What you MUST know about SHORYUDO Highway Bus Ticket

SHORYUDO Highway Bus Ticket
If you are travelling between Nagoya, Takayama, Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa, get the 3-day Shoryudo highway bus ticket at 6000 yen and it will save you a great deal (read on people). Alternatively, you can get the 4-day and 5-day pass at 7000 yen and 8000 yen. 

Shoryudo route

Here are some tips that you MUST know before you buy the ticket.

1) Do buy in advance because the tickets are limited. 
For my case, I tried my luck to buy it 2 days before my trip and it was unavailable for my first day in Nagoya. Hence, I couldn't use it for my transfer between Central Japan Airport to Nagoya. I think it would be pretty save if you buy 1 week ahead your trip (for low season). For peak, I guess you have to buy it as early as possible.

2) It's only available online.
Buy it at Japanican website and through travel agent outside of Japan. Here's the link for Japanican.

3) Please check the ticket pick-up point very carefully. 
You will need to collect the physical ticket in person (with your passport) at selected pick-up points in Nagoya. For example, if you are travelling from Tokyo to Takayama (without stopping at Nagoya), it might be impossible for you to pick up the ticket.

3) It does not cover the bus route between Takayama to Shin-Hotaka Ropeway or Okuhida.
I have no idea why I would assume that it covers the journey from Takayama to Okuhida and Shin-Hotaka Ropeway. My mistake, it doesn't. So if you are going to Okuhida or Shin-Hotaka Ropeway from Takayama and it will usually take a whole day, the ticket wouldn't be of any use that day.

4) It does not cover the bus in Shirakawa-go
So I tried my luck and again, the bus driver was not fooled.  I am referring to the bus in Shirakawa-go that takes you to the Shiroyama Viewpoint that costs about 200 yen if I remember correctly.

5) Make advance reservation
For my case, I tried to book for ticket from Takayama to Nagoya a day before, and it's fully booked! (I felt like punching someone). Hence, no choice I had to buy the train ticket instead of utilizing my Shoryudo ticket.

Throughout my trip, I only managed to use the ticket from Nagoya to Takayama *pull hair*. Instead of saving money, I was paying extra!

So, I hope that you've learnt through my mistakes. Happy travelling yo!

Traditional housing in Shirakawa-gō

Japanese BBQ at Taman Desa

For my mom's birthday, initially I had wanted to bring her to Yuzu at The Garden for a nice Japanese dinner.
As the rain has stopped right before our dinner time, I thought it would be a fantastic idea to go for Japanese BBQ al-fresco style. I asked if she would like to try Japanese BBQ or Yuzu. She chose Japanese BBQ so off we went. It was a good idea too since it was a Friday night and most the places are jam. So going to Japanese BBQ at Taman Desa which is also near our home seems to be perfect (plus it is a lot cheaper for my pocket as compared to Yuzu..hahah)

The Genghis Khan Lamb is cooking on the grill

It comes with a lot of cabbage and it is the only meat dish here which doesn't require barbeque-ing

We ordered mixed vegetables with pork and beef for BBQ-ing.

For BBQ, they only have pork and beef though. So there's no chicken or seafood.
The meat is tender and it's marinated well, not too strong so that it doesn't overshadow the original taste of the meat.

On the bottom right is their special sauce to dip your meat in.

 The birthday girl

Mom seems to be happy with the food. 

Since this place is always crowded, we are lucky to get a place without having to wait.

We had to take the bar table with high stool though.

Since both the table and grill is so tall, we had to stand up in order to grill.

If you look at the bottom right of the picture above, the others will put the grill on a small chair beside the table.

Coming with my mom & hubby is a joy because they will do all the bbq-ing while my job is just to eat and eat. Hahaha..

Slightly charred BBQ pork *drools*

Japanese risotto

 The crowd

Me & mom

For drinks, we ordered green tea and a bottle of Asahi. The price comes to about RM80 plus for the 3 of us. Considering this set up, it wasn't cheap but I would say it's a reasonable price. I will definitely revisit this place especially right after a rainy day.
As for service wise, it's like of a hawker place. So hope you don't expect soft-spoken Japanese girls to be taking your order :P.

