We spoilt ourselves and bought a first-class (Green Car) 7-day rail pass for the Japan Rail System but we’re not really kitted out for first class though – we look like right scruffs compared to the others sitting around us! However, unlike Dads experience in the UK, no one questioned our right to be sitting there.
The Skinkansen, some of which look more like an airplane, are super fast, super smooth and tilt alarmingly around corners. I was most disappointed though to find out that the TGV has been tested at faster speeds but I don’t think they go faster than the Shinkansen with passengers onboard. I don’t dare find out or I’ll risk becoming an anorak (I think that’s what they’re called?).
It’s a very enjoyable way to travel but we were going so fast we missed seeing Mt Fuji. Gutted!! At first impression, Kyoto seemed much quieter than Tokyo and this view didn’t change over the two and a half days we spent there. Food seems expensive and while you could live relatively cheaply on pot noodles and bananas, wheres the fun in that? Some of the small local cafes are brilliant and we had a wonderful bowl of ramen, chocka full with fresh spring onions and handmade noodles with the edges of the bowl laid with slices of barbequed black pork. That was a pretty good deal at 720 yen (about £5.00).
We hired a couple of bikes the next day and took to the Kyoto streets and surrounding hills to visit some of the temples. Sanjῡsangen-dō was one of the first and while the structure itself wasn’t overly impressive, the 1001 hand-carven wooden statues inside were. Only 146 of them were original with the remainder being destroyed in a fire some years ago. Unfortunately no photos allowed but this is the temple they were housed in.
Kiyomizu-dera on a hill above Kyoto was in a beautiful setting and reached via a tiny steep road lined with all sorts of shops. We meant to take this route but got a bit lost and ended up going there via a vast graveyard that ended up being an unsurprisingly quiet but surprisingly scenic route to take. This is what was at the end of our trek up the hill.
Near the temple these schoolgirls were drinking from the Otowa waterfall, a sip from which is reputed to cure any illness (presumably including any caught from sharing mugs!!). Shared mugs weren’t a problem as there was an ultra-violet contraption that they were placed in after use to sterilise them.
We thought this couple might have been on their honeymoon or something. We didn’t ask but managed to take a few sneaky pictures of them as they had photos taken by someone else on their camera. They looked so elegant and were the first traditionally dressed couple we’d seen
but shortly after the couple above, there were these three women who looked even more elegant
Then we spotted these two girls who were dressed in a slightly different style….
There is a lot of green in between the built-up areas that we’ve been to and we’re finding the parts of Kyoto we’ve explored surprisingly peaceful. Unfortunately we’re about a month too early for the autumn colours but some of the trees are just turning and we can get an idea of what it would look like with the autumn colours. Its so green as it is and the forest so dense. I didn’t realise that Japan is twice the size of the UK (and twice the population too) but that ¾ of it is forests and hills so its no wonder that the Japanese make use of every flat space.
Biking was great fun and the best thing was that we could bike on the pavements. Basically we did what the locals did and followed them – if the lights were red, we rode on the pavement and crossed at pedestrian crossings and if the lights were green we went with the traffic. We had a couple of near collisions (Euan with a pedestrian and me with a big black 4x4 that pulled out of a narrow road) but we ended the day unscathed. Most of the streets we travelled on were pretty quiet and almost deserted
Some of the houses were in rather unfortunate locations – imagine having half your house facing a railway?
The small, peaceful garden of Murin-an is worth a visit and is a great example of what can be done with a very small space and water.
Its difficult to get too enthusiastic about a garden (unless its one of the Ba’hai Gardens!) but there were carp in the stream and a turtle was chasing them. He was going hard out and came up gasping for air. It was quite funny as I’d lain down on the foot bridge and was hanging over the edge trying to get a closer look when he came up right beneath my face and drew in this wheezy gasp of air then, after blowing in and out three times, he shot back under again and off after the carp. Euan thought it was me making noises at the turtle and was surprised that all that noise came from something usually so quiet.
