Tokyo : Getting there and F&E itinerary

Since small , I have always been amaze with Japan and one of my wishlist is to visit the whole of Japan and experience it's culture. I was fortunate enough to visit Japan ( Tokyo ) when I was 7 years old but I hardly could remember anything from that family trip. It was not until 2006 where I manage to visit Japan again ( experiencing winter, spring and summer ) for work but what I could remember from those trips were ...........

Waking up ->WALK->train ->WALK->business meetings ->WALK-> train ->WALK-> business meeting ->WALK->train ->WALK->HOTEL->sleep ( Lunch and Dinner is slotted between the WALK )

Pic1: My First Shinkansen (Bullet Train) experience

Pic 2: Another Shinkansen Series

IF we are lucky to have a weekend, it will be only time for sight seeing and on one of those trips, we tried to do Tokyo in a day and another day to Nikko. But I was glad to be able to meet up with my counterpart face to face, given a preview trip of Japan and also trips coinciding with best friends business trip.

Pic 3: Odaiba Park


Pic 4: Tokyo Tower


Pic 5: Dinner in a Costume play shop in Shibuya


Pic 6: Dinner at Sumitomo Building at 59th Floor


Pic 7 : View from Park Hyatt Hotel.


Pic 8: Shibuya


Pic 9: Takinogawa


Pic 10: Odaiba

Pic 11: Raw Horse Meat experience. ( I did not take it mainly because I don't eat myself )

Pic 12: Nikko shrine


Pic 13: Hard Rock Yokohama

It was not until 2009 Feb, that I manage to plan a vacation to Tokyo ( 7 days/6nights Tokyo + Hakone ) and fulfilled part of my wishlist ( Note: wish list is whole of Japan eg Osaka, Kyoto,Nara, Hokkaido etc ) and I will share with you how I planned out my trip. Let me first share with you a bit about Japan.

Japan has a land area of ~375km2 but have a estimated population of 128M people in 2009. It is an island located on the pacific ocean on the east of China and Korea. Though physically small, it has manage to carve itself into the world as the 2nd largest economy in the world in terms of GDP.

Just in Tokyo itself, there is ~35M people living in the city and it has been recorded as the worlds most populous metropolitan and the worlds most largest metropolitant economy. In 2009, Tokyo is recorded as the world's 5th most expensive city in the world.

However travelling to Japan for Malaysians might not be as expensive as you think if you are on a budget trip. A lot of planning to be done upfront to know which season do you want to visit Japan & location where you plan to go to as you will find out later that transportation around Japan contributes to one of the highest portion of the trip budget.

I have decided to travel to Japan in Feb2009 ( Winter and also low season ) partly because I love cold weather and also it falls in the YJW ( Yokoso Japan Week ). Normally, you will get discounts ranging from hotel stays to transportation , entrace fee and also food. However if your trip objective is to see Sakura ( cherry blossom ) then, you will need to plan your trip around late March Early April when it blooms. Normally the Sakura's will bloom from West Japan towards North Japan in Spring.

Pic 14: Sakura Full Bloom at Ueno Park

Pic 15: Sakura Full Bloom at Ueno Park

Pic 16: Sakura Full Bloom at Ueno Park

Early this year (2009), my intention was to have my vacation in Macau/Hong Kong but I was amaze on the package offered from Hong Kong to Japan by Cathy Pacific (CX), Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA). (Note: Back then, the economy impact was not fully felt and fuel was all time high but then I do recomend to survey packages from HK since Air Asia flight kind of cost ~ RM300 return if you catch it during promotion when you book way in advance). I highly recomend the package because it includes 2 nights accomodation which could be quite pricy if you plan to stay in a 3-4 star hotel in Japan. Secondly, most of the flight from HK to Tokyo arrive at Haneda airport which is located much closer compared to Narita.

Pic 17: Odaiba Tokyo Feb 2009

To ease your planning, attached are some of the links I came across during my research.

Packages from Airline Companies includes

ANA Sky Holiday

CX Holidays

Travel Agencies offering Packages from HK to Japan.

Farrington American Express

Priceline

If you decide to travel directly from Malaysia to Tokyo, you could also go with the airlines below
Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Cathy Pacific, Japan Airlines which most of them will arrive at Narita

My Itinerary : ( Feb 13th to Feb 19th )

Day 1 : Tokyo Tower, Odaiba

Day 2 : Tokyo Imperial Palace, Sensoji Temple Asakusa, Shibuya

Day 3: Tsukiji Fish Market, Ginza, Harajuku, Shinjuku

Day 4: Hakone ( Stay overnight)

Day 5: Gotemba, Gotemba Premium Outlet ,Disneyland Hotel

Day 6 : Disneyland or Disneyworld

Day 7 : Shinjuku Metropolitant Government Building, Shopping in Shinjuku, Roponggi

Did I make it to all? ....... I had to skip of the places for this trip since we decided that we do not want a rush trip like what we have experience for our Korea tour. Stay tune for more posting on the Feb 2009 Japan Vacation.