Kansai
The next day I felt loads better, and so the three of us headed off for our 6 day adventure in Kansai. We were booked in for 5 nights at J-Hoppers in Kyoto (which btw, I would highly recommend… really cute place, close to the station..great!). Saturday afternoon we made a brief visit to To-ji (a temple with what is apparently the highest pagoda in Japan, but it didn’t look that big to me!), and then went to meet Sarah at the station. Saturday evening, Julie and I were booked in for our Maiko makeover (see other post!), and then we went out for a fabulous dinner of ramen, rice, and the best gyoza I have ever had!
On Sunday the four of us did a spot of shopping (including Zara!), visited the food market, braved the rain at the Heian Shrine, and then even attempted the Philosopher’s Walk…again, in the rain, but also this time a thunder storm! The cherry blossoms along the walk were just starting to bloom, and so, in spite of the rain and grey sky, it was a really pretty route. Even the thunder was quite cool, as we were forced to shelter under a temple entrance, and sat watching the rain and lightning forks for 20 minutes. That night we ate deliciously posh yakitori in a cool chicken restaurant on Shijo, and Sarah and I even splashed out on a couple of glasses of white wine. Karaoke finished off a really great day!
On Monday, Sarah, Jen and Julie went off together for a day of temple-hopping, and I explored on my own. They had never been to Kyoto before, and so wanted to see some of the places that I saw on my first trip in October (i.e golden temple, zen-rock garden at Ryoan-ji etc), and really wasn’t fussed about seeing for a second time. I wanted to hit Kiyomizu-dera for a start…and I’m soooo glad I did. It is a truly spectacular place, a large temple complex set up on a hillside, with views across the hills and the rest of the Kyoto city. It was really busy, and full of people itching to get the perfect photo of Kiyomizu surrounded by cherry blossoms. Not all of the sakura were out, but the pockets of pink around the grounds were really pretty. After exploring the temple, shrine, and gardens, I wandered back down the shop lined street, towards my next port of call. Following a recommendation from Paul, I decided to visit Sanju-sangen-do, a temple which has a huge hall filled with 1001 statues of the Budhist god Kannon. It really was quite impressive, as the statues are all about the size of a person, deep bronze, and lead towards an even bigger statue of the god in the middle. The rest of my afternoon was spent in shops, Starbucks, a foreign book section of Maruzen, and Haagen Daz café (in that order!), before meeting the girls for our evening of fun! We ate loads of delicious food at a cheapish restaurant (gyoza, garlic bread, prawn crackers, karage, yakisoba, pizza, salad, chips!...a bit of a mixture, but amazing nonetheless!). We then spotted a little gem! A really big (like 6 floors or something) amusement / game / fun arcade. You sign in, and then pay 105 yen (like 52p) for every 15 minutes you spend there. In that time you can do whatever you want…it was amazing!...bowling, game arcade (including my favourite taiko game), baseball, basketball, sunbed, foot-spa, roof-top waterfall (!), piano, trampoline, ball-pool, and of course…karaoke! We spent some time on the arcade games, and then headed for the ball-pool! God I love those things! I think I must have liked them when I was a kid, but I can’t really remember…this one was great anyway…although it was quite shallow, and so when Sarah tried to dive in, she hit the bottom fairly quickly. After a quick play of the piano (I can’t play, but you know…it had to be done!), we went for a wonderful 30 minutes of karaoke. They put us in a huge room, right on the corner of the building, so that we had views up and down the main Shijo street….the best karaoke room I have ever had the pleasure of singing in!
