peace Memorial Park area. If you find it, or can be bothered to look for it, I strongly suggest you eat there. I'll try and find the address or further details and edit this post later.

They don’t really speak English, nor do they have any English menus but they can understand ‘fish’, ‘chicken’, and ‘beef’ so they can easily point you to what you might like. Plus since it’s a teppanyaki place you can kind of see what the chef is cooking and just point and ask for it. The head chef is a really friendly young guy as well who tells you what the things are in Japanese. Definitely comes in useful.

Hiroshima is nothing shy of incredible and I was kind of disappointed to not have been able to spend more time in the Peace Memorial Park, but I guess it's just another reason to go back to Japan right? :)

KYOTO Pt. 2: Golden Pavillion, cheap shopping, and UNAGI

Oh man. I totally forgot to mention in the previous post that we also went to see the Golden Pavillion. It’s a very important and beautiful thing, so how it slipped my mind is beyond me. But because we were running on a tight schedule we could only bask in its beauty for about 10-minutes. Anyway, here it is. Boom.

The Golden Pavillion

Now moving swiftly on to shopping. Japan has a reputation for being ridiculously expensive, which it really can be, but like anywhere in the world – those who seek shall find discounts.

My counterparts decided to station themselves in Takashimaya, which is a department store not far from Gion. Unlike the Takashimaya in Singapore, this one is pretty unaffordable unless you are buying like just eyeliner or something. So being unemployed and all that I thought I’d have better chances going for a stroll down the road and I found this wonderful street:

There were several smaller local boutiques on that little shopping street that were selling items for less than 2000 Yen, which was amazing. BUT that was not cheap enough for me. My persistence paid off as 20-minutes later I came across this underground shop called “Don Don Down”. It’s as Japanese as can be. The clothes were beautifully wacky, and well instead of price tags, the clothes were attached to tags with a picture of a piece of fruit or vegetable on them… I’m not kidding.

Cheap awesome shop in Kyoto

Piecing together some very badly formed Japanese sentences, I managed to procure that sheet (below) from one of the sales assistants. I was looking at this really nice dress that had a watermelon on the price tag and 300 Yen seemed way too good to be true so I figured it must just mean that it’s 300 Yen off the original price right?! Anyway using some more poor Japanese at the counter (“wa ikura desuka?”), the cashier typed “310” into the calculator. Holy cow. 310 freaking Yen? I only had 5 minutes to spare before I had to meet the others to make our dinner reservation so I paid and swiftly made my way back to Takashimaya with my Prada-esque 300-Yen baby. **

Another big plus about this shopping street was that it also happened to be where our dinner reservations were. Recommended by my aunt’s renowned foodie friend we had reservations to eat at the best unagi place in town. For those unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine, or those who haven’t seen the ‘unagi’ episode with Ross from friends, it means eel. And yes, this restaurant just sells eel. So delicious.

Kaneyo restaurant

The English name for this place is Kaneyo restaurant. The portions are very generous as well, so I had difficulty getting through the medium rice bowl. Prices are not bad either, setting us back around 2000 Yen a person. You do have to make reservations in advance though because it’s a relatively small place popular with both locals and tourists.

Woop woop I'm slowly catching up with my posts. Next it's on to Miyajima island and Hiroshima!

Kyoto Part 1, Memoirs of a Geisha

I'll be splitting my Kyoto entry into two, just to prevent my posts from being far too wordy.

I'll cover Kiyomizo temple, souvenir shopping, and the life of a modern day geisha in this entry and shopping and the best unagi ever in the next. :)

We took the shikansen (bullet train) from Shinfuji station to Shin-kyoto in the morning to see more of traditional Japan.

Tip: Shikansen tickets are not cheap. Each of our one-way journeys cost between 10,000 – 11,000 Yen, which is around 100 USD. Tourists are entitled to discounted fares, but you can only purchase the rail card outside of Japan. So if you’d like to make use of it, buy it before you fly in. You can find more information here. A 7-day pass is 28,000 Yen, which if we had purchased, would have saved us around 2500 Yen (25 USD).

Cherry blossoms at Kiyomizo temple

Another tip: Change money at a bank and not a Travelex and definitely NOT in the hotel. The rates in banks are a lot better.

First stop after changing money was the Kiyomizo temple. The walk up to the temple itself is really nice with small shops on both sides selling souvenirs that are nice to look at. There are also many shops that sell this rice cookie called yatsuhashi and you can try loads of samples for free in these stores. You also get people walking around in kimonos – usually people who hire them out for a day so they can take ‘nicer’ photos with the cherry blossoms.

Kiyomizo temple

Tip: I would advise against shopping for souvenirs on this street as we had to learn the hard way that a lot of these things are even cheaper in the airport. For example, my uncle bought a porcelain Kabuki mask for around 3000 Yen, which we later saw at Osaka airport for 1700 Yen!

You should also try the matcha green tea ice cream in one of the stalls on that street. Try the stalls further down the street (closer to the temple), because the ice cream tends to be cheaper there.

Our next stop was to Miyado Odori in Gion to have tea with the geishas and watch them perform a traditional dance. The geishas, referred to as maiko girls, by the locals are still around today. They usually live on Gion, old Kyoto, and roam the streets after sunset. They spend a lot of their time learning dances, songs, and instruments. In fact, they showcase their talents in Miyado Odori.

Miyado Odori

According to our guide, they only perform for around 2-3 weeks in the entire year so their shows sell out fast. Tickets are not cheap either. For 2000 Yen you can get tatami mat seats on the balcony. It’s pretty far up and the show is around 1-hour long so sitting on these mats could get uncomfortable. However, to be entitled to the better seats in the stalls or circle you need to purchase a ticket to the tea ceremony, which you should attend 1-hour to 45-minutes prior to the performance.

