Tasukete Kudasai!

Sometimes, when you translate something directly, you'd end up using the wrong word although it has the same meaning in your language.

Case in point:

We were standing cluelessly in front of this Loppi machine at Lawson's trying to purchase our One Piece ticket at Huis Ten Bosch.

So, I tried to ask assistance from one of the staff there, intending to say "Tolong saya" or "please help/assist me" but there I go with "tasukete kudasai" instead of "oshiete kudasai". heh

Assistance received and tickets paid for, but not before wasting more of the staff time stalling as I cannot remember how to write my name in katakana. At last, she told me to write it in romanji. double heh

And we are all set to visit Huis Ten Bosch and see One Piece! A birthday present for Raimie.

Anyway, if you want to learn how to use that Loppi machine to purchase whatever tickets that can be bought there, here's a site with a detailed explanation. Or you can just smile and look helpless and say "oshiete kudasai" to whomever that might pass by you and hope that they will. I bet they will. ^^

Time For Sanuki Udon

Need something filling, served quickly and somewhat cheap? Why look for burgers and the like when one vacations in Japan. Eat udon instead!

Well, if you are in Takamatsu and you are hungry, what would you look for? Something yummy, chewy and absolutely delicious. You must absolutely not miss trying Sanuki udon.

Legend has it that a monk named Kukai learned the art of making udon at the temple in China where he studied and brought back the knowledge to his home in Sanuki way back in the ninth century.

Three centuries later, another monk named Enni returned from China with drawings of a hydraulic flour mill and with that knowledge, made by kneading flour (noodles, dumplings, etc) flourished.

Sanuki udon, the pride of Kagawa prefecture (which was called Sanuki in ancient times) has a soft and silky texture with an al-dente firmness.The texture of the udon can't be matched elsewhere. Really.

When we got to Takamatsu, we were pretty stoked at the chance to be able to enjoy sanuki udon. More than once, hopefully. Anyways after passing through a few udon shops in Takamatsu, we decided to try a chain outlet first and if time permits, be more adventurous and head to a more traditional, mom&pop style sanuki udon shop later.

So, off we went to Hanamaru for our first sanuki udon experience. Remember, this was our first experience at eating sanuki udon though we have been advised by bloggers, Su and Lrong on how to order them.

Shop's entrance. Not as intimidating as the other shops along the shopping area for clueless foreigners like us to enter. The cook showed us a picture menu, to choose from. So it was, take a tray, pick a glass of water, order your choice of udon (type and size), proceed to pick anything else you want to add to the meal and pay at the cashier.

All three of us had the same. Raimie had the single portion and both Zaini and I had double portion (or was it S size and L size). Can't remember.

I should say we did justice to the food! Not a single drop left!

A few other udon shops just a few metres from Hanamaru. I had hoped we can try them out, but as it turned out we cut short our Shikoku trip in favour of making our way to Hakodate. You aren't seeing the last of me yet, Shikoku! I'll come back!

This place looks pretty interesting to me.Wanted to eat here, but chicken out at the last minute and decided to go to Hanamaru instead. The reason was, the place was busy with people. We were looking for a quiet, non-crowded place as we probably would make a nuisance of ourselves with our cluelessness at busy shops. He~

Mind you, we had our lunch at 4pm!

All About Toilets

We interrupt the current series of Yufuin posts and present you with another Japan convenience that we love; apart from vending machines, trains and stuff...

Some people take photos of food that they enjoy. Nowadays, taking photos before a meal is absolutely normal.

But there are also people who can be quite OCD about the toilet experiences they had while on vacation. I've posted about toilets in Japan before. Search them, if you are interested. But with such interesting arrays of hi-tech toilets in Japan, can you really blame me?

Toilets in trains are particularly interesting.

A really nice toilet on the Yufuin no mori train, a resort express with top speed of 120km/h plying the route from Hakata to Beppu.

A green walled toilet on the Huis Ten Bosch limited express train that runs from Hakata to Huis Ten Bosch theme park. Quite spacious for a toilet on a train, don't you think?

This - stainless steel, very sterile looking squat toilet on a particularly swaying trip on a JR Shikoku 2000 series, Anpanman painted Shiokaze train from Okayama to Matsuyama.

