Showing posts with label Kyoto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kyoto. Show all posts

Day 8 - Temples, shops and swimming
Today was a bit of an unplanned day where the group kind of split up and went their own ways. We had a bit of a sleep in, which was definitely needed! When we got up, we decided to go back to the Italian-Japanese restaurant and try their lunch menu. We sat there and ate lunch, while it was snowing outside - it's a pretty nice restaurant. From there we went back to the hotel and caught the bus to Kyoto station.

Late lunch
On the bus ride to Kyoto station we go past a really big temple, it was a little bit of a walk from where the bus drops us off, but we decided to go check it out either way. We walked for about 15-20 minutes, it was lightly snowing, but it wasn't too bad. When we got there, there was a couple of big separate courtyards with different temples in each one. The entire temple grounds were pretty big! It was a couple of city blocks easily and looked really nice from the street.

The large temple grounds from the street
The first section of the temple grounds with adjoined temples
Paper doors and walls
I'm not sure if it was because it was cold and lightly snowing, but there was barely anyone around, which made it great for us. Because we don't really understand the customs there, it was probably a good thing no one else was around, we were able to go inside and still comment on the intricate work on the interior without disturbing anyone in the middle of prayer.

Inside one of the temples
We moved on to the next section, which was a lot bigger and had a few more people around. There seemed to be quite a few people going into one particular temple, so took off our shoes and took followed along.

The next temple court yard
Another adjoined temple
The inside of one of the temples
Inside were a group of about 50 people or so sitting on the floor waiting for a ceremony to start, so we decided to sit there too and see what was happening.
After a couple of minutes, some very official looking people came out to conduct the ceremony. There were a couple of monks sitting at the front of the alter with large books in their hands and they both started chanting simultaneously. The chants were long, constant, repetitive phrases that we obviously couldn't make out, but between the two of them there were no gaps in the chant, so it was like a constant noise, almost like music for the entire ceremony.
At this point people started leaving, it seemed like during this ceremony people made their prayers and left straight after. It was quite strange to see as a foreigner without understanding what is happening, but it was an interesting experience either way.

The snow stopped and I had taken the photos I wanted to, so we walked back to the station. One of things Jonathan wanted to do on this trip was spend some time doing the shopping, so we spent a little while going from shop to shop. Jono bought some clothes, so he was happy with that.

Our hotel has a spa, a swimming pool and a gym, etc. The gym is off limits because working out on a holiday is against all the rules, to go into the spa you need to be naked, so none of us were comfortable doing that, but the pool was fine. I brought some board shorts, but Jono and Rob didn't have any, so while we were at the shops, they bought some for around $25. Rob didn't really want to get into the pool, but we talked him into it anyway.

We went back to our hotel to meet up with the others for dinner. We all swapped stories of what we did. The others went to the imperial palace which sounded really nice, but we weren't going to have enough time to do that. We started walking down the street to find a place to eat. There are not a lot of places to eat around our hotel, but we eventually found a place that looked inviting. I went inside to see if they could accommodate us and the chef came out from behind the kitchen to greet me and show me a menu. The restaurant was a Japanese restaurant with French influences - the chef described it as "Imagination food".

The menu was only in Japanese, but the chef was really friendly and spoke quite good English, so he read out every item for us! He pushed some tables together and we sat down. This is when we realised that he was the only staff member there, which explains why he kept referring to the restaurant as "his" restaurant!
The menu had about 30 meals on it, and we all ordered a different dish. Everything from grilled salmon and pork to soups and desserts and this guy managed to run around to take our orders, cook the food, serve us and the other patrons and try his best to translate for us - it was incredible! The food wasn't just slapped together either, it was like being in a five star restaurant, really tasty and very well presented.

It was so impressive we got a photo with him, it was a one man show that was much better than a lot of the fancy restaurants I have been to!

Chef/receptionist/waiter/owner and us
After dinner we went back to the restaurant to go for a swim. After 7:00pm it costs about $10 to get into the pool (instead of the usual $15). Rob was dreading going, but he came along anyway. After spending about an hour and a half in the pool, Rob changed his mind. It was nice and relaxing to just have a kick around. They provided free rental towels, goggles, swimming caps and even kick boards.

After feeling refreshed, we went back to our hotel room, did our best to dry off the board shorts and pack our things so we could check out the next morning. The pool was pretty good and it would have been nice to utilise it a bit more, but at least we got to use on our last day.
08:12 | Category: | 1 comments

Day 7 - Nara
Today we went to Nara!
Our hotel provides a shuttle bus to and from Kyoto station every 15 minutes, which would have been nice to know earlier when we were arriving at the hotel with all our luggage, but better late than never I guess. We caught the shuttle bus to Kyoto station, grabbed some breakfast, then got a train to Nara.
The trip took about half an hour from Kyoto station and cost 500 Yen for a normal train ticket and an additional 600 Yen to get on the special train to Nara.

