Japan trip: Transportation

In Japan, there are many types of transportation you named it: shinkansen, subway/metro, bus, taxi, etc. The most popular one for tourists is JR Pass; you can use it to travel through all cities in Japan. They have 7 or 14 days pass and should be used in consecutive days. This pass can be booked online through JR Pass website or official travel agents in your country. BUT you should pay attention that they also have regional passes! I often browse the website but didnt realise it until a week prior to my departure. We went to Japan for two weeks and decided to only buy a 7-day JR Pass. You can reserve seat too with this pass by coming to JR Office in the stations and search for the schedule you want.  Before riding the shinkansen, it's best to take a look which car is for non reserved and reserved seats they put in on board because if you ride the wrong car, you should pay the fine.

  

 

If you decide to go to some cities which are close to each other, JR Pass maybe isnt your best choice. For example, I went to Miyajima, Hiroshima, Okayama, Osaka in the first five days then after reading here and there, JR Kansai Hiroshima Area Pass would be my best choice because I needed JR Ferry to go to Miyajima and with this pass, I can ride either Nozomi or Mizuho shinkansen. These shinkansens are the fastest as they stop in mostly main stations compare to Hikari or Kodama. They arent covered by the ordinary JR Pass; by using JR Kansai Hiroshima Area Pass I can save quite some time. Hikari runs in the similar track with Nozomi but stops more. To see which type of pass suits your trip the best, you can click here.

Besides JR Pass, there are also other railways run by private companies such as Kintetsu, Hankyu, etc. In my Nara day trip, we used 1-day Kintetsu Rail Pass as Kintetsu station was closer to Nara city centre and you can use it in Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. Japan really give tourists lots of benefits; there are many local passes for one day, two day, three day, or five day provides with discounts to tourist spots if you show them your pass before your payment. You can read more about it when I explain it through the day trips. 

JR Pass doesnt always cover the city area so using IC cards will be the best choice. This card can be used in subways or buses and I really recommend it since it's also rechargeable. Sometimes it takes time if you always pay cash yet at the same time, you only have big amount of money. Just tap it at the station entrance and tap again at the exit. It's also accepted in paying for coin lockers in station, vending machines, shops, and restaurants. Most popular one will be ICOCA, Suica, and Pasmo. ICOCA can be bought in Kansai area, whereas Suica and Pasmo can be purchased in Tokyo. Now these cards can be used in whole Japan so it's really convenient. One thing I learnt during my trip was it's the best to get the city map when you arrived in the main station so that you could choose the most efficient and budget friendly transportation.

Note: Everything I share here is based on my own experience. Maybe it's suitable for me but not for you so please read and search for more information. Let's enjoy the trip!

Japan trip: Preparation

Two weeks ago I went to Japan and this was the first time my family went abroad by ourselves not through the travel agent (excluding Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong, and China which were familiar cities for us). These posts series will be about how I and my sister prepare for our trip and the results of it. Let's start!

First, we bought the flight tickets a few months before our departure. We planned to go for two weeks as we wanted to enjoy and have fun throughout the vacation. Next we decided which cities we wanted to go. Your relatives or friends' itinerary would be really helpful in this step if you were like me as a first timer to Japan. After the date and cities had been decided, I (the unofficial tour leader), with the help from my sister searched for our stay. It's the most difficult part because we needed to view many properties to choose the best one. We searched through Airbnb, booking.com, agoda.com, etc. We were a 5-member family so it's quite a dilemma to choose a hotel because we needed two rooms and in Japan, hotels were expensive. Usually people prefer for Airbnb or apartments and these were our choices for this trip. We took quite a long time to decide our stay, viewed here and there, spent around two weeks because we read everything to details. Finished deciding our stay, we started to search for transportation. The most popular one was of course JR Pass but I will make another post for Japan's method of transportation because this also confused me before I went there and experienced it myself. Date checked, accomodation checked, transportation checked, what's next? We decided which places in each city we wanted to go; you only have limited time yet there's A LOT of it in Japan. For food and snacks, it wasnt a problem for us since we didnt have any restriction in food and planned to try everything! We only brought four luggages and it's not that big since I heard from my relatives that we needed to walk everywhere in Japan and mostly they used stairs. Later I found out they always had elevator in each station because the facilities for disabled people were super complete. Spare time to do lots of research before you go, either through blog posts, websites, or youtube to make sure you are at least a bit familiar of the places you want to go.

