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Published: September 23rd 2010
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Temples and gardens and shrines, oh my! Today is our real FULL day day in Kyoto so I had an action packed day in store for Katie and I. The morning got off to a great start. While researching what to do today, I found out about the Raku Bus. It’s a city bus line sytem that not only stops at places all over the city, but stops at the main attractions, as well. SCORE! Kyoto’s subway system isn’t very good; there’s only 2 subway lines that forms a cross with one side swooping down kind of like an “h” shape. This is where things started going REALLY well. As Katie and I walked up to purchase our tickets for the bus, we noticed the machine was beeping. Katie looked and said, “What’s this?”. A moment later, she pulled out about ten 1,000 yen bills from the machine. Apparently, someone had gotten them stuck and were unable to get them out. We, however, WERE able to and came up on about $100-$120 bucks in the process! It’s funny because the whole time, Katie thought it was $10. When I told her how much it really was, her face lit up and
she got the biggest smile ever.
Our first stop was the Nijo Castle. I know Katie LOVES castles, so I figured this would be a good way to start the day. I’m not gonna lie, I really wanted to see it too hehe. We took the bus, walked up, paid our admission fee ($6 or $7) and got audio guides ($5). We saw and learned a lot about the castle. Also, pictures are not allowed, but we all know I’m the stealth ninja when it comes to snapping pictures in areas where it's prohibited to snap pics haha. We walked in and around the castle and checked out the gardens. I’m not much for gardens, but I must say, the gardens were beautiful. Katie kept saying the pictures look like something off of a post card or a brochure.
After we were done there, we took the Raku Bus to the Imperial Palace. I had read that the only way to get in was to get a guided tour. Unfortunately, we JUST missed the first one, so we had to wait until 2pm for the 2nd and final tour. For those of you interested in going there in
the future, you go to the information office and get a “permission slip”. Essentially, they take down your info: Name, nationality, age, and passport number. So make sure not to forget your passport! Katie and I then walked a couple blocks and stopped off for a beer at this quaint little restaurant in a random neighborhood we wanted to explore.
With our reservation errr I mean permission for the 2pm tour we had a little over 2 hours to kill. I looked at the map and decided to go to the Kinkaku-ji Temple. It’s where the Golden Pagoda is located. While reading about the Golden Pagoda the last few months, I had heard that that it was stunning and all, but Katie and I were shocked at how awesome it was. Not only was the Pagoda itself really cool, but the gardens were out of this world. I thought the Castle gardens were cool, but these were just AMAZING. You’ll see what I’m talking about in the pictures.
After finishing up at the Golden Pagoda, Katie and I headed back to the Imperial Palace for the tour. It was really cool seeing such a historical place and learning
the history behind it. For those of you interested, Kyoto was the capital of Japan for over 1,000 years before the emperor moved it to Edo (Toyko). Unfortunately, people aren’t allowed inside the palace buildings, but it’s still a really entertaining tour. By the way, as I’m sure you can already tell, Katie and I got a little trigger happy with the camera today haha. I haven’t counted how many pictures we took today, but I’m sure it’s way more than any of the other days. I even tried to get a little artsy fartsy a few times when people were asking too many questions to the guide.
Katie and I were quite hungry after the Palace tour, so we headed to this cool little restaurant. The cool thing about Japan is that most restaurants have food displays outside, so you can choose really quickly what you want to eat. I don’t know how they do it, but your food is always fresh and cooked rather quickly. Both Katie and I opted for the chicken cutlet with rice, miso soup, salad, and some other stuff that was really good. Wish I could tell you what it was, but I
can’t. For those of you planning a trip, I kept hearing how expensive food was in Japan. Sure, there’s your more upscale spots, but it’s quite simple finding a really good, filling meal for about $10-$12. In fact, there’s fast food places that serve yakitori (chicken) bowls, rice, miso soup, etc for about $4-$5 if you’re strapped for cash.
After finishing our meal, we headed over to the Heian Shrine. We walked around the compound a little bit and checked out the gardens as well. As you can tell, I started this blog mentioning Temples, Shrines, and gardens. It was definitely the theme of the day.
After leaving that place, we were pretty tired and it was about 6pm. I guess 9 straight hours of sight seeing will do that to you haha. We went back to the hostel to shower, get some drinks, and relax.
After a couple hours of recharging our batteries, Katie and I decided to try this one restaurant we had seen our first day. It looked a little more upscale than some of the other ones. When we got there, they said it was booked and that if we didn’t have a reservation,
we would have to come back in an hour. This was definitely a good sign. If it’s that full of locals, it must be good. Katie wasn’t going to try the sushi anyways, so in the meantime we went to another place to get her some chicken and we both had beers. When we got back to the restaurant I wanted to try, we were promptly seated. I opted for the sushi sampler and Katie wad the urge for some more chicken so we got the chicken sampler as well. And, of course, a couple of Asahi’s.
Let me tell you, it was BY FAR the best sushi I’ve ever had in my life. I couldn’t believe what I was tasting. It was so fresh and SOOOOOOO tasty. It almost just melted in my mouth. Hopefully, you guys will get to try this place out sometime in the future. If you look at my face in some of the pictures at this restaurant, you can tell I was pretty damn happy.
After a photo op with our awesome waitress, Katie and I walked around a bit. We passed a Pachinko parlor. While reading up on Japan, this is
apparently kind of like slots. However, since that type of gambling is not allowed in certain places, they have a system to get around it. People play Pachinko, accumulate these little beads or whatnot, and trade them in for “prizes”. With prize in hand, they go to either another part of the building or another building that just so happens to be owned by the same people that own the Pachinko parlor and “sell” the prize for money. Pretty ingenious if you ask me.
After a few drinks, it was getting pretty late, so we decided to head back to the hostel. The plan was to leave Kyoto really early, so we needed to get some sleep. Hope you guys are enjoying the blog and we’ll talk to you soon!
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Jason
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this is awesome photo!! love it