Highlights of Japan

It's been a long while since I last did any recommendations for a city/country, which can prove to be more useful summaries of my trips. I've created a new tag for trip recommendations and will slowly add more entries to them. I realised I've only done summaries for Seoul and Venice so far, so there's probably alot more work to be done. I will do it in point form like what I did for Venice so that it can be a guide that is easier for reading.

Here are some of my experiences/recommendations in general:

• It is probably cheaper to go to Hokkaido by flying to Osaka/Tokyo and then flying to Sapporo via Jetstar. Jetstar's domestic flights can cost below ¥8,000 one-way inclusive of taxes!
• Feast lots! I love sushi, sashimi, crabs, scallops, prawns, ramen, udon, soba, tonkotsu, tempura, shabu shabu, and the list can go on and on. Japan has so much to offer for feasting. Throughout my 19 days in Japan, I hardly get to try all the kinds of food I listed down to try.
• Visit the public bath houses or hot springs. It's quite an experience.
• When you take the JR trains, do consider hopping on to the Limited Express trains. The fare is the same as the normal trains. By waiting just a little longer for the Limited Express trains, you might still end up reaching your destination earlier. It's faster because they stop at significantly less stations.
• If you love seafood, you MUST visit Hokkaido.

Maps & Fave Places

I've made more of my Google custom maps public to share with everyone and you can check the maps link on the top or on the right side of this blog. I haven't made my Hong Kong custom maps available for public cos it's still kinda messy though. However, I've already made all my Japan maps available for public, but do note that not all the marked locations are places I've been to. Some of them are just results of researches over the web.

Seoul (Jan 2013)

Over the short 1 week trip, I managed to visit several tourist spots in Seoul, especially over the weekend.

I went to the famed Dongdaemum wholesale markets which are open from late morning to around 5am. It was quite an eye-opener seeing so many malls and buyers with big baggages.

Experiences from Seoul

I went on a short work trip to Seoul just last week and managed to visit quite a number of the popular tourist destinations over the weekend. The temperature was around the range of -12 to 5 °C and I was pretty happy with my down jacket with warm pockets from Uniqlo.

Highlights of Venice

I'm going to do some backlogs and provide some recommendations for some of the cities I've visited in recent years. For a start, I shall begin with Venice since it is easier & shorter to write about compared to Rome or Paris. Hope these posts help as references for anybody who stumbled upon this blog.