On Tuesday Julie, Jen and I took the train to wonderful wonderful Nara! It was my first trip to Nara, and I had been looking forward to going for a while…it completely met (and maybe exceeded, thanks to the weather!) my expectations. The sky was so blue (quite a rare thing in Japan), it was warm, and cherry blossoms were out…everywhere! For me, that was the first official day of spring! God, I loved those blossoms! We walked around Nara park, visiting all the main temples and shrines on the way (including the great Budha at Todaiji), stopping for soba for lunch, and then refreshments in a temple later on. The deer weren’t as cute as I thought they would be (I prefer the ones at Miyajima), but still an amusement and curiosity to watch. We ended our day there sitting next to a huge pond, watching carp and turtles, and then eating onion rings at Mos Burger (I am one classy lady!). We spent the evening back in our hostel, eating Seven Eleven food, and attempting to play Monopoly in spite of our obvious (and silly) tiredness!
Just like Tuesday, Wednesday was one of those ‘things to cross off my mental list of stuff I wanna do in Japan’ days! We went to Himeji Castle. I really wanted to go as it is the only castle in Japan that has never been rebuilt (all the others have had fires, wars, etc etc, and so are still pretty, but not authentic). Himeji is supposed to be THE castle to see in Japan. It was amazing, beautiful, grand, and…busy beyond belief! It turned out we had turned up on some kind of cherry blossom viewing festival day, and entrance to the castle was free! We were really chuffed (Brits always like a freebie!), and patted ourselves on the back for picking such a good day to go. Our smugness turned to fear when we saw hoards and hoards and hoards of Japanese tourists (including the most scary and dangerous of all, the little old ladies, who are slightly bent over, but still have sharp elbows, and a lethal ankle flick) queuing to go in the castle. I have never seen anywhere in Japan as busy as that place on that day. I still made it to the top of the castle though, and actually started to enjoy the challenge of trying to make it up the next flight of stairs without getting myself flattened by the aforementioned old ladies! Outside the castle, the blossoms were spectacular, and we enjoyed our own hanami (cherry blossom viewing picnic type thing), under our very own tree. Back in Kyoto in the evening, we went back to out first night ramen and gyoza restaurant, explored the Gion backstreets, spotted 3 real Maiko (yey!!!), and of course had one final Karaoke session together.
On Thursday, I came back to Yanai, and Julie and Jen headed back up to Tokyo, ready for their flight home to England. A truly great trip, which made me appreciate all the beauty, character and quirks of Japan all over again! Thanks Sarah, Julie and Jen…I had a great time with you all.
On Sunday the four of us did a spot of shopping (including Zara!), visited the food market, braved the rain at the Heian Shrine, and then even attempted the Philosopher’s Walk…again, in the rain, but also this time a thunder storm! The cherry blossoms along the walk were just starting to bloom, and so, in spite of the rain and grey sky, it was a really pretty route. Even the thunder was quite cool, as we were forced to shelter under a temple entrance, and sat watching the rain and lightning forks for 20 minutes. That night we ate deliciously posh yakitori in a cool chicken restaurant on Shijo, and Sarah and I even splashed out on a couple of glasses of white wine. Karaoke finished off a really great day!
