Accommodation in Tokyo, Japan

Accommodation in Tokyo

Hotel Meigetsu (@Minami-Senju): Located in the heart of a serene neighborhood, it is just 5-10 minutes walk away from Minami-Senju Station. The guesthouse offers a wide array of facilities such as washing machine, vending machine, kitchen and even a in-house onsen room which requires booking for a time limit of 20 minutes per person. At a reasonable room rate of  > 6,000 yen for 2 person per night, the toilets and bathrooms would have to be shared. I would gave Hotel Meigetsu an excellent rating for its service, facilities and cleanliness which have made my trip to Japan enjoyable.  
 Website: http://www.meigetsu.jp/e/index.html

Shinjuku Kuyakushomae Capsule Hotel (@Shinjuku) : Capsule Hotel is widely known for its low price and is mainly for male travelers, so it took us quite some time to find a capsule hotel that also accommodate to female. For foreigners, it is definitely a unique concept but it is not uncommon to find many Japanese who are there for a good night rest.

 It is generally clean around the area with adequate amenetities in the shared bathroom such as toothbrushes, hairdryer and various type of vending machine at the common level. However, the air circulation may not be too good and it is not advisable for light sleepers to stay there due to the noise. Ultimately, it costed 2,800 yen for a night for 1 person.

Must try Singapore cuisine recommended by a local

Combination: Kaya Toast + Soft-boiled egg + Hot beverage

Location: Ya Kun Kaya Toast , Toast Box , local coffee shop and hawker centres. 

Kaya Toast 

Kaya is a jam, that is made from pandan, coconut milk, egg etc, spread on the toast to give it a sweetening taste. As a local, we would usually order a set of Kaya toast with soft - boiled egg and drinks (preferably a hot milo or hot coffee or hot tea). Best to have during breakfast to kick start our day.  If you do enjoy the taste of Kaya, you may purchase the Kaya jam at the franchise outlets that you visit unless you had your Kaya toast at the local hawker centre or coffee shop.

Soft-boiled egg

In many places, there would be a minimum number of 2 soft-boiled eggs served per serving. The perfect way to enjoy your soft-boiled egg is to add a slight drop of soy sauce and sprinkle some pepper on it before mixing the egg. The soy sauce and pepper are usually packed in a basket for convenience. 

Combination: Prata + Teh Tarik / Milo Tarik 

Location: Casuarina Curry Restaurant

Roti Prata / Egg Prata 

Roti prata is a traditional Indian pancake best served with either sugar or curry. There are 3 types of prata eater in Singapore, those who have their prata with just curry / sugar and those who prefer a combination of both. Don't forget to take a look at the kitchen as you will be able to witness the chefs flipping those prata on the grill with their exceptionally amazing skills.

Teh Tarik / Milo Tarik

Teh is an hokkien word for tea with condensed milk and milo is made from cocoa powder which can be purchased at the local supermarket and give it as a gift. "Tarik" means pull in the malay lanaguage. The ultimate reason why Teh Tarik / Milo Tarik is different from the usual hot teh and hot milo is that the drinks are poured on 2 containers which can be seen on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hodOAEzsNWs 

*On a side note, there are many different names for the different hot beverage drank by Singaporean. The names derived from a mix of language which are mainly from hokkien (one of the chinese dialects) , malay etc. You may look up at http://www.lotusrelocation.com/art-ordering-drink-singapore-coffee-shops/ to have a general idea of the names. 

Combination: BBQ Chicken wings + Sambal Stingray + Satay 

Location: Chomp Chomp Food Centre, Maxwell Food Centre, Old Airport Road Food Centre, Chinatown Complex Food Centre

BBQ Chicken wings

The most ideal place to enjoy the best of BBQ chicken wings would definitely be the local hawker centre where you can see the hawkers bbq the sticks of chicken till the skin are slightly charred. Squeeze the lime into the chilli sauce and dip the chicken wings into it. However, it is optional to have the lime squeeze into the chilli sauce.

Sambal Stingray 

Sambal which is made from a mixture of various type of chilli is definitely an ideal sauce for seafood. If you are not a fan of having stingray, there are usually other seafood that is cooked with it such as sambal fish. Some places have kept the tradtion of having the sambal seafood wrapped over a banana leaf which gives the seafood a refreshing and sweet taste. 

Satay 

Satay are sticks of grilled seasoned meat that are served with a sauce made with peanut, coconut milk etc. It is definitely a must to dip the satay with the sauce and there are vaiious different option of meat to choose, mainly chicken, beef and pork. 

What you need to know before travelling to South Korea

1. Incheon Airport
See a huge crowd surrounding the departure or arrival gate at Incheon Airport? Then you better run towards there to have a look. Reason being, it is the perfect chance to get up close to a celebrity as some of the celebrity would not be taking the secret gate. Who knows? You might run into Big Bang on the day you arrive in Korea. ><

2. T-Money (Transit card)
For buses, you can actually pay the fare for 2 using just one T-money card. All you have to do is to inform the bus driver by saying 두명 (tu myeong) and the bus driver would make the necessary arrangement before asking you to tap the card.

