Japan: Okinawa: Nakagusuku Castle, American Village and Okinawa Hai Sushi review.

There are several historical sites in Okinawa, Nakagusuku Castle is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites on the island.

The castle was built during Ryukyu Kingdom (yea more people known Okinawa as Ryukyu actually, especially the older generation). It is one of the 100 most famous castles in Japan.

I am not a fans of history but i like panorama / spectacular view. I happened to know this castle is sitting on the top of a hill and overlooking the sea and the city, plus we have limited time in the first day arrival and it is one of the closest attraction from our first day apartment. Hence we decided to pay a visit in the late afternoon.

Oh, before photos, we were renting a car without GPS but i don't know why our car's GPS was working anyway anyhow, so we relied it a lot when looking for places.

In-car GPS in Japan is easy to use, of course it could be set in English. It all fine if you do not know the exact address, all you need to do is key in the phone number and the GPS will locate the place and lead you the way!

Do not be surprise if you get a phone number in some tourist attraction, such as the below castle. At first we thought that must be some office number and could possible lead us to the wrong place, but it wasn't! All we need to do is to look for the phone number and key it then we all set to go!

And oh again! This post is about places that we visited in the first day. You can refer here if you wish to see my original itinerary but if you know me well, i almost never follow plan, haha.

I was ambitious to visit several places nearby but end up we only visited the castle before heading to America Village for dinner.

So my real first day itinerary was..
1. Arrived Naha Airport
2. Collect car and check-in into Beachside condominium. 
3. Late lunch and rest
4. Nakagusuku Castle
5. American Village jalan-jalan
6. Dinner at Gourme Kaiten Sushi Ichiba

Clear road sign to everywhere

We were very late but managed to got in.

Nakagusuku Castle

Ta-da! Spectacular! Please take note that you need to walk half hour up-hill to see this. 

another side of view.

sitting on the green green grass and looking at the sea is such a great enjoyment in life.

me and my no-longer-wearable walking shoes. 

cloud gone and sun was here again after we spent half hour on the peak.

there the old wall and rough structure of the castle.

staircase with handle, but you need to be average fit to visit the whole site. 

the site is still being re-construct, these are the parts to be place back to the castle.

another side of the peak, here we can see the overall structure of the building.

it is a great old building i must say.

peaceful and calm in today, but it has been through several wars in the past.

the model of the original building. It is hilly, hence building the massive building on top is extra difficult.  

We spent more than an hour here because both of us take our time when seeing places. If you are touch-and-go type of person, i am sure you can see the whole thing within half hour. 

Please take note if you are planning to visit Nakagusuku Castle.

1. You have to average fit to visit the site. (short uphill walk from parking to the entrance, then rocky stair and up- and down-hill trail)

2. Okinawa is hot during the noon time, not much shade in the site so visit the place during morning or late after is recommended. 

3. Bring water and snack, no hawker around the site, the nearest place to see seller is at the parking place. (Of course, do not litter!)

We wasn't hungry yet after the trail, but we had not enough time for another castle visit so we decided to go American Village earlier for a walk, as well as enjoy the sunset view in the sunset beach before dinner. 

Oh, if you are shopper or prefer civilize, American Village should be one of your fav places on the island. We only love their sushi so spent a very short time in there. 

we arrived way earlier, but we only took the sign's photo after our dinner.

Just right when we arrived the beach in the village. Oh yea this is not the view but our ride haha.

here is the view.

and then walkie around the village. 

decorated like a cowboy town, American village mah.  

Photowhore would love this place. 

American Village filled with lotsa restaurant, pub, shopping place, even a funfair, it is a place for family. Day time is rather quiet but night time is quite happening.

It is not a big area so its fine to park your car on one spot and walk through the area. But please take notes that it is an open air area, so do not expect air-con everywhere. I would suggest to have early dinner in the area and walk afterward. 

For dinner place, we chose (and we glad we chose that) Gourme Kaiten Sushi Ichiba. After read countless posts on the internet, we filtered all western food (lotsa western food there!) and want sometime more Japanese (also lotsa Japanese restaurant) but Hai got the best review although the restaurant is not as fancy as others. 

