Big in Japan 2005 - Day 1/2
(Oct 15 21:00 hrs - Oct 21 23:55 hrs).
Took a cab with my wife from our habitat. Finally a break from our work. Phew! Met our CTC tour leader.
Took a 7 hours flight on JAL. Japan is +1 hour in time from Singapore's time. Touchdown at Osaka around 07:00 hrs Japan time. Tour commence the moment we arrived as we met up with the local tour guide, Kim Ng. We were brought to the coach which will be with us till the last day. A tiring day ahead of us since we only had short hrs of sleep on plane.

First destination is the Todaiji temple in Nara deer park, where thousand deers are free to roam around. Biscuit packs for 150 yen are available for purchase if you would like to feed the deers. You can save on that as the hungry deers would surround you anyhow. They seem to mistake anything you hold for food! In fact, one of them has 'taken a fancy' on me and had followed me right to the shops up the street! Within the temple you can see a huge bronze buddha, which has been rebuilt several times as evidenced by the different colouration on the different parts of the buddha. Beside the Buddha stood a pillar with a small 60cm x 60cm hole rumoured to bless anyone who can squeeze through with plenty of good fortune and wisdom. How I wish my waist is smaller.

We reached Kobe Chinatown in the afternoon to have our first self paid meal for the trip. Honestly, the 200 yen ramen we took are ordinary. My wife love it though. BlueberryMeiji yogurt
is a must try in Japan. Trust me, you will not like the Meiji Yogurt in Singapore after you have tasted the Japan version. It is less sweet and contain plenty of juicy blueberries...yummy...the thought of it make me drool. We walked quite a distance before we finally found a dustbin to dispose the empty yogurt container. Dustbins are placed at very few places to prevent bomb planting. Despite this, Japan is still very clean. You hardly see any litter around.

After lunch, we proceeded to Mosaic Town in Kobe. Its hard to imagine a disaster ever struck this beautiful harbourland in 1997. Following by this is a short journey to the famous Osaka castle. The original castle has already been burnt over the many civil wars. The current structure was rebuilt using the original blueprint. Our next stop is Osaka shopping and eating paradise Shinsaibashi shopping street. It is an extremely crowded street where you find many pretty gals and handsome men in all sorts of trendy outfit. You see gals with perm & blond hair just like Ayumi Hamasaki in high leather boots, carrying furry and branded handbags. Young men wear smart coats with hairstlye that reminds me of the charming Korean Actor 'Pei Yong Jun'. I see many Japan superstars! We roamed the Umeda street for the spectacular citylights before we had our first Japanese dinner. On our way back to the coach, we were captivated by a restaurant which has a gigantic moving crab as signboard.

First night in the hotel, we spent some time figuring out the toilet buttons. It comes with washing facilities and seat warmer. In Japan public toilet, there is also a flushing melody button to camouflage whatever not so nice peeing or shiting sound in the toilet..ha..ha.. Japanese are indeed very thoughtful and innovative.