10 Nov 2023 - Kyoto Day 1: UNESCO World Heritage To-ji Temple (东寺)

The first place we explored was the nearby To-ji Temple.  It's just a 7-8 mins walk from our accommodation.  Toji Temple (東寺, Tōji), literally "East Temple", was founded at the beginning of the Heian Period just after the capital was moved to Kyoto in the late 700s.  It is one of Kyoto's many UNESCO world heritage sites.

As we entered the temple ground, we noticed the colours of the leaves had only started to turn orange.  We thought we would be able to see the fall foliage at its peak but due to somewhat high temperatures across Japan, red and yellow foliage will peak a little later than in a typical year.

When we first arrived in Kyoto, the sky was very gloomy and weather forecast indicated a wet weather today.  True enough, it started drizzling not long after we entered To-ji Temple.  We opened up our umbrellas and continued walking around the temple.

One of the most prominent structures of To-ji Temple is its Five-Storied Pagoda.  It was originally erected by Kobo Daishi in 826. It stands 57 meters tall, making it the tallest wooden pagoda in Japan, and has become a symbol of both the temple and Kyoto as it can be seen from many places across the city.

As the rain started to get heavier, we did not enter the inner ground which requires an admission fee.

After exploring the outer ground in the rain for sometimes, we decided to go somewhere indoor and hopefully the rain would lighten later.

As we were walking towards a shopping mall, we saw a cute little garage across the street. 

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10 Nov 2023 - Kyoto Day 1: First Japanese Meal of the Trip

As we were about to reach our accommodation, we passed by a small roadside restaurant and decided to have our lunch there.

This was our first meal of the trip.  Japanese food never disappoints, and we are expecting more good food in the upcoming 10 days.

After lunch, we followed Google map and reached our accommodation at about 1pm after making one wrong turn.  However, the check-in time is 4pm and they followed the rules strictly.  As it's 3 hours away from the check-in time, we left our luggage at the storage area in the apartment and embarked on our adventure right away.

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10 Nov 2023 - Kyoto Day 1: JR Haruka Airport Express from Kansai Airport to Kyoto Station

We took JR Haruka Airport Express from Kansai Airport to Kyoto Station.  Along the way, it will stop by Tennoji, Osaka and Shin-Osaka.  There are other slightly cheaper options, but it will be slower with more stops.  Anyway, we bought our tickets from Pelago website and with our SQ PNR, we received a 30% discount for our tickets.  The other reason for taking this option is that the train is decorated with Hello Kitty theme!  :-)

The train service in Japan is well known for its punctuality.  If they are late by even a minute, they will apologize to their passengers over their PA system.

There are reserved seating and unreserved seating cars for this train.  Our tickets were for reserved seatings, and it was very comfortable.

There are pictures of Hello Kitty everywhere in the train.

Even in the washroom.......

There is an area in the train for storing luggage which is really nice.

The interior of the train is very clean and well maintained.

The journey from Kansai Airport to Kyoto Station took about 80 minutes.

Once again, Hello Kitty was there to welcome us to Kyoto!

As we were pulling our luggage, we decided to first head towards our accommodation in Kyoto and look for a place to have our lunch along the way.

If you are at Kyoto Station, you will not miss the nearby Kyoto Tower.

According to Google Maps, it's a 10 minutes' walk from Kyoto Station to our accommodation.  We expected a lot of walking for this trip so it's time to start getting used to it.  Below is Kyoto Central Post Office which we passed by.

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9 Nov 2023 - Year-end Trip to Osaka/Kyoto (11 Days 10 nights Itinerary)

Once again, it's time for our year-end overseas trip.  And it's none other than Japan, one of the most popular destinations among Singaporean.  Out of 10 colleagues and friends whom I asked, at least 7-8 of them will tell me that they are going to Japan this school holiday.  Our last trip to Japan was about 13 years ago.  Ever since the Fukushima nuclear accident happened in 2011, we had never considered Japan as a potential holiday destination till now.  Anyway, we all had enough of scenic drive trip and this time round, we wanted to make it a fun trip with great food.  And Japan seems to match these criteria the best.  