Found another squat toilet on train, a very bright lime green squat toilet on the Resort Shirakami train. Go on, search it. It's somewhere in this blog. ;p

Train station toilets:

Theme parks toilets:

At Huis Ten Bosch

Then of course the hotel toilets.

I think I got a few malls' toilets photos stashed away somewhere too. Lemme go and look. ^^

Yes, The Rooms Can Be Small

Someone asked me whether it is true that hotel rooms in Japan are small. Yes, they are. OK, we've stayed in spacious rooms in international brand hotels but we paid a premium for them. And well, small rooms are more prevalent in big cities than in rural towns.

I don't mind staying in minuscule rooms because we don't exactly plan to spend the bulk of our vacation in our hotel rooms!

Small room with equally tiny bathroom at Toyoko Inn. The plus point of staying at this hotel chain for us is, the corresponding cheap rates they offer.

Tiny rooms at Nikko Hotel, Ginza and a compact room at Nikko Hotel, Kawasaki. The only reason we stayed here was because we had JAL vouchers we received redeeming our JAL mileage. The wardrobe in Ginza was just a tad taller than 8 year old Raimie!@.@

You think we want to waste 20,000yen a night staying in Ginza when we can just spend 7,000yen for a night in Toyoko Inn somewhere in Asakusa? I might as well save some $$$ and use it to buy a pair of shoes! Hohoho

And at least the rooms we stayed in are not as claustrophobic as sleeping in a capsule hotel! Though I wish I tried to sleep there at least once.

I may not be fussy about the rooms, but I draw the line at staying in a dorm. I've lived in a dormitory since I was 13 up to college so no more dorm nights for me, thanks! I need my privacy now.

Cheap Eats

I think if you are not that particular about what you eat, eating for below RM15.00 (350yen) per  person per meal is extremely doable. You can enjoy ramen and curry rice at about 300-400yen. (No ramen or curry rice for us though!) Of course it is easier to find cheap stuff when one has no issues on what to avoid.

Yoshinoya's beef bowl and curry rice will only set you back for about 280-330yen.

Or if you have eat like a bird, just like our son, an onigiri (rice ball) cost less than 200yen a piece.

A cheap bento place. Everything on sale for less than 250yen a pack. Cheap, no frills meal to keep the hunger pangs away if you somehow blow your budget. xD

Ekiben (bento sold at train stations) can be rather expensive with an average price of 1,000yen per box but konbini (convenience store) or supermarkets bento can be quite cheap. Buying them later at night (say around 9.00pm) you can get discounts off them too. But you may have to fight for them with the "obachan" next to you!

Set meals can be affordable too, with outlets offering set meals at less than 1,000yen.

There are many cheap eats restaurants out there as those in Japan can attest to. Us visitors to be more adventurous and venture out to look for them and not be afraid to poke around and ask questions. Unless of course, you totally don't mind eating at posh places and hotel restaurants while you are vacationing in Japan, that is (or you are travelling with a tour group and all meals are already taken care of).

Why would you want to eat instant noodles brought over from home there in Japan when you can eat other stuff there?

What's your favourite affordable eatery in Japan? Share, please!

There Are Many Ways To Flush

I wrote this remembering with a chuckle colleagues experience using a Japanese hi-tech toilet at the now defunct Ninja Jones Restaurant at MidValley Northpoint. They were so excited using the toilet but a few of them whispered to me that they couldn't find the handle to flush.

But of course, plenty of posh toilets in Malaysia don't need you to do anything after finishing your "business" other than stand up and it'll automatically flush for you, right? But just in case you are in Japan, you can't find the handle and the foreign words on buttons scares you and you don't want to fiddle around in case you press a wrong button; here's some photos of them here.

There are flush buttons and all those awesome buttons to cleanse your *ehem* private areas. Be careful not to spray yourself wet! LOL

Some music or sound to cover embarrassing noise you might emit? No problem. Some toilets can cover those noises for you!

