Day 8: Osaka - USJ!

the most anticipated leg of the trip by the boys! ever resourceful me managed to purchase the entrance tics + express passes for the family before the trip on USJ jap website! yes, the english website doesn't offer the purchase service. so with some guidance found online posted by helpful fellow travellers and translation features by Chrome, we got the online tickets.

read that the park is open at 9.30AM daily and people started queuing up an hour before that! so being ever kiasu singaporeans, we arrived at 9AM and this sight welcomed us:

@_@ 

the park is open 30mins earlier for those staying in USJ affiliated hotels but luckily that queue is not horrendous. we were considered rather ahead in the lines and actually once the crowds dispersed inside the big park, it is not that bad. though of cos the crowds congregated at certain attractions and that's when express passes come in handy.

to be honest, we only need to use 3 out of the 5 express passes since we took the popular rides earlier in the day. but the 5 rides express pass is worth it simply of the fact it allowed us entry and fastpass queue for harry potter castle/ride saving us up to close to 120mins of time!

first stop - spiderman 4D ride!

we rushed for the spiderman 4D ride for once we were in. :D

so little crowd that for our ride capsule, it was only us occupying it even though it has 3 rows of 4 seats. we took the front row and it's every bit as good as transformers 4D ride in USS albeit a little shorter and spidy shouting in jap ha. 

only the younger boy didnt enjoy it so much so that he cried at the end of the ride! LOL. too scary for the poor little fellow. for the rest of the day, his question for every ride is "is it as scary as spiderman?". HAHA.

lovely backdrop. i want to attempt mary-ann and spidy kiss but there's a queue behind us waiting impatiently, so no.

this is the only photo we bought from USJ cos apart from us looking good in it (the official one not this one taken with hubbi's camera though we look not too bad here too), the frame was pretty with pop-up effects! it was like 1500 yen? 

minion parade!

en-route to back to the future ride, we managed to catch the minion parade! minions never fail to make anyone smile! :D

buying stuff from minion shop! someone got himself a minion cap while the elder one deemed minion too kiddish for him and didnt want to get anything #growinguptoofast

we had minion waffles here too! banana chocolate flavoured! what else?

clockwise from top left: back to the future car, jurrasic park, jaws area, backdraft attraction, fooling around at jaws shop

for the rest of the morning after minion parade, we took the back to the future ride which is the elder son's personal fav after spiderman ride. it's akin to omnimax theatre, just more exciting! we were at jurassic park area but deemed the ride too scary for the little ones and didnt want to risk getting wet so nah for that ride. we went for the backdraft attraction which wasnt too bad. quite impressive to see how different fires can be created and the heat felt was no joke. the boys kept asking if the fire was real, ha. 

on board jaws!

we settled lunch at amity village (jaws area). and after that, we went for the jaw boat ride! it was mostly harmless though the boys were taken aback when the (very) fake shark surfaced.. ha.

next up, we headed to the wonderland zone! it's paradise for the kiddos! all the rides are kids-friendly and i think we managed to do 80% of the rides here! the boys had a blast here though towards the end, it was a lil' boring for the husband and me.. heh.

@ wonderland!

the snoopy great race (roller coaster) and elmo go go skateboard are pretty impressive! 

and by 3+pm, it's time for us to enter harry potter land! it was unfortunate that it started drizzling then but with the overcast sky and greyish clouds, it did lent a suitable vibe to the place. 

lovely!

