Family trip to Japan (Part 1)

My family came to Japan to visit me and tour at the same time a few weeks ago. The trip went smoothly and we had lots of fun. They started at the hot & humid southern part of Japan, Amami-oshima, and ended at the dry & cool Hokkaido. Here are some pictures & stories on it.

Day 1 (19/6) – Amami-oshima

Afternoon arrival on the little island after a 6.5hrs international flight + 2 hrs domestic flight. Glad they managed to find their way here coz they had to take an hour’s bus to get to domestic airport. We rented a mini-bus to fetch them. They were surprisingly awake & energetic, so we did a little tour around the island. And went shopping too!

In the late afternoon we brought them to our place for a look before sending them to their pension hotel facing the sea. It’s a small pension run by an over-enthusiastic aunty who lived in S’pore for a year, 20 years ago.

Dinner was a BBQ feast at the pension. I loved the sausage attached to a bone. My dad was happiest with the big fresh scallop. Look at the happy & greedy faces!

Day 2 (20/6) – Kagoshima

In the morning we took some pic outside the pension before heading off to more sightseeing spots, shopping & lunch. The weather was great, sea was beautiful. To them, it's like going to a resort holiday. Except that their resort was a haunted one. Apparently in the middle of the night, in my mum & sister's room, they heard someone knocking repeatedly at the door (but they didn't open). They also heard sound of stones dropping on the roof and water gushing sounds somewhere. Only in the morning did they realise there's a graveyard less than a minute's walk away.

Lunch was at the famous chicken rice restaurant, Hisakura, where we had chicken rice (actually it's rice put in chicken soup & topped with shredded chicken & other veg), chicken sashimi, skewered grilled chicken, grilled pig trotters. My family ate chicken sashimi for the 1st time. It's probably their last coz they were quite disgusted by it.

After lunch we went to the airport to catch a flight to Kagoshima. After tea-time at Teru's parent's home, we did some supermarket food shopping before resting in the hotel.

Day 3 (21/6) – Kagoshima / Sakurajima

This morning we went to see the famous live volcano, Sakurajima. Nearby we enjoyed free hotspring for legs. Very relaxing to soak our legs in the hotspring and enjoy the scenery around.

After the hotspring we had a buffet lunch with Teru's relatives at a hill-top restaurant that overlooks the city. Then we went shopping for the rest of the day. Actually I'd say we went on a "Burberry blue/black label" hunting trip coz my siblings were on a mission to buy bags! We also bought lots of clothes at Uniqlo, our favorite clothes chain in Japan. It's like the old Giordano prices. A nice polo-tee costs about S$30. A spaghetti top is about S$10.

Day4 (22/6) – Kagoshima / Ibusuki

This was a fun day out to Ibusuki, 2 hrs drive away from Kagoshima. After driving through a foggy mountain track, we reached the land of sand baths. Dressed in a yukata, we proceeded to the sand spa area to be buried with black sand that has been soaked in hotspring waters. Now we know how it feels to be buried alive. It's recommended that we do not be buried for more than 15mins as we might end up with burns on our skin. Read about the history & benefits here coz i'm too lazy to write. Heehee.

Next we went to eat my favorite somen nagashi (素麺)! It's refreshing to eat it on a hot day. Catching the noodles in flowing spring water was fun too.

The grilled rainbow trout was very tasty. And we tried koi sashimi as well. Very crunchy flesh without any fishy smell. Dad loved it until he heard it's KOI fish, then he stopped eating. You see, he has koi fish at home. Eating his pets? Hehehe ;P

As Teru had to catch an evening flight back to Amami, he dropped us off at the hotel in the late afternoon. We did some shopping then bought dinner at a nearby supermarket. As most supermarkets offer up to 50% discount on cooked food after 8pm, we waited around the area till time. It's quite a funny sight, the 5 of us spilt into 2 teams. One team at basement waiting for discounted sashimi, another team at level 1 waiting for discounted cooked food. It's worth the wait. Look at the spread that cost less than S$50. We ate at our hotel's cafe area where they kindly allowed us to use their microwave to heat up the food.

After a hearty meal, we went back to pack our things & sleep coz we're flying to Hokkaido the next day! Excited!! Look out for part 2 of this post (^-^).