Journey to the East: Day 18 Hong Kong

The final day of the holiday, we went to the bank for some errands then Kowloon Park and saw more birds and an exhibition.

My cousin had to cancel lunch, so we had lunch freedom, we grazed along, ticked off as many things as we can for lunch.  Met up with my sister and we went to the Flower market and the bird market. 

The cousin finally caught up with us, we had a coffee before we went for dinner with my other cousins.  We had an Alaskan king crab!

We went back to the guesthouse and went onto the fast bus into the airport. 

Journey to the East: Day 17 Lamma

We went to Lamma Island for a day.  It was a fairly warm day for hiking.  We had young coconuts by the beach.

We left Lamma viewing the Sunset and we went to Aberdeen seafood for dinner and got the fast bus home.

We planned to do some snappy shopping, but it turned out to be less snappy than our liking.  We went back to the guesthouse to finalise our packing.

Journey to the East: Day 16 Hong Kong

We went to see one of my friends at Sung Wong Toi.  We had some snacks for lunch before our late lunch.  We checked out 618 Shanghai Street before our lunch.

After lunch, I suggested to go to Langham Place to show off the long escalators.  After that, we went to walk around the Harbour to see the Christmas lights.  

Journey to the East: Day 15 Macau

We went to get a ferry to Macau.  I didn't want any time pressure, so I didn't prebook, so we ended up waiting much longer at the terminal for the crossing.  When we got there, the immigration queue was very long.  The bus I wanted to take also took its time to turn up.  By the time we got to Coloane, it was time for lunch.

My sister gravitated towards to a bakery for a Pastel de Nata.  We walked around Coloane, had some lunch, saw the ship yard museum.

We went to Taipa on a taxi, we saw the old Portuguese houses, fireworks factory and more museum, then we took the new light rail to Macau.

We saw the museum in Barra, and walked to the Mandarin House and finally to the ruin of St Paul's.  My to my sister's distress, we did not go to any casinos.

I was determined we would have Macanese food, so we walked to the dinner location.  We finished dinner and walked to catch the bus to immigration and onto the coach back to Hong Kong.  The immigration queue was also long in Hong Kong.  At last, we got on the fast bus back to the guest house.

Journey to the East: Day 14 Hong Kong

I woke up early, so I went and found a pineapple bun.

We met up with some family friends for clay pot rice for lunch.  We went to hang out with at the flat and has a black forest Christmas cake.  We went to see Western Market, except it was closed for refurbishment.

We then took the tram to to meet up with my friends to go to Zoological and Botanical Gardens.  We came back and had a bubble tea before we went to dinner, modern Vietnamese.

We also managed to swap room to a nicer room. 

Journey to the East: Day 13 Hong Kong

I thought we were going to have a rest day, my mom told us we need to be out by 8:20 in the morning.

After breakfast with some relative, we went to Mei Ho House for their exhibition, then we went back to the guesthouse for a little rest.  We dug into the Australian fruits from my sister.

Once we mustered some energy, we walked around a Chinese department store, then met up with my mom and sister.  We burnt some incense for my dad. We walked home via Temple Street.

On Christmas day, we had roast goose for dinner.

Journey to the East: Day 12 Travels

We both opted for toasties for breakfast.  We packed everything and left Kokura.  We went back to Hakata to do some shopping. We took the opportunity to do the Shinkansen again to Kumamoto and went back to the same conveyor belt sushi.  We took the Shinkansen back to Hakata, bought some dinner picnic and went back to the airport.

At the airport, I tried to spend down the change so I bought some hand cream and some snacks.

After we landed in Hong Kong, I went to my friend's to pick up my luggage before we went to the guesthouse, it was very late and we were very tired, and the room was awful, we were just too tired to complain.

Journey to the East: Day 11 Kokura

The hotel came with breakfast.  The rice burger was a little weird and a bit rich.  

We went to the train station hoping to go to another town, but due to "passenger incident", we stayed in Kokura.  We took two stops on the monorail to a local market, which was interesting.  We went to two craft shops, did some shopping.

We got some lunch from the department store and picnic at the park, before going to Kokura Castle and Gardens.  We slowly walked home and had a little rest before going to do more shopping and have a DIY okonomiyaki dinner.

Journey to the East: Day 10 Beppu

We had a good night rest in the tatami room.  Breakfast was included, so we had some Japanese breakfast, fish, rice and miso for the breakfast.

We left everything in the locker and took a train to Kamegawa to start out hot spring walk.  We were distracted by the sea, so we first walked to the beach, then to their new fish market.  We made a mistake on the direction, so it took us a long time before we get back to the right side of town.

