#Halal travel to Tokyo with family
As requested by friends, I write this long travel log for those who are interested in Halal travel to Tokyo, Japan. It all started when we got the chance to buy cheap tickets from Thai Airways(TG) at MYR890 / adult and MYR650 / children return flight. It's cheaper than Airasia that offers MYR1200 for the same time. Apart from food, entertainment and etc, TG timing is better than Airasia which usually arrives late in the night or early morning.
thai airways
We decided to find an apartment because we want to spend our time together, can cook, wash clothes etc. We got an apartment MYR560 / night for 9 people. Apartment booked via Airbnb. Most apartments are also provided with a pocket wifi . So we saved a lot. Same with hotel the rate depends on the date (low / high season) and the exchange rate. There is also a charge for cleaning and service fee. You can save more if staying in one place along the trip because cleaning service is only charged once.
We change our money at Suria Muhabat which offered me the most attractive rate in Malaysia. Suria Mubahat has many branches, especially in the Kelang Valley and 2 in Penang
Day 1-
We depart from Penang to the Salak Tinggi ERL station and meet all the group members there. The group consists of brothers and sisters in general. We park the car here because the charge parking here is only MYR3 a day and the ERL fare to KLIA is MYR4.90 only.More worthy than park at KLIA or take a taxi / uber.
Salak Tinggi
After check in we were boarding the flight at 9pm and the flight was transit in Bangkok .We transit in Bangkok for an hour and then connected to the next flight to Haneda.
We chose Haneda because the cost of Haneda to Tokyo city center was cheaper and immigration matters were faster than Narita due to less people.
Day 2-
We arrived at Haneda at 6:30 am. we take time to refresh in the Haneda Toilet and give way to other people dealing with immigration. Most of the toilets in Japan have no water but in the Haneda toilet bidet (auto) with water provided.
haneda
Then we line up for 1 ~ 2 minutes for immigration. For visitors who use Airbnb, you need to write your home address completely. Compared to the hotel's guests, they only need to write a hotel name and location.
Upon completion of immigration, we went to the JR counter located in Haneda to buy the Tokyo Wide Pass. The pass is priced at JPY10000 / adult and JPY5000 / child can be used for 3 consecutive days in Tokyo, Saitama, Gunma, Yamanashi, Tochigi, Chiba, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Shizuoka and Gala Yuzawa, Niigata. Bullet Train (Shinkansen) also included in this Pass. The counter is open from 7:45 am to 6:30 pm. So plan your trip to reach Haneda during this period. Otherwise you will have to spend more on your train ticket from Haneda to the next destination. At Haneda there is also an travel agent where you can buy Tokyo Subway 24 hour pass tickets at JPY800 / adult. Compared with 1 day pass worth JPY1000 by JR, we can use this subway ticket for 24 hours. Examples 9am today until 9am tomorrow.
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| JR counter at Haneda |
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| Waiting monorail to Tokyo |
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| in monorail |
Then we went to Tokyo station on a monorail and a normal train (yamanote line). While waiting for the next train to Kawaguchiko station, we spent our time in front of one of the tokyo's landmarks.
In Tokyo we were supposed to ride Narita Express (NEX) to Kawaguchiko (Mt.Fuji) but unfortunately the train was involved in the accident. NEX provides 1 trip on every Saturday and Sunday and this option is the most comfortable and fast to Kawaguchiko. We had to take another train to get to Kawaguchiko and take a longer time to arrive. We passed 2 hours from the original plan.
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| waiting NEX for hours |
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| on the way to Kawaguchiko with 2 hours standing |
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| pity on them |
upon arriving at Kawaguchiko, we bought a JPY1200 retro bus ticket for Saiko Iyashi Sato no Nenba. This ticket can be used for 2 days but due to delay, we only able to visit 1 place. The cost looks expensive, but the price is payable if without pass is above JPY1400 for the trip. This station also provides a coin locker, but to save money is to put our luggage on the locker. Anyway no empty coin locker at the time. Japan is a safe country and nobody wants to steal.
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| our luggage on top of coin locker |
We arrived Saiko Iyashi Sato No Nenba at 4:30 pm and unfortunately this place will be closed at 5pm. We supposed to rent kimono and samurai costumes at JPY500 here but unfortunately the shop closed out 4pm. So we just took photo around here. One of the tips I would like to share is that Mount Fuji is always clear in the early morning or late afternoon. Other than that, most are clouded. Spending 4 hours to come here but did not see Mount Fuji will be very frustrating .
