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.

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 5 (1/2)

2nd last day in Central Japan and we were at Osaka.

For the 5th day, we were staying in Osaka for the whole day. Half of it would be free and easy trip at either Universal Studios Japan (USJ) or Spa World. The choice of destination between those 2 had already been decided a month before the trip. There's no way we could change the destination as the fee had been paid to the travel agency. Hence, we decided to go to Spa World.

Before we headed to 2 different destinations, we had our breakfast at the Sheraton Miyako Hotel.

The view outside the hotel room.

Steamed rice, steamed vegetables, hash potatoes, mackerel, salad, miso soup and apple juice.

Omelette. Pick your favorite ingredients and pass it to the chef. A card will be given to you and once it is ready, pass the card back and you can eat your own omelette.

I have chosen ham, cheese and sauteed onions.

After breakfast, we packed our luggage inside the room and prepared to leave. As we entered the bus, there was something different as compared to the previous sightseeing bus we have boarded for the last 4 days.

A screen with a game controller inside the bus?!

I forgot to write about what happened to our sightseeing bus aka 6688. Last night when we arrived in Osaka, 6688 had to be sent for servicing (?). Therefore, another bus would be taking us around Osaka.

The bus first stopped at USJ for a while. In our tour group, 3 families went for USJ. The others would be going to Spa World. We went down the bus for a short while to go to the washroom and also take pictures of USJ.

Look at the crowd outside the entrance.

It was a Thursday morning and there were a lot of visitors queuing up to enter the theme park. Fortunately, we prevented another Disneysea's incident where we could have a hard time finding something to eat and ride there.

We boarded the bus and headed to Spa World.

Our new sightseeing bus aka 1865.

The entrance to Spa World.

Inside Spa World, the 2nd level will be paying the entrance fee and it is done through a machine.

Different passes are available from the machine.

As we entered, we were given a wristband. The wristband serves as a wallet, meaning that all purchases made inside Spa World would be using the wristband instead of cash. Before leaving Spa World, return the wristband inside the machine and pay whatever you have ordered or rented.

Wristband

Return the wristband here before leaving and pay for the food that you've ordered or clothes rental.

Before going to enjoy the spa, we must be barefooted. All shoes would be placed inside the locker and it costs 100 yen. Thought it would be a waste of money? Wrong! 100 yen would be returned to you as you open the locker regardless how many times you use. Apart from shoes locker, another locker where you place your clothes and other belongings at the 4th and 6th floors does the same thing. 4th and 6th floors are theme spas, namely European and Asian spas respectively.

Apart from theme spas, there's also amusement pool with slides and panoramic bath at the 8th floor. Men, women, boys and girls can enter the 8th floor but not the theme spas. Although the theme spas are separated into 2 zones, they are separated into men and boys, and women and girls. Depends on the management, the men and boys would be using the European spa while the women and girls would be using the Asian spa for a month before swopping those 2. For our case, my father, younger brother and I went to the 4th floor while my mother went to the 6th floor as we visited in June.

After changing our clothes to swimming costumes at respective floors, we went up to the 8th floor. Take the lift from the 4th floor or 6th floor will lead you to the 8th floor.

The amusement pool looks all right to me, nothing to wow about. However, the structure of the slides look rusty and has not been properly maintained for a long time. Furthermore, you need to pay to enjoy the slides. Might as well go to the nearby swimming pool and enjoy the slide for free.

3rd floor is where you can enjoy stone spas from different countries. In order to visit the 3rd floor, you have to go to the 2nd floor to rent the clothes. Rental costs 600 yen (or 800 yen) plus a refundable deposit of 3,000 yen.

After changing the clothes, we headed to the World Stone Spa to let our sweat run down. There are different rooms of different countries to choose from such as Korea, Russia, Turkey and also Egypt. We first entered the Korea room and it was above 50 degrees inside. It was a quiet room and all you could do was to lie down on the stones and sleep. It was a great experience as there were music playing while you sleep but it didn't last long as the room was closed for maintenance at 1.00pm JT (Japan Time).

Another room that I would recommend is to visit the Egypt room. Of all the rooms inside World Stone Spa, Egypt room has the highest temperature of above 60 degrees. Unlike other rooms, talking is allowed inside Egypt room and there's also television for you to watch shows. As I entered the room, the sweat ran down quickly after a few minutes.

We headed back to the 4th floor to have the onsen and went to the 3rd floor to have a light snack.

The Spa World experience ended after returning the wristband and paying the fees. We boarded the bus and headed back to USJ to pick up the rest of the members.

Part 2 of Central Japan Day 5 is next.

Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 4 (3/3)

From Nishiki Market in Kyoto, we headed towards Osaka in the evening. It took around an hour to arrive.

When we arrived in Osaka, we went to have dinner at a restaurant named Maido. The dinner for the evening was Pork Nabe (Not a coarse language here) and other dishes like pork belly, sashimi and tempura.

Small plate of sashimi

Pork Nabe with a slice of butter on top. Takes time to cook.

Pork belly

After 10 minutes of wait, the Pork Nabe is ready to be eaten.

Assorted tempura

The pork belly in a small bowl was tender and tasty. The pork slices inside the Nabe were also tasty. However, it would be nice if the pork slices are accompanied with rice because the thick gravy was too salty.

After a sumptuous dinner, we headed to the hotel we were staying for the night - Sheraton Miyako Hotel. Honestly speaking, I've never stayed at Sheraton or Hilton or whatever "-ton" before so I hoped it was a nice stay there.

The carpet says it all. I'm staying at Sheraton!

The twin room that my younger brother and I were staying for a night.

We went outside the hotel to walk around and saw a pachinko shop which is located opposite the hotel. We entered the shop but couldn't stay there long due to the cigarette smell.

Pachinko shop located opposite the hotel.

Inside the hotel room, we had supper. My mother bought a matcha cake from the market place near Fushimi Inari Shrine that afternoon and we finished eating it.

Matcha cake.

Overall, the cake was nice but the matcha seemed to be too sweet. The price? Not very cheap though, around 1,000 yen.

With that, we ended the night in Osaka.

To be continued for Day 5: Short stop at USJ and spa experience at Spa World.