I'm back in Japan again. This year marks 10th year of my first time in Japan. I made my first step on this land in October 2004, and I still remember it like yesterday. I was just an ordinary person from a tropical country who had no experience dealing with four seasons. The day I arived, it was autumn and the rain was pouring. Naho, my tutor, picked me up at the airport and we made our ways all the way from Narita to Arakawa carrying my huge suitcase and while fighting the cold temperature. I was in a T-shirt and a jeans jacket, which then I learned, did not help with the cold at all. The smell of autumn will always reminds me of that day.

I have been wanting to take my brother to Japan to travel for a while. He graduated from university earlier this year, and I thought this was a good chance to actually go. But of course, my sister didn't want to be left alone so we are travelling together. We got budget airline tickets, and we also booked an hotel/apartment for three for a week. We got on our plane at around 9 in the morning, and we reached Kuala Lumpur for transfer at about 11. It was my first time in KLIA 2 terminal and that place is HUGE. We barely had enough time to look for food, eat, and find our gate.

( this is my travelogue from day 1 of our trip )

This was the second day of our Japan trip, and I was so excited about it. Our hotel was 10 minutes from Ikebukuro, so any trips we made we went through Ikebukuro station. We first made our trip to Shinjuku, an area I was familiar with since I worked part time job in West Shinjuku many many years ago. It was still my favorite place to hang out, too. We first heads out to The Tokyo Metropolitan Government building. The building has a nice architecture to it, it was not crowded unlike most of tourist attractions in Tokyo, and most important of all, it was free. They have observation deck on the 45th level, nice souvenir shops, and a Tokyo tourist guide booth which provides maps, suggestions on where to go, discount vouchers, and other useful informations. And I did I mention I LOVE maps?


( the rest of day 2 )