Tuesday, August 21, 2012

0 Travel bug strikes again!

Hi, I'm Yza, and I love pandas. As in suuupeerr love pandas! (one of my dreams is to be able to hug a baby panda. :)) So imagine my delight when one of my dearest friends who is now residing in Japan tagged me these photos: 


A pandabus! I wanna ride this!  

Panda stuffies! Yay!

More panda merchandise! I soo wanna go to Ueno,Tokyo right now :/

Because of these photos, the sleeping traveler/adventurer inside me began to stir again. Its decided! I'm going to Japan next year! I don't care what it takes! bwahahaha! *evil laugh* Actually, being an anime fan, I have dreamed of going to Japan since I was little. The panda pictures just hardened my resolution. ;) I'm fascinated with the Japanese culture: f how they can be modern and conservative at the same time.

Things to do before Japan trip:

1. Get a passport

You need to have a passport if you want to go anywhere outside your country. This applies to everyone. no exceptions.

2. Get a travel visa.

You cant go to japan without a visa.  In my case a travel visa. I still need to apply for a travel visa. Information about getting Japan visa can be found here. This is applicable for all unless you are an American, European or Australian (who are allowed visa-free entry to Japan for 90 days)

3. Save money.

Hopefully I get to save enough dough for this trip. My travel fund is nearing rock bottom and based from what I have researched from the net so far, for 15 days in Japan, you need to have at LEAST 100,000 PHP or roughly about 2,365.26 USD . *sigh* Fortunately, I still have a year to save and hopefully that will be enough. Worse comes to worst, i'll sell my kidney. (kidding!)

4. Plan itenerary.

I have many places that I want to go once I'm in Japan. Kyoto, Akihabara, Tokyo, Osaka etc. hopefully i get to squeeze as many destinations as I can in my 15 days (maximum number of days to stay in Japan for travel visa) stay there and of course, bond with my friend who is generous enough to ask me to stay in their place. God bless them :) Thank God for wonderful friends! I love you Phoebe! :)

5. Buy plane ticket.

how do I get to Japan from the Philippines(my beloved country)? Best option is to fly by plane. :) I'll be on the lookout for promo fares to Japan being the cheapskate that i am :) Best option is Cebu Pacific Air because they are the cheapest and they occasionally give seat sales. You can go to Japan for 7-9k all-in roundtrip ticket during seat sales compared to the regular ticket which will cost you about 20-30k. One of the drawbacks though is Cebu Pacific only flies to Osaka (Kansai). You still need to ride a bus or the shinkansen to go to other major cities.

6. Earn enough leave credits and file for a leave

I don't know about other companies but in our company, we get to have 15 leave credits per fiscal year. I need to budget my leaves so that I can earn enough leaves good for at least two weeks. (less travel trips for me. boo! :( )

7. Learn basic conversational Japanese

If I were to travel alone, I need to stock on my Japanese vocabulary so that I wont get lost before finding my friend. especially since I will arrive in osaka (if i were to push thru with my plan to ride on cebu pacific air). My friend is located at Niiza-shi, Saitama, roughly 2 - 3 hrs away via shinkansen from osaka. I still have plenty of time to get lost. lol.


I think that's all I need to do. For now. :)

-=KASUCHAN=-

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