3. Summer Sales (especially at H&M and Uniqlo)
Depending on when summer arrives in Korea & Japan, there would be huge, crazy sales at well-known brands which would reduces their prices < 50%. For H&M, there are sales whereby shoes and clothes would be sold at the price of 5,000 won. I have recently bought a bag that costs 10,000 won when its original price was 60,000 won. That's indeed a good deal.

P/s: During summer, the weather may turn excruciating warm in the day and cooling in the night but not to forget that it is the rainy season as well. So, don't forget to bring your umbrella with you apart from your shopping bags.

4. Chicken + Maekju (Beer) = 치맥 (Chimaek)
Apart from Korea's drinking culture, 치맥 (Chimaek) drinking is intensively popular among the local with its unique combination of fried chicken served with glasses of beer to compliment the taste of the food and side dishes. The phrase 치맥 (Chimaek) derives from the first syllabus of the word Chicken and Maekju. Alternatively, you can replace soju with beet and there are several other unique drinking style such as mixing soju with beer at a ratio of 3:7.

5. Fruit-flavoured Soju &Makkoli (Rice wine)
Apart from having side dishes on the dining table, Koreans enjoy drinking so much that you would not be surprised to see glasses of drinks on the table while they enjoy their meals. Manufacturers have diversify the Soju and Makkoli by introducing multiple fruit-flavoured soju such as grapefruit, peach etc as well as the latest banana-flavored Makkoli released on 2016.

6. Service 
"Service" in Korea generally mean in-house / free of charge / complimentary. This is generally used in eateries or street food stall as some of the stall owners would welcome foreigners by getting you other food items while saying "service".

7. Weather Forecast 
Knowing the climate and weather of the district that you are planning to visit would definitely prepare you well for your trip. Hence, I would recommend visiting the official website managed by Korea Metrological Administration - http://web.kma.go.kr/eng/

Information regarding the seasonal climate can be found here: http://web.kma.go.kr/eng/biz/climate_01.jsp

Reasons to travel when you are young

Travel, neh?Save the excuse. Discover. Explore

1. Well, you are still young.

Being young is an advantage because you have the energy, passion and courage to take risk and venture beyond your comfort zone. You have no debts, loans, full-time job, kids etc that are going to be a hinder to your travel plans. And for those with worry about getting a full-time job and earning big bucks to build your career after graduating, you can save those worry for latter because those worries will eventually make its way to you. But, you are not going to get the same freedom and TIME after you move on to the next phrase in life. It would be even harder to take time out and travel with your friends after going separate ways  in the future. So, don't have the regret that you wish you have traveled more during your younger days 50 years down the road. 

P/s: Don't ever be discouraged to travel regardless of your current age as well. As long as you have the will and right mindset, you can begin your journey anytime sooner! :) 

2. Travel: An investment that guarantees no losses.

Putting your savings to the trip, planning your own itinerary, navigating your way around, asking for help even you can't speak the local languages, striking a conversation with the others may not be the familiar to you if you don't travel but it will, if you start your journey now. Even at the planning stage of your journey, you are developing money management skills and organisational skills that you will be needing in your life as an responsible adult. Travel helps to push your limit, learn more about yourselves and your direction in life. You will be maturing with great thoughts and perception through the journey without you even knowing. This is when you know the time, money and throwing aside the worries as a fresh grad will be all worthwhile. 

3. Discovering your future path.

Fresh grads like me are probably still figuring out the job i want and if i am even passionate about the industry that i have my education on. All in all, it's fine to have such thoughts and to feel at lost because it's human nature. Venture abroad to understand yourself, your character and what you are truly passionate about. Be it realizing that you want a job in the humanitarian after experiencing with  the less-privilege or becoming a travel book writer to share your experience. Take the first step to discover about you and you are already on your way to craving your future. 

4. The world is an open book for the open-minded.

Keep an open mind, understand and accept the differences between you and people from all over the world. In the society that we live in currently, there are many conflicts in thoughts and actions that we often realised how we are all human beings who wish to be respected and treated well. How people who are different from you are not weird, just different. 

You are taught the 7 wonders of the world, history of a country and about the world in school and to do things with faith and kindness but experiencing it in real life changes the whole game. As you mature and start understanding about the society or learning about the negativity news of a country, that might cause you to lose some faith. Eventually, you will start experiencing the kindness of strangers, for instance like locals who are willing to walk you to a location even if it's not along their way, and discover that humanity have never disappear, just covered up for us to discover.

5. Appreciating my country, home and everything i have taken for granted.

Being away from your town, families, friends and the surrounding you grew up with for weeks or even months would be tough. You won't be navigating around without a map or have your favorite dishes but that will teach you how privileged you are and the comfort you have grew up with. Let me share about my short story at the next point that have taught me to be more appreciative. 