While we were waiting for the train, we went to a vending machine to get a drink and we got a hot caramel milkshake! It was awesome! It tasted just like a paddle pop in a hot liquid form.

hot caramel milkshake in a can
The train ride was pretty nice, it went through more rural areas of Japan and there were vast fields, which seems quite uncommon when you spend time in built up places like Osaka and Tokyo.
On the way there we went past a temple. There was a random stranger sitting next to me and he saw me taking photos, so he gave me a heads up that there was an old temple coming up so I could get ready to take a shot and explained some of its history.

Old temple on the way to Nara

We arrived at Nara and there were a lot of people there! The main attractions for tourists at Nara are the bowing deer, the big bronze Buddha, a collection of temples, shrines and museums and a market.

When we got to the park we were greeted by a museum that showcased a collection of statues from ancient times and the "Family temples of the Fujiwara Clan", which included a 5 story pagoda that is the second tallest pagoda in Japan.

Family temples of the Fujiwara Clan
The 5 story pagoda
After we went through the museum we continued on to the park area. This park is famous for the bowing deer. There a bunch of stands selling deer food and if you present the food to the deer, they will bow for you to ask for it. The deer here are wild, but they must be very used to people because even though there are signs warning people about being attacked by deer, they are very tame. They just wander around the park following people and looking for food or sleeping - even tame enough to give them a pat.

A deer bowing for Sarah's food
Deer resting around the park
Walking around the deep obstacles in the path
We spent some time feeding the deer and going through a couple more museums, where we saw some ancient scrolls and more statues and fragments from as far back as the 13th century. They were quite interesting, but my memory isn't good enough to recite the facts - Rob probably remembers more than me, he was quite intrigued.
After that we reached the main attraction - The Todaiji Temple, home of the giant bronze Buddha. Todaiji Temple's main hall is the worlds largest wooden building and houses one of Japan's largest bronze statues of Buddha. The Buddha is 15 meters tall and the photos really do not do it justice, its pretty impressive close up.

Todaiji Temple's main hall
The giant bronze Buddha
The temple grounds
On the way back we walked through the market, which was a couple of streets of hawker stalls mostly selling food. Everything there costs roughly 500 Yen each, including the museums, entrance into the temples and even most of the food items. There was a decent variety of food there, including Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki, Yakitori, roasted corn, hot dogs, pancakes and lots more, but for 500 Yen, the servings were a bit small.

After a whole day of looking at temples, museums and deer, we headed home. Today was Rob and Sarah's 4th anniversary, so they went out together, my parents went their way and Jono, Rob and I got dinner at a more traditional Japanese Ramen restaurant. The food was pretty good, but my meal had two courses, which was way too big, so I did my best and left the rest.
From there we managed to catch the last shuttle bus back to the hotel and call it a night
05:47 | Category: | 2 comments

Day 6 - Easing into Kyoto
The plan was to explore the local area today and spend tomorrow at Nara.
Being a quiet time of year, we thought Kyoto would be the easier portion of our trip, so we plan on taking it a little slower here than Osaka and Tokyo.

We asked the hotel staff about where else to go for breakfast nearby, but due to the holiday season most things are shut, but if we head to the main strip there is a big shopping centre with more choices.
The group had their heart set on a Maccas breakfast, so we went in search of that. Breakfast seems to be the hardest part of our day, we're all looking forward to the next hotel where the buffet breakfast is included!

We followed the map to where McDonalds was supposed to be, but it wasn't there. We asked a local to see if we where just reading the map wrong, but it looked like it had been moved to a more central location, so we followed the directions from the local and eventually found it.
The main street was a lot busier than where our hotel is - it was a lot more like Osaka and there were plenty of people around.

The CBD in Kyoto
Another Maccas breakfast
From the main street, we continued on to the Nishiki Food Market. There was all sorts of food there from fairly standard western food to stuff I have never seen before! Alot of the stalls give out free samples, so we got to try some different food and buy some snacks

The Nishiki market
The weird and wonderful foods on sale
Fresh produce on sale at the Nishiki food market
Fresh produce on sale at the Nishiki food market
Chestnut stand
Mini donuts
After we passed through the food focused areas, it turned to more souvenirs and gifts. In between all the shops, tucked down little alleys were temples and shrines. It was pretty cool to see a really busy shopping district where there's lots of noise, but then turn a corner and the sound dies down and there are people praying. As a stubborn westerner, I would have thought the religious sites and the loud shops would have been separate, but they are all mixed together quite nicely. I guess it shows that religion is a big part of the day-to-day life here.

Temple down an ally from the shops
This market was not where we were expecting to see our first traditional Japanese temple for the trip, but some of them were really nice and we got to see the local culture first hand.




