Hubby told us of his month long China trip some time in June and both lil' one & I are so 心痒痒 wanting to travel too. Both che-che and hubby got the chance to travel and we don't have, not fair! 🤣 I keep getting emails from SIA about their Spontaneous Escapes offers. 30% off to redeem the Saver award tickets. Sounds really tempting but I can't just go for a trip like that.
Fast forward. Sometime in early July I was checking on my Krisflyer miles and thought maybe I should redeem a return ticket. However the redemption doesn't work on a flexible timing. And even so some redemption tickets can be hard to get. Ehh….Japan can be extremely hard to get.
Destination : Korea or Japan. More geared towards Japan - I've been wanting to go Kochi. Maybe summer will be a good time for me to go so I can buy lots of yuzu products. Can stock up my yuzu air freshener which is always so impossible to find when I'm in Japan.
So eventually I did use up my miles (able to fly to Perth/Darwin if I redeem my miles) to offset payment which to many will say it’s giving poor value. I do have a bulk of miles expiring in the next 6 months, and not foreseeing any other trips to use it I might as well use it now.
🗓️ Dates to travel
Coz little one has to take her exams (last paper on 9th Sep) so I need to work with the remaining timing. She only has a week break after that.
Date to avoid : Japan - silver week 19/9 to 23/9. School would have started so no way I would still be in Japan. Anyway we have a cello concert to attend on 19th
Korea - Chuseok 24/9 to 26/9
PROCRASTINATED and when I decide to buy noticed price keeps going up. At one point it went so high to $1800++ crazy! Told lil one if it continues this way then maybe we have to go ICN. But you know our heart and mind is geared towards Japan.
Learnt about dynamics shit and perhaps I was the one who keeps checking the price and they thought there was a demand so increase price..
Weather
Don't you hate it when it gets too hot or too wet? Unfortunately the timing that she can go in September is the peak typhoon season. (I would prefer to go in October when fall foliage blanketing the streets/plateau in vibrant colours.) Ehhh.... back in 2024 we had rainy days in Korea. Haha! Another choice is to move up north to Hokkaido where I can totally avoid the typhoon season. We have talked about wanting to go Hokkaido out of winter season before. But it means a whole load of researching and planning again. And 8 days? Travelling would take some time off coz I need to transit at the airport to fly to Chitose.
Unless we change the destination to Australia - which is winter. She did ask to go Australia (I was thinking of Melbourne she's never been before) but only 8 days??
Aiyah! Just make do with the stupid weather. This is the only chance I can go to the alpine to see the lake properly if it doesn’t rain there.
BOOKED! TICKETS SECURED! 🤗
On 2nd Aug at 9+ pm finally booked the tickets with my miles. My miles can maximally redeem a saver round trip to Perth/Darwin or if I want my Japan trip I can redeem a one way trip on Business Class but … ok so like always so restricted to dates. Now I can go coz hubby is not in SIN so I might as well go away too. We won’t even know what life will be like it in the near future.
Extra request - 🎂
Half an hour after booking tickets, I emailed SQ to request for a birthday cake for my nottie girl with proof. I'm so excited. For years I’ve presented countless birthday cakes, anniversary cakes to passengers. Finally this is the only time my family is the recipient.
“I thought you said you have the itinerary already?”
11th Aug : supposed to go JB with the SQ girls but had to postpone so I took the time to quickly get down to planning. Lil’ one was at home and she exclaimed “I thought you said you have the itinerary already?”
Although I have the itinerary, I can follow what I did but there are adjustments to be made. I don't travel to NGO that often to have the schedule timing at the back of my head. In 2025, I stayed overnights in Nagoya before I made my way to GH so yah I know there's bus to go there. But (1) I needed the timing again coz when I left my hotel it was early. Now I'm flying in on the day and making my way directly to GH. No point wasting one night in Nagoya coz we only have 8 nights I need to save as much time as I can.
Hey! maybe I don't have to go to Meitetsu Nagoya to take the bus to GH. I shall take the train to Gifu. Then it means more checking and checking to ensure everything is ok. Factor in some delay, I wouldn't know how long immigration will take. I can run to the train station in Airport but do i want to rush like siao on the first day of my trip? Nor do I want to arrive at ungodly hours in a quite secluded place.
Sigh...whichever bus I'm taking from Nagoya or from Gifu, none of them stop in the plaza. So I'll need to arrange a taxi to pick us up.
So yah, though I have the idea I need to re-check timing. It's not like I have a car where timing is flexible.
11th Aug
Needed a break just thinking about the transportation to GH from airport. Couldn’t find how to buy tickets for Gifubus. Last year it was clear cut for me just getting Meitetsu bus tickets. But this time, somehow although I want to remain fluid with timing but I’ll have problem getting from the drop-off point to the main town area. It’s quite far off and I’m partially on the expressway which I can’t walk or maybe if I can - go underpass to where the taxi driver dropped me off wrongly last year. Sigh.... let me use my small brain on other matters.
Things accomplished today, 11th
(1) Being cheapo I compared prices across various platforms - Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia and the hotel directly.