After checking in our luggage, we proceeded to the Changi Recommends counter to collect our Wifi router, which allows us to have unlimited mobile data for the duration of our stay in Japan.  In addition, we also collected our Japanese yen from the counter via their foreign exchange service.  As usual, before entering the departure gate, we took some photos of the nice decorations that Changi Airport put up every year.

As our flight's departure time was 1:30am, we had a bit of time to look around and had some snacks & drinks.  We then visited the nearby Butterfly Gardens.  As it was pretty late at night, we did not see any butterfly flying around.  However, we did see a few butterflies and moths in a glass containment. 

The flight time from Changi Airport to Kansai International Airport is about 6 hours.  As Japan is 1 hour ahead of us, we landed at Kansai International Airport at about 8:30am.

After collecting our luggage, we walked towards the JR train terminal to catch a train ride to Kyoto.  As we had already purchased our tickets prior to this trip, we went straight to the self-service kiosk, which is located next to the gate entrance, to collect the physical tickets.  As there are many trains that go to Kyoto, we had to confirm with a station staff for the correct platform to wait for our train.

And this was the start of our 11 days 10 nights Osaka/Kyoto adventures.  Following is our itinerary.

Day 1: JR Haruka (Hello Kitty) Airport Express to Kyoto, Lunch at a local Japanese Restaurant, To-ji Temple, Kyoto's Best Old Streets, Kodai-ji Temple and Entokuin Temple, Kyoto's old streets by night, Check-In to BON Kyoto Station

Day 2: Traditional Kyoto Ramen Lunch, Kinkaku-ji Temple, Arashiyama main street and Togetsu-kyo Bridge, Arashiyama Monkey Park Iwatayama, Arashiyama street food and surprise fireworks, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Return to Kyoto Station for dinner

Day 3: Nishiki Market, Okazaki-jinja (Rabbit Shrine), Kiyomizu-dera, Fushimi Inari Shrine, AEON Mall Kyoto

Day 4: Kyoto to Osaka (Bentencho), Check-In to Art Hotel Osaka Bay Tower, Solaniwa Onsen Osaka Bay Tower, Dinner and Night view from our room

Day 5: Universal Studio Japan (USJ), Super Nintendo World™ (USJ), The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ (USJ), Minion Park (USJ), WaterWorld Show (USJ), Jaws Ride (USJ), Hogwarts™ Castle by Night (USJ), USJ by Night, Dinner at Universal Citywalk Osaka

Day 6: Osaka Aquarium KAIYUKAN, Lunch at Tempozan Marketplace, Mermaid Statue and Tempozan Park, Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel by Night, Soufflé Pancakes Dinner at Art Hotel

Day 7: Views from 51th Floor of Art Hotel, Bentencho to Namba, Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori, Mipig Cafe Osaka, Cinnamoroll Cafe Osaka, Namba area and Dinner, Check-In to GRIDS Premium Hotel Osaka

Day 8: Pokemon Center Osaka, Palace Ruins and Lunch at Restaurant @ Osaka Museum of History, Osaka Castle (Osakajo), Dinner at Pokemon Cafe Osaka

Day 9: Shitennoji Temple, Tennoji MIO, Umeda, Umeda Sky Building

Day 10: Namba Yasaka Shrine, Nipponbashi and Den Den Town, Hedgehog Themed Cafe "Harry Wood", Walk/See/Buy/Eat/Drink at Dotonbori, Shinsekai

Day 11: Namba City, Rinku Pleasure Town and Premium Outlet, Kansai Airport and Flight Home

9 Nov 2023 - Last paper for "O" Level

Jerlene sat for her last "O" Level examination paper today.  Whatever the results it will be, we told her not to think about it anymore and it's time to have a good break.  That's right, we will be flying off to Osaka/Kyoto tonight for a 10 days holidays.  Stay tune!

3 Nov 2023 - End of Year Academic Report

Year-end school holiday has started for secondary school students last Friday.  However, Javier got to return to school this morning to collect his report book.  Other than that, he also brought back a number of certificates for various Mathematics Competitions that he had participated in.  I am actually unaware of some of these competitions until I saw these certificates.

Other than seeing his talent in Mathematics, the school has invited him to join the Temasek Academy (Science), on top of his current Temasek Academy (Math).  He had rejected the invitation last year.  However, he seems interested in joining this time round as he seems to gain more confidence with Science now.  We left the decision to him and whatever he chose, we will provide our full support.