On Monday, Sarah, Jen and Julie went off together for a day of temple-hopping, and I explored on my own. They had never been to Kyoto before, and so wanted to see some of the places that I saw on my first trip in October (i.e golden temple, zen-rock garden at Ryoan-ji etc), and really wasn’t fussed about seeing for a second time. I wanted to hit Kiyomizu-dera for a start…and I’m soooo glad I did. It is a truly spectacular place, a large temple complex set up on a hillside, with views across the hills and the rest of the Kyoto city. It was really busy, and full of people itching to get the perfect photo of Kiyomizu surrounded by cherry blossoms. Not all of the sakura were out, but the pockets of pink around the grounds were really pretty. After exploring the temple, shrine, and gardens, I wandered back down the shop lined street, towards my next port of call. Following a recommendation from Paul, I decided to visit Sanju-sangen-do, a temple which has a huge hall filled with 1001 statues of the Budhist god Kannon. It really was quite impressive, as the statues are all about the size of a person, deep bronze, and lead towards an even bigger statue of the god in the middle. The rest of my afternoon was spent in shops, Starbucks, a foreign book section of Maruzen, and Haagen Daz café (in that order!), before meeting the girls for our evening of fun! We ate loads of delicious food at a cheapish restaurant (gyoza, garlic bread, prawn crackers, karage, yakisoba, pizza, salad, chips!...a bit of a mixture, but amazing nonetheless!). We then spotted a little gem! A really big (like 6 floors or something) amusement / game / fun arcade. You sign in, and then pay 105 yen (like 52p) for every 15 minutes you spend there. In that time you can do whatever you want…it was amazing!...bowling, game arcade (including my favourite taiko game), baseball, basketball, sunbed, foot-spa, roof-top waterfall (!), piano, trampoline, ball-pool, and of course…karaoke! We spent some time on the arcade games, and then headed for the ball-pool! God I love those things! I think I must have liked them when I was a kid, but I can’t really remember…this one was great anyway…although it was quite shallow, and so when Sarah tried to dive in, she hit the bottom fairly quickly. After a quick play of the piano (I can’t play, but you know…it had to be done!), we went for a wonderful 30 minutes of karaoke. They put us in a huge room, right on the corner of the building, so that we had views up and down the main Shijo street….the best karaoke room I have ever had the pleasure of singing in!
On Tuesday Julie, Jen and I took the train to wonderful wonderful Nara! It was my first trip to Nara, and I had been looking forward to going for a while…it completely met (and maybe exceeded, thanks to the weather!) my expectations. The sky was so blue (quite a rare thing in Japan), it was warm, and cherry blossoms were out…everywhere! For me, that was the first official day of spring! God, I loved those blossoms! We walked around Nara park, visiting all the main temples and shrines on the way (including the great Budha at Todaiji), stopping for soba for lunch, and then refreshments in a temple later on. The deer weren’t as cute as I thought they would be (I prefer the ones at Miyajima), but still an amusement and curiosity to watch. We ended our day there sitting next to a huge pond, watching carp and turtles, and then eating onion rings at Mos Burger (I am one classy lady!). We spent the evening back in our hostel, eating Seven Eleven food, and attempting to play Monopoly in spite of our obvious (and silly) tiredness!
Just like Tuesday, Wednesday was one of those ‘things to cross off my mental list of stuff I wanna do in Japan’ days! We went to Himeji Castle. I really wanted to go as it is the only castle in Japan that has never been rebuilt (all the others have had fires, wars, etc etc, and so are still pretty, but not authentic). Himeji is supposed to be THE castle to see in Japan. It was amazing, beautiful, grand, and…busy beyond belief! It turned out we had turned up on some kind of cherry blossom viewing festival day, and entrance to the castle was free! We were really chuffed (Brits always like a freebie!), and patted ourselves on the back for picking such a good day to go. Our smugness turned to fear when we saw hoards and hoards and hoards of Japanese tourists (including the most scary and dangerous of all, the little old ladies, who are slightly bent over, but still have sharp elbows, and a lethal ankle flick) queuing to go in the castle. I have never seen anywhere in Japan as busy as that place on that day. I still made it to the top of the castle though, and actually started to enjoy the challenge of trying to make it up the next flight of stairs without getting myself flattened by the aforementioned old ladies! Outside the castle, the blossoms were spectacular, and we enjoyed our own hanami (cherry blossom viewing picnic type thing), under our very own tree. Back in Kyoto in the evening, we went back to out first night ramen and gyoza restaurant, explored the Gion backstreets, spotted 3 real Maiko (yey!!!), and of course had one final Karaoke session together.
On Thursday, I came back to Yanai, and Julie and Jen headed back up to Tokyo, ready for their flight home to England. A truly great trip, which made me appreciate all the beauty, character and quirks of Japan all over again! Thanks Sarah, Julie and Jen…I had a great time with you all.
posted by Lauren @ 10:32 am
1 Comments:
At 1:20 am,
Selene said…
whoa girl! you sure know how to pack in a holiday! You'll have to tell me where this amusement place is! it sounds way fun!
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