Japan 2020 day 6: Osaka to Tokyo on the Shinkansen and dinner at Kobe Beef Kaiseki 511

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Mel

Booking Shinkansen tickets before you arrive in japan has previously been tricky. This is something you want to do a few days beforehand (at least) so you can get good seats – we found the smartEX travel app to be awesome. You need to authorise your credit card on it and make sure you take that card with you to Japan but all we had to do was stick the credit card in a machine and it gave us our tickets (both base fare and reserved seat in one) which we had booked a week in advance! We also made a last minute change to a slightly earlier train with different seats and it was very easy to do in the app.

Be aware of new rules from May 2020 about travelling with luggage, they are cracking down hard on it, especially oversized stuff. Luckily this didn’t impact us, we just got on and stowed our suitcases behind our seats in row 1 – a very good reason to choose the last row in a carriage! The seats are spacious, there are snacks available on board and scenery is awesome even when you fly past at over 250km an hour.

You can buy snacks and bento boxes at the little kiosks before you board the train and on the train, B bought this pork cutlet box for ¥900 before we boarded. I also like the fact that the Shinkansen trains have seated toilets (not squat ones) and lots of leg room at the seats. Something to be aware of is the location of the smoking room on each train – as a non smoker it stinks and the doors opening and closing only contains some of the smell.

Our hotel in Tokyo is in Akasaka (considered a bit of an upmarket district quite close to the city centre) and is a 2 min walk from Akasaka-Mitsuke metro station. The hotel is called Hotel Risveglia Akasaka and I picked it because it was close to the same price as APA hotels but definitely not an APA. We previously stayed in an APA hotel in Tokyo and the room was so small B couldn’t stand up straight or lay on the bed straight! So APA are cheap rooms but not great if you’re 6ft tall. This room is still small – only 16 metres square – but it has enough space to move around in and a full shower. It also has a gloriously SOFT bed! Our room looks over a cute little alleyway.

Dinner tonight was at my favourite restaurant ever in the whole wide world Kobe Beef Kaseiki 511 in Akasaka. I’ll be honest, it’s the main reason we came to Tokyo, It was a 2 min walk from our hotel and it serves some of the best Kobe beef in the world in a degustation format. The ‘511’ in the name of the restaurant comes from their mission to use only the best – A5 grade beef with a beef marbling standard value of 11. As a result of the beef quality, it’s not cheap – about ¥17000 for one person – but it is absolutely amazing food and the service and wine pairing are great.

B says “everytime I come here I think is it worth it…then I eat the steak….and it’s so good”.

Steps taken: 7000 (nap day today!)

Japanese food eaten: pocky, bento box with katsu pork, weird Japanese hot chocolate, Kobe beef and all sorts of other oishii (delicious!) food at A511

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Japan 2020 Day 5: last day in Osaka (ramen museum + Tempozan)

Posted on January 10, 2020 by Mel

Today we went out to the ramen museum before exploring Tempozan which is part of the Bay Area in Osaka. The ramen museum is about a 20 min train out of Umeda to the Ikeda station, from there it is an easy 5 min walk up to the museum. Although everything is in Japanese they have an English paper guide and the volunteers there are great.

Entry is free and for ¥300 (about $4 AUD) you get to decorate and make your own cup of noodles!

There is apparently also a 90min ramen making class but you have to book in advance for that and I left it too late. After eating more ramen for lunch, we made our way out to Tempozan which is considered the second largest entertainment area after universal studios in Osaka. We started off with the aquarium which had an entry cost of ¥2300 each. It’s main claim to fame is the ginormous tank in the middle and it’s whale shark.

We also really enjoyed the seal feeding show, I snagged a spot at the front by sitting on the floor which meant little kids could stand behind me rather than push in front like they usually do.

After the aquarium we wandered over to the Naniwani Food Theme Park which was inside the shopping centre and behind the food court. It looks like old style shops and showcases local authentic food like katsu, okonomiyaki and ramen. We went with okonomiyaki again 🙂

The sun was almost set by then so it was Tempozan Ferris wheel time! The line up for the totally clear carts was 30 mins long but a standard cart had no wait….I wasn’t sure why people felt the need to look through a clear plastic floor so we went with standard and B still got some killer photos.

