Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 1 - Preparation)
It has been my dream since high school to be able to go to Japan.
Thanks to Hoshino Resort who had chosen me to join their 100 Stories Project and gave me an opportunity to stay at their premises for 3 days that I finally could erase my doubt and have the courage to go to Japan.
As this is a rare opportunity I decided to extend my stay in Japan and look around.
There are ups and downs going on during the preparation to go there.
1. The government decided to be the bad guy.
Starting the end of 2014 Japanese Government allows Indonesian citizen (with e-passport) to enter Japan without visa. I was very elated with this news, and my passport was happened to expired on Feb 2015. And when I renew it, they were run out of the e-passport and cannot ensure when the e-passport will be available again (at that time the vise minister of law were suspected on arranging the passport processing payments to a third party which personally related to him - which suppose to lead to his own profit) so there goes my chance to get the e-passport.
2. Thank God it's Garuda
Flight ticket is the biggest budget portion. And since it's only one month preparation between the announcement and the departure date, hunting for low price ticket was quite impossible. By the time I check, the price for low cost carrier plane was already around IDR 7,500,000. Luckily, around that time, Garuda Indonesia. No #1 airplane in Indonesia conducted travel fair. With little queuing and fighting trough the crowd, I manage to get the ticket to Tokyo for IDR 6,700,000. Yay for meal, snacks and on flight entertainment! \\(^^)//
And I manage to get the interesting route as well. I departed from Jakarta via Bali to Narita and for return i'd fly from Haneda directly to Jakarta. This flight is cheaper compare to go to Narita and flight back from Narita, while the flight to Haneda from Jakarta is on broad daylight so it'll waste one day traveling (the flight to Narita was on overnight flight) and even before searching for ticket I really want to experience going to both airport and I made it.
3.Easy to get visa
Thanks to the government to fail me in getting the e-passport, I have to apply for visa. Luckily, the price of single entry visa is the same as the difference between the "normal" passport and e-passport, so I didn't really need to spend extra money, but it'll be trouble if I plan to go to Japan in the future because I need to apply for another visa. And also the process is quite easy and only takes around 3 days. The things that makes you quite anxious is that if they reject your application, you will not allowed to file another application until 6 months later. Thank God my application was approved.
4. Yen
I don't really know where the money changer which provide most competitive price, but I do know a mall where there's a money changer which my friend and boss often do some transactions. When I exchange the money, I only check the bank rate (which usually higher than money changer). I came to the mall asking for the rate, check several places and found out that the first place I asked offered the lowest rate. So I went to the ATM and on my way to the first place I visited, I took the wrong way and found another money changer that I haven't visit. I asked how much their rate was and they apparently offer the cheapest rate. Lucky..lucky..
5. Route
The project provides me an accommodation in Hakone and Atami (near Tokyo). initially after the project finished, I was planning to wander around in Tokyo for the rest 4 days. But after contacting more friend, the plan changes to include Kyoto as well, because they said going to Japan would be incomplete without seeing Kyoto. So there starts my craziest trip ever, which include 2 days sleeping on a bus. The final route is Hakone (1 night) - Atami (2 nights) - Bus Tyo-Kyo (1 Night) - Kyoto (1 night) - Bus Kyo-Tyo (1 night) - Tokyo (1 night) - Home.
6. Insurance
I'm just a poor lad (haha..), and since the project with the resort requires me to pay for the accommodation if cannot finish the project, I don't really have much money for the trip, with laptop with me (for the sake of the project) plus the crazy plan to stay 2 nights at the bus, I really have to prepare for the worse (in case of sickness or somebody stole my laptop), I really need to have insurance. Main requirement: able to provide medical assistant instantly without having to reimburse it and protection for my laptop. Compare to the company I use for my health insurance I found another one better that meets my requirement (the company that I use cannot provide non-reimbursement medical assistant), plus cheaper. :D
This new company proven to be a good one, as apparently on my trip my luggage was mistakenly sent to Osaka, while I landed in Tokyo and the luggage can only be delivered 2 days later because I didn't stay in Tokyo for the first 3 days. When I returned to Jakarta, I claim my baggage delay (this is also covered in the insurance) and I got it fully paid by them 3 weeks later.
Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 2 - Jakarta-Narita-Odawara Station)
Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 3 - Hakone)
Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 4 - Atami)
Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 5 - Tokyo-Home)
C rossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 6 - Kyoto)
Thanks to Hoshino Resort who had chosen me to join their 100 Stories Project and gave me an opportunity to stay at their premises for 3 days that I finally could erase my doubt and have the courage to go to Japan.
As this is a rare opportunity I decided to extend my stay in Japan and look around.
There are ups and downs going on during the preparation to go there.
1. The government decided to be the bad guy.
Starting the end of 2014 Japanese Government allows Indonesian citizen (with e-passport) to enter Japan without visa. I was very elated with this news, and my passport was happened to expired on Feb 2015. And when I renew it, they were run out of the e-passport and cannot ensure when the e-passport will be available again (at that time the vise minister of law were suspected on arranging the passport processing payments to a third party which personally related to him - which suppose to lead to his own profit) so there goes my chance to get the e-passport.
2. Thank God it's Garuda
Flight ticket is the biggest budget portion. And since it's only one month preparation between the announcement and the departure date, hunting for low price ticket was quite impossible. By the time I check, the price for low cost carrier plane was already around IDR 7,500,000. Luckily, around that time, Garuda Indonesia. No #1 airplane in Indonesia conducted travel fair. With little queuing and fighting trough the crowd, I manage to get the ticket to Tokyo for IDR 6,700,000. Yay for meal, snacks and on flight entertainment! \\(^^)//
And I manage to get the interesting route as well. I departed from Jakarta via Bali to Narita and for return i'd fly from Haneda directly to Jakarta. This flight is cheaper compare to go to Narita and flight back from Narita, while the flight to Haneda from Jakarta is on broad daylight so it'll waste one day traveling (the flight to Narita was on overnight flight) and even before searching for ticket I really want to experience going to both airport and I made it.
3.Easy to get visa
Thanks to the government to fail me in getting the e-passport, I have to apply for visa. Luckily, the price of single entry visa is the same as the difference between the "normal" passport and e-passport, so I didn't really need to spend extra money, but it'll be trouble if I plan to go to Japan in the future because I need to apply for another visa. And also the process is quite easy and only takes around 3 days. The things that makes you quite anxious is that if they reject your application, you will not allowed to file another application until 6 months later. Thank God my application was approved.
4. Yen
I don't really know where the money changer which provide most competitive price, but I do know a mall where there's a money changer which my friend and boss often do some transactions. When I exchange the money, I only check the bank rate (which usually higher than money changer). I came to the mall asking for the rate, check several places and found out that the first place I asked offered the lowest rate. So I went to the ATM and on my way to the first place I visited, I took the wrong way and found another money changer that I haven't visit. I asked how much their rate was and they apparently offer the cheapest rate. Lucky..lucky..
5. Route
The project provides me an accommodation in Hakone and Atami (near Tokyo). initially after the project finished, I was planning to wander around in Tokyo for the rest 4 days. But after contacting more friend, the plan changes to include Kyoto as well, because they said going to Japan would be incomplete without seeing Kyoto. So there starts my craziest trip ever, which include 2 days sleeping on a bus. The final route is Hakone (1 night) - Atami (2 nights) - Bus Tyo-Kyo (1 Night) - Kyoto (1 night) - Bus Kyo-Tyo (1 night) - Tokyo (1 night) - Home.
6. Insurance
I'm just a poor lad (haha..), and since the project with the resort requires me to pay for the accommodation if cannot finish the project, I don't really have much money for the trip, with laptop with me (for the sake of the project) plus the crazy plan to stay 2 nights at the bus, I really have to prepare for the worse (in case of sickness or somebody stole my laptop), I really need to have insurance. Main requirement: able to provide medical assistant instantly without having to reimburse it and protection for my laptop. Compare to the company I use for my health insurance I found another one better that meets my requirement (the company that I use cannot provide non-reimbursement medical assistant), plus cheaper. :D
This new company proven to be a good one, as apparently on my trip my luggage was mistakenly sent to Osaka, while I landed in Tokyo and the luggage can only be delivered 2 days later because I didn't stay in Tokyo for the first 3 days. When I returned to Jakarta, I claim my baggage delay (this is also covered in the insurance) and I got it fully paid by them 3 weeks later.
Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 2 - Jakarta-Narita-Odawara Station)
Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 3 - Hakone)
Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 4 - Atami)
Crossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 5 - Tokyo-Home)
C rossing the Big Dream Out of My List with Garuda Indonesia (Part 6 - Kyoto)