Now, no matter what you do. Once you finished your business, don't forget to flush and flush properly! I'm quite baffled on why some people seems to  conveniently forgot to do it at public toilets, even at the office.  That's no good, people. :(

And you know, every time I sit on the cold toilet seat, I'll be missing the warm toilets seats in Japan. ;p

No Exact Change? No Problem

One thing I absolutely love (well, one of many anyway) about travelling on buses in Japan is that I don't need to bang my head looking for exact change before boarding any bus, unlike using the RapidKL buses here in Kuala Lumpur.

Gotta love that blue machine that can change bills to  coins.

Just be careful not to put the notes you want to change in the slot for paying the fare!

Of course, if one plans to ride the bus often, a bus card may be a better deal and less hassle than slotting coins every time you board or alight from a bus.

Handouts Are Good

When people hand over stuff (pamphlets,  samples and whatnot) while you walk around in Japan, just take it. That's what we learn. Because the stuff that got handed over may be some coupons for cheap eats somewhere or discount on stuff.

Why pay full price of things when you can get it at cheaper price with coupons, right? I scour for it in KL and I do it in Japan too! It helps to lower our food expenses, that's for sure and also it got us to eateries that we wouldn't have tried otherwise.

I kinda miss getting free tissues though. Our tissue bounty last year was a far cry from what we used to get in previous years. Either it's because we went sightseeing at unhip places or the economy was bad for companies to do tissue advertising anymore. And, and where are all those cosmetic samples I used to get when we strolled around Shibuya? Where????!!!!

Used to get freebies when we checked-in at Toyoko-Inn too, but no freebies last year. I miss my free socks!

With the amount of night we checked-in and checked-out at Toyoko-Inn branches, Zaini need not buy socks for a year! LOL

I guess no such luck this year. :(

But as I said, them handouts are gooooood...

In Or Out?

Indoor?

 Give me a bath with a view anytime! You?

One more question. Mixed or segregated onsen for you?  There were mixed onsens at Nyuto Onsen but none at Bessho Onsen. Don't get too excited about the mixed bath though. When we were there, there was nothing for us to see except each other, and the odd shriveled old guy. Hmph!

 Despite the hot weather we are having, it would be nice if I can go soak in the hot water again. Oh well, I have to make do with a western bath tub for now.

Arcade Game For 10Yen?

And you can still find it in Hanayashiki!

 Wanna have a go?

A slightly new version at a slightly higher price. 20yen per play, folks!

If you want to be nostalgic, head over to Hanayashiki. Plenty of fun games and rides there and they need not be high tech for you to have fun.

Things We Do On Our Vacation. 2. More Game Time

Our way to appease a might be cranky 8 year old and a treat for him being a good boy for not complaining or whining much after walking all that countless hours sightseeing in Japan.

And he sure look forward to it. We'd allow him have a go a couple of times at each cities we stopped by. But sometimes, when Daddy went out alone after dinner and Mommy needed time to do some shoes shopping and didn't want Son gets too fidgety while waiting, Mommy would bribe (errr.... treat) him and let him have a few more tokens to play.

Works for us and Raimie was one happy boy.

I've only seen primary-school kids playing at these data cardass machines thingy here in KL but in Japan it seems even high school students and salary-man play this too! Pretty normal to see kids liking this although I don't really see the attraction myself, but to see grown-up man playing this (instead of playing more grown-up games like say... pachinko?) is kinda weird. Grown men playing card battle games? Hmmm...

Some of you might be asking what on earth is a pachinko. Wanna know more about it? The head over to Reesan's Loneleeplanet.com for some insight. :)

The Hustle And Bustle At Kawasaki Station

The two times we came to Kawasaki, I had hoped for some time to cover Yokohama but as it turned out both times we spent way too much time at Ultraman Club and the Bandai Namco Wonderpark and also an awesome good time over at a blogger friend's house. Kak Hani had so generously opened her house, even cooked a delicious lunch for us. Raimie got hooked playing Nintendo Wii with her son and daughter there and was pleading for us to get one by the time we stepped out the door. Did we get it? Read this post to know. ^^

Anyways, just some photos of Kawasaki Station. This is a pretty busy station, that's for sure. 

As with other big stations in Japan, plenty of stuff to see and shop in/around the station. Plenty of coin lockers at Kawasaki Station to stuff all those shopping bags for a while too.

