Japan : Kyoto > Kyoto International Manga Museum > Nishiki Market > AEON Mall > Kyoto Tower (Day 4)

26 May 2018

It was our free and easy day. We took the train to Karasuma Station and headed towards Kyoto International Manga Museum (800Y). If you have Kansai One Pass, do bring along as you will be given a free postal card upon presenting it to the counter.

From Karasuma Station, you will still need to walk around 15 minutes to reach the Manga Museum.

You will pass by this playground. It is amazing that the place was well maintained. There was a sand pit that allows the kids to play with.

Kyoto International Manga Museum

It has a soothing and relaxing ambience 🌳that allow you to read your manga (comic books) outdoor.

To be honest I was rather disappointed with the fact that almost all of the manga are in Japanese language. I would not recommend this place if you cannot understand Japanese. But I was quite happy to find my favourite comic - Shin Chan 😍. 

Side track : I wish we have these canggih toilet functions in Malaysia as well. 👍

 After that, we went to Nishiki Market. You really need to bring enough money to enjoy all the delicacies here.

First stop - The famous Soymilk doughnuts (10 pieces - 300Y, 23 pieces - 600Y). It's delicious 😋even for someone who doesn't fancy soymilk like me. You would see a long queue for the soymilk doughnuts or soybean milk soft ice cream.   

Takoyaki (140Y). 

Takoyaki has always been one of my favourite food in Malaysia. But the takoyaki in Japan is so different from the one I am familiar. They made it lembik (soft) and mushy; whereas the one made in Malysia has more flour in it, which made the texture more solid. It is still hard for me to accept that this is the real takoyaki 😐.

 Walk further down the lane, you would see people crowding around this stall for prawns.

The prawns are so fresh and simply delicious. But it is quite expensive. One prawn stick is 500Y 😱. 

Another must-eat item - Octopus (300Y). The price varies according to the size of the octopus.

What makes it interesting is that it has a quail egg in the octopus head. Seriously no idea how they put it in. 😨

Yummy scallops (500Y)

Salmon Sashimi (400Y) 💓

Matcha Warabi Mochi (300Y)

I was quite disappointed with this as I thought it would be chewy mochi. Turned out to be more like jelly and its too sweet to my liking.

After so much of eating, we went to my favourite shopping mall - AEON Mall.

Not as great as I expected. It was just another shopping mall. The food bought at the supermarket was not that great as well.

As we were heading towards our last stop - Kyoto Tower, we found a long queue at a cheese tart shop. Bought one original cheese tart (216Y). It was yummyyy 😆. 

Took the train to Kyoto Station just to have a view of Kyoto Tower. 

That sums up for Day 4!

Genting Highlands: Genting Premium Outlet (GPO) > First World Hotel > Sky Avenue > Burger & Lobster

Now that I have resumed working, I cherish the Public Holidays that Malaysian enjoy 💖 If you are thinking where to go for a short trip, do consider Genting Highlands. From Kuala Lumpur, it only takes around 45 to 60 minutes by car 🚙.

Ten minutes before you reach the peak of Genting Highlands, you can stop by Genting Premium Outlet (GPO). I know of brands and shopping lovers who would drive all the way up just to shop 🛍at GPO.

Food was quite limited the last time I went to GPO. I went to Wendy's and it was so crowded. The food & service was crappy enough 😠for me to make a formal complaint to them. My advice is to try out other eateries 🍙especially during peak period. 

One of the benefit of being a Genting member is that we get free room 😍 at First World Hotel every once in a while. The layout of the room is pretty much the same.

 There are times when we are fortunate to get a bigger room with better mountain view🌄. 

Toilet and bathroom are very basic but I think its fine for a short trip. Just bring your toiletries if you are particular. Towels are provided. 

Sky Avenue is a shopping mall that is conveniently linked to First World Hotel. They have most of the brands and restaurants available in KL. When I went last time, Snoopy and the gang came for a visit 😝

Remember to check out Sky Symphony as well. I was really impressed 😊with the show. 

Spoiler Alert! Play the video only if you want have a sneak peak on the Sky Symphony show.

Last but not least, you will need to try out Burger & Lobster at least once in your lifetime. 😋 But do be prepared for the long queue, especially during weekends or public holidays. It could easily take approximately half an hour or more to reach your turn.

The first time I went, I tried out The Original (RM146) wild live lobster. It was good but the portion was a bit small. I love the sauce but it didn't seem to jive well with the lobster so I dipped it with fries instead. 

 

We also tried out their beef burgers but it was so-so. Nothing to shout about. 😐

By now you would probably wonder why I even recommend you this place. This 👆,  kawan, is the gem. Initially we felt that it would be a waste to order Chilli Lobster (RM165) as we won't be able to savour the original taste of the lobster meat. But we saw many people ordering this and decided to try out the second time we visit.  

We instantly fall in love with the taste of Chilli Lobster. The portion is huge and could be shared by two person. But I've seen big size guys ordering one Chilli Lobster each thou. Imagine dipping the bread into the sauce.... 😏Mmmm..... I'm feeling hungry 😋at this hour. I have not tried the lobster rolls but from what I observed, the portion looked a tad small so I wasn't keen to try it. 

You can check out the menu here or 👆. I still think Chilli Lobster is the best and apparently its only available in Malaysia. I saw quite a number of people ordering Time Keeper as well.