YR didnt make the height for the HP ride and hubbi and i did the child switch thingy. the HP ride was the most awesome ride in my opinion! it's the only ride out of all the rides i took in USJ that i was really scared! not to mention feeling some motion sickness after it. i was half-worried about the elder boy next to me being scared out of his wits and i was trying to hold on to his lap while trying to stifle my ahhs.. and whoas! LOL.

in the end, he had his eyes closed half the time and he ended the ride half-shaken as compared to me...

after HP land, it was dinner time so we dined in one of the eateries at main street and for the rest of the evening until closing time, it was shopping time for us!

it was a good thing that there's shelter almost all over the main street for us to catch the fireworks without being affected by the rain.

top: shot with pink panther!

we cant resist the cute spidyman cup noodles with spiderman face-shaped veg bits! that's our supper with the boys back at our airbnb after we made our way back at night.

pipping hot cup noodles is the best to have on cold rainy nights! *yum*

it's the first time the boys tried cup noodles. :P not very healthy but an enjoyable experience for them im sure!

last day in osaka tomorrow before flying back to SG the day after!

travel insurance is important!

when we decided to cancel our trip to paris+london, we were prepared to forfeit all the sunken costs made for accom+rail+other misc stuff. basis on the full refund from SQ and the extremely short turnaround time to make a call for the replacement trip, hubbi and i were on the same page that we are prepared to give up the deposits/payments made earlier in lieu of a peace of mind and ensuring of safety.

we did called up some of the service providers if cancellations/refunds are possible given the circumstances but as the terms and conditions set out in the fine print for most of them, that's almost not possible. a friend of ours mentioned travel insurance and we were like yes, we did buy and why not give it a try but we weren't too confident. we just checked if the terms and conditions exclude terrorism which it didn't and we called up the insurance customer service to clarify. the advice we had was to fill up a claim form and send that in together with supporting documents with responses from vendors/service providers saying it's not possible to cancel/refund.

we didnt have time to do that so what we did was send out emails to get confirmations from vendors before our trip and let them reply in due time. so when we were back in SG 2 weeks back. we compiled the necessary and sent over to the insurance by snail mail (yes, we confirmed twice.. LOL). finally, we had a call from the agent today that we will be eligible for the claims and the refund will be made in few weeks time! what a great piece of news!

so we will be able to get back the monies paid for paris+london accom, eurostar, TGV train tickets and museum tickets! all these amount to close to 3k for us. it's really a blessings.
i always buy travel insurance more for flight delays and loss of baggage (which we unfortunately experienced at CDG airport 12 years ago and very fortunately able to claim under travel insurance as we buy all the necessities before the luggage was returned to our hotel 2 days later). but it definitely seems like travel insurance is equally important for trip cancellations like this. 

let's all be safe and make sure we buy travel insurance for our travels. it's not worth it to not purchase it just to save that tens to hundreds.

YE Shopping part 2 - indulgence

the husband allowed me to go shopping on sunday with the younger boy while he brought the elder boy to in-laws house for lunch. BAD idea. why, actually bad for him but i was looking forward to it. hehe. it's my birthday month and i wanted to shop for a bag originally for my europe trip but since it fell flat and japan obviously has nothing much to offer, i turn to home. :D

so it was a lovely afternoon spent with the younger boy shopping to my heart content (i know wont be long before the little nut join his brother and papa and start boycotting my shopping excursions... but i shall enjoy while it last!). sale is everywhere! and it's so hard to resist..
i got a berry nice nano luggage from celine (no sale..how i wish). i was struggling choosing between a nano and micro that i called 2 friends for advice... and none pick up! who says everyone is glued to technology 24/7! not always the case or maybe just a case of selectively answering... :'(
ANYWAY, when they called me back, the decision was already made. a nano! i prefer a bag with straps and i seldom have much stuff in my bag so a micro size is really too big for me but given the price difference, it's definitely more value for money... the happy problem for for some of us - bag sizes. how irritating, i know.

and i chanced upon the mcqueen leather bracelet that i wanted to get back then BUT having 40% sales at onpedder now! *wee* so i have to get it right and i did.
and..really cant resist getting another pair of ferrgamo - a (close to azure) blue pair of wedges going at 50% off. a steal, no?

so as the story goes, the husband aint very happy when he picked us up.. :P
but as the story continues, this is only the starting.. :O

