Planning a Homecoming Trip

Planning a trip is always a fun thing to me – especially when the destination is my home country!  Imagining what I could do there makes me daydream

Well, I should be thinking about the birth plan or something related to my baby (I do though) but part of my head is already planning what to do in Japan next year.  As the trip will be a whole new experience to me (first time with a Jr) I know what I can do there is limited.  But, it’s just a plan, and planning is always a good thing to prepare for the trip.

This time, I’m thinking to go driving around Biwa Lake in Shiga.  I always drive Kei-truck (you can read about it here, or my Japan Trip posts here) when I go back, but there are only two seats in the car and three of us (me, D and Jr) won’t be able to fit there.  It’s also very uncomfortable to drive for long distance.  So, I’m planning to hire a car for few days and go driving around the Biwa Lake side road.  

My grand-parents’ house is 50 km away from my house and D and I normally take a train to visit them, but the road between our houses has such beautiful views.  I love driving to their house because I could stop at convenience stores or shopping malls to get a cold drink and snack on the way, and get off the car and walk around the lake shore if I want to.  

Having your own car is very essential in Shiga (same as Perth).  If you go shopping you will need a car to put all the stuff you bought.  We are going to buy many things in Japan for sure, so renting a car is one “must” thing to do.

I don’t think we will be traveling around much this time.  Just within Shiga, I think.  We can do so many things already just in Shiga and I don’t want to take a tiring train trip to other prefectures with Jr.  (Of course I can’t drive there, driving to Kyoto and Osaka is much more stressful than taking a train!)  It’s ok.  D hasn’t explored entire Shiga yet.  There are so many things he has missed out on his last visits!  

If we go there in summer we can enjoy fireworks and summer festivals wearing yukata.  If in autumn we can enjoy the scenery and delicious food.  If in winter we can play with snow!  Still thinking when is the best…

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Cheap Flight

I’m subscribed to many airline newsletters and sometimes receive very cheap flight deals.  It’s very exciting when you find a very cheap airfare and start to plan your holiday!

My friend recently booked a return flight from Perth to Haneda, Tokyo.  Haneda Airport has been the main domestic airport for Tokyo, however, it completed a new runway and international terminal building in October 2010 and started handling an increased number of international flights. (an interesting blog about Haneda’s New International Terminal → jaunted.com)

A flight from Eastern states to Japan is much cheaper than from Perth to Japan.  And, as my house is in Western side of Japan (near Kyoto), the closest airport is Kansai (KIX) or Centrair (NGO) but there is no direct flight from Perth to neither KIX nor NGO.  So, I need to transit somewhere on the way.

Perth → Another City in Australia → Osaka

Perth → Another Country → Osaka

Perth → Tokyo → Osaka

The cheapest option is great, but I also don’t want to transit many times, especially with a bub.  I don’t know if it’s better to fly to Tokyo first then take a Shinkansen (a bullet train) to my house. (transit in Japan)  Actually, Shinkansen stops at the train station near my house (just 10 minutes by car) so my family doesn’t need to drive for 2 hours to KIX (even though they enjoy the drive) to pick us up.  I feel safer transiting in my own country too.  However, I don’t want to imagine the crowd in Tokyo and the travel from airport to Tokyo JR station to catch a Shinkansen…

Hmmm, I will need to search more to find out which way is the easiest and the cheap option for us to travel.  

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What is Booming in Japan Now?

It’s almost the end of October…  If you don’t carefully watch the calender every day, you’ll be surprised how fast the time flies.  

October –  November is middle of Autumn in Japan.  What comes to your head when you hear the words “Autumn” and “Japan”?   Beautiful trees dressed in red, orange and yellow leaves?  Cold air that you feel on your cheeks? In my case, it is food that comes first to my head.

There are so many Autumn food in Japan to list, but the king of Autumn food would be this: Matsutake mushroom.  Matsutake mushroom are harvested between the end of September and the end of October, and they are quite pricy.  (especially the ones harvested within Japan)

The Matsutake harvested within Japan costs around 5000 yen each.  Others (those imported from China or Korea) costs around 1000 yen each. Why are they so expensive compared with other mushrooms?  It’s because they are difficult to be cultivated by human hands.  How Matsutake grows (how they get the nutrition) is different from other mushrooms.

Autumns is called “eating season” in Japan.  You will see many fliers and advertisements of foods at train stations, streets, on tv etc.  People head to grape, nashi pear, chestnut and sweet potato farms to get all-you-can eat harvesting experience (customer pays around $2000 per head and harvest the fruits from the farm as much as you can, and eat them at the farm), and travel around Japan to enjoy the remote area’s speciality food.  Short trip and day trip are the boom around this season. The purpose of the trip is, of course, to eat delicious food at ryokan (Japanese style hotel) or restaurants.

The most popular food people seek is a course menu of Matsutake mushroom.

Grilled, row (as sashimi), deep-fried (tempura), steamed (with rice as Matsutake rice), and poached (in chawan-muchi) are the common dishes in a course menu.  My dad emailed me the other day saying that he went to Shigaraki (a town in Shiga, famous for Shigaraki Ware) to eat all-you-can-eat Matsutake food!!  All-you-can-eat….  I’m sure I can eat at least 50 Matsutake!  (I’ve never eaten Matsutake before, I think) Dad said the place does the all-you-can-eat Matsutake each year around this time.  It’s another reason to go back to Japan next Autumn!  :D

Hikone Castle Road

These are the photos I took while I was in Japan.  (I think it’s last year)

This city is Hikone, just next to my city in Shiga.  There are many historical buildings remain across Japan and you will find many temples and other buildings everywhere.  Hikone is one of the city which tries to remain the historical parts.

There is a road called “castle road” near the Hikone Castle, and all the buildings, including police station, and lights around the road are designed “old-looking”.  White wall and black roof.  Very famous tourist attraction place.

There are many shops including restaurants (where you can enjoy Ohmi wagu beef and other Shiga food), souvenir shops, cafes, and art shops on the Castle Road.  I heard that there is a new shop opened just recently – called “Mask Elementary School”.

What interests me is that the second floor of this shop is a cafe where they serve kyushoku-like food.  (I wrote about kyushoku here)  I love this type of places (>v<)!

The bread (above photo) is age-kinako-pan.  It’s a deep-fried bun, coated with kinako (sweet soy powder).  I know how high calorie it is, but It was my favorite kyushoku item.  They seem to have different coatings (including maccha and cocoa), and there are menu for age-kinako-pan parfait for 350 yen.  I will definitely try this place out on my next homecoming!

Sushi Plane

I heard on the radio today that Telstra is doing a competition, called “Sushi Plane”, to win a trip to Tokyo!

I know I shouldn’t enter to the competition, (as I’m Japanese and can go to Japan anytime…) but everything about Japan interests me!  So, I just visited the website and browsed what the sushi plane is about.

It seems that the winners of the competition fly from Sydney to Tokyo on 10 August 2010, and they have to compete each other to become a sushi plane champion…  by going through a series of funny games :p  All the details are kept mysterious until you win a seat on the plane!

There are two judging steps, and I really don’t think I will go through the telephone interview and all that, but I did try making myself into cartoon character on their website: MANGA-ME.  You just need to drag your photo to the app…

This cartoon is too cute to be me!  Anyway, I like this cartoon UME in pink kimono :p

Anyone who is interested in travelling to the busiest, craziest city in the world should apply!

(By they way, Tokyo really is the busiest city in the world ↓↓

http://www.worldatlas.com/citypops.htm)