If you are going in a big group, probably can consider Tower of London (RM830) 😆. 

That's all for now. If you have tried out other food at Burger & Lobster, do share your review as well!

Japan : Kyoto > Uji > Fushimi Inari > Gion > Fresco (Day 3)

25 May 2018

We began our day with Japanese-style breakfast: onigiri 🍙and green tea🍵. I always thought the onigiri in Japan would have overflowing fillings. So I was disappointed to find that the filling was consistently little but they tend to use fresh salmon instead of canned salmon.

We took a train to Kawaramachi Station to purchase our Kansai One Pass (3000Y) at Hankyu Tourist Information Center, Kyoto. Basically, Kansai One Pass is like our Touch N' Go where you can reload money and use it on most trains and buses within the Kansai region. You can also check out this website for some of the benefits of having Kansai One Pass.

After that, we crossed a bridge and went to Keihan Tourist Information Center at Gion-Shijo Station to buy our Kyoto Sight-Seeing Pass (600Y). The 1 day pass allows you to explore around Kyoto using Keihan Railway. I found this website that is offering 500Y for the one day pass now.

From Gion-shijo Station, we took the train down to Uji Station. Our original plan was to go to Fushimi Inari first but we accidentally took the express train which skipped the station. Hence, the change of plan.

Tips: 
Express train only stops at major station. Refer to the train station map, the express train only stops at stations indicated in bigger dots. So do be alert and don't miss your station! 

We were going around rather randomly in Uji. There were quite a number of temples there. 

When you are in Uji, you just have to try their green tea ice-cream. But we were quite disappointed as this shop's green tea ice cream tasted exactly like the one sold at Family Mart in Malaysia. 😅

Walked a bit further down the street and you would see people heading towards Byodoin Temple (600Y). If you want to go into the Phoenix Hall ☝, you will need to pay additional 300Y and there would be a long queue to go in. If you have a 10 yen coin with you, you can compare the Phoenix Hall with the picture imprint behind the 10 yen coin.

After that, we headed towards Byodo-in Omotesando Street, the must-go place if you are in Uji. Here, you would be able to purchase all sorts of green tea products. 

I was attracted by the awesome green tea 🍵aroma from this shop. This cup of green tea was only 50Y!!! 😮😁 I felt like I had found a gem! 💚 

We bought quite a lot of green tea products from this shop, ranging from green tea mochi, green tea curry, green tea biscuits, etc. But if you are not thinking of buying a lot, you can purchase the same product at Kansai airport's tax free shop. The price is the same. The only down side is that you would need to hand carry them. If you are flying by AirAsia, it would be quite troublesome as they limit your hand carry bags to two.

After shopping, we headed towards Kawabun (川文) for lunch. 

We ordered green tea soba. Set meal on the left (1200Y) and ala-carte on the right (850Y). Do not mistaken tsuyu (the dipping sauce) as soup 😁. The right way to eat soba is to pour in scallions into tsuyu, then take a bit of green tea soba and dip into tsuyu before savouring it. 😋

We had to give Uji another chance to redeem itself for its green tea ice-cream. So we had another round at Masuda Chaho (ますだ茶舗).

Matcha ice cream (300Y) and roasted matcha ice-cream (300Y). Compared to the one we had before, these were heavenly. I personally preferred matcha flavour but my husband liked the roasted one more. 

At 1p.m., we decided to head back to Uji Station and move on to Fushimi Inari.

Fushimi Inari was packed with human. 😱

We hiked all the way up in order to capture a nice photo without any crowd. 

There was this foreigner that was talking to himself while attempting to capture a nice photo without any invader in his photo.

Photographer: *mumbling* Go away! Go away! 😠

Me & Husband: *Laughed Out Loud* 😆😆

Photographer: *looked at us and smiled* They look too nice to be in my photo! 😁

Haha.... he was so cute. 😆

I think a McD meal at every new country we visit is a must. We ordered one ebi fillet-o set meal and one gran club house ala carte (1180Y). Honest review: nothing to shout of. It was so-so.

After that, we strolled along Gion Street. We bumped into a geisha while crossing the road. There were quite a number of people that snapped photo of her. I thought I would see a lot more geisha so I didn't have a good look. Turned out that was my only encounter with geisha in Japan.... 😔 

Tried Pablo's original egg tart and it was one of the best we had in Japan.

I saw a lot of ladies holding shopping bag of this brand at Gion Street. Did some google search and got to know that its Yojiya and famous for its oil blotting facial paper. I am regretting now for not buying it. 😔

By the time we reached Shijo-Omiya, we were hungry again 😜 So we went to Matsuya (松屋) for supper. 

It was affordable and yummy! 🤤We ordered regular portion of Gyumeshi with Spicy Sauce [Extra Green Onions and an Egg] (430Y) and Gyumeshi (Beef on rice) (320Y).  

I love how the food was served without any additives but they gave you different types of sauce in case if you want to add a bit more flavour to your dish. 

Our last stop was at Fresco, a mart that was located directly opposite our Airbnb. The strawberries were heavenly and it was only 345Y per pack after 20% discount. 

So that was our third day in Japan. Sorry to those that have been waiting for updates >_< I'll try to update more often. 💓