Day 7: Osaka - airbnb + dotonbori

we were ready to move out of our kyoto accom and made our way to osaka! but first, a hearty breakfast before that. the elder boy requested for breakfast at kyoto's travellers inn...dont ask me why. still, it aint too bad..

he finished the whole set by himself.. now i shared food with the younger boy instead of the boys sharing between themselves...

though osaka is quite near kyoto, its still some distance. we took the local bus from our hotel to JR kyoto station. from there, we took the kintetsu line to osaka in slightly less than 1.5 hrs time. while shinkansen will whisk us there in much lesser time - think 30-40mins, kintetsu is much cheaper and it stops at local subway (at our accom) as compared to shinkansen stopping at Shin Osaka stop only and you have to transit a local metro again to the city.

we hopped off at nipponbashi stop (1 stop away from the central namba station) where our airbnb is just 3m walk away! :)

this is our first time staying at airbnb and i was rather apprehensive before the trip. how to check-in and how do contact the host when there's problems etc. but the worries were undue. our host is a very nice and responsive lady who sent us clear instructions on how to retrieve the key ourselves from the letterbox. so we walked into this local apartment, entered the building passcode which let us into the main lobby. there, we went to the letterbox where you open it like how you open a safe (eg: think left2, left8, right3) and there is the keys! 

the apartment is exactly like how the pictures show on the website! and the place was spotless like how you would expect a jap home to be. :D

this is the bedroom area - its a studio apartment essentially, compact and cosy

outside the bedroom, there's a narrow corridor - to the right its a compact dry kitchen area and toilet (yes, with heated toilet seat and all), to the left is the bathroom completed with vanity top and space for a washing machine too! at the foyer, there's shoe cabinet and umbrellas that come in handy for our day trip to nara the day after next! truly a home away from home!

our airbnb has no tv but came with portable wifi so for this last leg of the trip, the husband and i were more connected to the world while on the go. very handy when navigating around for this trip, we didnt bring any travel guidebooks and minimum planning.. :P

after settling the stuff abit, we ventured out for lunch. our place is a short 10m walk to the famous dotonbori street. along the way, we were spoilt with eating choices. we settled on this local eatery place as the husband wanted to try vending machine for meal ordering and the menu here offers the boys' fav - curry rice and udon.. @_@

lunch!

then, it's time to explore dotonbori! its really every bit as lively and colorful as what i read from reviews.

dotonbori!

and of cos the iconic glico man!

we spent the rest of the day shopping and walking around shinsaibashi the main shopping area in osaka. though i relished city shopping again but shopping in japan can be frustrating...most recognizable brands are more expensive over there than in SG so it really takes a lot of the joy. :( 

oh well, help me to save money i guess..

tomorrow we are heading to USJ! *wee*

YE Shopping Part 1

*wee* its year-end and time for some retail therapy! :P
i was looking forward to some serious shopping for our europe trip but since plans changed i was betting on central japan to give me some of that joy. but alas, as i will share more in my travel posts, shopping is just not that great in japan despite the weakening yen. prices are still better in SG as compared to there. and it just doesnt make sense to get something you can pay lesser back home.

oh well, im back in SG since last fri and during the weekend, i was more than gleeful to see my fav. brand gg5 having 15% storewide. ahh... YE sale has really started..:D
i really havent been buying much for this second half of the year (i did checked to my shopping posts!)..
and so, i've got myself a romper, a top + a dress from gg5 and a pair of flats from ferragamo. it's saddening that i miss the additional 10% citibank promo in SG the week i was in japan and a big question mark why it aint on sale over in japan.
its a nice glittery blue pair just right for the festive season! 

and i have a feeling, that tonight will be a good good night. (cue black eyed peas tune)
i mean, i have a feeling that this is only the start...:D

Day 6 - Kyoto: Kinkaku-ji, arashiyama bamboo grove, tenryu-ji

for our last day in Kyoto, we were getting out of central Kyoto for attractions that are totally worth the time and efforts.

