Taiwan [270416 - 040516]

Kaohsiung

Day 1 - 270416

Shinkuchan & Yuchu shopping district, Liuhe Night Market

Took HSR to Kaohsiung once we landed in Taoyuan. Stayed at Kindness Hotel which is near Formosa Boulevard station, loved this hotel! The hotel provides free snacks (which includes a variety of desserts, cake, pudding, bao, coffee, etc) 24 hours a day! You can enjoy it anytime you want. Went to the Shinkuchan and Yuchu shopping district in the afternoon, and explored Liuhe Night Market which is within walking distance from our hotel at night. Liuhe Night Market is rather small, selling mostly food and souvenirs only.

Day 2 - 280416

Lotus lake, Dream Mall, Ruifeng Night Market

Visited Lotus lake in the morning as I wanted to go to 龍虎塔. Weather was so hot that day! We also explored the temples around the area after that. Went to Dream Mall in the afternoon, the shopping mall was so empty.. Their arcade and games area is at the top floor of the building, and we took the Ferris wheel too. Didn't played the basketball machine for so long already, and it was too cheap to resist!

Visited Ruifeng Night Market in the evening, food area was crowded but shopping was rather good over there!

Miaoli

Day 3 - 290416

Flying Cow Ranch

Met our driver at Miaoli HSR station, and he took us to the Flying Cow Ranch in the afternoon. Quite disappointed with this place, the place is huge but does not have much animals and activities to do. Only stayed for about 1 hour+ and decided to go back to our hotel and rest. Miaoli is a rather quiet and town-like place, but we were lucky as it was a Friday when we were there, and the night market was operating just below our hotel (F Hotel)! Heard that the night market there doesn't open daily. The stalls at the night market are either carts with wheels or lorries converted to food stalls.

Day 4 - 300416

三義木雕, 勝興車站, 龍騰斷橋, Beitou hot spring, Ning Xia night market

Visited some attractions around Miaoli as we make our way to Taipei. Miaoli is a place where there are alot of hakka people, overall, it's quite a boring place. Lol. As that was about all in Miaoli, we proceeded to Beitou for a soak in the hot spring!

Checked into Dandy Hotel (Tianjin) in Taipei, very satisfied with the hotel as well! Me and sis had a good time watching taiwan variety shows every night till late, since we were finally not staying in a family room anymore =p Ning Xia night market was also within walking distance from our hotel, although it's rather far. This yam ball filled with salted egg yolk is heavenly~ So good that we bought some back to our hotel for supper!

Taipei

Day 5 - 010516

九份老街, 黃金瀑布, 陰陽海, 十分天燈, 十分瀑布, Shenkeng, Shilin Night Market

Visited Jiufen and it's surrounding attractions in the morning. Then proceeded to Shifen. Didn't visit Shifen during my previous trip to Taiwan and was looking forward to 放天灯. The weather forecast for that day was actually raining throughout the day. But fortunately, it wasn't raining when we reached Shifen. So we rushed for the 天灯 and when our 天灯 is up in the air, it started drizzling! So thankful that we managed to send it up into the air in time! Hope our wishes will come true! 十分瀑布 is very inaccessible, even when we had a driver, we had to walk a long way in and climb alot of stairs to finally reach the viewing platform.

As we still have some time after the last attraction, the driver suggested that we visit Shenkeng. Shenkeng is a place known for 臭豆腐, there are many stalls selling 臭豆腐 over there. There are also other food stalls and shops around the area. And lastly, Shilin night market for the night. Shopping was good there too, managed to grab a number of items.

Day 6 - 020516

国父纪念馆, Line Store, Taipei 101, Ximending

Line store taipei was rather small, and they don't have some of the items I wanted to buy! Zzz. Visited Taipei 101, didn't go up the viewing tower, just took a few photos nearby and left. Lol. Shopping at Ximending after that, and of cos, must have 阿宗面线! Oh, and our new discovery, we liked having the 苦瓜汁 at Ximending as well. This must be the only night that we didn't visit a night market. Lol, but nevertheless, spent our night having snacks at Ximending too.. Hahaa..

Day 7 - 030516

中正纪念堂, 龍山寺, 忠孝SOGO百貨, Wufenpu, Raohe St. Night Market

Our last day to chiong all the shopping, non-stop walking for about 12 hours (other than meal times)! I really couldn't feel my legs at the end of the day.. Hahaa.. But it was all worth it. The shoes we bought from Taiwan are all so cheap and good~ If there's a reason why I would like to visit Taiwan again, it will be for the shoes! Hahaha.

Japan [190216 - 280216]

Tokyo

Day 1 - 190216

Meiji shrine, Harajuku, Shibuya

Booked airbnb for our first 2 nights stay in Tokyo as hotels near Shinjuku area is very expensive! Luckily, the airbnb didn't fail us~ Nice and spacious and it's quite near to the mrt station. Shopped around Harajuku and Shibuya area and rested early for the day, was feeling half awake the entire day from our overnight flight. We must have Ichiran for our first dinner, and it's still as tasty as ever!

