Japan Trip Day 4 (Kiyomizudera Temple, Kyoto and off to Osaka)

It took me a year to continue this, sorry about that. I have busy! And it's a hassle to wind back to a year ago to check my Fitbit steps,so from now onwards there will be no info on this...hehe

 

Check out our inexpensive and healthy breakfast.

 
The walk to reach our destination. There are more photos but I won't be sharing it here. 

We checked out from our hostel and left our luggages with them while we head out to the final sightseeing spot in Kyoto. Kiyomizudera Temple (清水寺, literally "Pure Water Temple") is a must visit temple there. The temple sits at the top of the mountain area (built only with woods) with a busy shopping area surrounding its path and old residential area. Be sure to wear comfortable shoes because it is an uphill walk to reach the temple. 

The temple opens from 6am and closes depending on the season. Do checkout their website for more details here. 

Anyway, we took a bus there from our hostel area and walked for about 20-25 minutes and was sweating like pigs when we got to the temple.

 

The entrance ticket and the exterior of the temple. 

 See the wooden structure that holds the temple.

 

Purchase a love charm here if you want to get lucky.

 
 Interesting people that we encountered during our walk around the temple.

We had our share of absorbing the local culture and sightseeing. So we left the temple to explore the makan-makan and shopping area. By then, the place was bustling with tourist taking photos with their selfie sticks, children running around and last minute souvenir shopping.

 Downhill road from here and on the left, you can see how packed the place is. 

 Some Gudetama snacks and a pic of my husband eating some fishcake or was it a squid inspired snack. He was snacking non-stop during the trip. 

 We were lucky to run into 3 maikos. They are the real deal because they were accompanied by an older lady that acts as a chaperone that fusses over the girls. And on the left, we found a sexy trishaw boy that was flirting with 2 Japanese girls. 

We could not leave Kyoto with another visit to % Arabica. The coffee is just too damn good!

 

A picture of LINE Brown with a cup of coffee, me in front of the cafe (emo-ing) and last but not least a pic of my sister with the barista champion himself, Mr Junichi Yamaguchi.
















And so we left Kyoto with a heavy heart because we are emo like that. Rushed back to the hostel to grab our luggages and head over to Kyoto Station to take the train to Nankai Namba Station. We booked an apartment via AirBnB in the Namba area. It's a fairly new apartment from the looks of it and very quiet.

 

 

 This apartment have everything that we need and it sleeps 3 adults (max). The only thing is that we had to take turn to open our luggage to grab our stuff. Eventually we worked out a rota system to do it. 

We don't mind staying here again for our next trip to Osaka. The host was nice enough to include a wifi egg for use. So now we have 2 that we could bring out when one of it ran out of battery.

Off we go to explore Osaka city area nearby our apartment coz we were famished by then. I did some research beforehand that there is a place here that serves 100yen sushi. In case if you are curious to try, this is the site.

 This is what we ate there. 

 Namba area




That sums up our Day 4. Time to sleep!

Japan Trip Day 3 (Arashiyama, Kinkaku-ji Temple, Nijo-jo Castle & Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine)

Total Fitbit steps of the day : 21,047 steps

We woke up bright an early on Day 3 to explore further realms of Kyoto (hehe...) We are more familiar with the area and had the options to take a bus or train. But first, we visit our favourite Lawson for more onigiri for breakfast.

My choice for the day (left pic). Natto maki, Ikura onigiri and my favourite canned coffee. The natto maki is quite addictive. My sister and husband could not stand the starchiness and the smell. What a waste! My sister's choice of breakfast; some kinda fried rice onigiri and juice. I dare not share my husband's breakfast because it seems like he bought half the shelves of onigiri...hehe

There are many ways to get to Arashiyama area but we took the Hankyu Line because it is more convenient for us and the station is nearer to our hostel. The train is so rustic. Reminds me of Beitou in Taipei. After looking at the map below, we decided that we have made the right choice by arriving from the Hankyu Station. We would first cross the Togetsu Bridge and enjoy the view of the river before entering Tenryu-ji Temple and off to the Bamboo Grove.

                                               

 

The entrance of the Bamboo Grove

It was very cooling inside the Bamboo Grove area. I expected the place to be bigger from all the photos that I've seen online but the actual area is quite small and packed with tourists. After kepoh-ing around for a bit and took countless selfies, we left the place and walk towards the JR Arashiyama station to head towards Kinkaku-ji Temple aka The Golden Pavilion.

                                                           Photo credit : Michelle Low

But first, we stopped at a friendly 1st floor family owned cafe near the entrance of The Golden Pavilion for a quick lunch. 

We had our lunch on the 1st floor of this building before Kinkaku-ji Temple.

Hamburg Curry Rice

Tempura Udon

Kyoto Udon and a special appearance by Gudetama

After a hearty lunch and Facetime with our parents, we head over to Kinkaku-ji Temple to buy the ticket. It is 400 yen/person. It is beautiful and I think it would be more beautiful in November around now. We went there too early and the leaves have not changed colours yet. The temple is well kept and the Matcha Ice Cream is to die for. But it is more expensive than the ones sold in the city. 

We left the temple happy and took a bus to Nijo-jo Castle. It was the residence of the 1st shogun during the Edo Period. And since there is a direct bus route there, we took it. We arrived there in the nick of time, they were set to close in half and hours time. 

Don't you think it looked like a shogun's headgear?

There was no photography inside his living quarters so we took some pictures on the surrounding area and their lush and well manicured Japanese garden. The air is cleaner here too. We were thinking of the haze condition back home during that time. 

It took a long time to hail a bus back to Kyoto Station area because it was peak hours and all the buses were full. I think we waited for at least 4 buses before successfully riding one and we had to stand all the way back to Kyoto Station. It was close to dinner time, the sun has set and we were famished from all the walking.

KYK Tonkatsu was our dinner choice. There are many options of normal, gold and black pig tonkatsu. We felt that the Tonkatsu by Ma Maison chain tasted better. 

We walked around the underground malls in Kyoto Station for a bit and bought ourselves a neck pillow each from MUJI. It is cheaper to buy from Japan than Malaysia and we have been eyeing that neck pillow for a while now. It was a fantastic buy, no regret whatsoever from any of us.

After shopping, the night was still young and we were contemplating to go back to the hostel or to visit another place which is opened 24 hours. The concern was time on the following day because we have one more sightseeing place to visit before leaving Kyoto for Osaka. After much deliberation, we chose to take a train to Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine. It was the Nara Line, very old railway with visible cobwebs on the ceiling. 

If you have watched Memoirs of a Geisha, you would have noticed a scene with endless red torii (traditional Japanese gate). 

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We wished that we had a DSLR with us at that time because it is hard to take quality photos with the smartphone at night. The good thing about visiting the shrine at night is that the air is cooling, there are less people hence, easier to snap these torii pics without disturbance. And at the same time, the place can be quite eerie at night. 

Here are the photos from my sister's iPhone 6, much better compared to my iPhone 5 not even the s series.

                                                        Photo credit : Michelle Low

Happy that we made it to the shrine and our body is sticky beyond words due to the long hours out walking about. It is time to head back to our hostel to freshen up before we have some cakes and coffee at a cafe nearby our hotel. The name of the cafe is Cafe Reims. This place reminds me of the Japanese series "Antique Cake Shop"(Year 2001) by my boyfriend at that time Hideaki Takizawa. Hehe...he was so cute and handsome then.

It was the latest we hangout throughout our trip in Kyoto because most places closes around 9pm. So it was nice to sit back, have a cuppa coffee and some nice cakes.