must-read
Japan FAQ
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
So first of all. FLIGHT and ACCOMMODATION is the most important factor when it comes to travelling:
Q1: Which airline do you recommend? And when should I book?
I know most people will actually recommend booking when there's a promotion going on. However, I realized that most of such promotions usually doesn't have very "good" flights; meaning these flights usually have a transit/weird timings/or simply have a period that you have to commit to and etc. So I would suggest booking early because that's when you can get the cheapest tickets with the best deal. Why would I say that? Here's what that happened to me: I went on 3 trips (All to Tokyo), 1 with SCOOT (budget) and 2 with ANA. For SCOOT, I booked about 3 months in advance while for ANA I book about 8 months in advance, both during Sakura Season.* (I don't care people call me kiasu or what I save money so shut your mouth LOL) So here's what I got:
Please note that I paid $650 for both the airline, but you can clearly see that booking early allows you to get a non budget airline with better benefits. I have flied with ANA before and I love everything from their food to their services. I know that I can't compare a non-budget airline with scoot but I strongly do not recommend a budget airline if you're flying more than 6h because it's going to super uncomfortable for you. AND ALSO WHY I LOVE ANA IS BECAUSE I HAVE A 46KG LUGGAGE ALLOWANCE ALL INCLUDED IN MY TICKET!!!! Great for shopaholic like me lol.
*Price fluctuates during different seasons, especially Sakura season. I checked that if you actually book 3 months in advance for ANA, it will be about $850.
Q2: Hotel or Airbnb?
I have personally stayed with Airbnb throughout my Tokyo trip because it's a great cost saver. Hotel in Tokyo generally costs $150 and up, which can be quite hefty. Airbnb wise, the price can range from $60+ and up. You can just adjust the filter to whatever price that you're comfortable with. Also, YOU NEED TO BOOK EARLY because unlike hotels, the apartment you want only have 1 available. Once the date you want is being booked, you have to source for another one, which can be quite a hassle. So if you book early, it means that you have more choices to choose from with the filtered price you selected.
From my personal experience, I suggest looking for a location that is near the prime areas such as (Harajuku, Shibuya etc) so you can also save on your transport fee. There was once we booked a place that was far out from the prime area and we spent a bomb on the transport back to our apartment every day.
Staying with Airbnb also means that you have the choice to choose whether you would like to have the entire apartment to yourself OR a room with other travellers or hosts. I feel uncomfortable staying with the host or other people so I always book the entire apartment. There was once my friend insisted on renting a room and it was hell because there were other travellers and everyone was snatching the toilet to shower so we ended up having to wait every time. (This was even when the host assured us that we won't need to snatch toilets lol)
One of the benefit of staying at Airbnb because it makes you feel like you are a resident in Japan. Some apartment comes with a kitchen, so you can head to the supermarket and whip up some good meals in the apartment if you don't feel like eating out! Which is why I highly suggest Airbnb instead of booking a hotel unless you're feeling rich.
This is a closed up photo of my bed in the apartment on my most recent trip and the bed was so comfy that I always feel like sleeping in!
Another option is to have a homestay.
I have only had a homestay once when I was on a school trip to Nagoya and it was pretty exciting because you never know what's going to happen. Different hosts have different plans for their guests. Ours allow us to make okonomiyaki and karaage from scratch and even brought us out into the forest to do some deer viewing. (Although no deers appeared sadly :( ) So If you're someone that love surprises and love to interact with the locals, I will suggest you to go for a homestay instead. Price wise will still be slightly cheaper than hotels.
**Some airbnb hosts love to interact with their guests as well, so if you're in luck the hosts might bring you around the neighbourhood!
If you have no idea on how to book on Airbnb/which rooms to select etc, I will cover it in another post so stay tune that.
Q3: Which part of Japan should I visit?
It depends on what do you want to do on your trip. If you're going on a cute & shopping trip, I will suggest you to visit Tokyo because that's where Disneyland and Disneysea are! (Not forgetting Sanrio Puroland, Ghibli museum, Snoopy museum and etc) and Every single time when I go to Japan, I will choose to go to Tokyo because I'm more towards the shopping and playing instead of sightseeing. (I mean, not like Tokyo won't have Sakura right?!?!) And you can see mount fuji if you're on a high building from faraway. It's still nice view right? hehehe.
Pretty in pink
Usually, I won't visit other cities because the Shinkansen is really really expensive. Even if you buy the 7 days pass, it's gonna cost you $300+ SGD. That could easily fetch you an air ticket to Taiwan/Bkk!! Another reason is that it's gonna be time consuming if you're going to another city and back to Tokyo at night for your apartment. Of course, you can choose to stay at the other city but have you thought about your luggage? Do you really want to lug it around from cities to cities?