Kyoto is chocked full of delightful attractions, UNESCO or not. so unless you have a lot of time, it's really important that some selection and planning will always come in handy to ensure you get more out of your trip. for us, I did the groundwork the weekend before departure in under 1-2 hours. :P

some background reading online - you know the usual - recommendations, online reviews by fellow travellers, photos etc, and I made a modest list of places I think will be good for us to visit. quick search on googlemap to group attractions together by their proximity and it's done! the how to go will have to wait till we are there with some help from hotel wifi, some asking around and common sense. that's the exciting part of travel right? you navigate, you get lost at times, you discover off-beaten tracks, you get surprises, you get disappointments and all these sum up an experience, good or bad, that you remember for life. :D

it's healthy routine for us during the trip! the boys usually K.O. by 9+PM and us by 11PM and all of us will be up, bright and springy, ready to move out by 8+AM!

our humble abode at Kyoto's travelllers inn

the making up of futons every night was back-killing for me! I did a slipshop work. :P

the boys were very amused by the set-up and I'm glad it's a new experience for them.

first stop of the day - the golden pavilion Kinkaku-ji!

we took a bus and arrived at the destination in around 25mins.

the garden surrounding kinkaku is very nice, we had a good walk around the area

from kinkaku, we took a bus to a local train station where we took a train to arashiyama area. how do we know how to move around Kyoto? a quick check everynight before sleeping using googlemaps is a lifesaver! normally, I just screenshot the directions and some maps and we will be good for the next day. easy! :D

top right: local train to arashiyama - need some getting used to boarding buses/trains and only paying the fares when we alight..it's a good thing arashiyama is the terminal station as I normally have no idea how much to pay and will struggle to check with the drivers when we are alighting. :P

so at arashiyama, we alighted and pay to the conductors waiting outside of the train.

top+bottom left: the area just outside the station is bustling with people and activities. a lovely place to walk around abit.

bottom right: we had lunch before moving on to tenryu-ji and the bamboo grove

after lunch, we visited tenryu-ji which is a stone throw away from the station. tenryu-ji is well-known for its garden which you have to pay an entrance fee to enter but absolutely worth it.
not too crowded given tenryu-ji is a rather big place and the crowd was well-dispersed over the large area. in the garden, one can really have a sense of sereneness and peace when watching the quiet streams in it.

@ tenyu-ji before entering its famous garden

tenryu-ji's garden

the famous arashiyama's bamboo grove is just outside the north gate of tenryu-ji. we exited there and it was an amazing walk through the heart of the bamboo grove. this place reminded me so much of the movie "crouching tiger hidden dragon"! LOL.

bamboo strikes me as a really useful material as I saw how it is commonly used by places of worship like temples and shrines in Kyoto as flooring, fences and even as frames for lights! it sure look strong and durable to stand the test of time.

@arashiyama bamboo grove

from arashiyama, we took train back to the shopping street (again!). there is still part of shijo-dori that we haven't explore. it's dinner and then back to pack our luggages and have an early night. we are heading back to Osaka tomorrow! finally back to what we are most familiar with - city activities! :P I think the boys were getting jaded by all the temple + shrines visiting. hehe.

Kyoto is really the cultural capital of japan. looking back, my fav. places are undoubtedly kiyomizu + ginkaku. the next time I return to japan, I'm hoping that it will either be Okinawa or Hokkaido. still, a little mixed feelings with regards to Tokyo given its proximity to fukushima. but again, some will say it's the same being in central japan too! oh well.

