While I was sipping an ice cold lemon tea, Ettie asked me of my plans for my annual holidays at the end of the year. I told her that I really wish to travel. I told her about my plans to go to Japan but it won't be happening during this coming holidays. I am intending to have a good time in Japan and will have to budget carefully when travelling around this beautiful country. Ettie remembered me telling her that I went to Euro Disney years ago and she asked if Tokyo Disney will be on my list of places to visit. Of course Tokyo Disney will be on my list. I have heard so many great comments about this theme park. Some said that the Japanese one is the best of all of them. Despite believing in a need to avoid licensed characters, I also believe in the practice of moderation. LOL.
I have been returning to the Hotel Reservations.com website regularly to see the kind of accomodation and packages on offer for Tokyo. I am planning to have a short stay near the city so I can explore Tokyo on my own. I would like to stroll in the Imperial Gardens, take photos of the Imperial Palace, to window shop at Shibuya, to experience the serenity of the Meiji Shrine and to travel on a bullet train (Shinkansen?). In my desperation to travel to Japan, I have also started to take up Japanese casually. My friends in Japan can't wait to show me some aspects of Japanese life. They like it there so much that none of them are planning to come back to Australia anytime soon.
Hotel Reservations.com is a handy website to shop around for hotels, motels, holiday packages, bed & breakfast options, car rentals and airline tickets. They also offer vacation rentals to people (especially families) with a bigger budget. A vacation rental is not just a basic hotel room. It is usually a larger self-contained suite that includes handy cooking facilities like a kitchenette, fridge and microwave. This website is very easy to use. Visitors can search for examples according to their individual needs. They do not list only the high end options but affordable options to cater to those of us who are planning to travel on a tighter budget as well. While they also offer more destinations within the USA, their coverage for the rest of the world is pretty extensive. Everytime I check out the super affordable accomodation options on offer in other parts of East and South East Asia, I become so tempted to ditch my plans to visit Japan. Some of the 3 Star hotels in Thailand have rooms starting at less than US$50 per night! Some friends who visited Thailand also had heaps of great things to say about Thailand, including one who went when the Tsunami hit at the end of 2004.
Travellers should really visit HotelReservations.com to see what is available out there. Travellers booking their reservations online are given Special Internet Rates. For greater reassurance, phone bookings are also available. People from the US, Canada and Europe can book by calling toll free numbers outlined on the website.
As it turn out, Ettie told me something I didn't know about the family. Ettie and her husband (Bree's grand dad) lived in Japan for a couple of years in the 70's. The couple moved there to work. Bree's dad was sent to a boarding school because he didn't want to leave his mates. He used to visit his parents during school holidays. No wonder there are bits and pieces of Japan around the house. There is a wooden bucket in the home office where Bree's dad 'hides' his pens. These are souvenir pens he receives as giveaways from functions and events. I just learned that the bucket is actually a traditional Japanese rice storage container. People in Japan probably do not use such buckets anymore. In the land of gadgets, they might have already created a digital rice storage container with smart technology.
Hotel Reservations
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