The Birthday Trip To Japan

Mommy and Daddy visited Japan earlier in September to celebrate our wedding anniversary and come December, it was Son's turn.

We had our family trip in early December to celebrate both Son's birthday and also celebrate him finishing sitting for his PT3 exam. Regardless the results of his exam (the results wasn't announced yet when we traveled to Japan), we had planned the trip for him as a reward for his hard work in his studies throughout the year.

We flew on JAL this time and paid around RM1,570 per pax for the return trip.

For ground arrangement, everything including hotel stays, food, Nikko Train passes and also normal train fares when we were in Tokyo - it all came out to around RM5,300.00 in total (that's less than RM1,800 per pax). For a full 7 days activities.

And what fun it was too. This was our 17th or 18th visit to Japan so we weren't keen in rushing to cover too many places and we just aimed to have a leisurely time filled with hikes and enjoying the nature and onsens and later some time in Tokyo.

We hiked around Lake Chuzenji and managed to cover 16km in total and managed to view from near three magnificent waterfalls of Nikko - Kegon Waterfall, Ryuzu Waterfall and Yudaki Waterfall and walk through the marshland of Senjogahara.

And we even get to enjoy seeing fresh snow that had fallen around the higher elevation in Nikko too as we stayed at Yumoto Onsen with elevation of 1,487m above sea level.

We spent three nights in tatami rooms, in hotels with onsen facilities. Three nights with breakfast and dinner included with pretty decent rates.

At Son's request, we spent a night at a capsule hotel (which only cost us 2,000 yen per person per night!) and the rest of the nights at a business hotel in Asakusa. Our favourite part of town when in Tokyo. ^^

We managed to soak in onsens or hot baths everyday during our stay (more than once daily). Outdoor baths like this one or shared indoor ones at the capsule hotel or just the ofuro in our room when we stayed at the business hotel.

Enjoying local food is a must, of course.

It was nice to eat ekiben in the train from Asakusa to Nikko. Or eating grilled ayu fish and a bowl of suiton (dumplings cooked with veges in a bonito broth) at a makeshift stall in Nikko or a nice yuba meal (tofu skin) which is Nikko's specialty in a nice restaurant. Or a HUGE bowl of udon in Haneda airport or a nice grilled saba at Yayoi-ken or pasta and pizza at Saizeriya.

Son managed to spend a few days trawling Akihabara, looking for his favourite (not available in Malaysia) anime figures.

Mommy managed to find some races she could join during the vacation and managed a pretty decent time in it too. Hehehe

We were quite lucky to be in town when the Inui-mon (Inui Street) of Imperial Palace was opened to public for a duration of 9 days. 

We visited Imperial Palace on Monday and by that time, the crowd was a little bit less crowded that it was during the weekend.

It sure was a rare treat! Of course, buying omiyage from the Imperial Palace souvenir shop is a must for us!

The family even managed to meet up with Mommy's friend on the last day of our trip in Japan despite her friend's busy schedule.

I'll try to blog about the trip in detail soon, I hope. Or maybe not. I don't think I had blogged much about our September trip (Osaka-Wakayama) too, right? Hehehe

Day 1 : Nikko (Yumoto Onsen)

Day 2 : Nikko (Yumoto Onsen)

Day 3 : Nikko (Kinugawa Onsen)

Day 4 : Asakusa

Day 5 : Itabashi

Day 6 : Asakusa

Day 7 : Asakusa

Day 8 : Home