Enzo's Travel Journals

After eight days in the Land of the Rising Sun, I flew on Philippine Airlines once again from Osaka in Western Japan back to the Philippines. This afternoon flight on an Airbus A321 was decent but read more to find out! Come and fly with me back home. Philippine Airlines  is the flag carrier of the Philippines and also Asia's first and oldest airline (its long history dates back to 1941 and continues to shrine through until today!). Note: This is a personal blog on our travel experience and is neither promoted nor endorsed by Philippine Airlines.

As the final part of my weekly Japan travel series before flying home, I'll take you to Osaka and the World Expo! The first half of this features the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka Castle, and the famous Dotonbori, while the second half features the World Expo in Yumeshima Island. Umeda Sky Building Opened in March 1993, it is one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. It features two towers with an observation deck located on top of it. An engineering innovation on this was that the sky deck was raised from the ground to the top by a series of hydraulic elevators. After visitors are taken up by elevator, guests then go through a portal-like escalator to the observatory deck, standing 170 meters above the ground. Osaka Castle Originally built from 1583 to 1597 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the castle witnessed multiple conflicts and wars. After it fell in 1868, it was eventually restored in the early 20th century and now serves as one of the city’s most important landmarks. Although you ca...

Continuing my weekly Japan travel series, I’ll take you down west to one of Japan’s most-visited tourist spots. Kyoto was Japan's capital from 794 to 1868, before it was relocated to Tokyo. I last visited Japan's ancient capital in 2023, and this was my second time visiting it, as part of my school's study tour. Inside Kiyomizu-dera Temple See also:   SHINKANSEN: An exhilerating bullet train ride (2023) Kiyomizu-dera Temple Entrance to the temple Established in the year 778, many of the temple’s present buildings were built in 1633. The name “Kiyomizu” means “pure water”, and a waterfall which flows in the nearby hills is where the temple took its name. The Otowa no Taki Falls is found below the main stage, where there are three streams that flow from it. Legend has it that when you drink one of those, your wishes may be granted specifically in academic success, success in love, or good health. However, if you drink from all three of them, this may bring misfortune to you. ...

At the end of May 2025, I traveled with a group of thirty students to Japan, known as the "Land of the Rising Sun", for my school's first-ever educational field trip there. While many tourists know about various popular attractions in Japan, here’s a glimpse in the other side of it that tourists don’t usually explore. Exterior of the Tsukuba Expo Center in Ibaraki Prefecture The first part of this multi-blog series takes you to the first two prefectures, namely (1) Tokyo and (2) Ibaraki. Note on foreign currencies: 1 Japanese yen (JPY) = 0.4 Philippine pesos (PHP) and 0.01 US dollars (USD) Arrival at Narita International Airport (May 28) On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 28, 2025 , our Philippine Airlines flight from Manila landed at Narita International Airport , located roughly sixty kilometers away from central Tokyo. It is one of two airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area and is used as an international hub by low-cost carriers and Japanese airlines; the other is H...