The place is clean, the food is awesome, the price makes us super happy. We had more than 10 plates of fresh sushi, chawanmuchi and fish soup, and its only cost us 2300 yen, equal to about RM60 as at July 2015!

The two down things was no English menu (yea it is go-around sushi but you can order something not on the bell) and long queue! We waited for close to an hour to get our seat.

Our dinner place! 

If you can read chinese, you can spot a plate with Chawamuchi paper sign on the bell. Grad that and pass it to waiter for hot and fresh chawanmuchi!  

Menu, English tak ada. But if you can read Chinese, you can understand / guess some. Again, do be shame or shame on someone from Chinese background. Hmpf! 

My favorite of the night! Damn see the eggs! This is countless times worth and yummier than Sushi King!

His favorite. The sea grapes sushi. 

Sushi plates scanner, i "wow" when i saw this. 

First day in Okinawa was funfilled and satisfied! Love this little island in the sign! Second day was another fun day which we visited a lot of awesome places!

I shall be back soon for the next post, so stay tuned la!

Last but not least, me! Taken by him!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
0707pm, 191215
Gosh 2015 is over soon!

Japan: Okinawa: Review of Beachside Condominium, Chatan

I like review post, especially accommodation. That's why i come back so quick this time. Haha.

We spent four nights in this island and i think it was just right, perhaps if you wanna visit some remote small islands nearby, you will need a day or two more. But for the main island, four nights are pretty enough for good visit.

Refer to the screen shot map of Okinawa below, the red circle is where the capital / city / port / shopping and airport district located, blue is US military / township - America Village, green is the natural / dive site / aquarium and yellow is forest reserve and quite town. 

I spend the first night in blue, second night in green and third and fourth night in red, we did not really go to yellow because nothing much there and long travel distant from yellow to red in the last day. 

And this post is about the accommodation in blue. The Beachside Condominium. 

There are plenty of luxury beachside resort in every districts of Okinawa and it isn't expensive compare to Tokyo. If my memory serves me right, you can get a decent resort room around RM300 including breakfast. 

But we decided to choose The Beachside Condominium, simply because i like home away from home, this is a fully furnish condominium including kitchenette, laundry, free high-speed wifi and wonderful seaview. It just cost us RM 240 per night, which i think its worth every penny we spent.

The Location:

Beachside Condominium is 18 km away from Naha Airport and 2 km away from the second happening town on the island, the American Village, fulfill my requirement of not in the noisy hub but not too far away from it.

Even if you dont rent a car, it is a walking distance to American Village. There are several restaurants along the condo street (but nothing exciting). However, you can walk further to the main road for more option.

I dont see any convenience shop nearby, but we did not really explore the area because we only stayed one night and we drove to places.

But we wish we could spend one more nights.

Purple circle is airport, red is the condo.

purple is American Village, Red is condo.

The outlook of the condo, no condo name, no sighboard, very simple registration room on the ground floor. 

The features

Everything you name of home are all in this unit.

Kitchenette (without seasoning la), fridge, microwave, washing and drying machine, full facilities toilet, wifi, cable tv..

Things that you wouldn't expect also included, such as billion dollar sea view (without blockage!) and in room Jacuzzi!

Just scroll down to see how true is my description. 

Our room overview. Taken from balcony toward the entrance. 

ta-da, the view! damn, worth the price aint!

and.... Jacuzzi on the balcony. We spent some time here with drink in the evening. it was awesome!

temperature control panel

stove and even a rice cooker

culinary  

and even peeler. 

of course pan and pot

right size toilet / bathroom

cable tv and wifi

super comfy two single bed (can combine as one large bed) and a sofa bed. 

I love to cook and i really wish i have the chance to get something fresh in the market for a simple meal cooked by myself. Too bad it was just a night.

Oh, what left out from the pictures are washing machine! We did used that through.

For more information about the condo, click me to go to the official website.

There are several condo building and room numbers to be select.

For me, i booked through agoda. Click me to the direct agado booking page.