So if I were to visit other cities, I would rather fly on a separate trip.
Q4: Portable wifi egg or SIM card?
This is probably the most important thing because wifi is bae. I'm just kidding LOL. But really, wifi is a must for everyone especially when you're in a foreign country. It's not fun getting lost and especially when all the people around you don't speak the same language as you do. Some airbnb hosts do provide a portable wifi, and if you're lucky, you won't have any issues with it. However, I've come across people that have problems with the host's wifi where they couldn't upload any photos or even access whatsapp. So to be safe, I've always rented one extra in Singapore just in case I've any issues with the other. (I don't believe I will be so unlucky that both will break down together lmao) And also just in case one doesn't have any battery, I will have a spare one as back up. I rented mine from Changi Recommends at $5 a day and it was really good. Both connection and battery life was great. Also, it's very convenient as they are just located at Changi Airport itself, which makes collecting and returning a breeze. Regardless of where you go, I will strongly recommend you to rent a portable wifi egg just in case of any emergencies. (*NOT A SPONSORED POST)
I don't recommend SIM card because they usually provides you will very limited data and you cannot share with others unlike the portable wifi egg. And I don't see why you need to call someone with a line when there's whatsapp/LINE call available now... Unless the person you're calling to is someone that is not tech savvy, if not I don't think it's necessary.
Q5: I don't speak Japanese, will I have trouble visiting Japan not knowing a single word?
This is the question that I got the most from people because Japanese don't speak much English. (But this doesn't apply to all of them - some of them speaks really good english!) So how do you express yourself when you need to ask/order something but can't speak in Japanese?!
I will talk about ordering of food first:
Firstly, ask whether the place provides an English menu. In order to attract foreigners, some stores will have a "English Menu available" sign outside of their store, so you can know what you're eating instead of getting a raw fish for that meal. Here's an example:
(Photo taken from: http://www.japanesesearch.com/kids-and-adults-discover-english-in-japan/)
So after deciding what I want, what I usually do is to point to whatever I want on the menu and show them with my fingers that I want 1 set of that and they will get it. Usually they will ask you some follow up questions in Japanese and if you don't understand, just say "sorry?" and if that question is not important, they will usually just proceed on with whatever you ordered. If the question is important, like "what drinks do you want?", you can see that the staff usually will point out to you on the menu so that you can make your choice OR get someone that has a better command of English to figure out together what you're trying to convey. Eventually they will understand what you want although it might be a little time consuming, but YAY YOU GOT YOUR FOOD ORDERED!!!
It's very normal to see a vending machine that dispenses tickets outside of a restaurant in Japan. Sadly, most of the vending machine doesn't have English on them, so what you do is to choose the "best seller" or the most expensive food on the vending machine so you won't go wrong. Another thing that you can do is that most stores have a banner outside showing what food they have (pictures of the food) and they usually will have the names of the food on the banner as well. What you have to do is just to look for the same word on the vending machine and VOILA you have it! After you got the tickets, just go in and hand it to the staff. They will serve your food in a while.
Let's move on to enquiring about certain things at a shop:
Let's say you're looking for something in a store and the shop is sooooo big and you don't wish to waste your time sourcing. Just show the photo of the item that you're looking for to the staff and if they have the item, they will bring you to it and if they don't have it, they will either shake their head or make a 'X' with their hands. Some will just tell you "no" so you know it's not available here.
If you have other questions, I suggest you download google translate on your phone. Although the translation might not be accurate, it's able to bring across what you wanna say to them and they will be able to understand it even it's broken Japanese.
I will come up with more guides to Japan - like places to go, food to eat and etc. Please stay tune!
AFA 2013 // Atelier Royale
Sunday, November 10, 2013
HELLO HELLO.
I'm back from Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2013 and it was a super duper tiring day for me cox I slept at 2am and woke up at 8am cox I cannot go back to sleep BOOOO. Met up with Lynn, my AFA partner for 3 years before heading to Suntec!
This year's dress code:
SCHOOL GIRL!
Obviously this year I took more effort to wear nicely lah HAHAHAHA.
So I stepped out of my house wearing like this cox I can't be bothered to bring all my stuffs there to change AND I GOT STARED BY EVERYONE LOL WHAT'S NEW RIGHT. I mean it's like super abnormal to see someone dresses like this and walk along the streets in Singapore but who cares I'm in the AFA mood so come on bitches STARE AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE LOL.
And the moment I stepped out of cityhall MRT I got approached by 2 modelling agency lol but obviously I didn't bother much cox the agency approached me 987654321 times before and obviously it was kind of a scam la. Just google the name of the agency and all the bad stuffs come out LOL.
