We decided to fly to japan and visit TH’s family before they move away from furkoka. As everything is spontaneous and last minute, M helped us booked everything.

We will be spending 17 days in Japan. The trip will start from Osaka- Kobe- Furkoka- Hiroshima- Osaka- Kyoto- Munich. And we will be also testing out the famous high speed rail Shinkansen and Japanese’s famous hospitality.

We enjoyed the flight. Because you can already enjoy Japanese inflight food. Which is awesome for picky eater like Big J.When there is soba or udon or any kind of noodles. My day is safe. And what’s best. There is tuna Origini. I think TH and i both ate at least 4 each throughout the flight. Big J was well behaved as usual. Little J slept in the basinette or on me. It was good.

Arrived in Osaka. The impression was…. what happened to all the high tech robots etc. Kansai airport looks kinda run down. And alot of unnecessary of passport controlling. What happened to all the techy stuffs.

Anyway, got our baggages, dressed the boys in their winter wear. And off we went to collect our JR Railpass. M helped us organised this whole trip. Booked the hotels for us, as well us the trains and all.

1 Stop: KOBE

Kobe is just 30 mins away from Osaka. So it is a day trip for us. We were too early for check in, so dropped the luggages and off we went to look for KOBE beef. Big J is a sleepy monster now. He slept throughout the time where TH went out to get a pre paid card and look for food. Then we went for lunch. And finally when we went back to the hotel, the sleepy head woke up.

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Well, since we are there, we decided to just give it a try. This set meal ‘special’ cost 150€ per person. It is good, melt in mouth. Not so fatty as expected. (we had super bad experience from Wagyu beef) But it is not for us mind blowing.

I think for an once a life time experience, you should give it a try. But after spending so many days eating other better food. This is not a MUST. Of course this is just my point of view.

We freshen up and went to expore this famous Beef city and also trying not to sleep too early for the day. But we can’t hold our sleepy head. By 8pm, we were all in bed. And at 2am, TH woke up and we had supper. He went to pack udon noodles and fried chicken from the nearby stores that were running 24h.

After Breakfast, we left to Fukuoka to meet up with the rest of the family.

This round, we were on the Shinkansen towards Hakata. The sleek train was really full because of the coming new year and this is the only time where many japanese take their long deserved holiday. We couldn’t get any seat reservation. But after a few stations, we managed to get a seat. And after 2hours of snacking and trying the beverages and bread we got from the 7-11, we arrived at Hakata.

The train station is FULL. And its really big and cool. We quickly left to get to the enterance where TH’s bro and SIL are coming to pick us up. After maybe 30 mins or so, they finally arrived.

Got back to their apartment, unpacked and off we went out for lunch… at the most famous Ramen shop. Ichiran.

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Hot soupy noodles are the best. Both Js ate super well. So it was a good meal!

TIP: get super hard noodles, 1 garlic or more. The broth will taste even better.

Till today, this is still Big J’s favourite ramen place. Although TH and i both actually prefer Ippudo more.

After lunch, we went to the beach, walk a bit and then tried this ‘must try’ live squid at the squid restaurant. It is actually melt in mouth, Not chewy and good. The weirdest part was the flesh was still changing color and spot appear and disappear or blinking while we were ‘eating’ it. The squid head was then made into tempura.

Dinner was amazing and it was a local sushi place outside their apartment.

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