Japan 2024 - Arashiyama (Day 15 of 21)

***This post is a recount of the trip after I returned to Singapore from the trip.***

Link to day 15's video: https://youtu.be/gv4xTorTnOg

And we arrive at the final day of 2024! It's my 3rd time spending countdown overseas so I'm pretty used to the feeling already! But for Yi Lin, I think it's her first time solo travelling and also spending 31st December somewhere else, so it must be pretty exhilarating for her!

The day started with me walking to Kyoto station to rendezvous with Yi Lin at our arranged timing. But well, not everyone is a disciplined army soldier like me and is allowed to oversleep from time to time. I bought myself coffee and just walked in circles around her block until she woke up. Great workout!

When she finally woke up and is done with her preparation, we met at the train station and took the train to Arashiyama station. This small little town is home to a few tourist attractions as well so we were there to do tourist stuff! 

The monkey park was her main goal for coming here. So we headed there first. The right side picture is a monkey giving me the finger. The route up was actually quite steep and I offered to carry her bag for her since she like running out of breath and her ankle gonna pangkang soon.

The monkeys at the top actually not very cute. They all just wanted food and nothing else. Typical monkeys. After like 15 minutes of me trash-talking some monkeys, we left the place. Headed down to find some food.

Chanced upon some crazy backgrounds to take some pictures and it was here that I discovered iPhone's ability to remove people in the background. Crazy technology.

I found an udon place that seemed nice and affordable and we finally had our first udon together. The udon is nice sia. I kinda forgot how it tasted already but I know I liked it a lot. We then walked back to the train station and I kinda led her to the wrong path accidentally. HAHAHA.

This wrong path led us to this FamilyMart and pictures to commemorate our visit to this country was needed. No better way to prove we visited Japan than pictures in FamilyMart! When we reached back to Kyoto, we parted ways to do our own stuff until dinnertime. I just went back to the hostel to sleep cause I need the energy for countdown.

Headed back out to the streets near dinnertime and dinner was McDonalds because almost everywhere is closed for the night. Dammit. The moment I collected my food, Yi Lin called and say it's time to meet. Wah I had to gobble up everything while walking to her location. What a way to finish the final meal of 2024!

Abit regret buying milkshake in cold weather. Inside was freezing after I finished the milkshake. After we met at a random traffic light, we headed towards the temple. I think it's called Chionin temple and there's supposed to be like 108 bells being rung from 11pm to the following year.

But sadly we are not the only ones who think counting down at a temple is cool. There were so many people. I think this was the most crowded moment in my trip. But I'm able to withstand the crowdedness with Yi Lin beside me, so I didn't feel like leaving.

Super bumped that we weren't able to enter the temple because the queue started at 8pm and we are significantly late. We stood outside for a while absorbing the moment before deciding to just leave. I could tell she was upset that we didn't get to see the monks but hey at least we were there.

The shitty thing is the Japanese closed every street around the temple and the buses are not able to reach our location. With a little persuasion, Yi Lin decided that walking back is the only way. Kinda forgot what we chatted about but wah, walking down an empty street on 12 midnight at the start of the new year with a girl is definitely not what I expected for this trip.

But it was cool. I have no qualms with how I spend the final moments of 2024, considering I spent the final moments of 2023 almost stuck in a toilet in New Zealand. It's all about the adventure right!!! Sent her back to her hotel and then went back myself. Time to really catch some Zs!

Happy new year people!

Click <<< to return to Day 14 or >>> to move forward to Day 16.

Japan 2024 - Kiyomizu-Dera (Day 14 of 21)

***This post is a recount of the trip after I returned to Singapore from the trip.***

Link to day 14's video: https://youtu.be/AvwKvJ7kWvQ

Whoo day 14 and the 2nd last day of 2024. Yi Lin woke earlier by herself and went ahead to some temple near her hotel first. Me? I just took my time and slowly walked over to meet her. I woke up quite late so it was almost brunch time.

Yes, Nakau again! Simply amazing this food! Really happy eating at Nakau! Then I crossed the street to buy some coffee at Kyoto station before walking over to wherever Yi Lin was.

The views on the way is rather nice. I just took my own sweet time until she got impatient. HAHAHAHAHA. Then I had to like run. Why am I like this? LOL. I even got time to stop by a toy store mid-travel.

Met her at this random bridge and we took bus towards Kiyomizu-Dera temple. The bus system was quite interesting. You enter by the back door, sit until your stop, then tap at the front when alighting. Strange system but if it works for Japanese, then it works.

We turned into this super crowded street leading up to the temple. Wah, a lot of people sia. My sister wanted me to get some matcha powder for her but the queue into that shop was crazy. We decided to just try queuing on the way back down.

Ate this random sweet thing that Yi Lin seems to like a lot. Not bad actually. I know if I'm walking by myself, I would never even bat an eye to shops like this. So I'm actually grateful someone is beside me telling me to try all the random stuff.

Headed up to the temple and was greeted by a sea of people. GG. Yi Lin still wanted to do the fortune telling thing so I accompanied her to get a slip of paper. Then she went to ring a bell and play with some fountain water before we headed back down to the streets.

