Tuesday, May 12, 2015

4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

Wakayama - Hyogo - Kyoto - Osaka family tour (Kansai Region)
February 10 to February 14, 2015

“Japan never considers time together as time wasted. Rather, it is time invested.” - Donald Richie 

"When you look at Japanese traditional architecture, you have to look at Japanese culture and its relationship with nature. You can actually live in a harmonious, close contact with nature - this very unique to Japan." - Tadao Ando

My 3rd visit to Japan (1st visit was last May 2013 and 2nd visit was last Aug. 2014), 15th family trip, 41 countries visited so far and of course, usual budget do-it-yourself itinerary from arrival to departure.

Kansai is the western region of the main Japanese island of Honshu, second only to Kanto region of Eastern Japan in population. The area is also known as Kinki District, literally "near the capital" (referring to ancient capital Nara and Kyoto), and its three big cities — Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe — as Keihanshin. Differences between Kansai and Kanto (the eastern region dominated by Tokyo) are slight but numerous. Kansai people speak a distinctive dialect of Japanese, ride on the other side of escalators and are renowned for humor and their food.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Kansai

Seasons in Japan are scheduled annually as follows;
Winter: December, January, February
Spring: March, April, May
Summer: June, July, August
Autumn: September, October, November


4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

4 Days Self-guided Trip with my Mother in Winter Japan in Kansai, route map

4 Days Self-guided Trip with my Mother in Winter Japan (my mother's tourist visa applied in Philippines)

4 Days Self-guided Trip with my Mother in Winter Japan (my tourist visa applied in Kuwait)

This another race against time, very short backpacking researched in somehow detailed manner has a compressed itinerary designed as follows: 

February 10 Tuesday: 2100H ETA Osaka Kansai International Airport 
February 11 Wednesday: Kansai South (Wakayama Castle, Porta Europa, Koyasan)
February 12 Thursday: Kansai West (Taiyo Park, Mt. Rokko, Harborland)
February 13 Friday: Kansai East (Fushima Castle, Arashima, Kodai-Ji)
February 14 Saturday: Kansai Central (Umeda Sky Building, Osaka Aquarium)

TOTAL BUDGET : USD1,208 = PHP53,756 (22.7% went to plane ticket)

Basic Words to Remember;
hello - konnichiwa;   thank you - arigatō;   I love you - suki desu;   goodbye - Sayonara!
sorry - gomen nasai;   please - kudasai;   excuse me - Sumimasen!
toilet - toire;   train station - Tetsudō no eki;   airport - kuukou

timezone - +0900H UTC;   capital - Tokyo city;   language - Japanese
currency - yen 115 JPY = 43.5 PHP = 1 USD
visa - Filipino's need to apply 1st before travel (how to apply Tourist Visa in Japan?)


4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

Interesting Facts about Japan:
1. Japan's literacy rate is almost 100%.
2. More than 70% of Japan consists of mountains, including more than 200 volcanoes. Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, is an active volcano.
3. Sumo is Japan's national sport, although baseball is also very popular.
4. Japan is the largest automobile producer in the world, the world’s largest consumer of Amazon rain forest timber and  has the world's largest fish market (Tsukiji market in Tokyo).
5. The term karaoke means "empty orchestra" in Japanese.
6. Geisha means "person of the arts" and the first geisha were actually men.

4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

4 Days Revisiting Japan in Winter with my Mother

Osaka Kansai International Airport Arrival at Night: 
Cebu Pacific flight arrived almost exactly as per schedule. We arrived 1730H and immediately walked fast to immigration lane. Osaka airport immigration officers are great compared to other international airports, Philippines being as hard as usual. After around 30 minutes, I was already in JR office Osaka Airport branch (opens until 2300H) to buy 3-days Kansai Thru Pass (KTP) or Surutto Pass and 1-day JR West pass. I put intended dates I required which will start the next day. The fare I used for this night was express train bound to Shin-Imamiya station where I booked my hotel for the entire duration of stay.

Anyways, I divided this wonderful journey into different set of posts to be more specific on its content;

1 comment:

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