We headed to Terminal 3 near midnight to board our red-eye flight to Nagoya.
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| It's a Frozen Christmas at the airport this year! |
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| Excited to board our plane! |
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| Newly renovated playground at T3! |
As fans of Singapore Airlines (SQ), we always choose SQ as our first choice if the price is right. Second choice would be any Star Alliance airline (since we're Krisflyer members) or Emirates. We will only consider budget airlines as a last resort because excellent service is very important to us when we are travelling with young children!
SQ recently adjusted their prices to become very competitive, hence we managed to fly SQ for all our flights this year! 😄 Our return tickets to Nagoya cost us S$637 per adult, S$620 per child and S$55 per infant (under 2 years old).
Our flight departed Singapore around 1.40am and as it was a night flight, I prayed really hard that baby girl will sleep well and not disturb the other passengers!
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| Clockwise from left: Just took off from Changi Airport and already super tired! Thankfully she was ok with the air pressure; This cute bib came in the goodie bag for the baby. It's perks like this that keeps me flying with SQ 😄; The super cute kids meal. |
The cabin crew on this flight were very attentive to me when they saw that I had to take care of a baby. Thank God all of us survived the 6-hour flight to Nagoya as the baby managed to sleep really well while being carried by me throughout the flight! On the other hand, I ended up with a backache and almost couldn't stand up by the time we landed! 😕
We arrived at around 8.40am at Chubu Centrair International Airport. Japan is 1 hour ahead of Singapore.
We took the Centrair Limousine Bus to our hotel as it was a direct bus service. We paid ¥1300 per adult and ¥650 per child (children 6 years and below is free).
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| Left: Bus services from the airport to various locations in Nagoya; Right: Our bus to Sakae is at Berth number 6. |
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| Left: Bought our tickets from the ticketing machine with the help of a staff on duty; Right: Our tickets for our bus. |
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| Our comfortable bus to Sakae |
As you know, buses in Japan are very punctual so make sure that you arrive at least 5 minutes before the stipulated time.
The journey to our hotel in Sakae took roughly 45 minutes. We alighted at the bus stop and were delighted to discover that our hotel, Dormy Inn Premium Nagoya Sakae Hotel, was just 5 minutes from the bus stop!
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| We alighted at this bus stop (left) before walking to Dormy Inn (right) |
We liked staying at Dormy Inns all over Japan (read our experience in Osaka and Tokyo) and have always had to walk a long distance from the bus stop to the hotel. What a welcomed change!
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| Left: With the kids outside the hotel; Right: Free drinks at the lobby. |
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| Checking in at the counter |
As it was still early, our rooms were not ready yet. Hence, we left our luggage at the hotel and explored the neighbourhood in search of lunch.
As we strolled casually down the street, we spotted an Ichiran that had no queue at all! Woohoo!
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| This Ichiran outlet was located on the 2nd floor of Arc Mall but it cannot be found on Google Maps, hence the lack of a queue. There's another Ichiran outlet in the area that can be found on Google Maps and had a super long queue! |
If you're not aware, Ichiran is very famous for their ramen and the queue is usually notoriously long. The hubby and I had previously queued for about 1 hour at their Shinjuku outlet in Tokyo.
This Ichiran, however, was empty and therefore had enough room to accommodate all of us.
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| Left: Everyone has their own individual cubicle; Right: customising your ramen to your specific taste. |
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| I love that they provided a seat to belt little ones! My girl can sit in it but I had to hold her arm and eat with one hand |
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| The super cute kid utensils |
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| My bowl of Ichiran ramen! So yummy! 😋 |
Once our stomachs have been satisfied, we continued down the street to Sakae for shopping.
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| Don Quijote and Mitsukoshi |
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| There's a ferris wheel at Sunshine Sakae |
We decided to shop at Sunshine Sakae as the kids were intrigued by the big ferris wheel, which was also known as Sky-Boat.
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| Hanging out at one of the resting areas with a great view of Sakae |
We soon found out that if you spend at least ¥5000 at the tax free store at Level 3, you could get a Buy-1-Get-1-Free coupon for the Sky-Boat ride!
