We arrived late in Kyoto, around 7.30 and wanted to find a traditional Ryokan (Japanese Hotel) to stay at. This proved to be quite difficult at this time of night. Not only were all of the ones we called full, nobody in the area seemed to have much English. A major language barrier was obvious. So a friendly hotel staff member gave us a map with directions scribbled on it, we thought we were following it but ended up walking around in circles for about 1 hour. Off to another hotel for another map. The directions were similar, but the map was different. Another hour later we finally found the place, and it ended up being about a 3 min walk from where we had got off the train. Go us!
We went for a quiet dinner and crashed out early, the Ryokan we found had a midnight curfew.
Day2:
We set a sightseeing plan of action up the previous night. It turned out to far hotter than we were expecting in Kyoto, almost 40degrees. We later found out that Kyoto is situated in a basin so its even hotter there than Tokyo in summer. Smart timing.
This cut our day short a little. First, we visited some temples and gardens in the middle of the city. Higashi Honganji was the first and disappointed us as it had a huge construction area, they seemed to be connecting a modern structure to the side of the temple, very un-inspiring.
Next was the Shosei-en Garden, also in the middle of the city. It was quite nice to be surrounded by lush vegetation in the stinking heat, but the magic was lost because during summer there is no colour in the garden, just green. Still very relaxing all the same though.
We decided to scrap the rest of the city temples and go straight to Kinkaku-ji Temple (the Golden Pavilion) as the sun was making us both grumpy and hungry, not a good combination.
This temple is located at the North of the city near the hills. It is an amazing place to visit with a huge garden surrounding it. The temple itself is spectacular to look at and quite amazing to think about how old it is.
Next on the list was Ryoan-ji Temple, with the famous stone garden of tranquility. The stone garden features 15 stones positioned to provide the ultimate Zen. We sat and stared for about 15 minutes and before we got held in a trance we moved on to check out the garden. This temple has an amazing garden. While the Golden Pavilion is a spectacular view, this place felt like a real temple experience, peaceful and enlightening.
An amazing, huge garden that centred an enormous pond, full of ducks and turtles. By the time we left this place we felt quite refreshed. Once outside though - back to the reality that it was so damn hot.
We had made some rather sketchy plans to meet Guy and Shell at the National Kyoto Museum at 4pm. We checked our map and realised that not only was there a National Kyoto Museum, there was also a Museum of Kyoto. We sent off a rouge email for them to meet us at Kyoto Tower at 3 if they were there. We arrived at the National Kyoto Museum to see Guy walking towards us having just arrived also. Lucky once again.
The four of us walked around Nishiki Food Market testing a few samples of authentic Kyoto food. A massive long arcade with multiple walkways that came off it leading to more food and shopping.
We departed ways and decided to meet up at 8 for dinner. Wonderful orienteering by Cam made us arrive at the meeting spot 40 minutes late, luckily Guy & Shell have known Sophi for a long time and just figured she was still doing her hair. It was good to sit down for a quiet meal and catch up with Guy & Shell.
Day3:
It mus be mentioned again, it was so damn hot this day we all felt a days shopping would be the perfect cure. As the girls twisted and turned through the racks of dresses and skirts, the boys decided it was definitely time to start drinking.
Cam and Guy stumbled across a nice looking "Billiard Hall", but were surprised by the fact that once we descended underground the waitress who was dressed as a prison guard handcuffed us together. With a quick look to each other for re-assurance we were led down a dark corridor to our cell where she removed our handcuffs and asked us what we would to drink..... quite an entrance. The actual name of the place is Lockup, a theme bar with many scattered around Japan.
Whilst there, our drinks were served to us by prison inmates and constantly the screams of young girls entering the establishment could be heard. Definitely a great experience.
We brought the girls down for a drink. Our drinks came out representing science test tubes, a pile f cocaine and syringes full of fluro blue liquid..... interesting.
Another early night was on the cards due to our curfew at the Ryokan, so we headed out on Guys recommendation to a Tepenyaki place in Gion area. The fascinating thing about Japan is the tiny resturants that occupy it. With such little land at high prices they can be just big enough to fit 9 chairs around a tepenyaki table. A true japanese experience. After walking around the Gion area checking out all the Men's Clubs (from the outside) we visited Gion Shrine, which was massive with hundreds of lanterns everywhere.
Day4:
After a healthy Starbucks breakfast we farewelled Guy & Shell, who were heading to Hiroshima and then on to Okinawa (lucky them). Something we were to do to visit our gorgeous Ami. But our new job was to start soon. We left them at the station and headed off to Nijo-ji (Nijo Castle) for the day. It had just celebrated it's 400th anniversary a few years ago (now that's really old). This castle was designed so that all the floor boards would squeak and sounded like Nightingales when you walk on them, so if an enemy entered the house they would be heard. Very cool to walk around inside the place. Outside the rain started to fall so we headed off the Department Store for some more shopping.
We headed over to Gion again for dinner and found a little sushi place. The food was absolutely terrible but the service great, we felt a little bad leaving most of the food on the table, so made a quick exit walked home feeling quite sea-sick. The sushi was all too authentic with god knows what creatures!
Day 5:
Our final day Kyoto, we awoke late and had a hearty breakfast of McDonalds before packing up shop. We did some last minute souvenir shopping at the station shops and jumped on the Shinkansen bound for Tokyo, we were not looking forward to tomorrow when work training began.
All in all Kyoto is an amazing city, with every season displaying something unique, we will go back to really experience the natural beauty that it has to offer.
Once we arrived back home, we chatted to our new flat mates for the first time really. With getting a little depressed about having to start work the next day, the conversation flowed and somehow we discovered that it was actually Saturday not Sunday! Ecstatic we were! We headed down to the supermarket and bought 2 bottles of gin (for $20) and got into it! It was such a good feeling knowing we had an extra day to relax in Tokyo before work. On the other hand, we realised that we had left Kyoto a day early...
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