Then we returned to Kawaguchiko to take the next train to our apartment in Tokyo which took 2 hours. Before that we stopped to take our luggage and buy some food for dinner.
We rent an apartment at Ogikubo. The name is creepy but this place is very strategic because the JR train will stop here and it is the starting station for Metro Subway Marunouchi line. In short the connection is good. Our apartment is only 2 mins walk from the train station.
Day 3-
Today we plan to play snow at Gala Yuzawa and then to Akihabara (Electric & Anime City). Since eating at Yuzawa Gala is expensive, we stop at a nearby convenient store (Lawson Store 100) to buy as much food as possible. This store helped us save money. Most items in this store are priced at JPY100. What we always buy is Onigiri, grilled fish, drinks and snacks. Language is not a problem because I have lived in Japan for 3 years and always went to Japan for work afterwards.
We boarded the shinkansen from Tokyo station to Gala Yuzawa, Niigata. Not so many people that time. We arrived at Gala Yuzawa at 10am and took almost an hour to buy tickets and also rent sleds, boots & gloves. There is a special package & discount if we use the Tokyo Wide Pass.
After almost 2 hours of snow, we went back to Tokyo. We stop at Ueno Station and Ueno is one of the main stations in Tokyo and there are also a variety of premises that sell food, souvenirs etc.
Then we went to Akihabara, an electronics and anime city in Japan. There are various latest electronics sold here. Just need to be careful because the Japanese voltage is 110V which is lower than Malaysia which uses 240V. In addition, Japanese radio also has lower frequency than Malaysia.
Among our main goals to Akihabara is to find the Turkish Doner Kebab. Just to becareful that Halal is only for chicken and not for beef.
Many games store are here for example SEGA. Surprisingly with JPY100, this game can last a long time not like the Malaysia MYR1 game that lasts only 2 ~ 4min. Here with the level of Ameer n Areef who never played Japanese games could even survive for 10min. We spent JPY500 here before returning to Apartment.
Day 4-
Today's the rain all day but fortunately the home owner has 10 umbrellas for us. Save money again.
On this day we plan to Nikko in the morning and to Odaiba in the afternoon. Nikko takes 2 hours train from Tokyo and because of its high altitude, temperatures are cooler than Tokyo. Because temperatures are almost frozen in addition to the rain, we can't stand the cold want to go home as soon as possible. But this place is interesting to visit. Feel like the samurai era. Here we spent JPY500 for a special bus ride to bring travelers to this Unesco site.
From Nikko we boarded a regular train to Utsunomiya and then we boarded the Shinkansen from Utsunomiya to Omiya. From Omiya we take a saikyo line to Odaiba. Odaiba is basically a futuristic concept city.
We arrived at Odaiba at 2:30 pm and our first location was Fuji TV. Fuji TV is a famous Japanese broadcaster station like Astro & TV3 in Malaysia. Can go in free and no guard etc.
Nearby there is the Statue of Liberty. Feel like New York already!
After taking a picture with the statue of Liberty, we went to Venus Fort, a fabulous shopping spot. The concept of a 16th century Italian style with its sky is as real. It is fun shopping here.
After tiring day we went back to the Apartment. Our trip to Odaiba is definitely more interesting if the Gundam Statue still exists. At the time, Gundam statue has been demolished to make way for new projects. They said bigger Gundam at the end of the year
Day 5-
It's our day to Tokyo Disneyland and today we can not use the Tokyo Wide Pass anymore because it's day 4. The Tokyo Wide Pass can only be used for 3 consecutive days only.
We chose the day that less few people will go to Disneyland. Information is available from here. According to this data, Disneyland's capacity is 43% on this day
We arrived at 8:50 am and many people queued (at least 50m). Fortunately we have bought our tickets onlin. Tickets can not be purchased directly via the Tokyo Disneyland website from Malaysia for technical reasons (already confirmed with Maybank and forums from other countries even mention the same thing). We bought through klook and the price is the same as the disneyland website price. The advantage of klook is that they did not set the date. We can enter 1 day as long within period stated in the ticket (until March 2018). So its OK if suddenly you want to change your date due to rain and etc. With this ticket, we do not have to queue. Proceed to scan the code an the entry and enter.