A short story of my own:

Vietnam & Cambodia: Upon graduating from secondary school, I went on to embarked on a journey to Cambodia and Vietnam to learn about the different cultures, the local way of living and most importantly, their history. It is known that Cambodia went through a 8 years civil war named Cambodian Civil War and Vietnam going through a 30 years war. 

I do remember vividly a local from Cambodia once told me, almost every households have lost a family member to war. It is indeed heartbreaking and even when i visited the local war memorial sites with a local friend, I could tell that he was walking around with a heavy heart. We can learn about the history through the internet or books, but experiencing it changes the whole story. That's when i realized I want to star being a TRAVELER instead of a tourist and travel more to widen my perspective.

Nepal: 2 years later, I received an email regarding a school overseas programme to Nepal and I was over the moon. Nepal have always been on my bucket list since making friends with the Nepalese in school. The friendliness and spirit of the locals makes me feel so welcomed and they were such strong spirit especially after learning that they were never conquered by any country which surprised me (mainly because i came from a region where almost all the countries were conquered in the past) but with all due respect. 


Upon landing at Tribhuvan International Airport, there were no high rise buildings from the airplane window or around the airport. The tour guide explained that buildings are not to be built higher than Dharahara (If i do remember correctly) which is a rather unique fact about Nepal. 

During the first few nights, the electricity went off in the middle of the night for hours and everyone panicked because we have never experienced it back home (that's how pampered i realized we were). There were little street lamps which made it a little harder to walk around at night as we have to make use of our phones and the lights from the shops and homes to navigate our way around. 

One of the programme was to volunteer at an orphanage in which those few hours of interacting with the children was heart-warming. There were DIY necklaces and colouring books prepared for the children in which they gave me their first DIY necklace and named the characters in the colouring books after us, making me realised the expectation that they will think of themselves first was the mindset of a human being who grew up in the city.  As we grow up, competition becomes intense till we often become more self-centered and forgets about the values we were educated on since young. 


Now that I am a fresh grad, I am on a 3 months journey to Korea and will be heading to Japan in a few days before heading home. And i wish you well in your future trips! Feel free to share with me your experience as I believe there are values in every individual that we can learn from. 

Seoul Grand Park, South Korea

On summer 2016, i embarked on a journey down to Seoul Grand Park to witness the beauty of the Seoul Grand Park Rose Walking Festival which is located within the Rose Theme Garden . Seoul Grand Park comprises of zoos, theme garden and a theme park that is widely visited by the locals. This park is definitely a hidden gem well loved by the locals for a family outing or hiking trips which i would recommend it if you are seeking for a out-of-ordinary adventure that is close to the locals' way of living in Korea.

Giraffe Land

기린 나라 (Giraffe Land)

While making our way up to the garden, we stumbled upon the a building that looks like a magnified grey bowling bowl with the word 기린 나라 (Giraffe Land) written on it.Based on the name of the attraction (Giraffe Land), i naturally assumed that it was one of the zoos that specialized in giraffe. To my surprise after searching on the net, it is actually a theme park meant for children.  I am glad that we decided to give this attraction a miss.

The Little Prince

Theme Garden & Children Zoo

The main attraction for me to visit was definitely the rose theme garden to admire the various species of roses and flowers. The special event for Summer 2016 was the additional of sculptures from the well-known novel, The Little Prince. Within the theme garden, there is a Kids Zoo that houses animals such as goats, donkeys, rabbits etc  to educate the public on the various animals and spreading awareness of wildlife conservation. Do not missed the chance to visit the Japanese monkeys in the Kids Zoo!

Tickets can be purchased at the counters with prices ranging from 1,000 won to 2,000 won. For more details: http://grandpark.seoul.go.kr/eng_grand/tema/enjoy/enjoy01.jsp

Seoul Land

Families with children may wish to visit Seoul Land which is an amusement park that has various rides and performance at a smaller scale as compared to Everland and Lotte World. For Singaporean, it is akin to "Escape Theme Park" rather than USS which is widely visited by the locals during our time. If you know what i mean. :)

How to get there? 

Line 4 (Light blue) : Seoul Grand Park Station

1. Simply take the subway and alight at 대공원, Seoul Grand Park 
2. Upon alighting, turn right to exit the station
3. Walk straight up and you will be able to find the directory

You will be greeted by this view upon exiting the station via the escalator

Directory of Seoul Grand Park

Getting around 

Elephant Train Station

• You may choose to either walk/hike/ cycle around the park by turning to the right upon seeing the Elephant Train Station to embark on your journey to the gardens and zoos.
• Alternatively, you may visit the Elephant Train Station to purchase tickets for a ride around the parks that makes various stops at different attractions.
  • Tickets ranges from 700 won to 1,000 won for each demographic.
  • For more details:  http://grandpark.seoul.go.kr/eng_grand/grand/contact/contact03.jsp

Sky Lift (The building pictured on the right)

• There are cable car services where you can purchase tickets at the Sky Lift building. (refer to the above picture)
• For more details http://grandpark.seoul.go.kr/eng_grand/grand/contact/contact03_2.jsp