Haaaave You Met...WT: Day 5: KYOTO!!

Today, we went to KYOTO. From the start, it was a formidable task, to wake up at 6am. Nonetheless, we woke up at 6:30am and caught the 7am Hikari Shinkansen to KYOTO. Most of the train ride I did not remember. Basically, we were all knocked out.

We arrived around 10am and went directly to the tourists’ info center to plan our day. After thorough planning, we left on a bus towards the Higashiyama area of Kyoto, which was how I imagined Japan to be like. This area is traditional Japanese with small stone streets and little wooden houses with the sliding doors. I really wanted to eat at a sliding door place just for the experience, but sadly, didn’t. Anyways, we walked to the Kiyomizu Temple and it was beautiful. The orange color really distinguished itself from any buildings I have seen. I took a lot of pictures here and after exploring the temple, we walked down a very touristy street with stores selling gifts. I bought several items, but regret not buying more; you couldn’t find these things in Tokyo like Japanese fans, sandals, samurai swords, etc. At this point, I was embracing the Japanese culture. I specifically remember how awed and appreciative I was. This culture is only unique to this place and the things I saw made me realize how fortunate I was to get the opportunity to come here.

Up the steps to Kiyomizu Temple...

Man...I'm tired...

While I take the pictures, they're eating green tea ice cream

Present time...

Back in the days...

This is how you wash your hands

Fancy hand washer

Rare Geisha

Hit for luck

Look at my form

Below the temple

We were trying to find our way around but got lost. There were so many small streets and the map I was using wasn’t that elaborate in terms of naming the streets. To make matters worse, our stomachs were hungry so we needed to find a place to eat, quick. We ended up in this eel restaurant and it was so expensive, about 30+ US dollars per plate. The eel ended up pretty good but definitely not worth the money. O well…

the tourist area, plenty of gift shops

Another famous temple

Other sceneries

Afterwards, we took a bus to Nijo Castle, but it was closed. I was very disappointed since we only explored one temple in Kyoto. The only picture I got was the outer tower. It was quite frustrating to miss out on these opportunities to sightsee. Even though it’s just sightseeing and may be boring, I felt myself grow into someone that appreciates these things and take pictures. I started to value my camera more and more throughout this trip. When you look back at your experience, it’s not the things you buy but the pictures you take.

Nijo Castle outer tower

We left Kyoto on the last Hikari Shinkansen at 8:39pm. Like the ride there to Kyoto, all of us knocked out. When we were walking pass the Taito Arcade in Shinjuku, we found out that the arcade was Y100 per game instead of the usual Y200. That stupid sign put a dent in my wallet as I started playing the stuffed animal game like a madman. I basically won a stitch stuffed animal and an anime character. Cliff and Josh also won Stitches too. My Thanh was basically providing the money to win the Stitches. The funniest thing was that Josh wanted to win Tigger and he put all this money into it but Winnie the Pooh’s leg hooked it so he gave up.

Every time we go to this arcade, we would always see this guy in a business suit there playing the games. He would always win so many of the prizes like anime dolls, stuffed animals, and weird bug-headed characters. Before he left, you would carry at least 2 large bags of prizes. We saw him like 4-5 times during our time in Tokyo. I think he wins the prizes and resells them at a store or something.

KYOTO PART 2:

Since we didn’t get to go to Nijo Castle, we decided to go back to Kyoto again. We woke up early and booked the Shinkansen for 8:45am. Like the past trip to Kyoto, the ride there was a knock out ride. By the way, we’re smart to get the JR Pass (Japanese Rail) so we got our money’s worth by going to Kyoto twice! We got to the Nijo Station, which was near the castle around 11:30am. Unfortunately, the weather was BAD! It started to rain very hard so we couldn’t go directly to the castle yet.

Luckily, there was a mall near the station so we camped there for 2 hours. There wasn’t much to do at the mall, but they had an arcade. We played some basketball game for a bit but got tired of it; I was itching for the rain to stop! After eating sushi at the mall, we decided to leave the place. At the convenient store, we bought 3 clear umbrellas and took a taxi to the castle. To my surprise, there were so many people at the castle. The rain did not faze them at all. Darn it, we should have taken the risk and went to the castle earlier. At this time, it was around 3pm and the castle closed at 5pm.

Nonetheless, we started to explore the castle immediately. Despite the rain, the castle’s courtyard was beautiful. I think the rain added a mystifying element to the garden. We went into the outer palace. It was all wooden and very dark. We couldn’t take any picture so I don’t have proof, but trust me, it look like scenes from the Last Samurai starring Tom Cruise. The place was very spacious; I wonder how people knew which room was which. If I lived there, I would have had a hard time getting from my room to the kitchen. The interesting thing about the outer palace was that the floor was made out of wooden on purpose. The wooden floors squeaked when you walked around so it could detect invaders at night. Very creative indeed.

After the palace, we were about to enter the inner palace, but we got distracted by a sign pointing the opposite direction to a tea house ceremony. We decided to go towards the tea ceremony for the experience. For only $7 USD, we experienced our first tea ceremony. What we got was green tea and a green tea mochi ball. It was soo good!! The tea house overlooked the Seiryu-en Garden, pictures below. Just sitting there enjoying the scenery was very relaxing for me. I need to spend more time relaxing instead of stressing. Sipping tea in the room overlooking a beautiful garden is like paradise for me. I’m glad it was with my best friends too.

The Castle was closing so we had to leave. On our way out, we bought some souvenirs. Our next plan of action was to go to Osaka. We booked a ticket over to Osaka. Unfortunately, when we arrived to Osaka, we realized that Osaka was not the same as Shin Osaka. The latter was the actual station that we would be leaving from, on our way back to Tokyo via Shinkansen. Our time at Osaka was limited, just an hour, so when we looked at the Lonely Planet’s guide, we didn’t find anything attracting. Pressed for time, we decided to board the Shinkansen and left. On the train, we ate Bento boxes…yuck…

Back in Shinjuku, we ate and went back to Prince Hotel. By that time, the rain stopped completely but it was late. Sleep time.

Nijo Castle Main Entrance