Good of the stay 
1. Clean, spacious and value of money
2. Fully furnish apartment, suit for family with infant or children that only eat self-prepared food.
3. Central location for those who drive. Short driving distant to everywhere.
4. Good security,

Down of the stay
1. No convenience store / restaurant within short walking distant.
2. No on-site parking. Free public parking available in next block, but i just a minute walking from the condo.
3. No breakfast provided. (C'mon we have family mart and 7-11 mah! Rice ball is cheap and yum!)

If i would go back? definitely yes!

Alright the next post will be attraction nearby the stay!

See ya!


Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1258pm, 22112015
Rach in going to take a nap mood.

Japan: How to go to Narita from Haneda in midnight? Flight to Okinawa from Haneda, local sim pack, and rent car in Okinawa

A year and half ago, Airasia only allowed to land in Tokyo's Haneda airport, the international airport, but not the domestic airport, the Narita airport.

I was not a big problem to many travelers despite higher airport tax due to better facilities in the international airport.

However, landing in Haneda airport in our trip to Japan July last year had given us some serious heart attack moment, which i am going to story that in this post, such as how to go to Narita from Haneda in the mid night. 

Other topics to touch on are the information of local sim pack, car rental in Okinawa and Jestar's flight to Okinawa.

The first part of the post today is how to go to Narita from Haneda.

I know this is very outdated since Airasia already opened the route to Narita sometime last year. Well if you happen to booked to land in Haneda and decided to change the plan to somewhere else by taking domestic plane in Narita.

During last year, we had no choice but to land in Haneda although we were taking Jestar to Okinawa from Narita within 8 hours after we landed in Haneda.

Haneda and Narita are 1 to 2 hours driving distant to each others and there are no direct connecting transports in the mid night.

Yea you can take taxi, but i wish you check on the internet on the cost before taking this option. Taxi fare in Japan is not anyone can afford. 

There are monorail but it stops in every station and last train only till midnight, and we were landed at 1130pm.

Yea shuttle bus right, only in day time. The earliest is 620am. To take the earliest was our plan but information center advised us to not take the risk, because our flight was at 820am. If traffic is not helping, we will miss the flight.

She advised us to take the last monorail to Tokyo station and take the midnight shuttle bus to Narita airport. We literally ran to the airport monorail station to get on the last train, got down in the confusing Tokyo station and asked around how to go to Bus Stop no. 3 for the airport shuttle bus for the 1.30am bus. 

It sound calm as i sitting here and type it out but i can still feel my heart skipping a beat when i recall the moment of looking for direction and stuffs, scary. 

Oh well, to summarize how to go to Narita from Haneda in the mid night...

1. Take monorail to Tokyo station from Haneda Airport (650 yen / ticket as in 07-2014)
2. Look for bus stop no.3 for Keisei Expressway Bus Stop to Narita airport (1500 yen / ticket as in 07-2014)
3. Get the bus ticket and wait for boarding. Earliest time of the mid night bus is 130am, the next one is 20 minute later.

Do note that bus ticket booking is opened for Japanese, walk-in / foreigner is first come, first serve basic. 

Airasia, everyone can fly.

Monorail ticket from Haneda airport to Tokyo station.

Last train is 0005 and we stepped on the platform in 2356!

spacious monorail and only us in the whole car.

No time to snapped pix of Tokyo station because we were so scared of missing the bus, Only took photo when we done buying ticket and waiting in the open bus stop. 

Here we were.

Tokyo station is across the road, bus stop no.3. Information as at July 2014.

Saw this flyer in Narita airport, right blue box is the bus time table.

Alright, now we move to Tokyo and Okinawa return ticket booking information.

My readers would know i prefer nature than city. So beside Tokyo, i chose to go Okinawa, a least Malaysian tourists destination.

Okinawa is closer to travel from Taiwan, it takes close to three hours flight from Tokyo but only an hour plus from Taipei. You will see more Taiwanese in the lovely island. In fact when we told the car rental staff that we are Malaysia, she said we are the first Malaysian tourist that she ever served in Okinawa.

