This trip occurred because the promotion for Krisflyer miles 15% discount was ending, and we wanted to use up our miles 😛 It was also our longest trip together ever, for we started our planning with great ambition to cover lots of places, before practicality set in, and we decided that we needed a relaxing trip instead, and decided to focus on Kyushu instead 🙂
Continue reading
Japan
日本 Japan 2017 Itinerary
Kyushu Rail, Tram, and Bus Passes
Generally, traveling in Japan can be quite a hassle-free experience if you do your homework beforehand 🙂 Because of their strict compliance to punctuality, all transport options depart and arrive on the dot and it becomes quite seamless to plan connections from one place to another.
And with websites such as hyperdia.com, you can get the train schedules for any day and can plan ahead with a few backup plans thrown in 🙂 Bus schedules are also easily obtainable from the operators’ websites or a simple Google.
There are quite a few transport passes available in Kyushu, and depending on your itinerary (and planning), they could prove to be money savers 🙂
Continue reading
Cafes in Japan 2017 – Fukuoka
The coffees that we tried in Fukuoka were in general good!
And we seemed to get this feeling that cafes in Fukuoka are generally having very nice ambience and environment (check out the panorama shot in the banner picture) that’s conducive for sipping coffee and watching the world go by…
I think by this point we were pretty much too full to try any cafe food 😛
Categories: Coffee/Tea Break, Fukuoka, Japan, Travel
Tags: cafe, chai latte, flat white, latte
1 Comment
Cafes in Japan 2017 – Kumamoto
Because of the recent earthquake, the 2 most famous landmarks of Kumamoto, Mt Aso and Kumamoto Castle, were out of bounds to tourists. Hence we spent most of our time here on trains, checking out the beautiful and casual rides throughout the countryside. So very few cafe hoppings in Kumamoto. 🙂
While we only tried 2 cafes in Kumamoto, we were very impressed by the coffee and desserts both times 🙂
Categories: Coffee/Tea Break, Japan, Kumamoto, Travel
Tags: cafe, cake, chai latte, cheesecake, flat white, latte
1 Comment
Cafes in Japan 2017 – Kagoshima
Oh, we walked past many times the Polar Bear cafe むじゃき Mujyaki located in Tenmonkan walking street (see banner picture) on our way back to our hotel. It created the 白熊 Shirokuma Shaved Ice during one summer and it went viral. So now you get long queues at the 4-storey cafe which also sells merchandises. No we didn’t went in. 🙂
Well, I guess we have to work harder to find nicer cafes in Kagoshima the next round… any recommendations?
Categories: Coffee/Tea Break, Japan, Kagoshima, Travel
Tags: cafe, cake, chai latte, flat white, latte, pancake
1 Comment
Cafes in Japan 2017 – Miyazaki
There was so much to do in Miyazaki, but we still managed to visit 4 cafes for food and drinks 😛
In general, the cafes were quite busy for a relatively quiet and chillax city, but we did not have to queue for seats.
Categories: Coffee/Tea Break, Japan, Miyazaki, Travel
Tags: cafe, cake, chai latte, flat white, latte, millicrepe, pancake
1 Comment
Cafes in Japan 2017 – Osaka
With only one full day in Osaka, we managed to check out Pablo, minus the long queues seen in the recently-opened Singapore outlet, as well as a lovely cafe. As we had to take a bus to Itami Airport for the domestic flight to Miyazaki, we also found time to grab a bite at the Osaka City Air Terminal and Itami Airport 🙂
Categories: Coffee/Tea Break, Japan, Osaka, Travel
Tags: cafe, cake, flat white, latte, tart
1 Comment
博多天ぷらたかお Hakata Tempura Takao @Hakata, Japan
With the warning of upcoming typhoon, we ended up at the Canal City Hakata again. We were walking around for lunch inspiration and we were attracted by the huge anago!
We opted for 対馬産大穴子天丼 Tsushima Large Anago Tendon (¥1700) and 季节の天ぷら定食 Seasonal Tempura Set Meal (¥1400).
Deep frying everything a la order and by hand
Unlimited Tsukemono Pickled Cabbage and Takao’s specialty, Konbu Mentai, or Kelp and Cod Roe
対馬産大穴子天丼 Tsushima Large Anago Tendon
季节の天ぷら定食 Seasonal Tempura Set Meal
The huge anago was awesomely delicious! We also liked that they were not overly generous with the sauce 🙂 For the tempura set meal, each tempura was freshly deep fried in front of us, and served piece by piece as we ate, ensuring that each piece was fresh and hot. The batter was also quite light without being overly oily.
We were really glad that we came here for lunch 🙂
Contact:
|
屋台小金ちゃん Yatai Kokinchan @Hakata, Japan
We can’t come to Hakata without visiting 屋台 Yatai! We still recalled the very enjoyable yatai experience from many years ago, but we were unable to find the same stall during this visit. Nonetheless, we had read about a couple of very popular stalls, and decided to check out 屋台小金ちゃん Yatai Kokinchan. We arrived around 6pm, and there was already a queue!
めんたい玉子焼き Fried Spicy Cod Roe with Egg
おでん Oden
焼きラーメン Fried Ramen Noodles
餃子 Fried Dumplings
We managed to try quite a few items, including:
- めんたい玉子焼き Fried Spicy Cod Roe with Egg (¥680): This was slightly spicy, salty and sweet, and we rather enjoyed the mixed flavours.
- 焼きラーメン Fried Ramen Noodles (¥700): This was the speciality of Kokinchan when we read the reviews. Hmm, we didn’t expect the sauce to be so sweet…
- 餃子 Fried Dumplings (¥380): Difficult to go wrong, and pretty standard.
- おでん Oden (¥130 each): We tried the コンニャク Konnyaku (I’m not sure if this is it), しいたけ shiitake mushroom, and はんべん, which was a puffy cake made of fish paste, and we realised it was that piece of oden which my friends would usually fight over for whenever we buy this standard oden pack for steamboat. Of course, it tasted as good as ever 😀
The food felt rather homely, and we really enjoy the experience of just hanging around the yatai 🙂
Contact:
|
うどん平 Udon Taira @Hakata, Japan
Hubby said that we absolutely gotta go queue for this famous udon!
Since we were staying quite near the place, we figured we would be rather early… NOT 😛
We arrived just before 11.30am, to find a long queue outside, and we did not manage to get in the first seating. However, being a fuss-free place, customers did not linger and after 20 minutes, we were in!