We finally went to queue for the matcha shop and it turns out that the matcha powder is out of stock. Wah GG. So we both ended up getting just one cup of matcha drink each. The drink nice though, not too sweet.

After the drinks, we kinda just headed back to downtown Kyoto since the sun is setting already and it was time for dinner. Yi Lin wanted to try the actual Ichiran in Japan so we went to look for one. She had to buy some noodles for her mum from the same store.

Of course, we still found the opportunity to take more pictures of each other since we are technically both solo travellers who just happened to meet in Japan. Rarely will I ever get someone to take pictures for me sia.

We reached the Ichiran and we both ordered a huge bowl of noodles each. The experience was rather interesting. Yi Lin was quite amazed at this tap and I'm amazed at her amazement. I'm also intrigued by everything I can do at this small cramped space. Ingenious design.

As a sucker for noodles, I have to say, I enjoyed the big bowl of noodles. After dinner, we just left to roam the streets until shag. We walked around randomly and found random chairs to chill on outside a random toilet. LMAO. I think I missed human interaction so much at this point in my trip that I actually found the day fun!

Here's a photo of Yi Lin laughing at a vegetarian restaurant having plants everywhere to declare the seriousness of vegetation. And here I thought I'm the bad guy. Okay after that, we just kinda parted ways and of course, I walked her back again cause I feel the cities in Japan actually quite unsafe at night.

Click <<< to return to Day 13 or >>> to move forward to Day 15.

Japan 2024 - Nara Deer Park (Day 13 of 21)

***This post is a recount of the trip after I returned to Singapore from the trip.***

Link to day 13's video: https://youtu.be/FvvIAtq8QDE

And it was time to visit Nara, the 3rd city in the "Kansai triangle". Of course, my only reason for visiting Nara is to see the deers at the Nara deer park. Woke up semi-early at 8am for this day trip. Was rather excited because my friends have been talking about Nara for a while.

Reached Nara station at 10am to a bright sunny day. Decided to walk to the park via foot. Of course, I got myself some coffee from Starbucks before heading into the park. Quickly got bored of the deers cause they are super ugly and all the same. So I headed up the mountains at the back.

There was this spacious carpark at the peak. It took me about an hour to go up cause the roads were super meandered and long. Gentle slopes though so no sweat. I chilled with some deers for abit at the top before deciding to head back down.

Just before I went down, there was this super view. It was super windy and cold but I love it. Took a lot of photos there and also got strangers to take some of myself. Shiok. This was legit one of the best views this trip.

Then from this point on, it all went downhill. “Accidentally” walked on a highway and pissed off some local who called the police on me. I was following the roads after the 10km mark (on Strava), happily and nicely, until suddenly I had to sprint and veer off course into the dense jungle. It was fight or flight mode.

An entire squad just started driving up and down that same stretch of road hoping to find me. I am way too paranoid for them to even try to explain stuff to me so I had to hide in the jungle near the highway. In the end, I had to practice my bound to bound jungle I learnt in SAF so as to hide behind trees out of their view successfully. They were driving pretty fast so I had to time my advances.

Suffered a few bruises along the way and a few minor skin bleeding, but I survived with one shoe entirely covered with mud. Tracked my way to a local town and blended in with my hoodie. I’m pretty sure the Japanese police are still looking for me because a guy in a toll house that I passed by while tracking through the forest saw me and started to say something on his walkie-talkie.

In some instances, I had to prone to crawl under fences and do topology to establish my position. Ultimately, it was still a cool experience talking to deer in Nara Park. These deers are some of the most chill animals I ever met in my life. Also, thankfully I’m a very fit ex-soldier with a VO2 max of 54, so I am 100% confident that I will not get caught today.

On hindsight, those might not have been police. My friends say it sounds more like the yakuza. But whatever, I escaped. No police or gangsters will be able to catch a crazy soldier in the jungle like myself.

As soon as I reached civilisation, I instantly put on my hoodie to blend in and disappear into the crowds. Felt like I just survived an apocalypse. The adrenaline was so damn high and so addictive. Cannot keep pissing off random people overseas though.

After getting some snacks from the 7-eleven closest to Nara station, I ate and headed back to Kyoto. Went back to the hostel to get a much needed clothes change, before leaving again to find dinner. After surviving a GTA-style adventure, it was finally time for my friend to meet me.

This friend, Yi Lin, I've known her for more than a year. I met her in the orientation committee back in 2023. She kinda chose me to be under her so it was fate and there was nothing I can do about it. But yes, we barely talked throughout the last one year, maybe some occasional catchup sessions with the other teammate, Wei Ren.

Knowing that it's only dinner, I chose to run to the dinner location, cause why not? Turns out, she was LATE. Ayo. I hung around the area for like half an hour just watching people live their lives in Japan. After we entered the restaurant, we kinda pissed off the waiters. HAHAHAHA.

I don't know why I keep pissing people off but apparently the waiter no chill. He just stopped serving us the free flow meat. Yi Lin was so done after a while. HAHAHAHA. I walked her back to her hotel cause it was late, before going back to my hostel myself. If not for the stupid attitude of the waiters, I think the dinner place was pretty affordable and nice sia. Sad.

Click <<< to return to Day 12 or >>> to move forward to Day 14.