It has been 6 months since we came back from this amazing trip, and I finally had the drive to write about it. The trip itself was a year in the making. I had over 80k of miles from United Mileage Plus and wanted to go for a vacation somewhere far. For the both of us to travel, we can only go somewhere in Asia. Japan was the first choice. The first thing we did was to book the Hotel in Hakone (through RCI). We used our Swiss Garden Vacation last year’s allowance for the booking. Booking a hotel on RCI in Japan is horrifically difficult. This is because Japan is such a popular vacation location that RCI members all over the world books the hotels years in advance. I book mine about a year in advance. The flight was booking on the other hand was easy. I just need to call the US helpline and within minutes, I got my booking done. Since it was E-ticket, I did not need to collect any physical tickets from the United offices. I only had to pay the airport tax, and a service charge of $25. Having these two done, we did nothing till 6 months before the trip.

That is when I purchased a Japan travel Guide book, by Rough Guide. The Rough Guide to Japan was a very useful book. It has the much needed information on places of interest, local culture, and everything one need to know about Japan, especially before going there. Most of the guidebooks are almost the same, with different books having their own different strengths. Some books have plenty of pictures, and some books have great maps. I picked this book because it has some detail about climbing mount fuji, which the other books didn’t. For those who wants to save some cost, Google or yahoo is a great source. You can get everything you need from these search engines. However, the guidebooks do give some extra advices, such as promotions, or cost saving tips, like special subway passes, that you don’t see in google if you don’t ask for it specifically.

We sat on the book and it became a coaster for our coffee mug for quite a few months, and about two months just before the trip, I booked the Ryokan in Tokyo. Ryokan is the traditional Japanese hotel and are also the cheapest accommodation you can find in Japan. After we have identified a few from the book and tripadvisor.com, I mail them and the keepers replied the very next day. Extremely fast in response and friendly. Without hassle, we have all the basic things set for the trip. Now, the gritty details on where to go and transport. That took us another few weeks and in under a month before the trip, we were all set. Everything have been planned out, and I enter them into the Yahoo Trip Planner. In short, the guidebook compiles all you need to know in one paperback, while with Google, you have to do the work of compilation your self. If you love to do research, you can skip buying a guidebook.

From Penang to Tokyo, we first have to transit in Singapore and change planes. As the journey takes 6-7 hours from Singapore, we wanted to get a nice seat. We tried checking in a couple of days earlier online and could not (maybe because the tickets were mileage claimed). So, we went over to the airport and to the airline office to get some help. The lady over the counter was very helpful. She got us an excellent seat, the best seat of the house with plenty of leg room.

After we have checked in and left our bags at the Ryokan, we head for the Imperial Palace.  This was our first destination, and it was already 10-11am.  We first came out from the Tokyo subway Station.  The Train Station behind it looks like the Train Station in Amsterdam, and if I remember correctly, its a replica of it.  From the Tokyo station, we proceeded straight towards the Imperial Palace.  Along the way, we passed a nice fountain and we first came to the Imperial Plaza, which is a huge empty place with tiny path cutting across gravel stones.  Its like giant Japanese sand garden, nice.  We were greeted with bus loads of tourist and all of them alight at the Imperial Plaza and made their way by foot to the Nijubashi Bridge.  This bridge is on every guidebook and also all web and printed city guides.  This is where you can see the Imperial Palace with a nice angle, with the white building on top of the hill and then a bridge and waters and plenty of greenery.  It was over rated from the guidebooks.  I was expecting much more and when arrived, only the tiny top floor of the imperial palace can be seen, and have to crowd with many tourist to get a photo of the entire scene.

In front of the Nijubashi Bridge is the Hibiya Park.  This park was a stark contrast from the Imperial Plaza.  The Imperial Plaza was all grey with pebles, while the Hibiya park was green with grass and gigantic bonzai trim trees.  Comming from the congested city line of Tokyo, the Palace grounds provide a breath of fresh air and reminds us that we live in a wonderful green nature.  We walked back again towards Higashi Gyoen, the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace.  On the way, to the Otemon Gate, we passed many Swans lingering on the water surrounding the Moat.  Not sure if they are there the entire year round or seasonal, but it was nice and something that we don’t usually see in Malaysia.

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Having followed the Fail Blog for some time, they never seams to be short of fail photos or events to share.  Here is my attempt to share a Fail situation I capture during my trip to Tokyo.  After considering more, this seams like a parking win than a parking fail, anyway, I was intrigue of the lack of space and the cleaver use of it. 

A movie about a girl and her dog.  Well, not really, the story was much more deeper than that.  If you have thought that this movie is about a girl and her dog, then you will have to watch it.  This story is about commitment, and what matters to us most.  There were a few key take away from the story for me.  The first was the father.  Realizing that he is single parenting because the wife died, the makes the well being of the daughter his priority.  He immediately quits his job when he has to disappoint his daughter because of his overzealous boss requested him back to perform a surgery that any of the other doctors could do.  He was requested just because he was the best.  Now, giving up a high level position doing what he loves most is an ultimate sacrifice.  Maybe sacrifice was not the right word.  Giving up fits better.  Giving up his dream job so that he could give his best attention to his daughter who is growing up without a mother.  Selflessness, and another perspective could be unconditional love.  On the same theme, pets often gives us the same unconditional love, but it is us human beings who just can’t shake away from placing conditions into everything, even love. 

The dog never failed to pull the family together, nor stop helping the family and friends out.  But Akari, the lead character who have had the dog for so many years, that she started to feel the burden of her commitment as she outgrew her teenage years going into adulthood.  Even then, the dog never fusses her and keep being her friend until the day the dog died, just in time for Akari to realize her 10 promises to the dog and what’s really important in life. 

In one of her promise to the dog, is to cherish the time they spent together as the dog’s life is shorter than the human life.  Not just the dog’s life, we humans always forget that our life has an expiry date in it, and sometimes this expiration date comes much earlier.  If we don’t cherish our times together now, it might be too late when we finally realize it. 

The movie was slow in pace to begin, but once the story picks up, I find myself glued to the screen.  The climax comes towards the end, where everything plays out, and we realize the essence of the move.  5 star rating from me and I recommend to watch even if it bores you in the beginning. 

When I was in Japan about a year ago, i found that many camera prices were rather attractive, almost 30-40% cheaper than what I would pay here in Malaysia.  But the camera language is in Japanese, and there is no option to change it to English or any other language.  There are “International” versions, but they cost the same here.  So, this got me thinking.  How about, we get the camera in Japan, and then get it refreshed with an English Firmware? Would that work?

So, I appeal to camera enthusiast out there, do you know if this works? If yes, then, the next thing to figure out is how to get a ‘friend’ to purchase one back here…