Food here is expensive. Therefore we bought a lot from Lawson 100 and bring in here. There was a bag check before entering Disneyland but the food was OK. The purpose of the inspection is more to the purpose of safety. On Disneyland's website there is also a mention of outside food is forbidden. But believe me the food can be brought in. This is the 4th time I enter Tokyo Disneyland
There are various characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy etc close to the entrance and many who can not wait to have pictures with them.I suggest to not waste your time here because it will delay you to queue at the game you want to play. You can find this characters at break time after tired of playing.
Disneyland is synonymous with long queues. Among the tricks we use to avoid long queuing is to install the Tokyo Disneyland Waiting Time application. From here we can make planning and playing as many games as possible. Always get updates from time to time. Among other tricks is getting Fast Pass. We managed to get 2 Fast Pass tickets here. If you has strong legs, you may get 5 Fast Passes. With Fast Pass we only need to queue 1 min (end time) instead of 1 hour without Fast Pass.
Beside the game, parade also is a must see attraction. The best spot to see this parade is at Haunted Mansion because the parade starts from there and ends at Toon Town. After the parade, you can go straight to the game. If you look at the parade from Toon Town, your parade will end 10 ~ 15min later and the line for the game became long.
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| berehat sebab letih sangat |
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| dalam rumah minie mouse |
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| dapur minie mouse |
At 8:50 pm there is a "once upon a time" show that uses high-tech projectors to be cast into the castle. After the show, most visitors will start moving out of Tokyo Disneyland. But we decided to stay because as Malaysian its not easy to come here. We got to a "Jungle Cruise" game which initially took 1 hour to wait, but our time there at 9:30 pm did not have to wait. It will be very crowded when you go out from Disneyland and its better out of Disneyland at 10pm.
Day 6-
Today we visit Tokyo city by using Tokyo Subway 24 hour Pass.
We started from Harajuku where here is fashion street for young people. In addition here is Daiso 100yen where we plan to buy a gift at a flat rate of JPY100. We spend almost 2 hours here.
Then we went to Shibuya and were obliged to witness hundreds of people crossing the street here at the same time. See this video if you want to know how much it is here ..
In addition, shibuya also has a unique sushi restaurant, Uobei. Besides the unique, the price is also cheap beside the big part. Surprised because our total cost here is cheaper than Sushi King in Malaysia. Also see the video to see why it is different from other sushi belt.
Then we went to the Tokyo Mosque to perform the prayers. The nearest station is Yoyogi Uehara. In addition, this mosque also serves as a center of Turkish culture. When we arrived, there was a Japanese staff taking care of the mosque.
We arrived at the Imperial Palace around 4pm. The nearest station is Otemachi. At this time, our legs really hurts because of long walks from morning.
Then we went to Ryogoku. Here there is a sumo museum but its closed when we arrived. We only managed to take photo with the sumo stadium.
Then we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to watch Tokyo Night View from a height of 202m. Free entry!!
Then we go to Kabukicho, Shinjuku for sushi and also the streets. Since the children already tired, we did not get to Tsukiji (World Biggest Fish Market) and Tokyo Skytree,
Day 7-
We departed from the 7:30 am by using the Tokyo Subway 24 hour Pass used yesterday to Haneda Airport. Peak hour but there is no problem for us because Ogikubo is the starting station. Also no problem with big luggage.
There is a slight increase in fees (JPY400 + because the line to the Airport is managed by another company (Keikyu) even though we are on the same subway train. We arrived at Airport 8:45 am and then checked in for a TG683.
Hopefully the above information can be a guide for those who want to travel to Tokyo. The total cost of spending from Flight, Apartment, Disneyland, Transport, Eating, Snow, games etc. is MYR2600 / adult. This is not a super saver travel. It's not easy to come to Japan and its better to enjoy as much as possible but still spending wisely. If you are not on Disneyland, snow, Fuji, Nikko, cheaper house, eat budget etc, this holiday may require just under MYR 1500 only.
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| gunung Fuji semasa flight pulang |
Pada pandangan saya percutian ini memerlukan 1 hari lagi supaya trip ronda bandar Tokyo dilakukan selama 2 hari dan tak terlalu rushing dan letih sangat. Tiket Tokyo Subway 48hours berharga JPY1200 shj dan kita boleh buat agenda tambahan contohnya melawat Tuna Auction, melawat latihan sumo dsb.
