The Great Waterfall Road: Hiking Japan's Oirase Gorge as seasons change

[Note: This is a news article, not my personal experience. This is now on my list to visit. And then Covid... Now it's on my wish list. But I am not much of a hiker. Certainly not for 5 hours!]

28 September, 2019

Our Man Hosono

Hosono-san making a HUGE snowball.

On the 22 Dec 2022, after 3 years stuck in Singapore because of the Pandemic (COVID 19), we finally left Singapore, winging our way to Japan (with a stopover at Taipei).

We flew on Scoot, a low cost carrier (a.k.a. budget airline), and we filled in the information requested by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for incoming travellers to declare their vaccination status.

I have rants about both Scoot and Japan's process (as well as Taiwan's process for transiting passengers), but I will save that for another post. 

Maybe.

This is about Hosono-san.

Why can't other airports be more like Changi?

 

As a Singaporean, trapped in Singapore for the last 3 years, I finally got to fly to Japan in Dec 2022.

With a stopover in Taipei.

The custom and immigration clearance for Taipei (even for transit passengers) and Japan (with its Covid screening measures) was hellish.

Billie Eilish performs at Cloud Forest (Gardens by the Bay), Singapore

 Sept 2022

Billie Eilish performs/records two songs at the Cloud Forest dome, Gardens by the Bay (GBTB), Singapore.

Seven Wonders of Singapore II - Food

Singapore's Hawker Culture is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. What this means is that you can come to Singapore, stay in the Marina Bay Sands hotel, take pictures of the Rain Vortex at Changi Jewel (at Changi Airport), see the Merlion, wander through Gardens By the Bay, and tick all the boxes of iconic sights of Singapore, but if you have not ate at a hawker centre, you have not really experienced the quintessential Singapore.

If you ask for a recommendation for a hawker centre, invariably, tourists are guided to Maxwell Road Hawker Centre (famous for Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice), Lau Pa Sat (for their Satay and Barbequed Seafood), Newton Hawker Centre, and maybe Old Airport Road Hawker Centre (Char Kway Teow, and other food). 

Of the 4 hawker centres mentioned above, Lau Pa Sat and Newton cater to the tourist trade. You may read that to mean that they are "tourist traps", but this is Singapore. Even our so-called tourist traps have soft teeth. Lau Pa Sat has nice architecture and could offer some nice opportunities for photos/instagram.

Lau Pa Sat (outside view)

Seven Wonders of Singapore I - Seven Tourist Icons

Ask any Singaporean what is there to do or see in Singapore, and you are likely to get the jaded reply that Singapore is a boring place, with nothing to do or see.

And... in a sense they are right. For them.

But what would a tourist seeing Singapore for the first time be intrigued, if not impressed by?

Here are Singapore's, Seven Tourist Icons (Instagrammable!)

(my opinion).

Using SUICA (travel and convenience card) in Japan

If you have been to Japan, you might have seen signs for SUICA at train stations, or you might have seen other travellers (probably Japanese/locals), using a card for transit travel.  

The video above shows how to get such a card, charge it, and use it for train travel, buying from vending machines, and convenience stores.