By the time we’d done with the garden most of the other temples were closed so we just went for a random ride until we reached the Philosophers Path, a 2km path on the edge of a small canal. We came across a Häagen Dazs vending machine (never seen one of those before!) so we simply had to stop to make sure it worked properly. Häagen Dazs do some different flavours here – thus far we’ve found Maple and Cookies, White Peach, Green Tea, Bitter Caramel, Orange and Cassis, Rich Milk, Azuki Milk and Affogato (no idea what the last two are) and I highly recommend Maple and Cookies if you can get it wherever you are. The Green Tea isn’t half bad either!
We’re staying in a traditional Japanese room which is very basic, clean and small. The mattresses are rolled out on the floor with a sheet and duvet on top. I think the beds are usually meant to be put away in the morning but we were out all day so didn’t need to. The great thing about being in a hostel is meeting other travellers and we got chatting to two girls who were studying in Japan. We got to discussing the Japanese habits and we’d wondered what people were saying to us everything we bought something. These girls told us that every action is explained. So, when we’re being handed the item we’d purchased, being handed our change and receipt, the store person nattered away constantly and we had no idea what they were saying but there was clearly a pattern. Apparently what they’re saying was something like “I’m taking your money now, here is your change and the item you have bought. Thank you very much for your custom and have a nice day”.
We’ve suffered from jetlag since our arrival in Japan and we’re still suffering some 5 days later! Its left us shattered so it was with some effort that we motivated ourselves to visit the Fushimi-Inari Gates on our last evening in Kyoto before getting something quick for dinner from the very impressive Isetan department store. The store is either side of these steps that go down the eleven stories and end up adjacent to the Kyoto train station. The food halls in the department stores are quite something and there is just too much choice but half the time we’ve no idea what we’re eating.
The Fushimi-Inari gates stretch up and around a nearby hillside for 4km and each of the 10,000+ gates need to be replaced every 10 years.
Its eerie being there at night as, even though the gates are dimly lit every 100m or so, the forest outside the gates is pitch black. The gate posts are uneven in diameter and the gates are unevenly spaced so the effect is rather unusual.
The Skinkansen, some of which look more like an airplane, are super fast, super smooth and tilt alarmingly around corners. I was most disappointed though to find out that the TGV has been tested at faster speeds but I don’t think they go faster than the Shinkansen with passengers onboard. I don’t dare find out or I’ll risk becoming an anorak (I think that’s what they’re called?).
It’s a very enjoyable way to travel but we were going so fast we missed seeing Mt Fuji. Gutted!! At first impression, Kyoto seemed much quieter than Tokyo and this view didn’t change over the two and a half days we spent there. Food seems expensive and while you could live relatively cheaply on pot noodles and bananas, wheres the fun in that? Some of the small local cafes are brilliant and we had a wonderful bowl of ramen, chocka full with fresh spring onions and handmade noodles with the edges of the bowl laid with slices of barbequed black pork. That was a pretty good deal at 720 yen (about £5.00).
We hired a couple of bikes the next day and took to the Kyoto streets and surrounding hills to visit some of the temples. Sanjῡsangen-dō was one of the first and while the structure itself wasn’t overly impressive, the 1001 hand-carven wooden statues inside were. Only 146 of them were original with the remainder being destroyed in a fire some years ago. Unfortunately no photos allowed but this is the temple they were housed in.
Kiyomizu-dera on a hill above Kyoto was in a beautiful setting and reached via a tiny steep road lined with all sorts of shops. We meant to take this route but got a bit lost and ended up going there via a vast graveyard that ended up being an unsurprisingly quiet but surprisingly scenic route to take. This is what was at the end of our trek up the hill.
Near the temple these schoolgirls were drinking from the Otowa waterfall, a sip from which is reputed to cure any illness (presumably including any caught from sharing mugs!!). Shared mugs weren’t a problem as there was an ultra-violet contraption that they were placed in after use to sterilise them.
We thought this couple might have been on their honeymoon or something. We didn’t ask but managed to take a few sneaky pictures of them as they had photos taken by someone else on their camera. They looked so elegant and were the first traditionally dressed couple we’d seen
but shortly after the couple above, there were these three women who looked even more elegant
Then we spotted these two girls who were dressed in a slightly different style….
