Nara, Nara Prefecture (1 March 2015)

I first looked up Nara upon listening to Cath's suggestion on cool places to visit in the Kansai area. After listening to rave reviews of Nara from my two colleagues who travel to Japan earlier last year, I made a resolution to go and experience the place for myself. 

Alhamdullilah, I was not disappointed, Nara was just like I imagined and so much more :)

We took the Subway Tanimachi Line from Tanimachiyonhomme to Tennoji, from there we changed to the JR Yamatoji Rapid Line straight to Nara. It took us about 35 to 40 minutes of travel time from our hotel to Nara. We get to enjoy beautiful views of green hills, suburban houses and farms along the way, so it was a pretty calm journey especially since the kids were asleep most of the way.

It was raining and super cold when we arrived so the kids was bundled up in their warmest and most water proof outfits. The distance from the JR Nara station to Nara Park is around 20 minutes walk, but since it was raining and we had the stroller with us, we decided to take the bus instead. The ticket fee is about 150-200 yen (Sorry I can't remember the exact fee)

 Map of Nara (Source Google)

At the entrance of the park, as you can see there's already plenty of deers roaming around. I've been to a few open concept animal parks but let me tell you these deers are overly "friendly" to a point of literally sticking their noses in your bags.

As you can see the deers was nosing through our strollers. The twins was afraid and insisted that their daddy put on the rain covers. One even managed give Ranya a tiny lick. It was quite hilarious when they started screaming "tolong, tolong deer ni nak makan adik"  Hahaha...I may laugh now but I admit I was quite afraid of them too :p

In front of the Kofukuji Temple. 

Fun Facts: do you know that the deers will bow if you bow to them first? The only problem is they'll start nosing for food right after as a reward for their trick. 

There's deer biscuits available for sale if you want to feed them. Be ready to be harassed and knocked over as long as they can smell food in your hands/pockets

  In front of the Toori Gate at Ichinotori Mae

Nara Park is HUGE and there's plenty to see but I find this part of the park to be the prettiest especially with the small stream along the way. The deers along this side of the park is tamer and calmer as compared to the ones you see nearer to the streets.

One for the album. One of my favourite picture from our trip

 These deers would eat ANYTHING, I tell you...

Despite almost being eaten alive by deers (haha) we enjoyed our trip to Nara so much. Such a lovely and beautiful place. I can't imagine how beautiful it would look like in Spring/Autumn. If you're looking into places to visit when you're in the Kansai area, I totally recommend Nara as a must go place.

For more information : Click Me

Arashiyama, Kyoto (28 February 2015)

Since we only had one day to explore Kyoto, we had to choose our destination very carefully. After weeks of blog searching and asking around, we decided to visit Arashiyama. Essentially I find that it is the one place that captures Kyoto as a whole :

(1) Culture (tick) 

(2) Gorgeous scenery (tick) 

(3) A place to shop cool knick knacks (tick)

(4) Easy access (tick)

With that in mind, we took the subway from Tanimachiyonhome Station to Sakaisujihomachi, later we  changed subways using the Sakaisuji Line to Katsura, and made the final change to the Hankyu Arashiyama Line to Arashiyama. Sounds complicated?  Not really, Japan trains just need a little of getting used to :) The trip to Arashiyama takes about 50 minutes from Osaka.

The sign in front of the train station.

It was the end of winter and beginning of spring, so we get to enjoy the best of both worlds, the "naked" trees and blossoming flowers at the same time.

 Map of Arashiyama courtesy of Google 

(We walked from Hankyu Line (Lime Green Line))

Passing through the super clean and clear Katsura River

Moody faces of little tykes who just woke up from a long nap :p

MasyaAllah, this is what I call rizq, we manage to catch the early blooms of Sakura on the day of our visit. As you can see only one tree was flowering, the others were still bare.

 Togetsukyo Bridge of Arashiyama

The Tenryu-Ji Temple.

The Zen-est temple I've ever been. Anyway a little tip, parents with small children and strollers should avoid this temple. We learned it the hard way, especially with the double strollers, there's no ramps and some pathway are made of sand. Sadly that experience was not as Zen as we (and other patrons) would like it to be hahaha.That being said, I'm glad we get the chance to visit because the place is really pretty.

