Our morning started with a Japanese buffet breakfast provided by Toyoko-Inn. Another plus point of this Inn is that the buffet breakfast is available as early as 7am. There is rice, several types of Japanese pickles, sausages, miso-soup, buns, coffee, tea & orange juice. J and I each have 2 bowls of rice before we started our tour in Kyoto.
We took the Kodama train from Shin Osaka to Kyoto. By the bullet train, the journey is less than 15 minutes. From Kyoto, we took Sagano line to Nijo station. With a map, we started walking to Kyoto Imperial Palace. It was quite a long walk. The map has street names in English but the street names we saw in Kyoto was in Japanese. Only the bigger streets would have names in English. We had a hard time ensuring we were in the right direction to Kyoto Imperial Palace.
Since it was still early for the 10am Kyoto Imperial Palace tour, we went to Nishijin Textile Center. It was a big store selling Japanese textile including the famous kimonos.
It was very cold and windy in Kyoto. The female guide was shivering at times when she guided us to various parts of the Imperial Palace. The Palace was simply too big to walk around during that hour. As a result, we saw only some parts of the Palace; already enough to impress us on how the emperors, empresses, their family members enjoyed their living in ancient times.
Lunch was settled in small shops with a vending machine. Some vending machines have pictures of the food and thus making the selection of food very easy. Others do not and we have to match the Japanese characters with the advertisements. J likes noodles, Isa and I prefer rice. Each meal can costs as low as 400 JPY. I must say the portion is not very big and thus we eat more often especially in this cold weather.
We walked to Nishikikoji Market which is famous for selling Japanese pickles. Different colours, tastes, types and shapes of Japanese pickles are available. There was a departmental store just before this Market. Isa first saw the "elevator lady" which presses the lift button for the customers taking the lifts in the departmental store.
The walk to Gion Corner was not very successful in the sense that we did not see any maikos or geishas at all. There were some ladies in kimonos but we were not in the right mood because we were attracted by the Japanese sweets and cakes wrapped beautifully in boxes. Despite we could not communicate in Japanese, the staff eagerly allowed us to sample before buying. I did not hesitate to buy a few boxes though each cost min 600 JPY depending on the quantity too.
The sun started to set from 3pm onwards. We walked back to Kyoto station. Yes, this station looked modern in an old city. Books recommended the Eat Paradise at 11th floor. We went and found different restaurants on the same floor. However, we did not eat there because the food was beyond our tight budget. We returned to train station and looked for a shop with a vending machine. By then, Isa was used to stand while eating.
From Kyoto, we again took the Sagano line to Saga Arashiyama station for the Bamboo Grove and Togetsukyo Bridge.
The moment we alight from Saga Arashiyama station, there were already staff distributing leaflets for the Hanatouro (11-20 Dec 2009). The streets leading to the various shrines, Bamboo Grove and Togetsukyo were lighted with lanterns. There were many, many Japanese walking to these places.
The bridge was crowded with people; on one side of the bridge, it was the mountain and the other side was the water. Staff were conducting the traffic for people and traffic. It was really an eye-opening experience for us. Again, all thanks to the recommendation by Mori-san in Kyoto Tourism who has recommended me this trip after I wrote in to ask for some informations.
Supper was settled again in that bento shop round the corner of the Inn which makes fresh warm food. We ordered exactly the same types of bento. Across this shop, there was Lawson Convenience Store, we bought some sushi too
This day was the most stressful for our legs because of the long walk in the cold weather. J already complained about his feet.
No comments:
Post a Comment