Met up with Sinyee before we headed in and we decided to take a walk around first before heading to the cafe!
First thing that caught my eye.
Super duper cute clips that I wanted to get but I didn't buy it in the end cox not like I will wear it out right :x
Cute postcards for sale.
Friendly stall owner that smile so brightly at my camera.
Super agile robot that walk faster than us despite him/her being in that suit LOL.
SUPER DUPER CUTE MAMESHIBA MERCHANDISES !!!
This is like my newest obsession now and I wanted to get the big plushie after I visited the cafe and Jino said later will sold out and I was like CHOI TOUCHWOOD AH, ended up when I head back to the booth, I was like...
then...
IT WAS S-O-L-D O-U-T SOLD OUT.
And the first thing that came thing my mind was "JINOOOOOOOOO I'M GOING TO KILL YOU" LOLOLOL. But obviously I didn't lah I'm so nice HAHAHAHA just kidding, since I can save money for my Japan trip so I was kind of happy that it was sold out!
Okay so next stop, the cafe !!
This years' cafe was a new experience cox both the maids & butlers are in the same cafe and I was so happy because I wanted to see Miyake! SHE'S SO PRETTY OMGGGGGG /fangirling
Selca while we queue for the cafe.
And we got Kyoichi as our Butler!
He quite funny, he asked us "So I confirmed your orders, 3 tofu cheesecakes ?" And we said ya, but he served us 3 chocolate cake instead LOL. And uhhhh, apart from that, I like his smile ! :D
As usual, no photography in the cafe so I only took a photo of my tofu cheesecake and a cat.
THE CHEESECAKE IS DAMN NICE I SWEAR I CAN EAT 100 IN A DAY.
At first for the first 15 minutes after our food was served, no butlers came to our table to talk to us and I was like mehhhhhzxc. Cox the table beside us was a girl sitting alone and all the butlers go to her and I was like eh eh eh why no butlers talk to us boooooo. Then I told Lynn and Sinyee next year we go in seperate, each person 1 table LOL then maybe got more butlers will talk to us *smirk* But immediately after I said that got butlers came to us LOL DAMN I SHOULD HAVE SAID IT EARLIER.
So I'm briefly going to describe my experience with the butlers this year!
The first one that came over was Preston/Ren.
He was Lynn's and Sinyee's favourite but when he came over both of them didn't talk to him AT ALL & THEY JUST LEAVE THE TALKING TO ME LOL. But he was so so quiet !! I'd to think of questions to start a conversation, for a moment I thought I was doing my assignment cox I'd to think of interview questions for my interviewee LOL. And thanks for saying my uniform was cute hehehehe ^u^
Next butler that came to talk to us was Haru!
I like him cox conversations with him is very comfortable, like no awkwardness hahaha and he's damn awesome cox he said will feedback to have student price at AR HAHAHAHAHA but obviously it won't happen la LOL. AND HE IMITATED KIFE'S "When you see me, you see..." And since me & Sinyee watches his vlogs we obviously knew the answer was free gifts HAHAHA. He helped us to get Kife to our table so the next butler that visited our table was...
Kife/Shou!
Actually when he came over I didn't know what to say to him, like kena mindblock LOL but he only stayed awhile at our table cox he was busy with the other tables. HE SAY HE PAISEH COX HE NO TIME ENTERTAIN ME HAHAHA. And I was quite surprised that he know me !! But I think I've no fate with him, join his giftaways never win, go cafe never get served by him, WORST never talk talk to him LOL. Actually got la, he say I very tall but he never see my wedges HAHAHAHA OOPS.
The last butler that came to talk to us was Jino/Takuya! (AKA THE GUY THAT CURSED ME LOL)
We was about to leave cox we finished our coffee already then suddenly he saw me and I saw him so he came over to our table and the first thing he said was "why you come already never tell me!" I was like wah boss how to tell you ah LOL.
And the most surprising thing was that he said he read my blog and I was like ?!?!?! WTF HOW YOU KNOW MY BLOG LINK ?! Then he said we are friends on Facebook LOL. SO HELLO JINO IF YOU'RE READING THIS !! *waves*
And by far I'd the best conversation with him cox he stayed at our table for quite a long time and I felt that talking to him is more like talking to a friend instead of a butler cox he say I bastard never listen in class HAHAHAHA and we had some inside jokes about hentai and PLEASE AH I DON'T WATCH HENTAI OKAY, MY IMAGE ALMOST GONE LOL.
Last but not least, not forgetting the one that almost made me fell off my chair...
