Japan

Day trip to 琴平 Kotohira

Posted on 6 December 2015 by lendeliz

2015-12-06 09.22.40We had initially wanted to visit another island 直島 Naoshima Island today, but we realised that the ferry and bus timings were too few and not too compatible, and decided to give it a miss. After getting some suggestions from the Tourist Information Centre at 高松 Takamatsu, we decided to go to 琴平 Konpirasan (or sometimes spelt as Kompirasan), the location of the famous 金刀比羅宮 Kotohiragu Shrine, as there was plenty to shop, eat, see, and… Climb!  Oh yes, it was a good 785 steps one way to the main hall of the shrine 😛

We still had a valid JR Rail Pass, so it was free for us to travel there. We took the 8:25am train from 高松駅 JR Takamatsu Station, and arrived at 9am to a still sleepy 琴平駅 JR Kotohira Station… There was hardly anyone around. The train station building itself was quite different from others, as it had this European-style to it.

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Categories: Shikoku, Travel | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

一鶴・高松店 Ikkaku @Takamatsu

Posted on 5 December 2015 by lendeliz

2015-12-05 19.15.31-2We had seen so many restaurants and stalls advertising the signature dish of 香川県 Kagawa Prefecture, 骨付鳥 Honetsukidori, or roast chicken on bone, everywhere we went in 高松 Takamatsu, that we decided that we had to try it!

Ms V discovered the must-go place to have this chicken is 一鶴 Ikkaku, so off we went for our early dinner, only to find a snaking queue out in the cold 😮

There was a take-away option, but we wanted to have our food on the spot while piping hot, and since we were not too hungry, we decided to join the queue with at least 17 people in front of us… Cold burns more fat and calories = more space to eat more, right? 😀

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Categories: Dinner, Shikoku | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Day Trip to 小豆島 Shodoshima Island

Posted on 5 December 2015 by lendeliz

2015-12-05 10.46.54Despite being a cloudy day, we decided to go ahead with our day trip to 小豆島 Shodoshima Island. We took the 9:30am ferry (return tickets ¥1320) from 高松港 Takamatsu Port to 草壁港 Kusakabe Port on Shodoshima, and one hour later, we arrived at 小豆島 Shodoshima Island!

The bus stop was located just outside the port, so we easily caught the 10:50am bus to 紅雲亭  Kountei (¥360 one way). Arriving at 11:03am at the bus stop, we quickly made our way to the ticket counter and bought the return tickets (usual price ¥1350, but we had a 10% discount because we printed a coupon from the website) for the 寒霞渓ロープウェイ Kankakei Ropeway. The ropeway runs every 12 minutes, and once it is full, you will need to wait for the next ride.

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Categories: Shikoku, Travel | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

しるの店 おふくろ Shiru-no-mise Ofukuro @Takamatsu

Posted on 4 December 2015 by lendeliz

2015-12-04 22.57.43Hubby had read about this place near our hotel that was popular for miso soup and homecooked style food, so off we went for dinner. We were quite lucky as we managed to get the last table 🙂

Everyone were having miso soup, and while there were many types available, we chose the more popular ぶた汁 pork miso soup.

We randomly picked some of the dishes that we fancied from what we saw. Most of the food were delicious, and made us feel like we were at home 🙂 However, the egg plant really left its imprints in our minds because it was so, so unexpectedly salty. So salty that it became our benchmark for saltiness throughout the remaining trip… Nothing else could beat it, not even pickles!

Contact:

  • Location: 1-11-12 Kawaramachi, Takamatsu-shi, Kagawa-ken, Japan 香川県高松市瓦町1-11-12
  • Nearest Station: Kawaramachi Station 琴電琴平線瓦町駅
  • Direction: Walk 300m north-west of station.
  • Website: yousakana.jp/ofukuro, Tabelog
  • Hrs: 5pm – 11:30pm (Mon-Sat)
Categories: Dinner, Japan, Shikoku, Travel | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

上原屋本店 Ueharaya Honten @Takamatsu

Posted on 4 December 2015 by lendeliz

2015-12-04 13.10.48On our way to 栗林公園 Ritsurin-koen, we made a special visit to the local speciality famous 讃岐うどん Sanuki Udon shop 上原屋本店 Ueharaya honten nearby. It is said that while udon is widely available throughout Japan, nobody makes it better and cheaper than in 香川 Kagawa Prefecture.

This is a popular lunch venue with locals working nearby, as it provided a very delicious meal at very affordable prices. It was a short wait outside the shop, as turnover was very fast. Almost everything is self-service. Once you decide on the type and size of udon, you just need to select your side dishes, pay up, and cook the udon yourself, or add the desired toppings yourself. Then you hunt for a table, finish your meal, and return your tray.

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Categories: Japan, Lunch, Shikoku, Travel | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Mirror mirror on the wall, which is the prettiest garden of them all?

Posted on 4 December 2015 by lendeliz

As we had spent the previous day doing side trips out of 岡山 Okayama, we ended up visiting 2 very famous gardens today, 後楽園 Koraku-en at 岡山 Okayama and 栗林公園 Ritsurin-koen at 高松 Takamatsu.