Bali.

So last week I went to Bali before the school starts. I spent 4d3n night and met up with my friends who worked in Bali. This was my second time being there; the first was in 2012. Bali really amazed me; it's in Indonesia yet the atmosphere was so different with any other cities in this country. In Bali most people practices Hinduism and I like it there because they are so religious but in the same time they are very open minded. I think 90% of the tourists are Western people and they accept them very well. They have lots of beaches in Bali; you'll never get bored of it. I went to many places during my stay there: Monkey Forest, Pandawa Beach, Kuta Beach, Pura Uluwatu, Ayana Resort, etc. These photos summed up my trip.
PS: All photos are taken by me.

Pandawa Beach

Sunset in Pura Uluwatu

Kubu Beach

RI70.

Today is Indonesia's Independence Day and we celebrate for the 70th this year. I and my friends decided to go on hiking (yes we're not expert yet) to catch up the sunrise. We went to Gunung Api Purba Nglanggeran at 4am from the city centre and it took around an hour to arrive there. After that we needed to walk (or climb) to the top of the mountain for almost an hour. Too bad we couldnt catch up the sunrise because we went up too late and in the end we climbed to the wrong peak lol However it's still an amazing experience for me since this was my first time to climb that kind of mountain with my friends and we took lots of pictures with the national flag. Happy 70th Independence Day Indonesia!

Exam has finished, holiday starts again!

Yesterday I went to Borobudur with the girls since one of my friend from Medan came. We arrived there around noon and it was incredibly hot. This is my third time being in Borobudur and this place still amazed me. We took lots of pictures and made funny videos; of course I wont post the video here lol Borobudur has the largest and most complete ensemble of Buddhist reliefs in the world. It's always very crowded as it's the most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia. It's still used during Vesakh Day celebration every year; we can also see lots of Buddhists from all around the world come here to celebrate.

Holiday - The End.

Im back again to blog! Yes, I've arrived in my hometown 2 weeks ago but I need to prepare for my exam so I didnt have the time to post anything here. I've just finished my exam today and I still have one week holiday before the school starts. I'll be in my fourth year now and I hope I can pass all the exams smoothly so I can graduate according to the schedule. My holiday this time was the best one ever. I travelled to four countries: France (Paris), Hungary (Budapest), Czech Republic (Prague), and Austria (Vienna). Paris has been my dream place since I was a kid and finally I can go to this beautiful city. Budapest, Prague, and Vienna are so different even though they are close to each other geographically. Last month in Budapest has also been a wonderful one for me; I have done lots of things which I think I wont be able to do it in the past. I thought I wouldnt miss Budapest after I left but I was wrong; I miss Budapest a lot T^T I miss the times where I can walk around the city, drink and sit in the Liberty Bridge, go shopping whenever I want to, talk to my roommates, eat pizza at the metro station, etc. Thank you June and July for being so good to me and see you next time Europe!

I miss you Budapest.

Farewell Party for July in Budapest 2015 exchangees.

I still cant believe we've had our farewell party yesterday. We talked about which moment was the most memorable one and for me it's my first week in the hospital and when I talked to my roommates at night. Then we wrote our impression of each other in a paper sticked in our back and in the end they played a video which was a compilation of the photos we took during the whole month. To be honest Hungary was not in my list of choice and I didnt know how I can be placed here but then I started to like this city. I still remembered clearly my first day here; it was so horrible because I felt so weird being in such a different place with what I've imagined before. Some people have left last week and now everybody is leaving one by one. My roommate, Marisa, left today and you know Im an easily touched person so I cried. I, Marisa, and another roommate, Zehra, spent much time together. We laughed over simple things and we shared about info about our countries. After the official farewell party yesterday, we had another farewell party at night. I learnt so many things from this exchange. This is my first time coming to Europe, my first time travelling alone, my first time in Budapest, my first time being an exchange, my first time living in a room with other girls and no aircon, my first time seeing a shower without curtain, my first time meeting so many people from different countries, my first time to be in a place where there's nobody I knew before, my first time being sooooo far away from my family, and still a lot more. But I really enjoyed it. On my first and third weeks here it was so hot (41C) and we always complained about the weather; now it's so damn cold (20C). I was confused about how to use the metro on my first day in Budapest because we have no metro system in Indonesia and this one was different with the one I used in Paris before. I used monthly public transportation card so it's easier for me to go anywhere whenever I wanted to since it's free. When I was bored, I always walked to some new places and enjoyed the view. The weather in the first week really annoyed me but still I like this city. My personally favorite places in the city were Fisherman's Bastion and House of Parliament. I regretted not to know everyone better and I hope we can meet again next time. Thank you for everything during this exchange. See you when I see you again.