After the markets, we made our way back to the train station. On the way there, we went past the Kyoto Town Hall to take a couple photos. Then back at the station we saw a kids magic show! It was a Japanese Charlie Chaplin and the kids (including us) loved it! There was also a person playing keyboard to make it more like a silent movie, but the keyboard was on wheels and he was able to play while we was walking around, it was pretty well done. From there Robert and Sarah went their own way and we got lunch at a local cafe. For lunch we had a burger (without the bun) with some rice and salad.

Kyoto Town Hall 
Japanese Charlie Chaplin
Walking keyboard player
We went back home and took it easy for the rest of the day. We relaxed for a couple of hours before we got ready to go dinner. I caught up on my blogs and we watched some Japanese tv for a little while.

For dinner we asked the hotel staff for a local recommendation. Funnily enough, they recommended an Italian restaurant! Most other places were closed, but the hotel staff even called the restaurant to make sure they would be open.
We arrived at the restaurant and it looked fairly average from the outside, but on the inside, it was a mix between Japanese and Italian. There was some soft jazz playing in the background and a nice atmosphere, inside a Japanese style building with exposed beams on the inside. I didn't bring my camera, but I did get the waitress to take a photo of us with my phone.
The food at this place was incredible! Italian food in Japan is popular, but they rarely get it right - not this time.

We ordered a set menu for about $36 which started out with a salad, then an antipasto platter with sweet vegetables, a bean and meat mix, a quiche, some fish pieces, some salmon sashimi and some bread. The main course was a pizza or a pasta of our choice - I got a prosciutto pizza that was cooked very nicely. After that we had the "special main" dish, which was a slow cooked piece of Wagyu beef that just melted apart. Then to finish it off we had a dessert platter that had a scoop of Earl Grey Tea ice cream, a panna cotta with strawberry topping and a piece of chocolate cake along with some coffee or tea.
Not only was it one of the best meals I've had, but for $36 it was amazing!

Italian-Japanese restaurant
04:10 | Category: | 0 comments

Day 5 - Arriving in Kyoto
After very little sleep we met in the lobby and checked out of our hotel. We asked the hotel staff to hold our luggage while we went to Shinsaibashi to find some breakfast. We ended up in yet another cafe that stunk of cigarettes, but they did have a breakfast menu. There was a few mix ups with breakfast, but overall it was ok. We did a little bit of shopping before heading back to our hotel to pick up our luggage. From there Robert navigated us to Kyoto via train. The whole trip probably took about an hour.
On the train to Kyoto
Once we got to Kyoto the first thing that stands out is just how much more space there is. Compared to Osaka, it felt like we were in a rural suburb! Walking down the smaller streets was even more interesting. Some of the houses had the stereotypical Japanese roof line that you see in the ninja movies - it looked very cool, can't wait to see more of the traditional side of Japan!




When we arrived at the hotel, it looked quite plain from the outside, but inside was really nice! The first thing that stood out was over to the right was a restaurant/bar with a view of a small waterfall as part of the hotel! Unfortunately the fancy places also come with fancy prices. The buffet breakfast wasn't included again, but if we wanted to pay for it, it would cost about $45! There is a few options for dinner in the hotel too, a dinner buffet which costs $65 (or $45 after the new year celebrations finish on the 3rd) and a nice looking steak house, which costs $100-$150 per person.
We decided to try to find somewhere else to eat!





Walking around the streets of Kyoto is nothing like Osaka, at least where our hotel is. It's a lot quieter and there aren't many people walking around in comparison. This time of the year is very quiet in Kyoto. There is a large focus on family time and prayer. While this is a nice change, it did make it hard to find somewhere to eat because most places are closed.
We eventually came across a 24 hour fast food place, but not the western variety, a proper Japanese fast food place. They have a small diner with a machine where you pick your meal and pay, but it was all in Japanese. Luckily the staff spotted that and handed us a laminated sheet of paper that had English instructions on it.

Japanese fast food place
The machine where you order
On one side it had a few meals with English descriptions and on the other side some text apologising for not speaking English very well and asking us to take a seat and pick form the English paper menu instead of using the machine. When we ordered, the waiter then put our order into the machine for us.
The food was out in a couple of minutes and it was pretty good and unlike our hotel, this tasty meal only cost about $4!

We left there and picked up some junk food from a nearby 7-11, before heading back to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, we got speaking to the hotel staff who spoke very good English! It turns out that most of Kyoto is closed until the day we leave, then things start opening again. We sort of knew this would happen, but the hotel staff gave us a map and showed us where we could find restaurants, shops, temples, gardens and even where to go for a chance to see the training geisha girls, known as "Maiko".
It was a long day, so we just spent the rest of the night relaxing at the hotel. I caught up on blogs, and we even watched a couple of episodes of The IT Crowd!
05:27 | Category: | 3 comments