Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 6 (Final) (2/2)

Final day in Central Japan continued as we went shopping at Rinku Premium Outlet and Seacle Shopping Mall from morning till evening.

After having an early lunch at McDonald's where I tasted the Pork Cutlet Burger which is not available in Singapore, we continued shopping around Seacle Shopping Mall.

At Seacle, there's a 100-yen shop named Seria. It's similar to Daiso, which is also available in Japan (One of the outlets is at Diver City Tokyo in Odaiba), where they sell various items from household items to stationery to DIY products at 100 yen. Well, not 100 yen because tax has not been included yet. Every item sells for 108 yen after 8% tax is added into it so when you enter the 100-yen shop, remember to add 8% into the price.

Unlike Rinku Premium Outlet, Seacle is a local shopping mall. Seria? Of course you never hear it before elsewhere. Not to mention Sundi (A local supermarket), Celule (Cosmetics), Takiya (Drugstore) and Nishimatsuya (Nursery items store). However, there's one store where most people playing games will know, Namco.

There's an amusement center named Namco located at the 1st floor. Inside there, there's a lot of arcade machines to play with, from claw machines to Taiko to pachinko.

Every game of claw machine costs 100 yen. Since I have a lot of coins, I decided to play for it. There are many prizes available such as plush toys, chocolates and collectible models. I played for a box of chocolates which I wanted to send it as a gift but after playing 5 or 6 times, I gave up.

My younger brother also decided to play but the note was wrongly inserted into a coin machine which game tokens came out instead of 100 yen coins. Sadly, there's no refund for the game tokens hence we used up all the tokens playing different games. As I was using up all the tokens, my younger brother exchanged for 100 yen coins at the right machine and played the claw machine for the collectible model. After 20+ tries, he finally got it! That collectible model he got was an expensive one, over 2,000 yen.

The collectible model which my younger brother won.

We headed for another lunch at a sushi restaurant named Daikisuisan. That sushi restaurant was recommended by a Japanese TV program. How did I know? I knew it after we left the restaurant when I saw a sticker pasted on the restaurant. The show, "Maki's Magic Restaurant", was previously shown on Singapore's cable TV (now defunct) so I knew that the sushi restaurant was featured on TV.

We headed back to Rinku Premium Outlet for the remaining 3 hours to walk around and shopped again. After that, I had crepe for my afternoon snack at a food junction.

At around 6pm JT, our tour members gathered at the meeting point. We left the premium outlet and headed to Kansai International Airport (KIX). 2 buses were there to pick us up so we were separated into 2 groups again. We took the bus which had a lot of luggage behind us.

Around 15 minutes, we arrived at KIX. The check-in counter had not opened yet so we went down to have dinner.

A Pokemon Store at KIX.

Okonomi-yakisoba for my dinner. That dish was also featured on "Maki's Magic Restaurant" like that sushi restaurant.

Other side dishes like fried chicken with potatoes and croquette.

We checked in our luggage at the counter after dinner and went in to the departure gate for security checks. After that, my father and I went to the tax refund counter to return the receipt before heading for immigration.

Again, we went for our last minute shopping at KIX where we bought chocolates and heat tag.

Our gate was number 41 so we had to take a skytrain to reach there.

After we passed through gate 41, it was time to bid farewell.

Overall, the Central Japan experience was great even though there were rushing of time at some destinations where we had time walking and shopping. Hope to visit Japan again, although it would not be very soon, one day we will visit other places in Japan like Kyushu or Hokkaido.

Bye bye, Japan!

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 6 (Final) (1/2)

The 6th and final day in Central Japan arrived and over the past few days, it was an amazing experience from visiting different temples, tourist attractions, shopping malls and even convenience stores.

The previous night, we stayed at a 3-star hotel named Bellevue Garden Hotel. The room itself was normal but it's a convenient place to stay. Why? If you're looking for something to eat during supper, there's a supermarket directly opposite the hotel. However, it closes at 10pm so you'll have to be there before the closing time. Also, the hotel is located near Kansai International Airport (KIX) where we boarded the plane to Singapore there. Take the hotel shuttle bus and it only takes 15 minutes to reach KIX.

The view outside the hotel

Supermarket. Before 9am, it was empty.

Our breakfast was at a restaurant located on the 1st floor. Again, it was a mix of Western and Japanese. Scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, salmon, salad, tofu, miso soup and apple juice. I went for another round after that and took pastries, salad and hot tea.

After breakfast, we went outside the hotel for a while before heading back to our respective rooms to pack and leave our luggage at the lobby at 10.30am JT.

It's 9.25am JT and the car park was already filled with cars outside the supermarket.

Since there was no other destinations to go to for the last day, we left the hotel later. Also, it was a midnight flight so for the rest of the day, our tour members and us decided to have another round of shopping at another Premium Outlet.