Group photo minus Cath and sulky Ryan :p

You can't come to Arashiyama and not take pictures at the famous bamboo grooves :)

The Japanese "beca" carrying Geisha's. 

I'm lucky that I managed to capture this unique photo.

Japanese clowns look a tad more serious than normal clowns, huh?

Anyway there's plenty of little souvenir and sweets shops at the side of the streets after crossing the Katsura River. If you want to get cute and quirky souvenirs like Geisha Umbrella's, Kimono wearing Hello Kitty etc. this is the place to get them. The prices are reasonable and we bought several cute "Japan-ish" trinkets from the shops.

All in all we had a good time, I propose that you plan your journey early so that you'll be able to explore Arashiyama. Since it was winter, it was dark by 5pm so we left early. Hopefully I'll get the chance to travel to other parts of Kyoto one day, inshaallah.

For more info on Arashiyama : Press Here

Universal Studios Japan and Universal City Walk (27 February 2015)

The moment I heard that Universal Studios Japan would be opening Harry Potter Wizarding World, I made it a part of my wish list of places to visit. Alhamdullilah my wish came true on my 6th year wedding anniversary :) 

We pre-bought our tickets via Japanese Travel Bureau (JTB) in KLCC, so we managed to skip the line at the ticketing booth. If you're a Harry Potter fan like me, please note that you need to pre-book slots to go in the HP section. There's a machine at the end junction between Hollywood and Wonderland for you to get your HP tickets. Don't worry there's no extra charge involved.

USJ Map (Source Google)

UNIVERSAL WONDERLAND

 

 Behold the home of Elmo, Snoopy, Hello Kitty and Woody Woodpecker

We checked in the Woody Woodpecker Eternal Wish Studio, kinda cool because the kids can take part in the interactive paint games. They had some sort of a free giveaway for children when we were there, and each of my babies received a Cookie Monster light bracelet, stickers and activities book.  Awesome!!!

Snoopy Studios : Where you can find Charlie Brown and Gang. Love the studio (the fact that it is warm inside the building truly help :p). Anyway because we were rushing to go in HP (our time slots were at 12.30pm) We didn't cover Elmo and Hello Kitty "house". After that it was too late to come back to make the rounds.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

After passing "King's Cross" at the entrance, we were greeted by a huge stone sign with Hogsmeade on it. It is literally my fantasy coming to life. Seeing Zonko's, Honeydukes, Olivanders sprawled right in front of my eyes is just surreal (my type of fangirling). The others was oblivious to my excitement with the exception of Ryan, who shared my happiness no thanks to the intensive briefing I gave him on HP before leaving for Japan. My only problem with Hogsmeade was you have to line up to get in every store and it was super duper packed. Despite all that I still managed to get myself a wand (yes I bought a freaking wand) and some HP trinkets.

Can I have an owl please???

From Hogsmeade to Hogwarts :)

 Enjoying warm Butterbeer (it is non-alcoholic) in the cold winter. Feeling? Heaven...

Amity Village : Jaws

* Jurassic Park was under construction when we were there *sad*

San Francisco

OMG wearing that cape out was a big fat mistake, I thought it will be ok because the day started of sunny. However, it was super duper cold by 4pm due to the wind. I was freezing so much that I had to buy a long sleeve sweater from Hard Rock. So much for my "Blair Waldorf" moment :p

New York, New York

 The 3 minutes ride that took about 60 minutes to queue -__-
Thank god Ryan enjoyed it

 Universal City Walk

You can find the famous Takoyaki museum here. There's several specialty shops one being "Jump Osaka", a good place for Anime fans. Ryan was ecstatic that we managed to find some Naruto merchandise here. There's also Dragon Ball comics and other unrecognizable anime.It was interesting (and expensive) experience haha

Tak dapat picture with the real Glico man, dapat picture with his mini me pun boleh lah :) 

We truly enjoyed our experience here, mostly due to Harry Potter. To tell you the truth the layout is pretty similar to USS. Other than Harry Potter, the other attraction is pretty much dated, as compared to Singapore where the character is more "up to date" (i.e. Transformers, Madagascar etc). That is not really a cause of complaint to me actually. I do hope we'll get another opportunity to visit USJ again

USJ Website : Press Here
Ticketing Information (JTB) :  Press Here