Jeremy/Hiroshi!
He scared Lynn once not enough next target me LOL. He stood behind my chair and didn't say a word and Sinyee keep looking behind me and I was like what's so nice behind my back?! and I turned around I was like WTFFFFFF I ALMOST SCREAMED LOL.
He didn't talk to us but I noticed he is very good with his poses when taking photos with the Ojousama hahahaha.
So who's my favourite butler?
I would say I'm neutral with all but if I'd to pick I will pick Kife and Jino as my favourite!
Polariods taken that day!
And here are my mameshiba loots :D
And that concludes my journey at AFA this year! :3
Had lots of fun and I'm already looking forward to AFA'14 already hahaha.
SEE YOU GUYS SOON BYEBYE.
AFA 2012 ♥ Atelier Royale
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Hello minasan ~ !
I'm back with a new blogpost and from the post title it's pretty obvious what I'm going to blog about right ! YES IT'S ABOUT AFA 2012 ! I'm not really an anime person (tbh, the only anime I completed is Kaichou wa maid sama) cox I'm either too lazy or the anime is too long for me hahaha ! My purpose of going for AFA is actually to visit the Butler cafe which I will blog about it later on !
For this year , I dressed more of like a school girl (not exactly but yeah LOL) to AFA :
I'm back with a new blogpost and from the post title it's pretty obvious what I'm going to blog about right ! YES IT'S ABOUT AFA 2012 ! I'm not really an anime person (tbh, the only anime I completed is Kaichou wa maid sama) cox I'm either too lazy or the anime is too long for me hahaha ! My purpose of going for AFA is actually to visit the Butler cafe which I will blog about it later on !
For this year , I dressed more of like a school girl (not exactly but yeah LOL) to AFA :
you mei you school girl de feel ? lololol.
I specially bought my neko ears out which I got it from Daiso at $2 cox AFA is the only time you can dress so act cute style and not get judge by anyone.
The moment I went in I saw :
MOUNTAINS OF JAPANESE FOOD AND CRAZY DOSE OF CUTENESS. /DIEZ
I couldn't resist and bought like $10 worth of food:
I don't really eat sweets but the package with "3000" written on it apparently states that it contains collagen and multivitamins...
.
.
Since it only costs $2.80 HAHAHAH .
Walked around and I went to the booth where they sell super kawaii neko ears and fluffy bunny hats. They have other designs like panda and all of them are super cute one ! But it's not cheap can lol , the ears cost $10 and the bunny hat costs $20. I've limited cash with me so I doesn't want to spend so much on things that I won't wear out but they were like calling out to me... "pick me ! pick me!" LOL . So I stood down there and think for damn long... then I decided to leave and come back again later cox I really can't decide which to get :/
THEN THE INTERESTING PART CAME .
We walked around and we saw another booth that sells EXACTLY the same thing. So one of my friends decided to ask the price of it, AND GUESS WHAT.
THE LADY SAID THE FLUFFY BUNNY HAT IS $20 AND IF YOU BUY IT YOU GET FREE NEKO EARS.
So I ended up getting both :D
Lesson learnt , next time before you buy anything ask prices around first lol ! #auntiestyle but who cares , it's freaking $10 okay !
Here's mai neko ears & bunny head ! You can't really see the bunny ears here but it's super adorbz one!
Yes I abandon my $2 daiso neko ears LOL .
Some photos of AFA for you guys !
OKAY TIME FOR ATELIER ROYALE !
Butlers for this year ! (Picture credit to AR fb page!)
I actually hope I could get served by Kife (the guy on the furthest right) cox he worked for AR2011 and he's very funny ! But I didn't got him :( I got the guy in suit (in the middle) but I didn't have much interactions with him though cox he only served us food and do plate drawing that's all LOL .
We get to request what design we want the butlers to draw on the plate and I requested for a cat. Uhhhhh I guess it's not too bad ! I can see him trying very hard to draw LOL . so mai hiam (don't be fussy) lah ! HAHAHA .
But I feel bad cox I was laughing throughout when he was trying to squeeze the chocolate sauce out of the bottle and his hands keep trembling. :X Being a nice Ojousama I made life easier for him by choosing strawberry sauce cox it's easier to come out of the bottle .
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE WITH NEKO . 
My friend got the cheesecake which I don't like the taste cox it's like tasteless to me :x Maybe cox my strawberry shortcake is too sweet or something lol .
This year's AR is better than last year's one cox the butlers this years have more interactions with us like they will "kneel down" beside our table and talk to us ! Last year no have such benefits leh .
Takuya (you can see his face later when you scroll down) came to talk us and omg he's goodlooking *.* And me & my friend were debating whether he was local or not.