Steps today: 15508

Japanese food eaten: pork ramen, gyoza, okonomiyaki (veg and pork), Asahi beer, pocky, vending machine coffee can

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Japan 2020 Day 4: Universal Studios, Osaka

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Mel

So for those who don’t know me….I’m a planner. It’s just who I am. Which B loves because it means everything on a holiday is organised, we are rarely late for stuff and I do things like get express passes at theme parks haha. I highly recommend the express passes by the way!

I pre-purchased our Universal Studio entry tickets online using klook as other travel blogs talked a lot about not queuing up at the gate and also getting a fast pass. I bought them four weeks in advance and the 7 ride fast passes were already sold out so I got us a 4 ride one. Just to be clear – if you buy a fast pass you ALSO need to get an entrance ticket separately, so at that point you are looking at around $200 AUD each adult. We consider the time vs cost ratio reasonable as you don’t have to line up for more than an hour for each ride – most express rides get you through in 15 mins or less.

The weather was not raining (phew!) but it was cloudy on/off and the wind chill was noticeable. We took one backpack with extra jumpers, tickets, water etc in it knowing we could buy a locker to put our things in for each ride so we could go on them together as this is what we did in Singapore at Universal Studios. It was a 5 min walk + 16 min JR Osaka loop train trip to get there from our accomodation in Umeda.

It’s worth noting entry here is not as smooth as in Singapore because they do mandatory bag checks. It took us about 20mins to make it to the gates (and we were not that far back) and then we made a beeline for Hollywood dream and space fantasy since we didn’t have express passes to them….but they were closed. Doh! So we went to Spider-Man which had no wait.

We then went on the flying dinosaur without our express pass (not timed until 2:30pm) which was AWESOME. We had to wait about 30mins to ride it. We went on it again at 2:30pm with our timed express pass and the wait time for us was about 8 mins vs 60 mins for everyone else.

Trying to work out where to meet for the Harry Potter timed entry was a bit of a clusterfuck so definitely allow an extra 10mins for that. We eventually worked out timed entry didn’t apply on this day due to low numbers so we could just walk over to the Harry Potter area and wander straight in. The butter beer was worth a 10min wait. The ride time when we entered was 60mins and we waited about 5 mins – those fast passes really do rock! It’s worth noting the Harry Potter ride is a mix of 3D and being moved around in a cart. We didn’t know that going in and neither of us felt great after due to motion sickness. We had a break for lunch and more kwells at this point.

We also gave Terminator 2 a go and while the first part is a bit meh because it’s all in Japanese and you have no idea what’s happening, the mixed stage show with 3D sections was very cool. Same with Backdraft – the final stage part was great but the bits before were lost on us as it was all in Japanese.

We also went on Jaws which was less roller coaster like but still good fun. The ride is all in Japanese but you get the idea pretty clearly – oh let’s go on a lovely boat ride in this quaint small town….SHARK!

We were at Universal for 7hrs in total (9am – 4pm) and went on every adult focused ride except for the two closed ones and the Jurassic ride. We skipped the Jurassic one because you get very wet and we were already freezing….plus we have done it before in Singapore. We skipped the kid ones because B was not coping with the children’s pitched music and squealing haha. We also skipped WaterWorld because we have seen it before and last time I got absolutely drenched. I do recommend fitting that in if you haven’t seen it before though.

We got back to the apartment around 4:45pm with very sore feet. We ventured just up the road for dinner and had okonomiyaki again, this time from the local place. While it was still yummy, it had nothing on my experience the other day!

Steps today: 18980

Japanese food eaten: nothing Japanese based at Universal (chips, onion rings, burgers) but dinner was okonomiyaki with Asahi beer and we got hot chocolate can from a vending machine!

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Japan 2020 Day 3: exploring Osaka

Posted on January 8, 2020 by Mel

Our tiny little apartment here has 5 doors worth of sound proofing….which it needs because the train is literally 2 metres from the balcony. We slept very well though (despite the rock solid bed) so obviously the soundproofing works.