Address:
Gerai Makan Japanese BBQ
Center Court, Plaza Faber
Jalan Desa Jaya
Taman Desa Off Jalan Klang Lama
58100 Kuala Lumpur

Direction: Plaza Faber is the row of old shops besides Wisma TM (where TM point is). The stall is in an alley among the shops row somewhere in the middle.

Kita no Zen, Hokkaido Ichiba @ The Garden, Mid Valley City

We spotted this restaurant at the Garden and the first thing that caught us was their long queue.
At the third floor of the Garden, there are two restaurants which always have constant long queue especially during dinner time, that is Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant and Sushi Zanmai.
Now we have Kita no Zen with a long queue too. With such a queue, one can conclude that this restaurant has to be good.



Let's see the queue that I am talking about,

We were queuing behind the last girl with long hair -___-


To kill time, we take turns to patronise the foodstuff area at Hokkaido Ichiba:

There are 3 parts of Hokkaido Ichiba, ie. Hokkaido Ice-cream, Kita no Zen and the foodstuff area.


After queuing for about half an hour to 45 mins, it's finally our turn. -___-

 Once seated, we were served with hot towels.

The table ware

Their see-thru kitchen

They have very very extensive menu from dinner set, okonomiyaki, namemono, sashimis, desserts and etc

Our food didn't take long to come. Here's our first serving:

Salmon Oshizushi (Salmon Pressed Sushi) @ RM18
The salmon is a tad too thin but it's still nice though as the salmon is very fresh and they have crunchy bits kiap in the sushi.

Salmon Shioyaki @ RM16

Grilled Salmon with Salt

A good and big piece of salmon, no complaints :)

 

Hotate Salmon Ikura Don @ RM23 -

Salmon, Scallop, and Salmon Roe on rice
Perfect Combination! cuz it's all my favourite :D

The sashimis are really fresh, salmon is very thick and the rice is yummy too.
Check out the very red salmon, it looks exactly like this in actual. 

Last but not least...

Dessert!!!

Marshmallow Vanilla Caramel @ RM8.80

Vanilla & Salt Caramel Ice Cream, topped with Butterscotch Sauce, Almond, Pecan & Marshmallow

Just Heavenly!!

The ice-cream is really smooth and creamy and it has got a rich flavour. I suggest that you start with the vanilla first, because the caramel has a stronger taste and will otherwise cover the vanilla flavour.

Roy


Me

Conclusion:

Thumbs up for the food with the most extensive choice of japanese food.
The price is quite reasonable too. Once you try this, you'll never want to go back to Sushi King again. :P

Here's the bill for two of us:

Kita no Zen, Hokkaido Ichiba
Lot T-201, Third Floor, The Garden Mall
Mid Valley City
Tel No: 03-2283 1060



My Most Expensive Meal

This is by far the most expensive meal in my life, and here's the bill for the two of us.

Grand total: RM487.30!

We hardly eat lavishly, but after nights of drooling over the Rippling Blossom show (the current Astro-on- Demand drama), we finally gave in to our temptation. In the show, they always show mouth-watering sushi and so we decided to try out some good quality japanese food .

I did some survey on japanese restaurants and wanted to try out the Hajime restaurant at Jln Tun Razak. Unfortunately, it was raining last friday and the road down to KL was super jam.
Hence, we headed down to Yuzu at the Garden instead.

Here's our food:

I made this montage from my iphone app called Diptic. It's pretty awesome, right?
I didn't take my good camera with me that day so all the photos here were taken by my iPhone. :(

Uni sushi (Sea Urchin) RM70

This was my first time with sea urchin. It was soft, sweet and somewhat creamy. I had always wanted to eat fresh uni taken directly from a living sea urchin but guess this is the closest that I can get now. I read that fresh uni is noticeably different from uni that was processed 24 plus hours beforehand.

Fresh uni from its shell

Nama otoro RM72

Hirame RM31.20

Sake Hiraji RM19.20

Yokawa RM35.20

Total: RM157.60!

All the sashimi here are new to me except for salmon belly.

