Japan Trip 5/4-12/4: Travel from Osaka Airport to Kyoto- ICOCO & Haruka Pass

We took MAS flying from Kuala Lumpur to Osaka Kansai International Airport. Whole journey took us around 7 and half hours, quite tiring journey if you travel at night. Light sleeper like myself, can hardly sleep in the plane. I would like to give a thumb up for the MAS services which feed us throughout the whole trip. It seem like every 2 hours they serve food & beverage. First, they served you peanuts & drink; second round, sausage sandwish & drink; third round, breakfast-Nasi Lemak. Basically, you can sleep one hour in between the serving.

Once we reached the airport, after the immigration, the first thing we do is to find the JR Ticket Office to buy the passes to travel to Kyoto. The JR office for passes is located at second floor with big signboard of all the passes price outside the office.

Since April 2014, all passes price have increased. We bought the ICOCO & Haruka pass which cost 3,030 yen (one way). There are two items in this package: ICOCO card (top up card like touch'n go that can be use for other subway and stores) with 2000 yen e-money ready to use and Haruka pass that able you to take the Kansai Airport Express"Haruka" train to Kyoto fastest and shorter time within 75min. 

**The Haruka one-way pass is valid for one day only. The round-trip pass is valid for 2 weeks. More information, check out their website.

We only bought one way ticket to Kyoto because I will travel from Osaka to airport on the last day. In addition, the route travel by Haruka train do not stop at Osaka directly but to the nearest Shin-Osaka. You can travel from Kyoto to Shin-Osaka and get a subway to Osaka. But we want to avoid all the hassle of changing train, there is a JR Kyoto line that travel direct to Osaka which take around 30min and cost only 540 yen where you actually save half of the price compare to two-way Haruka pass. This is where your ICOCO card come in handy, you top up and touch n go. ICOCO card can use for some JR line, subways, buses as well as outlet stores. You might need to get the map from the counter to check on the available route.

In Japan, there are many cards similar to ICOCO card but some are restricted on the lines that you are able to travel. So far to travel between Osaka and Kyoto, I only use ICOCO card for JR lines and subways. For buses in Kyoto, you have to purchase a bus card for 500yen (one day use) or pay cash 200 yen a way. If you have plan your itinerary earlier, you can actually save a lot on the transportation by visit places at the same area in walking distance.

We reached the JR Kyoto station in the morning, and the weather was super cold in Spring, around 7 degree celsius. Basically, every Japanese passing by are wearing winter clothes except both of us and some foreigners with shorts and slippers. It seem like most foreigners got the wrong weather forecast for Spring in Kyoto.

For more:

• Japan Trip 5/4-12/4: Osaka-Kyoto Itinerary 2014
• Kyoto Day 1: Kyoto Station- Fushimi Inari Shrine-Nishiki Market
• Kyoto Day 2: Higashiyama District: Kiyomizu-dera Temple-Ninenzaka & Sannenzaka- Kodaiji Temple-Maruyama Park
• Kyoto Day 3: Arashiyama District: Sagano Scenic Railway-Bamboo Groves-Tenryuji Temple-Togetsukyo Bridge-Kyoto Tower
• Osaka Day 1: Kuromon Ichiba-Osaka Aquarium-Dotonbori
• Osaka Day 2: Part 1- Kuromon Market
• Osaka Day 2-Part 2: Osaka Castle,Tsutenkaku Tower and Shinsekai
• Osaka Day 3: Universal Studio Japan
• Osaka Day 4: Umeda ( Our last day in Japan)

Kingtu Restaurant Satay Celup | Melaka

Everytime you visit Melaka, the famous food that people will recommend is the Satay Celup! And everytime you request for Satay Celup, you will either end up in Capitol or Ban Lee Siang which are the famous one and had the longest queue you were ever want to join. So this time, we found a Satay Celup shop which is equally famous but somewhere out of the Melaka town. You wont have to queue like crazy or pay like crazy. You just have to relax and enjoy your food, plus it is an air-conditional shop, no worry on sweating while eating.

Just for your info. for those who haven't try Satay Celup before, it is a type of raw or semi-raw ingredients (ie. meat, seafood, vegetables and etc...) on skewers and you boil it into a big pot of satay sauce. It is very similar like steamboat, but the soup is substitute with satay sauce.

All the ingredients will be placed inside the fridge near to the entrance, you will need to get a big metal plate and place all the food you will like to eat. Every table will be installed a pot of boiling satay sauce in the middle of the table to boil your ingredients.

You will dunk your ingredients inside the boiling satay sauce and wait for it to cook. And there it is your Satay Celup!

I personally like this place, although it is a bit far from the town but if you are driving, I would recommend to come here. As you will save your time on queueing and eating in a crowded and noisy place. This place give you more space and even better ambience to chit chat with your friends. The satay sauce is nice, comparable with the other famous outlet, plus the price is only RM0.70 per stick regardless any ingredients. At least by end of the day, we still able to save our pocket getting a big hole.

Kingtu Restaurant Satay Celup

9, Jalan CU 4,

Taman Cheng Utama, 75250 Melaka

Contact No.: 012-6068805

P/S: You can use Waze to type in the restaurant name to find the place.

Nancy's Kitchen | Malacca

During the trip to Malacca, we visited another Nyonya Restaurant near our hotel. Normally during the lunch and dinner hour, you can see long queue outside the restaurant. But that day, we went around 5pm just before the dinner crowd start. The place located opposite the Cheng Ho Residence, walking distance to Jonker street.

Since we just had tea break somewhere else, we decided to have some light snack as our dinner. We order its ala carte instead of main dishes.

Popiah (Spring Roll)-RM3.00 (per roll)

I love to have popiah wherever I go, can't resist this too. Thickness of the popiah skin is just right with lots of filling wrap inside, very nice I would said however it is a bit spicy as it added some chilli paste. Recommended to order!

Top Hat (Pai Tee)-RM 4.80 (5 cones per serving)

My second favourite Nyonya snack is this! They are indeed good in making the top hat cones, very crispy and crunchy. The filling they are using is exactly the same as the Popiah filing but in a different way of  serving. The popiah filling doesn't blend well on Pai Tee, I prefer the filling to be finer and dry in order to taste it in a crispy way.

Pork Fried with Bean Curd Skin (Ngoh Hiang)-RM 6.00 (small)

This dish very similar to the Hokkien's Lo Bak, however the taste of the Ngoh Hiang is not flavour enough. I still prefer the Penang's Lo Bak over this.

Nyonya Laksa-RM6.00

Nyonya Laksa here is very similar to the KL curry mee. The noodle that they are using is the normal yellow mee and bihun, not the transparent laksa noodle. The taste of the laksa is too similar to curry mee, if it is a curry mee, I would said it is comparable. 

 Nyonya Fried Rice Sambal Belacan- RM6.00(small)

This is the last thing we would ever order as we always think fried rice is a common dish that every household can cook. We ordered this because hubby want to have rice. But this change our perception and gave all of us a surprise. It turn out to be pretty good and in fact delicious! Although it is a bit spicy but the rice smell so good with the anchovy on top. It looks like Kampung fried rice but taste so much better. Must Try! 

After trying their Appetizer and Ala Carte, I seriously will come back again for their main dishes. I guess this is also the reason why long queueing and people keep coming back again.

Nancy's Kitchen

Jalan Hang Lekir

Off Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock

Melaka, Malaysia

Tel : 06 2836099