Today’s weather was 8-14C which for someone who now survives Canberra winters is no big deal lol. B said it was “perfect weather for wandering around”….so wander we did! I was glad I grabbed my jacket at the last minute though as the wind was freezing. We went on an adventure to find Kiji Sky okinomanyaki restaurant which is in the Umeda Sky Building basement and comes with rave reviews. They are also another one of those places that has a Michelin Star but is still very cheap – we have found one in Singapore as well in the past. We had to go on quite a trek to find it through shopping malls, train stations, strange alleyways and underground passages.

We eventually made to the basement level of the Umeda sky building where everything looks like old shops….and discovered every single thing was labeled only in Japanese and signage was limited. Thanks to google and other people posting photos of the front, we found Kiji Sky at shop 11 and it was amaaaaaazing. We did have to queue for about 30 mins before getting a seat but it was totally worth it.

After our early lunch (¥750 for one savoury pancake split between us) we caught the nearest metro train to Osaka Castle and did some exploring there. The sun had well and truly gone by this point and all the photos are quite grey. Osaka Castle is quite different to the other ones we have seen in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara because it was fully destroyed about 6 different times since the 1500s so has been rebuilt from photos and pictures each time! This means on the inside it has very little old world charm as it was rebuilt in the 1950s to more modern design and construction standards.

We headed back to the hotel for a rest and to put some extra layers on before venturing out for dinner to the local Hankyu Sanbangai Food Museum which is basically an awesome food court located underneath a shopping centre….attached to the huge Umeda train station. A few travel blogs I read said this was a great, cheap option as they were all small, individual retailers and had lots of choice. We went Hokkaido style for dinner and had pork ramen, gyoza and beer.

We are going to bed early tonight to ready ourselves for tomorrow’s day at Universal Studions Japan! Eeeeeek.

Step count: 16 050

Japanese food we have eaten today: Okonomiyaki (pork), chocolate pocky, tiny red bull and a can of hot chocolate from a ridiculous vending machine, ramen, gyozo and Asahi beer for B.

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Japan 2020 Day 1+2: travelling to Osaka

Posted on January 8, 2020 by Mel

At 8am in the morning we dropped Bear and Jet off at their dog hotel (after I interrogated them about their very detailed smoke and bush fire management plans). They love staying at Hanrob and I love that they let them hoard together and manage Jet’s anxiety really well – it’s win win.

At the last minute we changed our 3hr bus Canberra to Sydney ticket to a 5pm flight – the road was open and closing intermittently because of the bushfires in NSW at the moment and there was no guarantee we would get through on time. I was already nervous about connecting to our AirAsia flight as it was! Yay for the flat beds again though. We elected to fly Syd-KL, 11 hr stop over, KL – Osaka over a direct Sydney to Japan flight because the cost for the flat beds was the same as it was to fly economy on qantas. We both felt the flatbeds were worth it.

We did experience a slight flight delay from Canberra due to the weather and bushfire smoke but we still made it to Sydney just in time for our international flight connection to Kuala Lumpur. After 8hrs of veeeeery turbulent flying and landing in KL at 3am, we spent the next 8 hrs at the samasama airport hotel which is awesome because it is in KLIA2 (the Airasia terminal) so there is no need to collect bags or clear immigration. The room cost about $110 AUD for the 8 hours and I prebooked online which got me a discount.

We had a lovely sleep in our queen bed and then some food in the attached lounge before boarding the next 8hr flight on to Osaka, Japan. The flights really aren’t that bad when you have comfy flat beds, USB ports, free entertainment devices and a quilted blanket. I still maintain I would rather deal with an 11hr stop over than for 16hrs straight in economy on qantas for the same price! B is less convinced haha.

We arrived at Kansai airport in Osaka at 10pm at night local time after a very long day and a half of travelling. We used our icoca cards which are still valid from 6 years ago and caught a train from the airport into the city (easy), swapped to the subway (also pretty easy to do) and then walked about 6 mins to our lovely little apartment here.

In total it took about an hour and cost us ¥1600 each versus what would have been ¥20000 in a taxi. Taxis in Japan are very expensive so we didn’t even consider that option.