Me: He confirm not local one!
Lynn: No leh he sounds local to me, he got use the "lei lah lor" one lei !
Me: BUT HE DOESN'T SOUND LOCAL TO ME.
Lynn: where got ! sounds local lah !
Me: AIYA COME WE ASK HIM .
In the end I win lol .
He's a butler from Indonesia ! But he speaks pretty good english and chinese !! But got abit of 冷场when he talk to us ! I guess he's shy hahahaha.
Later on Keigo (the red hair guy!) came and talk to us and he doesn't sound local too so I asked him "you're from Indonesia right ?" then in the end I paiseh lol cox he's from Malaysia (if I'm not wrong) . Next time cannot act smart liao !
You get to take photo with a butler of your choice when you're about to leave at the price of $5 per butler. I didn't want to take at first but my friend psycho me into doing so...
They help you to develop the photo on the spot :D
& that's me with Takuya ! jelly not ? hahahaha.
Lynn took with him too ! Then I said she betrayed Haru (the guy in suit that serve us）cox her favourite butler is him. She was squealing when we got Haru as our butler but she was disappointed cox Haru didn't talk to us ! hahahahaha so she decided to change target to Takuya. Snatch with me lei this woman ! tsktsktsk .
Photography is not allowed in the cafe so I can only take the outside of the cafe for you all LOL .
& that concludes my AFA 2012 ♥ Atelier Royale post !
See you soon & take care !
Please feel free to leave me a comment , I love to read them !
and apologies for not updating so frequently :<
Here's a blooper video I took during my video production class !
Please reduce your volume first cox it's kind of loud !
AFA 2011 ♥ AtelierRoyale
Saturday, November 12, 2011
BRIBE YOU ALL WITH HANDSOME GUY PHOTO. LOL.
So you all must read on!
Pic credit to AtelierRoyale fb
GUESS WHERE I WENT TO?
Aiyaa, you see title you know where I went already lol.
I went for AFA11 - Anime Festival Asia today with Lynn! I don't really watch Anime and the ONLY anime I watched was Kaichou Wa Maid Sama introduced by my friends. And I got addicted to Usui. LOL. Okai that's not the point, back to topic!
So my motive of going to AFA was to visit the Butler/Maid cafe. I was in a dilemma whether to choose the Butler one or the Maid one. So if you follow me on twitter, you'd see me spammed about the butler that served us coz he was of my bias. *shy
Yep, I went to the butler cafe - AtelierRoyale !We reached pretty early and the queue for the cafe was still pretty short. I was getting all excited when I see Yutaki LOL. AND THE BEST THING, ME AND LYNN NO NEED TO QUEUE COZ WE ONLY HAVE 2 PEOPLE AND THEY JUST NICE HAVE TABLES FOR 2. Serve you right to those that bring many people. HAHAHA. #justkidding lolol. So we got to skip queue! AND GUESS WHO OUR BUTLER IS?
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WE GOT HIKARU! ♥ (*coughs, the guy on the left)
I ONLY HAVE ONE WORD TO SAY ONCE I STEP IN:
AWKWARD.
LOL.
You know why! Coz I've never been treated so nicely by a guy before! #fml LOL. Like all the gentlemen actions like pulling my chair for me, adding in milk & sugar to my coffee (Which I rejected immediately coz I was too shy LOL) & he always popped up behind me and talked to me suddenly which makes me almost died in the cafe coz I choked on the cake!
The most expensive cake I ever had in my whole life.
$19.80 for this plate and a cup of coffee!
Lynn bought the chocolate one!
BUT, THE CAKE WAS SUPER FILLING CAN?! Couldn't finish the cake. ;x
Badges were on sale @ $3.50 each!
Hikaru's badge is mine & Hiroshi's is Lynn's!
(Like duh, I'm a hardcore fan of Hikaru LOLOL)
And you can take a photo for $5 with the butler that is serving you so Lynn took with Hikaru and I feel like killing her ON THE SPOT. LOL. I DIDN'T TAKE COZ I'VE NO MORE $$$$$$ LEFT . #thefmlmoment So one of the lady there was nice enough, she told me I can come in later if I decided to change my mind without buying the food coz she remember my face so I can take a photo with Hikaru. SHE SAID I COULD SLAP HIM IF HE DON'T REMEMBER MY FACE LOLOLOLOL. And he showed a sad face. LMAO.
But guess what?
I DIDN'T WENT BACK COZ I WAS SHY. :(
& the queue was starting to get long. :(
Despite my money flying, it was still an awesome experience!
Nah, Camwhored pic of me with the badges. LOL.
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