Kyoto

Cont'd from Hakone

Arrived at Kyoto Station close to 8pm. Quick ramen dinner where you placed your order via a vending machine and hand the ticket stub to the waitress.



Kyoto
Saturday 5th March

Read somewhere that Japanese don't make a big deal out of breakfast, opting for a simple meal of coffee and bread with butter and jam in the morning before leaving for work.





Since MacDonald's was round the corner from Citadines Kyoto, our hotel at Gojo, one subway stop from Kyoto Station, we had breakfast here. Twice. We observed that Macs was usually packed with Japanese, several of whom were dressed for work, complete with briefcases, but seemed to be napping on the tables.



Waiting at the bus stop for bus no. 80 to get to the Kiyomizudera Temple, east of our hotel. After a few rounds of taking the bus, i noticed that the horizontal streets were named Sanjo-dori, Shijo-dori, Gojo-dori, Kujo-dori, translating to 3rd Street, 4th, 5th, 9th respectively. And figured they omitted the double-syllabled numbers like roku, nana, hachi, which are 6th, 7th, 8th, for some reason. I think!



Uphill trek to the Kiyomizudera Temple, also known as The Temple of Pure Water.



We tried not to get distracted by the many souvenior shops along the way.



I pity her.



Are we there yet?



Tea-shack at the top of the slope where the base of the temple was in case you were thirsty from the morning climb.



Steps leading to the temple entrance.



And we're finally in the temple.



These kimono-clad ladies walked a few steps and stopped to take photos of themselves after every other step. Soon everyone else asked to photograph with them too. Later on we came across several "fake" kimono-clad japanese ladies. They were actually made-in-china. Luckily never malu by asking to photograph with them.


Cheryl with rose-coloured petals.


Chubby kiddo with rosy cheeks.



Pictures of this place in autumn looked really beautiful.



Apparently not a single nail was used in the construction of this temple when it was constructed in 1633.



I couldn't decide if Japanese were generally a religious lot or not. Nevertheless, these devotees seemed to be cupping the incense smoke over their heads, as if to bless themselves.



Wishes on wooden cards left behind by devotees.



The Kiyomizudera Temple is at the foothills of Mount Ottawa and got its name from a waterfall that runs off the hills to within the temple complex.



A love stone lies somewhere above this flight of steps.



I like the deep roof of the main hall and the entire route starting from the bottom of the hill with all the touristy little shops to all the sprawling buildings and paths of this temple complex.



Japanese girls doing the kawaii victory sign while posing for a photo.



We copy. Unsuccessfully.



Scoops for washing your hands with the pure water.



Path leading downhill from the temple.



Undeterred from the previous failed attempt with the victory sign photo pose, we try again, this time bringing our fingers closer to our cheeks. Better? Uh i think i overcompensated with the back-kick. Got confused with playstation anime characters when they do a victory flip.


Will be nicer with sakura backdrop you think?





Touristy souvenior and snack shops down the slope.



Almond and cinamon flavoured biscuits flattened then rolled to shape like roof shingles.



Totoro shop off one of the lanes.



Japanese schoolgirl uniform fixation continues.



Hamburger steak lunch at Bar & Grill back inside Kyoto Station.



It's not sorbet, it's a tomato.



Grilled escargots. This place is like Ma Maison in Singapore.



Kyoto subway to Fushimi Inari Fox Shrine. Think this was on the JR line so we're covered by our rail passes. I like the green of the train.



























Return journey to Kyoto Station after sunset, which was around a quarter to six.



Bus interchange outside Kyoto Station, waiting for the public bus to Gion to catch some geishas. The public buses had this self-service coin-dispensing machine if you needed to break your 1,000yen bill into coins for the correct bus fare.



Ventured into the Yasaka Shrine cos we thought we saw some lanterns beyond.



Geisha-bars in Gion. It was all very hush-hush and closed door so we couldn't peek inside.



I suppose the red lantern differentiates the geisha houses from the other regular restaurants? That and the prices on the display menus.



We were quite lucky to catch one geisha close up on her way to work. Think she was running late. Looks like she successfully stopped us in our tracks, like an accomplished maiko (geisha-in-training) should.



Yakitori dinner at a random restaurant in the more modern part of Gion, where Ivan pointed out several scantily clad social escorts and labelled them the modern geishas of Gion.



Special Salad



Mm-mmm this cold tofu and avocado was melt-in-your-mouth exquisite. Very creamy. I wanted more.



Mixture of tofu, beef shanks and seaweed. I prefer the creamy tofu.



More yakitori sticks to come. We were famished.



From across the road where we were waiting for our bus back to our hotel, we watched as these 2 ladies gave out flyers to a certain class of men only.





Meanwhile back in the comforts of our hotel room, we were having our own version of a pyjama party.



Trying too hard to turn our yukata into sorry excuses for kimonos, with the pathetic hotel hand towels.



And hotel toothbrush as hairslide. The things we do to entertain ourselves before bedtime.



Lai Yeow playing the part of lovingly docile housewife.

Kyoto
Sunday 6th March



Subway ride up north to Kitayama Station for Tadao Ando's Garden of Fine Arts.























Close up, the perspective lines were all wrong, typical of Chinese landscape paintings in those era.



Loved scrutinising all the details though. There's something aesthetic about the cluster of pitched roof-forms.





The Kyoto Botanical Gardens was just next door, and we had some luck with the early bloomers of sakura, both in pink and white.





Don't be silly, i wasn't mistaking these to be sakura in my desperation to see some.









The hairy bud is quite gross-looking.









Sakura!







Several old people were painting the sakura buds. How sweet.



Children playing in the foreground and a wedding couple posed for pictures in the background.





Cute little old couple taking a rest after buying some plants from the Botanical Gardens. I don't usually perve on old people.





Lunch at one of the restaurants in Kyoto Station before heading west for a stroll in the Sagano Arashimaya Bamboo Forest and rode on the Romantic Train along the beautiful Hozu River and crossing the Togetsu Bridge.















Here comes our Sagano Romantic Train. It wasn't so romantic with all the touristy announcements of location information, concluding with live singing of a Japanese folk song by the train conductor.





The romantic couple on the not-so-romantic train along the Hozu River.





Super cute white dog presumably waiting for its owner outside the train station. He has a pink nose!



15 minute walk to transfer from the Romantic Train to our regular train back to Kyoto Station.



Shijo Shopping Street and Nishiki Food Market Street in the evening. Shijo Shopping Street wasn't terribly exciting except for the portion of time we spent giggling over the super blatant and exaggerated anime porn comic books. The illustrations were really good. I wonder if they'd make good souveniors for the guys back home. Then again, i don't really fancy getting stopped at customs.









Freshly baked oysters - my saving grace of the Nishiki Food Market Street. Mm-mmm.



Guess where we went to for dinner?







Since we had gyoza coupons for Ippudo, why not check out if Kyoto's Ippudo was any better than Tokyo's. Yes, we had Ippudo twice in Japan. It was that good.





Our suica card was valid only in Tokyo, so we constantly dropped coins into the ticket machine for single trip fares on the subways. This is what a typical subway ticketing machine looks like.

Next up: click here for Takayama & Shirakawa