I booked the accomodation in Osaka on booking.com and it is called “Osaka Umeda Hotel Apartments” which basically means it’s a dude renting out his apartment like on Air BnB. Considering the prices of surrounding hotels though, this was excellent value for about $100 AUD a night! His directions provided by email were very detailed and it has wifi which is not always a given in Japanese hotels so I’m happy. His detailed directions combined with google maps got us there with a 5 min walk from the local Umeda station which is a big transport hub.

Our plan for tomorrow is to recover from 30 hours of travelling with a sleep in and then do some low stakes wandering of Osaka since neither of us have been here before.

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Japan 2020 planning is full steam ahead

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Mel

We leave on Jan 6th from Canberra and arrive in Osaka late on Jan 7th. We had planned to trial the “Murray’s bus” as an option for transit to Sydney this time but with all the bushfires happening here and the accompanying road closures, we have instead decided to fly. We are doing our international legs through AirAsia (once you try their flat beds you’ll never go back) which is awesomely comfortable although it does unfortunately include a few stop overs for extended periods. We are going to try out the SamaSama airport hotel at KLIA2 for the first time this trip – no clearing customs needed!

Fun stuff booked and/or planned so far includes:

Osaka Jan 7-11th

  • Universal Studios – I bought us express line tickets for the flying dinosaur ride hahaha
  • Tempozan Ferris Wheel
  • Kaiyukan Aquarium
  • Tracking down some excellent okonomiyaki places

Tokyo Jan 11-14th

  • Mount Fuji day trip. In winter we may get an amazingly clear day where we have stunning views, or we may get rained out. We are rolling the dice to find out!
  • Dinner at our favourite restaurant in the whole world (so far) Kobe Beef Kaiseki 511
  • A visit to the Harajuka cafe area and possibly trying out monster kawaii cafe
  • Maybe a visit to Disney Sea….I’m still undecided on this

Niseko Jan 14-21st

  • Snow for B man! He plans to go all over the mountain plus a day trip to Rasutsu
  • Onsens and relaxation for me
  • All the ramen and dumplings I can eat

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Day 2 + 3:Bannisters by the sea, Mollymook

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Mel

The weather at the moment here is more winter rather than spring…very grey and drizzly. Breakfast was at the hotel this morning (a very average continental free offer) which we were easily able to make the time for as there is definitely no sleeping in here – for 5 star prices there is no 5 star sound proofing. After breakfast we saw a baby kookaburra and his buddy just chilling near our balcony.

After trying to make friends with the kookaburra and failing, we went up to the lookout just to reinforce the greyness haha

We had a bit of a rest and then headed to Cupitt’s Winery (5 min drive from the hotel) to eat cheese and drink wine. It’s a beautiful location and there were baby cows EVERYWHERE. I want one.

After lunch we spent the afternoon getting drunk in the spa bath because that’s what adults do on romantic getaways right?

Dinner tonight was at Rick Steins restaurant which comes highly reviewed. We had scollops as an entree (yum) and my main was battered local fish while Bs was ginger snapper. Both were pretty good. Dessert was creme brûlée and we had the Rick Stein seafood wine to go with it all. For a highly rated restaurant I was a little disappointed with the noise levels and lack of consistent waitstaff but the food was top notch.

On day 3 the weather was once again terrible but we still slogged through it and went to the Shoalhaven Timber Festival in Milton NSW. We saw some baby goats, cattle rustling, wood chopping and I bought a toilet roll holder made by the local men’s shed.

After some show snacks (donuts and hot chocolate) we returned to an afternoon of spa relaxation and bubbly.

The next day we drove home (2.5hrs) and then picked up a very sleepy Bear and Jet who had been having a great time at a pet hotel.

Overall thoughts: lovely town, pretty beach but not very practical, nice hotel….but not worth the 5 star rating or $$$$$ pricing. I think next time we will stick with our air bnb closer to Batemans Bay.