Love all these girls sooooo much. Will miss you all a lot T^T

We are the residence of Room 4 lol

Sad because it's the last day T^T

Behind the scene

Vienna.

I had a 3d2n trip to Vienna last weekend and just came back yesterday. It's soooo good. Vienna is very different from Budapest; I think it's more developed and they had many tourists everywhere. Vienna, Prague, and Budapest are not similar at all even though geographically they are close to each other. I feel Vienna is a bit similar to Paris while Prague has more gothic or darkness aura (lol). Budapest is a bit like old city where they use old metro. They also had many touristic places but too bad it's a bit difficult to find guided tour for those places. Back to Vienna, we went to the Parliament, Museum of Natural History, St. Stephen's Cathedral, Opera House, The Rathaus (Town Hall), and many other places. We also visited Schönbrunn Palace and Hofburg Palace which stories are connected to each other. Schönbrunn Palace tells about the King Franz Joseph I and his wife, Elisabeth "Sisi" while Hofburg is more about Sisi's life timeline. In the same time, last weekend was the celebration of 25 years Film Festival in Vienna so they hold an open theatre in front of the Town Hall and it's so crowded (Im not sure but maybe they hold the open theatre for the whole month). The movie was Swan Lake and I was so excited about it because this was my first time but it turned out to be an opera-like movie which I didnt understand at all. In this city you can also find lots of street arts. I will definitely come again to this city; three days are not enough for me T^T

Marisa - Zehra - Lilian - me - Cagla - Gulli

Schönbrunn Palace

Museum of the Austrian National Library

After almost 3 weeks in Budapest.

It's been almost 3 weeks since I've been staying in Budapest. Observed lots of things, I just knew that we have so many differences. Foods, cultures, habits, education, etc. Hungarian always says "szia" or 'sziasztok' when they meet someone which means "hello" and you should reply that. The pronounciation is the same as "see ya"; that's why I was confused at first when I just arrived in the hospital and the nurse greeted me. It's also not necessary to reply someone if they say hello in my country especially when it's a stranger who greets us. We just smile or reply sometimes. It's rude when you dont reply them and I experience it when I was buying something. They also always say thanks for everything; it's "köszönöm" or "köszi". My doctor always says that whenever the nurse gives him the surgery instruments. The special Hungarian dish is goulash; it's soup or stew of meat and vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices. I like this one because they use lots of spices and it's served hot, definitely my favorite. Sometimes I find European food is too plain for me. Here they also always eat with salt and bread. This is so weird for me because we never have salt on the table. The internet here is also very fast; it's like 6++ Mbps but my friend says it's slow lol In Indonesia it's even difficult to get 200 kbps. People here often say "igen" which means "yes" but they say it like "igen igen igen" in very fast which is funny for me. When they say "yo" which means "good", they also say it like "yo yo". I really like it when they say igen igen or yo yo xD
PS: all pics are taken by me.

Budapest view from Gellert Hill in the afternoon

Budapest view from the Green Bridge at night

Great Market Hall at night

Margitsziget.

Finally I have a proper weekend this week and decided to go to Margaret Island with my friends. They went this morning for swimming and I joined them a bit later. This island is called as Margitsziget in Hungary and it's located in Danube River between Buda and Pest. You can reach this island by metro M3 to Nyugati Palyaudvar and change to metro 4 or 6 to Szell Kalman Ter. It's a recreational park, so nobody actually lives here but there's swimming pools, parks, restaurants, and the main attraction is the dancing fountain. I went there quite early today around 4pm and got to watch the show for 3 times since it scheduled for each hour. Budapest was burning hot today, and it felt so good to be there because I sat under the shade and it was windy.

PS: 

If you are wondering why I always write what I did during my exchange, it's because I want to have a travel diary so that I can remember what I did during the trip.