While waiting for the bus to pick us up to the Premium Outlet, my parents went outside the hotel to pluck some berries to taste. Just a gentle reminder, before my parents pluck the berries, they have seek permission from the hotel security guard through our tour guide's translation. When you decided to pluck the berries and eat, it's best if you seek permission from the owner.

My parents tasted the berries and said it's sweet but to me, it's sour! I tasted twice and the taste was the same.

The hotel shuttle bus came to pick us up to the Premium Outlet. Apart from taking you to KIX, the shuttle bus can also take you to other places but charges apply. There were 2 shuttle buses picking us up so we were separated into 2 groups.

The Premium Outlet that we went was Rinku Premium Outlet. As compared to Gotemba Premium Outlet that we went on the 3rd day, Rinku Premium Outlet is larger and furthermore, there's a local shopping mall behind the premium outlet as well.

Unlike Gotemba Premium Outlet, there's 2 floors and a wide range of brands are available.

There's Ferris Wheel as well. It belongs to the local shopping mall named SEACLE.

After shopping at the Premium Outlet, we walked to SEACLE Shopping Mall.

We saw UNIQLO's sister, GU, again at SEACLE and we went in to buy some more. GU turned out to be the most frequent place to shop.

After shopping, we went to have early lunch at McDonald's. Why were we entering McDonald's for early lunch? Different countries have their own McDonald's. For Japan, it's not halal-certified because I heard from our tour leader that McDonald's in Japan sells Pork Cutlet Burger or McPork. That was a chance I didn't want to miss before leaving Japan so we entered McDonald's for an early lunch.

Menu outside the store. Apart from Pork Cutlet Burger, Shrimp Cutlet Burger is also available.

I ordered the Pork Cutlet Burger and it tasted great along with the Pork Cutlet sauce.

Delicious Pork Cutlet Burger

After an early lunch, we walked around the shopping mall and shopped again.

Part 2 of Final Day in Central Japan continues.

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 5 (2/2)

We've spent a few hours at Spa World and it's time to return to USJ to pick up the rest of the tour members. As we arrived at USJ, we got to visit there again while waiting for them to return to the bus.

There were less visitors in the afternoon as compared to the morning.

Opposite USJ, there's CityWalk.

A new hotel coming soon.

Roller coaster inside USJ.

Opposite USJ, there's a place called CityWalk where you can eat and shop. Although there are many delicious foods sold there such as fried chicken and MOS Burger etc, we didn't visit there due to time constraints. We visited the souvenir shop to see if there's anything to buy. I bought a special snack which comes from Kyoto. Wait! I'm in Osaka. Why did I buy snacks originated from Kyoto?!

Bought a special snack with a very nice packaging.

Inside the box, it is a triangular-shaped snack named nama yatsuhashi. It is a soft, mochi-like skin made from rice flour. There are different flavors for the skin. For the image above, the top one is cinnamon while the bottom one is matcha. There's also red bean filling inside. At first, I thought it would be nice to eat but it tasted very weird especially the cinnamon flavor. Not up to my expectation.

The remaining members visiting USJ have returned to the bus and we moved on to shopping at Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori.

That poster looked very familiar.

That crab also looked familiar as well.

Shinsaibashi

Inside Shinsaibashi, there are many shops inside such as Daimaru, Desigual and ABC Mart (selling shoes) etc. As we walked inside, we came across GU. If you've read Central Japan Day 2 where we shopped at BICQLO in Shinjuku, you know that GU is UNIQLO's sister. They sell mostly the same as compared to UNIQLO. In terms of pricing, you can see it for yourself. 799 yen can buy a shirt and 900 yen can buy 3 boxers. Affordable? When we visited GU, they were having a sale so all prices looked cheaper after discount. Furthermore, the crowd gathered there.

GU has its own department store as compared to the one in Shinjuku.

After shopping at GU, we went back to the "Running man" poster which was our meeting point. There was a small rain so we took the shelter outside H&M.

We headed to our BBQ buffet dinner at a restaurant named Amataro. It was located at a building where there's also nightclubs as well. The restaurant itself takes up one floor.

Before entering the restaurant, we have to take off your shoes and placed it in a locker.

A special locker key to put our shoes

BBQ buffet dinner which includes chicken, pork, sausages and vegetables.

After dinner, we headed to our final hotel stay at the Bellevue Garden Hotel. Unlike the previous 4 hotels which are 4-star hotels, that hotel I could say is really a 3-star hotel. Despite that, there's a supermarket located opposite the hotel. It opens daily from 9am to 10pm.

We visited the supermarket and bought some snacks and drinks. We had supper before we ended the night. After that night, it was time to leave Japan.

To be continued for the final day in Central Japan.