Thoughts about my trip to Japan

Every trip's reflection post starts with an airplane. 

2 weeks ago, this day, I was still venturing about the streets of Tokyo (Shibuya to be exact)

and now here I am writing a post about my trip. 

I honestly thought I already left a post about my trip but apparently I didn't. 

So the basic questions everyone asked me were "How was your trip?", "what did you do?" and more importantly "how much did it cost?". 

Well, I shall answer all the questions slowly and probably post my Itenary here though maybe not in this post cause it will become super long. 

Basic information about my trip, my friends and I travelled 3 places in the 2 weeks. We went to Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. The trip was simply amazing and very surreal to me because firstly, I never imagined my parents allowing me to travel with my friends (cuz they don't let out of the house late at night, how did they allow this trip was really mysterious for me). Secondly, to even go to Japan during spring was a far-fetched dream for me. 

Though it was a bit costly, I never regretted my decision to journey through Japan one single bit. The last time I was in Japan was probably about 4 years ago and I never been to other parts of Japan except Tokyo because my grandparents lived in Yokohama (which is pretty much near Tokyo). So it was really exciting (yet worrying) to venture to other parts of japan. I was also really worried about travelling without my mom because I never really spoke to people in Japan when I travelled with my parents cuz my mom did all the talking and I never had to buy train tickets cuz my mom did those as well. But all in all my trip went smoothly and it was really great. 

Being in Japan for the 2 weeks was simply amazing. The people were so nice, the skies were so blue and the air was just different. However it was super cold. You would expect spring to be around the coldness of being in an air-conditioned room but NO. When we reached Osaka at around 8pm, it was 3 degrees. How was this spring! I basically only wore 1 long sleeve and my coat. It was not enough (people who know me, knows I'm very weak to the cold) .We reached the station that was apparently near our apartment but we got lost. It took us a while to find our apartment and I swear I wanted to just curl up at one corner and just stay there. However, we managed to find it but it was still so cold. 

Though during the entire trip it was super cold, I liked it. I mean I rather suffer in cold then in warmth. 

We visited a lot of places that I only ever saw images of on the internet but the place I fell in love the most was Uji. After that was Kyoto followed by Osaka. Uji was simply beautiful and I definitely recommend people to visit there if you are ever in the Kyoto or Osaka area. 

I managed to make a trip to Universal Japan to visit Hogwarts and that was probably another highlight of the trip as well! Though it rained and there were many people and I didnt take any rides, Being in hogwarts was just fun. I got to see Shingeki no Kyojin as well so...YESH.

Uji, the land of green tea and probably the most  beautiful place
I ever visited. 

The week I spent in Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Uji was probably the best but all good things come to an end and we had to go back to Tokyo. 

Tokyo didn't really change much since the last time I was there. It was still a busy city but it was beautiful this time because everywhere we walked somewhere there was a sakura tree. We rented an apartment in Roppongi and omg I think it was the best place I ever stayed. The apartment was so comfortable and we could even see tokyo tower from the apartment! It was simply amazing. The place we stayed at was also near Roppongi Station and we could visit all the places we wanted to go with ease. 

Basically in Tokyo what I did was Shop and eat. That's all I did. But one place I really liked that I never visited was probably the meiji shrine. It was totally zen. I never knew there was such a place in Tokyo. 

OH! AND YES! Our apartment was really near TV asahi. It was so cool, but sadly I didn't see any actors or idols..it was kinda sad..cuz I think I could have seen Kimura Takuya the day before I was about to fly as he had a press conference for his new drama at the area, but being me, I didn't think of exploring the area that day and missed the chance to see him. I was so near yet so far *cries*.

Leaving Japan was almost unbearable, honestly I didn't want to leave. I wished I could stay there for a month. It was nice to talk in Japanese and actually talk to the people there! I honestly feel that taking up Mass Comm changed my life because I became more of an extrovert. Throughout my entire trip in Japan, I went around asking people questions and occasionally had a chat with them. One such person was this elderly lady in Osaka. She was 81 but she still worked as a nurse and learns traditional japanese dance on the weekends and let me tell you, she dosen't look 81 at all. She then went on talking to me about stuffs and it was nice. I talked a lot especially to people at the tourist information counters. I don't know why but we'd just start talking until another customer arrived. Many of them start chatting with me after I finished asking my question by telling me "you japanese is really good!" then I'd tell them my mom was japanese and after that we just chat. It was really nice. 

If I travelled with my parents, I probably would not have the chance to chat so much with the people there. Also, me being able to speak japanese probably saved us time and our lives. I was pretty shocked that there weren't much english menus wherever we went. Though it was troublesome to translate menus to english for my friends, i'm still glad I managed to read the menu to explain to them. If it was me 4 years ago, I might just die at one corner cuz I couldn't read it. 

Honestly I never planned to go to Tokyo for this trip, but because my friends wanted to go to Tokyo and I wanted visit my grandparents graveyard so we went. Visiting my grandparents graveyard was painful. I never cried when I attended their funeral but I don't know why that day as I stood in front of their graves I just broke down. I thought to myself that if they were alive, it wouldn't have been me guiding my friends but my grandfather. Instead of visiting their graves, I could have been visiting them and they would've been proud of me finding their house. Something my grandfather and grandmother always told me was "come visit us by yourself one day! We'll let you stay here and bring you around!" but even before I could do that they passed away. So that was probably one reason out of the thousands I cried before them. After visiting their graveyard, I just roamed around Yokohama thinking about things and eventually ended up at Yamashita park. It was a nice half-day alone that day but once again it was unbelivable. I was in Yokohama alone and I managed to go to the places without help. Amazing, I thought. 

So this is probably all my thoughts throughout the trip. I'll probably post up my itenary in my next post so that for those of you whose planning a trip to Japan can take a look! I'll try and add in some tips too! 

To end of my post is to answer the question of "How much did it cost". It costed my hand and limb. Okay I'm joking. Everything from air ticket, apartment, transport fee, food and shopping it costed me S$3,685.  (yes a weird number but when I calculated this was the amount it added up to). 

Honestly, since I saved up money since I was a kid, this trip was more than affordable for me. Many people around me probably thought my parents paid half my trip for me but nope. I funded the entire trip myself, which is maybe why my parents had no say against my trip. 

Till the next post, 

Cheers! 

Many thanks for my travel buddies. Cuz of them I was never bored and
because of them we were never lost. It was such a chill trip with them. ><