16 days Japan winter trip with my LX7

[samtcy]

Just recently (23/1 to 7/2) went on a 16 days trip with the family to visit Tokyo, Kansai, and Hokkaido.
Since my brother and cousin have not seen snow before, so this was a trip for them to experience that.
This will also mark my 10th trip to Japan!

We used a 14 days JR Railpass to cover our day 2 to day 15 of the trip, therefore we didn't take any domestic flight during this trip at all. Long train journeys though. lol.

Even though the 14 days JR railpass costs 46390yen (about S$514), but the total amount of train fares which we used the railpass to cover was a grand total of 152168yen (about S$1737)!! This means that the railpass saved us about S$1.2k !

Here's our trip itinerary:
Day 1: Singapore to Tokyo. Visit J-World at Tokyo. Stay at Tokyo
Day 2: Visit One Piece event at Laguna-gamagori themepark. Stay at Nagoya
Day 3: Visit Kyoto (Fushimi Inari Shrine and Kitano Tenmangu) & Osaka (Dotonbori). Stay at Osaka
Day 4: Visit Nara and Himeji. Stay at Osaka
Day 5: Visit Tokyo. Stay at Tokyo.
Day 6: Visit Echigo-Yuzawa and Karuizawa. Stay at Tokyo
Day 7: Tokyo to Kinugawa onsen. Visit Edo Wonderland. Stay at Kinugawa onsen.
Day 8: Kinugawa onsen to Tokyo. Visit Tokyo (Shibuya). Stay at Tokyo.
Day 9: Tokyo to Hakodate. Visit Hakodate (Red Brick Warehouse and Mt Hakodate). Stay at Hakodate.
Day 10: Visit Onumakoen (Ice-fishing). Hakodate to Noboribetsu. Stay at Noboribetsu onsen.
Day 11: Noboribetsu to Tomamu. Stay at Tomamu
Day 12: Tomamu to Sapporo. Visit Sapporo (Beer museum and Ishiya Choc factory). Stay at Sapporo
Day 13: Visit Otaru. Stay at Sapporo
Day 14: Visit Sapporo Snow Fest. Sapporo to Hakodate. Stay at Hakodate.
Day 15: Hakodate to Aomori. Visit Aomori. Aomori to Tokyo. Stay at Narita Airport.
Day 16: Tokyo to Singapore.

Day 1 (23/1): Singapore to Tokyo. Stay at Tokyo​

Day 1's day breakdown:
0055-0530 Singapore to Taipei via Scoot
0530-0640 Transit at Taipei
0640-1035 Taipei to Tokyo Narita via Scoot
Clear immigration, collect luggage, exchange JR Pass, purchase Keisei train ticket.
1202-1238 Narita Airport to Nippori via Keisei Skyliner(2470yen)
1245-1250 Nippori to Minami-Senju via JR Joban line (160yen)
Check in hotel, deposit luggage.
Mimami-Senju to Nippori via JR Joban line (6mins)
Nippori to Ikebukuro via JR Yamanote Inner Loop line (13mins, 170yen)
1430-1730 Lunch and visit J-World
Dinner at Go Go Curry Ikebukuro
Ikebukuro to Nippori via JR Yamanote Loop line (12mins)


1)Since we took ScootBiz seats, so we had priority boarding. This enabled me to take a rare photo of the plane cabin before it starts to fill up with the other passengers.

2) My in-flight meal (Chicken sausage pasta)

3) Erm, not really that nice though...

4) We took the Keisei Skyliner train from Narita Airport to Nippori station in Tokyo. Takes about 36mins train journey and costs 2470yen. I know that I could have taken the Narita Express as well, but since my destination was Minami-Senju, therefore stopping at Keisei Skyliner's Nippori station is more convenient (and shorter travelling time) for me than Narita Express's Tokyo station.

5) Just like Narita Express train, the Keisei Skyliner train has luggage racks for us to place our luggages instead of using the overhead compartments.

 

[samtcy]

6)At Minami-Senju station. This station is in a residential suburbs with a few budget hotels (but nothing much else).

7)The room which my hubby and I shared for the night. 6800yen for the room for 1 night (meaning 3400yen per pax). There is TV and mini-fridge in the room, but there is no ensuite toilet attached to the room. Every level has a common toilet and shower rooms for guests to use.

8) 2 TVs! 1 of each of us.

9) Yeah, this is now small the room is. Clean and comfortable though.

10) We then headed for Ikebukuro to visit J-World. We saw this J-World's advertisement at the Ikebukuro train station.

 

[samtcy]

11) Walking from Ikebukuro station towards Sunshine City (where J-World is located at)

12) Came across this at an arcade centre.

13) Nearly there...

14) And we are here! J-World. If any of u guys are Shounen Jump manga/anime fans (eg. One Piece, Naruto, Dragonball, Kuroko Basuke...etc), I would recommend that you spend a couple hours here. It is not really a huge place, but it's interesting to have lunch (or dinner) here and walk around.

