The glorious spring at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

  The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, or also known as Kew Gardens, is the world's largest collection of living plants. It makes a good half day or day trip from London, a break from the concrete city if you are already tired of statues and buildings and galleries and museums. People like me who likes to poke around every nook and corner will take almost whole day here because Kew Garden really has a lot to offer, even if you are not a botany enthusiast. And it's really, really huge... 121 hectares of land.

Banqueting House, Whitehall

 

If you like palaces and grand places, take a peep into Whitehall Banqueting House. It's not that far from Trafalgar Square, along the Whitehall road. It doesn't appear any grander from the other buildings on the outside and you may miss it. This is how the entrance looks like, and that's James' I bronze bust head, Charles' I father.

Whitehall was in my itinerary partly because of my fascination with King Henry VIII. Supposedly it was taken away upon the fall of Cardinal Wolsey (as he did with Hampton Court) and revamped to be a grander version that suited his taste better (well, he was known as one of the fashionable monarch last time). Originally it was named as named York place.He married Anne Boleyn here. Pocahontas was among the celebrated guest here.

Currently it is under the care of Historic Royal Palaces, an independent charity that also took care of Tower of London, Hampton Court, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace. So in your ticket price you may or not add in the donation portion. Some may feel that the admission rate is rather pricey but I guess it takes a lot of effort to maintain the beautiful ceiling paintings and the hall itself. Plus, what is not expensive in London? :p

Japan itenerary planning - my references

Planning is the most essential thing for hassle - free traveling. Meaning, I did plan my itinerary to the minute details, including where I’m gonna stay, how I’m gonna get from place to place, where I’m gonna go, where to eat, my daily spending etc and it helped a lot the whole time I was there. Boy I tell you, just one place was enough to drive me nuts with reading and research. I carried the printed itinerary and kept a softcopy too. But with Japan, whatever listed in the reference - I discovered later - is precisely as what that is gonna be over there, down to the detail of transport mode and ticket prices.

Japan has also been selected to host the 2020 Olympics so I expect that travel in Japan will be much easier than before, though I can't imagine Japan being anymore convenient than it is now.

Internet connection in Japan ~ eConnect

This is how I stay connected to the world while in Japan :) Surprisingly enough, Japan does not have many free Wifi spots. New hotels have it, Starbucks, the airport, train stations, but not many. Most involve registering, which is not something I particularly enjoy doing.

My concern is about quick information access, especially if it happens that I’d need Google Map whenever I’m at lost. After looking around, I found eConnect, a 30 days non – contract micro SIM Internet data of 1G. Speed for Downlink: 7.2 Mbps / Uplink: 5.7 Mbps (best effort). Available in SIM and micro SIM. Good enough, cost 4890 Y including delivery. Payment by credit card.

Go to Japan. You will love Japan. And you will never regret it :)

Japanese version of Minions singing Banana!!! :D

Ok, let’s give Japan some credit here, they do try to speak sukoshi English and make life easier for gaijin like me by putting up English signboards here and there, loading up their Tourist Information Centres with English – speaking personnel and stuffs, and some helpful Japanese even attempt to speak some English to help a lost – looking gaijin, and I did kinda get  blown over by a Japanese who actually speaks better English than me LOL. All in all, Japan is an easy place to visit.