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!

It's more fun in Negros.

*NOTE: This post will be pretty text heavy. Apologies for the lack of pictures.

This entry just serves as a kind of bonus to my entry about Silay since it's only a 25-minute drive to Bacolod, and only a 10-minute drive to Talisay.

Lacson Ruins in Talisay

Why would you go to either you ask?

Because it's more fun in Negros. No but seriously...

Like I said before, Silay is more low-key and has managed to escape the invasion of Starbucks and company. But should you crave a little bit of corporate America or just a few good places to shop you can get your fix at Talisay or Bacolod.

Ayala North in Talisay is a shopping mall, which I prefer to Robinson’s in Bacolod, because it is less crowded. It has a lot of nice boutique shops with some famous brands. The supermarket is incredible because it has pretty much everything under the sun that you could wish for. It even has almond butter!

There is a small promenade area that looks like a mini version of Fort Bonifacio’s Strip. There are several restaurants (don’t ever go to the Italian one or Bob’s, the service is terrible) and they have free Zumba classes in the evening.

If you are in the area you must must MUST go to Felicia’s for the chocolate cake and the Sans Rival. Sans Rival is so good that I ate so much of it last Christmas that I was sick… and I would still do it again. You will thank me for eternity for this tip trust me. Calea which is opposite Felicia’s also has a wonderful selection of cakes, but it’s their Mud Pie that outshines the rest.

A visit to Talisay should also include a stop at the Lacson Ruins. One of the best preserved ruins in the world, it was the home of a prestigious family that owned a sugarcane field. During WWII, the Americans set the house on fire to prevent the Japanese from using the house as their headquarters. Although the house burned for 3-days straight its cement skeleton remained as a reminder of the past.

Side entrance of the Lacson Ruins

Veranda of the Lacson Ruins

Bacolod has a lot more facilities, such as places to shop and nightlife. Head on down to Bacolod’s Art District at night for some cheap drinks in the hippest bars in town. For any fitness fanatics out there, Bacolod Crossfit is situated there so you can sign up for a trial workout if you dare.

One block down is a 24-hour spa called Spa Natura. It’s not bad at all. The massages are really good and very cheap.

But, the main reason why you should be going to Bacolod is to try the authentic Chicken inasal. If you have tried in places outside of Bacolod, I can pretty much assure you that’s not how it’s supposed to taste like. It’s a very specific blend of spices and it is the way that it is cooked that lends inasal its distinct but subtle taste.

You should go to Malaspina for the best. Chicken house used to be the top of the list but the quality went down as its popularity went up. Typical. However Malaspina is not a place with a nice ambiance. If you want something with a nicer ambiance and almost equally good taste you should go to Masskara Chicken Inasal... If not for the chicken, then at least for the following photo opp:

Posing with the Masskara masks at Masskara Chicken Inasal

For those of you who don't know what Chicken Inasal is, it's the local grilled chicken which tastes good. So so good.

Bacolod is also home to the famous Masskara festival. It takes place around every third weekend of October. Heard it’s loads of fun but you need to prep your livers for some heavy boozing.

There’s loads more Bacolod and Talisay have to offer but it’s easy to get around so you should discover them for yourself ;). I’m running behind on entries!