15) Admission ticket

 

[samtcy]

16) I think this is a bun

17) My brother's Kuroko no Basuke's themed lunch. lol.

18) My Luffy soup and bread

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20) Ichiraku Ramen

 

[samtcy]

21) Chanced upon a newly (somewhat) opened Pokemon store at Sunshine City.

22) Spent some time here...

23) So cute!

 

[macVince]

Looks like a very nice trip. The photos from the LX7 are bright & sharp; must be a good camera for travel, handy size

 

[KYFoong]

Haha Sam, missed your photos...given up on heavy equipment?

 

[samtcy]

Looks like a very nice trip. The photos from the LX7 are bright & sharp; must be a good camera for travel, handy size

Haha Sam, missed your photos...given up on heavy equipment?

Yes, it's a good camera to bring for travels, love the f1.4 lens! It even survived (and worked) the -18 degrees celcius conditions (our day at Tomamu)!
I bought this camera 2nd-hand (think it was from clubsnap) for S$250 just a few days before our trip.
The hubby used the Nikon D90, and I used just LX7 on this trip.

Since we had to move around with our luggage almost every day on this trip, so I decided against bringing my nikon D700 as my shoulders would have killed me not even halfway through the trip.
16 days of lugging my D700 from early morning to night is back breaking, esp since I also carry other stuffs like my itineraries, map printouts, train tickets for 5 of us (and yes, they do weigh abit since it was a large stack), portable charger, e-book reader, mobile phone, pack of emergency medications, wallet, lens pen, mp3 player, 4 spare batteries (1 spare batt which came with the LX7, 3 batteries from my old LX5, and I bought another 1 just before the trip), bottle of water, gloves, ear muffs....etc...

Not given up on my DSLRs, just not on this particular trip.

I did a little exposure adjustment, contrast, and some color adjustments on the photos posted here.
Since I didn't had much time to familiarize myself with the settings and customization on the camera, so the photos tend to be a little low on contrast and color wasn't as vibrant as I would have liked.
I just used auto or aperture priority mode on nearly all of the photos so that I can just snap-and-go chase the trains.

 

[samtcy]

More info about this trip:

Hotels were 77506yen, about S$870 (per pax) which includes 2 nights budget hotels, 9 nights regular business hotels, 2 nights ryokan with breakfast and dinner, 1 night resort and 1 night capsule hotel.

Train fares was a total of 51890yen, about S$580 (per pax), which includes 14 days JR railpass for Day 2 to Day 15, Keisei Skyliner and subways on Day 1, some short non-JR subway rides in Kyoto, Osaka and Sapporo, and the short Tobu train at Kinugawa onsen.

Even though the 14 days JR Pass costs 46390yen (about S$514 per pax) but the total amount of train fares which we used the railpass to cover for those 14 days was 152168yen (about S$1737 per pax)!
So technically speaking, we saved about S$1.2k by using that railpass.

The blue route is roughly the route which we covered by trains on this trip.

We spent about 2hrs up to 5hrs every day on trains.
The 2 days where we spend 5hrs on the trains were on the days where we took 3hr Shinkansen between Tokyo to Aomori, plus 2 hours Ltd Exp train between Aomori to Hokkaido's Hakodate on Day 9 and Day 15.
If counting the additional 1hr onboard Narita Express on Day 15, it was 6hrs on the train on that day.

Rest of the days were usually about 2hrs-3hrs on trains.
Almost all of the trains which we took (except subways) had seat reservations, so we all had seats and didn't need to stand.
There were toilets onboard the trains as well as snacks and drinks sold on the train so it was a comfortable ride watching the scenery from the window.
Sometimes we buy food to eat on the train to save us some time.

Really enjoy taking the trains in Japan.

 

[samtcy]

Day 2 (24/1): Tokyo to Nagoya. Visit Laguna-gamagori themepark. Stay at Nagoya.

This day's itinerary:
0626-0634 Minami Senju to Ueno via JR Joban line
Buy Ekiben from Ueno station's shops
0659-0704 Ueno to Tokyo via Shinkansen
0733-0917 Tokyo to Nagoya via Shinkansen
Deposit luggage at Hotel (Eco Nagoya Hotel)
0956-1020 Nagoya to Toyohashi via Shinkansen
1029-1046 Toyohashi to Mikawa Otsuka via JR Tokaido Local line
1057-1107 Mikawa Otsuka station to Laguna-gamagori themepark
Visit Laguna-gamagori themepark (2150yen admission-only rate)
1638-1648 Laguna-gamagori to Mikawa Otsuka station via bus
1706-1717 Mikawa Otsuka to Toyohashi via JR Tokaido Local line
Made some train reservations from the JR office at Toyohashi station
1746-1815 Toyohashi to Nagoya via Shinkansen
Had dinner at Nagoya station


24) Early morning (6:35am) ekiben shopping at Ueno station.

