Japan [Day 1 - Departure] & Preparation

Hello peeps, I think it's best if I write about my not-so-recent trip to Japan now before everything in my memory fades away. In this very first post, I'm going to write about our preparation to Japan including the costs and itinerary. This trip was joined by my best friend Lukman since the beginning. Emie joined us later after we had covered Japan halfway.

So, what are the things that we need to prepare before the trip? As usual, planning itinerary is very important as well as making reservation for our accommodations there. 

Flight tickets:

AirAsiaX

Kuala Lumpur (KUL) - Haneda Airport (HND)

Kansai International Airport (KIX) - Kuala Lumpur (KUL)

(Airline fare and taxes RM650 + RM200 for meals and return luggage) = RM850

I brought a couple of foldable bags inside my backpack, because I knew that I would buy a lot of souvenirs and toys.

JR Pass (7 days)

Japanese Rail Pass is purchased outside Japan and sold exclusively to foreigners only. I purchased mine at Japanese Travel Bureau (JTB) in Aeon Mall Shah Alam. The price for a 7-day pass at that moment was RM1,100. This pass allows us to board unlimited JR trains and selected bullet trains (shinkansen). Read more on JR Pass website here. Please bring along your passport when purchasing your pass. This pass is very useful if you are traveling inter regions. If you are visiting Tokyo or Osaka only, you don't have to purchase this pass. They sell other type of passes as well which can be purchased in Japan.

Annual Leave

I took 9 days of my annual leaves for this trip. Luckily my boss was okay with it. Thank you boss! We're going in May therefore we were expecting summer there.

Here is our basic itinerary:

Day 1 - Kuala Lumpur - Haneda Airport

Day 2 - Tokyo

Day 3 - Tokyo

Day 4 - Tokyo - Yokohama - Kyoto

Day 5 - Kyoto & Nara

Day 6 - Kyoto - Nagasaki

Day 7 - Nagasaki - Fukuoka - Osaka

Day 8 - Hiroshima & Himeji

Day 9 - Kobe & Osaka

Day 10 - Osaka

Day 11 - Kansai International Airport - Kuala Lumpur

This trip was quite long, should I say my longest backpacking trip to date? Previously I had been travelling the world on a short trip only, about 3 to 5 days per trip. Since this Japan trip is going to consume 11 days, therefore proper planning is essential.

Accommodations

1.   First Cabin, Haneda Airport - 1 night - RM190

2.   Liyan's house, Kita-ku, Tokyo (AirBnB) - 2 nights - RM160

3.   Chita Guest Inn, Kyoto (HostelBookers). - 2 nights - RM257

4.   Nagasaki Orion Hotel, Nagasaki (Agoda) - 1 night - RM110

5.   Hotel Sunplaza 2 Annex (Agoda) - 4 nights - RM285

All prices are per pax. All of these are backpackers-styled hotel/hostel to reduce our budgets. Except for First Cabin which is quite a proper capsule hotel. Saje nak try walaupun mahal. Lol

Total : RM997/pax for 10 nights

PREP TOTAL: RM2,947

Cash

RM3000 for food, souvenir, toys and shopping.

GRAND TOTAL: approximately RM6,000

Packed Food

I brought some buns, daging dendeng and sambal tempe kering. Sedap oh! I ate the buns for breakfast while dendeng and sambal we ate them with onigiri. 

DAY 1 - KUALA LUMPUR to HANEDA

Our flight to Haneda was at 2:30pm and departed from klia2. I met Lukman at McDonald's as he had a morning flight from Johor Bahru to klia2 earlier. He was having sundae there but pity him because he had terrible mouth ulcers. He couldn't eat hard food though. I hoped he gets well soon in Japan.

Happy faces

A-must-capture photo

The flight journey took 7 hours. It was a long flight. Luckily we had pre-ordered some in-flight meals. I had nasi lemak, enough to fill my stomach until we reached Tokyo later. We landed in Haneda at 10:30pm. The immigration officers there were so efficient. When they saw us coming, they opened new counters to speed up the process. Since we had no check-in luggage, we directly went outside and took bus to Terminal 1. The First Cabin is located there, thus we need to take the bus. The weather was so cold that night, but not as cold as winter time. Before we boarded the bus, we had the chance to drop by Lawson, which is a convenience store to grabbed some salmon and shrimp onigiri for our dinner. Onigiri cost around 100 yen each.

Sky

Alhamdulillah, we reached Japan safely

First Cabin, our stay for tonight

Small but comfy

We checked in First Cabin and cleaned ourselves. We had dinner in beds before we dozed off. We couldn't be more excited for tomorrow's adventure. Tokyo here we come!