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Published: January 15th 2012
Day 7
We headed back to Kyoto on another train line today then caught the bus to Kinkakuji, the golden Pavilion. Once again, you can't go inside the building itself, you just wander around the gardens and admire the building from the outside. I found the sand gardens fascinating - apparently this is a very Zen thing, to rake the sand into waves and patterns but it's very beautiful and strangely relaxing/peaceful. Next we headed off to Arishyama where we strolled through the bamboo groves and visited Gioji temple's moss gardens. If there's one thing the Japanese know how to do well, it's gardening. Like the sand gardens, the moss gardens are so simple but so beautiful and complex at the same time. Once again, the maps are not to scale and we ended up walking much further than I'm used to. Everywhere you walk in Japan, there's a shopkeeper trying to sell you something and Arishyama was no different. You walk through pretty residential areas with narrow streets which are lined with small stalls along the way. It seems that everyone who lives in this area owns a stall at the front of their house. We ended up buying
some beautiful individually wrapped sweets/jellied lollies from one stall which I gave to Nicola and Brad for presents when we got home.
Day 8
Today we decided to have a look at the attractions in Osaka and we started off at the aquarium. First of all, we travelled up about 3 storeys on a travelator to a forest area where otters frolicked. You gradually walk down a ramp viewing the same animals on different levels, i.e. you see penguins and seals on the upper level where they are on "land" then you walk down the ramp to the next level and you get to see them when they dive in and swim around. Then you move on to the really huge main aquarium which has a whale shark, some hammerheads and lots of stingrays and different types of fish. Then there are the giant crabs - unbelievable! I'd hate to be walking along on the sea bed and step on one of them!
Next we headed off to Dotonbori to do some shopping - we picked up some shoes and a few other things. Then almost by accident we came across the restaurant that Caitlyn had been
wanting to find so that she could try puffer fish. We decided to have lunch there and yes, she did have the puffer fish (I had the chicken). The verdict? She said it was pretty tasteless and gooey and wasn't really impressed.
By mid afternoon we were all shopped out and decided to return home. Lucky we did because I had our departure time wrong and we were leaving 2 hrs earlier than I thought. We quickly packed our bags, checked out of our hotel and caught a cab to the train station. We were so nervous thinking that we might miss our flight. We bought out train ticket to the airport and waited for the train to arrive but somehow ended up on the wrong train. What's worse, we ended up in carriage 6 and there was an announcement over the speaker that the train would be splitting at one of the stations and only carriages 1-4 were going to the airport so we had to make our way through a crowded train with our luggage to try to move up to carriage 4! We finally made it to the airport and checked in with about 10 mins
to spare. But then Caitlyn got held up going through immigration because she was carrying an umbrella that she had bought which had a handle like a samurai sword. Even though it was harmless, they made her take it back and check it in with the rest of the luggage. We basically walked straight from checking our bags in, on to the plane and were still shaking nervously from all the rushing around and worrying that we were going to miss our flight. But thankfully we made it and after a smooth, uneventful flight we arrived back safe and sound, having had a great journey in japan.
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andy
non-member comment
nice
just read your trip did some of the same sites with my girlfriend at the same time last year, always nice to read peoples views looks like you had a great time, when ever we go we always use japan rail passes much cheaper and faster to get around,also we like to hire bikes saves alot of leg work on those maps,enjoy your next trip