Nama otoro is the one that literally melts in your mouth. While the other sashimi are just so-so. -__-
By the way, most of the food here were recommended by the restaurant waitress who appeared to be quite knowledgeable.


Yuzu volcanoes roll
RM22 for two plates
This was the cheapest but also the best dish that we had throughout our dinner
It is actually two pieces of maki (rolled sushi) stacked up. This is my favourite cause it has a lot of mayo, it's spicy and has a lot of salmon roe.

Kuro Mejina Shioyaki (The black snapper) lightly grilled in salt @ RM158

The texture of this fish is very soft and smooth. You can really taste the freshness and sweetness of the fish. But at this price, I had a higher expectation. There wasn't any wow effect nor the feeling of first love.  Furthermore, this is one ugly fish cause it is black..lol..Definately not worth the price if you ask me.

Our complimentary dessert. Very nice yam ice-cream. A bit disappointing cause they didn't give us the cake like the one from our last visit. :(

That's all for now!

With the big hole in our pocket, guess it would be awhile until the next fine dining for us.

Sushi Tei, Mid Valley

Here's the newly opened Sushi Tei at Mid Valley City. For me, my first experience of Sushi Tei is at their Tropicana City Mall branch and it was love at the first bite! ♥♥♥

It's mashed tuna with almost cooked egg yolk.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone as the mashed tuna is quite hard to accept.

The texture is like mashed potato but it's smell very fishy.

Mentaiko with tamago


Mentaiko again. ♥♥♥ RM6.80
I didn't know the price of their sushi on the conveyor belt cause I couldn't find price chart. Otherwise, I might think twice before ordering this.



Salmon Don with Fish Roe at RM12.80
I think it's value for money cause it comes with a lot of salmon roe. Love the pop-in-your-mouth sensation when you chew on the roe.
The salmon sashimi is a quite thin though.


Love their glittery pink menu



Haha..Collagen on the menu?

As I am a sucker for Japanese food, I couldn't resist not subscribing to their membership card. The card is RM99 but you'll get RM120 vouchers which comes in the denomination of RM50 x 2, RM10, RM5 x 2

Members also get 10% discount on the total bill. No reason not to subscribe right?

 

How to apply Sushi Tei card

The vouchers

Guess I will be eating a lot of Sushi Tei from now on. :-)


 

Sushi Tei Mid Valley address:

Sushi Tei

LG-210, Lower Ground Floor, The Garden Mall,

Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra,

59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2282 7635  Fax: 03-2282 7785

Direction: It's at the lower ground floor on the lane heading towards The Garden from Mid Valley.

Yuzu Japanese Restaurant @ The Garden

I love Yuzu!

Everything about Yuzu is excellent, from their ambiance, service, taste, food and everything.

I've notice that even their ladies staff are particularly well-groomed with make ups that can beat an air stewardess.

Roy sipping ocha @ Yuzu

 I had wagyu set while Roy ordered salmon belly and pizza for himself.
It was really impressive on the amount of details that they put in. For example, check out the curtain in this photo above, their staff actually took like 10 minutes to fold this curtain so that each fold is of the same size!

Wagyu set @ RM65

I was a bit disappointed because it doesn't have that melt in your mouth sensation.

Previously, I have ordered their wagyu set which it is cut in cube size which is really good.

I guess wagyu taste much better if they are thicker or in cube shape. This set comes with chawanmushi, miso soup, salad, and fruits.

Salmon Belly @ RM65

omg, this is really good, paired with salmon roe and their special sauce, it's a dish made from heaven!

Yuzu vege pizza @ RM35. Nice but nothing much to shout about.

 This is the best part. Dessert and it's complimentary!
I used to come with a friend who knows their chef and their dessert is always a surprise cause it's different everytime. :))

Since I came with Roy this time, I had to buay pai seh and ask their captain if we can get the dessert :P

 Strawberry cut in rose shape - I've never seen such pretty dessert before :)

The entrance of Yuzu

Hehe,Roy had to take this big & hideous orangy bag cause we want to cut the use plastic bags.

So here's the damage:

Ok, That's all from now. Bye!