Kyoto days!
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Jacs
24 Juli 2014 | Japan, Kyoto
Day 14: so after a quick checkout, I made my way to the station and hot myself onto a shinkansen (superexpress trains, that can reach 200mph on a normal basis). Luckily everything went fine, and I found and got on the train without any troubles. Unfortunately the trainride wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, as the speed really messed with my ears, and we went through many tunnels (so no pretty view). After arriving in Kyoto, I found my hostel pretty easily and loved it! Since they we're cleaning the rooms when I arrived, I got to do some laundrand explore the neighborhood. Since my hostel is so close to the station, there were lots of shops to look around in. Once The rooms were clean, I got my bunk (top! Oh yeah) and tried to get a relaxing night, just to recover from the shinkansen. By chance, a friend of mine was also in Kyoto and we decided to hang out the next day for a temple run.. Which means visit as many temples and shrines as you can in a day...
Day 15: temple run! I met up with Anoma and his sister in northern Kyoto to go to Daitoku-ji, a Buddhist temple. The complex was supposed to have 23 shrines and buildings, but we could only enter 3. One of them was the zen garden. We walked around for a small bit in this one, and then had tea there. The woman who was responsible for the tea showed us the special way to hold, turn and drink your tea. After this temple we went to Kinkaku-ji, the gold pavilion temple. It was absolutely packed here, as it seemed all the tourists in Kyoto wanted a picture with The gold pavilion. After this, we made our way to Nijojo, the castle, but that seemed to be closed on tuesdays.. So we went on to the 4th thing on our list, the Higashiyama temples. We went into 2 (or 3.. Can't remember) of the 4 temples. After this we had dinner at a western style family restaurant. And then headed over to the Imperial Palace gardens, and this was huge!! We had absolutely underestimated the size of the place. Since it was already 18:00, and it's dark here at 19:00, we decided to pretty much run through the place. After this we made our way to Niishin Textile Center, but we were too late to see anything. We decided to head home, and meet up again the next day for a trip to Nara and Osaka.
Day 16: Nara and Osaka
We took an early train to Nara and walked over to the most known temples there. The thing about Nara, is that there are wild deer everywhere! So, dodging deer, we made our way to the first thing we saw, which was a small shrine. We passed it up though, since the admittance fee was a bit high for a one room shrine. We then went to the museum, and bought a ticket for the musuem, which also allowed you to visit the 1st shrine for a lower price. The museum was amazing! Of was full of Nara's treasures. After this, we headed back to the first building we saw (and passed up), the Eastern Golden Hall of Kofokuji. It turned out to be pretty impressive! After this we made our way to Great Buddha Hall. The Buddha was amazingly large! it almost took up the full room! As we were walking around, we found out your could buy a rooftile and write your name on it for eternal good luck. It would be placed on the temple during the next restauration. After the great Buddha hall, we made our way back to the station and went to Osaka! Here we went to Osaka castle, which was very pretty on the outside, but some floors of the museum were a bit dull.. Still a great experience. After that we went ro Shinsaibashi, ome of rhe larger shopping areas of Osaka and found Glico, the thing tl see in Osaka. We had unlimited pizza, pasta and salad for dinner and went back to Kyoto afterwards.
All in all, some very productive days, which I will be compensating toe today; lazy morning, Inari shrine and onsen (natural hot spring!)
Day 15: temple run! I met up with Anoma and his sister in northern Kyoto to go to Daitoku-ji, a Buddhist temple. The complex was supposed to have 23 shrines and buildings, but we could only enter 3. One of them was the zen garden. We walked around for a small bit in this one, and then had tea there. The woman who was responsible for the tea showed us the special way to hold, turn and drink your tea. After this temple we went to Kinkaku-ji, the gold pavilion temple. It was absolutely packed here, as it seemed all the tourists in Kyoto wanted a picture with The gold pavilion. After this, we made our way to Nijojo, the castle, but that seemed to be closed on tuesdays.. So we went on to the 4th thing on our list, the Higashiyama temples. We went into 2 (or 3.. Can't remember) of the 4 temples. After this we had dinner at a western style family restaurant. And then headed over to the Imperial Palace gardens, and this was huge!! We had absolutely underestimated the size of the place. Since it was already 18:00, and it's dark here at 19:00, we decided to pretty much run through the place. After this we made our way to Niishin Textile Center, but we were too late to see anything. We decided to head home, and meet up again the next day for a trip to Nara and Osaka.
Day 16: Nara and Osaka
We took an early train to Nara and walked over to the most known temples there. The thing about Nara, is that there are wild deer everywhere! So, dodging deer, we made our way to the first thing we saw, which was a small shrine. We passed it up though, since the admittance fee was a bit high for a one room shrine. We then went to the museum, and bought a ticket for the musuem, which also allowed you to visit the 1st shrine for a lower price. The museum was amazing! Of was full of Nara's treasures. After this, we headed back to the first building we saw (and passed up), the Eastern Golden Hall of Kofokuji. It turned out to be pretty impressive! After this we made our way to Great Buddha Hall. The Buddha was amazingly large! it almost took up the full room! As we were walking around, we found out your could buy a rooftile and write your name on it for eternal good luck. It would be placed on the temple during the next restauration. After the great Buddha hall, we made our way back to the station and went to Osaka! Here we went to Osaka castle, which was very pretty on the outside, but some floors of the museum were a bit dull.. Still a great experience. After that we went ro Shinsaibashi, ome of rhe larger shopping areas of Osaka and found Glico, the thing tl see in Osaka. We had unlimited pizza, pasta and salad for dinner and went back to Kyoto afterwards.
All in all, some very productive days, which I will be compensating toe today; lazy morning, Inari shrine and onsen (natural hot spring!)
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