We walked up to see the Tatsumaki Jigoku, which was quite impressive.  Followed by Chinoike Jigoku, which I took the opportunity of the foot bath.

We walked up and over the hill, stopped for some local dried citrus workshop for a sample.  We hiked up the hill for a castle.  Kifune Castle has a nice view and a lucky money snake, the entry fee included a money blessing service, so let see if it works.

We continue to walk to find food, and we gave in and ate at a 7-Eleven.  We continue, we decided I would not be able to have my mud bath.  We had a spring steamed egg and a pork bun at Umi's cafe.  We decided against the Umi Jigoku and Kamado Jigoku as they were both full of visitors, and went to Oniishi Bozu Jigoku instead.  I once again took the advantage of the foot bath.

We took a bus back to Beppu, had a coffee and chestnut cake and got on the next train to Kokura.

It as a night hotel, and we were in early, so we did more the laundry for the rest of the trip.  We went to a local chained restaurant and ticked off a lot of the food.  We ordered a botamochi, which is an inside out mochi, it was a little weird.

Journey to the East: Day 9 Aso

We took a themed train Aso Boy! to Aso. It was a cute little train with child friendly facilities and all female attendances.  The mountain journey was scenic.

Only when get got there, we know the volcano crater is shut for visitor due to heavy fog.  We went to have some lunch ramen at a little shop, shopped at their farm shop for snacks, snacked at their tatami room and got on the next train to Beppu.

The train to Oita is also scenic.  Oita and Beppu were both very busy, we wasn't sure why.  We check into the hotel, the receptionist explained to us that there was a firework exhibition tonight.  I went to their Onsen, hot spring. I was the second person using the hot spring and left before the next mother and toddler in. We went out to look for food, we found a supermarket, so we bought an array of food, including Hokke mackerel, sushi platter, mochi, etc.  We warmed them up and ate them in our room.

We then walk around town to check out the locker provision, did some shopping, and settled in for some fireworks.  It was quite impressive, we had a good view from our room and it went on for 45 minutes. Bonus!

Journey to the East: Day 8 Kumamoto

Our rail passes started today.  We took the Shinkansen, bullet train, to Kumamoto.  It was fast, so fast that when we get on the train, before we sit down, it was already moving.

Our hotel is directly next to the station, so we walked through the Christmas market and dropped off our luggage.  We found some lunch at the train station mall before we went to the castle.  

We took the tram to the castle.  It is a nice big castle, damages from 2016 earthquake are still being repaired.  We walked back via additional temples and a bonus botanical garden.

We made a mistake in resting in the hotel and did some shopping at the electronic store before going to dinner.  The conveyor belt sushi restaurant queue was very long when we got there.  We did a lot of shopping whilst we wait.  We were starving by the time we were seated.  The food was very good though.

Journey to the East: Day 7 Fukuoka

We got some marked down instant congee from the convenience store the night before, so that was my breakfast.  Sarah had opted from a melon bun, slightly reassemble pineapple bun.

We took a coach to Dazaifu, the coach and the bus station was full of people!  When we got there, Dazaifu is also full of people!  I found a little soba restaurant for our lunch.

We explored Dazaifu and the Kyushu museum.  We made sure we had one of those fresh made plum mochi before we left.  We went back for some yakisoba, fried noodle dinner.  We did a little bit of shopping before going home.  One of the shops we went to as a 100-yen store, except I didn't know, so I asked how much things are, and they told me 100-yen...  We also found some granola for Sarah.

We got everything dried up and ready for Kumamoto the next day!

Journey to the East: Day 6 Fukuoka

We went to Gion area of Hakata, aka old Hakata, which is only around the corner from our hotel.  It is fully of temples,  We spent all morning there, along the way, we came across fishball workshop, with free sample, a kimono workshop, etc.

Royal Steamed Breadroll Place!

Before we crashed out, we went into this little one-chef restaurant and had some lunch.  Not a single English word in sight. 

We wandered to the pier for some ice-cream and roasted sweet potato.  Wandered through a Christmas market and found the yatai, food trucks, for some dinner. Yatai was an experience, one that we would unlikely repeat.

We went home on the subway, we didn't know the machine send the tickets out stacked.  I had to bother the station working, who said no to English, I spoke in English anyway...

So much for a "shorter" day, we did some laundry in preparation for the next leg of the holiday.

Journey to the East: Day 5 Fukuoka

We got up early for an early flight to Fukuoka.  We were exhausted.  The taxi driver was chatty. We had time to have some McDonald's breakfast before boarding the plane.  

Before noon, we landed in Fukuoka.  I had to use my Japanese right the way.  It is always polite to ask if they speak English before speaking English to them anyway.  It took us a few minutes to get all the SIMs working, we validated our rail pass and went into town.  The Fukuoka tourist board keeps trying to sell us chive offal hot pots...