And Okinawa worth all the hassle we had when we were traveling to.

If you ask where is my fav island that i had ever been, i will say Okinawa without any hesitate.

You will know why in upcoming post, i will show you paradise-alike photos that we took in Okinawa.

Alight back to topic.

Yea, Tokyo to and from Okinawa domestic flights and airlines are plenty,

We traveled with Jestar because it seems to be the only airline booking system that we could understand. The rest are Japan budget / domestic airlines which only have Japanese website.

RM576 for one return ticket from Narita to Naha, Okinawa, including 20kg check-in luggage and refreshment on flight. I consider this is not too bad!

Domestic Departures in Narita Airport

Small plane but a pleasant flight.

FYI, there is US military based in Okinawa. Saw a few military aircraft as we landing. 

Now come to everyone's concern information, the local sim pack. 

For the entire trip planning, John only in-charge of this one, simply he cant live without internet. Thus i do not know about other telcos' deal, but i think B-mobile is pretty good as they have delivery service for free to all major airport. 

So we booked and paid in Malaysia, and the sim pack will be delivered to the airport of your choice according to your selected date and time. 

Click me to see the deal. 

Personally i wished to get the 14 days prepaid pack although the price is same as the 1GB prepaid pack because more secure with unlimited mobile internet especially we solely relied on our phone GPS due to not renting one from the car rental company. 

But John insists 1GB is more than enough for our 10 days trip and it was true. Most of the time you get free and speedy internet connection in Japan. Well, Japan mah!

So the sim pack cost us bout 4300 yen included tax, equal to RM150 as at July 2014. 

Print out the email to collect the pack in Naha airport. 

here we collected the sim pack. 

Ta-da! 

Lastly! Our ride in Okinawa! 

We are blessed because we have a Ukraine friend who now a Japan citizen to helped us to got the great car rental deal. 

You will not believe we rented a Honda for 4 days in Okinawa with only RM300, But it is true!

We don''t usually bother a local friend whenever we traveled to their country, but when i was figuring out how to and how much to book a car for our Okinawa trip, i suspected a significant price different between Japanese and English version of a same car rental website.

I then facebook my friend to check on the deal and he said the cost is half cheaper if we book thru Japanese version website because there are more deals for local tourist! 

Of course he helped us to booked the car without hesitate, by filling his personal address in Tokyo and mobile number. He also made a note that i will be collecting the car, there how we got the car with less than RM100 a day.

So i'm sorry i couldn't tell much on how to book a car in Okinawa, but if you have a friend in Japan (i suppose he or she has be to resident in Japan because the form require address and mobile number), do ask their help to save half of your budget on renting a car.   

There are several car renting companies in Okinawa but we chose OTS for its better reputation, more deals and price. 

Click me to the English version OTS website. 

Received the email in Japanese with some Chinese word that i can understand. 9400 yen for 4 days, it is equal to RM300 as at July 2014. 

To collect the car...

1. Look for OTS counter in the airport, tell them you already booked a car and want to collect.
2. Take the shuttle van prepared by OTS to the branch that located 20 minutes away from airport for car collecting procedure.
3. Line up to register and check on document, including your international driving license (MUST! You are not allow to drive there without the license) and safety briefing.
4. Check your car with the staff, mark down all the damages / scratches, if any.
5. Keep all the documents with you, will need that when car returned.
6. Collect the car, and free to go!!!

Our ride in Okinawa

Oh, we saw a lot of car rental counters in Naha airport, some people does rent a car on the spot, but i am sure you can get pretty good early bird discount if you pre-booked it.

Of course if you sibeh rich you can choose and book it on the spot la.

Alright, finally i done this big piece, i hope this is useful for some of you, do ask me if you have some questions, i will do my best to answer you.

So next post will be hotel reviews!

For four nights in Okinawa, we moved to four hotels. From apartment to 4-star hotel with in-room massage chair, i will post all four because all worth to be shared!

Stay tuned! I will back soon i guess, i love review post mah!

lastly, J and I in Japan, the forth country we had been together. 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20151115, 1049pm
Rach in tomorrow is Monday mood,