Kyoto

After a short 30 minute shinkansen bullet train from Osaka we arrived in another city, the city of Kyoto renowned for its beautiful traditional architecture, temples and traditional crafts. We made the short walk through some of the more modern buildings, intertwined with old wooden architectures and house to our first hostel, Kyoto Kizuna. Due to when we booked we were unable to spend all of our nights at the original hostel we had booked but luckily this one had space. It was a lovely modern hostel with very clean rooms and a decent communal area at the front where they offered bike rental and a host of other options for exploring Kyoto. We headed for a late breakfast at Kir Ron? For maple syrup pancakes (390y) as this was on the way back to the train station. After filling up with sugar we got on the local JR train- the Sanjo line to Arashiyama, the place to see the very photographed bamboo forest. Walking to the bamboo forest we were accompanied by all the people on the train and walking through the bamboo forest was beautiful but definitely not the serene experience you see through photographs. It was quite difficult to even take photos of the bamboo itself as there were so many people there and the actual path through the bamboo itself is not that long. It was quite disappointing really. However we did find a quieter path through the park from there where we walked along the riverfront. This was quite beautiful and was quieter but as we got further back towards town there were hoards of people again. Another thing to do in Arashiyama is to visit the monkey park (550y) and as we were there we thought we would just do it anyway. This involves a quite steep 20 minute walk up a large hill through the forests, with lots of other people, where you come out to the top to where all the monkeys are as well as some stunning views, which made it worth it. The monkeys themselves were quite large and fluffy, climbing in the trees and eating anything they could get their hands on.

From the local train station we got the JR nara line to Inari so that we could also go and explore the Fushimi Inari temple later on in the day, with the hopes that there would be less people. The fox temple is very famous for its rows of orange tori gates going up through the hillsides as well as lots of foxes statues. These gates are actually donations by people. There were lots of people initially but as we walked further up the hillside there were less people and it was a stunning surrounding as well as the gates being a feature themselves. We did not walk too far up the hillside as we had done a lot of walking that day and were very happy with what we had seen. As it changed to night, the forest the gates became a bit eery and it was definitely time to leave. We got back on the incredibly packed train back to Kyoto before heading back to the hostel to check in and decompress a bit from a very tourist heavy day. In the evening we headed back to Kyoto station up the escalators to explore the many restaurants in it for dinner. We found ourselves having a different taken on Ramen in a restaurant on 10th floor that did black or red ramen, having special sauces that produced these colours. The red ramen was delicious and quite spicy. We explored the high floors on the station finding a walkway and an observatory over the station and out to Kytoto tower. Then Dave explored Yodabashi looking at the cameras before heading back for the night.

The following day it was very grey and rainy but we headed out still to make our way to Kiyomizedera temple after a simple subway breakfast. We wandered up pottery lane, admiring all the different pieces and art styles. We went to the base of the temple admiring the views of it and the limited from it across Kyoto that were blocked by a lot of rain and people. Despite the rain this was still a very busy area as it is a popular destination for both foreign and Japanese tourists. A lot of the shops offer to rent out traditional wear for the day as you explore the old streets around this area and a lot of Japanese tourists do this to reconnect with traditions and for fun. From the temple we walked down Higashima, Sannen-zaka and ninen-zaka streets and even with it being busy the streets and arichetecture themselves were still beautiful, with lots of old tea houses and shops selling traditional trinkets or art work. We actually ended up trying to warm up with a coffee (330y cappuccino & 300 cake)in the most beautiful starbucks I have ever seen in an old traditional teashop architecture that had kept this style and charm inside filled with tatami mat areas, Japanese drapes and even its own Zen garden. From here we continued our walk into maruyama-koen park and around Yasaka shrine. These were pretty and on a sunny day would have been spectacular however at this point it was incredibly rainy and we were soaked through even with the umbrellas. We headed out of the park into more of the modern town area onto shijohigashiyama road where we took cover in a Matsuyama, filling ourselves up with hot food (beef bowl and beer 700) and recovering with a beer.

After this we took shelter in nikishi market, exploring the wide variety of stalls in this indoor market. It was also packed as everyone had had the same idea but it was worth it as it was full of good foods to snack on and they also had lots of souvenirs to admire. From here we walked back and chilled at our old hostel for a few minutes before moving over to our next hostel a few streets away. Yululu guesthouse had a very traditional Japanese feel complete with tatami dorm beds. It was only small with a few bunks, a small shower room, a small kitchenette and a manga shelf. We relaxed enjoying the quiet in the hostel and the cosy atmosphere before going out in the evening again. We headed to the streets know as gion area, where there are still a few traditional geisha establishments, and there is a good chance of seeing actual geishas either walking to or from their workplaces. We mooched around teramachi dori for a while in the dark, enjoying the lanterns lining the streets and did see 1 actual geisha eventually. After that due to the rain we called it a night on our geisha spotting and grabbed some food from 7/11 to eat back in the comfort of our hostel.

After a poor nights sleep due to not being used to the traditional beds and a very loud snorer in one of the bunks we discussed our plans for the day. Initially we were going to head to the golden temple or to Nara however it was another very poor day weather wise and there was forecast to be a typhoon so we thought being close to the city and our hostel was going to be better, as we could get stranded with no trains back if the weather got too bad. Instead we had a very chilled day, having a bit of a lay in before grabbing breakfast curry at 7/11. We took the subway to Kyoto station and spent some time in the shops- mainly admiring all the random oddities in don quioto and clothes at uniglo. From there we took the subway to shijo-gojo area where we found a lindt chocolate shop and also went into the Round 1 arcade centre. We spent a while in the arcades and playing Mario cart, played a game of pool (800y for 30mins)- taking a game each and taking a range of silly photos in the photobooths where you can put filters and stickers on the afterwards. Dave also managed to get a domicon figure to put on his backpack from the free photobooth coins for the slot games. After grabbing some lunch at Freshness burger we took some drinks back to the hostel to chill out there for a while trying to work out the tweaked plan for Japan and our available budget for the rest of our time there. After a quiet evening we headed to bed as the weather was awful. That night we had very disturbed sleep. All through the night my phone was going off with the emergency evacuation alarms that are activated when there is an emergency in the area. After waking up at a panic due to the noise we then had to try to translate the Japanese text that accompanied it. Thank god for google translate for giving us some idea of what it said. The weather/typhoon had hit the outskirts of Kyoto pretty hard causing huge flooding and landslides and due to this they were evacuating the outskirts of Kyoto. Thankfully we were central so this didn’t affect us. But didn’t lead to a peaceful nights sleep after worrying generally about the situation and every hour or so the phone blaring emergency texts.

We had put visiting Nara off the previous day due to the impending typhoon and we had really hoped to get there to see the temples, park and the bowing deer. However on checking the train schedules in the morning a lot of the Nara trains looked to be very delayed. We got ready just incase and headed to the train station to see if the situation had changed by the time we got there. After waiting for a while in the station all of the trains for Nara were cancelled due to the typhoon causing flooding and debris in the area and on the tracks. This was unfortunate as we were really looking forward to going there but you can’t help natural disasters and we were happy just to be safe and ok, coming from a country where you don’t get a lot of natural disasters we are not prepared for things like that happening! So after a Kir ron pancake breakfast we decided instead to head on early to our next destination of Yokohama on the Hikari bullet train to Shinagawa where we were actually treated to a view of Mount Fuji from the train.

Alex