25) My ekiben. 1300yen.

26) Inside...

27) Although most ekibens are served cold, but sometimes there are hot ekibens. My hubby had always wanted to try a hot one, so this time round he bought a hot ekiben. It was rice with beef. There is a little string at the base of the ekiben where once you pulled it, the ekiben will heat up on its own.

28) Since my ekiben is a cold one, so we came up with this idea of stacking our onigiri and ekibens together so that my hubby's hot ekiben can also help to heat up our food. Didn't worked though. Hahaha.

 

[samtcy]

29) Hubby's hot ekiben. Beef with rice.

30) After depositing our luggage at our hotel at Nagoya, we then headed for Mikawa-Otsuka station to catch a bus to Laguna-gamagori themepark. This is a local train on the JR Tokaido line. As you can see from this pic, there's a toilet on the train.

31) Arrival at Mikawa Otsuka station.

Sometimes, there are special theme events going on at the themepark. This time round, it's One Piece, which is the main reason for our visit to this place.

32) Saw Chopper while walking along the bridge from the bus stop to the themepark's entrance.

33) Inside Laguna-gamagori themepark.

 

[samtcy]

34) Souvenir shop inside Laguna-gamagori

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[samtcy]

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42) Our lunch

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[samtcy]

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[samtcy]

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52) Bought the blue one

 

[samtcy]

53) Had dinner at this Tonkatsu restaurant above Nagoya station's Takashimaya.

54) Katsudon (or is it katsutoji?)

55) Random interesting stuffs while walking back to the hotel

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[samtcy]

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[samtcy]

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62) Our budget hotel for the night

63) My brother's single room (2500yen per night). No ensuite toilet attached to the room. The common toilets are located at every level and the shower rooms are located at the basement.

64) The Twin room which the hubby and I shared (4000yen per room per night, which is 2000yen per pax). Same thing, no ensuite toilet attached to the room. The common toilets are located at every level and the shower rooms are located at the basement.

 

[samtcy]

Day 3: Nagoya to Kyoto. Visit Kyoto and Osaka. Stay at Osaka.

This day's itinerary:
0727-0801 Nagoya to Kyoto via Shinkansen
Deposit luggage at coin lockers at Kyoto station
Bought waffles from Kyoto station
0846-0851 Kyoto to Inari via JR Nara local train
Visit Fushimi Inari Shrine
1019-1024 Inari to Kyoto via JR Nara local train
1035-1045 Kyoto to Imadegawa via Kyoto Subway Karasuma line (260yen)
Imadegawa station to Kitano Tenmangu Shrine via taxi (because wasn't able to board the bus)
Visit Kitano Tenmangu Shrine and monthly flea market
Kitano Tenmangu Shrine to Imadegawa station via taxi
Imadegawa to Shijo via Kyoto Subway Karasuma line (260yen)
Ate at Krispy Kreme donuts at Shijo station
Shijo to Kyoto station via Kyoto Subway Karasuma line (210yen)
Collect luggage from coin lockers
1413-1426 Kyoto to Shin-Osaka via Shinkansen
Check in to hotel room and bought food from convenience store to eat in the room.
Rested for awhile in the room.
1815-1830 Shin-Osaka to Namba via Osaka Subway Midosuji line (240yen)
Dinner at Daruma Kushikatsu outlet at Dotonbori
Shopped at Don Quijote store at Dotonbori
2131-2146 Namba to Shin-Osaka via Osaka Subway Midosuji line (240yen)


65) We came across a waffle shop (Manneken) inside Kyoto station, and absolutely loved their Honey Custard flavour waffle. Each of us bought 1 waffle and we ate it before heading over to Fushimi Inari Shrine at Kyoto.

66) This is actually my 4th or 5th visit to Fushimi Inari Shrine, but I love to visit this place whenever I go Kyoto since it is easy to get to (5mins JR Nara local train from Kyoto station to Inari station) and the torii gates look really nice on photo due to their vibrant colors.

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[samtcy]

After visiting Fushimi Inari Shrine, we headed for Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto. Even though it is lesser known than the popular attractions in Kyoto like Kiyomizudera, Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, Nijo castle...etc...but if you happen to be in Kyoto in mid-end Feb, or on the 25th of the month (any month), then this is 1 shrine I would recommend to pop over for a visit.
Because there are many plum blossoms (different from cherry blossoms though) at Kitano Tenmangu shrine, so there would be many visitors to this place in Feb during the plum blossoms season.
Also, on the 25th of every month (my visit was on 25/1), there will be a flea market outside the shrine.

69) Arriving outside Kitano Tenmangu Shrine after taking a short taxi ride from Imadegawa station because the buses towards Kitano Tenmangu Shrine was all packed due to people visiting the shrine on this day.

70) Cotton candy stall

71) Taiyaki

72) Takoyaki stall

73) Takoyaki