Himeji Castle

Himeji castle is not very near Osaka (where we stayed), but it definitely worth going if you can fit one day for it. 

we took the express train to Kobe, then hop on another express train to Himeji. took about 1.5 hr one way, but the return train is directly express from Himeji to Umeda. Umeda is the central station for Osaka, there are trains to Kyoto, Kobe, and even bullet train to Tokyo.

Anyway, it is not a short trip from Osaka to Himeji,  so we used the Kansai Thru Pass, which works out about $20 AUD per day if you buy 2-day pass or about $17.5 AUD per day if you got 3-day pass. 

The pass can be used in separated day as it can be used in  nonconsecutive days. more information can be found in http://www.surutto.com/tickets/kansai_thru_english.html. but noted that this pass can not be used for taking JR lines. 

We used this 2 day pass for Himeji (One day) and Nara (another day), and found it saved us some money from using icoca card instead. 

Anyway, its about 10-15 minutes walking from the Himeji station to the castle, and we chose to walk along the Himeji shopping arcade as it has shades and more interesting things to look, but it is about 5 minutes extra walk if you go the himeji shopping arcade. 

by end of the himeji shopping arcade, you will be able to see the castle , the white stunning building over there. 

it looks near, but there is about 10 min walking further to cross the road and the pass the bridge, before you can reach the first giant gate. 

after the gate, there is a ticket office and you can buy your entry tickets here, about $10 AUD, fairly reasonable price. 

there are a long walk allow you to see the whole castle, but most visitors just went through the short cut to the main castle , which was also what we did. 

in total, there are 6 levels, the whole castle was built from wood, so we were asked to take our shoes off when walking inside the castle. the stairs could be a bit challenge as their steps were much higher than usual ones, we did get sweat a lot since we went in summer. but once you reached on top, there will be nice view and wind to cool you down. 

exit from the other end, here is your last chance to have a close look of this castle, and we just can not help to taking lots lots of photo of it

Maid cafe in DiverCity Tokyo Plaza level 6

we decided to visit the maid cafe, a very unique type of Japanese cafe that service was done by waitress wearing cute maid costume.  apparently there are quite a few maid cafe around Tokyo, the one we went is actually inside a shopping center- DiverCity Tokoyo Plaza.
This is the front look of the cafe. To enter, there is a door bell near the stand in the front, and once you pressed that, the waitress will come out and "welcome you home", as they will "see" you as their master.

the good thing about our experience here is the maids can speak English, i have friends told me they didnt enjoy the maid cafe because they were not able to communicate with them. but that wasnt the case for us here. 

typically, it is especially popular with guys , but luckily the one went , there were quite lot female customers, so it didn't make us look so awkward there for experiencing this maid cafe thing. 

just be aware, there is service charge and minimum order, since the maid is the main selling point here, generally customers are accepting the surcharge, but they did explain it to you before ordering. 

upon request, maid can draw anything on your drink or food, like right in fornt of you, and we asked for a cow as shown above. 

when serving drink and food, maid will ask you to make a spell with her to give the magic power to food, which is totally awkward but funny experience, you should go and try yourself. 

btw, to take a photo with a maid, you will need to pay 500JPY, and you can appoint whoever you want to photo with. we didnt know which one to choose, so as part of the experience from japan, there is always a ranking system, we just asked for "No. 1" please. ;P 

the maid is really cute, but little, so we sat down to take photo with her that i am not looking like a giant there. 

menu was limited, but no one goes for the food there, only for the maid i guess. 

overall, was an interesting experience, and since we were in japan to see different culture, this is surly one of the must try that very very japan!

Address :

〒135-0064
東京都江東区青海1-1-10
ダイバーシティ東京プラザ6階
TEL:03-6457-2800

*just copy and paste this address to your google map

What I bought back from my Japan trip

Finally back from my 12 days holidays in Japan, it was a really good experience, food is generally nice, people are friendly, and lots of interesting places to visit, and,,,,also good for shopping as lots of things are cheaper than buying in Melbourne , even....our Aussie dollar isn't that strong atm😖

Anyway, it will probably take me quite long to share all my travel details, but , firstly, I want to show off my snack , which I bought and carried all the way from Tokyo to Melbourne , yes,,,I am a bit crazy when it comes to food and cosmetic , so what :p

Here we are, those are the savoury selection, on top, from left to right are some curry, ramen(noodle), rice flavour, bonito flakes, the bottom half, from left to right are fried salmon skin, miso soup, more bonito flakes, seaweed and rice cracker. I got those because they are cheaper, yes , some of those bags can be found in Melbourne supermarket but its price double and tripled ; also the ramen (noodle) are very very nice, but can not be found in Melbourne yet.

Look at them, Japan is very know for its ramen, and their packed ramen are made very much alike the real ramen, the main difference is the real ramen will have more meat and veggie in it, lol. 

I hope i don't get judged for paying extra luggage allowance with Jetstar to bring back that much snack.lol

Here is my sweet snack showing off picture, :D

Yes, yes, lots of Tokyo banana, original, caramel, and cherry blossom flavours, they costed about $10aud each, and sold in one of the store in Melbourne Chinatown for like $24aud each....wtf...

And there are a few exotic flavoured pocky too, which I haven't seen before, would be interested to try.

And lastly, are the most costly items, the cosmetic products. The three gold long boxes on the bottom are the toner, day cream and night cream from cle de peau beaute, a Japanese brand which is not available in Australia yet, and I happened to try it before, and found it suits for my skin, so I hot them in Japan this time.

The boxes on the really right are the patch for legs, especially good after a long day of walking, help to relief the muscle tension. Next to them are the face cleanser,but in powder form, they are designed to clean the black pore. 

And there are few sets of shampoo and conditioner, please don't judge, I found those shampoo are so great for my fine, tangles , natural curly hair, I know you can buy them in Melbourne for like $26 each bottle, but it's only like $8 a bottle in Japan, and the refill pack is like $5 a bag....how can I not buying that much.

And there are also some facial masks, and eye liner, mascara, fake lash glue,etc, which are all cheap but in good quality.

One more thing, it's the eye drops, unlike the ones in Melbourne, those eye drops actually really intense, gives good feeling, but it's hard to open ur eyes after apply, you might want to have a go yourself.

I have read lots of blog before I went to Japan, and some are recommended by other bloggers, and some are my own picks. I think I am sharing my items here, and might also help others who want to know what to bring back from Japan.