Again – I am writing this on day 14 and will post when I find wifi. Rah to hotel MyStays lame no internet. So today started a bit later than planned (we slept until 8:30am) but I had a list of places I wanted to explore and I was pretty determined. Poor B. We started with breakfast at a 7/11 because lots of cafés are closed on Saturdays, especially in the direction we were heading. It was here I discovered the Japanese like Mountain Dew flavoured chips? Ew. Didn’t have any. Rookie mistake on breakfast. Not only was it gross but the pigeons tried to steal it all.
We walked up to Nijo Castle which was about 1km from our hotel. It is kind of like Canberra winter here – clear but very cold so the walk was reasonably pleasant. Nijo castle was beautiful and among other things, we saw a falconry show! And watched three old Japanese men get in a “disagreement” because one hit the other with his camera lens hehehe and they say Australians are bad!
We spent about 1.5hrs wandering around Nijo Castle altogether looking at all the gardens, walking through the palace and reading some of the history. It’s about 500yrs old so has a lot of history. We both got a nifty coin minted in the gift shop which I have put a picture of here and I also got postcards to add to my “around the world postcard collection board thing”. That’s what I’m calling it. I also got a souvenir ticket when went in, I have a collection of those from my last trip so I got a little excited.
From Nijo Castle we walked up and across to the Kyoto imperial castle and gardens. The castle was unfortunately closed 😦 so we will have to try and go back again another day. Behind the gardens we found the Shokokuji Temple which was not as visually amazing as the next temple I’m going to tell you about but was far more peaceful and well…zen. We walked around here for awhile but decided not to go in to the actual temple itself as people were actively using it to pray (or whatever it is they use them for) and we didn’t want to disturb anyone by being bumbling tourists.
At this point it was 2:30pm and walking was getting pretty tiring. So I navigated the bus timetables and maps (I am taking full credit for this, B just helped me work out how to pay. Amelia you would be SO PROUD OF ME!) and we headed to the west side of Kyoto to see the very famous Kinkakuji Temple, also known as the golden pavilion. As soon as we saw it we realised why. It’s visually very impressive. I was so glad we got here at the time we did as the sun was reflecting on to it and it was just beautiful. I took heaps of photos (when I could, the crowds were pretty full on) and I really enjoyed it. I bought you a little present here Monica! Hehe. I had intended to walk 10mins down the hill to a zen garden but as we walked out the number 12 local bus that went all the way to our hotel was just pulling up and it was too tempting not to get on and head back.
After a brief rest, we caught the subway into Kyoto and bought our tickets out to Nara tomorrow. We are taking the express private train and it was about 1100¥ each which is $12 so I was happy with that, we can also reserve our seats on this one which means we can select a no smoking train carriage. The prevalence of cigarettes here is almost as bad, if not worse, than Eastern Europe. Ick.
After sorting that out, we went to a recommended restaurant (Tachibana) nearby that does a Japanese savoury pancake known as okonomiyaki and IT IS SO NOMMY I COULD EAT IT FOREVER. They spoke very little English and had no English menu so we had to use “iie seafoodu” again for me and just see what we could get – pork! Yum. At the end I very enthusiastically declared the meal was “oishe” and the chef was very chuffed.
Tomorrow we are off to Nara. B is very enthusiastic to see some deer and I want to see the 50ft Buddha statue. After Nara I’m hoping to head in to the Gion district and see some genuine Geisha as well.
Mel's Travel Blog 