Day 5 - Kyoto: Maruyama Park, kodaiji, Kiyomizu-dera, fushimi inari shrine

we continued our exploration of Kyoto's famous temples and shrines today! the kids were still in high spirits.. it will be after today that they were finally getting tired with all these places. :P

we started the day early and the rough plan was to walk from our accom location to kiyomizu (around 2-3km away?). there were a few surprises awaiting us along the way that were not in the itinerary initially. I like this, :) it shows how life always have other plans for you, usually good ones, when you have the least expectations. :P

along the way - passing by chion-in temple

stumbling upon chion-in temple was one of the pleasant surprise. beautiful façade and it's right next to maruyama park which is equally delightful.

gorgeous maruyama park!

I thought maruyama park is just a normal park and serves a good shortcut for us to reach kiyomizu but it's so lovely that we marveled at the landscaping for sometime here. Kyoto-ers are so fortunate to have this park!

and we realized we will pass by kodaiji which is also an UNESCO site along the way. given it's still early and the crowds were not in full throng yet, we decided to drop by for a visit. and it was worth the time spent there.

kodaiji temple

and finally we were in the very picturesque areas of sannen-zaka and ninen-zaka - the 2 lanes leading up to kiyomizu. quaint and old traditional houses lined both sides of the streets. by the time we were done with kiyomizu a little after noon, these 2 streets were absolutely packed with people!

we were lucky to explore it in the late morning before the peak period.

the pretty streets

kiyomizu is every bit as majestic and its view breathtaking as the last time I was here. the husband wasn't very comfy with the fact that not a single nail is being used in this temple structure. LOL.
instead of feeling in awe with this architecture wonder, he was thinking that we shouldn't be staying on it with all the people. haha.

:D KIYOMIZU!

we had a late lunch and we took a cab to the next attraction in late afternoon - fushimi inari shrine!
this is my first time here and it's really pretty like what the photos promised. :)
the actual path is really long and leads all the way up to the mountain. and of cos, like the usual tourists, we walked the first stretch, take the obligatory photos and we were out of the shrine. :P
the area outside it is packed full of stalls and shops, good to spend sometime around.

from here, we took local train back to the main shopping street - shijo-dori for our dinner and continued shopping at takashimaya and other shops along it.
it has been a long, tiring but fulfilling day for the ng family!

Day 4 - Kyoto: ginkakuji, philosopher's path, Gion's hanami-koji

it's a long way back to Kyoto from takayama given takayama'sa lil' out of the way location. we took nohi bus for kanazawa ~ 1hr 40mins. and from there, we took JR train to Kyoto in slightly under 2 hours. our train rolled into Kyoto at around 1+PM and we were welcomed by the warmer weather! Kyoto is definitely warmer as compared to both takayama and Osaka and we love it!

we took a cab to our accom - Kyoto's travellers inn which is around 20mins drive from JR Kyoto station. cab fare in japan is not as horrendous as some guidebooks make out, our short trip costs us around ~S$30. not cheap by SG standard but given we had 4 pax and heavy luggages, it was worth the fee too.

not wasting time, we checked in and were out of the accom in a jiffy. we decided to walk to our first sightseeing spot - ginkakuji temple. it's a good 5(?)km walk from where we were staying but given the good weather and the promise of some shrines + temples along the way, we thought it was not a bad idea. it took us almost an hour to reach the temple but we hardly feel the time.

tada! ginkakuji - a UNESCO site.

it boosts a really gorgeous garden.

the view from the top of the garden is breathtaking!

splashes of autumn colors make the place lovelier.after ginkaku, we took the philisopher's path next to it which is a scenic 30+mins stretch that leads one to nanzen-ji. we didn't make it to nanzen-ji as night falls rather early in fall so we took a cab to Gion area for dinner before exploring hanami-koji area there.

along philosopher's path

it's hard to take a decent photo of hanami-koji but you can google it to see how lovely the area is. it's similar to takayama old town with traditional houses housing restaurants, shops and teahouses where geisha and maiko supposedly entertain.

we settled for a late dinner along shijo-dori which is the main shopping stretch in Kyoto.

udon for dinner! yum!