An adult ticket is ¥500 and since there are 4 of us that need to pay (my boy and baby were free), we ended up paying only ¥1000 due to the 1-for-1 deal!
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| Before boarding the Sky-Boat |
The cabin can only accommodate 4 persons hence we had to split into 2 groups: guys and gals.
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| Top view of the cabin with the guys |
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| The girls |
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| You can see Nagoya TV tower (closed for renovations) and other landmarks from the top of the ferris wheel. |
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| Beautiful photo of my boys with such clear blue skies in the background! 💖 |
The kids and I loved the Sky-Boat ride! I'd recommend it for some cheap thrills! 😄
We walked around the area and stumbled upon a shopping building called Melsa. It's small but has most of what we want such as Daiso and Uniqlo.
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| Various stores found in this building |
We decided to find a nice dessert place to chill at since we still had some time and were too exhausted to shop. We decided on Kokonchaya Meibutsu, located on Level 4.
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| We were more interested in the ice-kachang-ish dessert but were forced to get a drink because they said we were 3 adults and therefore needed to order at least 3 items. The tea was very underwhelming and overpriced! 😕 |
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| Love this chocolate dessert! So yummy! 😋 |
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| This matcha dessert was also really good and value for money |
We were glad to have a nice place to hang out before heading back to the hotel to check in. I also breastfed the baby at the nursing room at Level 6.
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| Big nursing room with kid toilets and hot water dispenser |
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| Interior of nursing room |
We couldn't wait to get to our hotel rooms as we were all so exhausted after a long flight with very little sleep.
We booked 2 Double Non-smoking Rooms (includes breakfast, details in the next post) for S$208 per room per night. The Eldest Girl and Mum shared one room while the Hubby, Boy, Littlest and I shared the other room.
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| Smaller than a typical Queen size bed |
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| Left: Tiny TV console; Right: Baby loves to look at herself in the mirror! 😍 |
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| Sink and toiletries |
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| Tiny bathroom |
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| Towels in baskets |
Japan is very strict regarding occupancy and will charge you for every additional member of your family. We had to top up ¥2000 per night for one child (my boy), which included a set of yukata and toiletries.
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| Kid yukata and toiletries for my boy |
The ¥2000 used to include breakfast but now breakfast would cost us an additional ¥900. We felt it was too expensive as my boy does not eat a lot for breakfast (had to take turns going for breakfast so someone can take care of him in the room though).
In any case, the room/bed was too small for more than 2 adults and 1 child! Hence, if you have 3 adults, you may want to consider another hotel or apartment.
For us, the room was definitely not the reason why we love Dormy Inn. We love Dormy Inn for their amenities, such as their onsen, washing machine, ice machine and microwave!
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| Going to the onsen! |
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| You are not allowed to use your phone in the onsen but I managed to sneak a photo when there was no one there that one time *shhhh* 🤫 |
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| Left: Drink vending machines readily available in case you're thirsty; Right: use of washing machines is FREE! We wash our clothes almost everyday 😁 Dryer is charged though but the air is so dry that our clothes dry really quickly without needing to use the dryer. |
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| Ice machine and microwave (used the microwave to heat up my baby's food) |
Dormy Inn also offered their very own ramen every night to all their guests for FREE!
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| Going to Hatago for our ramen |
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| Left: Some drinks provided; Right: There are high chairs available but these chairs do not have safety belts hence they were not suitable for babies under 1 years who still need support. |
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| Dormy Inn's ramen |
My kids love the ramen so much they can finish one bowl each! It's so good that everyone usually clears their bowl! 😋
Dormy Inn was also conveniently located 5-10 minutes from two train stations: Fushimi Station and Sakae Station. Definitely recommend it as a good accommodation! 😊
We went to bed really early that night as we were so exhausted at the end of a very long day! Can't wait to explore the rest of Nagoya tomorrow!
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P.S: Read about our experiences in Dormy Inns all over Japan:
- 2016: Onyado Nono Namba (Osaka)
- 2018: Dormy Inn Premium Kodenmacho (Tokyo)
Continue to >> Nagoya Day 2: Nagoya Castle & Osu at Night
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