We were early to the hotel, so we just went to the hotel and dropped of the luggage then found some food. With limited brain power, I went to the chain beef bowl place, somewhere with little thinking required.

We found enough energy to take a local train to go to the Buddha, which was nice.  We came back the long way and went to another chain restaurant, more Japanese required.

Journey to the East: Day 4 Hong Kong

My friend told me about the Jiao Festival, so we went. This one happens once in ten years!  It was interesting.  Similar celebration happens yearly in other villages/islands.

We went to get some lunch then we changed our plan from BBQ to JL and we finally settled to go see General Che in the other side of the NT.  Then we went to have adolescent pigeons.

We walked a lot on the day, but we got home in good time to pack for Japan.

Journey to the East: Day 3 Hong Kong

We dropped the luggage off at my friend's.  Little do we know, it would turn out be a long day.

We went to a bank to get some Yen, the we had some lunch and bought some mochi.  We went onto two museums, get an additional Japanese SIM card, bought some Octopus and try to sort out my old card. It has been a long and productive day.  Except it is not yet over.

We caught up with another friend for some dinner.  I thought it was be a Korean BBQ, but it turned out to be a Taiwanese BBQ.  It was a buffet roast meat dinner, which was fun.  I have bumped some Japanese changes from my friend, hoping to ease the cash issue. Then we even went to Nina Tower for the view before going home. 

Journey to the East: Day 2 Hong Kong

It was not the most comfortable flight.  Both of use barely slept.  On the other hand, I watched the whole of Series 5 of Astrid.

We landed, the eSIM works, however my Octopus has decided to fail and the airport customer service does not sell normal Octopus, we took a bus with cash, shock horror.  We found our way to our hotel, a long awaited hot shower and a cup of tea.  We found some dinner in the shopping mall underneath the hotel.  By the time we went to Cafe De Coral, the top favourites have already been sold out.

We have to unpack everything and repack everything before we can settle in, because we were handing over our luggage to my friend's until Christmas eve when we get back from Japan.

Journey to the East: Day 1 Airports

We did the final departure checks and we got into our pre-booked taxi, he only took cash, luckily we were prepared.  Followed by pre-booked coach.  We got into Heathrow in good time for a M&S lunch.  It is very confusing when they put the Christmas specials next to the meal deals that isn't in the meal deal.

The flight to Frankfurt is delayed, so we had extra time in Heathrow.  When we got to Frankfurt, we had hours to kill, and we were lucky to find a light supper before boarding. I was hoping to get TGTG, but they were all available much later.

We got on the plane and got our slippers and set for the night.

Journey to the East: Day 0

We have packed everything ready for the journey.  We even printed out my plan, with all the barcodes, reference number, addresses in case technology fails us.  We double checked our different cash.

eSIM Experiment II

I found another eSIM, and it seems to be working better. It is strange to have to rely on something intangible.

Manual Splitting

I only just remember that the app takes a cut on a split ticket.  When it is my own money, maybe I should have manually split it to save on their commission...

Spirit of Christmas Markets

I think I finally understand the spirit of Christmas Markets: day time drinking...

Missing Baby Jesus Figurines

I mentioned about the missing baby jesus figurine, and someone implied that Jesus wasn't stolen, just not been born yet... If that is the case, all Nativity play will not have a Jesus either...

Knife Sharpening

I have been meaning to sharpen my knives.  There are only so many times you can hone it.  Luckily a new guy at the Repair Cafe has offered sharpening service, and everyone brought their gear in.  They are now much better. 

Swimming Gala

I was going to do a bit of swimming, but the local swimming gala meant I went home dry. I cannot possibly ring up every time before I go... Such inconvenience in life.

Seven Necesssities

I am surprised to learn water isn't on the list.  But I suppose if you don't have water, you cannot make tea. 

eSIM Experiment

Part of the preparation, I am sorting out some eSIMs.  It is a learning experience.  Luckily my tuition hasn't been too expensive...

Wendy's

I took the opportunity to try to Wendy's in England.  It is very boring, it was nothing to write home about. I won't bother again.

Shoes Shopping Spree

When you see something you like, you snap it.  As it happens, I bought three pairs of shoes in two weeks. I think I can finally permanently retire the old shoes.

Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate shopping is not as simple one may think.  As it turns out, almost all the hot chocolate is made with milk.  Especially the posh expensive stuff.

You have to get the "instant" stuff that has milk powder if you don't want to mess with milk.  

Free Food Samples

We were surprised by the number of free samples available on our weekend trip.  There were some new, weird food products.  I am not sure about the savoury stuffed mochi.