Dear Blog,

Today you turn 15 years old. Happy 15th birthday.

Ladies (and gentlemen too!), there’s no more excuse not to take care of ourselves.

True, sometimes we don’t even have that 5 minutes to properly remove make up (or even put on make up in the first place) and apply that one moisturizer. Not to mention a good face massage. I know that all too well. I once often accidentally brushed my teeth with face wash when everything was a blur juggling two kids under two.

But Japanese technology is here to help. Having one of the busiest lifestyles in the world, the latest beauty trend in Japan is a simplified, convenient beauty regime.

Have you ever imagined that now you have the ability to take care of dry skin of your ENTIRE BODY in just 5 seconds?

Okay, honestly? This post is going to be  a little overwhelmingly lengthy, because I will be introducing 3 different passes from three different railway companies for those of you who intend to travel to the Kansai area of Japan.

But stay with me here and I hope it will be a worthwhile read for you to make the best out of your next Japan trip!

In this blog post, we are focusing on the Kansai area of West Japan. While I believe all of you are familiar with the classic route to conquer Osaka, Kyoto and Nara, there’s so much more to explore within the Kansai region with just a couple of train rides.

Today I am devising a 5-day itinerary that brings you to the mandatory cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Nara, then further venture into the Ise Shima area of Mie prefecture as well as Kobe city of Hyogo prefecture.

I finally understand the reason why I am falling so far behind documenting my personal Japan travel journey now. For work trips and other sponsored trips, I can submit my blog posts overnight and I am very proud that I hardly ever asked for extensions and I think some of my clients are pretty pleased to receive a full blog draft 2 days post-trip.

This is my 56th visit to Japan, and despite all I know and love about Japan, I have never actually “lived” in Japan before. The longest stay was couple of weeks in service apartments.

So with the kids having a long summer break, we are spending 1.5 months here in Tokyo, and for the first time in my life, I am finally getting a taste of how it is like to “live” in my favorite city in the whole wide world.

Read my previous post on Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture.

Konpira Shrine, Kotohira

Kotohira (琴平) is a small town outside of Takamatsu city, and it houses the largest shrine complex in the whole of Shikoku – Kotohira Gu or Konpira Shrine – or nicknamed Konpira San by the locals.

Kagawa was my 44th prefecture.

I had a short day-trip to Takamatsu, the capital city of Kagawa prefecture during my JR WEST trip, and one day was obviously not enough to fill even an edamame-size of my bottomless desire and curiosity to leave no stone in Japan unturned. It had just left me craving for more.

Australia is one of the countries that I visit the most other than Japan (considering what a Japanophile I am which all of you already know), and we have been making yearly pilgrimage to Queensland since even before Cheesiepetits were born.

Here’s a pretty rare cosmetic review, and today I’m introducing a Japanese brand (of course) – Chacott for Professionals.

Chacott was founded in Japan since 1950, so the history dates waaaaay back. Let me straight up tell you why this brand is so unique – Chacott prides itself in its non-chemical, highly safe ingredients that it is suitable even for children.

Wait what?? Children wear make up???

Yes. Pick your jaw up from the ground now and let’s look at the background of the brand and you will understand why.

I have been on a journey with ORBIS for more than a year now, and guess what? Sometimes you just know from your heart that something is worth having with you all the way.

In my last blog post I have introduced Conan museum in Tottori. Actually there’s one more themed manga town which is equally famous in Japan (although not so many foreigners know about it) – Ge Ge Ge No Kitaro.

Ge Ge Ge No Kitaro was written in the 1960s about “yokai” (Japanese folklore ghosts/spirits/monster?), not my era but the older generations will be very familiar with it, and actually it’s animation is still airing until today in Japan so we can say that it’s a timeless classic!

I have not read any of the series or watched any of the anime prior to this visit but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it!! So much that I think this has to be a compulsory stop for everyone who visits Tottori, anime fan or not. It’s like the Tokyo Disney Resort of Tottori. Haha.

In fact I loved it so much that I promised myself to dedicate a whole blog post to it. Here it is!

A new category created with this post – Tottori (鳥取) Prefecture.

It is located at the Chugoku region of Japan’s main island. Read this blog post if you wanna know more about regions in Japan. I won’t deny it, Tottori is probably one of the most forgotten prefectures in Japan. Every time I told a Japanese person that I wanted to travel to Tottori, their first response was “Sand dune? What else do you do there?”

Haha. So yea. Hopefully after my Tottori blog posts, I can change some of your perception towards this very unique prefecture – it is the only place with a sand dune in the entire Japan!!