AND, you guess it,  we took a cab back to our lodgings after that! we have been lazy and over-indulging with taxis today so we will try to do trains and buses tomorrow...

day 3 - takayama

for our last day in takayama, we continued exploring the rest of the town in leisure and at a slower pace for most of the late morning and afternoon. we even went back to our accom to laze the late afternoon away before venturing out for dinner. :P

breakfast at a local shop - the butter toast was good served with a cold (?) hard boiled egg and hot miso soup. and of cos, we ordered cakes as well. :D

left: lounging at the common area at K's house before moving out

right: we visited the morning market at takayama

we made our way to the morning market after breakfast which isn't too big but most of the stalls were selling the freshest produces. we bought really tasty and cheap kyoho grapes - these are ridiculously much cheaper there than those that we can get from cold storage. *thumbs up*

lunch!yummy curry rice which the elder boy finished the whole plate by himself! I'm impressed.

the younger boy and I are more of ramen person...

left: sarubobo - mascot for takayama and hida area! supposed to be baby monkey, looks like it?

desserts time! rice pancake but not much difference from the usual pancakes except they were softer and fluffier

lovely takayama!

to be fair, takayama is not exactly the most accessible place to go but given its proximity to shirakawa-go (which is an absolute must-go if you are around central japan) + the charm of its old town, it's worth every hassle of commuting for one to make his way to.

we will miss you, takayama! but we are ready to move out to our next destination - Kyoto! land of temples and shrines!

Day 2 Part 2 - Takayama Old town

From the bus station, it's only a 10-15 mins walk to Takayama old town. in fact, the whole of Takayama town is accessible by foot. :P
this area is absolutely stunning in architecture and some houses dated back to the edo era!

eating snacks non-stop along the way! ice cream, beef bun etc!

like thrown back in time!

we were only halfway done through the old town area when we stumbled upon takayama jinya which was a former government office. it is really huge inside which you cant really tell from its façade. we were turning here and there in it's many many rooms until we were almost lost if not for the "to route" signboards all over the place.

takayama jinya!

it's dinner time for us before calling a day! it has been a long day for the boys and we were glad that for the last day in takayama the next day, we can explore the rest of takayama in leisure and at a slower pace after a fully packed day 2!

Day 2 Part 1 - Shirakawa-go

Takayama is a common gateway to shirakawa-go, a famous UNESCO site. I've been there once 7 years ago and I've always wanted to bring the husband to visit it one day. it's too picturesque to be missed. everyone should really go visit it once in their lifetime.

from Takayama, it's ~ 50mins bus ride to shirakawa-go village. with our JR pass, we were able to use it to board the Nohi buses which will bring us there. 

waiting for our bus to come around 9AM. the boys chose their breakfast for the day - tuna mayo onigiri

we reached at ~ 10AM and had the most enjoyable day there before we took a bus back to takayama at ~ 3PM. LOVELY place!

top left: crossing deai-bashi bridge to the village!

bottom left: behind us is the drop-off point for tour buses

bottom right: we are in the village!

the boys easily entertained themselves with whatever we came across on. :P

we visited some of the gassho houses there which were converted to museums to have a look at the structure/layout inside and some of the stuff used by the older days folks

top left: yummy hida beef croquette!

top right: huge fishes are swimming in the water which is really clear!

bottom centre: YZ helped to take this photo for us. not too bad huh?

such a lovely day trip for us. by the time we were back at takayama, we still have the late afternoon +evening to explore the equally lovely old town. :)

Day 1 - Takayama

Finally, the ng family embarked on our annual nov family trip! after a hectic change in travel plans, we were ready to head out to central japan for a well deserved holidays for 1.5 weeks!

on Tuesday night, we fetched the boys from my mum's place, headed home, did some last minute packing, bathed and we were ready to head out to T3 for our 1AM flight!! not the most ideal timing as I rarely can sleep a wink on board but the thankfully the boys were asleep for almost all of the 6.5hrs flight.

