Isdaan Tarlac is a local open restaurant serving Filipino food located along the highway in Gerona, Tarlac. It’s a famous stop over for commuters traveling along the highway north. The restaurant has a very traditional decor and huts built with bamboo that are floating on water. It has some big figures too like a big Buddha at the top of a structure you can take pictures with and wide rice fields in the background.
Fortune Seafood Tarlac is a popular Chinese restaurant in Tarlac City. Price is on the higher side so we usually go here on special occasions. They also have space on the second floor for private parties or meetings. The food in my opinion is very good. We have a few favorites when we come here and we order those and try new dishes here and there.
Besides surfing, other popular activities on the island is the Siargao Island Tour. We only had limited time on the island so we decided to just go on one tour. We chose the tour that includes three islands and the Mapupungko pools.
There are several companies that do the island tours of course and we went with My Siargao Guide. At the time, I sent them a text message to inquire and they can confirm if they still had space for the tour the following day. We just had to pay for it at the reception of Bravo Resort the day before. Thankfully, Bravo Resort was just a 10-15 minute walk from our resort. The fee was 1,200 per person which includes the guide, boat, fees and lunch.
Isla Cabana Siargao is one of the top hotels on the island of Siargao. It’s a beach front property and centrally located with restaurants and stores within easy reach. That was the main reason I booked the hotel. They also have individual cabanas which I really like and not rooms next to each other. You have privacy and good amenities. Although recently, they’ve built an additional building with regular rooms that faces the street on General Luna. At the time of our stay, there were three kinds of rooms which were the Superior Villa, Premier Villa and Deluxe Villa. It’s on the expensive side so this is a splurge accommodation for us.
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Ichiran Ramen is one of the more popular ramen chains in Japan. They specialize in tonkotsu ramen which is ramen with a soup base of pork bones broth. Tonkotsu ramen originates in the Fukuoka region of Japan. Ichiran ramen began with a single store but started to expand into more in 1993. They also have a lot of overseas location in the US and Asia. According to their website, they originated the Original Spicy Red Sauce, Aromatic Tonkotsu Broth, Solo Dining Booth, Order Form
and Kae-Dama Ordering System.
We were in Shunjuku in the late afternoon and were just walking around and we saw a girl in a costume carrying a sign advertising their “Maid Cafe” and the direction pointing towards the alley. We passed by it and walked some more and we thought a while later that we might as well check it out. It would be another unique Japan experience for this trip.
Karting around Tokyo in our Marion costumes was by far the best experience we had on this trip. It was amazing to drive around the streets of Tokyo. If you are a fan of Mario Brothers like we were growing up, then this is an experience to remember. It was fun and exhilarating. People also constantly took pictures of us and especially kids would wave at us when they saw us. That was enjoyable to experience. Our Mario Kart Tokyo experience was courtesy of a company called Maricar. They have several offices in Tokyo and you can choose on a range of itinerary, area and time.
On our first night in Tokyo, we did not have much time as we arrived at the Hotel Villa Fontaine Tokyo in the afternoon. We settled and rested for a bit and after, we decided to explore a part of Tokyo at night and have dinner as well. We took the subway from Tamachi station and stopped at Shibuya
Tokyo is known for small spaces specially with hotels on a budget. We were looking for hotels to book for this trip. We were attracted particularly with this Hotel Villa Fontaine Tokyo because of the size. It was a bit larger than regular Japanese hotel rooms but not by much. We saw the pictures online and it looked roomier than in actual life. We also chose it because the location was good. They have many hotels in Tokyo and we stayed in the Tamachi branch. Hotel Villa Fontaine Tokyo also included breakfast.
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I have traveled to Japan three times before but this is the first time that I have tried the bullet train or Shinkansen in Japanese. For this trip, it was a must do experience on our list. One of the many firsts I’ve done on this Japan itinerary which mainly visited Osaka and Tokyo. The bullet trains on this route are aplenty. There are even three different kinds you can choose from. We went with the fastest one since YOLO! Haha. What we didn’t realize when we were planning the trips was it was golden week. On on a normal day, you have no problem buying tickets from the day itself but since it was golden week, I opted to buy tickets online to make sure we get to Tokyo in time and on that day. Our tickets can only be bought the week before by the agency so we opted for them to be mailed at the hotel in Osaka. We had no problem receiving them on time. Same with our pocket wifi.
