To the land of rising sun

It was one of the best decision of my life for having chosen Japan as our holiday destination and spend time alone with my love. But it was not really a chosen place. Actually we were scrolling the internet and we saw this great offer! MAS offered a very cheap price ticket to Japan for less than RM1,000.00! It will be a sin for not taking it! So that was how it began!

I have never been to this part of the world but he had been there once in 1982.....that was a very long time ago. He was just a junior officer in UDA and he was one of the many who were involved in the building of DAYABUMI!  A month in Japan and all paid for. Alhamdulillah.

So, I am going to share some tips regarding visiting Japan. I wan to share how we did everything on our own .... no such thing as ground handling or tourist guide. Totally on our own. This is how pensioners should do.... hahahhahahaha.


1....Be alert....as you are browsing the internet, do not miss looking into best price offer for flight tickets. Just try your luck. but you need a Credit Card to buy online.....

2....Search for a place to stay. The cheaper the better. we searched from Airbnb and found a Studio Apartment with a small kitchen and a double bed, a heater and all the neccessities for only RM213.00 per day. Very cheap compared to staying in a hotel for at least RM1,000.00 per day! Why waste money? JUst think that you are not going to stay in the room all day long.

3....Transportations in Japan. Buy JR Pass in Malaysia. The price is very cheap and is meant for visitors only. With JR Pass you can hop on any normal trains or the bullet train called the Shinkansen and travel throughout Japan. We need to use it for 7 days only.

4....Communications! Use your Malaysian number but switch off your Mobile Data. Browse the internet and look for 'SAMURAI Mobile wifi.' You have to book it online and pick it up at  KLIA near the arrival hall. It cost us RM15.00 per day with usage of Unlimited Data and one unit can be shared upto 5 divices! You can communicate using Internet, Watsapp, Facetime, Facebook and anything that you like. We found it so very useful. We can use Google Map when we want to get to certain places and never failed!

5....Language! Your Google Translator App is the best! It really helps. Well some of the can understand English but they answered in their language!!! How in the world am I to understand. But they really want to help. So very nice of them!

6....Your health. We have to walk alot in Japan. And worst of all, we have to walk very fast. We did a lot of climbing up and down stairs because lifts are for the elders and disables. I can gurantee that we walked more than 10 thousand steps daily.  but you have to hang on with your Google Maps to survive!

7....Shopping! the best word of the day! after experiencing the walking, rushing and climbing, me with my back ache, I totally forego the word 'shopping.' This time around, I did not shop at all! A shock but I feel good!  Shopping malls like SOGO, AEON and DAISO are the common names in our country. The prices are much cheaper since they have Winter Sales and the choices are a bit different than ours. Sizes.... no such thing as size 42 and above!!!! Sickening! 

8.... Food. We brought some cans of Sardine Cap Ayam, Different flavours of paste and multiple choice of rice by BRAHIM , Maggi Chilli Sauce , Enaks Soy Sauce and Maggi Mee. We survived! But when we were out during the day, we Google Map and looked for HALAL Food. Alhamdulillah we did find some!

9.... Visiting places. Before we left Malaysia, we both agreed to visit certain places from what we read from the internet. We managed to visit Osaka which is 3.5 hours from Tokyo and Hiroshima which is 5 hours away from Tokyo. But the visit was worth it!

10... How much did we spend? Well,  from the beginning to the end both of us spent  roughly RM11,000.00 .....for the two of us and for the whole journey!

So my friends, that was my summary for my holiday in the Land Of The Rising Sun. This is my experience and it could be different from  yours if you have been to the same destination!

Overall, I am thankful to Allah for giving my husband and I the opportunity to see His creations. Thanks to my love for taking me for this surprised vacation. To the people in JTB   stationed in AEON Mall Shah Alam especially to Farah, who has never visited Japan before but gave us the best choice and understandings of how to go around Japan on our own. She did very well in her explainations and always smiling. May Allah bless you my dear.

So , if ever you want to to have a taste of Japan..... just do it your !