Here’s a low-down of the prices and show schedules if you are interested:

The tea ceremony was nothing but a common tourist trap. There was little ceremony to speak of. You get crammed into a bench full of strangers while two maiko girls are on stage. One is preparing tea, and the other is serving. It takes a total of about 5 minutes where they ask you to down your flavourless matcha tea and eat your mochi before they usher in the next group. At least they let you keep the dish they served the mochi on as a souvenir.

You can explore the garden of the maiko girls while waiting for your tea ceremony.

The picture I'm sure you've all been waiting for since the beginning of this post.

The performance itself is worth the good seats. It is absolutely entrancing if you are into unusual theatrical performances and the like. It was fascinating watch how they moved and how they never changed their facial expression. It was as if they were wearing masks. I will not lie… some people around me did fall asleep, but if you’re a drama geek like me, I’m sure you’d appreciate it.

After the show I just had a stroll around Gion, known as the old part of Kyoto, and savoured its beauty. It’s like travelling through time.

The streets of old Kyoto

Old love meets new love on the streets of Gion

Stuck in the Middle Kingdom with You

"And I'm wondering what it is I should do, It's so hard to keep this smile from my face, Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place, Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with you." - Stealers Wheel

China, also referred to as the Middle Kingdom, has long been on my bucket list. I think it first appeared on my radar when I was told as a kid that you can see it from space. There was also this pretty impressive opening scene in Disney's Mulan where Shan Yu and the Huns climb the Great Wall and a brave soldier runs up the tower steps and lights the warning signal... made my 8-year old self gaze in wonder and think, "I MUST GO THERE NOW."

Like in Paris, lovers can attach a lock to symbolise their love on the Great Wall of China. 

After a quick 4-day trip to Beijing, I can safely say I did my 8-year old self proud. If I could travel back in time or access the past by entering an alternate dimension, I'd tell myself how incredible Beijing is... even with the smog. It offers a beautiful blend between its rich cultural history and the vibrant modern metropolis it has become today.

Before my trip, I came with a bucket load of preconceptions formed from various dialogues with Chinese friends, friends who have lived in China, and some who, like me, have never been there. But now having been there, there are some myths about Beijing that I'd like to bust.

1. People are rude.

Wrong. Just SO wrong. Beijing has some of the most helpful and friendly people I have met. Ok sure there was this one incident where my friend and I had a shouting match with two hooligans in the MRT but that was about it.

What really stood out was how people really tried to help you even if they could not speak English. When I was sitting helplessly in a bank trying to change money and they couldn't understand where my passport was from (it's in German), one guy who spoke minimal English translated for me. We also had a nice short chat about Mozart afterwards. Another shining example was when my friend wanted me to reeeaaallly try these amazing baos (buns) and the stall only sold them in a set of 5. We offered to buy one off an elderly couple but they refused to take the money and just gave it to us.

We even ended up taking a picture together. Such happy times.

See how considerate they are?!

2. The food is weird.

Semi-wrong. It also depends on what you classify as weird I guess. Firstly, the food in Beijing is delicious but you can find some really odd things if you look for it. Off Wangfujing Street there's a street market where you can find all sorts of strange food.

There are live scorpions impaled on skewers which they deep-fry and coat in spices before serving. You can also get deep-fried starfish and seahorse skewers if it tickles your fancy. However those weird foods you can identify by looking at them. There are however several stalls that sell buns and other dishes that look quite ordinary but actually use donkey meat. You'd probably have to ask a local what characters to look out for as they usually clearly label them.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got scorpions in my tummy.

3. Beijing is dirty.

It's all relative my friend. The dirtiness of Beijing is something I've heard from a lot of my friends in Singapore, although pretty much any place on Earth except for Switzerland and Japan are filthy in comparison to squeaky clean Singapore.

Personally I don't find it dirty. Perhaps it could be because I only stayed within the first 2 rings of Beijing but from what I saw, I can pick out some neighbourhoods in London that are more dirty.

4. Airpocalypse?

True. A few days prior to my arrival the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) was at around 500. N95 masks sold like hotcakes. The smog was so thick, people began calling it the airpocalypse.

My friend and I were having dinner with a local who told us the average PSI was around 300 at that time of year. Coupled with the dryness in winter, it's an especially uncomfortable period to visit. I would recommend that before you visit you should bring N95 masks and would really advise you to stay in a hotel/hostel with an air purifier or air conditioning. You'll thank me for it later, trust me.

We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express Minzuyuan which didn't have either of those facilities and in spite of wearing masks all day we would wake up the next day sounding like we chain-smoked all evening and then topped it off with whiskey.

Nope. That's not a layer of fog hovering over the city.

5. There tends to be quite a bit of spitting going on.

True. But seriously can you blame them considering the quality of the air? I was all phlegmed up after only 4 days in Beijing.

6. You should know some Chinese.

It is definitely an advantage. I had quite a lot of trouble on my first day communicating but managed to get by with very limited vocabulary and some pointing. The difficulty is getting the tones right when you speak as what you say won't make much sense if you don't get it right.

Beijing is also a great place to learn or practice your Chinese since you have little choice in reverting to English. In any case, Mandarin is a beautiful and melodic language and I'll probably take some lessons in the future.

Why is there a Chinatown in a Chinese city?

All in all, Beijing is nothing less than awesome. The food, the people, the history, the art, the language - an entirely different experience. I am hoping to return to China soon and explore the other cities and see how they compare. But if you haven't been to Beijing yet... go, go GO!