For the past few weeks I was searching for a nice getaway for my birthday.  It was a Sunday when I bought a Manila Bulletin newspaper and there it was the advertisement for a promotional fare from Cebu Pacific Air to Osaka.     That made the decision easier and so I booked the ticket through the website.  However, after submitting everything, I did not get a confirmation message immediately.  Instead I saw a message saying that the credit card I used was still being checked and so the booking was still pending.  The credit card I used was a foreign card so I wasn’t surprised.  I immediately called their customer service and after a long long time of waiting I finally got an answer : they said I just needed to wait one more hour.  I also called my credit card company and found out that they already did approve the transaction.  Two days after, it was still pending and I frantically called the customer service of Cebu Pacific Air.  This time they told me that they will prioritize my issue.  Later on, I was about to give up.  I still did not receive any confirmation e-mail.   But then when I retrieved my booking I was surprised that my booking was finally confirmed!

The next thing I did was to search for a place to stay and interesting places to visit within the area of the Kansai Airport.  First I looked around Osaka.  I was particularly interested in staying in a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan).  However, I had trouble finding something that fits my budget and there were no special places that really interested me there.  While looking around, I found out that Kyoto was actually just a few minutes away.  Travel from Kansai to Kyoto was 70 minutes while Osaka was 50 minutes by train.  After making a quick search of interesting places and available inns in Kyoto the decision was made.  We were going to Kyoto. Read more…