in japan

most likely i'll lose track, so i'll post briefly here and upload when i'm back.

day 1: flight to narita, train to ikebukuro. spent a night in hostel, found internet. lousy dinner (forgot to take a photo of it)

day 2: shopping around ikebukuro. found a wind instrument shop! fascinated by that small shop. late for train so took the next one. left ikekuboro for kyoto. bullet train was nice but i was sleeping. >.<

day 3: off to visit a temple (gotta check the name) last night in kyoto before heading up to nara. staying in a traditional japanese house in nara with a history of about 100 years. took the wrong train and ended up having a sightseeing tour of the countryside instead. chris and shu are great hosts at yougendo.

day 4: visited golden pavilion, shopped around. night at yougendo.

day 5: visited kobe and tasted kobe beef. nothing comes close to how it tastes like. one of the largest chinatown was a disappointment for me. the people there refused to speak chinese back to me. -_-" went to nara park and was really close to the free ranging deer there. one more night at yougendo. kind of embarassed to impose on chris and shu after we checked out the room. =x

day 6: travelled to osaka, and went to namba for sightseeing and some shopping. interesting area to stay in for the night. the hotels have hourly rates for rental. *koff*

day 7: train ride up to hakodate which took 9 hours. spent the night at hakodate (nice seaport in hokkaido)

day 8: travelled to sapporo and began travelling around the area. got an idea of what a matsuri is about

day 9: visited lavender fields.

day 11: visited otaru for its musical boxes

day 12: train ride back to tokyo from sapporo. stopped by hakodate to buy cheap sea produce. =) another 9 hours on the train

day 13: went to visit tokyo station area, ginza area and shibuya. didn't manage to find my CDs though i found animate and got nice hp dongles and a hitsugaya ring!

day 14: bought qicai's wife and returned to singapore. got a scare of my life when my card was rejected at muramatsu. back in singapore!

got my dates wrong.. i think. will amend and update with photos when i get them =)