後楽園 Koraku-en had the reputation of being one of the 日本三名園 Nihon Sanmeien. Three Great Gardens of Japan, while many claimed that 栗林公園 Ritsurin-koen was even better! Having been to 兼六園 Kenroku-en, another of the top 3 gardens in 金沢 Kanazawa during our previous trips, we had very high expectations of these 2 gardens! Does 後楽園 Koraku-en live up to its reputation? Why do people say that 栗林公園 Ritsurin-koen is better?

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Categories: Japan, Okayama, Shikoku, Travel | Tags: | 1 Comment

たまりば 琥太郎 Tamariba Kotaro @Okayama

Posted on 3 December 2015 by weiming

2015-12-04 06.39.07We slept through the entire journey and finally made it back to 岡山 Okayama from 神戸 Kobe.

As we were walking from the train station back to the hotel, we were also looking out for dinner places. 😛

I saw a bright lantern saying おでん Oden and pointed it out to the girls. We went closer to the shop but were not too confident about venturing inside and ordering because we saw that it was a standing bar of sorts. Just as we were still contemplating, an office worker had parked his bicycle outside the shop and pointed to us “おいしい” when we asked him how was the shop! Not only that, he even helped us talked to the chef and got us table seats on the 2nd floor of the shop!

We ordered a everything that was on the おでん Oden menu (except egg) and was happily drinking our Oolong Tea and eating the nut snack when we realized that the wall is full of decorations of 阪神タイガース Hanshin Tigers (a hugely popular baseball team playing in Japan’s Central League). No wonder the shop is named 琥太郎 Kotaro, haha…

The おでん oden was warm and soothing to the stomach, and we enjoyed every bits of it. So much so that we ordered three other side dishes to further warm our stomach!

Contact:

  • Location: 2-11 Honmachi, Kita-ku, Okayama-shi, Okayama-ken, Japan 岡山県岡山市北区本町 2-11
  • Nearest Station: JR Okayama Station 岡山駅
  • Direction: 5 minutes walk from JR Okayama Station.
  • Hrs: 6pm – 12:30am
Categories: Dinner, Japan, Okayama, Travel | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

Evening trip to 神戸 Kobe

Posted on 3 December 2015 by lendeliz

It was quite a last minute decision to visit 神戸 Kobe, as I had mistakenly thought that the 神戸ルミナリエ Kobe Luminarie 2015 (annual lighting festival in Kobe which started in 1995 in memory of the victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995) had started today (3 Dec), which the staff at 姫路駅 Himeji Station had pointed out that it was starting tomorrow (4 Dec), but assured us that we could still see beautiful Christmas lighting at 神戸 Kobe.

Our first stop at 神戸駅 JR Kobe Station was to visit the Tourist Information Centre for some recommendations of 神戸牛 Kobe beef and Christmas illumination. Unfortunately, the recommended places to try Kobe beef were either very expensive for full courses, or had pretty poor online reviews recently. Also, we were too full for a full meal and only wanted to try for fun.

We did a bit more Googling with the free wifi at the centre, and decided to check out 南京町 Nankinmachi which is Kobe Chinatown area (in 元町 Motomachi), as we had read about cheaper alternatives there.

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Categories: Hyogo, Japan, Travel | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Half day trip to 姫路 Himeji

Posted on 3 December 2015 by lendeliz

We left Kyoto early, after yesterday’s satisfying 紅葉 koyo experience, to 岡山 Okayama, dropped our bags at the hotel, and went straight to take the train to 姫路 Himeji (since we had activated our JR Pass).

At the station, we met a very helpful information counter staff who spoke Mandarin, and gave us some advice for our day trip, and also directed us to the popular タコピア Tako Pia at グランフェスタ Grand Fiesta, which was just in front of 姫路駅 Himeji Station.

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我逢人 かっぱ Gahoujin Kappa @Gion

Posted on 2 December 2015 by lendeliz

We were done with sight-seeing for the day and were searching for cheaper alternatives near 祇園 Gion area for dinner, before heading home. Ms V found a highly recommended 居酒屋 izakaya, and we decided to go try our luck!

When we peeped in, we saw that the bar counters were fully occupied, but still decided to try enquiring for seats. To our pleasant surprise, there were tables available in another room, away from the smokey bar counters.. Happiness!

It was a traditional tatami room, which meant that we had to take off our shoes, and kneel/sit on the floor. The trio of stiff-legged 外人 gaijins ended up sitting with legs in various positions to avoid leg cramps 😛 The food and atmosphere were good enough that we sat through leg cramps and enjoyed our dinner for 2 hours!

Most of the items were ¥390, excluding tax, and of a small portion, which was good, because we wanted to have a variety. For a total of ¥5610 (~S$65) for 3 persons, we left the place really bloated and happy.

Contact:

  • Location: 77 Sueyoshi-cho, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto-fu 605-0085, Japan 〒605-0085 京都府京都市東山区末吉町77
  • Nearest Station: Gion-Shijo Station 祇園四条駅
  • Direction: Take Exit 7 and walk along 四条通 Shijo Dori. Make a left turn at 大和大路通 Yamato Oji Dori. Turn right at the second junction.
  • Website: www.kirinya-foods.jp/kappa
  • Hrs: 6pm – 3am (Tue-Sat), 5pm – 12:30am (Sun)
Categories: Dinner, Japan, Kyoto, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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