the husband was pleased to see the star wars display and thanks to mummy who stocked up abit on skincare, we were able to get the boys a stormtrooper soft toy (boba fett was actually the elder boy and my first choice - we gave in to the whines of YR as usual...)

a rather smooth flight and we landed safely at Osaka KIX airport at around 8.30AM Osaka time. first hiccup: I didn't expect the custom clearing will be so SLOW at Osaka airport. I was imagining the same efficiency as SG airport. thought wrong. @_@ I'm really convinced now that we have one of the best world class airport back at home. imagine my horror when we only exited the arrival gate close to an hour later! the reason for my horror was stemming from the planned plan that I had to change 3 trains to reach our destination for the first day - Takayama.

and if we were late for the 1st train, it will have flow on downstream impact on the timing of connecting trains. which meant we ran a really high risk to reach takayama at like 7PM or so in the evening! what a waste of time. and my mind was churning trying to decipher the next step which was actually trying to exchange for our JR rail pass at the ticket station located at I-don't-know-where in the airport. it was an OMG moment.

first things first, always. so I took a deep breath, located the ticket station, asked the boys to stay put while I went to exchange the rail pass. with the kind help of the lady who exchanged our rail passes, we sort of work out a sequence which seems to work and will bring us to takayama by 2+PM. the only risk were the connecting time between the 3 trains were 13 and 5 mins each. I think I asked her like thrice "is this doable?". and she was convincing enough for me to buy the train tickets through her on the spot cos there's simply no time to purchase the tickets at the destination stations given the limited connecting time.

all I can say now is thanks to sheer luck, timely help from friendly locals and a lot (really a lot) of running with our luggages, we made all the connecting trains and rolled into Takayama in style. ok maybe not so stylish, it was drizzling when we reached and we braved the cold and wetness to check into our accom. :P

top left: hubbi took this pic when I was madly planning with the JTB staff

centre: excited at taking trains! I wonder if they still feel this way by the time we were on board the 3rd train (and somewhere into our 3rd hour on a moving train.. ha)

For those interested, this was our route:
1) we took airport express train to bring us from Osaka KIX airport to SHIN Osaka station where all the shinkansens (bullet trains) are - ~50mins
2) From Shin-Osaka, we took shinkansen (weeeee.....!) to Nagoya - ~ slightly below an hour despite the distance!
3) From Nagoya, we took Hida train to Takayama - a really scenic train journey given the wide windows set up for this train and the route leading to the hida areas is really gorgeous. this took us another 2 hours+.

So at 2+PM, we finally alighted at Takayama! our hangout for the next 3 days! our last min. accom booked here is K's house takayama. it's alike to hostel/dormitory where there's common area for guests to interact, common kitchen etc. we booked a room with private bathroom to ourselves. the best thing about this place is it's location - barely 5mins walk from the train station. and the staff were really helpful the whole time we were there, helping us to plan logistics, itinerary and recommendations for eating places. remember, the itinerary for this trip was very roughly sketched out by me. :P

our tiny room, literally no space to walk around much when both luggages were opened..

but it's cosy and functional enough for us given we were normally out the whole day and we were really good in the sense that we were all fast asleep by 9+PM like that. :P

\

the only thing that I really had a hard time getting used to for this trip was setting up our own beds! I know I sounded really spoilt but spreading out bedsheets and putting pillows in pillow cases are such a dread! as you can see in the photo above, the beds were obviously not made yet. I obviously think it's more important to hit the streets soon after check-in rather than making the beds. HA!

for the rest of the day, we explored parts of takayama (other than the old streets) and stumbled upon a quaint town with really minimal human traffic. lots of nice cafes and restaurants scattered around the main streets. :D it was a relaxing way to spend the rest of our first day given the hectic transit in the first half of the day!

top 2 photos, we had tea break at this café called soeur. the food was really good and the boys ordered 2nd helpings of their sandwiches on top of the desserts that we already had.

