Katsukura - かつくら

One of our must eat Tonkatsu in Japan is Katsukura. There are others but this post will be about Katsukura. We have been to the branch in Kyoto and Tokyo. Both shops are easy to find as they are located in departmental stores. There are actually quite afew branches but Tokyo and Kyoto are the more commonly visited places. They do have a website listing their branches but it's only in Japanese. Do take note of their opening hours.
http://www.fukunaga-tf.com/katsukura/shop.html

Tokyo
Takashimaya Times Square Main Building
14F, 5-24-2 Sendagaya
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Kyoto
Kyoto-shi Kyoto-Eki-Biru The Cube 11F

They do offer english menu so go ahead and request for one.
One thing to note is that each Tonkatsu set comes with free flow of rice, vegetables and soup. Their soup is pretty tasty. Do also try the chawanmushi.

 

Sauces for Tonkatsu and salad dressing. Do check with staff if you're not sure how to use them.

You get to grind your own sesame before adding your preferred sauce in.

Crab meat cream croquette

Egg, ham and cheese croquette

 

  

Katsukura has one of the better Tonkatsu that we've tried. We visited Maison but we didn't really like it. I guess it's up to personal preference. The crab meat cream croquette is good! I prefer that than the egg, ham and cheese one. Chawanmushi has a slight yuzu taste as they added yuzu skin in it.

白川郷- Shirakawago

Years ago, we found out about Shirakawa-go while searching for places to visit outside Tokyo.

Initially we wanted to give up the idea because we had to bring along our big luggages onto the bus and drag it around to our accommodation. In the end, we decided to just do it. We went in June so the weather was pretty warm.

We took the Nohi bus from Kanazawa up to Shirakawago. You can refer to the link below for more information about buses to Shirakawago to and from Takayama/Kanazawa.

https://www.nouhibus.co.jp/english/shirakawago_kanazawa.html

Upon alighting from the bus, there is a bus terminal where I tapped free Wi-Fi!

Bus terminal

We booked our accommodation via www.japaneseguesthouses.com. They helped us book the accommodation as most of the guest houses there don't have websites for booking and they do not speak much english.

We settled for Kiyoda guest house as we only checked out accommodations 1 month before and most places are already fully booked. Do book at least 3 months in advanced! We stayed for 1 night in a Japanese style room for 2 guests without private bath or toilet and without meals. The bill came up to 11,999 yen including tax. One thing to note is that we regretted not taking the meals. We thought that we will be able to find food in 1 of the shops there. By 5/6pm, most of the shops are closing and we were lucky to find a shop selling Japanese curry. Also, after a certain timing, there's nothing much to do in Summer as there's no illumination etc. There are also quite abit of insects flying around.

Kiyoda guest house

As Shirakawago is a UNESCO site, most of the accommodation there are preserved as how it was originally. The walls were thin and I felt bad because CW snores really loudly. I was afraid that he will keep other guests awake. There's no air conditioning so it can get abit warm at night. There's fan and charging points for your electronics as well as hot drinking water.

  

 

Walk way

  

 

 

Inside the house

  

Feels really old school

We thoroughly explored the place as we have the whole day there!

 

 

 

 

Since we had time, we walked up to the viewing platform instead of waiting for the shuttle bus. Definitely achievable for most people. 

 

  

人形焼き

  

 

 

Water keeping the drinks cool

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning, we took the bus to Takayama. 

The view in the morning is pretty amazing with the clouds lying low.

 

 

Bring linking bus terminal to shirakawago

 

 

This is a really nice place. Will love to visit again in winter where there's snow! I will like to drive here next time but I have no experience driving in snow so that is going to be a big headache as we do not know how to put the chains on. Nevertheless, Winter at Shirakawago is going to be amazing.

 

 

Japan again!

I am so excited!

So I love all things Japan and when i saw that Soup Spoon was having a contest that allows people to win trips to Japan, I had to take part in it. I only found out about this contest near the deadline so we had to visit Soup Spoon ASAP.

There were 2 ways to win prizes.

1: Instagram contest

2. Lucky Draw

I took part in both. Because of my carelessness (i forgot to bring the lucky draw card out) so we had to redrink 3 soups at 1 go. For the instagram contest, we specifically went down to a particular branch for natural light! So many people took part in the instagram contest so we did not expect much but........ we won! OMG SO THANKFUL! The prize was plane tickets to Tokyo and 3 nights accomodation. Japan we are coming for you!

This was the picture that we submitted.

Sun Moon Lake (五船民宿)

At Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan, my brother booked a 民宿 (五船）.

Not like the typical 民宿 that I've stayed at, this 民宿's rooms have different themes.

There are 4 different rooms in the 民宿 and we booked 3 out of the 4.

The last room that we didn't book has the lego theme.

Here's a quick tour of the place. 

Check in counter.

Stairs up

 

Room 1

Room 1

Room 1

Room 1

Room 1

Room 2

Room 2

Room 3

Room 3

Room 3

Room 3

Room 4. Lego Room.