Friends- We play well together

On a personal note, I really appreciate the 2 weeks I spent with my university ex-housemates. This is the 2^nd time that the 3 of us ever spent the holidays together. The 1^st one was in Bali. Great times too. As we complement each other so well, we always had a great time together. We have loads of things to talk about but we seldom ask about each others’ personal love life. And when we were bored while waiting for our food to be served, the silence were not awkward at all. We just stared at the pictures on the restaurant wall or stare at each other. This resulted in the ‘what-do-you-want?’ face and ‘nothing, I-just-like-smelling-my-upper-lips’ face. 

To be honest, spending 24hrs together, er…. except the private bathroom & shower time that is, for the whole trip did affect us (sometimes). And LP who’s always the calm one was the one who defuse the situation before it gets any uglier. I made it sound serious but it is actually a minor thing. Clashes in personality I guess. I.e: I want to study the maps carefully while G wants to take a more proactive action of asking for direction. LP just lets us do whatever we want. And when that happened, the usually quiet LP stepped in and do what she does best- to keep us in line. 

I really like the picture I had of LP and Gale holding hands while walking up the street of Tokyo.

Another favorite is the one where we were all crammed on my bed while we were all doing our own thing. 

G doing Sudoku, LP editing her pictures with her i-phone and me reading my e-book. They do have their own bed but it seems like my bed is a lot warmer than theirs.

The above is one of the 'Must Do' thing when you go to Japan. According to Charlie that is.

Sometimes my face shows that I wasn’t happy, but that is not true. It just means that I am tired. This is when we were climbing up the hundreds of steps at Fushimi Inari Shrine. I mean I need training for that 2-3 hrs climb to complete the route. Or more time without it (training). But it was already 6pm and the bus is only available every hour. We were lucky that the bus driver in Japan is very good. He waited for us for a good couple of minutes as we were stuck at the other side of the road and the traffic light won’t let us cross. ‘Arigato-gozaimasu’.

Abrupt ending to this blog. :)

My J-Hoppers Osaka Hostel Reviews

In total, we have stayed in 4 different hostels during our 13days trip to Japan with another 2 days of flying in and out of Japan.

• Oak Hotel- Tokyo (3 nights). The wi-fi is only available at the Ground Floor Level.
• K’s House Mount Fuji- Kawaguchiko Mt. Fuji (2nights). Wi-fi available all over the building. There were 2 shoe dryers with timer available if your shoes ever get wet.
• K’s House Kyoto- Kyoto (2 nights). Wi-fi available all over the building. The people at reception are very well informed about which bus to take to all the places of interest. Maps of foods, bus route etc also available. We really like the Special Ramen on their recommended list. However, we don’t feel safe walking around at night. There were homeless people and the mentally unstable roaming the street.
• J-Hoppers Osaka- Osaka (2 nights). Super slow Wi-fi available all over the building.

We took an overnight bus to Kobe from Tokyo and stayed over at a couple friends’ house in Kobe for a 3 nights.

In my personal opinion, K’s House Mount Fuji is the best Hostel that we have stayed in. And K’s House Kyoto ranked 2^nd in my list, Oak Hotel ranked 3^rd and the 4th is J-Hopper’s Osaka. Unless all you ever wanted in your trip is a convenient place to stay to get you to the airport. Then by all means, stay at J-Hoppers. Other than that, steer clear from this hostel.

J-Hoppers Osaka:-

Strike 1:
There is no elevator we have to haul our luggage up 5 floors to our room. But the girl at the reception did asked if she could help out with our luggage.

Strike 2:
Our room door is fitted with a grille at the bottom, and we can hear all the slightest movements outside. I.e: people brushing their teeth, coughing, hair dryer etc. The door to the room next to ours is a freaking metal sliding door. So you can imagine hearing all the dragging noise coming from the opening and closing of the door.

Strike 3:
The wi-fi is sooo~….s..l…o…w….~~ The slowest one yet.

Strike 4:
This is the only hostel that is not equipped with a flat screen TV.

Strike 5:
The rubbish bin is not emptied during our stay there.

Strike 6:
You cannot expect us to drag our entire luggage from the 5^th floor to the Ground Floor and put all our linen in the Ground Floor linen basket. Suggestion, put the linen basket at each floor (I do understand that space is limited).

Strike 7:
It seems like the reception is always close. Remember to get your room key deposit back if you are checking out early.

Strike 8:
The shower rooms are only available on the 2nd and 3^rd floor.

Strike 9:
The shower with the bath tub smells moldy. Probably because of the wood they put as an anti-slip on the floor.

Strike 10:
You have to keep pushing at the shower button for the water to come out. Because the water will stop like every minute. This is the shower without the bath tub.

Strike 11:
There is only 1 toilet available at our floor. I’m not sure if it’s the same for every other floor.

Strike 12:
We think that Fukushima used to be the place to be, along time ago. But it has become quiet in day time and night time. All the shops seem to be close all the time. Again the review of the hostel about it being a busy/ happening place is so wrong. But you can see a lot of people and cyclists passing by this road to catch the train to work.

Anyway, the good thing about this hostel is:-

• It is very near to the Fukushima train station (Osaka Loop Line). Only 3-5minutes walking distance.
• There are restaurant there if you know where to look, the recommended food map from the hostel is a pretty decent reference.
• If you are into Japanese bar, there is a fair amount of bars around the area but not really sure if they have English menu since all the outside promotion board is all in Japanese.
• There is a Yoshinoya Restaurant just next to the Fukushima exit. There is only 1 exit for Fukushima Station.
• To get to Kansai airport. You can take the 1^st 4 cars of the train straight to Kansai Airport from Fukushima train station without changing trains. ¥1160.
• It is only 1 station away from Osaka Station.
• It seems like the only good thing about this hostel is the location. The other 'Good' reviews about this hostel are all bullshits.

Day 9 Kobe

Jumped to day 9 Kobe. Explored Kobe on our own without Charlie today. Didn't encounter any problem.

Backtrack to Fuji. The trip to Mt. Fuji was great. The 1hr 50min bus ride to Mt. Fuji was surprisingly comfortable. Even though it rained everyday we were there. We couldn't even see Mt. Fuji until the very last day and we were at the Kawaguchiko bus station that we saw parts of it. There weren't many foreign tourist like us walking around in the rain there. We actually thought that the place would be crowded with tourist. But the places of interest was mostly visited by the locals from other parts of the country. We went to the Lava Cave. We thought that it will be warmer inside like Ngilgi Cave in Perth WA but the Lava Cave was freezing cold! It was also called the Icicle Cave. We were not prepared for it. My phone died from extreme cold. I am not even kidding!

The 5hr bus ride to Kobe is so uncomfortable and it seemed like they stopped every hour at bus stations. We took the Sakura bus, they did provide us with a blanket each and the chair reclined. But the padding is so hard and chair is too small. We visited a couple of interesting places as well but i will get back to it when i'm back in KL. I am currently typing with my phone.

Anyway, we will be heading to Kyoto tomorrow for a 2 nights stay. I am preparing myself mentally because i am predicting that it is going to be a very tiring day.

This is Day 3 in Tokyo

Just came back from a whole day of shopping at Ginza.

As always, the legs are hurting.

Tomorrow is another long trip to Kawaguchiko Lake so that we can be nearer to Mount Fuji.
I hope we can make it in time tomorrow for our bus ride.

Should have polished my Japanese language before coming over.  O.O <-- me when bombarded with Japanese Language.