8 Things I LOVE About Japan (Part 1)

I'm coming back to KL today after having spent almost a week in Japan. It's been such a great holiday. I knew it was a great holiday when one day during the trip, I totally forgot what day of the week it was. That was when I knew... I was truly on a holiday.

I gotta love Japan. Apart from everything costing a bomb (made worse by the strong Yen now), I love it. Here are a few things I love about Japan.

1) The Food!

The food in Japan was amazing. We had a lot of great meals in Japan.

Everything from Shabu Shabu to Teppanyaki

Sushi and all but my favourite of all was from this little underground restaurant in the middle of Tokyo. It's so easy to miss when walking on the street. All you see is a small sign and a staircase that leads downstairs.

When you do go down, you find a small restaurant that can fit something like 20 people in there.

They serve some chicken ball or shitake mushroom skinners but the highlight for me is this.

Salmon with rice.

You can have almost the same thing with chicken but salmon was my favourite. All they put in there is rice, salmon and some sesame but it all tasted so good.

My Dad found out about this place from his Japanese friend. According to my Dad, this is like the Japanese version of "Economy Rice". Cheap (relatively) but good food :)

2) Vending Machines

They're everywhere and they have all sorts of really cool drinks, both hot and cold.

Allow me to illustrate in pictures how much I love vending machines.

This is me buying a drink at a vending machine in Tokyo.

This is me buying another drink at another vending machine in Tokyo.

This is me buying....

well it goes on.

And this scene was repeated no less than 10 times throughout the few days I was in Tokyo.

My favourite drink from the vending machines is this.

3) The Ofuro !

Not sure if I spelt that the way it's meant to be spelt but let me explain what that is. In the bathrooms in Japan you often find a bathtub right next to the shower head. Unlike Malaysia where the shower head is normally right on top of the bath tub, the shower head this time is placed on the floor area right next to it.

I learned from Princess that the whole reason for that is because in Japan, the Japanese first shower at the spot right next to the bath tub. Once they're done, they soak in the bath tub of warm water for as long as they want to warm the body up so that when you do eventually get out of the bathroom you aren't jumping around in the cold.

I decided to live the tradition of soaking in the Ofuro throughout my whole trip and I found sooo addictive. Sooo relaxing.

Plus filling the tub is so pain-free because of technology. In some places there is a panel on the wall where you can just set it to the temperature you want to set it to and the tub will automatically fill itself.

I love this feature! Just as much as I love the bidet in the toilet and the sinks where you have automatic soap, water and hair dryer all just by putting your hands in different parts of the sink.

So awesome.

Ahh love the technology in Japan.

4) The City Lights!

The other one thing I love about Japan or more specifically Tokyo is... the city lights at night.

Look at how beautiful it looks at night.

I'll write about the remaining 4 things I love about Japan in the next part.

Until then... see you guys :)