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Blogs from Gion, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan, Asia - page 2
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April 9th 2012
We woke at 7am today after a great sleep in our futons! I love the blankets! We set off early to catch a bus to Kiyonizu temple and were dropped off on the main street and began our walk up the big hill to the temple. It was a warm day and the walk made it hot. Today Is the first day we took out jumpers off! All the small stalls on the walk up to the temple were still setting up so we decided to visit them on the way back down. The temple was founded in 798 and its present buildings were constructed in 1633, ordered by the tokugawa Iemitsu. There is not a single nail used in the entire structre. Amazing! It takes its name from the waterfall within te complex, which rungs ... read more
April 9th 2012
Kyoto, cherry blossom, ultra modern, ultra ancient, temples, zen gardens, canals... read more
April 8th 2012
We awoke early and packed our things to checkout of our hotel, we were heading to Kyoto today but first wanted to squeeze in a quick visit to Osaka castle. We left our bags at the hotel and headed to the castle via the subway. Walking to the castle we saw many cherry blossom trees and Japanese locals picnicking underneath, enjoying japanese chess, playing instruments or playing with there very well dressed dogs lol. We ate hot cakes filled with warm custard outside the castle walls for breakfast and then headed in. The castle is pretty big. Consisting of 8 floors. We decided to climb the stairs rather than take the lift. Each floor had historical information about the castle. On the first floor we got to dress up! I wore a kimono and Danel a ... read more
April 1st 2012
M - Kyoto is the place in Japan for seeing temples and old style Japanese architecture. As a result it is pretty mobbed with tourists. We were expecting this but even so it was quiet a shock after the relative quite of southern Japan. However the big tour groups seem to focus on the main 2 or 3 sights and don't seem to get going until after at least 9am. Once the tour buses arrive the main sights are a little too busy for our liking but if you get there early and then move to the other sights you can still get a much quieter experience and the sights are just as impressive. If the weather is right a walk along the Philosophers walk is well worth it as it links many interesting temples and ... read more
March 30th 2012
Kyoto is long gone, but I will document it as best I can using my Brain and Memory. We stayed in a hostel/sake bar (but never actually got sake there, convenience store/vending machine beer is cheaper) in Gion, the geisha district, which I worked out after noticing that we were surrounded by a surprisingly large number of brothels and 'ladys bars'. We had our first 'Steve' encounter here, more about that later if I can be bothered. The first day we were all pretty pooped, so we spent the day lazing around the manga museum, learning and colouring and reading horror/teenage girl manga. The next day was mildly disappointing, starting with the boring Imperial Palace, followed by the crafts museum, a nice temple where we were too stingy to pay to look at the garden, the ... read more
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December 3rd 2011
So, all my followers, I hope you get notified of this latest expedition! Well, I officially left (US Time) at 430AM Thurs morning for the Austin airport and arrived in LAX at 850 (LA time) then Beau and I boarded our plane at 11:30, but sat on the tarmac for an hour...knowing from the start, our plane would be late arriving into Narita (Toyko) we knew there would need to be new arrangements to get to Osaka. Originally, we were meant to connect to Itami, but the plane we were supposed to fly from Narita was the last one to Osaka. Thankfully, we were given vouchers to take a bus to Haneda (Also a Tokyo airport) but it was an hour and a half drive away. We arrived at 730, and were able to check in ... read more
November 21st 2011
So... Kyoto. "Previously, on A Guy And A Broad..." It was raining. A lot. But it's not anymore, hurrah! With the rain pouring down we camped out for most of the day in our awesome space age little room at the Capsule Ryokan, readin', internettin', nappin' and so forth. Around 2pm we ventured out in our very attractive raincoats and borrowed umbrellas to hunt and gather some lunch. We found a completely empty (always a good sign??) pseudo italian cafeteria type place with an owner who knew two words of English, namely 'chicken' and 'coke'. Guess what we had for lunch? Our fears as to the establishment's dodginess were unfounded as it was actually really really yummy - fresh and tasty - and the guy was super friendly and attentive (eg. running across the restaruant to ... read more
FruitsPunchoSamurai: Big city wanderings
Published: November 8th 2011Asia » Japan » Kyoto » Kyoto » Gion
November 8th 2011
Greetings! I hereby declare myself to be a horrible blogger in the sense that the frequency of my publications is as low as my mother's ability to sit still. And now that I've annoyed at least one reader I shall proceed to more important matters. The last few weekends I have experienced a great deal of things and learned some lessons. One of these is to always get a new glass at an all-night karaoke bar if yours gets broken by a stray american. But I'll get back to that in a moment. The night in question was some time ago, three weeks if my memory cells haven't been completely eradicated by the occasional...ANYWAY, the night started off with a somewhat late welcoming party for the international students where there was food, merrymaking, a lack of ... read more
October 16th 2011
Good afternoon! I know, I've been slacking off when it comes to blogging but I have a perfectly good excuse! I've been lazy. Last weekend I finally found the BAL building, after first going a kilometre in the wrong direction. And after exiting the building I found that it was right opposite the Soba/Ramen/Tsukemen restaurant that I had visited a month earlier. My ego took a serious hit in the nuts upon learning this, but it was soon cured with a delicious bowl of ramen from said restaurant. Another thing that also made my day a little brighter was the fact that I had finally "found" the BAL building, in which the biggest foreign books department in Kyoto is located. I also discovered a really fancy tea-shop where I spent, from a student's perspective, too much ... read more
September 13th 2011
Well, today was exhausting but very rewarding. Guided by the strange, but wonderful, Mr. Zachary Priddy we made our way to Kinkaku-ji ("Temple of the Golden Pavilion"). It was an extraordinary sight, one of the most majestic of my life, yet it was a very calm place, despite all the other tourists. Pictures will be provided for those too lazy to search the internet for them. My eyes constantly found new things to photograph, making me feel like a real tourist but, since I was surrounded by them, this did not bother me as much as I would have thought. After that we made our way to one of the shopping districts, again led by the fearless Priddy-sempai. His knowledge of the surroundings was only overshadowed by his complete disregard for the hunger of certain swedish ... read more