A 300yen locker that we used to stash our stuff in before hitting the nearby mall after checking-out from our hotel.

We'll be heading back to Kawasaki for either the first few days of our upcoming trip or the last few days of it. I have some JAL vouchers and we are thinking of using it on a couple of nights over at Kawasaki's Nikko Hotel.

Anyhoo, I should seriously look into visiting Yokohama. But then again, after seeing photos of Enoshima on a few blogs that I've been reading, I'm tempted to make a side trip there instead. Whaddya think?

I Miss This... The Tub

The itsy bitsy bath tub I love. This one was taken at Toyoko-Inn. Which one you ask? All Toyoko-Inn rooms look pretty much the same.

Although much smaller (or shorter?) than the usual western style tub, it is deep enough for total immersion up to the neck, it is designed for sitting in, not so much lying in.

We don't look at the normal western-style bath tub the same ever again. Now, if only we can get one of this installed at home. This and the hi-tech toilet. That's what I want for my birthday! Any sponsors? XD

Thank Goodness For Plastic!

A continuation of my earlier post on how to easily enjoy a meal at some strange Japanese restaurants in Japan when you don't speak the language.

1. Buy food tickets from vending machines

2. Check out the plastic food displayed in front of the restaurant and find similar items in their menu. If, by any chance their menu has no photo in it or they have no English menu,  drag a staff out and point what you want to order. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, I did just that once in Akita.

Now, don't these plastic food just calling out for you to eat them? But don't justdroll over the plastic ones. Taste the real food too!

Food Ticket Machines (しょっけん じどうはんばいき)

If you are a tourist and you are scared to death about the thoughts of ordering in Japan and avoid going out  to eat without your tour guide, why not go to those places with these ticket machine. Slot in your $$$, choose what you want to eat (there are usually pictures and even plastic food display to help you decide), get the ticket or tickets, pass it to the staff, sit down and voila! Food will be served with literally no requirement for you to open your mouth. 

We got this handled down pat. The not talking, I mean. Enter a restaurant, somebody will greet us and ask along this line : "nan-mei sama desu ka" - we just show with our hand how many in our party; which is 3, by the way. Pass our food ticket upon sitting down and wait for food to arrive. Who says its hard to be in Japan if you don't speak the language? If its not because I want to practice my horrible Japanese with those poor Japanese service staff, I think we'd get along just fine by using sign language! Just be suitably polite and no words are needed. That and of course the willingness to make an ass of oneself. LOL

Didn't stop to eat at this joint but they're sure cheap. I always tell my non-Muslim friends, for them to find inexpensive food in Japan is easy! They remain unconvinced still. :( Sometimes I wonder why people keep on harping about Japan being expensive but did not hesitate to travel all around Europe. Last time I checked, Euro is still higher than our RM. AUS$ isn't that cheap either.@.@

At one of our fave place to eat dinner. 

The machine has a picture of the food so it's easy to choose.  The restaurant has a food display too out in front so it's easy to make a decision before going in and buy our food tickets.

I got to try mozuku for the first time at this place. I've always wanted to try eating it after it was shown on Dosanko Cooking. ^^

Toilets, In Trains

Check out more by clicking
the photo!

I read some posts at a travel forum some time ago, of some posters  asking about toilets, specifically toilets in Japanese train because they were worried about their toilet needs while travelling.

When you gotta go, you gotta go, so if course its important to know the state of toilets in some foreign places you are visiting. ^^!

Here are some shots of the toilets found in an assortment of trains we've been in. Trust me, my family has been in a lot of long distance trains in Japan and they are all fine. They are all clean, devoid of funky smell and most importantly; always in ready supply of toilet papers!

 Oooo... automatic door!

Random toilets in limited express trains and shinkansens.They sure look pretty decent, don't they?

And this - found in the sleeper train, Akebono. The one and only squat toilet I've ever seen in a train! Way funky! What's with the lime colour anyway?

If you find this, you'd be excused to be worried about using them. I wasn't so sure I can use them, myself. Squatting while doing my "big business" in a moving train? I think not! And I grew up using squat toilets! @.@