Melan's Japan Adventure (Long Post)

I am back from my almost 1 month long break! Thank you for waiting for me to answer replies while I am gone. 

During my break, I took the time to take a trip to Japan for the first time with my family! It was honestly a blast and I took so many pictures of my adventure, purchased so many goods and eat tons of food!

Design Festa

The first thing I did literally the day after I landed in Tokyo was going to Design Festa! I planned my trip around this event and it was 100% the highlight of my time in Japan. It took place Nov 11th-12th and I only went for one day. I highly recommend you go for two days because I literally speed walked non stop without food and water for 8 hrs to see 80% it! It feels like a Design Con but in Japan and everyone was super talented, super kind and super patient with me as I struggled to figure out the difference between a 500/100/50/10/5/1 yen coin; my first time with Japanese currency. The best part was purchasing artbooks and getting signatures from artists I am fans of! The next time I am in Japan, I need to plan my vacation around Comiket!! 

There isn’t a lot of pictures for Design Festa due to my speed walking and also trying to respect artists who doesn't want pictures taken as I am not comfortable with asking in Japanese if pictures are ok!

Osaka

We stayed in Osaka around the Dotonbori area. We did the typical tourist thing and ate at the Crab restaurant there. When we went, it was crab season and their crab was SO GOOD, so sweet and soft. I’m still dreaming of their crab sukiyaki. I also went to Round 1 and tried playing claw machines. Claw machines in Japan is dangerously addicting. For just 100 yen a try, I can play for a long time. I spent 7000 yen to get three tiny plushies including the one above. I’m not ready for the big leagues yet >:).

Osaka Aquarium

I am an aquarium nerd and I need to visit the Osaka Aquarium. It was an beautifully arranged aquarium (you go to the top and slowly walk down!) with the highlight being able to see a mola mola, garden eel and whale shark! Mola molas are notoriously hard to keep in aquariums due to their delicate skin and difficulty feeding them. I noticed that in the Osaka Aquarium, their mola mola was carefully contained in a tank with lined walls which will protect their skin.

Ryokan

We did one night at a super pricy traditional ryokan with kaiseki dinner and onsen. We had a good laugh trying out yukata and struggling to put it on. We came downstairs looking really rumpled and awkward haha.

My parents refused to do the public onsen and instead did the private one in their room. But I am determined to do public onsen for the first time and went and soaked naked with 4 grannies for 10 mins. It felt nice but 10 minutes is all I can take before I can feel myself getting lightheaded. Our kaiseki dinner also has crab *YUM! and wagyu. Sadly, I am not a beef person so I cannot appreciate the taste of wagyu and overcooked the meat. ;- ;/

Uji

We did a day trip at Uji. As a matcha fan, this was a huge must! I love the Uji mascot so much, so cute! We had macha parfait, ice cream, mochi, agar, tea, gyoza. One big note I didn’t realized about eating so much matcha, all the caffeine. I didn’t sleep all that night and I got matchaed out for the rest of the trip. ((O.O)) I also went into the Byodo-in Temple and have a nice break with its calm waters and beautiful sight.

Kyoto

We did a few day trips to Kyoto + Himeji Castle. We researched beforehand and learned how touristy it can get so for the Kyoto leg, we woke up at 5-6am each day to get to the sites before the crowd arrived. We visited Arashiyama, Fushimi Inari Shrine, and Kiyomizu-dera temple. I took a ton of pictures of  Arashiyama and their garden area. The fall leaves are just starting to come in and the site is gorgeous. Everywhere looks like a photograph. I also managed to hike all the way up to the top of Inari Shrine as my parents waited down. The steps felt endless and I gripped the pillars for the last staircase. Someone was walking down and said: “Almost there!” to me and gave me the surge of morale it took to finish the hike. We went to the Kiyomizu-dera temple. There were a ton of temples in Kyoto but no time to visit it all so I vouched to go for the one that is all the way up a hill and also see Sannenzaka, a small shopping alley. What a crowd! We squeezed through like a family of sardines but view of Kyoto on the top is worth it! We also went to the Rilakkuma tea house and I got my first theme cafe experience of cute food plating! ; -; /

Nara

We did a half day trip to Nara to feed the deers and walk the temple grounds. I wish we got more time to experience the city as it felt less crowded overall and more of a respite. I bought a package of deer crackers and those deers are ready, almost like raptors in Jurassic park. As soon as they saw crackers, they will follow you and nibble on your sleeves rather aggressively until they get fed. The deer reminded me of Thoma (our jindo), super quiet and well behaved but will follow you around if you got food, super cute!

Pokemon Center and Pokemon Cards

As a Pokemon card collector, I must visit as many Pokemon Centers as possible and I went to 5! One big tip I learned was that, if you see a plushie or merch you like at that center, buy it, because there is no guarantee stock at the other center. I saw an Altaria plushie I really wanted at the Tokyo DX one but decided to wait until I saw all of them before making any purchases. On the last center I went, there are no Altaria plushies and I settled for the tiniest Wailord I ever seen + a bazillion boosters packs for the gamble! I was determined to get one single super nice card during my time in Japan and I went to a card store to purchase a rather pricy Yokohama Pikachu card which I plan to put in a hard case and display in my room to remind myself of this adventure.

Tokyo

Tokyo was almost exclusively non stop shopping. We did visited Asakusa and Senso-ji Temple which was super nice to walk around and browse souvenir shops and feel the vibe of the area. I purchased two good luck charms from Senso-ji hoping for good health for all and good fortune to Hideawaymelon :D!

I also used all the claw machine experience I learned and after dishing out 12000 yen (all my remaining yen) at Taito Station in Shinjuku, I went away with a whopping haul of 7 plushies, feeling like a boss, a poor boss. Wallet empty, we went to the airport where I remember that to purchase some Tokyo Banana for souvenirs. Luckily, there is enough space in the suitcase and a credit card to squeeze that purchase in before hopping on the plane for the ride home.

Overall Thoughts

I was planning on visiting Japan in 2020 but the pandemic happened and yep, that was put on hold. So I saved money for this trip and went super ham and did everything I want to do, took about 1000 pictures! I will definitely be back since I wanted to visit Okinawa, Yokohama, Hokkaido, Kanazawa, so many different locations. For now, I need to replenish my savings and rest from my vacation (somehow thats a thing) xP