With The Berry-licious Stories
Come to Yamagata , one must savour the yamagata beef! We researched pin-pointed a few restaurants that offer grilled beef or yakiniku before travelling to this area. Finally we picked up this KAKI Kiwami that is located very close to our hotel. For full itinerary, …
Gyoza Izakaya Dandadan Located in One Mont Kiara, Gyoza Izakaya Dandadan is a gyoza izakaya chain with over 130 outlets in Japan; specializes in the juicy gyoza and interesting izakaya bites. You may find the original juicy grilled gyoza, and also gyoza with toppings such …
Ginzan Onsen
Ginzan Onsen is a very small onsen town nestled deep in the mountains of Yamagata Prefecture. It is a very scenic little town and famous for its snow-capped views during winter time; the bathhouses and ryokans are blanketed with a thick layer of snow, creating a stark contrast of white against the wooden buildings.
For full itinerary, check out JAPAN TRIP 2024: 11D10N in Yamagata, Sendai, Aizu Wakamatsu & Tokyo
I would say travelling to Ginzan Onsen is pretty hard one because of its rare and limited public transport that takes you into the town. To get here, one will have to take train from JR Yamagata Station to JR Oishida Station (about 50 minutes on local train / 30 minutes on Shinkansen). Then, take the bus from Oishida Station to Ginzan Onsen. The journey is about 35 – 40 minutes. One way bus ride is priced at ¥1,000 per pax (as of March 2024)
The bus only runs 4 to 5 times a day; at 9.50am, 12.35pm, 2.10pm, 3.55pm and 5.45pm (sometimes). It is very limited and so you will really have to plan your journey very well. We researched and planned well to arrive at JR Oshida Station at about 9.30-ish in the morning so that we could catch the 9.50am bus into Ginzan Onsen, and travel out at around 2 to 3pm.
Sounds like a great plan we had but our plan didn’t run bright. The 8.50-ish am shinkansen from JR Yamagata Station was cancelled! And we didn’t manage to catch the local train that left around that time too. It left us stranded a while at JR Yamagata Station until the next local train.
Soon after we arrived at the JR Oshida Station, we exited the train station and walked towards the roundabout at the front of the station, there was this warehouse-liked bus waiting room on the left. We entered, put our belongings to “queue” so that we were on the queue for the next bus at 12.35pm
Alternatively, if there are 4 of you on the group, you may hail a taxi from the station into Ginzan Onsen. It gonna cost about ¥5,000 per way and to work out the math, it quite worth the journey as you do not have to wait too long for the bus.
If you are planning to visit Ginzan Onsen, do note that there is a new rule (as of winter 2024) whereby they limit the amount of visitors to enter Ginzan onsen by each hour. So better do more research before going there.
Had fun taking photos around while waiting for our bus at 12.35pm
Continue reading YAMAGATA: Ginzan Onsen – The Nostalgic Onsen Town
Bistro Léa Located at the quieter side of a neighbourhood in Sri Hartamas, Bistro Léa is another baby by the couple behind Atelier Bichotan and JUS Resto Bar . It is a casual French dining restaurant that offers the French bistro cuisine, totally a new …
Mimi Daifuku 米米福 Nestled in Kota Damansara, Mimi Daifuku is a Japanese-influenced café specializing in the Japanese wagashi Daifuku. This little café is really cute and zen-ish. Filled with bamboo and lush green surrounding; make you feel as though you are in a zen garden, …
To be honest, Fukuoka is my new favourite destination. It is touristy but not too touristy; crowded as well but less crowded as compared to those huge cities like Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. And I love landing onto Fukuoka because it is a great place to connect all the kampong areas I wish to explore. And big cities enough to cover what I wish to shop later, and one best of all, the airport is about 10 minutes by taxi! I have the luxury to take taxi from hotel (near the main station) to airport (at the fee I am willing to spend on)! Everyone sure knows how expensive it is taking a ride on taxi in Japan.
Yes I had a trip with my family in autumn 2023, just right before the amazing winter trip to Tohoku area . I haven’t got the chance to pen down everything, and now here I am, pen-ing down what I did in Fukuoka and other areas that autumn.
Also, Fukuoka has a lot of great food! This time, I got to have a partial food trail with my friends Jessie and Sze. We got to meet up and tried a few restaurants and all the restaurants we went were quite a heart wowing one! Thanks to Jessie for helping me on the restaurant reservation. Anywhere she went, I just plus six (+6) tagging along. LOL.
Oh guess what?! I actually had two trips to Fukuoka within a year! Read Japan Trip 2023: 8D7N in Fukuoka, Kashima, Yufuin & Mojiko. This trip was happened in March 2023, almost spring time where I got a glimpse of early Sakura blooms.
Read below for more day-trip to do when you are in Kyushu
Nagasaki
Kumamoto
Aso
Arita
JAPAN TRIP 2023: 10D9N in Okayama, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kashima and Yufuin
Continue reading JAPAN TRIP 2023: 10D9N in Okayama, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kashima and Yufuin