There is a lot of green in between the built-up areas that we’ve been to and we’re finding the parts of Kyoto we’ve explored surprisingly peaceful. Unfortunately we’re about a month too early for the autumn colours but some of the trees are just turning and we can get an idea of what it would look like with the autumn colours. Its so green as it is and the forest so dense. I didn’t realise that Japan is twice the size of the UK (and twice the population too) but that ¾ of it is forests and hills so its no wonder that the Japanese make use of every flat space.
Biking was great fun and the best thing was that we could bike on the pavements. Basically we did what the locals did and followed them – if the lights were red, we rode on the pavement and crossed at pedestrian crossings and if the lights were green we went with the traffic. We had a couple of near collisions (Euan with a pedestrian and me with a big black 4x4 that pulled out of a narrow road) but we ended the day unscathed. Most of the streets we travelled on were pretty quiet and almost deserted
Some of the houses were in rather unfortunate locations – imagine having half your house facing a railway?
The small, peaceful garden of Murin-an is worth a visit and is a great example of what can be done with a very small space and water.
Its difficult to get too enthusiastic about a garden (unless its one of the Ba’hai Gardens!) but there were carp in the stream and a turtle was chasing them. He was going hard out and came up gasping for air. It was quite funny as I’d lain down on the foot bridge and was hanging over the edge trying to get a closer look when he came up right beneath my face and drew in this wheezy gasp of air then, after blowing in and out three times, he shot back under again and off after the carp. Euan thought it was me making noises at the turtle and was surprised that all that noise came from something usually so quiet.
By the time we’d done with the garden most of the other temples were closed so we just went for a random ride until we reached the Philosophers Path, a 2km path on the edge of a small canal. We came across a Häagen Dazs vending machine (never seen one of those before!) so we simply had to stop to make sure it worked properly. Häagen Dazs do some different flavours here – thus far we’ve found Maple and Cookies, White Peach, Green Tea, Bitter Caramel, Orange and Cassis, Rich Milk, Azuki Milk and Affogato (no idea what the last two are) and I highly recommend Maple and Cookies if you can get it wherever you are. The Green Tea isn’t half bad either!
We’re staying in a traditional Japanese room which is very basic, clean and small. The mattresses are rolled out on the floor with a sheet and duvet on top. I think the beds are usually meant to be put away in the morning but we were out all day so didn’t need to. The great thing about being in a hostel is meeting other travellers and we got chatting to two girls who were studying in Japan. We got to discussing the Japanese habits and we’d wondered what people were saying to us everything we bought something. These girls told us that every action is explained. So, when we’re being handed the item we’d purchased, being handed our change and receipt, the store person nattered away constantly and we had no idea what they were saying but there was clearly a pattern. Apparently what they’re saying was something like “I’m taking your money now, here is your change and the item you have bought. Thank you very much for your custom and have a nice day”.
We’ve suffered from jetlag since our arrival in Japan and we’re still suffering some 5 days later! Its left us shattered so it was with some effort that we motivated ourselves to visit the Fushimi-Inari Gates on our last evening in Kyoto before getting something quick for dinner from the very impressive Isetan department store. The store is either side of these steps that go down the eleven stories and end up adjacent to the Kyoto train station. The food halls in the department stores are quite something and there is just too much choice but half the time we’ve no idea what we’re eating.
The Fushimi-Inari gates stretch up and around a nearby hillside for 4km and each of the 10,000+ gates need to be replaced every 10 years.
Its eerie being there at night as, even though the gates are dimly lit every 100m or so, the forest outside the gates is pitch black. The gate posts are uneven in diameter and the gates are unevenly spaced so the effect is rather unusual.
3 comments:
hi guys, sounds like you are having fun. Affogato is vanilla ice cream with an espresso shot poured over it, very nice indeed. I think this would have therefore been coffee flavour? (sometimes you can also use chocolate icecream).
Kate I don't want to hear any stories of you intimidating any nice Japanese gentlemen ;)
Tongy
mmmm have to admit I was also very tempted be have an anorak moment but luckily decided against it :). I will say though that, out for sheer nationalistic pride, the TGV is faster and that's that ;)
funnily enough, i am reading your posts as I have the Fuji F1 qualifyng round on the TV in the background.... very fitting :)
oooh and Euan, mmmmmm not sure what to think of those German Tourist / Jesus Sandals...... surely there are more stylish options
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