Settled hotel in Toyama - same hotel and I joined the member so I get another ¥200 discount 😂. I opted for no cleaning, not sure if I can tahan the mess from the snacks, ice-cream and rubbish wrappers 🤣. Hands up 🙆♀️ if you’re just like us when travelling in Japan (we do the same in US too!) Che-che and I endured 2 nights without cleaning before. I might 🏳️ and pay ¥1000 for per cleaning.
Hotel membership
I told Che-che to apply as a APA member since she likes to make her countless trips to Japan. I don’t think she did. I joined Comfort so hopefully I get a chance to use it other times. Aiyah! Anyway membership is free so…
(2) Bought the Alpine Route ticket. I hope the timing is sufficient for us. For sure we won’t get lost coz pavement will be clear, no snow. I’m also hoping I can spend some time outside instead of getting down from one and queue for another immediately. AND I MUST DO THE POSTCARD THING. Must remember to pack sunhat, UV sleeves etc.. coz will be at 2450m, closer to the ☀️ than from the city.
I scored 2 early bird tix @ ¥17600 each (34 days later ticket) Last year I paid ¥19320 for 18 days later ticket
After that had to send che-che to the airport so I stopped all bookings.
18th Aug
Kapo - coz I want to make sure nobody takes the middle seat between us. $1992.40 for return tix. Siao!
-booked hotels for next 2 places. Joined to be a member in SANCO-inn coz maybe I foresee myself using this hotel in the near future. Haha! Or maybe I should buy a home here. Ok that’s really me joking coz I don’t have that kind of money to spare.
- booked the taxi from GH hotel to the IC which is far away. Booked online and payment by cash only on the day. Costs only ¥350. Now I know I need to tell taxi driver to stop at the correct place towards Shirakawago not Nagoya. I wouldn’t want to run to the bus stop again, not with lil’ one.
- I will need to ask to book a taxi to go up the castle again when we’re there. Should I also book a taxi to go to Monet’s Pond, an hour away? Think Uber price will be about S$100 one way? Abit crazy. Nah! Maybe next time i can consider driving then will KIV this spot and many other spots.
- made the 2 buses reservations from GH —> Shirakawago —> Toyama
I can’t make reservation for the bus from Chubu Aiport to GH as it’s risky to make a fixed timing booking. Bus from Gifu to GH is by Gifubus and they don’t take reservations, I checked with them. At least there’s this bus that goes all the way into the town centre. It’s a small quiet place, really! Wonder why a week ago I didn't SEE this bus service?
- the previous hotel i stayed in GH is fully booked? But I managed to find one just opposite and booked it today
23rd Aug
Dunno busy with what around the house and then got so lazy and didn’t want to tire my brain for the last 4 days. Anyway coz I was also out of the house so didn’t have time.
Finally booked the journey back from Toyama to Nagoya. Decided to go with the express bus, I have an account from last year and earned some points again but not sure what I can even do with the points 😂. Make another trip using the buses again. Yah I’m kinda hooked on taking buses instead of train, my solo trip last year has made me change my mind.
Two options to go back :
1) The Hida train which I took last year. I took a later train and scenery wise is quite ok. Journey is 4h 6mins for Hida6 (dep 0758hrs arr 1204hrs). ¥10,320/pax from japantravel.navitime, a 3rd party website.
https://e5489.jr-odekake.net/e5489/ibpc/CBTopMenuPC is the official JR west to go in. ¥7590 from official site
2) Express bus costs ¥4300/pax and takes 3h 40mins. As for scenery most will be on expressway, so it’s more like “oh yah Shirakawago is somewhere there [points] but you can’t see it” . Views will be better if seated on the left side of the bus when travelling from Toyama to Nagoya. Problem is the luggage size 🤭
Most importantly both pick up and drop off points I’m familiar with so don’t need to reccee.
The final choice - BUS. Coz I need to save money, which turns out I’m also saving time as well so… Went to book and I couldn’t select seats 😭, I 🙏 we get assigned the left side. And …… processing ... duh! we were assigned the right side 🤦🏻♀️!!
I plan to takubin the luggage both ways, I don’t want the bus drivers to hate me with the huge 32” luggage. We’re allowed in total 2 luggages coz there’s 2 of us. The huge luggage I’m bringing measure 171cm so I still fall short of the 240cm restriction. Altho Japanese are generally polite but I’ve seen drivers being unhappy and impatient with other tourists before when dealing with their luggages so I do not want to take the risk to get scolded 😬.
Anyway after arriving in NGO I can’t check in, so might as well let them have my luggage delivered over, I save the trouble to go back to hotel to drop the luggage and come out again. But maybe I do need to go back to put my/our haversack/s first before chiong-ing whatever shopping this girl wants to do. My luggage will be heavy after all the お土産 shopping so takubin will carry the weight for me. Lil’ one already said she will buy a lot of soba back and dunno what else she will pick up in the new places. I might pick up another 4 bottles of pudding in Shirakawago to make my collection 12. I will need to stuff myself with pudding 🤣. So much effort in collecting rubbish.
27th Aug : Omg! Torlong when we go it won’t rain until so jialat!
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