Day 2 - 200216

Tsukiji fish market, Tokyo station (Imperial east garden, outer park, tokyo character street)

Went to Tsukiji fish market in the morning, had some interesting food while shopping at the market. It was drizzling and cold, we couldn't find the famous sushi shop, so we ended up in this restaurant to have lunch and warm ourselves up. Proceeded to Tokyo station and went to explore outdoors at their garden and park. It was really freezing at the park, and there's totally no shelter! But we were rewarded with cherry blossoms, lucky us to have caught them in Feb! :) Walked a long way and finally got back to Tokyo station where we shopped at the underground character street.

Hakone

Day 3 - 210216

Travelled to Hakone, took the cable car but was unable to transfer to the ropeway as it was closed due to volcanic activity. Therefore, we had to give Owakudani Valley a miss :( All these transport transfers in Hakone is so time consuming, even when we reached the Hakone sightseeing cruise earlier than originally planned, we only managed to hop onto the last cruise for the day (which is rather early!). Would have probably missed it if we managed to get to Owakudani Valley.. Anyway, we were frozen once again on the cruise.. Haha.. But it was worth it, the cruise was the most interesting activity for the day. Lol. Visited a shrine and chilled at a cafe thereafter, caught the sunset and returned to our accommodation for the night.

We booked this hotel which has a private onsen in our room. But to our horror after we checked in, we realised that there is no bathroom in our room! The only shower place available was just beside the onsen, which was outdoors and the temperature was 4 degrees celsius at the moment. After spending some time to check with the hotel staff, we realised that there's no other choice but to stick with this room. Our experience was priceless and unforgettable, the onsen has the hottest water ever and we bathed outdoors at 4 degrees celsius at lightning speed. Hahaha..

Day 4 - 220216

Kawaguchiko, Gotemba Premium Outlets

Travelled to one of Fuji's Five Lakes - Kawaguchiko. Took a ropeway up to a place where we can view Mount Fuji. But due to fog, we had to wait for about an hour to finally see the peak of Mount Fuji. I guess we were still considered quite lucky, even after we came down from the viewing platform, we managed to catch Mount Fuji along the way. Took a bus to Gotemba Premium Outlets in the afternoon, but the outlet was quite a disappointment.

The outlet closed at 7pm, and we realised that the bus that we need to take to get back to our hotel is already out of service. Zzz. After a few transfers, we were stranded at a bus stop along a dimly lit street, cold and not knowing if there's still a last bus coming (according to the schedule we figured at the bus stop). It wasn't even 9pm! This is the time when I really missed being in the city.. Hakone is definitely not my cup of tea. Haha

Tokyo

Day 5 - 230216

Sensoji Temple, Nakamise Dori

Back to Tokyo! Stayed at "Hotel MyStays Asakusa", not recommended! We didn't know that room service is only available at additional cost until we checked in. And there was this weird smell in our room on our 2nd night there, luckily the hotel staff managed to solve the problem.

Visited Sensoji Temple and walked through Nakamise Dori. These souvenir shops reminded us of the days in Osaka.. Spent our evening shopping around and had sushi for dinner at a random sushi place. We totally couldn't communicate with the staff on what we want to order, so we can only take what's available on the sushi belt.. haha

Disneysea

Day 6 - 240216

Our most anticipated 2 days! Bought a 2-day disney pass and visited Disneysea first. Surprisingly, Disneysea doesn't really have the Disneyland feel. Less magical, more Duffy. Haha.. The show at night was good :)

Disneyland

Day 7 - 250216

Queued so long to have our mandatory picture with Mickey Mouse at the entrance. Disneyland has a Frozen Fantasy special now.. Caught the magical Frozen parade~ The only regrets is the fireworks at night was cancelled for some reason. Luckily we managed to catch it at Disneysea the night before.

Yokohama

Day 8 - 260216

Kirin Beer Village, Minato Mirai

Our day trip to Yokohama. Visited Kirin Beer Village first, this place is quite cool. The guide's explanation of the beer making process is only in Japanese, so we were given some papers to read to follow up with the guide. After the hour long explanation, we were each given up to 3 glasses of free beer and other kirin drinks. Most of the Japanese who visited seems to be there for the free drinks! Went to Minato Mirai after, this place has a number of places to visit and shop. Cosmo World with the big ferris wheel is just across the road, beautiful at night.

Day 9 - 270216

Kichijoji, Tokyo Tower

Decided to spend our last day shopping at Kichijoji, and had our lunch at Steak House Satou. Still thinks that the steak we had in Kobe is better.. Went to Tokyo Tower to catch our last sunset in Tokyo.. But the viewing deck at Tokyo Tower is enclosed, so the view wasn't so fantastic. We googled for a place to enjoy our last shabu shabu dinner, just like last year in Osaka. Although the experience was not as good as the one in Osaka, but it's still special and delicious!

Things in Tokyo are really much more expensive, and we didn't buy much this trip. Our conclusion after the trip, we still prefers Osaka!!