bottom left: pretty bakery shop called blue penguin bakers

bottom right: 1/3 of our hearty dinner? I think both the husband and myself gained weight this trip. is anyone surprised? I don't think so.

ending the post for the first day of our trip with a shot of a typical takayama street.

it rained in the afternoon, so the night was damn cold. the boys were equipped (albeit too adequately perhaps) for that so it's all good.

change of travel plans - hassle or exciting depending on your persepective

so for those who know, the ng family has been planning for a france+london trip for the last 2 weeks of this month for the longest time. so when we woke up last Saturday morning to the dreadful events in Paris, the husband and I were stunned beyond words. so much emotions and thoughts surging through our minds. we felt deep sadness for paris. we felt unsure if we should continue with our trip just 5 days from the attacks while state of emergency was declared for paris. we felt relief and gratitude that this could have happened 1 week later when we are there but didn't. we were thinking of all the sunken costs like air tickets, hotel accomodations, rail tixs etc and totally at a loss on what will happen to these if we decided to cancel the trip.

but being the ever pragmatic + optimist me, I know the best way to alleviate anxiety and worries is through action itself! so we sprang into action!
long story short, we called up SQ and in light of what happened, they were able to grant full refund on a case by case basis (we got it given our planned departure date is so close). so with that, we decided to cancel our Europe trip! and while there were more work to be done to follow up on all the other expenses paid upfront, we didn't want to waste our leave and deny ourselves of a year-end family holiday. it's a good thing that I'm always planning travel trips now and then even when there's nothing concrete. :P so I said to hubbi, given the timeline, Australia or japan will make the most sense. he decided japan and we were set!

both of us stayed up late on sat night to do the admin work while the boys slept blissfully unaware of all the changes. between us, we called up the various hotels, railway agencies etc to enquire on refunds/potential cancellation. we managed to cancel 1 hotel out of the 3 hotels booked for the trip. we were unable to cancel paris + London ones given those are non-cancellable reservations.... last time I always wonder why would anyone pay extra to book those cancellable accommodations. now I know... LOL well, I may start doing the same going forward given this experience. :P
able to get refunds back for TGV trains but the process is a bit of a hassle but not impossible. Eurostar is a gone case though. the good thing is we bought travel insurance and the insurance asked us to submit the supporting documents for their review. at least it's not a dead end yet for the 2 accoms + Eurostar! :P
in any case, we are fully prepared to forfeit all these when we decided to cancel the trip. weighing the pros and cons (safety!), hubbi and I are absolutely on the same side that we can always earn back the monies but putting our lives at risk unnecessarily should be avoided.

the review for travel insurance will have to wait after our trip though as yes! we are heading to central japan after all!
I was staying up late on sat night and using the full sunday to plan for a trip which we are departing tomorrow night! how exciting! LOL. this is really testing my adaptability skills to the max. and I think I pass with flying colors.
and it's really an experience trying to book accommodations this last minute. it was so stressful till at the end, I found everything funny and interesting. it's really surreal seeing message popped up at booking.com saying no rooms available for your travel dates. and no matter how you permutated the different cities, the same message appears. well done!

everything happens for a reason, I believe. and due to the last minute bookings, the kids (+us) will get to try new accommodations type for the first time!
we will be staying at a guesthouse (similar to a hostel - not new for the adults but 1st time with the kids), a jap style hotel (the kids can try sleeping on the futons for the first time) and airbnb (1st time for everyone!). I used to have reservations for airbnb hearing horror stories now and then but where else to try it than japan! our host seems like a very pleasant lady with good reviews on the website for her. so hopefully, it will be a good experience for us!

we got the air tickets + accoms booked on sat, rail pass bought yesterday and 3/4 of the itinerary (roughly) sketched out by me. we will be flying off tomorrow night and I think it will be interesting to see how this last min trip pan out! :D