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Day 1: Bannisters by the Sea, Mollymook

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Mel

We decided to take a little coastal getaway this school holidays (without the fur babies) down to the NSW south coast. This time we went with somewhere more upmarket rather than our usual stayz beach house – so we picked Bannisters by the Sea. When you mention this place to people in Canberra they all go “oooooh fancy” because it is a little on the $$$ side but also it books out months in advance. The doggos once again stayed at Hanrob Pet Hotels who are fantastic with Jet’s anxiety.

On arrival at Bannisters in Mollymook (about 2.5hrs drive from Canberra) we got to check out the gorgeous view from our spa room. We then went for a wander in the reserve nearby and down to the rock beach.

Dinner tonight was at the Pool Bar on-site which had delicious cocktails and a very yummy tasting platter. We were also able to watch the sunlight slowly disappear with the ocean in the background and because we are on a cliff face here, the noise of the waves is really lovely. The Pool Bar was busy but not too busy (will be interesting to see what it’s like on weekends) so we were easily able to be seated.

Back to the room where we took photos of the very pretty infinity pool and I (once again) put way too many bubbles in the bubble bath and splashed around like a complete numpty.

Tomorrow’s plan is: not much! If the weather is nice we will relax by the pool and chill out or possibly explore nearby Milton or Ulladulla. There is a mountain close by I wanted to climb but….meh….it’s break time! Plus the weather is meant to be average.

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January 2020 trip booked – Japan!

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Mel

We are off to Japan again in January 2020! We haven’t been together since Jan 2014 so it should be great fun, the plan is:

  • 4 nights in Osaka to explore a place we haven’t been to and hopefully also go to Universal Studios

  • 3 nights in Tokyo which includes a day trip out to Mt Fuji and dinner at our shared favourite restaurant in the whole world Kobe Beef Kaiseki A511

  • 7 nights in Niseko staying at the snooooow! We are staying at Freedom Inn again which is a gorgeous little lodge near the Hanazono snow base. B will snowboard or ski – he’s undecided at this point – and I will enjoy onsens, massages and relaxation while we are there.

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MICF 4th year (day 6): Melbourne Aquarium and hotel review for Rydges on Exhibition St

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Mel

We checked out of our accomodation at 11am and left our luggage behind while we went on a wander in search of food and entertainment. Given that it was Easter Monday, we knew options would be somewhat limited and I was on strict “no shopping” instructions since I had barely managed to close the suitcase after my style adventure earlier in the trip.

We opted to go to Melbourne SEAlife Aquarium to see some cute sea critters and kill some time. It was insanely busy (public holiday) and to be honest – I would not recommend it with lines and numbers like that. The customer service staff just couldn’t handle it and were totally overwhelmed, wait times to get in were close to an hour and the number of people meant you couldn’t see much anyway.

Hotel review time! We stayed at the Rydges Melbourne this year after a couple of terrible stays at Adara Collins (now called the Collins Hotel – AVOID) and a good stay at the Novotel on Collins last year,

Positives:

  • It averaged out to about $240 a night which is pretty damn good for a king suite with a ginormous spa
  • I like the option of not getting your room being made up and getting $10 food and beverage credit each day since I hate having my bed remade each day. That’s just me though

  • The comedy festival location for us was great – next to one venue and no more than a 10 min walk to any other one aside from the Spiegeltent in Collingwood
  • The bed and pillows were excellent in our room although other trip advisor reviews suggest this is not consistent

Negatives:

  • The plumbing sounds in this building are insane because it’s so old. This woke us up quite a few times as it sounds like a train coming through. The aircon is also really old and very noisy. In keeping with the theme of a very old room – the carpet is revolting. I’m not usually one to comment on carpet or furniture because “meh” but this was covered in years of stains
  • On check in they would not accept my debit MasterCard at all and then got annoyed when the only credit card I had was an AmEx. Never had this issue with an Australian hotel before
  • It is at the top end of the city so can be a pain to walk back to after events in the CBD ….it’s mostly uphill to walk back as well which could be a mobility issue for some
  • Another bloody 4 star hotel which only has a power point on one side of the bed. I don’t understand how this is still a thing!

Obviously the positives far outweighed the negatives on this trip and we would certainly stay again for this sort of room at this pricing.

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