It’s Japan time again!

This time around I wanna bring you guys to Toyama, Nagano and Gifu area, on a self-drive trip.

We will be exploring these 3 prefectures by first flying into Toyama airport, rent a car and drive through the destinations. It will be a 5D4N trip of wonderful nature and rich culture in central Japan.

Read my Day 1 blog post here about abalone feast at Shima Peninsula.

Read my Day 2 blog post here about divine Ise and Matsusaka beef.

Read my Day 3 blog post here about Iga ninja and Iga beef sukiyaki

Today we are onto the last day of my #visitmie trip. I spend 4 good full days in one single prefecture and yet there are still lots of places I have not covered. #Ineedmorelifetimes.

Today we will be venturing into the very exciting Kuwana city to explore a beautiful botanical park, and some of the world’s top thrill rides that will guarantee to give your heart some good kicks.

Read my Day 1 blog post here about abalone feast at Shima Peninsula.

Read my Day 2 blog post here about divine Ise and Matsusaka beef.

It wasn’t until day 3 that I have come to realized that Mie is really blessed with everything. How long can you stay in Mie until you get bored? The answer is… until you get sick of eating good food.

Read my Day 1 blog post here about abalone feast at Shima Peninsula.

Mie Prefecture is blessed with the abundance of both treasures from the ocean and land. In my previous post we have had (actually just me, but it could soon be your experience if you allow yourself to! Hehe.) glorious abalone and other assorted seafood in the Shima region, today I’m bringing you to explore the crème de la crème of beef – Matsusaka from its namesake city.

But first, let’s pick up where we left in the previous post and start with a great lookout point in Shima region.

I’m sure you already knew about my #47PrefectureMission and that I have completed this life mission early June this year.

I visited Mie in 2016 for two things:

1.Ise Jingu Shrine
2. Matsuzaka Beef

The two things that Mie is probably most famous for. And these two things alone warrant a visit to Mie. This time around, I’m on a new mission – to go deep. Real deep. For all 47 prefectures. All over again.

I am a proud #VisitMieSupporter of 2019.

We Malaysians and Singaporeans love food. So in this series of blog posts, I’m bringing you on a journey with me to Mie, the paradise of world class gourmet all condensed in one single prefecture.

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.