Kyoto - first full day
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| Breakfast - instant udon, yum! |
Woke up and had a instant udon breakfast we had picked up from Lawsons the night before. It was pretty good! No free breakfast in Kyoto.
The hotel did have super comfy pajamas tho -
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| Pajamas are stylin |
After breakfast, we went downstairs and the concierge helped us buy an all day bus ticket for 500yen, which turned out to be an awesome deal. They also gave us a map to get to the right bus stop and which bus # to take to get to Kiyomizu-dera. Very helpful.
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| Kyoto bus - already crowded! |
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| Which way? Oh, this way. |
Bus stop was about 3 blocks away, so we walked to the bus and made our way to Kiyomizudera. The bus dropped us off a little ways away, and we started walking up a little hilly street towards the temple. Saw a few vending machines, had our favorite vending machine drinks, and then... Michelle started doing some serious shopping! All the stores were kind of the same (at least to me). But we checked them all out. They had just started opening, and I smelled someone grilling something - smelled good! I got some sembei from some guy - looked like he was making it on a little burner in front of his shop? It was pretty good. We continued walking up the street going in and out of stores till we got to Kiyomizu dera.
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| mmm, warm coffee in a can |
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| Mich's type of store... |
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| Sembei from --> |
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| Sembei guy stand |
It was a bit crowded even though it was early, probably cause it was Saturday and it was sunny. We got our tix and went in - they were doing some construction, but the main areas were open. There was another section where they had a bunch of omamori and a 'lovestone' thing where you are supposed to close your eye and try to walk from one side to another. One guy tried until he almost bumped into someone.
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| Walking up to Kiyomizu dera |
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| Should I ring it? |
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| Got my tix! |
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| Am I supposed to put money in there? |
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| Pose |
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| Yo |
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| Mich with construction in the background |
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Guy trying to walk from the lovestone -
almost bumped into someone |
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| Steps to lovestone and omamori stands |
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| Kiyomizu dera |
We bought an omamori, mich rang the bell and rubbed some sandal thing (dunno why we did it, but everyone was doing it). Eventually we made our way down to the waterfall spot and got in line to wash our hands with the water - they had a UV station for all the cups!
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| Busy at Kiyomizu dera |
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| Shashin o totte kudasai |
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| I got it! |
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| Is this clean? |
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| Nice catch! |
After Kiyomizu dera, walked back down and did more shopping, then stopped at a little restaurant for udon and a rice bowl. Pretty tasty. We were sitting next to the window where there was a line of taxis waiting in line to pick up people - they moved about two car lengths while we ate for an hour. Mich couldn't figure out how they made their money.
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| Udon and rice dish for lunch - yum |
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| Full after lunch |
After lunch, we followed the street that went towards Yasuka shrine in Maruyama park. There were a bunch of shops, we saw one shop that had a giant Totoro for 95k yen! They had everything Totoro! It was a pretty big store.
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| Walked thru the park.. |
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| ..to Yasuka shrine |
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| Yep, that's me. |
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| Wedding! |
When the wedding had passed thru, we walked down to the entrance of the park where it connects to Shijo street. There were a bunch of food vendors, so we had a Taiyaki and a gooey Takoyaki.
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Statues next to Yasuka shrine
Mich liked them - I dunno what
they meant. |
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| Taiyaki! |
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| Tako Yaki! Kinda looks almost the same in hiragana |
After our snack, we caught the bus to the Heian shrine.
We exited the bus next to a big torii gate, and walked to the Heian shrine and walked around a bit.
We went back to the bus stop and caught the bus again (500 yen all day pass - deal!!) to Ginkakuji.
Mich thought it was crazy we got on the bus first, then paid on the way out - what do they do if we don't have any money? I liked that you get on in the back then leave thru the front - very orderly, efficient.
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Walking to Heian shrine - big Torii gate in the background
where the bus dropped us off. |
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| Heian shrine |
Wasn't sure which way Ginkakuji after we got off the bus, so we just followed some people.
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| Walking to Ginkakuji from the bus stop - follow those guys! |
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| Inside Ginkakuji - it was super crowded although you can't tell in this phto |
Ginkakuji was like I remembered it, but Michelle could barely recall it. Mich liked the bushes at the entrance, I wondered who had to take care of them all the time. Do they just plug up any holes and dead spots?
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| Nice bushes! |
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| Hi, more sand. |
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| That's Ginkakuji! |
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I forget what that chopped off cone thing
is called? |
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| Garden in Ginkakuji |
We left Ginkakuji, did some shopping on the way down, and made our way to the Philosophers path. I'm sure it's beautiful during cherry blossom season, but is a little ordinary with no flowers and leaves. We walked a bit, but then left to go back to the bus stop.
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| Which way to the philosopher's path? |
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| Bet it's beautiful in spring... back to the bus stop. |
Got on the bus again! and went back to the hotel to take a nap before dinner.
At night we went shopping in Teramachi, checked out the 100yen store, bought more of the crunch cinnamon rice sticks, then went to an okonomiyaki place.
Mich got fried rice with japanese pickled vegetables and fried crunch sardines (we saw it on someone elses table, looked good) and I got regular okonomiyaki. It came pre-cooked, and the fried rice came in a skillet - they put both on the griddle on the table which they had turned on to keep it hot I suppose. It was pretty tasty. Only problem was at the end of the meal, some guys started smoking, so we had to leave pretty quick. Not used to people smoking inside!
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| Walk to Shijo bus stop.. |
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| okonomiyaki!!! |
After dinner, bus back to the hotel and sleep!
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| Street parallel to Teramachi - covered shopping |
