Japan Trip (Part 1)
The first blog in April 2017, I like to share about my holiday in Japan last time.
Japan is a timeless place which fusion of modern and ancient era. We can see an old temple beside a high sophisticated building. People in here has (almost) no sleep time. As you can hear, Japan is known for high working hour. Most people like to work late. I heard from my friend who lives there, that sometimes people like chattered about their neighbor if they see the husband come home earlier than common office hour or when they do not use a working style (suit with shirt). Kinda scary for me and my husband because he uses to wear t-shirt and jeans to the office (maybe people will talking about him all the time if we live there. :p)
Japanese also seems very stylish. It is like seeing a fashion show on the road, people clothes are so neat, sleek and fashionable. I can assume appearance is very important for Japanese.
The reason why I go to Japan in April is because my husband want to see the cherry blossom or sakura blooming.
Yeap, based on the forecast in Japan, early April were full bloom for sakura in some cities.
Mostly, I always book hotel or flight for holiday 6 months earlier, but this time I booked only one and a half months earlier because this is an unplanned holiday. As we know, booking earlier will give us benefit like cheaper flight and also more availability of the place to stay.
Based on this, I like to share our itinerary and the cost, in case you are going to Japan next year when sakura is blooming. For arranging the itinerary, I used Trello app. It is make you easy in arranging the plan because you can make many cards and inside the card you can add list of your destination or things to do. You can check the detail explanation here http://blog.trello.com/all-a-board-plan-a-vacation-with-trello.
Let's started with the flight and accommodation (in SGD, Ringgit Malaysia, and Yen Japan currency).
First, I booked Malaysia Airlines round trip trough Traveloka because it is the cheapest tickets for 1-12 April 2017. It cost $584.16/ adult and $441.68/ child (including meal and luggage 30 kg/person).
Second, for overnight in Malaysia, I booked trough Agoda and I booked apartment trough Homeaway and Airbnb for our stay in Japan because I liked to wash our clothes and cook for breakfast to reduce the cost. Also, hotel is more expensive for that limited space and facilities.
Malaysia
Since our flight was in the morning, I liked to find a place that near airport and have 3 beds. (Fyi, I had this holiday with my brother-in-law). Since hotel at Kuala Lumpur Int. Airport (terminal KLIA 1) was so expensive and didn't have a room with 3 beds and it required us to book 2 rooms, I decided to booked a hotel outside the airport but not too far. I decided to stay at Sri Enstek Hotel, it is 15 minutes away from KLIA. The cost for one night with 3 beds is $58.3 (plus booking fee $1.63). The hotel also provides airport transfer with RM 11/ person but you have to reserve first at the receptionist. In the morning, they also provides breakfast. Not kinda common hotel that provides variation menu, this hotel only provide fried rice, fried noodle and bread with jam. But it is enough for transit hotel. It also provides hot coffee and tea. The taste is not bad, enough to full your tummy. Go to KLIA at 7 am, and arrived there at 7.30 am. No traffic jam because according to the driver, the area is house complex of airport worker.
Please be remind that Malaysia Airlines has a long queue in the morning and they drop bag counter (for self-check in) still closed, so I should go to manual check-in. Fortunately, they had separated line queue for the passenger who travels with a baby.
Finally, I was on the plane, it takes 7 hours to Narita airport. Overall, I like the service, they provide 1x meal and 1x snack. Really enjoy and excited the journey.
Note:
Always spare time 2-4 hours at KLIA airport because of the check in and immigration queue sometimes very long. It takes 20 minutes-1 hours to queue. Some gates also need to be reached by aero train. So always spare time rather than late.
Never book budget airport Taxi if you bring luggage more than 3 bags. They tend to reject you. So you should ask for premium airport Taxi (it seems the same type of sedan of budget taxi, but don't know what is the different between it. Maybe it just extra cost for tourist with larger and many bags) and it cost only RM 50 meanwhile budget taxi cost RM 40 to Sri Enstek hotel.
Always prepared local currency where you are going to transit. You did not want to get lost or starving while your transit because you did not have some money right? But if you forget to change it, you can exchange it at the airport, there are some money changers but the rate is not as good as in your hometown.
If you want to use this airport taxi, you can find the booth near the out gate of the terminal and make a reservation. Please be remind that if you book above 12 am there will be additional midnight surcharge.
Always booking Agoda from mobile-app because it is cheaper than booking on the web browser and have an account because they will give you more discount and insider deal price.
Transit within more than 6 hours shall make you to taking your luggage and go trough immigration clearance. Please be prepared if you required having a transit visa.
(to be continued...)
