Japan Day 5!

Our home in Japan

Today marks the end of our homestay with the iwayuru family. In case anyone is interested, we got the details of the family through (http://www.homestayweb.com/)

Basically how it works is that you pay US$10 to become a member and with that membership, you are able to obtain the list of all hosts at any location in the world. With the host come with it the basic details such as location, people in the family, price per day (yes you have to pay for it) and other remarks. So once you decided on a particular host, just drop them a mail and everything will work out from there. It is a fun way to experience life as a local especially if you intend to stay for a long period e.g. (more than a week-few months). And the price for these homestays beats the price of hotel and ryokan hands down. Not to mention that you got the full attention of the host family.

Another alternative to homestayweb.com is( http://www.couchsurfing.com/) and personally this is a much better option.

Do you have an extra room or spare couch in your house?

Do you want to experience how people live in different countries?

Do you want to meet people from other countries?

If so then you definitely must join couchsurfing. In this online community, you can find people who may be able to put you up in their house for a period of time or bring you around their hometown for a day. And of course, others may find you for the same reason. And trust me, this is a very vague expression of what it is all about. Head on to the site to find out more, you won’t regret it. More on it will be explained in the Taiwan section of this travel blog.

CONTINUED
The morning before we left, the girls wanted to try the traditional kimono dress. To our delight, okasan(mother) of the homestay used to be a kimono dresser/teacher of some sort. So she brought out her heirloom kimono and proudly show it to us. It has been in her family for several decades and pass on many generations and believe me, age has left no mark on this piece of fabric yet. We were also told that top quality kimonos like this which cost as much as a car is slowly being phased out by china made cheaper ones. And the girls had a ball of a time as they tried out the outfit. Breakfast-yet another meal that we couldnt finish

Rach donning her dress with the help of okasan

All good things must come to an end and this is no exception. With that, we leave the house with great memories of the place.

With the Japan rail pass we bought in Singapore (~S$363), we were allowed to take the railways for unlimited number of time in a week. We hopped onto the 6-7hours train ride heading back to Tokyo. By the time we reach and checked into a ryokan , it was already in the evening.

For our last few days in japan, we Kimo Ryokan( http://www.kimi-ryokan.jp/index.html) located at IKEBUKURO as our base. It is conveniently located in central Tokyo and near the shopping area and metro. Having an English speaking staff is also an added bonus as well. After we had our dinner at a fast food like rice restaurant selling food like curry rice, we separated to do our individual roaming and buying. Being a non shopaholic, I wandered to Tokyu Hands(http://www.tokyu-hands.co.jp/index.htm) which is a gigantic lifestyle departmental store. You will possibly find anything you could ever think of in this place, from furniture to electronics to toiletries to stationary and you can even find things to spice up your sex life. The one at ikebukuro is a majestic 9 storey building and every single of the floor is designated to a particular section.

Ubiquitous pork rice

9 storeys of fun(include 2 basement)

Fancy a nurse outfit?

If you ever go to japan, don’t miss this out, even if you do not intend to buy anything, you will hardly walk out of here empty handed.